Deadlocks and Jalan Crossland perform Dec. 21 for Save the Hoback benefit

The Deadlocks and Jalan Crossland perform a benefit for Save the Hoback on Dec. 21 at the Center for the Arts in Jackson. Money will go to a fund to stop energy exploration in the Wyoming Range south of Jackson, which is home to the Hoback headwaters. Tickets are $20 or $100 for VIP with food and cocktails. More info at jhunderground.

Shop locally for the holidays at UUCC WinterMart this weekend

Gifts made by artists, crafts people and other vendors of handmade wares can be found at the annual Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne WinterMart, 3005 Thomes Avenue, December 14-15, Friday 4:30-6:30 pm, Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Lunch and baked goods will be available. Proceeds benefit programs supported by UUCC. FMI: Terry at (307) 214-3932, UUCC at (307) 638-4554.

Books about vanishing glaciers and wildlife art make WY Outdoor Council''s "best of" list

Dr, Janice H. Harris is the former chair of the Women's Studies Department at the University of Wyoming. As president of the Wyoming Outdoor Council board of directors, she offers her list of best books for 2012 on the subjects of natural history and the environment. Sad to say I haven't read any of the books on her list, but plan to remedy that in 2013. 

She has high praise for an art book, Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct, edited by Adam Duncan Harris (University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0806143019). Dr. Harris adds the caveat that the editor is her son, a curator at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson. But there's no caveat when it comes to quality. We have this book in our office and it's a beauty. Bob Kuhn spent a long lifetime sketching and painting animals. He also served as mentor to scores of wildlife artists in Wyoming and elsewhere. The museum has a lot of Kuhn's work -- drop in and visit next time you're in The Hole.

Another of her selections with Wyoming ties is Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers, James Balog and Terry Tempest Williams (Rizzoli, ISBN 0847838862). This features photographs from the Extreme Ice Survey along with observations by noted environmental writer (and part-time Wyoming resident) Williams. This should be mandatory reading for any Wyoming global warming deniers. Williams was writer in residence at UW a few years ago and ruffled a few feathers with her enviro town meetings held at various locales around the state. 

The one I plan on reading first is Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, Charlotte Gill, (Greystone Books, ISBN 978-1-55365-977-8). Here are Dr. Harris's reflections on the book:

One of first things you notice when you start reading Charlotte Gill is her wit. Given the title and the cover of the book, she had me initially skimming here and there to see where these dirt-eating, tree-planting folks live. I figured remote Brazil. Not at all. When not planting trees in Cascadia, from February through October in the Pacific Northwest, Gill lives in Vancouver writing award-winning short stories. It shows. I loved Eating Dirt. I now want to read Ladykillers, winner of the British Columbia Book Prize for fiction. How can a book about being wet, filthy, bitten, and exhausted be such a joy to read, such a page turner, such a rich introduction into the history and current practices of the timber industry of the northwest? This is a gem.

Gill is a fellow short story writer, and she has wit -- what's better than that?

Workers urged to share their voices in a "community-building, creative investigation of what it means to labor in Wyoming"

Today's news from Michigan shows that the Republican war on workers continues unabated. Southern Wyoming once had a strong union presence in the mines and on the railroads. But most of the railroad jobs were moved out of Rawlins and Rock Springs and the mines got all "Right-to-Work-State" on its workers.

Mark Nowak is a documentary poet, teacher and labor activist who will will serve as eminent writer-in-residence for the University of Wyoming creative writing program in February. He and I are two of the writers featured in Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking out the Jams, a 2010 anthology from Coffee House Press.

This is an excerpt about working in a steel mill from Mark's poetry series, "$00 / Line / Steel / Train," which is included in the anthology:

Because the (brake) past is used because the tearing  (past) of the (brick) form is used is used because the fence (in) of the (goddam) frame is used is used is utterly used against us and by us and upon us and for us is used is used in the present (past) future (form) we are used yet users yet used.

Every day you put your life on the line when you went into that iron house. Every day you sucked up dirt and took a chance on breaking your legs or breaking your back. And anyone who's worked in there knows what I'm talking about.

Mark sent along this info about the "Working (in Wyoming)" project he'll be conducting when he's in the state. Here it is:

Working (in Wyoming) is a community-building, creative investigation of what it means to labor in Wyoming. A series of creative writing workshops will be held in southeastern  Wyoming (Laramie and Cheyenne) in February of 2013.

These workshops will be facilitated by Wyoming writing instructors and students in the University of Wyoming's MFA program in creative writing. In these workshops, Wyoming workers of diverse backgrounds will have the opportunity to collaborate with others in the Wyoming community to create a short piece of creative writing (a poem, a parable, a short story, a piece of flash fiction/nonfiction, etc.).

Working (in Wyoming) will culminate in a large-scale yet intimate evening event in Laramie on February 28. Here working people from across the state will have the opportunity to share what it means to work in Wyoming with a presentation of pieces created in workshops. 

To get involved in the project, contact Kay Northrop at knorthrop@uwyo.edu or Brie Fleming at briennafleming5@gmail.com Read more on the project's Facebook page.

Mark's blog is filled with info about union organizing and strikes worldwide. If you think that workers in the U.S. don't have anything in common with coal miners in China or maquiladora laborers in Mexico, think again, and take a look at Mark's Coal Mountain blog.

Note to Wyoming Sens. Enzi and Barrasso and Rep. Lummis: NO CUTS!

Overpass Light Brigade posted this: From the San Diego Labor Council's candlelight event outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's downtown office to avoid cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs; instead to pressure Congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans. NO CUTS!

Seeing new West Coast coal terminals as a red-state, blue-state issue

On Wyofile, San Juan Islands' resident Charlie West offers a tongue-in-cheek modest proposal: You send us your coal, we'll send you our trash.

West notes that the wide open spaces of Wyoming and Montana have plenty of big holes for the trash of the 48 million residents of Washington, Oregon and California. It's only a fair trade, right? You send us your dirty coal and we send you our dirty trash.

A batch of inland Republicans, including our very own Cynthia Lummis, is trying to browbeat Washington's coastal residents in permitting a new coal shipping facility. West reports a lively conversation at the local tavern which goes something like this:

“We’re selling taxpayer-owned coal for next to nothing, so it can be sent somewhere else, to run someone else’s factories, and employ someone else’s people while we don’t have enough jobs in this country?”

“It makes no sense, pollute the air with trains and ships to get the coal there, then they burn it and their pollution drifts back here!”

We all pay for dirty coal. Global warming is real, no matter what the Know Nothings say in my Deep Red State of Wyoming. And while Wyoming rakes in taxes from its oil and gas and coal, including almost a billion federal dollars from energy resources extracted on public land (see previous post), coastal residents pay the price with rising sea levels and whopper storms.

Forward-thinking blue states such as WA, OR and CA invest heavily in alternative energy while WY continues burning and shipping coal. The coal is shipped to China and India where it is burned, creating more CO2 in the atmosphere -- this speeds global warming. The ice sheets melt, forcing a rise in ocean levels which swamps blue-state cities, drowning Liberal, latte-drinking, mountain-bike-riding voters by the millions. Wyoming builds a big wall at its borders to keep out the riff raff. We keep mining and burning and shipping coal, secure in the knowledge that sea levels have to get pretty darn high before bitchin' waves begin to break on the beaches of Cheyenne. Besides, the wall will keep the water out. We'll call them dikes. And we can open our own ports to ship our own coal to China and India, those parts that aren't at the bottom of Davy Jones Locker.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. I better wear shades, what with the dissolving ozone layer and blinding sun and all.

