Efforts to come up with a new, less of a hassle, security plan for visitors heading to Statue of Liberty National Monument have been restarted, as various state, local and federal agencies have failed to reach agreement on a new plan.

Organizations that start out small and simple can expect to end up large and complex, but what can be expected of an organization that starts out small and stupid?

If a professional bike race charging through Colorado National Monument is the key to the rugged red-rock landscape and its treasures in western Colorado being redesignated as a "national park," then it's time to end the discussion over a name change.

Months in development, the America's Great Outdoors initiative is a broad road map drawn by the Obama administration to both reconnect Americans with the outdoors and outline how the country can preserve much of its natural landscape. But how timely, in light of current fiscal and political winds, is it?