Background Articles

The decision worried some local scientists and experts who say the data was vital for people to be able to monitor air quality and their government’s progress in improving public health.

Vehicles accumulate dirt, which has minerals, and minerals are hard to come by in the environment during winter. Salt could certainly be one of the minerals they seek as sodium is a driver of appetite, but it is possible it could be another type of mineral they’re after—hard to say for sure without getting a profile of the dirt.

Scant snow is giving way to shaggy brown grass normally not seen until spring breakup, raising concerns now that conditions are increasingly ripe for a fast-moving fire at a time of year usually deep in the grip of winter.

On the last Sunday in April, I received a brief but exciting message. “Frogs are singing,” Barbara Carlson notified me.