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June 19 · Issue #129 · View online
The big stories up and down the Rocky Mountains, curated by Mountain West News
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‘We’re exhausted. We’re fearful. We’re angry.’
Three Americans. Three lenses on what it means to be African American in Colorado in 2020, a year not even half over and already packed with global drama—disease, death and demonstrations. They spoke to Colorado Public Radio about this especially intense period in our country’s race relations.
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In mountain towns, residents can ‘disengage’ from the news. That’s not an option for black Coloradans.
The state’s mountain resort communities seem a world away from the protests against police brutality that came in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
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Colorado governor signs sweeping police accountability bill into law. Here’s how it will change law enforcement.
Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed Colorado’s sweeping police accountability bill, passed in the wake of George Floyd’s death, into law, calling it a necessary and positive step toward healing the state’s pain and hearing the public’s concerns. “This is a long overdue moment of national reflection,” Polis said just before he signed the measure at a ceremony in the Colorado Capitol. “This is a meaningful, substantial reform bill.” Colorado is one of the first states to take legislative action in the wake of Floyd’s death and demonstrations across the nation. The governor planned the bill signing for Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, the day slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free.
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‘Dreamers’ nationwide and in Utah rejoice at Supreme Court DACA ruling, but worry about the future
“There was a lot of joy. It was definitely a sense of relief,” said Alonso Reyna Rivarola, who came from Peru as an 11-year-old and now is assistant director for the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at Salt Lake Community College. “Everyone’s just sharing what a monumental decision this is, and how excited they are,” added Heidi Chamorro, a law school graduate who was brought from Mexico at age 3. “I’m still in shock because I honestly thought they would get rid of it. But it is a lifesaver for so many people.”
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'This sort of weird torture is over': Colorado DACA recipients on their hopes, fears after SCOTUS ruling
The Colorado Sun spoke to several Colorado DACA recipients on Thursday to gauge their reactions—and feelings about the future—after the long-awaited ruling on the Obama-era program
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Wyoming DACA recipients celebrate Supreme Court ruling, look to the future
Wyoming Public Radio’s Savannah Maher spoke with two Wyoming DACA recipients, Jose Rivas of Jackson and Ana Castro of Laramie, about how the program has impacted their lives and what today’s ruling means for them.
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Idaho law school graduate who helped argue DACA case lauds Supreme Court decision
Luis Cortes Romero, who is himself a beneficiary of the deferred immigration action program, thought about dropping out of law school because he may not be able to practice as an undocumented person. Instead, he finished school and took up a case in 2017 that led him to the nation’s highest court.
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In Gallup, New Mexico, the pandemic crosses paths with homelessness, hate, and healers
Gallup and the Navajo Nation became known as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the West, with infection rates higher than any in the country. There are many reasons for this. But most simply, just as COVID-19 preys on the vulnerabilities in your body, it exploits the vulnerabilities of a community. Here in the high northwest desert of New Mexico, the virus found a people weakened by poverty, an anemic healthcare system and ingrained historic racism.
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'This is crunch time, folks': Colorado governor concerned about possible uptick of virus cases
Gov. Jared Polis said Colorado has experienced a decrease in new cases in 12 of the past 14 days, but he warned that neighboring states like Arizona and Utah have seen an uptick.
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Utah adds another 495 coronavirus cases as governor moves rural areas to green
In Utah’s fight against the coronavirus, Thursday was a tough day: The state’s health department announced a large number of new cases statewide, Salt Lake County’s death toll hit a tragic milestone, and another resident of a Salt Lake City veterans home has died.
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Recorded coronavirus cases in Wyoming growing at highest rate yet
The state has confirmed 158 new cases since June 9, the most in a 10-day stretch since the virus arrived in Wyoming.
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Idaho’s single-day coronavirus case count tops 100 for first time since early April
It had been more than two months since Idaho reported 100 confirmed coronavirus cases in a single day. But that streak ended Thursday when the state’s seven health districts announced a combined 102 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is the most since 114 confirmed cases were added on April 3.
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Researchers hope antibody surveys will inform next steps
Communities from Idaho to Colorado are still hoping antibody tests can help them understand just how much of a foothold the new coronavirus has taken so far.
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Montana will start tracking COVID-19 among nonresidents as cases emerge
Amid a “concerning” increase of positive COVID-19 cases this week, Gov. Steve Bullock on Wednesday said the state will begin publicly reporting case numbers among visitors and part-time residents.
