Westerners were willing to give women the citizenship rights and respect as individuals available to men before the rest of the country was. That example should be followed now.
The fact that Earth Day has morphed into today’s Global Climate Strike illustrates how acute climate change has become. Millions of students and others have organized events to protest climate change and to ask governments in nearly every nation of the world to act.
Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for a drone attack that partly destroyed one of the major oil refineries in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis and Americans are pointing at Iran instead. The security of the world depends less on the who than on the how.
If Boise can regulate short-term rentals to ease and avert the growing shortage of long-term housing, so can the Sun Valley area’s cities and Blaine County.
Idled coal and uranium mines could show the way for the United States to regulate the unintended consequences of sustainable-energy technologies. Getting there will depend on finding the patience to understand the problems and the political will to fix them.
On Wednesday, the Ketchum City Council approved a budget with cuts to funding for marketing. Discussion around the cuts revealed that the mayor and some City Council members are banking on Sun Valley Resort’s new affiliation with the EPIC ski pass to grow winter business instead.
Politicians sometimes campaign by making fun of environmental regulations. Following up on riffs on the same theme, the White House has announced the rollback of a George W. Bush-era regulation, scheduled to take effect next year. It requires the use of energy-efficient light bulbs. Rolling …
The Blaine County commissioners put the final touch on a decision to provide property worth $1.6 million by allocating $500,000 in cash toward construction of a 60-unit residential project, with 30 units promised for seniors, in Hailey.
America has long been proud of its role in being a safe and generous haven for those fleeing for their lives, including those seeking life-saving treatments from those on the cutting edge of medical research. That role has been turned into a cynical bait-and-switch scheme.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services just threw Idaho out on its Wranglers because it tried to bootstrap its way out of providing Medicaid to every poor working Idahoan.
The BLM believes that natural wonders and indigenous holy places can be managed for private profit without damage. Anyone who doesn’t believe that has until Sept. 23 to say so.
Idaho’s beauty often leaves people speechless. The friendliness of its citizens makes people feel welcome.
An appeals court ruling has left no other choice. If presidential elections are to have any meaning, a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College must be passed.
Summer isn’t the only time of year when the Sun Valley area offers a feast of pursuits. Part-time residents and visitors who love summer should broaden their scope to include spending time in the area in other seasons as well.
If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger. Those who receive public money, but aren’t too thrilled when they are held accountable, should not be allowed to adopt that principle.
Not only do American citizens have an obligation to vote, they have an obligation to run for office. It’s not someone else’s job.
Anti-abortion groups are ecstatic. They think that refusing federal money will kill Planned Parenthood. They may have another thing coming.
Public-school start dates have become earlier and earlier in Idaho, but the vacation and hospitality industry has said nothing about the effects on its business. It’s time it spoke up.
Auto workers in Lordstown, Ohio, are just one example of Americans who feel left behind as the companies to which they have given their lives walk away. Bringing back the good old days of manufacturing won’t work. Figuring out a new economic contract should be the focus of the 2020 president…
As public lands in the West get more crowded with outdoor enthusiasts, the ranching industry must figure out how to coexist with more people and their pets.
Fundraisers are dangerous things for politicians who are trying to slip one over on the American people.
The myths that entangle the Sun Valley area are like bindweed, nearly impossible to stamp out. Just when it looks it’s gone, the invasive plant emerges and strangles its way through the garden.
In “Cadillac Desert,” Marc Reisner’s seminal work on water in the West, he called America’s Western farmers the country’s true welfare queens because of the money the federal government put into making their lives possible. That term, with a gender change to kings, could once again apply to …
The outdoor recreation industry has never gotten any respect. The nation’s leaders have treated it like a delinquent kid living in the basement.
Earth to Ketchum: The city is in the travel and hospitality business. Without the taxes it generates, the city would look like a lot of wide spots in the road in Idaho.
The myths that entangle the Sun Valley area are like bindweed, nearly impossible to stamp out. Just when it looks it’s gone, the invasive plant emerges and strangles its way through the garden.
