thanks to testimony from @econmarshall.bsky.social

Just witnessed something good happen in Utah state politics. Bill that would restrict non-compete agreements just passed out of committee with a 10-3 vote le.utah.gov/~2026/bills/...

Rep. Ken Ivory is trying to figure out the legal implications of the latest anti-trans bill in the Utah House. He's querying Grok mid-hearing and just referenced the answers as authoritative

People who lived downwind of the uranium mill in Monticello used to tell stories of bringing in their laundry from the line covered in yellow dust. The town also had sky-high rates of several different kinds of cancer. Stretches credulity to deny offhand that those two facts could be related.

Heads up to folks in southeast Utah. Our elected officials are pushing ahead to host spent nuclear fuel. The Moab mayor and a Grand County commissioner joined Republican-led counties in voting to submit a formal application to the Department of Energy.

Domestic terrorists

A write-up of yesterday's protest + general strike that'll make you feel something www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/hate-has-t...

Immigration is a fake problem. We have politicians on the one hand who want to use immigrants as scapegoats for our real ones and politicians on the other who are too cowardly to stand against them and tell the truth. That is the entire situation. Until that changes, people will continue to die.

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

the first AFL-CIO-backed general strike in 80 years and the NYT is giving credit to the business owners, not the workers lol

It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

Driving behind an Energy Fuels truck carrying uranium ore into Ute Mountain Ute land on its way from the Grand Canyon to the White Mesa Mill on Friday, Jan 23, 2026.

An informative piece by esteemed journalist and author @zakpodmore.bsky.social on the group ‘Mother’s for Nuclear.’ A group I’ve never heard about until he told me about them. Everyone subscribe to Zak’s substack and learn about water and public lands in the Southwest, or buy his books, or both!

Biden's DOE gave $2 million to a nonprofit called Mothers for Nuclear so they could come to San Juan County and tell us that accepting high-level nuclear waste would be totally safe. My latest:

update from a relative in Minneapolis

i love this. if elected to congress i would happily lead the charge on reining in resorts that benefit from the use of our public lands while treating labor as an expendable resource and making the sport unreachable for most.

In 1976, the Senate passed a bill that would have required regular public hearings on prices charged at "our publicly owned ski slopes." As lift tickets skyrocket, maybe @nateforutah.bsky.social or some other hero will revive the effort?

when regulation is relaxed:

I grew up skiing in Colorado and remember the price consciousness of those early days (Gold C coupon lift tix!). So this was a fascinating read 👇

Once upon a time, the Forest Service actively controlled ski resort prices. The feds still have that power but haven’t used it in decades

I spent a day on the picket line with the Telluride ski patrol union last week. My latest:

I spent a day on the picket line with the Telluride ski patrol union last week. My latest:

I’m in Telluride where the ski patrol strike and resort shutdown has entered its 8th day

As Telluride resort closure and ski patroller strike enters day 5, visitation drops as nearby resorts salvage holiday ski vacations

We have proposals to reform Silicon Valley through antitrust. We need something similar for the Imperial Valley and the Colorado River, where 20 wealthy farming families use more water than three Southwestern states. My new blog: zakpodmore.substack.com/p/new-colora...

Foreign radioactive waste has been shipped to Utah’s White Mesa Mill for years, though it was classified differently because small amounts of yellowcake were extracted by Energy Fuels www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06...

Abundance

The quotes from the water negotiators in the Fox13 article below could have been pulled, word for word, from the 2022 CRWUA conference. It’s time for Colorado River researchers to think outside of the neoliberal box: zakpodmore.substack.com/p/new-colora...

Power bills are sky-high, and data centers are to blame, right? Well, yes, but there's something else, upstream of the AI boom: a utility sector beholden to financial interests, resulting in massive corporate profits. I looked into this dynamic for @harpers.bsky.social harpers.org/archive/2026...

“Storytelling” is such a clumsy, redundant word. It is almost always used in an attempt to say something profound about the human experience, which, if true, would be better expressed through a story.

Fascinating

We have proposals to reform Silicon Valley through antitrust. We need something similar for the Imperial Valley and the Colorado River, where 20 wealthy farming families use more water than three Southwestern states. My new blog: zakpodmore.substack.com/p/new-colora...

I blogged about it: open.substack.com/pub/zakpodmo...

Chapter 6 of this report is on the right track imo, and it represents one of the few non-neoliberal proposals in CO River water policy that I’ve seen. More of this, please www.colorado.edu/center/gwc/C...

Providing free water from federally controlled projects, even if it’s currently going to corporate farmers, provides a better foundation for reform than any market-based schemes or privatization efforts. What we need is a new Henry Wallace to exercise federal leverage towards progressive ends

Looking for a holiday gift for the reader in your life? Here are a few of our favorites, including great books by @melissasevigny.bsky.social @zakpodmore.bsky.social @waterpocket.bsky.social Deborah Jackson Taffa & Kevin Fedarko: www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/grand-c...

Socialists swept the Eureka, Utah, city elections in 1907 only to see the Citizens Party roast them for failing to deliver on their promises of a municipal saloon and municipal soup house

Assuming god, like his son, is broke, I think it’s safe to say I have more money than god

Thanks to @morgansjogren.bsky.social for the recent substack alerting me to the fact that our books (and lots of other Torrey House Press titles) are on the menu at Hells Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah.

It’s like Qanon but true. A trueanon 👁️

I often see Energy Fuels' uranium trucks speeding through Bluff. Great reporting from the great @abecenti.bsky.social

They’re back in southern Utah for the fiftieth anniversary

I don’t know what to do with the knowledge that both of my books initially sold better than The Great American Novel

Ryan Davis assuming a proper wide stance with the Roadhouse Band. SLC, Nov 2025

Great piece on the inspiring return of beavers to Glen Canyon 🦫 insideclimatenews.org/news/2710202...

As Lake Powell recedes, canyons once underwater are full of life again. Beavers are building dams and shaping ponds that create space for plants, fish, and frogs to thrive. 📰 Alex Hager for @npr.org via KUNC: www.kunc.org/news/2025-10...