"Carbon Sink" revisited by Cheyenne's Michaela Rife

Cheyenne's Michaela Rife penned a meditation on Chris Drury's late, lamented "Carbon Sink" sculpture at the University of Wyoming for the Nevada Museum of Arts Art + Environment site. Read the Nov. 21 piece here. Michaela is an arts writer who is in Vancouver, B.C., pursuing a master's degree at the University of British Columbia’s Critical and Curatorial Studies program.

Two holiday choral concerts on tap for Cheyenne

Some big holiday-oriented concerts on the Cheyenne schedule for the weeks before Christmas.

First up is the "Unto Us a Child is Born" performance on Monday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m., at St. Mary's Cathedral, 2107 Capitol Ave. It's an "a capella concert with the LCCC men's and women's ensembles, Cantorei and the collegiate chorale that will showcase scared choral arrangements, ancient and modern anthems, all combined to weave a magical performance with something for everyone." Admission is free, although donations will be accepted for the Comea House, Cheyenne's homeless shelter. My daughter Annie will again be a soloist. You can see a You Tube clip of the Dec. 1 LCCC choral performance at the Cheyenne Civic Center. Yes, I am a proud pops. I'm also quite impressed by the quality of music programs at our community college. I'm equally impressed by the amount of financial aid available at LCCC. This county resident will be backing any expansion plans proposed by LCCC and will gladly do battle with any Know Nothings who oppose such plans. BTW, the poster for this concert shows the silhouette of the baby Jesus in the manger with his hands raised high to heaven. When I first  saw it, I was convinced that the babe was doing the "Spirit Fingers" routine from "Bring It On." Jesus has spirit fingers -- yeah! Maybe it's "holy spirit fingers."

On Sunday, Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m., the Cheyenne Capital Chorale performs "Seasons in Song" at St. Mary's. It will feature selections from Vivaldi's "Gloria" and will be filmed by Wyoming PBS for a later broadcast. Free, but donations will be accepted at the door. Go here for more info.

Music for the holidays. A great gift for yourself.

Wyoming among top ten states in scholarships lawmakers receive to attend ALEC meetings

From Joan Barron's article in the Sunday Casper Star-Tribune:

Late last month, 17 newly elected Wyoming legislators attended a three-day meeting at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

On Dec. 3, the nonprofit citizen-lobbyist organization Common Cause and the Center for Media and Democracy released a report that said Wyoming is among the top 10 states in the amount of corporate “scholarships” lawmakers receive to attend ALEC meetings.

Read the entire article here.

Read my earlier post about one of the ALEC model bills geared toward eliminating Wyoming state employees' defined-benefit retirement plan.

Local concert promoter shows creativity in booking heavy metal, rock and hip-hop acts

Neat article in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle about local concert promoter Jake Byrd. At 19, Jake is already a seasoned impresario, a promoter of rock, heavy metal and hip-hop concerts at downtown's Atlas Theatre and other venues. He's brought bands such as Static-X, Alien Ant Farm and Tech N9ne to a city known more for Toby Keith than Psychostick. Not bad for someone just a few years out of high school. And he faces a lack of proper local performance spaces. The Atlas is a funky space, and the Cheyenne Little Theatre makes money from renting it out. But it's a shame there's not a dedicated concert venue in Cheyenne. Meanwhile, Jake keeps bringing in the talent. You have to buy the Sunday paper to read the article, as the WTE lacks a proper web site.

How about a WWInc membership for that writer on your gift list?

I've been attending the annual conference of Wyoming Writers, Inc., since I first came to Wyoming in 1991. I've been to June conferences in Cody (twice), Casper (many times), Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Sundance (Bear Lodge Writers home turf), Riverton (the year after the hotel caught fire) and Thermopolis (with my teen daughter). In 2013, the conference will be in Laramie for (I think) the first time. This June 7-9 conference is shaping up to be a fine one despite the fact that I am one of the presenters. You've been forewarned! I'll be talking about short stories and will be shilling my new book which, I hope, will be hot off the presses come May. I'll also address blogging and social media for writers.

Who are some of the writers, editors and agents featured at WWInc conferences? Glad you asked. Performance poet M.L. Liebler, mystery writer Margaret Coel, novelist Tim Sandlin, Graywolf Press editor Katie Dublinski, Coffee House Press publisher Chris Fishbach, Hollywood screenwriter Ben Garant, father/daughter poetry team Robert and Lee Ann Roripaugh, poet and musician David Romtvedt, western novelist Johnny Boggs, essayist Teresa Jordan, folklorist Hal Cannon, romance novelist Amanda Cabot and scores of others. 

Wyoming Writers, Inc. (WWInc) has had its ups and downs over its 38 years. Some of its founders remain active members, and one of the challenges is attracting and keeping new members. Here's one way to do this, taken from the new and improved WWInc web site:

WHAT DO YOU GIVE A WRITER? If you're looking for a special Christmas gift for your favorite writer, or perhaps there's a birthday coming up that deserves something more than another book, lunch out or a gift certificate to the same ol' place... Consider giving a membership to Wyoming Writers, Inc., the oldest statewide, multi-genre writers' organization in Wyoming! Go to the "Become a Member or Renew Your Membership" page and either fill out the form online or print and mail it, with the appropriate payment (add student ID information if needed) to: Wyoming Writers, Inc., P. O. Box 999, Sundance, WY 82729 Help us increase our membership and give a wonderful gift to a writer at the same time!

I'm a member so this is not the appropriate gift for me. A much better gift would be a Kindle or perhaps that beard trimmer I have been looking at with envy. No neckties, thank you very much! And especially no Wyoming neckties (know what I mean?)

Did I mention that WWInc is a recipient of a Wyoming Governor's Arts Award?

Anyway, it's a great group. Its members are accomplished and friendly, and always find a way to put on a smashing conference.

Give the gift of membership. You'll be glad you did.

Wyoming rakes in the federal dough for energy and mineral extraction

File this under That Darn Federal Gubment:

The Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) announced today that more than $2.1 billion was disbursed to 36 states as part of the state share of Federal revenues collected in Fiscal Year 2012 from energy and mineral production that occurred on Federal lands within their borders, and offshore on the Outer Continental Shelf. 

One state that starts with a "W" received $995,169,098, or about 47 percent of the total. No, it wasn't Washington or Wisconsin or West Virginia.

It was Wyoming.

Several other big almost-square states also got big numbers. New Mexico and Utah. All that energy and all those minerals.

Get the numbers at http://statistics.onrr.gov

Tip of the hat to South Dakota's always-alert Interested Party blog.

Message to Wyoming Republican legislators: LOWRSTFA!

LOWRSTFA!

Last year, Republican legislators tried to change the Wyoming Retirement System from a defined-benefit program to one that was based on a defined-contribution model. Because there is no logical reason to change a system that is solvent and well-managed, one must look elsewhere for explanations, musn't one? Blame the Tea Party -- that's what I usually do. True, the Tea Party hates government and government employees. But there are more insidious forces at work.

No, not Agenda 21.

A batch of Republican legislators are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. The organization, heavily-funded by right-wing gazillionaires the Koch Brothers, drafts model legislation at national gatherings for its stooges to take home to their state legislatures. A series of these bills attempt to end defined-benefit retirement plans and replace them with IRA-style plans funded entirely with employee contributions and managed by an outside party which will rake in millions in fees from the pension fund. ALEC Exposed carries a model bill similar to the one we saw during the 2012 Wyoming Legislature. Go to Public Employees Portable Retirement Option Pro Act Exposed. 