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Colorado oil and gas company laying off hundreds of workers across North America
One of Denver’s biggest oil and gas companies is laying off employees across North America, cutting 25% of its work force as it adjusts to a longer-term future of low production across the oil industry. Ovintiv Inc. (formerly known as Encana) has been notifying employees of job cuts at its downtown Denver headquarters and major offices in The Woodlands, Texas, and Calgary since Monday. “The layoffs have impacted all levels of employees, from executive-level down to employees who work for us in the field,” said Cindy Hassler, Ovintiv spokeswoman, in an interview Thursday.
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With prospects souring for Oregon gas terminal, an obscure group raises pressure for state approval
Who’s behind the Western States and Tribal Nations Natural Gas Initiative?
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Ranch Energy bankruptcy finalized, 401 orphan wells dumped on B.C. for cleanup
The new oil and gas sites more than double the province’s orphan well tally, bringing it to 770, as dozens of Peace region landowners now await reimbursement from the BC Oil and Gas Commission for unpaid rents.
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Living near active oil and gas wells in California tied to low birth weight and smaller babies
A new study finds an association between living near active oil and gas wells in California and low birth-weight infants, adding to findings elsewhere on health risks from oil and gas production.
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Wyoming Sens. Enzi, Barrasso propose bill to modernize funding for cleanup of abandoned mines
Wyoming receives more funding for its abandoned mine land reclamation program than any other state. But the federal government’s authority to collect the fees that fund the program is on track to expire next year.
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State orders coal company to cease expansion of West Elk Mine into roadless area near Paonia
The company that owns and operates the West Elk Mine near Paonia was ordered by the Colorado Division of Reclamation and Mine Safety Thursday to stop building new roads in a roadless area where it plans to expand coal mining operations.
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Electric cooperatives contract with Montana's largest solar project
An 1,100-acre solar project slated for Baker secured a contract Wednesday to sell power to Basin Electric Power Cooperative and its Montana members.
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As states struggle with vote-by-mail, 'many thousands, if not millions' of ballots could go uncounted in November
This year, as politicians, voting rights advocates, and elections experts call for a sharp increase in the use of mail-in ballots to prevent the spread of Covid-19, many voters could find that their votes don’t count. That’s because significantly expanding vote-by-mail also expands the universe of ballots that get scrutinized by officials, and past experience shows that more scrutiny means more ballots get discarded, sometimes for good reason but sometimes by mistake.
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Alberta wrestles with its most critical resource: water
After more than a decade of disasters brought on by water, the City of Calgary and Government of Alberta are looking for solutions to a problem that will only get worse with climate change.
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Teck proposal to expand B.C.’s largest coal mine raises alarm about pollution on both sides of border
A Teck Resources proposal to significantly expand the largest coal mine in British Columbia is raising questions about the province’s willingness to address the legacy of selenium pollution affecting fish in the Elk River, which feeds into a transboundary watershed shared with Montana.
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Tribal group, enviros seek quick win in Montana mine suit
Environmental groups on Wednesday pressed a Montana federal judge to issue a decision to prevent federal regulators from further authorizing a copper and silver mine project in northwest Montana until they comply with the Endangered Species Act by properly analyzing the impact on bull trout and grizzly bears.
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Joe Neguse wants to direct billions to public lands to help Western states recover from coronavirus
The Boulder County Democrat says it’s time to “go big and be bold” with his sweeping 21st Century Conservation Corps for Our Health and Our Jobs Act, which provides economic relief from coronavirus shutdown while investing in overlooked forest management, wildfire mitigation and civilian corps.
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Colorado’s fight over wolf reintroduction has a new battleground: parasitic poop
Colorado Parks and Wildlife found a parasite that can lead to hydatid disease in the scat of a wolf pack in Moffat County. Opponents of reintroduction call it a “major public threat” while supporters call it “not news.”
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Farm to future
Montana’s family farms and ranches face uncertainties as producers age toward retirement.
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The Marriner doctrine: How a Utah banker tackled the Great Depression
As chairman of the Federal Reserve and a confidante of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Marriner Eccles advanced New Deal policies that could help during our current economic crisis.
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Rockies Today is edited by Matthew Frank, fellow in regional journalism at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana.
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O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 59812
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