In “Cadillac Desert,” Marc Reisner’s seminal work on water in the West, he called America’s Western farmers the country’s true welfare queens because of the money the federal government put into making their lives possible. That term, with a gender change to kings, could once again apply to …
The outdoor recreation industry has never gotten any respect. The nation’s leaders have treated it like a delinquent kid living in the basement.
Earth to Ketchum: The city is in the travel and hospitality business. Without the taxes it generates, the city would look like a lot of wide spots in the road in Idaho.
A wave of lawlessness has rolled into Ketchum and Sun Valley this summer in the form of roving cyclists who scoff at traffic laws. It’s time to stop that wave and make the streets and sidewalks safer by putting local cops on bikes for part of every day.
Last weekend’s toll is 31 dead and more than 48 injured in a single 24-hour period from Saturday morning to early Sunday. Instead of a year averaging more than one mass shooting (of four or more people) per day, which is the current trajectory, 2019 should be the year the United States final…
Just in case you’ve been living on another planet outside the Wood River Valley universe, or in case you’ve missed the highway signs, driving while talking on a cell phone is prohibited here.
Public access to public resources should never be a matter of compromise.
Republicans claim the high road when it comes to their tolerance of President Donald Trump. The only thing that matters, they say, is moving a conservative agenda forward. But for America and for the party, it’s a devil’s bargain.
Moving agricultural research jobs from Washington, D.C., to the middle of the country might make some business sense. But risking the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s hard-earned reputation as the world’s most unbiased repository of scientific assessments makes no sense at all.
When the Legislature created the state’s Open Meeting Law, it included the following language in the first section:
The dream of a college degree has been attainable for millions of veterans thanks to the GI Bill. With the advent of for-profit colleges, that dream has become a nightmare for many, one from which this nation should wake up before another school year gets underway.
The city of Ketchum is entertaining a $65,000 cut in the free Mountain Rides bus service that will translate into a $134,000 cut when matching federal grant money is lost along with it. The cut would reduce service and could endanger lives.
The past two years have been characterized by an inescapable sense of déjà vu. The last week, however, has taken the country back to a much darker place. We must resist sinking into the bitterness of the Vietnam War years.
Blaine County public schools were once known as some of the best in the state. It’s time to reclaim the fame.
Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. It is being celebrated as a technological accomplishment, a triumph of adventure and a reason for American patriotic pride. Tomorrow, during this time of hyper-nationality, take time to remember the moon landing as a to…
Blaine County and its cities should wait and see what happens in Oregon before they jump on the idea of banning single-family zoning to try to jumpstart the housing supply.
The common catcall of “go back where you came from” is cringeworthy enough when shouted from a passing car. Tweeted at sitting members of Congress by the president, it is unnerving.
Blaine County should remove the no-parking signs in the public right of way at Fly Heart subdivision. Homeowners have used the signs and towed at least one car to attempt to deny the public access to the road and to the river.
Graphic though they may be, the media and everyone else should call the exploiting of underage children for sex what they really are: sex trafficking and child rape.
President Trump has pitched science out the window and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is following his lead.
Kate Cohen, writing in The Washington Post, described the deep irony of upstate New Yorkers celebrating Memorial Day by singing “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Thank God, I’m a Country Boy” at the top of their voices.
Ketchum is scrambling to fill a projected $771,000 spending gap in its $10.6 million general fund budget. Officials blame it on matters outside city control.
Presidential debates are the time that winners make a memorable impression and losers get off the stage. Before the one-note wonders disappear, voters should listen carefully.
Cities do best when public processes are clear and public discussion is maximized prior to decisions. Ketchum is no exception, but it is giving both short shrift.
Life-changing inventions aren’t new. Digital communication is one of those inventions and our only choice now is to learn how to live with it and manage it.
The Sun Valley area is a smorgasbord for fun hogs. It’s not known for its math skills or building rockets to the moon, but it is really, really good at having fun and doing it safely.
Current immigration actions are hurting migrants, the reputation of the United States and the hearts of most Americans. Rather than addressing systemic problems, cruel and chaotic posturing motivated by President Donald Trump’s political ambitions have become America’s shame.
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