The Wyoming Retirement System recently conducted a poll of its members. The findings were announced today and aren't surprising:

A majority of Wyoming Retirement System members indicated their pensions are an important part of their employment benefits and more than half of active members want to keep the current defined benefit plan, results from WRS’ 2012 Member Survey showed.
 
WRS sent a survey to active members and retirees that asked about demographics, attitudes and beliefs about WRS, customer service, the preferences of a defined benefit versus defined contribution plan and the usefulness of communication resources. The 2012 survey, which was conducted from mid-October through Nov. 20, was the second year WRS surveyed its members.

Regarding their pensions, the survey showed that 82.9 percent of active members indicated their pensions were “very important” or “mostly important” in keeping them in their current employment. The survey also showed that 86.2 percent of retirees indicated their pensions were “very important” or “mostly important” in keeping them in their employment.

The survey also indicated that 58.1 percent of active members said they prefer the current defined benefit plan over a defined contribution plan, and 29.9 percent said they would need more information to decide.

There were 2,338 active members and 582 retirees who responded to the surveys. The following is a summary of the responses.

Active Member Results

• Approximately three quarters of respondents were “Positive” or “Mostly Positive” regarding their attitude toward WRS, belief that WRS operates in their best interest and that WRS is financially strong.
• The customer service rating for WRS was favorable overall with 67.8 percent of respondents rating it “Excellent” or “Good.”

Retiree Survey Results:

• 7.3 percent of respondents reported having been a rehired retiree at some time compared to 11.8 percent last year.
• Retirees reported even more favorably than active members regarding their attitude toward WRS (91.1 percent positive), belief that WRS operates in their best interest (88.6 percent agreement) and that WRS is financially strong (87.7 percent agreement). 
• The customer service response was very positive, with 90.4 percent of respondents rating it “Excellent” or “Good.”

The following infographics show the complete results of the surveys:

• Active Member Survey Infographic
• Retiree Survey Infographic

CONTACT:   Aimee Inama
                      Information Officer
                      Phone: (307) 777-7776
                      Fax: (307) 777-3621; aimee.inama1@wyo.gov 

About WRS: WRS administers retirement plans for roughly 42,000 public employees in Wyoming and 23,000 retirees and has approximately $6.5 billion in assets.

LOWRSTFA?

Leave Our Wyoming Retirement System The Freak Alone. Feel free to use your own expletive in place of "freak."

More info on the battle to save the state retirement plan at the Coalition for a Healthy Retirement web site.

Hike Wyoming State Parks and Historic Sites while they're still open

Wyoming's state parks and historic sites are treasures. This year, they mark their 75th anniversary. Lots of time and effort has gone into upgrading facilities the past ten years. But unnecessary, Tea Party-inspired legislative budget cuts loom that may soon cut hours and staff and services at the parks. 

So it's a good time to hike these sites on New Year's Day:

For the second consecutive year Wyoming residents can begin the year with eight New Year’s Day guided hikes held at Wyoming Divisionof State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails venues statewide.

The hikes are held in conjunction with similar hikes held in all 50 states; a part of the America’s State Parks First Day Hikes initiative.

These first day hikes were very successful for the Division as last year we had over 500 participants statewide,” State Parks Administrator Domenic Bravo said. “ Last year we only had four parks participating and this year we have doubled that.  First Day Hikes is an initiative of the National Association of State Parks Directors and the America's State Park Foundation, encouraging people to get outside and healthy on January 1 and enjoy one of the many close to home treasurers that the 50 states have to offer.”

Park staff and volunteers will lead the hikes, which average one to two miles or longer depending on the state park or historic site. Details about hike locations, difficulty and length, terrain and tips regarding proper clothing are listed on the America’s State Parks website.  Visit www.americasstateparks.org to find a First Day Hike nearest you.

In Wyoming, hikes will be offered at the following locations and times:

Bear River State Park - Short nature hike along the Bear River.  Hike distance will vary upon participant’s abilities.  Begin at 10 a.m.

Boysen State Park- There will be two hikes along the Wind River of varying difficulties. Begin at 10 a.m.

Curt Gowdy State Park – Up to four mile hike on a trail to be determined. Meet at Aspen Grove Trail head at 1 p.m.

Edness K. Wilkins State Park – There will be two walks.  One will be wheelchair accessible and the other will be on natural surface on the nature trail. Each 2 miles.  Begin at 10 a.m.

Fort Bridger State Historic Site – one mile hike/walk around the historic site. Meet at entrance booth at 1 p.m.

Glendo State Park – A three mile hike around Two Moon Trails and newly constructed Towers trail.  This hike will be held on Saturday, January 5^th at 10 a.m.

Guernsey State Park - Hike will begin and end at the yurts and will be approximately 3 miles in length. The terrain will be a mixture of level to rolling hills.  Begin at 10 a.m.

Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site - 1 mile hike on the "Deer Path" trail covering level and areas of slightly steep terrain.  Begin at 10 a.m.

Participants are urged to wear adequate clothing, coffee and hot chocolate will be provided, Bonn Fire at most locations, this is a kids and family friendly event, entry fee to participating parks will be waived.

RSVPs are requested but not required. Please RSVP by emailing Paul.Gritten@wyo.gov.

For more information, please call the Wyoming Division of State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails at 777-6323.

King Coal holds a seminar in Gillette

An Overpass Light Brigade protest in Portland, Maine.These LED-light-fueled protests are coming to an overpass or state capitol near you.

King Coal holds a seminar in Gillette on Dec. 13, "Powder River Basin Coal: Domestic Challenges and International Opportunities:"

“Coal is important as an abundant, low-cost energy source for the U.S. economy,” UW School of Energy Resources Director Mark Northam says. “The energy programs at the University of Wyoming are looking at ways that coal can continue to be used in the decades to come, because maintaining a viable coal industry is important to ensuring stable, low-cost, reliable electric power generation.”

Domestic challenges, according to Wyoming, the nation's Republican-controlled energy colony: President Brack Obama
Unstated international opportunities: China
The international challenge whose name we dare not say: Global warming

Enzi allies himself with Tea Party crackpots on Senate vote

The U.S. Senate today failed to ratify a U.N. treaty that would codify the rights of the disabled. Tea Party Republicans led the opposition, apparently fearing that black helicopters manned by Kenyans would swoop out of the sky to ensure that the other-abled had access to all the benefits of civilization enjoyed by the abled.

The vote was 61-38 to ratify the treaty that has already been signed by 155 nations and ratified by 126, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. It is based on the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. Treaties must be passed in the Senate by a two-thirds vote. The all-GOP opposition included Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi but not Sen. Dr. John Barrasso. That shocked the heck out of me. Enzi has always seemed the level-headed one while Barrasso just seems to love seeing himself on Fox News. Not this time.

Joining Enzi in voting against this obvious takeover of American sovereignty were the usual crackpots from the South and West, including Oklahoma's James Imhofe, Mike Lee of Utah, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida.

From an AP story:

The opposition was led by tea party favorite Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who argued that the treaty by its very nature threatened U.S. sovereignty. Specifically he expressed concerns that the treaty could lead to the state, rather than parents, determining what was in the best interest of disabled children in such areas as home schooling, and that language in the treaty guaranteeing the disabled equal rights to reproductive health care could lead to abortions. Parents, Lee said, will "raise their children with the constant looming threat of state interference."

Tiny paranoid minds were working overtime on this one.

Read Joan McCarter's excellent Daily Kos post on the subject here.

