“Many local residents see these new owners as a threat to a way of life beloved for its easy access to the outdoors, and they complain that property that they once saw as public is being taken away from them.” NYT: Who Gets to Own the West? A new group of billionaires is shaking up the landscape.

+ Until the Bundy confrontation, the battle over public lands was a story that was largely ignored by the mainstream press (and me). But it contains a lot of elements we talk about all the time, from news bubbles, to conspiracy theories, to what role government should play in our lives. It’s not too late to understand these connections. A great book on the topic is out tomorrow. John Temple’s Up in Arms: How the Bundy Family Hijacked Public Lands, Outfoxed the Federal Government, and Ignited America’s Patriot Militia Movement.