How a Trail in Rural Oregon Became a Target of Far-Right Extremism
“A story about a community divided, about extremism and bigotry, about powerful people who try on a working-class identity like a costume.”
Did James Plymell Need to Die?
The toll of criminalizing homelessness in small cities and towns across the American West.
Extreme Heat Is Here, and It’s Deadly
“For many, the present is already feeling pretty dystopian.” Arizona and regions across the U.S. are seeing record-high temperatures — and the heat will only intensify. At High Country News, Jessica Kutz reports that climate fiction, Indigenous architecture, and a robot named MaRTy are a few key things that can prepare us for a hotter future.
Safe at Home in Los Angeles
An LA native reflects on the city’s elusive nature, its dazzling complexity, and the effect the city has had on her life as a writer. No matter how LA changes, it never dulls.
Land-Grab Universities
Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.
The Mystery of Mountain Lions
Despite decades of research, myth and fear still surround the animals.
‘None of This Happened the Way You Think It Did”
“But losing her friend twice, first to cancer and then to the underworld of the cadaver market, reminded her that, no matter how much she attempted to confront death, there were many unimagined trap doors.”
Indigenous Educators Fight for an Accurate History of California
For too long, California’s public school history curriculum has reduced Indigenous people to peaceful workers at the Spanish missions, and omitted their enslavement and suffering. Can California Assembly Bill 738 correct that?
How a Tiny Endangered Species Put a Man In Prison
In Death Valley National Park lies Devils Hole: an aquifer-fed pool home to one of the rarest fish species in the world — the Devils Hole pupfish. The pupfish has been the center of controversy between conservationists dedicated to protecting the inch-long fish species and Nevadans who believe the fish isn’t worth sacrificing their right to pump water on their land. Trent Sargent learned about how well the pupfish is protected the hard way.
Can a California Town Move Back From the Sea?
By 2050, the ocean is expected to consistently flood Imperial Beach, California, but in recent years, high tides have already flooded many streets. The town is now discussing how to confront rising sea levels. One tactic is called a managed retreat, and the discussion alone has many property owners trying to sell.