If this is December in Wyoming, it must be time for Kickstarter gardening projects

I grew a few herbs last summer. Rosemary, basil, oregano. They grew in a pot next to my gas grill, handy for throwing into marinade or tossing on the fire for some extra flavor. Most summers, I have tomatoes and squash and zucchini and broccoli and pole beans and Chinese pea pods and spinach and a variety of lettuces. My garden (and my roof and my car) got slammed by hail twice during the wet summer of 2011. Golf ball size. I was out there trying to shelter my plants, getting pounded by ice balls the entire time. Good thing I was wearing my lucky Broncos caps or my noggin would have been perforated.

So I went on a gardening hiatus during the summer of 2012. I plan to be back in the fray come spring of 2013. We high altitude gardeners are gluttons for punishment.

But there is hope for us. I came across the web sites of two new gardening projects located at opposite corners of Wyoming. Coincidentally (or inevitably) they both have active Kickstarter projects. The first touts the "Spring System" by Laramie's Bright Agrotech. It's a self-contained growing tower that addresses the need for portable gardening systems. This aids the growth rate of plants. It also allows you to fetch your veggies in out of ice storms with relative ease. Here's a description:

We designed a special production system based on our patented vertical towers that allows us to grow more produce using less space, and then transport the unharvested towers to market.  It allows us to sell "You-Pick" vegetables at the supermarket, letting the customers pick exactly how much they want.

Whenever we would talk about growing towers of greens or herbs or flowers, or when folks saw our towers at the supermarket, people would always ask when we would make a model for home use. This got us thinking:  What if we could take live towers directly to people’s homes - kind of like a "You-Pick" Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in your own kitchen? Or what if people could just grow their own produce, easier, and with less space than a garden?  What if people could do both?  The more I thought about it, the more I knew this product would help enable the kind of future I want to live in.  So, we decided to make a kit that allows folks to grow their own vegetables, or participate in live tower CSAs.

To start, we found some brilliant engineers, stayed up late, and designed a reservoir that would let us do all of the above, and most importantly, makes it simple and easy for people to do vertical farming in their own home, or on their patio, or wherever there’s room. 

Sounds good to me. To contribute, go here. It's a $20,000 project; Bright Agrotech is about 25 percent along the way. Why not kick in a few bucks. 

The second project comes to us from Jackson. The ski town has a parking garage that nobody parks in. Wyomingites would rather park in the street or on someone's front lawn. Its south side is just sitting around doing nothing, just gathering the warming rays on the sun of the mountain sun. 

Here's where Vertical Harvest comes in. The idea is to build a three-story greenhouse on the garage's south side. The greenhouse would grow veggies year-round, nurturing the caldera's many vegans and those of us who like to have some greens with our bloody meat. Tending the gardens would be special needs teens and adults. Organizers have held fund-raisers and have already got some money in the bank. Here's a bit more about the project:

Vertical Harvest will be the first of its kind: A three story vertical farm built on an infill piece of land that will grow fresh, local produce in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, extending its four month growing season to all year round. What makes this project truly unique is that we will develop an innovative hydroponic growing system that can be used in vertical greenhouses of all configurations. This innovative mechanism will maximize efficiency by dramatically increasing the amount of produce that can be grown in the greenhouse and will also use less energy to grow produce. In addition, this growing carousel is also specifically designed to provide a safe and meaningful work environment for adults with developmental disabilities, the employee base of Vertical Harvest. With this technology, Vertical Harvest will wrap agricultural, architectural and social innovation into one project that will be a critical milestone in urban agriculture. Go to www.verticalharvest.org

VH's Kickstarter goal is $30,000. The organizers just started today. Contribute here. Pledge $50 and get a "swanky Vertical Harvest T-shirt."

We have some creative people in this state. What's your big idea to help us all eat locally year-round?

There was in Qatar an old emir, who put a poet in the slammer...

There are some things up with which the Emir of Qatar will not put

Satiric poetry, for example.

A 37-year-old Qatari poet was sent to prison for reciting a poem at an in-home reading that satirizes the Emir of Qatar and his son, the crown prince. The poem then was posted online by someone who had attended the reading. The poet, Mohammed al-Ajami, has spent most of the past year in solitary confinement without books or pen or computer or contact with his family.

I learned about this through my pals at the Montana blog, 4&20 Blackbirds. Lizard writes the blog's Liz's Weekly Poetry Series. This is fitting, as 4&20 Blackbirds comes from the land of Richard Hugo and Sandra Alcosser and Henry Real Bird and Jim Welch (poet and novelist) and John Haines and Wyoming transplant B.J. Buckley. MT knows its poets.

Traditional Arabic poetry praises the monarch, according to a BBC story. That's a bummer. Monarchs should be ridiculed, and often, as should presidents, legislators, poets, and just about anyone else in public roles. Said the BBC:

A key part of the evidence against the poet was near-identical testimony submitted by three government poetry experts at the ministries of culture and education, asserting that the poem al-Ajami had written was indeed insulting to the emir and his son.

Part of my job with the Wyoming Arts Council is to serve as a government poetry expert. I wonder if I could ever be called to testify about whether a poem funded by a state grant or fellowship was insulting to the governor or his wife or son or daughter. What would I say? What could I say? What should I say? Would I go to prison to defend a poet or writer who also might go to the Wyoming gulag?

Mohammed al-Ajami is not the first poet to go to prison for his work. Sometimes poets are tortured and killed for speaking ill of despots. Spain's Federico Garcia Lorca and Miguel Hernandez come to mind.

Here's Emily Dickinson's poem on the subject:

The Martyr Poets — did not tell —
But wrought their Pang in syllable —
That when their mortal name be numb —
Their mortal fate — encourage Some —

The Martyr Painters — never spoke —
Bequeathing — rather — to their Work —
That when their conscious fingers cease —
Some seek in Art — the Art of Peace —

Lizard writes that she's been looking online for a copy of al-Ajami's poem but has been unsuccessful. Anyone know where we could find it?

Progressive Wyoming lawmakers can now look to ALICE for model legislation

ShockandAwed reports on Daily Kos that there's a new group working to provide a progressive counterweight to the ultra-conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange, or ALICE, has a web site that provides model laws that move us FORWARD instead of backward. The recent election showed that most Americans are much more interested in moving ahead than moving back into a  past where women were in the kitchen, people of color were out in the fields, working people were forced to shop at the company store and children were yoked to the assembly line (or hauling coal out of underground mines). Read the rest of ShockandAwed's article here. Meanwhile, keep on eye out for ALEC-sponsored legislation in our upcoming Wyoming Legislature. You will know it by its retro conservative POV. For some of my previous posts on ALEC in Wyoming, go here and here. Read the DKos article here.

Will "contact high" be the only thing Wyoming gets out of Colorado's Amendment 64?

Many are wondering if the passage of Amendment 64 in Colorado will have any effect on Wyoming. All of us in the southeast part of the state may get a "contact high" from second-hand smoke blowing in from Fort Collins. The wind has to be blowing just right, of course. And not too hard, lest Scottsbluff and Kimball over in Nebraska have all the fun. But what else?

Meg Lanker-Simons explored the topic on last night's "Cognitive Dissonance" radio show broadcast from Laramie (and now available online). And Westword in Denver opined this week on the tourism impacts of legal marijuana. The lead editorial wondered if it was a coincidence that Visit Denver just launched a massive "Denver Mile High Christmas" advertising campaign. Westword proposed a few other tongue-in-cheek cannabis-based tourism schemes, one of which involved Wyoming:

Denver boosters are missing a bet if they don't light up a few other pot-related tourist attractions. For example...

