Originally published on May 29, 2018 2:34 pm Over the last decade or so, states in the Mountain West region have used less and less coal to make electricity. Wind is one of the energy sources replacing it.

Originally published on May 22, 2018 9:31 am The National Park Service has released a report on how sea level rise could impact its sites. The publication was delayed by about a year, and as we’ve reported, there were concerns over possible censorship in earlier drafts.

Originally published on May 10, 2018 11:47 am Wildfire season is ramping up across our region. There are all sorts of people involved in waiting, watching and fighting them — people you might not expect. We’re profiling some of them in a series, Faces Behind The Fires.

Originally published on May 15, 2018 3:15 pm In 2016, a wealthy Utah family bought The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah’s biggest newspaper.  Now, the owner has shrunk the 90-person newsroom to just 56, citing waning ad revenue and dropping print circulation. It joins a growing pattern across the country and the Mountain West.

Originally published on April 30, 2018 11:56 am Dan Salkeld doesn’t like plunging toilets, filling out tax forms, or clipping his children’s toenails. But he loves collecting ticks in Colorado. The northeast, he says, is humid and chock full of ticks and mosquitoes.

Originally published on April 20, 2018 3:55 pm Coastal communities across the country are suing oil companies for contributing to climate change. Now, a lawsuit in the landlocked interior joins the list. At the heart of the lawsuit is this realization: Climate change is expensive.

Originally published on April 23, 2018 8:58 am Members of Congress are pushing to seal the deal on the status of immigrants who came to this country illegally as children. The decision was supposed to be made by March 5, but that didn’t happen.

Originally published on April 14, 2018 6:27 pm Democrats on Capitol Hill are calling for an investigation into the National Park Service, pointing to a report they say follows a “pattern” of censoring scientists who study climate change.

Originally published on April 13, 2018 9:29 am Too many decisions about the West get made in Washington, D.C. At least, that’s what the Secretary of the Interior thinks. Ryan Zinke plans to move thousands of the department’s employees out west to manage water, public lands and energy from there.

Originally published on April 11, 2018 11:17 am The Bureau of Land Management plans to put up more than 20,000 acres of Colorado land for lease by oil and gas drilling companies. Much of that land sits near the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Originally published on April 10, 2018 11:32 am States like Colorado and Wyoming require that new oil and gas wells be built at least 500 feet away from existing homes. But new research shows that might not be far enough away to protect people’s health.

Originally published on March 20, 2018 10:42 am In parched states like Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, water is a big issue, especially with growing populations that constantly need more and more. But there’s a big question: How do we accurately forecast the amount of water that will be available any given year?

The Chinese government has retaliated in what appears to be an escalating trade war. The government says it will slap tariffs on a long list of American goods including pork and fruit, a move that could put producers across the region in a bind. China buys a lot of American pork.

Originally published on March 28, 2018 10:36 am Details are unfolding about how British data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica influenced national elections. Meanwhile, a newly surfaced document suggests the group also had a hand in our region — and in one especially tight Senate race in Colorado.

Originally published on March 23, 2018 12:53 pm For years, Western lawmakers have been trying to change the way we fight wildfires, or at least the way the government funds such work. Now, they may finally get that wish.

Originally published on March 20, 2018 10:43 am If it weren’t for the snowy alpine peaks in the background, camels would look perfectly at home in the undulating yellow sand hills of Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. “It’s really a very special place. And it is very unusual.