Nick Bowlin

Injecting Crypto Into the Mortgage Market Trump’s top housing regulator wants to allow crypto to be used as collateral for mortgages.

Bill Pulte is extremely concerned about mortgage fraud and also trying to allow crypto to be used as collateral in mortgage underwriting, which is sure to generate a whole bunch of mortgage fraud. He also owned a bunch of crypto as of January. From James Baratta:
prospect.org/economy/2025...

Easy to Exploit Collapsing the Urban-Rural Divide

Challenging lazy election postmortems, @nickbowlin.bsky.social cautions against the temptation “to regard rural people as possessing fixed, unchanging political attitudes.”
www.thedriftmag.com/easy-to-expl...

Perhaps gauche to quote your own book, but I think CROSSINGS's section on the Roadless Rule gets at something fundamental: that to designate places as roadless is to assert that our national forests have value—for wildlife, for water, for slow recreation—beyond mere timber extraction. #roadecology

Will you be in Bozeman this weekend? I'll be on a panel with the deputy mayor and representatives from HRDC and Bozeman Tenants United to talk about housing and affordability issues. Come join

www.eventbrite.com/e/the-toll-o...

Bozeman: Consider coming to a panel @highcountrynews.org
is hosting at the Country Bookshelf on Sunday. @nickbowlin.bsky.social, our deputy mayor, and Heather Grenier of HRDC will be discussing the city's housing crisis and spike in homelessness 👇

Montana friends: HCN is hosting a panel discussion this weekend with HRDC CEO Heather Grenier, and Deputy Mayor Joey Morrison in Bozeman. We'll be talking about housing and homelessness issues, as well as my May feature on HRDC's shelter. Sunday, June 1, 4-6 PM at Country Bookshelf. Come join us

A new Montana majority defangs the far right - High Country News Disaffected Republicans and resurgent Democrats just took over the Montana Legislature and spent big on education and health care.

My latest for @highcountrynews.org: "A New Majority in Montana Defangs the Far Right". #mtleg #mtpol bit.ly/MTTUSS

'All-out assault': Trump proposes largest cuts in National Park Service history The Trump administration wants to cut almost 40% of funding for the National Park Service.

another friday, another news dump www.sfgate.com/national-par...

Joshua Powell, 41, lives in his car even during sub-zero weather. Here, he uses his car door to clear away snow so he can climb into and out of the vehicle. Photo by Will Warasila for High Country News

Hard but important #longread from @nickbowlin.bsky.social about Bozeman, Montana. "We see the culmination of a mental health crisis, housing crisis, a wage crisis, a drug crisis.” For @highcountrynews.org www.hcn.org/issues/57-5/...

Elon Musk’s xAI in Memphis: 35 gas turbines, no air pollution permits The company’s turbines — enough to power 280,000 homes — run without emission controls in an area that leads Tennessee in asthma hospitalizations.

NEW from me: Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company is operating 35 gas turbines without any pollution permits, belching asthma-worsening emissions into an area that leads Tennessee in ER visits for asthma.

www.eenews.net/articles/elo...

The toll of Bozeman’s housing crisis - High Country News At the small city’s only emergency shelter, demand is higher and the work is harder than ever.

For staff at Bozeman’s sole homeless shelter, the need for services has never been greater and the work has never been harder. I spent year talking to shelter staff and residents on the front lines of the West’s housing crisis for @highcountrynews.org www.hcn.org/issues/57-5/...

Trump halts historic orphaned well-plugging program - WyoFile Western states were using funds from the Infrastructure Act to clean up pollution left behind by industry.

Billions in federal funds for plugging abandoned oil and gas wells are frozen under Trump's spending cuts, stalling cleanup efforts and job support. States and environmental groups are pushing back.

Reporting by @nickbowlin.bsky.social from @highcountrynews.bsky.social 📰

The Mystery of the Moss Landing Battery Fire People near the site of the disaster say they’re sick. But officials haven’t recognized any link between those symptoms and the fire.

two months after the moss landing battery fire in california, many near the site are still ill — and say the government is not doing enough to find out why they’re sick.

is moss landing an “east palestine” moment for the energy transition? i spent weeks investigating to find out.

cc @heatmap.news

Trump halts historic orphaned well-plugging program - High Country News Western states were using funds from the Infrastructure Act to clean up pollution left behind by industry. Now, the Trump administration has canceled them.

The Trump administration has cancelled a grant program that funds plugging of orphaned oil and gas wells. The initiative was one of the few tools available to the feds to incentivize states to improve their O&G regulations. new for
@highcountrynews.bsky.social

www.hcn.org/articles/tru...

Jessica Pegula - Wikipedia

Another recent example en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica...

Josie is one of the best, as a human being and as a journalist. I was fortunate to work with her during my years at KPCC (now @laist.com). Glad to support her family's recovery from losing their home, hope you'll consider.

“Legacy news coverage, even though there’s less of it than ever, will drive platform discussion of the fires in the days to come anyway, even if nobody realizes it. That is the plight of your modern journalist.”

Facebook Is Censoring 404 Media Stories About Facebook's Censorship Instagram, Facebook, and Threads are removing 404 Media stories for “nudity” as the company is paid to put ads with explicit pornography in front of its users.

New: Facebook is censoring 404 Media stories about Facebook's censorship. Instagram, Facebook, and Threads are removing 404 Media stories for “nudity” as the company is paid to put ads with explicit pornography in front of its users.

www.404media.co/facebook-is-...

Montana’s agricultural tax rules slash bills for thousands of million-dollar homes Properties classified as agricultural get a tax break worth hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.

How much agricultural income do you need to qualify a Montana property for a hefty ag-status property tax discount? A mere $1,500. Critics say that makes it too easy for luxury real estate to qualify.

Would’ve done numbers on Twitter