Put a duty-free exchange station just off I-25 at the border of Colorado and Wyoming, where Coloradans can trade pot for fireworks and vice-versa. It's a smoking deal!

Read more here. Westword asks its readers to send their ideas to 
editorial@westword.com.

Wyoming should find its own unique ways to draw what may become a steady stream of young, pot-friendly tourists. First step might be our own Amendment 64. Face it, enforcing antiquated marijuana laws is a waste of time and resources. Wyoming was one of the first states to criminalize marijuana back before 1917. It could be among the first to decriminalize it. After all, if Colorado Libertarians and Greens and right-winger Tom Tancredo all can agree on Amendment 64, couldn't our Libertarian-leaning Republican Legislature do the same? This morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle carried a front-page story about looming budget cuts and calls by our governor to diversify our economy that's over-dependent on fossil fuels. So let's diversify. Legalize pot and tax it. Let the money flow! And the tourists. We can become Amsterdam (without the prostitutes) on Crow Creek, with pot bars and brewpubs inhabiting all of those empty downtown spaces. Fleets of funky food trucks cruising Lincolnway!

There are downsides. Abuses will occur. People will drive stoned and get in wrecks. They will get high and fall asleep at the table. Convenience stores will report shortages of Cheetos and Goldfish. People will show up late for work. Reefer madness!

Consider what we now get with alcohol-fueled tourism during Cheyenne Frontier Days. People drive drunk and get into wrecks. They get plastered, puke and pass out in the gutter. Convenience stores report shortages of beef jerky and Skoal. People miss a whole week of work. And don't forget the fights. Lots and lots of alcohol-related fights. Stoners aren't known for fisticuffs.

Think about it, Wyoming.

Men's Journal writer Mark Binelli explores Wyoming and finds it "droughty"

Men's Journal writer Mark Binelli dropped into The Big Square States of Colorado and Wyoming this past summer. He wanted to see what the heck was going on with all this drought and record-breaking heat and cataclysmic fires and dying cattle. He's another in a long procession of coasters who have ventured West to bring reports of the frontier back to the settled multitudes. Nothing wrong with that. Mark Twain did it. He wasn't from any coast, unless you consider him a denizen of the Mississippi River coast, and he did end up living in Connecticut. But writers dropping into Wyoming to explore the curious ways of its populace has a long tradition.

So what did Binelli find? We're in the shit, climate-change-wise. Wyoming cattlemen are worried about the drought and the heat but they also pooh-pooh talk of global warming and hate the federal gubment. Nothing new about that. But Binelli does actually interview real people, as a any good reporter would. He attends a cattle auction in ultra-conservative Torrington (Freedom!) and sits down to breakfast with rancher Bob Cress of La Grange. At the auction, he overhears a couple of cowboys making small talk. One asked another how he's doing. "Droughty," says the other. Droughty -- I like that. It's funny, too, a little poke in the eye to Old Man Drought. That might tell you more about rural Wyoming than a slew of magazine stories. Read the entire Men's Journal article at http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/will-the-west-survive-20121123?

"Tinsel Through Time" is like a Cheyenne holiday time machine

My wife Chris and I joined other state employees this evening for a sneak peek of the "Tinsel Through Time" show at the Historic Governor's Mansion in Cheyenne. Christina and her Wyoming State Parks and Historic Sites employees did a great job decorating this 107-year-old building for Christmas. Each room is dedicated to an era of the house's existence, with time-appropriate Christmas decorations. One of the upstairs bedrooms was done up in decor of the pre-war era (known as Edwardian in the U.K.). Did you know that the Christmas fad for that time called for all-white decorations on the tree? White candles, white ornaments, white star on top? The war put an end to that, what with rivers of blood being shed and all.

Post-war decor was much more colorful. Prior to WWII, Americans got most of their Christmas tree baubles from Germany and Japan. When war erupted, Americans were a little ticked so they discarded their not-made-in-the-USA ornaments for those made by Corning in New York. These glass balls were painted on the outside and hung with bobby pins due to most metals going to the war effort. Many homes had electric candles burning in the windows for sons and fathers serving overseas. This room had twin beds, and we could almost imagine that it was home to a couple of teen girls whose older brother was in the Army. Chris thought it might be the parents' room, as there was a snap-brim hat hanging on the bedpost. Maybe it's her boyfriend's hat, I ventured. This is a room for adults, she said. We then realized that we were caught up in the moment, actually believing that this was the room of living, breathing people and hot a museum display.

That's what history, well-presented, can do for you.

My favorite spot in the house is the basement fallout shelter. According to interpretation displays, First Lady Win Hickey made sure that the mansion was fortified for a commie attack with supplies for at least two weeks. It was stocked with survival kits, toilet paper, board games, coffee, battery-powered radio and a mirror. Asked about the last item, Mrs. Hickey replied that you couldn't expect a woman to go without a mirror for two weeks. It's funny to think about the governor's family taking shelter in the basement of a house that was but a few miles away from a nest of ICBM missile silos. If the shit had hit the fan, a mirror would have been the last of her worries. She may have had no worries at all, once the big one dropped.

Let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now

Thanks, Randy Newman.

My father built those missile silos. I never heard him talk about building a fallout shelter. It's possible that he knew the truth about what was in store for us if WWIII broke out.

Strange thoughts for Christmas. Blame it on "Tinsel Through Time." Here are some details about it:

Reminiscence about the traditions of Christmas past with “Tinsel Through Time: Christmas at the Mansion,” a special exhibit at the Historic Governors’ Mansion, December 1-22, Wednesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A free opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Friday, Nov. 30, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will feature the St. Mary’s Catholic School Children's Choir, refreshments, entertainment and a free commemorative ornament to our first 75 guests in celebration of State Parks 75th Anniversary.

This year, the exhibit features numerous trees with historic trimmings and our newest collection of more than 400 antique Christmas Ornaments courtesy of Frank and Louise Cole.

The 1905 Mansion, the first official residence of Wyoming’s First Families, has hosted everyone from U.S. presidents to neighborhood children for 71 years. The public is invited to view this enchanting free Christmas exhibit.

The Historic Governors’ Mansion is located at 300 E. 21st Street in Cheyenne. Please call 307-777-7878 for more information. Go here.

Teachers are the real job creators

Democrats will have no problem with this one...

Curiosity celebrates launch birthday, keeps on rollin' around Mars

Throw in a few clumps of sage and a tumblin' tumbleweed and this might look like Wyoming's Red Desert. But this is Rocknest on Mars. According to NASA, "this is a mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera on the NASA Mars rover Curiosity while the rover was working at a site called Rocknest in October and November 2012." Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems. On Monday, the aptly-named Curiosity celebrated the first birthday of its launch from Cape Canaveral. Happy launch birthday, Curiosity! And thanks to LeftofYou at Kossacks on Mars.

And we thought that Republicans had binders full of women

What about Wyoming's lone rep Cynthia Lummis? Couldn't John Boehner find a place at the top of the House Finance Committee for a Republican woman who served as Wyoming's state treasurer for eight years? This delicious blurb (and photo array) comes from Daily Kos: It didn't take Jennifer Bendery at Huffington Post long to figure out what 100% of the new GOP House committee chairmen have in common, as she reports in House Committee Chairs Will All Be White Men In Next Congress.

