Rep. Sue Wallis (R-Recluse), locavore

According to an article in today's Casper Star-Tribune, Wyoming's burgeoning local foods economy may be in for some trouble from the "food inspection bureaucracy:"

"I just feel like the bureaucracy, the food inspection bureaucracy, has gone completely overboard, and is infringing on our constitutional rights to produce things and sell things and consume things and buy things that they have absolutely no justification for doing," said state Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse.

Rep. Wallis, a legislator, rancher, cowboy poet and grandma from one of the most rural parts of Wyoming, wants to make sure that local growers and bakers and ranchers can market their products. She championed a bill last year that changed the way that food is sold across the state. Before the legislation, residents without food licenses could only sell homemade foods at religious or charitable events. Only foods deemed "not potentially hazardous" -- such as cookies, jams and baked bread -- were allowed. Earlier this year, the Legislature voted to loosen the restriction to allow sales of such foods at farmers' markets, roadside stands and private homes.

"I could bake two batches of cookies in the oven, take half of them to the church bazaar, and take the other half to the farmers' market, where I would be breaking the law," Wallis said.

She doesn't believe that fewer restrictions will affect the safety of consumers. Besides, she said, people can decide for themselves whether to buy homemade products.

"Any time you buy something from a farmers' market or a roadside stand, or a church bazaar, you know, as a consumer, that was made in somebody's kitchen," she said. "If you are concerned that it takes a government inspector's eyes before you feel safe, then don't buy it."

Yes, we all want our food to be safe. We don't want to be poisoned or doused with chemicals or felled by allergens. But in this age where people can get sick from eating corporate-grown spinach and corporate beef, it seems a bit ridiculous to bring the hammer down on bread coming out of our local baker's kitchen.

There is a principle of regulation and oversight that we really shouldn't lose," said Robert Harrington, director of the Casper-Natrona County Health Department. "We built a much better food system over the last 80 years, and we shouldn't allow minor concessions to a minor, minor segment of the food production industry to start weakening that system."

Harrington is clueless. This "minor, minor segment of the food production industry" is the one that's growing. People are growing their own and selling their own -- and they should be able to do it with the least amount of hassle from the authorities.

Man, I'm beginning to sound like a Libertarian.

But this is an important issue. Heavy-handed regulation could sink what's being called the "local foods movement." I've been writing about this for awhile now, prompted by my own return to backyard gardening and shopping at local farmer's markets. A few weeks ago I wrote about the winter market held at Cheyenne's Historic Depot. All food sold at the market was raised or made within 150 miles of Cheyenne. The handicrafts, too. Local, local, local. (Go to my Dec. 5 article at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2009/12/locavore-and-localart-and-even-localit.html.)

The food inspection bureaucracy should be working with local foodies and not against us.

Let's make sure we support Rep. Wallis when she comes to the next legislative session in February, just after her annual trek to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko Jan. 23-30.

Wallis plans to introduce a bill she offered last session that would allow cottage businesses to also sell "potentially hazardous" foods without a license, as long as the transaction doesn't involve a third party. Those foods include dairy products, canned foods and sauces.

The lawmaker doesn't think relaxing the rules would make the public less safe.

"If I know where my food is coming from, I trust it a lot more than I do the junk that comes out of the store," she said. "Because I know how it was produced, I know who the people are."

Contact Rep. Wallis at P.O. Box 71, Recluse, Wyoming 82725; 307-685-8248; 307-680-8515; sue.wallis@vcn.com.

Enzi & Barrasso of WYO continue to say "NO" to health care reform

The WyoGOP naysayers are still voting to please their corporate insurance overlords.

So what else is new.

WyoDems' Chief Bill Luckett sent along this press release today:

Delivering on the GOP’s pledge to try to kill health reform to break the President, last night Senators Enzi and Barrasso voted against health insurance reform. In the first of several votes in the Senate, both Senators voted against advancing legislation that would rein in unfair insurance company practices, expand coverage to more than 30 million Americans and reduce costs for families, businesses and the country as a whole.

With this latest vote, Senators Enzi and Barrasso, along with their Republican colleagues in Congress, have proven once again that they are willing to do anything to protect health insurance companies at the expense of health care for their constituents. Republicans in Congress are more interested in protecting special interests than in fixing our broken health insurance system and ensuring Wyomingites have access to quality, affordable care.

“Last night, in a historic vote on health insurance reform, Senators Enzi and Barrasso those to fall in line with the GOP and ignore the real need for reform in the state of Wyoming," said Wyoming Democratic Party Chair Leslie Petersen. “Reform will bring greater access to Wyoming residents and greater support to Wyoming healthcare providers.”

The Senate proposal contains measures that would directly benefit Wyoming residents by allowing for greater competition in a very limited insurance market, focusing on increased access to rural areas, and protecting consumers from unfair insurance company practices. “We are very excited about a number of proposals in this legislation such as the ‘frontier states’ provision that would increase Medicare payments to rural areas, and the establishment of a National Health Service Corps to help attract young and talented health care professionals to underserved areas,” said Petersen. “It is a shame Enzi and Barrasso don’t realize there is more at stake than a reelection campaign; they are voting against the best interests of Wyoming’s people.”

