Scott Burns: Market pricing no longer works in buying water
TESUQUE, N.M. – The views from Vista Redonda give new meaning to the word "breathtaking." A few miles north of Tesuque Village and abutting Indian lands, some of the houses here overlook a vista that stretches from the Santa Fe Opera north of the city to the lights of Los Alamos to the dark presence of Black Mesa.

09/03/2000

Scott Burns: Population outstripping our water
SANTA FE, N.M. – From a stoplight on Interstate 599, a narrow ribbon of road leads you into a place of breathless silence and a magnificent vista of rolling hills covered with piñon trees. Wherever you turn, there is a backdrop of distant mountains.

08/29/2000

Scott Burns: Economic clashes flow from water resources
PECOS, N.M. – Today, the fire is out. But over the Memorial Day weekend a gigantic plume loomed just beyond Santa Fe. A dark strand in the early afternoon, it looked like the white cloud of a nuclear blast by early evening. It continued growing for three days.

03/21/2000

Scott Burns: People taught lessons of the road
What have I learned after 33 days on the road, riding a motorcycle along the U.S.-Mexico border? A lot, I think.

Scott Burns: Drugs cast shadow on border cities
SAN DIEGO -- It's easy to think of San Diego as a sports dreamland.

03/19/2000

Scott Burns: Yuma: You can see the future there
YUMA, Ariz. -- It's high season in Yuma! Moments after turning off Interstate 8 and entering this RV heaven, I know I've found one of the major gathering spots for "snowbirds."

03/14/2000

Scott Burns: Motorcycle riders find road to fulfillment
TUCSON, Ariz. -- After getting a flat tire a few miles west of Kent, Texas, it occurred to me that riding a motorcycle isn't very practical. There is no trunk. There is no spare. The only way to get in motion again is to find the hole, plug it and reinflate it enough to get to a gas station. After that, it's time to buy a new tire.

Scott Burns: Maquilas have ripple effect, creating jobs beyond border
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Packed and ready to roll early, I scribble the directions to Tucson Container Corp. on a notepad and slip it under the transparent cover on my motorcycle's tank bag, and then I ease into 18-wheeler traffic on Interstate 10 East.

03/12/2000

Scott Burns: Border needs the basics to build on
JUAREZ, Mexico -- How did this happen? Here I am, milling around and waiting with about 200 people.

03/07/2000

Scott Burns: Herds of tomatoes as far as eye can see
MARFA, Texas -- Remember Giant, one of the early wide-screen movies starring Rock Hudson, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor? Well, it was filmed here in Marfa and is immortalized at the Paisano Hotel, where the cast stayed long enough that the hotel has been declared a historic treasure.

Scott Burns: Remote Presidio bridge a portal to opportunity in U.S.
PRESIDIO, Texas -- Some say the West begins in Fort Worth. That may be so in the world of conversational visions

03/05/2000

Scott Burns: Economy of border defies comparison
LAREDO -- Doubts come in the night. They come at odd moments, and I am not sure why.

02/29/2000

Scott Burns: Hispanics' sway in U.S. reflected in small Texas town's influence
CRYSTAL CITY, Texas - Yes, you can find Crystal City on a map, and no, it isn't in the Land of Oz.

02/27/2000

Scott Burns: Border is state's land of dreams
McALLEN, Texas -- Time was invented, it has been said, to keep everything from happening at once. Here, time has been forgotten twice.

02/22/2000

Scott Burns: Maquiladoras necessary, businessman says
MATAMOROS, Mexico - The wind was brisk, buffeting and laden with sand as I rode into Brownsville. I was relieved to have arrived here before the hordes of college students on spring break that will invade this city in a few weeks.

02/20/2000

Economics transforming the Valley
WILD DESERT HORSE, Texas -- "If you had said in 1970 that the Rio Grande Valley was going to become a bird-watching hot spot, people would have laughed at you. But we've got five very distinct habitats and they are all within an hour," Ray Burdette says.

Scott Burns: Long live the King, but how?
WILD HORSE DESERT, Texas -- You will not find this place on a map, at least not a recent map. To get here I swung onto Interstate 37 from 410, the outermost highway that surrounds San Antonio.

02/15/2000

Scott Burns: 'Feel-good' San Antonio last stop on road to change
SAN ANTONIO - On the 70-mile ride from Austin to San Antonio I tried to remember: Had I ever met anyone who didn't like San Antonio? No one comes to mind, not in 15 years.

02/13/2000

Scott Burns: Austin no longer city of slacker
AUSTIN - This city is on a roll, except at rush hour. Then, in spite of what seems like more lanes than Brunswick has bowling alleys, traffic on Interstate 35 is slow all the way from Georgetown into the city proper.

02/06/2000

Scott Burns: Columnist rides off for a view from the border
When you read this I will probably be somewhere between Austin and San Antonio, on the way to Brownsville, Zapata, Laredo, Del Rio, El Paso, Tucson, Yuma and San Diego. I'll be riding a 1996 BMW motorcycle and toting my laptop along with a digital camera and recorder.