Montana leads the nation in suicides; Wyoming not far behind

The darker the state, the higher the suicide rate

The Billings Gazette began a series on Sunday exploring Montana's "suicide epidemic." Montana leads the nation in the per capita suicide rate. Last year, 452 people committed suicide in the state. While Montana has been listed in the top five suicide states the past 35 years, Wyoming is not far behind in this dismal statistic. Take a look at the map and you can see that the northern Rockies are in the "dark zone." Doesn't the outline of Montana's western border look like a sad man's face? Read the series at http://www.billingsgazette.com

Discovery of World War II internment camp letters brings back post-war Denver memories

"V" is for victory. Alissa Williams holds up a T.K. Pharmacy newspaper ad that was found in a stash of World War II internment camp letters and documents in Denver. AP Photo/Ed Andrieski.

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=59112#.ULRHAnaGFF5[/url]
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.

A young couple renovating an abandoned pharmacy in Denver's Five Points neighborhood found a hidden stash of letters and documents from World War II Japanese-American internment camps.

I missed the AP story about the find when it appeared on Thanksgiving. But saw it today at MSNBC Online. I noticed that the name of the building was T.K. Pharmacy and it was owned by Colorado native Thomas "T.K." Kobayashi. T.K. Kobayashi was my childhood doctor. My mother was a nurse who knew the doctor from her work at Denver's Mercy Hospital. I was born at Mercy, as were five of my brothers and sisters. My mother liked Dr. Kobayashi so much that she hauled us from southeast Denver to his Five Points office upstairs from the pharmacy for check-ups and immunizations and the usual assortment of maladies. If I remember correctly, Dr. Kobayashi was in the U.S. Army during the war, possibly with the famous Nisei 442 Regimental Combat Team. At least one of his partners was also a veteran, a Dr. Momei, who walked with a limp and could be gruff.

Five Points was predominately black at this time, home to the Rossonian Hotel that housed the most famous jazz club between St. Louis and L.A. Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington and Nat King Cole all performed there from the 1930s to 1960s. They also stayed at the Rossonian, since they weren't welcomed at other Denver establishments.

The T.K. Pharmacy also wasn't far away from the small Japanese-American community located in the area where Sakura Square is now situated. During the war, Colorado's Japanese-Americans were not relocated to the camps, even though there was one, Camp Amache, in the southern part of the state.

According to the AP story, Tak Terasaki, T.K.'s brother-in-law, ran the pharmacy during the war. He was reputed to be involved with group that advocated for internees' civil rights. His wife was secretary to Gov. Ralph Carr, the gutsy Republican who openly invited Japanese-Americans to Colorado during the war. That cost him his political career, but he remains a Colorado hero.

Red-lining kept people of color out of white Denver neighborhoods until the late 1960s. That was the case for both housing and businesses, which is why the T.K. Pharmacy was located in Five Points. It was a thriving business -- the waiting room was always filled. In 1960, our family moved from Denver to Moses Lake, Washington, where my father built ICBM silos. Dr. Kobayashi and his colleagues eventually bought an office building across from Mercy Hospital in City Park South. They were only happy to take the rent money of white folks, many of them physicians.

So it goes.

Dr. Kobayashi made house calls. Not unusual in the 1950s. One night in the dead of winter, I awoke in agony with a pain in my groin. My mother was a nurse but this was beyond her skills. She called Dr. Kobayashi and he came to the house. My father was not pleased, as he was a World War II veteran and, well, "Japs" had been the enemy during the recent worldwide conflagration. To his credit, he didn't interfere when the doctor came to call. I had an strangulated inguinal hernia. Not sure what the Doc did, but whatever it was, the pain stopped. A few weeks later, I went under the knife and he visited me as he made his rounds at Mercy Hospital. My mother was on duty, too, along with one of the nursing nuns. I got ice cream, I remember that. Not sure of the Doc prescribed that or if my mother gets the credit.

That wasn't the last time I was attended by Dr. Kobayashi. I had two more operations and was in the hospital twice with pneumonia before I turned 10. I was a sickly kid, but haven't spent a night in a hospital since.

What's going to happen to the letters, documents, newspapers and catalogs unearthed at the T.K. Pharmacy? Alissa Williams and her husband offered them to the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. Seems like they should stay in Colorado where they've resided the past 80 years or so. A testament to the good doctors. That's the name of one of the stories in my first collection. "The Good Doctors." It was based on the three Nisei doctors with the busy walk-up office in Five Points.

Read the AP story by Colleen Slevin here.

Alissa Williams holds up a an advertising flyer from T.K. Pharmacy at her home in Denver. The flyer from the early 1940s was found with other documents and letters during renovations at a former Denver pharmacy owned by Japanese-Americans. Some letters arriving from Japanese-American internment camps during World War II were very specific, asking for a certain brand of bath powder, cold cream or cough drops. Others were just desperate for anything from the outside world. AP Photo/Ed Andrieski. By: Colleen Slevin, Associated Press DENVER (AP).- Some letters arriving from Japanese-American internment camps during World War II were very specific, asking for a certain brand of bath powder, cold cream or cough drops — but only the red ones. Others were just desperate for anything from the outside world. "Please don't send back my check. Send me anything," one letter said from a California camp on April 19, 1943. The letters, discovered recently during renovations at a former Denver pharmacy owned by Japanese-Americans, provide a glimpse into life in some of the 10 camps where 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, from the West Coast were forced to live during the war. They were written in English and in Japanese, expressing the kinds of mundane needs and wants of everyday life, such as medicine as well as condoms, cosmetics and candy. About 250 letters and postcards, along with war-time advertisements and catalogs, came tumbling out of the wall at a historic brick building on the outskirts of downtown. The reason they were in the wall and how they got there are a mystery, particularly because other documents were out in the open. The letters haven't been reviewed by experts, though the couple that found them has contacted the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to gauge interest in the missives. It wasn't unusual for internees to order items from mail order catalogs or from the many companies that placed ads in camp newspapers, selling everything from T-shirts to soy sauce, said Alisa Lynch, chief of interpretation at the Manzanar National Historic Site, which was the location of a camp south of Independence, Calif. They earned up to $19 a month doing jobs at camps and some were able to bring money with them before they were interned, Lynch said. The building where the documents were discovered had been vacant for seven years when Alissa and Mitch Williams bought it in 2010. The T.K. Pharmacy was originally owned by Thomas Kobayashi, a native Coloradan of Japanese descent, but during the war it was run by his brother-in-law, Yutaka "Tak" Terasaki, who died in 2004, according to his younger brother, Sam Terasaki of Denver. Sam Terasaki was in the service then and doesn't remember his brother talking about taking orders from internment camps. He said his brother may have gotten involved because of his longtime participation in the Japanese American Citizens' League, a national group dedicated to protecting Japanese-Americans' civil rights. He said his brother's wife worked as a secretary to Gov. Ralph Carr, who took the politically unpopular stand of welcoming Japanese-Americans to the state. Some writers noted seeing ads for the pharmacy. One letter from a man who said he arrived at the Poston, Ariz., camp "half dead" addressed his letter directly to "Tak" and asked for chocolate. "I had to wait twenty hours in the middle of the desert at (illegible) Junction, no place to go, just wait," he wrote. The other camps the letters came from included Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Gila River in Arizona, and others in McGehee, Ark., Topaz, Utah and Granada in southern Colorado. Japanese-Americans who lived in Colorado and elsewhere in the interior West weren't interned. The relatively small but stable Japanese-American community that began taking hold in Colorado in the 1880s provided a support network for those forcibly moved from California to the state camp, state historian Bill Convery said. Internees at that camp were able to leave with permission and could visit Denver as well as a fish market near the camp opened by two men of Japanese ancestry. It was relocated to Denver after the war. Convery said the pharmacy could have been one of the few Japanese-American owned pharmacies in the West, since business owners on the coast were interned. It could offer products favored by internees — who had one week to pack up two suitcases and sell any assets — and they might have felt more comfortable dealing with a Japanese-American-owned company, given tensions during the war. Internees couldn't bring much to camp and they didn't know where they were headed or how long they'd be gone. "So as much as anything could soften the blow of that unimaginable situation, those businesses did what they could," Convery said. Alissa Williams has been poring over the letters and wondering about the stories behind the polite orders, including one for diabetes medicine. Her grandmother, aunt and uncle suffer from the disease and she wondered what they would do without medicine. The mother of a 2-year-old, she also thought about how she would cope in such a camp. "I can put myself in their place, they're having kids, they're sick and they can't get what they need," she said. "... But no one is complaining."

