Today is Nov. 6, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

If you’ve been around long enough, you might remember Matt Moseley as the communications chief for the Senate Democrats under then-Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald.

While he was walking the halls of the state Capitol during those days, he also undertook something he said puts him in the right frame of mind for dealing with politicians – adventure (long-distance) swimming. 

Moseley, who has run a communications firm since leaving the Capitol in 2006, is one of the world’s best adventure swimmers, with numerous records to his name for swimming some of the world’s foremost bodies of water. They included Key West, across Lake Ponchartrain, the Colorado River, the Sea of Galilee, across the Caribbean, and the Golfo Dulce (gulf) of Costa Rica.

The high court is hearing arguments Tuesday in a challenge to a 1994 law prohibiting people facing domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. The closely watched case is the first one involving guns to reach the justices since their landmark Bruen decision last year expanded gun rights and changed the way courts evaluate whether restrictions on firearms violate the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms.”

Ruth Glenn, the president of Survivor Justice Action, is allied with gun control groups that are backing the Biden administration’s defense of the law.

Gun rights organizations are supporting Zackey Rahimi, the Texas man whose challenge to the law led to the Supreme Court case.

The law has blocked nearly 77,800 firearm sales over the last 25 years, said Shira Feldman, director of constitutional litigation at the gun-violence prevention group Brady.

Here’s a roundup of news happening across the West:

In New Mexico, visitors lined up on Oct. 21 to tour the southern New Mexico site, where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated, in what officials believe could be a record turnout amid ongoing fanfare surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film, “Oppenheimer.”

In Wyoming, the fiscal impacts of a pandemic that struck society over three years ago is still felt by Wyoming K-12 school districts, where schools struggle to afford inflated costs of educational materials and retain teachers.

In Oklahoma, a group of poultry producers, including the world’s largest, have asked a federal judge to dismiss his ruling that they polluted an Oklahoma watershed.

In Arizona, operators of a golf course think they have finally found the right repellent for javelinas ripping apart their turf – chili oil.

Columnist Eric Sondermann talks about the Biden economy:

For people toward the end of successful careers or beyond, and those with far more assets than liabilities on their personal balance sheet, these times are not that bad. In fact, for many, they are quite robust.

However, for those on the economic margins of society or for those doing their damnedest to support a family and get to the next paycheck, the anxiety is unrelenting.

Though we are not yet to year’s end, it looks like inflation for 2023 will come in around 3.7%. That is still a high number relative to accustomed norms over the past few decades, when the average annual rate was most often 2% or less.

The damage of inflation is cumulative. 2023 has been hardly the problem year. But it comes on top of 7% inflation in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022, per the U.S. Inflation Calculator.

Kathleen Phillips, whose introduction to Clothes To Kids came in 2020 when her son’s school conducted a coat drive for the Denver-based nonprofit, is the organization’s new executive director.

Phillips brings expertise in benefits and human resources to her new job, having served as vice president of human resources for Centennial Resource Development and senior vice president of people and integration for Permian Resources Corp.

“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Kathleen to our team,” said CTKD board chair Mary Valenti. “Her exceptional background in leadership, strategic planning and human resources, along with her passion for our mission, make her the ideal person to lead our organization into the future.”