Health reform bill boosts Medicare payments in frontier states

An article by Robert Pear in Sunday's New York Times explored items "buried" in the new health care bill. One of those hidden items may bring significant money to Wyoming and adjacent states:

Another item in the package would increase Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors in any state where at least 50 percent of the counties are “frontier counties,” defined as those having a population density less than six people per square mile.

And which are the lucky states? The bill gives no clue. But the Congressional Budget Office has determined that Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming meet the criteria.

In the 2000 census, Alaska boasted 1.1 person per square mile while Wyoming was the second-most frontier of frontier states, with 5.1 people per square mile. During the Bush-era energy boom, more people moved into the state than out, making Wyoming the 49th state in population density, with 5.4 per square mile. Alaska now has 1.2.

Since more than 50 percent of our counties have less than 6 ppsm, we qualify. While Utah has a whopping 32.2 ppsm (2007 census estimates), most of its southern and eastern counties are very rural, bringing down the big numbers for Salt Lake City. Same goes for the rest of those big Northern Rockies and High Plains states. The big numbers in Missoula and Billings and Bozeman are leavened by counties in Eastern Montana, where antelope and tumbleweeds are more prevalent that people.

In Wyoming, my county of Laramie has 30 people per square mile, which dwarfs the 1 ppsm in Niobrara County and 2 ppsm in Hot Springs and Weston counties. Because humans are packed like sardines in Laramie County, we rub up against other humans in new and interesting ways, causing us to either bolster our humaneness or flee to less-populated counties. Because of this, Laramie County is registering more Democrats (and winning more legislative seats) while northern and western counties continue their one-party status.

Speaking of Republicans... our good senators and lone rep should be happy with this frontier state designation in the health care bill they all oppose.

Barrasso/Enzi/Lummis all have taken the Repub party line (NO!) on health care legislation. They have advocated for higher Medicare payments. Lummis, in fact, spoke to a gathering of health care professionals at the hospital in Casper during last summer's "yell and scream at town meetings" craze. Most of the docs were upset about low Medicare reimbursement rates. Lummis also was upset. Now she will be happy and congenial, right? And what about Dr. Barrasso? Will he too be happy and congenial and vote for the final bill? Not bloody likely.

Hummingbirdminds also wonders about Sen. Enzi. He was one of the vaunted Gang of Six who steered the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill. He was joined by Committee Chair Max Baucus of Montana and Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota. While the Dems are voting for the bill, Enzi is not. Does that mean he does not want doctors and hospitals in his frontier state to receive larger medicare reimbursements? You can ask him via e-mail at http://enzi.senate.gov/public/

Frontier State Gang of Six members are getting what they wanted. So is Sen. Nelson of Nebraska. From the NYT article:

Nebraska, with help from Mr. Nelson, won a particularly generous arrangement under which the federal government would indefinitely pay the full cost of covering certain low-income people added to the Medicaid rolls under the bill.

Republicans derided this provision as the “Cornhusker kickback.” And they said it was typical of the favors Democrats had given to Mr. Nelson and a handful of other senators.

“You’ve got to compliment Ben Nelson for playing ‘The Price is Right,’ ” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina. “He negotiated a Medicaid agreement for Nebraska that puts the federal government on the hook forever. Not for six years, not for 10 years. This isn’t the Louisiana Purchase; this is the Nebraska windfall.”

I love how Repubs object to these sorts of specific earmarks buried in legislation. Defense bills are larded with funding for military bases and specific projects backed by Repubs. They even vote for the occasional Bridge to Nowhere.

Meanwhile, we can only marvel at the "Cornhusker Kickback." Sen. Nelson is a player. As a Democrat, he was in the game. While Sen. Enzi may have worked some frontier state items into the bill, our Repub senators are mainly left on the sidelines to stew and fume.

Perhaps some of that Nebraska Windfall will blow over the borders into Wyoming. But I forget that the prevailing winds blow from the West. From all those rural Republican Wyoming counties in the West.

Nothing new about religion in movies

Our local paper, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, featured an article by Robert W. Butler of McLatchy about the prevalance of religion (even "spirituality") in current Hollywood movies.

He went on to list these films: The Road, Avatar, The Blind Side, and The Invention of Lying. Because the photo accompanying the article comes from The Lovely Bones, one assumes that its imminent Christmas release is what prompted the article.

Baby Boomer Flashback...

I grew up with religious movies: Ben Hur, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, Ten Commandments, Samson and Delilah. Biblical epics. All of them were based (sometimes loosely) on stories from the Bible. My parents considered it their duty to take us to these films. I am certain that they all had the imprimatur of the Catholic Legion of Decency. There were other films that did not, films that exhibited entirely too much female pulchritude (Marilyn!), explored teen angst (James Dean!), displayed the singer with the swiveling hips (Elvis!) and featured entirely too much violence. Then there were those rotten comic books and racy novels. Entirely too much indecency existed in the fifties. Nothing that a dose of an overlong Biblical epic couldn't cure.

If they seemed cheesy back then, their cheesiness has multiplied with time. The only one of the epics that isn't terrible is Ben Hur. Is saw it recently and the story is pretty good. The chariot race is still thrilling. Even though we remember Charlton Heston more for his NRA lunacy rather than his acting, he's not bad in this one.

