In Support of Journalism
I am taking a break from my usual observations on the day-to-day work of the Teton County Board of County Commissioners to comment on local, state, and national journalism – an integral part of a functioning democracy.
A Powerful Local Editorial on Water Quality
I commend the Jackson Hole News & Guide for an important masthead editorial on water quality. As the county commission debates our budget for fiscal year-end 2022, no priority is more important than protecting and restoring the valley’s drinking water. The May 26 editorial “Water Quality Worth the Investment” by their editorial board nails our water quality debacle.
The board asks: “So why be stingy when it comes to protecting water quality?”
Indeed. It’s past time for Teton County to hire a senior-level water quality specialist to direct the various efforts necessary to protect our public health and quality of life.
Read the News & Guide Water Quality Editorial
Supporting Wyoming Nonprofit Journalism
Last week, I had the opportunity to join the board and staff of WyoFile in Lander for dinner and their board meeting. What a talented, effective, and dedicated group of people! These good folks are providing a critical public service for the people of Wyoming.
As the traditional business model for local news dwindles, WyoFile is stepping up to provide the Wyoming public with hard-hitting, factual, and insightful reporting on matters state-wide. With an increasingly ideological legislature fond of undermining Teton County’s and Jackson’s local efforts to protect our economy and quality of life, serious Wyoming journalism is increasingly critical for our wellbeing at both the state and local levels.
Here in Jackson, we are also fortunate to have Wyoming’s only nonprofit community radio station — KHOL, Jackson Hole Community Radio — recently ramping up its news efforts. The station has hired a news director and a dedicated reporter/producer in the past year, regularly covering important local topics such as water quality, wildlife, housing, education, and more in-depth.
A diversity of news sources is fundamental to democracy in any location, Jackson Hole included, and I applaud KHOL for developing another professional local news department.
Listen to KHOL’s New “Jackson Unpacked” Podcast
National News We Can Use
I am impressed by this recent New York Times article with interactive graphics entitled “Can Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities?” This well-researched and -documented story on highways is relevant to Jackson.
Cities around the nation are rethinking the dominance of single-occupancy vehicles and are reassessing our national habit of building highways through both vibrant urban neighborhoods and lovely rural landscapes.
Bucking this trend, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is barreling down the highway in the opposite direction.
It is opposing the vision in our community’s transportation plan with commentary and decisions that run contrary, such as posting higher speed limits on Highways 22 and 390, undertaking ugly and excessive highway expansion projects on South Highway 89 (with an equally damaging expansion project in the pipeline for Highway 22), resisting traffic calming, public transit, and pedestrian safety, and pushing for an ineffective intersection of the proposed Tribal Trails Connector and Highway 22.
This proposed Tribal Trails highway, being engineered in partnership with Teton County, promises to degrade a unique wetland, bisect elk habitat, and by all indications worsen traffic congestion on Highway 22 between Wilson and Jackson.
Jackson is a global treasure that we are defacing with outdated and shortsighted highway projects. With respect to Wallace Stegner, what happened to creating a society to match our scenery? Alas.
Read the New York Times Article
Please join me in supporting independent journalism in any way you can, whether by subscribing to, donating to, advertising in, or simply reading and sharing well-researched news. The “Fourth Estate” continues to be an essential defense against a misinformed populace and its consequences.