Category Archives: January 2016

Dealing with the dark side: The Navajo Nation seeks to address the chronic problem of suicide

The sprawling 25,000-square-mile Navajo reservation has been jolted by a continuing series of suicides beginning in 2009, when nine teens in Ft. Wingate, Ariz., took their own lives. Those deaths preceded 15 teen suicides in Thoreau, another reservation town only … Continue reading

Published in January 2016

Ten days in jail for Phil Lyman: The sentencing ends the saga of the Recapture ride — unless he appeals

The long and tortuous saga of Phil Lyman and the Recapture Road came to an end in December – or maybe not. On Dec. 18 in Salt Lake City, Lyman, a San Juan County, Utah, commissioner, and Monte Wells of … Continue reading

Published in January 2016 Tagged ,

County seeks to add chapter to land-use code: Public has scant time to see ‘1041’ rules before hearing

After summarily rejecting the rough draft of a lengthy proposed addition to its land-use code – one that appeared to assert the county’s ultimate authority over public lands – the Montezuma County Commission is preparing to chew on a much … Continue reading

Published in January 2016 Tagged

Tribal coalition pulls out of Utah legislative process

In a surprise development, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition says it is pulling out of negotiations with the Utah congressional delegation charged with developing recommendations for a massive public-lands bill. In a Dec. 31 letter to Utah congressmen Rob Bishop … Continue reading

Published in January 2016 Tagged

A novel for masochists: Elizabeth Strout’s latest features grim ruminations on family, forgiveness (Prose and Cons)

To paraphrase Gore Vidal on the subject of Joyce Carol Oates, the two saddest words in the English language are Elizabeth Strout. Strout, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with her 2008 novel “Olive Kitteridge,” generally traffics in mother-daughter … Continue reading

Published in January 2016, Prose and Cons