Betsy Marston

Position: High Country News

Betsy Marston

Betsy Marston

Position: Guest Column

Betsy Marston

Position: Writers on the Range

Betsy Marston

Position: Heard Around the West

Betsy Marsten

Breast milk is the best food for infants, plain and simple

Next week is World Breastfeeding Week. This topic has never been more timely than it is today. Scientific research continues to show a positive relationship between breastfeeding and infant and...

DATE: July 28, 2018 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

To quit those cigarettes, use more than one tool

Twenty million Americans have died from smoking-related disease in the past 50 years. Among people younger than 18, the U.S. Public Health Service predicts another 5.4 million smoking-related...

DATE: July 23, 2015 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

A kinder, more huggable Smokey Bear

THE WEST Smokey Bear just got another makeover. Instead of sternly blaming us for not preventing wildfires, he’s become a huggy, supportive bear, reports The New York Times. Douse a campfire safely...

DATE: Aug. 22, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

Stop trying to fry eggs on the sidewalk

THE WEST Sizzling, blistering, brutal: Whatever adjective you use to describe the West’s early-summer heat wave, it’s not strong enough. Normally cool places like Portland and Seattle hit the 90s....

DATE: Aug. 12, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

The Tupperware model of selling solar

ARIZONA AND THE NATION It is puzzling, perhaps, that solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of the electricity generated in the United States. The cost of solar panels continues to drop, and...

DATE: July 18, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

New laws in the name of freedom

COLORADO AND THE WEST The western Colorado town of Nucla only has about 730 residents, but its council is eager to tell them how to live — only in the name of freedom, of course, and to protect the...

DATE: June 27, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

A rather large lawn ornament

MONTANA AND COLORADO As the Missoulian puts it, “There’s rotten cellphone service, there’s nonexistent cellphone service, and then there’s what’s happening just a few miles east of Ovando.” Which...

DATE: May 20, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

One toke over the state line

Traveling in the clouds “Marijuana tourists” are expected to converge on Colorado and Washington, hoping to score without fear of handcuffs, because voters in those states legalized recreational...

DATE: May 9, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

The opening to every zombie movie

Editor:If our president is an emperor, then Larry Tradlener is a royal subject like the rest of us, but we know that is not the truth.Didn't we just stand up and be counted? The country voted for...

DATE: April 8, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

A bear brighter than we are

COLORADOIt took a decade, but Aspen's bear-proof garbage containers have finally been breached by a clever bruin, reports the Aspen Daily News. "We finally got a bear that was bright - brighter...

DATE: March 22, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

What's the matter with Dixie?

UTAHWhat's in a name? If the name is Dixie State College, based in St. George, Utah, it's nothing to sneeze at. Recently, as the college began moving closer to becoming a university, locals saw...

DATE: Feb. 22, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

Dude! A bear-spray pot-shop robbery!

BOULDERBelieve me, we sometimes get as sick as you do of reading about Boulder. But, still, it might make a good reality show location, except that most viewers would doubt the reality of even a...

DATE: Feb. 1, 2013 | COLUMN: Heard Around the West

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