There was another batch of movies in the late sixties that tackled religion. Lilies of the Field even took its title from the Bible. Sidney Poitier was the African-American handyman for a convent of traditionalist Catholic nuns. He was old-time religion and they were Papists. Everyone learned something about tolerance and human rights. The nuns at my high school took us to see this one.

...End of Flashback

Religion in movies is nothing new. Spirituality is another matter. Hollywood no longer is restricted to the Bible for its religious-themed movies. Organized religion's endemic intolerance (we have the answer and you don't) takes a shellacking in most recent movies. Doubt is a great example. It's also a good example of life's complications. Kevin Smith's Dogma took on religion in a big way. The image that remains with me is the smiling "Buddy Christ" promoted by Cardinal George Carlin.

Butler's McLatchy article named only one recent film -- The Blind Side -- that actually portrays devout Christians acting on their faith. The others are all metaphor and allegory usually helped along with a dose of sci-fi and/or fantasy. As are so many films that take on good vs. evil. I haven't seen the film version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. But I've seen No Country for Old Men twice. Tommy Lee Jones' world-weary sheriff is perplexed by the scope of death and destruction that's been unleashed on his county. He can find no redeeming characters anywhere. He asks that eternal question: "Where is God?" And he has no answer.

Avatar is more Celtic mythology and Gaian philosophy than religion. The planet Pandora is a living thing. Earthers attempt to rape and pillage Pandora and she responds. It's an old scenario. Natives are outgunned and outnumbered. The call goes out to Mother Earth and she sounds the trumpet. The animals charge the automatic weapons and battle cruisers and emerge triumphant.

It rarely works that way in the real world. Maybe that's why we like the myth. The underdog wins due to its earth-centered spirituality. And some bitchin' flying dragons.

Samantha Bee blows the lid off of Obama's sinister Christmas Tree Ornament Plot

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Capturing our Christmas tree in the Snowies

The ceremonial capture of the Christmas tree in Wyoming's Snowy Range. Notice ravenous wolf in foreground attempting to take a bite out of daughter. Wife threw blue disk at wolf and scared it away.

War Made New: Don't Fire Until You See Those Shiny Transmitter Receptors

"If you're depressed, learn something."

That may or may not be the exact quote I came across years ago. It could be "when you're depressed, learn something." I remember quotes like I remember jokes -- badly.

I took the quote to mean that when you're depressed, learn something to take your mind off of it. If you're clinically depressed, picking up a book or plugging yourself into the PC is a daunting task. If you're in this state, you need more than book learnin'.

If you're garden-variety depressed, learning something gives you something to do. It focuses the mind, and by the time you exit the book, you will have forgotten -- temporarily -- about your depression. You may even feel better. One thing's certain -- you will have learned something. "Mopey" may be a constant state, but why not try being a mope with a head full of history or art or poetry.

I was thinking about this because I've been depressed due to Christmas and the sub-zero temperatures and various other things. So I checked out books from the library about depressing topics: bird flu, military history and Iraq. This might send another dysthymic over the edge. But to me, reading about sordid and complicated topics has a calming effect. I also sometimes medicate myself with films featuring sordid and complicated topics. But it doesn't have quite the same salutary effect.

The book on the avian flu, "The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic," gave me all sorts of info about viruses and epidemiologists, not to mention admiration for the craft of reporter and author Alan Sipress. His descriptions of the inner workings of the flu virus made me marvel at its existence. When I finished the book, I was (temporarily, at least) a wiser man. I bored several of my coworkers with descriptions on the spread of bird virus and the operations of the CDC germ detectives. After a few days of this, workplace absenteeism soared. I figured they had either caught the swine flu, thought that they'd been infected with avian flu, or were patiently waiting at home for me to finish the book and move on to other things.

I moved on to "Understanding Iraq" by William R. Polk. I'm now in the section where Polk documents "Revolutionary Iraq." This chapter covers the years between the fall of the monarchy in 1958 and continues through a series of dictators leading up to the late Saddam and up until 1991 and the First Iraq War. The U.S. has entered the picture at this point and there are ominous rumblings of what's to come. Iraq, of course, is a complicated country with a tumultuous history. I'm a bit late reading about Iraq, but better late than never. Too bad that U.S. neocons never understood the target of their nefarious plans.

I took a break from Iraq to dive into "War Made New: Technology, Warfare and the Course of History, 1500 to Today." Author is Max Boot. He takes us from a prologue about "the Blitzkreig of 1494," when a disciplined French army brought shock and awe to Italy, to "Humvees and IEDs: Iraq, March 20, 2003-May 1, 2005." The book was published in 2006. It's almost 2010 and we're still in Iraq. although the Humvee-IED battles have switched the Afghanistan. This will no doubt require a sequel.

