Colorado’s election results will be official within a week at the most and without the controversies surrounding lawsuits and certification seen in other states. All but one of the state’s 63 counties certified their election results last week. Gunnison County experienced a delay after elections officials contracted COVID-19 and expects to certify results this week. […]
Gunnison County
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors, Outsider, Politics and Government
E-bike rules for BLM, Forest Service trails both thrill and rile backcountry users
Their bikes — made by internationally dominant brands Specialized and Giant — look like high-end mountain bikes. Except the bikes pedaled by Dimitri Moursellas and his wife, Audre Engleman, take them to places they never could go on traditional bikes. With electric power that kicks in when they pedal, the pair of Vail septuagenarians every […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Election 2020, Politics and Government
Colorado opens statewide in-person voting with rules designed to prevent coronavirus outbreaks
If you drive to the main ballot drop box in Gunnison, an election worker in full-body protective equipment reaches over with a 6-foot “grabber” arm to push open the flap so you don’t have to touch anything while placing the envelope in the slot. In Larimer County, election officials ask in-person voters to use one […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
In Colorado’s hard-to-count communities, census outreach and coronavirus support are one and the same
To say that 2020 has not been a normal year to take a national census — well, it doesn’t quite capture the full extent of the situation. The Census Bureau’s normally nonpartisan operations have been repeatedly undercut, whether it’s in the form of chronic underfunding, the federal administration’s fear-stoking attempt in 2019 to add a […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Growth, Health, News
COVID exodus fills vacation towns, including Colorado’s high-country destinations, with new medical pressures
By Markian Hawryluk, Katheryn Houghton and Michelle Andres, Kaiser Health News The staff at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is accustomed to the number of patients tripling or even quadrupling each summer when wealthy Manhattanites flee the city for the Hamptons. But this year, the COVID pandemic has upended everything. The 125-bed hospital on the southern coast of […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Convicted of illegal voting. Then not. Then convicted again: A small Colorado town’s 4-year-old election saga continues
Elections can have lasting consequences, they say. But usually not like this. In July, Marie Rossmiller was found guilty of illegally voting in the wrong precinct for a second time after her original conviction in the case dating back four years was tossed out on appeal. Now, the 76-year-old is appealing her conviction — again […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Are you wearing your mask? Because public health officials in Colorado are watching you to find out.
They really are watching you. From their cars and trucks, parked in the lots of King Soopers, Whole Foods and the corner store, they are staring out their vehicle windows as you shop. But these guys — volunteers from the public health department — are only interested in what’s on your face. Mask or no […]
Posted inCOVID, News, Politics and Government
Audio: Second-home owners try to rally political power in Gunnison County after ban
In early April, Gunnison County announced that second-homeowners had to stay out of the county, to limit the spread of COVID-19. Now, second-homeowners who are frustrated by their lack of a voice on local issues are working to sway the upcoming county commissioner election. Jason Blevins has been following this story for The Colorado Sun and joined us to discuss […]
Posted inCOVID, News, Politics and Government
Gunnison County second-home owners, sour from being temporarily banned during coronavirus, gear up for political fight
One of the most timeworn laments of second-home owners in resort towns is their lack of a voice on political and taxation issues. Nonresidents can’t vote in their second-home communities, but the sales and property taxes they pay and the charitable contributions they make float a lot of high-country economies. After Gunnison County banned part-time […]
Posted inUncategorized
Threats, vandalism, job loss: Colorado’s public health officials are under attack as they respond to coronavirus
Joni Reynolds, the head of Gunnison County’s public health department, entered kind of a routine as the coronavirus crisis descended on Colorado earlier this year: Long hours. Sleepless nights. A police escort home. A wave of threats over her efforts to keep her community safe amid the pandemic made her fear for her safety. There […]