I originally planned on running a new longer piece—a sort of eulogy for a dying river framed by a river trip and a manhunt and grinding coffee beans with stones. But I need a little bit more time, so instead I’ll point to a few items of interest the Land Desk has stumbled upon lately, while also giving y’all a rest to catch-up on your reading. So here goes:
• Rolling Stone reports that organizers of the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol have revealed a handful of members of Congress were involved in strategizing the attack, including Rep. Paul Gosar, of Arizona, and Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents most of Western Colorado—meaning my district. The attack-organizer told Rolling Stone: “We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back.”
Once upon a time this might have been the story that would force Boebert and Gosar to resign in disgrace. But these days? Probably not. After all, Gosar has stayed in office despite most of his family disowning him for his beliefs. Boebert has a habit of pushing the ethics envelope, especially when it comes to campaign finances, yet eludes accountability every time.
• Check out this nutty and disturbing story from the New York Times about how a woman of the Gosar/Boebert-ilk waged a disinformation campaign to kill a benign national heritage area designation proposed for central Montana.
• The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has updated its projections for the Colorado River and it’s not looking good. The chances that Lake Powell’s levels will drop below the minimum required for hydropower generation from Glen Canyon Dam by next summer are going up—a bad winter would nearly ensure such a dire scenario. Meanwhile, Lake Mead’s levels could fall enough to trigger a Tier 2 Shortage.
See you on Wednesday!
###
The "nutty and disturbing" article in the Times? Disturbing is a mild description! Where were the people who proposed & worked on the heritage site issue when this woman was doing this? I realize with the governor in place AND the Farm Bureau working with her it was pretty much like a bulldozer coming at you, but wasnt there some way they could have matched her with the publicity - talked to people? And saying that, I think - well, probably not!! Look at the number of people who are influenced by social media - mainly Factbook & look nowhere else for information. This is scary - HAS been scary!