Max Boot writes in an easy-going manner about some tough stuff. Right now, I'm at the end of the "Gunpowder Revolution" section with the Battle of Assaye, the Brits vs. the Marathas in 1803 India. I haven't read ahead, but the Brits might still have been sore about getting their asses beat by ragtag bands of American colonists. This brings to mind Stephen Colbert's Afghanistan history lesson on the Colbert report last night. He showed a complicated chart of U.S. plans in Afghanistan. Then he showed a chart of the simplified British plan when they fought Afghanistan: 1. Kill the bloody savages; 2. Win; 3. Drink tea. He then added this: 4. Oppress the Irish.

Simple plan. How difficult to put into practice (except the Irish part -- for awhile, anyway).

Here's the military's COIN strategy flowchart as seen on TV:



Mr. Boot's book has captured my attention. The rise of nation-states, bureaucracies, professional armies, improved weaponry. Those all could be deadly dull. But not here. Temporarily, I am more fascinated than depressed. Do to the technology of antidepressants, and the stimulation of learning something, my brain's neurotransmitters are overcoming the entrenched and outmoded tactics of the Dendrites. Here it is shown in the graphic below:

The Neurons, with daily reinforcements from the arsenals of Zoloft, may win this battle and -- ultimately -- the war.

NOTES: Shamelessly lifted the illustration from wikipedia. You may view the full "Colbert Report" episode noted above by going to http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=258256

Student loan bill could save billions

Headline for an editorial in the Dec. 7 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Give it the old college try: student loan bills could save billions of dollars"

It makes the case for the passage of the new student loan bill in Congress. A good counterpoint to the naysaying Wall Street Journal editorial opposing the legislation.

Here's an excerpt:

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 253-171 in September, and the measure now is awaiting action in the Senate. It likely will be waiting until there is action on the all-consuming health-care reform bill, but opponents are busily lobbying against it.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09341/1019123-192.stm#ixzz0ZFpIvBK1

"When Liberals Invade Wyoming" -- a fantasy

I've been falling behind in my prowling for Wyoming-related posts on prog-blogs. I missed this one by MinistryOfTruth Nov. 19 on Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/19/806200/-Invade-Wyoming-and-create-a-liberal-paradise.-Stupid-need-not-apply

Let me sum up. MOT writes tongue-in-cheek that a bunch of liberals "invade" Wyoming so it can be turned blue. In theory, a fine idea. In practice, it's doomed to failure. One only need look at the post's comments to undertand why. Most people don't have a clue about Wyoming.

By invade I mean a peaceful move to resettle liberal Americans to a small town in Wyoming where we can all live in liberal harmony our way. We will take over the local town Government, and then swell our numbers from other people who shall all make an exodus from the other 49 states as we carry out our new endeavor. Therefore, for the sake of unemployed Americans and every other struggling person, I say pick up, travel west, and take Wyoming back from the Dick Cheney types that own it.

By take back, I mean the peaceful and awesome transformation of a stodgy old state full of rocks and rockheads (at lest 50%, but not all Wyomingians are Fox Viewers) into a kick ass liberal paradise with open skies, clean air and 2 Senator seats just waiting for us. Why should we go jobless in New York, Michigan, Ohio, California and elsewhere while Wyoming hogs up all the opportunity and hopes and dreams that any large, low populated state might have if an inordinate number of millionaires live there.

So who will come with me, and found a new city within a city in Wyoming? Who will join the commune of liberals who will turn Wyoming Blue?

Don't everybody raise your hand at once. Sure, it's bone-chilling cold right now, but that only lasts until Memorial Day. And don't be afraid of Dick Cheney. He's hardly ever here, spending most of his time in Maryland when he's not on Fox News calling Obama a weinie. When he is in Wyoming, he's holed up in his mountain redoubt outside Jackson. He rarely goes into town, afraid some vegan boarder with a 'tude will hit him with a snowball.

Where would liberals work? My liberal friends and I who pioneered this state back in the 1990s already have all the good jobs. We are arts workers, artists, artisans, baristas, writers, bread makers, professional locavores and teachers and -- of course -- community organizers. There currently are enough of us for Wyoming. We are short of communities, you see, and any new influx of community organizers would have to organize prairie dog colonies, antelope herds and -- if they're not all shot soon -- wolf packs. From experience, I'd have to say that it might be easier to organize wolf packs than the state's human colonies.

And did I mention that every single housebroken life form in Wyoming -- men, women, children, infants, hamsters, cats, dogs -- packs heat. There are more guns in Wyoming than tumbleweeds.

I'll let MOT have the final words:

I believe that this program is a way forward into the future, so that liberals, progressives and Dirty Fucking Hippies can slowly ruin all the red states for the red staters the way they fucked up our states with their corrupt, incompetant idiots like the Bush, Cheney and Palin families. So who is coming with me, and what shall we name this Hippy Liberal Paradise, and what kind of laws will we have? I want to know.

And I want to see the look on that Dick Cheney's face when we take over, peacefully and Democratically.

Locavore and localart and even localit

I did my Christmas shopping in Chugwater.

Actually, Chugwater came to Cheyenne in the form of Sage Hill Fiber Arts and Baker Farms On-Farm Bakery. They were just two of the vendors at the Winter Farmers Market at the Historic Depot in downtown Cheyenne.