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=59112#.ULQw3HaGFF4[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

Alissa Williams holds up a an advertising flyer from T.K. Pharmacy at her home in Denver. The flyer from the early 1940s was found with other documents and letters during renovations at a former Denver pharmacy owned by Japanese-Americans. Some letters arriving from Japanese-American internment camps during World War II were very specific, asking for a certain brand of bath powder, cold cream or cough drops. Others were just desperate for anything from the outside world. AP Photo/Ed Andrieski. By: Colleen Slevin, Associated Press DENVER (AP).- Some letters arriving from Japanese-American internment camps during World War II were very specific, asking for a certain brand of bath powder, cold cream or cough drops — but only the red ones. Others were just desperate for anything from the outside world. "Please don't send back my check. Send me anything," one letter said from a California camp on April 19, 1943. The letters, discovered recently during renovations at a former Denver pharmacy owned by Japanese-Americans, provide a glimpse into life in some of the 10 camps where 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, from the West Coast were forced to live during the war. They were written in English and in Japanese, expressing the kinds of mundane needs and wants of everyday life, such as medicine as well as condoms, cosmetics and candy. About 250 letters and postcards, along with war-time advertisements and catalogs, came tumbling out of the wall at a historic brick building on the outskirts of downtown. The reason they were in the wall and how they got there are a mystery, particularly because other documents were out in the open. The letters haven't been reviewed by experts, though the couple that found them has contacted the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to gauge interest in the missives. It wasn't unusual for internees to order items from mail order catalogs or from the many companies that placed ads in camp newspapers, selling everything from T-shirts to soy sauce, said Alisa Lynch, chief of interpretation at the Manzanar National Historic Site, which was the location of a camp south of Independence, Calif. They earned up to $19 a month doing jobs at camps and some were able to bring money with them before they were interned, Lynch said. The building where the documents were discovered had been vacant for seven years when Alissa and Mitch Williams bought it in 2010. The T.K. Pharmacy was originally owned by Thomas Kobayashi, a native Coloradan of Japanese descent, but during the war it was run by his brother-in-law, Yutaka "Tak" Terasaki, who died in 2004, according to his younger brother, Sam Terasaki of Denver. Sam Terasaki was in the service then and doesn't remember his brother talking about taking orders from internment camps. He said his brother may have gotten involved because of his longtime participation in the Japanese American Citizens' League, a national group dedicated to protecting Japanese-Americans' civil rights. He said his brother's wife worked as a secretary to Gov. Ralph Carr, who took the politically unpopular stand of welcoming Japanese-Americans to the state. Some writers noted seeing ads for the pharmacy. One letter from a man who said he arrived at the Poston, Ariz., camp "half dead" addressed his letter directly to "Tak" and asked for chocolate. "I had to wait twenty hours in the middle of the desert at (illegible) Junction, no place to go, just wait," he wrote. The other camps the letters came from included Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Gila River in Arizona, and others in McGehee, Ark., Topaz, Utah and Granada in southern Colorado. Japanese-Americans who lived in Colorado and elsewhere in the interior West weren't interned. The relatively small but stable Japanese-American community that began taking hold in Colorado in the 1880s provided a support network for those forcibly moved from California to the state camp, state historian Bill Convery said. Internees at that camp were able to leave with permission and could visit Denver as well as a fish market near the camp opened by two men of Japanese ancestry. It was relocated to Denver after the war. Convery said the pharmacy could have been one of the few Japanese-American owned pharmacies in the West, since business owners on the coast were interned. It could offer products favored by internees — who had one week to pack up two suitcases and sell any assets — and they might have felt more comfortable dealing with a Japanese-American-owned company, given tensions during the war. Internees couldn't bring much to camp and they didn't know where they were headed or how long they'd be gone. "So as much as anything could soften the blow of that unimaginable situation, those businesses did what they could," Convery said. Alissa Williams has been poring over the letters and wondering about the stories behind the polite orders, including one for diabetes medicine. Her grandmother, aunt and uncle suffer from the disease and she wondered what they would do without medicine. The mother of a 2-year-old, she also thought about how she would cope in such a camp. "I can put myself in their place, they're having kids, they're sick and they can't get what they need," she said. "... But no one is complaining."

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=59112#.ULQw3HaGFF4[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" opens Nov. 30

The Cheyenne Little Theatre Players opens a new show this Friday at bthe Mary Godfrey Theatre. It's Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers." It's directed by John Lyttle.

Here's a cast list:

Grandma - Lois Hansen
Bella - Paige Bowman
Louie - Rory Mack
Eddie - Ryan Braman
Gert - Erin Kendall
Jay - Mac Rogers
Arty - Brendan Threewitt

Here's a description of the play from the CLTP web site:

Neil Simon’s LOST IN YONKERS is a coming of age tale that focuses on brothers Arty (13) and Jay (16), left in the care of their Grandma Kurnitz and Aunt Bella in Yonkers, New York. Their desperate father, Eddie, works as a traveling salesman to pay off debts incurred following the death of his wife. Grandma is a severe, frightfully intimidating immigrant who terrified her children as they were growing up, damaging each of them to varying degrees. Bella is a sweet but mentally slow and highly excitable woman who longs to marry an usher at the local movie house so she can escape the oppressive household and create a life and family of her own. Her brother Louie is a small-time, tough-talking hoodlum who is on the run, while her sister Gert suffers from a breathing problem which cause is more psychological than physical. 

Show dates: November 30-December 16; Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM; Sundays at 2 PM
Tickets: Adults: $21; Students & Seniors: $16; Children: $11
All Matinees: $2 Off
Special Discount Thursday December 6 at 7:30 PM when all tickets are $10.
Order tickets online here.

Black Friday strike by Wal-Mart workers keeps its distance from Wyoming

This is about the closest that the Wal-Mart strike got to Wyoming. Photo from Wal-Mart protest in Lakewood, Colo. See more at http://changewalmart.tumblr.com/. Click photo for larger image. Kind of ironic when you consider that the richest Wal-Mart heir, Christy Walton, lives in Jackson, Wyoming.

Proceeds from Christmas Craft Show at Cheyenne Elks Lodge 660 benefit local causes

This Saturday, Nov. 24, is filled with holiday goings-on, including the annual Cheyenne Christmas parade and lots of arts and crafts fairs.

Before you head downtown for the parade, drop by the Christmas Craft Show at the Cheyenne Elks Lodge 660 on 100 E. 17th Street. Eat some homemade Indian tacos and chili with all of the fixings for $6. Proceeds will benefit the Cheyenne Elk Run which also benefits UPLIFT of Wyoming. UPLIFT serves families who have children with special needs, notably those diagnosed with behavioral and mental health disorders. I'm proud to be a member of the UPLIFT board.

