Them on Us: Gone gassy; WiFi; charity climb

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

By Planet User

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Archie Mclean filed a story from Jackson for Canada’s Edmonton Journal  over the holiday weekend. The Canadian journalist might have been enjoying the American tradition of hot dogs, fireworks and flag-waving, but he was all business in his article titled, “U.S. West feeling its oats.”

Mclean wrote: “Like Western Canada, the western states produce the bulk of their country’s oil and gas. They also have green energy resources, including lots of wind, sun, and in some cases, hydro. Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have oil shale deposits similar to the oil sands that are undeveloped due to technical and environmental hurdles, but are under pressure to be exploited in the future.”

The article also noted the Jackson Hole appearance of former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw when he hosted the political talk show Meet the Press. Mclean gleaned this quote from the interview Brokaw did with Gov. Dave Freudenthal: “Their answer to everything is drill for oil and gas. They’ve ignored coal, they’ve ignored nuclear, they’ve ignored wind. We’re not going to change the price of gasoline by going into these sensitive areas.”

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Montana journalist John Harrington was one more writer enjoying a ‘busman’s holiday’ last week. Harrington scribbles for the Helena Independent Record. He volunteered for combat duty when he agreed to head to Jackson Hole to conduct ‘research’ for a story about car trips with small children.

Harrington endured thousands of “are we there yets” from his two 5-year-olds and ended up steering his way to the Jackson Hole Writers Conference. The 16th annual affair wrapped up last month at the Center for the Arts. According to Harrington, editors from several major New York publishing houses and big time literary agents were on hand offering advice and accepting manuscripts.

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Don’t look now, but the ‘last and the best of the old West’ has just stepped into the future. Back in the day of the cowboy, communication in the Hole utilized the Pony Express. Now, we have learned from numerous tech news outlets including www.Geek.com, that Jackson has done what other cities tried and failed to do – WiFi an entire community.

San Francisco tried. Pittsburgh also announced they would ‘go wireless’ citywide and have since run into logistic complications. But here in Jackson Hole, we did it! According to Information Week and several other news outlets, WiMax service has just gone online in the greater Jackson area. Customers with WiMax PC cards or built-in WiMax capability in their laptops can get on the internet from anywhere in Jackson.

DigitalBridge Communications (DBC) is the provider of the WiMax network, which offers wireless broadband to approximately 3,000 customers currently. “We are delighted to turn Jackson Hole into the first U.S. mobile WiMax community, offering true mobile, broadband Internet service to both residential and business customers,” DBC chief executive officer Kelley Dunne said. The company expects to eventually offer coverage to 200,000 households and businesses in the region.      
    
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Former University of Wyoming swimmer Scott Usher continues to be the best chance Wyoming has of sending someone with ties to the state to the Olympics. Usher was seeded fourth in the backstroke and breaststroke going into the U.S. Olympic swimming trials held last weekend.

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New Jersey native Dennis Pinto will be headed our way to scale the Grand for charity. The East Brunswick Sentinel is reporting the 42-year-old will attempt to summit the Grand Teton on August 14 with a dozen friends to help raise money for Big City Mountaineers. Pinto has already conquered Washington’s Mount Rainier and California’s Mount Whitney while raising more than $7,000 for the cause.

Courtesy photo
Scott Usher is Wyoming’s best chance in the Olympic swim trials.

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Them on Us: Gone gassy; WiFi; charity climb | Planet JH News Article: General News

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