My first purchase was a loaf of homemade rye bread from Baker Farms. The farm grows winter red wheat up on the bluffs east of Chugwater, about 40 miles north of Cheyenne on I-25. Some of their crop is organic, which goes into their breads and pastries. I tried a sample of their Granola pie, which is a flat granola bar the siez of a monster cookie. Very tasty. Then I tasted their onion bread. Finally settled on a big round loaf of the rye.

The couple that owns Baker Farms (sorry -- didn't get their first names) said that the wheat crop got hammered with hail over the summer. But they did harvest some, and made some bread which I took home and had a few slices until my daughter and her friends came home and ate their way through the groceries like a locust swarm. They were gone almost as quickly as they had arrived.

The bread was good while it lasted. And I have a standing invitation to go up to Chugwater and take a ride on one of the two Baker Farms' combines which, the couple said, "are really old." Who can pass up a ride on an historic combine? They could tell I was a city boy. They don't have a web site yet, but you can e-mail them for more info at dwbaker@vcn.com.

I bought a Christmas present for a loved one who shall remain nameless at the Sage Hill Fiber Arts booth. Carol Eckhardt, shepherd and spinner and fiction writer (two of her books were for sale next to the fiber arts), and her daughter run the company. Carol weaves beautiful scarves and hats and shawls from the wool of her own sheep. Most of her items are natural colors instead of dyes, the whites and tans and browns and blacks courtesy of sheep like Ebony. Carol wove Ebony's wool into a multiple-patterned bed jacket. I knew that my wife Chris would love this particular item as she sat up and read in bed or watched "The Office" on a frigid night in which she reminded me that she required such an item to get her through the winter.

However, the item was a bit pricey for my budget. Although I could see it on a future shopping list.

Therein lies the difficulty with "buying locally." We are used to paying bargain basement prices at retailers. Often we are buying goods made far from home. China or the Dominican Republic, for instance. These goods are cheaply made and they travel long distances before they're stocked on the Wal-Mart shelves. Prices dictate longevity. Your scarf made by cut-rate labor in China may survive one winter. But probably not.

I don't have enough time or energy or knowledge to talk here about the politics of shopping. But when you buy locally, you support your neighbors. When you buy at Wal-Mart, you support Wal-Mart.

But it is difficult for most of us to afford $100 scarves and $75 baskets. Our money goes elsewhere: mortgage payments, utility bills, car payments, food for the little ones and, yes, shopping for necessities at big-box stores. Our society is now structured around low prices. Since all our other costs are going up, we have less to spend for sturdy, handmade items.

I spent several hours prowling the indoor market. Linda Behrens of Cheyenne makes beautiful baskets from willows. As we spoke, she was weaving Christmas ornaments. Her baskets are remarkable. She has to work with the willow when it's green so it's malleable. This is especially important because she leaves the bark on. E-mail Linda at anubisbehrens@yahoo.com.

I have to keep in mind that the artists and artisans in this building today spend many hours on each artifact. There were many craft fairs going on around Cheyenne on this December Saturday. The YMCA hosted one, as did Alta Vista and Miller Schools, among many others. It shows the importance of handmade arts and foods.

Meadow Maid Foods in Yoder, owned by Mike and Cindy Ridenhour, offers grass-fed beef, homemade jerky, vegetables and flowers, and vegetable CSA shares. Other farms in the vicinity that offer CSA shares are Wolf Moon Farms in Ft. Collins, Colo., and Grant Farms in Wellington, Colo. Sara Burlingame, one-time owner of Sara's Breads, now is the Cheyenne contact for Wolf Moon Farms CSA drop-offs. You can get more info about signing up for the 2010 growing season by e-mailing Karen at wolfmoonfarms@gmail.com.

WindHarvest Farms in located in Morrill, Nebraska, about 11 miles east of Torrington and about 90 miles from Cheyenne. Diane and Jeff Edwards run the farm. Jeff is also works in the agricultural extension office for Goshen County, Wyo. Not only does he advise Wyoming farmers and harvest his own organic veggies. He's also received a grant to run workshops on building high tunnels for year-round growing in high wide and lonesome Wyoming.

Jeff says that these workshops will take place over the next couple years. He'll build a high tunnel on someone's property, providing hands-on experience for those who sign up. That means getting your hands dirty putting up the 16-feet-by-32-feet structures. Some are already up and providing shelter to tomatoes and berries around southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Jee says that interest in high tunnels is booming.

I could have spent my entire Christmas budget at the market. I gathered info and will save up for later. I did drop by the Rock, Paper Scissors Gallery down the street from the Depot. The gallery offers working space for local artists and exhibits work of artists from the region. Potter Paulette Rasmussen was minding the store. I persued the works on exhibit, and pledged to come back. I bought Chris a hippo etching by Abby Paytoe Gbayee at the gallery when it opened during the summer. More to come...

