The dozen members of Colorado’s Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission questioned nonpartisan staff Monday about the latest draft map of the state’s U.S. House districts as they prepare to hear from the public about the plan this week. The map, introduced Friday based on 2020 census data and which has thrown Colorado’s political world into a […]
southern Colorado
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Man described as neo-Nazi pleads guilty in Pueblo synagogue bomb plot
By Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press A man described by U.S. prosecutors as a neo-Nazi and white supremacist pleaded guilty on Thursday to a hate crime for plotting to bomb a historic Colorado synagogue last year. Richard Holzer, 28, pleaded guilty to attempting to stop people from exercising their religion with an explosive or fire […]
Posted inColoradans, News
Trinidad’s Temple Aaron seemed destined to die. But the 131-year-old Jewish synagogue’s fate was never sealed.
The Jewish people believe it is decided who will be inscribed in the “book of life” on Rosh Hashanah, the holiday that begins Friday night. The metaphorical document — called sefer hachaim in Hebrew — holds the names of who will survive. “Who shall live and who shall die?” a Jewish poem this time of […]
Posted inBusiness, News
Rail mill project solidifies Pueblo’s “Steel City” moniker
By Jon Pompia, The Pueblo Chieftain PUEBLO — Like the city itself, steel-making in Pueblo has seen its highs and lows, booms and busts, and periods of “steady as she goes.” In history tomes as well as the minds of the thousands with a connection to the “steel mill” and the mines that fed it, […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Growth, News, Outdoors
Could a massive southern Colorado ranch become a state park? It’s an idea just “crazy” enough to work.
TRINIDAD — Fisher’s Peak looms over every block of this city. “There are so many views you can get of that peak in town. Like when the clouds are low and it looks like it’s just dangling in midair. That view is part of every day in Trinidad,” Mayor Phil Rico says. Despite the everyday […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
How does a rural Colorado county with three people per square mile send 30 students to an Ivy League institution?
In the spring of 1990, when Amy Newnam learned she’d been accepted to Princeton University, she felt a quiver of excitement at attaining the goal she’d set in seventh grade and worked hard at Trinidad High School to bring to fruition. Then came fear. Doubt crept in where confidence once lived, and suddenly New Jersey […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, Health, News, Water
Tiny Branson has plenty of water. But like other small rural delivery systems in Colorado, it must find a way to meet new state standards.
BRANSON — The remote beauty of the landscape and this rustic town’s time-worn structures harmonize in a traditional rural narrative of self-sufficiency, an up-by-your-bootstraps ranchland culture cradled by a wall of mesas to the south, the Mesa de Maya to the east and, off to the west, the snow-tipped Spanish Peaks. The southernmost town in […]
Posted inNews
Changing the way people access the burliest waters in the country: Mancos’ Alpacka Raft crafts “a new way to see the world”
GAMECHANGERS, a Colorado Sun series on innovators who are changing the way we play outdoors. GUNNISON RIVER — Thor Tingey calls it “a personal first descent.” “We really like showing people places where they can find their own adventure and exploration without necessarily traveling to the ends of the Earth,” says Tingey, who sparked his […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, Growth, News, Water
Colorado’s hot summer of dry ditches and empty reservoirs has left distressed farmers sweating: Will it get worse?
OLATHE — John Harold charges his Chevy through chest-high stalks of sweet corn. He’s talking on his phone, scribbling notes. He’s got corn-harvesting crews spread across the Uncompahgre Valley, picking more than 100,000 ears a day of his trademarked Olathe Sweet. The fields of onions need weeding. His beans, too. More than 100 fields of […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government, Transportation
“It’s just, like, unbelievable”: Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train could be suspended through Colorado
Amtrak is considering whether to suspend Southwest Chief train service through a section of Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico around the new year and replace the link in the historic line with an 11-hour bus ride. The proposal comes as the rail carrier grapples with what it says are necessary safety upgrades, unsustainable upkeep costs and […]