To the Editor:
Just got the mag in today’s mail and saw you and Martha are going to do other things. I wish you all the best, and I hope to contribute again at some point.
Ellen Miller
America’s First Grazier, by Edward F. Carpenter
Review by Ellen Miller
Agriculture -April 2006 -Colorado Central Magazine
America’s First Grazier: The Biography of Farrington R. Carpenter
by Edward F. Carpenter
Published in 2004 by Vestige Press.
ISBN: 1-57986-021-4
It might be easier to list who’s not running for Congress
Article by Ellen Miller
Politics – January 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A DECADE, the 3rd Congressional District is a truly competitive open seat, and candidates for both parties are lining up.
The dust has settled somewhat in the fight over redistricting — although state Representative Carl Miller, D-Leadville, was attempting at deadline to fight the state Supreme Court ruling. He wants Lake and Chaffee counties in the 3rd, rather than the 5th, which makes sense from a commonality of interest standpoint.
Search commences for a fatal flaw in the Big Straw
Article by Ellen Miller
Water – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE FIRST PUBLIC PEEK at the so-called Big Straw attracted relatively little attention considering the historic hostility that greets Front Range efforts to get its thirsty hands on Western Slope water.
Only about 80 people, most of them affiliated in some fashion with water entities, turned out June 9 at Mesa State College in Grand Junction to see various “conceptual” drawings and maps prepared by consultants who couldn’t be hired until the Legislature approved $500,000 in funding.
Big Sucking Sounds in Grand Junction
Article by Ellen Miller
Water – February 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
THAT GIANT SLURPING SOUND you’ll be hearing in the next few years will be coming from all of the bootlicking, lobbying, groveling and lawyering going on in order to influence a decision on the Big Straw, a proposed project that would redesign Colorado’s plumbing.
Supporters of the Big Straw, who spoke at an informational meeting on Dec. 10 in Grand Junction, promise that it will do something for everyone.
If we must have corporate welfare, spread it around
Essay by Ellen Miller
Colorado politics – September 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
If we must have corporate welfare in Colorado, then we should spread it around
by Ellen Miller
Once again, the big city is throwing itself at the feet of a corporate suitor who promises thousands of jobs and good pay, great things ahead — and asks only a few, but quite expensive, corporate subsidies.
This corporate suitor is Nike, hardly a welfare case, and its target is Broomfield, between Denver and Boulder. Economic development officials are rolling hoops on the hour for Nike, reasoning that all these jobs are too good to pass up.
Conspiracy? It’s more like a confederacy of dunces
Essay by Ellen Miller
Federal government – May 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
It seems the John Birch Society, ever vigilant in its quest to guard liberty, has announced it plans a blitz of Wyoming to educate the wind-swept masses about the conspiracy threats that face us.
The society contends that a huge conspiracy involving all of our institutions, from the government to the media, will rob us of our freedoms. That leap of faith, however, is based on the assumption that society’s institutions are capable of acting efficiently.
Nobody came to get Club 20’s cowpie award
Brief by Ellen Miller
Colorado politics – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Club 20 isn’t an exclusive bístro. A good brief description is that the organization serves as a chamber of commerce for Colorado’s Western Slope, plus Lake County.
It hasn’t been that long since environmentalists were about as welcome at Club 20 as Hillary Clinton at a cigar club. Or that Club 20 salivated at the prospect of big multinationals opening shop on the Western Slope.
What’s the difference between the oil and ski industries?
Essay by Ellen Miller
Recreation Industry – February 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Growth problems brought about by ski area expansion have been making the news again and the U.S. Forest Service keeps looking only at the small part of land that will have skiers on it, instead of trying to analyze what it all means.
It’s time to take local control seriously
Essay by Ellen Miller
Government – November 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
by Ellen Miller
It’s hard to worry about too many people being on drugs. What’s worse is that too many people have completely lost any sense of reason or perspective and they aren’t on drugs, so what in the world do they blame it on?
Require geographic diversity for state-wide initiatives
Essay by Ellen Miller
Colorado politics – July 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
A lot of us would like to believe that the Rocky Mountain West is mostly rural, with people living in little towns or at most small cities. People would spend enough time in the sparsely populated regions so everybody would understand to some degree how the economics of rural survival happen.
It’s time for the rural West to put up or shut up
Essay by Ellen Miller
Politics – June 1995 – Colorado Central Magazine
Newt Gingrich has riled people again, which isn’t real news. What is news is that maybe a Washington beltway politician might be getting a glimmer about the rural West. His remarks came recently on a network talk show and he put out the remarkable theory that Westerners don’t like or trust the federal government.
Where’s the service?
Essay by Ellen Miller
Growth – April 1995 – Colorado Central Magazine
Another symptom of Colorado’s growth is upon us. There’s a new area code going in for the Western Slope and northern Colorado. It will be 970. The southern part of the state got its new code 719, several years ago. Now U.S. West, with its headquarters in Denver and its so-called service operations pulling back to the metrocentric area even more, has decided to leave only the metro zone in the 303 code.
But what did they do besides flip charts?
Essay by Ellen Miller
Growth – January 1995 – Colorado Central Magazine
Everybody’s talking about the growth and development problem these days. Most of the talkers haven’t been here long enough to remember when, just a few years ago, mere survival was the issue. Mountain counties wanted growth, every county commissioner agreed, the governor weighed in, economic development councils were formed, and real-estate agents went berserk. Well, we got what we asked for.
When in doubt, vote no
Essay by Ellen Miller
Politics – November 1994 – Colorado Central Magazine
Early voting started too early — on Oct. 13 — and it guarantees one thing. More political ads for a longer period of time. It’s too bad, because candidates used to marshal their money for a last-minute blitz that went on for maybe a week. Now we get three weeks of it, at least.
Real Heroes for the West
Essay by Ellen Miller
American Life – August 1994 – Colorado Central Magazine
The nation is agog at the O.J. Simpson saga. All the news shows, the sports shows, the tabloids, and the trash TV “productions” are full of it. Whether he killed his ex-wife and her buddy remains an issue for the court. If he did it, the district attorney will have the evidence. Simpson has the capability of hiring the best lawyers in the country, and he has, and so the long court stuff will just, well, go along.
We’re getting left out of health-care reform
Essay by Ellen Miller
Rural health – June 1994 – Colorado Central Magazine
The old Scout handbook included all kinds of instructions about surviving in rattlesnake country. It had instructions about carrying something for a tourniquet, a razor blade or sharp pocket knife for cutting, and a suction cup for getting the poison out. The thrust of it was that, as in the days of the frontier, once you get out to the big empty you’re on your own.