The Christmas Craft Show goes from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. If you're a crafter and need info on table availability, contact Annette at 307-635-5691.

93rd Wyoming Legislature: Group of mostly old, white Republican guys decide the fate of the state

On Wyofile, Lander writer Geoff O'Gara ponders the upcoming legislative session:

How do we get you interested in the 93^rd Wyoming Legislature, in which 90 mostly old, mostly male, mostly white, mostly Republican, mostly you’ve-never-heard-of-them elected representatives convene in the Capitol in Cheyenne for eight weeks of parliamentary playtime beginning in January? They gather to pass laws or defeat bills that will do everything from putting the State Treasury behind private industry pipelines, to dictating what question your teenager has to answer to prove she’s learning something in the eighth grade, to buying Wyoming an aircraft carrier.

Aircraft carrier in high-and-dry Wyoming? Yes, dear readers, the purchase of one was contemplated during last year's session. It arose from legislation that called for Wyoming to be prepared for an impending Armageddon (e.g., the reelection of Barack Obama). Bloggers of all political stripes had fun with that one. See my posts from last year here and here. 

Read O'Gara's Wyofile piece at http://wyofile.com/2012/11/fiscalplateau/

LCCC music ensembles in concert Dec. 1

The Laramie County Community College music ensembles will perform a "Holiday Gala" on Saturday, Dec. 1, 7:30-8:30 p.m., at the Cheyenne Civic Center, 510 West 20th St., Cheyenne.

Says a press release: The LCCC music ensembles will perform favorite tunes to help put you in the holiday mood. Admission is free, and donations will be accepted for the COMEA House.

COMEA House is the local homeless shelter, always in need of donations during the holidays or any time of year.

This proud papa will be there to see and hear my daughter's first solo.

Tea Party Slim's new bumper sticker: "Wyoming: Love it Unquestionably or Leave It"

I let a few weeks pass before bringing up the election.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Tea Party Slim.

"I understand." I finished off my pumpkin scone. "Bad memories."

He sipped his coffee. "Water under the bridge."

We sat at a small table at the downtown Starbuck's. Two weeks after the historic election. Four more years of Barack Hussein Obama probably looked like an eternity to Slim.

"Is your family well?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yours?"

"Just dandy. What you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"Wife cooking up a storm, as always. Having over a few friends. Son coming up from Denver with his family."

"That's nice."

"Yes it is. You?"

"Kids will be home. We're taking everything over a sick friend's house. She's been in the hospital but can't cook."

Slim sipped his coffee. "That's nice."

"Yes it is."

"Good thing she had insurance, and thank goodness for Medicare. There were complications."

I could tell Slim wanted to say something, maybe a comment about Medicare running out of money and maybe it should be privatized. Instead, he just said, "I hope she gets well soon."

"She's doing better." I sipped my coffee. "Wonder what the State of Wyoming plans to do about the Affordable Care Act?"

"Obamacare," snorted Slim.

At last! "State doesn't do something, get a health exchange going or something similar, feds will step in and run it."

"Federal government can't run anything."

"Not even the military?" I knew this was a sore spot, him being a veteran and all.

"Don't go picking on the military now," Slim said. "It's one thing we do right."

"I'm just saying..."

"You're not a veteran," he said. "I was protecting the U.S.A. while you were a party boy in college, buying kegs with your student loan."

"I never thought of that, Slim. I was probably too busy working two jobs."

Slim harrumphed. "Just don't pick on the military."

"Let's make a deal, Slim. I won't pick on the military and you lay off Medicare and Social Security and state employee pensions."

"Why should I pay for state employee pensions? And why should you get pensions while private sector employees don't?"

"Let's put the shoe on the other foot, Slim. Why should I pay for military pensions and the V.A.?"

"Because we've put in our time and that's part of the deal -- serve your country and you get benefits."

"I could say the exact same thing about my 20-something years as a state employee. I've put in my time, including many years without a raise, and I've contributed to the defined benefits plan. When I retire, I expect benefits."

"You can't compare serving your country with serving the state."

"Why not?"

"It's different, that's all. People put their lives on the line. You're a paper pusher."

"True. But how often was your life in danger? And how much paper did you push around?"

"It was Vietnam..."

"You were off the coast on a big ship, were you not?"

"True..."

"Were you ever actually in Vietnam?"

"Well...."

"Never?"

"We had to arm the planes that went on bombing runs. Dangerous work."

"I'm sure it was." I finished my coffee. "I don't question that. I am thankful you get a pension and can go to the V.A. when needed. So why do you want me to face retirement without a pension and medical coverage?"

"I didn't say that."

"That's what your Tea Party Republican legislators want to do."

"They just want fairness, that's all."

"Look, employers in the private sector want to pay less than minimum wage and no benefits. They get ticked off when they train people and they go to work for the state. Meanwhile, the state can't hire much-needed staff because Wyoming wages are ridiculously low and our legislature is the embarrassment of the nation."

"If you don't like it, you can always retire and move to blue-state Colorado."

"Love it or leave it?"

"I used to have that on a bumper sticker."

"I don't doubt it. Maybe you need a new one, Slim. How about "'Wyoming: Love It Unquestionably Or Leave it?"

"Not bad."

"I know another slogan that might be better."

"What?"

"Wyoming: You Can't Eat the Scenery."

MYOB: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to outlaw same-day voter registration in all of the "W" states

Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to end same-day voter registration in every state. Wyoming, of course, has same-day voter registration and it has been extremely popular and effective in electing a Republican majority to the legislature, an all-Republican Congressional delegation and an occasional Democratic governor. All of us who have worked the polls know that anyone who shows up to register is shown to a separate registration table staffed by paid volunteers who have attended at least one training session held by the county clerk's office. This time-tested system is apparently not good enough for Scott Walker:

"States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees," Walker said in the speech. "It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done."

Forget Mr. Walker's ageism. Forget his stereotyping of poll workers as "retirees" whose feeble minds are apparently unable to keep track of voters. Those voting days can be long and tedious, punctuated by an occasional long line and a tough question about eligibility or voting protocol. In Wyoming, poll workers can work half-day shifts, an option brought to you by legislation sponsored and ramrodded by one-time Democratic Rep. Lori Millin. In 2010, I worked one of those split-shifts while most of my fellow volunteers did not. They were tougher than I am. Maybe they wanted to stay on-site and hobnob with old friends, or maybe they wanted to eat more of Edith's yummy tamales (we eat well at the polls), or maybe they just like what they're doing and are damned good at it. Whatever the reason, a more hard-working bunch you will never see.

Perhaps Gov. Walker actually believes that Wisconsin poll workers are inferior to those in Wyoming. Perhaps we need a poll-worker Olympics to find out who is the best of them all.

Or perhaps Gov. Walker is just full of it. Didn't the Repubs learn anything from the recent election? Americans don't like it when you trample on their voting rights.

News from Limbaughland: Interview with Wyoming's own "Black Conservative Dittohead"

Newly elected Wyoming House Rep. Lynn Hutchings speaks to Rush! Read it and weep: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/11/14/a_black_conservative_dittohead_elected_to_the_wyoming_house_of_representatives

Here's a great line from Hutchings:

I just wanted to let you know that as of November 6, 2012, I am the first black conservative Republican elected into our House of Representatives, and I have to say, a lot of it is due to being a student of your advanced conservative studies.

Advanced Conservative Studies? Dittohead 101? Hope they don't teach that at UW.