Trinidad and the surrounding region are preparing for what they hope will be an influx of workers, but there are some challenges to face before that can happen.

Protesters in Pueblo have gathered every Sunday for more than a month at a statue of Christopher Columbus. Long revered by Italian Americans, Columbus is also seen as opening the doors to the brutalities of colonization. In a community like Pueblo, which is rich with both immigrant and Native history, the conversation about the explorer and his legacy has gone on for a long time.

Protesters in Pueblo have gathered every Sunday for more than a month at a statue of Christopher Columbus. Long revered by Italian Americans, Columbus is also seen as opening the doors to the brutalities of colonization.

A statue of frontiersman Kit Carson was vandalized in Trinidad this week. Someone wrote the word “murderer” across the front and back of the base in black spray paint. The vandalism comes as officials in Denver removed a Kit Carson statue last Friday after the American Indian Movement wrote a letter to city council.

Protesters across Colorado and the country continue to call for police reforms in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. In recent days, people in smaller communities have also joined in, including in La Junta and Westcliffe.

As the state slowly reopens, projects underway before the COVID-19 crisis have to pass the new budget realities at all levels of government.  Recently, Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee sat down to start debating upwards of $3 billion dollars in cuts.

People throughout the state of Colorado are dealing with the impact of the new coronavirus in different ways. For many, it presents new economic questions. That includes Steve Wooten, President of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. He’s a fourth generation rancher who lives about 45 miles northwest of Kim, Colorado, population 74.

Driving south on Interstate 25 toward the Colorado-New Mexico border, right around mile marker 40, a flat-topped peak in the distance begins rising above everything else. That’s Fisher’s Peak, and it marks a new named state park announced in mid-September.

The man who allegedly plotted to blow up Temple Emanuel in Pueblo is expected to appear in court Friday.

As temperatures plummet, some hemp farmers in Southern Colorado are worried about how the first freeze will affect a crop that is especially sensitive to cold.  At the Hoehne Hemp Farm in Las Animas County, farmers are working around the clock to harvest 80 acres of hemp. It’s their first year growing the crop.

It’s chile season and people are stocking up on the fruit to roast and eat. As usual, the governors of New Mexico and Colorado are keeping up a good-natured fight about which state’s chile is the best—Hatch from New Mexico, or Pueblo chile from Colorado.