Posted inEducation, Health, News, Politics and Government

Contractors walked out, used foul language as Colorado’s school COVID testing struggled, emails reveal

In the first weeks of Colorado’s COVID-19 school testing program, a team hired to perform testing showed up late to their assignment at an elementary school in Montezuma County.  When they arrived, they couldn’t get their technology to work, refused to perform work their company was responsible for under its deal with the state and […]

Posted inGrowth, Housing, News

Housing in small Colorado towns is “damn near a crisis.” But the solution isn’t as easy as just building more.

MANCOS — There’s no affordable housing in Mancos. Zero rental units. Nearly no houses on the market. The town’s school district struggles to hire teachers because they can’t find a place to live. It’s the same story with the town government, the hospital and the nursing home.  It’s an “overwhelming issue” for the town of […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: As media professors surveying Colorado’s local-news landscape, we have good news and bad news

The role of local news has never been more important than today during a pandemic that has killed millions and at a time when anyone can spew rumors and conspiracies while sitting behind a screen.  In Colorado, online misinformation has led some to believe COVID-19 vaccines alter DNA, distrust legitimate philanthropic organizations in the community, […]

Posted inClimate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government

Hard-right rooted group has made inroads in Colorado opposing Biden’s vision for public lands

Land grab or precious-resource preservation? The battle over where the truth  ̶  and where Westerners’ hearts  ̶  lie on that matter is rumbling through Colorado counties as a federal government initiative nicknamed 30×30 gains momentum, and opposition. Colorado has become the beachhead in a Texas-based group’s efforts to use local governments to thwart the Biden […]

Posted inCrime and Courts, News

Ex-Colorado sheriff’s sergeant charged in fatal shooting near Cortez

DURANGO — A former sergeant in Colorado faces felony gun charges after shooting at a suspect in a fatal vehicle pursuit in McElmo Canyon in 2018, prosecutors said. The district attorney’s office charged former Montezuma County Sgt. Edward Francis Oxley in September with two counts of illegally discharging a firearm, The Durango Herald reported Wednesday. Oxley pleaded […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Technology

Gigabit internet coming to more rural southwestern Colorado communities

Bit by bit, southwestern Colorado is cobbling together fiber-fast broadband service to get its residents up to speed, or at least to 2015 internet standards, when the Federal Communications Commission updated its benchmark to 25 megabits down and 3 Mbps up.  The latest bit came this week as three Colorado counties learned that Utah-based Emery […]