Wyoming locavores strive to be creative

This comes from the Northern Colorado Food Incubator:

Cheyenne will host two winter farmers' markets this fall, patterned after the Fort Collins Winter Market model. One was held Nov. 7; the next one will be held indoors on Saturday, December 5, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at the Cheyenne Depot Museum in downtown Cheyenne. Please note, due to careful planning, the Cheyenne and Fort Collins market dates do not conflict so that vendors may attend all markets. FMI: click here

The flyer for the event advertised "local foods grown, raised or created within 150 miles of Cheyenne, Wyoming." Often, you hear locavores talking about food grown, raised or created within 50 miles of home. But in high, dry and cold Cheyenne, you have to boost the radius 100 miles in all directions. Mainy south, toward the Front Range breadbaskets of Wellington, Fort Collins, Denver and almost all the way to Colorado Springs. It also includes the northeastern Colorado wheat and corn fields of Sterling and Fort Morgan into cornhusker territory in western Nebraska. Food crops are grown in some of eastern Wyoming's lower elevations around Torrington and Lusk and Wheatland.

You get the picture -- Cheyenne locavores have to forage far and wide for our food. I've written before about some of Laramie County's food producers (see http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2009/08/stiory-to-go-with-every-zucchini-and.html). We do better in the meat department than we do in fruits and veggies. At our summer and fall farmers markets, fruit comes in from northwestern Colorado and Utah. That's way beyond the locavore radius, but it's hard to dwell on semantics when you have the juice of a Wasatch Front peach dribbling down your chin.

Vegetarian locavores have one hell of a time in Cheyenne. It's a different story for meat-eaters, especially if you're a locavore and a hunter. Several hunters I know stick close to home, hunting elk and deer and antelope in the Medicine Bows and Snowy Range and down into Colorado's Roosevelt National Forest. When they "harvest" an animal, its edible parts go into to freezer for locavoring throughout the winter. I know that many people who actually use the term "locavore" don't approve of hunting. In fact, I've heard that it's on the list of the NRA's forbidden words list, along with "vegetarian," "liberal" and "Obama." But some hunters may be a lot more "The L Word" that I am. That's "L" as in locavore. What did you think I meant?

I like the fact that the Cheyenne and Fort Collins farmers market dates do not conflict. That's an encouraging sign and shows that the Northern Colorado Food Incubator includes southeast Wyoming in its planning. I also like the fact that the CWFM lists a bundle of sponsors, including the Wyoming Farmers Market Association (I didn't know there was such a thing) and several individual sponsors "who believe in the local food movement."

Get down to the Depot tomorrow for some bison and salsa and local honey and pumpkins and eggs from free range hens and baked goods from organic Wyoming wheat.

Sen. Enzi cited in Jeff Sharlet book as member of D.C. cult The Family

Jeff Sharlet is the author of "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" (Hardcover, 464 pages, Harper, $25.95). Wyomingites may recognize a familiar name in the following excerpt:

The Family, or the Fellowship, is in its own words an "invisible" association, though it has always been organized around public men. Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kansas), chair of a weekly, off -the-record meeting of religious right groups called the Values Action Team (VAT), is an active member, as is Representative Joe Pitts (R., Pennsylvania), an avuncular would-be theocrat who chairs the House version of the VAT. Others referred to as members include senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee (the powerful conservative caucus co-founded back in 1974 by another Family associate, the late senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska); Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa); James Inhofe (R., Oklahoma); Tom Coburn (R., Oklahoma); John Thune (R., South Dakota); Mike Enzi (R., Wyoming); and John Ensign, the conservative casino heir elected to the Senate from Nevada, a brightly tanned, hapless figure who uses his Family connections to graft holiness to his gambling-fortune name. Some Democrats are involved: representatives Bart Stupak and Mike Doyle, leading anti-abortion Democrats, are longtime residents of the Family's C Street House, a former convent registered as a church and used to
provide Family-subsidized housing for politicians supported by the Family. A centrist occasionally stumbles into the fold, but the Family is mostly conservative. Family stalwarts in the House include Representatives Frank Wolf (R., Virginia), Zach Wamp (R., Tennessee), and Mike McIntyre, a hard right North Carolina Democrat who believes that the Ten Commandments are "the fundamental legal code for the laws of the United States" and thus ought to be on display in schools and court houses.

Dampen your energy bills with stimulus funds

Any initiative that combines jobs with renewable energy has my vote.

This info from the Wyoming Energy Office came to us via cowboystatefreepress:

The Wyoming State Energy Office (SEO) is using over $2.2 million in federal funding to launch a program that will help homeowners defray the cost of installing renewable energy systems.

The funding is part of the $3.1 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) appropriation to the U.S. Department of Energy to fund state programs that prioritize energy savings, increase the use of renewable energy, and create or retain jobs.

Wyoming homeowners may apply to the SEO for grants of up to $10,000 or 50 percent of project costs, whichever is less, for installing photovoltaic (solar), small wind, and ground source heat energy systems at their homes. Grant awards are based on project size, will be allocated on a first-come basis, and are not retroactive for systems already installed or under contract to be installed.

“This round of federal funding will expand the state’s already successful photovoltaic program, giving residents more than one way to implement a renewable energy system at their home,” said Shannon Stanfill, SEO program manager. “Additionally, residents who install one of these systems may apply for a 30 percent tax credit from the federal government, bringing further savings at tax time.”

Download applications at http://www.wyomingbusiness.org/economic_stimulus.aspx#energy. They may be electronically submitted, or mailed to: Wyoming State Energy Office, 214 W. 15th St., Cheyenne, WY, 82002.

