Imagine what it must be like to move from your homeland to a new country, leaving behind familiar skies, land and climate; leaving behind familiar social customs, cuisine, family, friends, and even, in many cases, language. For migrants the journey from Latin America to the southern border of the U.S. usually includes walking hundreds of miles and the risks of hunger, illness, assault, robbery, and rape. 

A few months ago, SLV Home Services assigned Chandra Sanchez as my personal care person. My life has improved because I have help twice a week with tasks I can't always do myself. Today, her kindness included vacuuming my filters for my air conditioning, air purifiers (plural) and around baseboards. Then she mopped, stacked dishes, and loaded the dishwasher.

Sometimes, the news comes at me so fast from CBS, CNN, or MSNBC that I have to grab a tall, ice-cold Diet Coke and kick my feet up, then click, click, click the remote to play digital solitaire. This Big Beautiful Bill that the admin and GOP are promoting threatens to continue the upheaval of our Big Beautiful Democratic Republic that the squirrely Muskox guillotined. 

The year was 1970. The place was Wilson Elementary School located in a working-class neighborhood of Wichita, Kansas. I was five-years-old and a kindergartener. I didn’t know it, but my life was about to change forever. 

I'm thankful because of you. Life is spacious when I look into your Pangaea-like eyes; they are so kind and generous. Your easy Nordic landscapes throw me into simple memories of whispy Northern Lights and rolling western North Dakota badlands.

Journalism plays a vital role in society by informing the public, holding power accountable, and fostering informed civic participation. It acts as a watchdog, monitors government and other institutions, and facilitates public discourse. By providing accurate and timely information, journalism enables citizens to make informed decisions, participate in democratic processes, and contribute to a well-functioning society. 

This month, I’m rolling up my sleeves to discuss what is probably the most controversial topic I have encountered as Mayor - homelessness.  Not only is the subject controversial, but it is usually the one that is most misunderstood or couched in rumors and misinformation.  

On a sunny afternoon in October 1977, my former husband, a graduate student at the local university, and I, extremely pregnant, responded to a classified ad for a cocker spaniel puppy.  The address was on Uhland Street, across the street from Herbert's Taco Hut in San Marcos. The ad gave a phone number and the name: “G. & N. Strait.” 

One Monday morning in the summer of 2015, I almost met my maker as I was traveling east near La Vita Pass.  I was behind a slow-moving semi that was gradually climbing the mountain at about 55 mph.  e traffic had picked up behind me, and the vehicle immediately behind the crawling truck had passed at a safe pace.  

You probably don’t see wildland firefighters on the job because they usually work in remote areas. But with wildfires moving from the backcountry to backyards, the public is becoming more aware of the men and women who do this dangerous work. At the same time, people probably don’t know much about the very real health risks of the job. Now, it’s getting harder for anyone to know. 

One-term Congressman Jeff Hurd has the distinction of casting a vote that will bring irreparable harm to the San Luis Valley. In short, he voted to give $4 trillion dollars in tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy and corporations while cutting access to healthcare, food assistance, and education for the people of our community. 

On May 24, I completed the fourth year of my adventure, returning to work for CSU Extension here in San Luis Valley, in charge of rebuilding this Extension program. Let me tell you, the first two years went so slowly, and these last two flew by! Every once in a while, Ruthie and I still look at one another and say, "What in the world were we thinking? (It is always meant more as a statement than a question.)  But at this landmark, it is a good question to revisit. 

In 1787, Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a letter to Edward Kerrington, the man Jefferson had sent as a delegate to the Congressional Congress in his place. In his letter, Jefferson told Kerrington to make a strong case for a free and uncensored press. 

It must be very clear by now that the individual chosen to run this country, Donald Trump, and those around him, have a set of personal values that are vastly different from those of most people. They also have the power, or pretend to have the power, to impose those values on us, our nation and on the world. 

I don't want to live in a country that hates its people so profoundly that techno-carpetbaggers rob the poor and drench the wealthy! 

Memorial Day, a day of profound significance, deserves our participation and active engagement. It is a day to come together as a community and honor and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. 

Unless revoked or substantially reduced to what they are now, 30 percent for 90 days, President Trump’s tariffs will still wipe out the investments made in our small family business and kill our manufacturing plant, here in Boise. When I talk to my friends and neighbors about the continuing uncertainty, I hear similar expressions of frustration about the impact of tariffs on American businesses. 

The following column is a true account that reminds me we don't have to be ugly, hostile or mean when working in service or health. If we do, as Mr. Rogers suggested, look for helpers, we may indeed find gems.) 

Montanan Tracy Stone-Manning, former director of the Bureau of Land Management and now director of The Wilderness Society, writes with passion about our heritage of public lands. Yet selling parts of that heritage is the goal of the current administration, whose budget bill will be under consideration starting this week. Stone-Manning warns that once public lands turn into private profit centers for energy extraction or housing, wildlife will suffer, and all of us who love the still-wild outdoors will begin to lose what makes America unique in the world.

In late 2024, I had a conversation with an Alamosa, Colorado, business owner. She expressed concern over the coming election of the president of the United States. I explained to her that I had changed parties because I felt one of them had become radicalized. She proceeded to describe how she would react if the wrong person got the office.