August 21, 2000 Features What's in Your Green Tea? BY FRANCES CERRA WHITTELSEY An In These Times special investigation. Why I'm Voting for Nader ... BY ROBERT McCHESNEY ... And Why I'm Not BY JAMES WEINSTEIN Fox Shocks the World BY RICK ROCKWELL Now comes the hard part for Mexico's new president. Tijuana Troubles BY DAVID BACON NAFTA is failing workers. Unions Get Religion BY DAVID MOBERG News Safety Last BY DAVE LINDORFF As oil prices soar, so do the number of deadly accidents. Sale of the Century BY GEOFF SCHUMACHER An unusual government auction helps preserve the Nevada wilderness. Water Wars BY CHARMAINE SEITZ A botched deal leaves Palestinians high and dry. Profile BY BEN WINTERS Lowell Thompson, a.k.a Raceman. Views Editorial BY JOEL BLEIFUSS Toxic shock. Viewpoint BY KIP SULLIVAN HMO's invasion of privacy. Appall-O-Meter BY DAVID FUTRELLE A Terry Laban Cartoon Culture Give It Away BY DAVID GRAEBER The Maussians are coming. Good Fela BY HILLARY FREY The music, politics and legend of Nigeria's Fela Kuti. Time's Arrow BY CARL BROMLEY A Chilean dissident finds the cinema in Proust. Mission: Impossible 3 BY BILL BOISVERT Goodbye, Mr. Secret Agent ...

Sale of the Century By Geoff Schumacher Las Vegas Urban sprawl may be the bane of 21st-century American life, but federal land managers in Nevada have found an innovative way to make it work for the environment. The Bureau of Land Management owns tens of thousands of acres of undeveloped land in the fast-growing Las Vegas area. Rather than trying to manage the hodgepodge of large and small parcels, most of them surrounded by development, the BLM has targeted them for sale. In the past, the federal agency engineered massive, complicated land swaps in which a developer seeking a prime BLM tract would buy up environmentally sensitive areas elsewhere and exchange them for the land. But the process came under heavy fire in the mid-'90s, when an investigation showed that the government was losing millions of dollars in lopsided swaps favoring developers. Nevada's congressional delegation came up with a solution: auction the BLM's urban holdings in Las Vegas to the highest bidders and use the proceeds to buy valuable habitat and riparian areas held privately. The auction proceeds stay in Nevada rather than being deposited in the federal treasury.   TOP HOME SUBSCRIBE MAIL   In These Times © 2000 Vol. 24, No. 19