Only one grant application per renewable energy category is allowed.

FMI: Call the State Energy Office toll-free at 1.888.232.5390

I fought the law... and the story won

This sounds like a fun way to spend a December Saturday night...

Tell an impromptu story (not memorized or read) based on an established theme (i.e., “My Brush with the Law,” “The Worst Date I Have Ever Had,” “My Parents Still Don’t Know the Whole Story About…,” etc.). A Master of Ceremonies will introduce the panel of judges, explain the rules and perform the first story to get things started. Each participant must register to perform before the storytelling begins and the order will be randomly selected. Each story must stay within a 5-7 minute time limit.

The Story Slam starts at 7:30 p.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m. It will be held at the Atlas Theatre, Atlas Theatre, 211 W 16th St., Cheyenne. Two winning stories will be selected — first place and runner-up. The popular audience vote will be added to the judges’ overall scores. Each winning story will receive a prize. This is an adult event not appropriate for children.

The admission fee is $5. FMI: 307-635-0199

The theme for the Story Slam on Saturday, December 5, will be: “My brush with the law…”

WyoDems check facts on Barrasso statements

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso reeled off a few whoppers on FOX news. So what else is new...

WyoDems' communication director Brianna Jones ran a fact check on Dr. Barrasso's statements at http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/ht/display/ViewBloggerThread/i/1283969

My God, Jim, I'm a doctor -- not a U.S. Senator!

No clear-cut answers left behind after suicides in WY & WI & CA

My wife Chris and I attended a funeral yesterday for Charles, one of my son's best friends from high school. I will use just his first name, out of respect to his family which I barely know. Charles hanged himself at home. He was 24.

Charles and my son Kevin were both hyperkids -- impulsive kids diagnosed at a young age with ADHD. Often in trouble at school -- when they went. They spent many days skateboarding and riding bikes and playing video games. They also drank and used drugs.

We ferried Kevin to a treatment center in Florida when he was 17. He was there for a year and came home clean and sober and has remained so. He lives in Tucson.

Charles took the rocky road. He was in jail for a time but worked his way out with the help of a transition program. Met a girl. Married. They had a baby girl a few months ago.

Things seemed to be looking up for Charles.

The day before Thanksgiving, Charles hanged himself at home. Yesterday was the very sad funeral. Always is when a young person leaves us in this way.

Last March, James Weigl, an Army veteran of Iraq, hanged himself in his garage in Cedarburg, Wisc. He was 25, not much older than Charles. He's one of 129 soldiers and marines who committed suicide during the first half of 2009.

Meg Kissinger wrote an incredible story for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about Sgt. Weigl's life and death. His parents are outraged at the Army that their son didn't get the mental health care he needed. Some say that Weigl shouldn't have been in the service, that he had two medical conditions that should have made him ineligible. One of those was a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

I'll leave it up to you to read this sad story. Getting to the bottom of events like this is what real newspaper reporters do well. We'll miss them when they're gone. Read the article at http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/70721137.html

Is this weren't enough, NPR this morning featured a pair of stories about teen suicides in California. During the past six months, four Palo Alto teens have killed themslves by jumping in front of trains.

From Palo Alto Online:

Between 20 percent and 23 percent of deaths ruled suicides in Santa Clara County in the past two years were individuals under 30 years old, according to the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office. In both 2007 and 2008, the county had 31 suicides of people under 30. The coroner did not provide city-by-city breakdowns.

Philippe Rey, a psychotherapist and executive director of Adolescent Counseling Service, said Palo Alto's teen suicide rate is in line with national statistics.

That's discouraging. Fifteen suicides a year by young people in a mid-sized city is "in line with national statistics."

Those 129 soldiers and marines who committed suicide in the first six months of 2009 must be "in line with national statistics."

And here are some stats about teen suicides in Wyoming (a bit dated, but still relevant):

Mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spanning the five-year period from 2001-2005 show that suicide rates for Wyoming teens ages 15-19 are more than twice as high as national rates for this same population (WY rate of 17.48 per 100,000 deaths versus U.S. rate of 7.70 per 100,000 deaths). An alarming one in six Wyoming high-school students reported making suicidal plans within the previous year according to the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, representing a 13 percent increase over 2005 data.

It appears that Wyoming's teen suicide numbers ARE NOT "in line with national statistics."

They're much worse.

Dems meet Nov. 30 in Cheyenne

The Laramie County Democrats and the Democratic Grassroots Coalition meet together on the LarCoDems' regular meeting night on Monday, Nov. 30, 6-8 p.m., at the IBEW Hall, 810 Fremont Ave., in Cheyenne.

Menu includes hot dogs and chili, as well as hamburgers donated by Mae Kirkbride. Donations accepted.

Democratic State Senator Kathryn Sessions will be the speaker.

FMI: http://www.laramiecountydemocrats.org/

If Dallas can re-vision, why can't Cheyenne?

I have nothing against Dallas. It's a good city, a sprawling megalopolis that creeps as far as Fort Worth to the west and sends tentacles into surrounding counties in all directions.

But who would have thought that Dallas would be the model for "Green" city planning?

