By Glynn Wilson and Walter Simon – On a mission to investigate what’s going on with the pipeline protest in Cannonball, North Dakota and the privatization of the national parks out west, we departed from Mobile, Alabama on Friday, Sept. 23, and drove for about 8 hours to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where we hooked up with…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wy. – Standing still in a mountain meadow as snowflakes begin to fall on a herd of bison along Beartooth Pass, you get the feeling of arriving in an ancient and distant land before human civilization began to eat away at nature and churn the…
By Glynn Wilson – CANNON BALL, N.D. – Sitting with your legs crossed in a campsite filled with traditional teepees along with modern RVs and tents overlooking the Missouri River here, with the sounds of wolves and coyotes off in the distance, a drum up the hill by the council fire and the occasional Red…
“Art at its highest and nature at its truest are one.” — Knute E. Westerlind, the architect of Municipal Auditorium in Sioux City, Iowa, designed in 1938 and finished in 1950 By Glynn Wilson – CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. — From this vantage point looking out from the American Creek Campground, the Missouri River looks as blue…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the eve of the first major general election presidential debate, American voters are not confident either party’s candidate would make a great president, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will go into the debate Monday night as the…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the continuing drive to reduce the sources of air pollution in the environment before leaving office next January, the Obama administration has announced a new set of strategies aimed at improving air quality around the nation’s ports. An EPA report released Thursday shows that air pollution at…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Public trust and confidence in the American press and mass media has fallen to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, according to the latest survey on the subject. Only 32 percent of Americans now say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – As an alternative, independent web publisher with no mandatory space to fill like newspapers or exacting air time to sell like television news stations, I normally shun the obligatory anniversary stories and leave that to the mainstream media. But as I sit here Sunday morning on the…
By John L. Micek – So who’s winning the Commander-in-Chief Election? In their first proximate — but not joint –appearance of the fall campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump each made the case for their foreign policy chops this week. Their backdrop: The retired aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Intrepid, in New York City.…
Bar corporations from deducting all executive pay in excess of $1 million – By Robert Reich – What can be done to deter pharmaceutical companies from jacking up prices of critical drugs? To prevent Wall Street banks from excessive gambling? To nudge CEOs into taking a longer-term view? To restrain runaway CEO pay? Answer to…
By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. — After all the pressure from the Watchdog Press, all the hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth by every special interest group all over the state and their favorite legislators convened to get what they want — and maybe in the process help the sick and poor just a little…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – A prayer for the Alabama legislature as it reconvenes in a special session, following another special session that failed to find funding enough to allow the state’s Medicaid services to function at a level keeping the needy alive. Schemes to finance the services with a lottery, or with…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – What’s the point of celebrating Labor Day anymore? Like many things these days, people have forgotten the history and do not appreciate it beyond the day off to eat barbecue and jump in the water. There’s not much in the way of news to report about Amerian…
By Robert Reich – I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s history.” I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.” Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view. Think Mitt Romney or Michael…
By Peter Funt – November’s biggest loser might not be Donald Trump — even if he gets clobbered at the polls. The person with the most to lose is Sean Hannity, the Fox News Channel host from Alabama, who isn’t just hitching his wagon to Trump’s campaign, he’s almost single-handily building the wagon on his…
By Glynn Wilson – The fools y’all elected to represent us in Montgomery have gone back home now on a paid vacation for a holiday they don’t even believe in, Labor Day. The fool of a governor y’all elected to represent us in the state capital is making excuses like the bad kid on the…
By Glynn Wilson – Reading the national press coverage on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, even listening to the reporting on National Public Radio, you would think the biggest problem the parks face is a lack of visitors. The entire story is framed as if the parks were just another capitalist tourist…
Alabama House Committee Approves Lottery Bill – By Glynn Wilson – Sorry y’all. I can’t resist the irony, especially in the wake of the governor’s sex scandal. Just as stories were making the rounds that the Alabama House Economic Development and Tourism committee voted to approve a lottery bill, a day late to be in…
Governor Robert Bentley’s Lottery Bill Dies in the House – By Glynn Wilson – Never mind lottery fans and sick children who need Medicaid funding now. According to a plethora of reporting on Twitter late Tuesday afternoon, any hope of a lottery vote making it onto the November 8 ballot just went down in flames,…
By Glynn Wilson – It just goes to show that just about anything can happen in a place where nobody really knows what they’re doing. After just about every news corporation in Alabama had reported in print and on television that Governor Robert Bentley’s plan to bring the legislature back to Montgomery to pass a…
