san luis valley
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‘Tater farmers to Trump: Don’t pull U.S. out of NAFTA trade pact
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Last April, U.S. Potato Council CEO John Keeling sent a letter to President Donald Trump outlining some ways the new administration could improve the potato industry. Mostly, Keeling said NAFTA could use some work, but pulling out of the agreement altogether would be catastrophic for potato farmers, such as the ones nestled in Colorado’s San…
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Colorado experiences out migration, even as population grows
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A record number of people are moving out of Colorado, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. About 193,000 Colorado residents moved to other states last year, 10,000 more than in 2015. Where are they moving to? According to the data, the biggest percentage of them headed for Washington state, with other destinations being…
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Topping the list of rural concerns: jobs, health care — and opioid abuse
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Over the month of August, my team and I traveled over 1,700 miles across the 3rd Congressional District and state of Colorado, making over 30 stops to discuss the most pressing issues facing our nation. I had the privilege of visiting with local economic development leaders, county commissioners, school boards, health care providers, veterans groups,…
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A salute to Colorado potatoes — and to politicians who can get along
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We tend to avoid blogging about the many press releases we get from Colorado’s Washington delegation “announcing” some grant or new funding stream to some program or another back home in Colorado. It’s not that we don’t think the programs themselves merit news coverage or that Colorado isn’t happy to have the extra funding; it’s…
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Western Slope Dems look down ballot in post-Bernie world
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With the official nomination of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, longtime Democrats and progressive political activists on Colorado’s Western Slope are grappling with the impacts on down-ballot races in a post-Bernie Sanders world. Some candidates and party officials are predicting a Democratic exodus of disaffected Bernie backers to the Green Party, while…
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Vigil hopeful, not holding breath, for more rural broadband
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A photo of the San Luis Valley town of Fort Garland hangs on the wall in the office of Democratic state Rep. Ed Vigil’s third-floor office at the Capitol. He lives outside the town, population 443, in the southern Colorado region known for hosting a band of wild horses that run free along the Colorado-New…