The city recently held a competition to submit eco-friendly designs for a block near the city center. The winning design recreates a hillside in the city -- with some amazing results.

Here's some samples from last week's article in Re:Vision Dallas that I thought were interesting:

Forwarding Dallas is modeled after one of the most diverse systems in nature, the hillside. The site is a series of valleys and hilltops, the valleys containing trees and more luxurious plants which transition into more resistant plants as the altitude increases. Atop the hills, solar thermal, photovoltaic and wind energy is harvested.

Other design components include open ‘green’ spaces, housing options from studio apartments to three bedroom flats, a rooftop water catchment system designed to recycle water collected from rooftops and store underground for later use, a 100% prefabricated construction system and public green houses, including a sensorial greenhouse, swimming pool green house and meeting point green house.

A spiritual space, gymnasium, café and exhibition space are also planned to accommodate various lifestyles. There is a temporary accommodation center as well as a daycare center designed for both children and the elderly.

“What I would love to see is an entire section of downtown notable for innovative, sustainable design–an attraction in the southern part of downtown balancing the Arts District in the northern part of downtown," said John Greenan, Executive Director for Central Dallas CDC. "There are already some interesting, green projects in The Cedars immediately to the south of downtown.

A sustainable district that extends from downtown all the way into The Cedars neighborhood is a very reasonable possibility.”

For more information on Urban Re:Vision, visit http://www.urbanrevision.com/

I like the fact that Dallas is thinking big. What's more Texas than that? Wish that my much-smaller city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, would take a few leaps forward. Lots of empty buildings downtown. There is a big hole that's been sitting vacant on our main drag ever since a building burned down. Perhaps we could hold a similar competition to come up with an ecological design for Cheyenne's Big Hole.

And the Dallas CDC guy's quote includes talk about the city's Arts District. I prefer the term "Artists' District," as in Phoenix's Roosevelt Row, a place where artists live and also exhibit their work, sometimes in the same building. Arts districts that just feature galleries and museums can be as dead as any downtown block when the businesses close. Make a place for artists, and you have a lively neighborhood.

It can be one that replicates a Texas Hill Country hillside. Or it can be one in which artists rehab abandoned buildings to make live-work spaces. Just takes some imagination and creativity.

We thankfully provide Sen. Alexander food for thought on Thanksgiving

From Think Progress, which always provides such great links (http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/21/alexander-medicaid-ghetto/):

While Alexander may think he is too good for Medicaid coverage, a 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 74 percent of Americans consider Medicaid very important and most would oppose cuts to the program. Families USA has pointed out that, despite its flaws, Medicaid is cost-effective and provides a solid foundation on which to expand coverage:

Medicaid is cost-effective compared to private health insurance. After controlling for health status (since Medicaid enrollees tend to have greater health care needs), it costs more than 20 percent less to cover low-income people in Medicaid than it does to cover them in private health insurance.

Sen. Alexander: Come on down to the Medicaid Ghetto and learn something

As always, 4&20 blackbirds blogging from the wilds of Missoula, Mont., provides a forum for westerners to debate (and rant about) current events. Health care reform was on the agenda yesterday. A great post by JC prompted a flurry of responses. It focused on Tenn. Sen. Lamar Alexander and his remarks equating Medicaid coverage with living in a ghetto. As I can't do justice to the post and the attendant responses, go to http://4and20blackbirds.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/a-medical-ghetto-called-medicaid/.

I had to respond. Couldn't help myself. Here's my comment:

I know it's superfluous to address the details of JC's post, but let me take a stab at it.

First, Lamar Alexander's quote: "a medical ghetto called Medicaid that none of us or any of our families would ever want to be a part of for our health care.”

Our family actually requested entry into the Medicaid "ghetto" when our teen daughter was in a mental health residential treatment center in 2008. She was self-mutilating and had threatened to kill herself, and was eventually diagnosed as bipolar. She was in treatment for 330 days. My insurance covered 45 of those days, with a 20 percent co-pay.

What to do? The Wyoming Dept. of Health funds a Medicaid Waiver Program that picks up the bill for children and teens that need long-term treatment but are either uninsured or under-insured, the fate of most Americans who work full-time. This is especially true when it comes to mental health care.

It took me awhile to find out about the program and to fill out the correct paperwork. Once enrolled, taxpayer dollars (yours, mine and maybe even a few from Lamar Alexander) picked up the tab for my daughter's care. We traveled 400 miles round trip to see her each weekend and participate in therapy sessions.

When she was released in January 2009, she received after-care in the form of medication and therapy. Trained specialists documented her progress, and on Sept. 30 she was cleared to come off the waiver.

I'm still calculating the costs covered by Medicaid. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000. We never could have afforded it.

We met a lot of our Medicaid ghetto dwellers along the way. Middle class folks. Most grief-stricken that their kids were in trouble. But thankful that there was an alternative to letting their kids travel alone and untreated down the dead-end road of teen suicide and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and drug/alcohol abuse.

My daughter's doing fine (thanks for asking) and is back in school and staying on her meds. My insurance company, for all its shortcomings, is paying the bills and we pick up the co-pays. We learned a few things from our time in the ghetto. Sen. Alexander should take some time out from pontificating and explore the lives of real people.