In the San Luis Valley, migrant workers build community around student success.
Colorado
Posted inArticles
Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day isn’t enough
To better honor their history, activists want “justice, not gestures.”
Posted inOctober 3, 2016: Purple Rain
How the West’s populist politics play out at the ballot box
Voter-driven ballot initiatives are a powerful force during the Western election season.
Posted inOctober 3, 2016: Purple Rain
Lies and damn lies: What to believe on the campaign trail
HCN sorts truth from fiction on the campaign trail.
Posted inOctober 3, 2016: Purple Rain
The Western races to watch
Democrats hope to nab vulnerable Republican seats.
Posted inOctober 3, 2016: Purple Rain
This election season’s unexpected power players: undocumented immigrants
Donald Trump’s rhetoric is sparking a movement to mobilize Hispanic voters.
Posted inArticles
A couple living off the grid fought water law — and won
The decision could upend a Colorado rule that goes back 150 years.
Posted inSeptember 19, 2016: Frontera Incognita
Sometimes a place
A family’s journey from the San Luis Valley to Denver, in illustrations.
Posted inArticles
How to feed the masses in small-town America
New business models bring food to towns too small for big box stores.
Posted inArticles
Is there a way to revive drought-stricken soil?
In Colorado, potato-farming brothers are saving water by using cover crops innovatively.
Posted inSeptember 5, 2016: When the Doctor is Out
A cure for the ‘catch-all’ emergency room
In Colorado, a new movement aims to provide an alternative for people experiencing mental health crises. But does it work?
Posted inSeptember 5, 2016: When the Doctor is Out
The slaughter of innocents
After prairie dogs invade a corner of her lot, a writer weighs the cost of eliminating them.
Posted inSeptember 5, 2016: When the Doctor is Out
The West’s widening health care gaps
Changing demographics, including an aging rural population, put more pressure on health care systems.
Posted inAugust 22, 2016: 100
Latest: Officials open a criminal investigation of EPA’s role in the Animas river spill
Agency contractors were excavating debris at the old mining site when the river flooded with wastewater.
Posted inArticles
BLM partners with mountain bikers to combat illegal trails
The agency is increasingly looking to locals to help deal with high demand for recreation access.
Posted inArticles
Where are the fracking fights this fall?
Fracktivists look to exercise local control over energy development this November.
Posted inArticles
Partisan politics are pulling my town apart
Can lessons from ecology offer a way to find common ground in our polarized nation?
Posted inArticles
The San Luis Valley’s controversial needle exchange idea
Local leaders contemplate a program to address drug-associated health risks with a rocky history.
Posted inArticles
A community curbs pain pill abuse, but heroin addiction grows
Interventions intended to reduce over-prescription of pain medicine may unintentionally be feeding a rise in heroin use in southwest Colorado.
Posted inAugust 8, 2016: Line of Descent
Inside a seed museum meant to track plant response to climate change
Researchers have collected seeds from across the country in a quiet Colorado storage facility.