Gavin Dahl

• COVID transmission in Delta County now 'substantial'
• Delta County Schools returning in-person with no mask mandate, despite CDC recommendations
• Cedaredge trustees select retail marijuana vendors
• USDA endorses Colorado proposal to grow hemp industry
• State investigation of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters could lead to criminal charges
• Curecanti Rec Area designated dark sky park
• Kate Redmond catches up with Julia Kumari Drapkin who launched I See Change at KVNF

KVNF's Studio M opened in downtown Montrose two years ago and this Saturday from noon to 3 we're hosting an open house to celebrate. Get a quick tour of the studio, see our huge new CD archive, meet DJs, and enjoy snacks and refreshments. You can also find out how to get more involved in Mountain Grown Community Radio and have a chance to win a ticket to Four Corners Reggae Fest on Labor Day Weekend. Studio M is located at 19 North Cascade, just down the block from Main Street.

Colorado's 38th Governor Richard Lamm died on July 29, 2021. This week on Local Motion, we listen back to a conversation from May 2019 with Dr. Will Evans on Shifting Gears from KDNK in Carbondale. Lamm reflects on the human relationship with Mother Nature and the Law of Unintended Consequences. 

• Secretary of State requests inspection of Mesa County election equipment due to potential security breach
• Oil & gas company KP Kauffman facing fines & COGCC hearing for long list of alleged violations
• Montrose City Council commits $500k to support improvements at 3 mobile home parks
• 4 local businesses buying Ouray Chalet Inn to repurpose for workforce housing
• KOTO's Julia Caulfield reports on Telluride's short-term rental tax to fund affordable housing efforts

• Tourist falls to her death off Via Ferrata in Telluride
• Bear rifles through 8 parked cars for food in Estes Park
• 36,000 Colorado kids could miss out on Child Tax Credit because parents don't file federal taxes
• KGNU's Rossana Longo-Better speaks with Denver Post reporter Elizabeth Hernandez after 'A Frank Conversation About Burnout' at the Colorado Press Club

• A limited number of big game licenses went on sale from CPW
• North Fork EMS awarded grant for a new ambulance
• Camp in Pitkin County for homeless people closing in November
• Two Aurora police arrested for attacking an unarmed man
• Advocacy groups rally at Hickenlooper's office
• The Learning Council hosts discussion on Comprehensive Sexual Health Education
  

• New Colorado law lets universities award associates degrees to students who accrued 70 college credits
• Bureau of Reclamation drawing down Blue Mesa Reservoir to help shore up Lake Powell
• Colorado Sun reporter Tamara Chuang asked readers what constitutes a living wage, and discusses their responses with KGNU's Shannon Young

• Delta County Sheriff's Office seizes 1800 marijuana plants in Delta
• Black Coloradans arrested at twice the rate of whites on pot charges in Colorado
• Cedaredge making progress on retail ganja
• Governor announces new Cannabis Business Office
• Farmworkers' Bill of Rights goes further than federal law to protect guest workers
• Paonia administrator Corinne Ferguson says 1 million-gallon water tank is coming back online
• What does opioid epidemic settlement money mean for rural Colorado counties?

• As CDC updates mask guidance to recommend wearing them indoors regardless of vaccination status, Delta County School District is not requiring them for any student or staff member
• Montrose County names Jon Waschbusch as County Manager
• Montrose County Fair & Rodeo runs through Sunday
• Colorado has a new tourism director
• Booming demand for rental cars leads residents to rent out their own cars to strangers

On Thursday, KVNF's Captain Slippers, DJ PG, and DJ Discman hosted back-to-back-back programs from Montrose to celebrate our new CD archive. Thanks to a generous donation from KRCC public radio in Colorado Springs, we just installed their carefully curated collection of more than 15,000 CDs at Studio M. Thanks for joining us for CD Day.

This week on Local Motion, we get to know Steve Metheny, the new director of the Montrose campus of Colorado Mesa University. Metheny has been teaching computer science, business, and math classes at CMU since 1991. He retired from DMEA in 2018, where he was VP of power supply and management services. 

• Colorado has expiring COVID vaccines
• Five startups attracted investments at Greater Colorado Venture Fund's pitch contest
• Telluride voters to consider short-term rental limits
• New Hotchkiss Marshal Scott Green lays out priorities
• 4 horses rescued from I-70
• Colorado's reinsurance program may help end increases in health insurance costs
• 20 people spent the night on the Alpine Loop in Hinsdale County due to mudslides

• Mesa Valley School District will not require masks when school starts
• Air Pollution Control Division withdraws proposed traffic reduction program
• Two former Indian boarding schools will be investigated for unmarked graves
• Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visits Grand Junction BLM HQ, meets CORE Act supporters in Ridgway
• BLM removing West Douglas Herd of wild horses south of Rangely
• For those with compromised immune systems, getting back to pre-pandemic life is not simple, and low vaccination rates aren't helping

• CDC investigated elder care facilities in Mesa County, where unvaccinated staff are believed to be bringing COVID-19 to work
• CPW held public input session on wolf reintroduction in Montrose
• For 3rd time in 3 years, buying water from Ruedi Reservoir to offset low streamflow in Colorado River
• School District 51 hires new director of equity & inclusion
• Families in Colorado are already benefiting from advance child tax credit payments
• Paradise Theatre to screen new doc Where We Belong by local filmmaker Teya Cranson

• Journalist & former Telluride resident Danny Fenster has contracted COVID in a Burmese prison
• Delta variant of COVID showing up not only in Mesa County, but Delta County too
• Olathe sweet corn harvest is underway, with 26 million ears headed to consumers in 30 states
• KDNK's Amy Hadden Marsh speaks to state climatologist Dr. Russ Schumacker about La Niña weather

• Hotchkiss plans a water work session in August, last comprehensive assessment was in 1999
• UPDATE: CDOT closures on US 550 DELAYED between Ouray and Engineer Pass
• Senator Michael Bennet touts the expanded child tax credit program, reviews eligibility
• Skate park advocate Jay Canode discusses what's next, as Paonia Board of Trustees declined to green light a skate park project at Paonia Town Park or along the river at their meeting last week

• Sunset Mesa Funeral Home trial moves from Denver to Grand Junction
• Jury deliberations underway for trial of Mark Redwine in Durango
• City of Montrose recruiting community members to apply for Planning Commission
• Kate Redmond checks back in with Montrose painter Lewis Williams who embarked on a 4000-mile bicycle journey across the country four months ago to mark his 60th birthday

Raste Stevie has been an evangelist for reggae music on the Western Slope for many decades, including a long stint as a DJ at KOTO in Telluride and 25 years at KDUR in Durango. He speaks with KVNF's Gavin Dahl about new music venues opening this year and reggae shows coming up this summer including:

• Town of Paonia offering retail marijuana applications
• Family of Paige Schmidt Pierce intends to sue Delta County, undeterred by autopsy report
• DMEA announces new CEO Alyssa Clemsen Roberts
• Golden Girls program at Joseph Center in Grand Junction offers shelter to women age 65+
• Xcel Energy asks Colorado regulators to approve rate increases
• Kate Redmond speaks to Ewelina Bajda from Wild Cooperative in Crawford about water rights

This week on Local Motion, we hear part 2 of a series produced by KDNK and Carbondale Arts in anticipation of the 50th annual Carbondale Mountain Fair happening July 23-July 25. Hear the voices, stories, and sounds of 5 decades celebrating art, music, and community. 

• CDC & CDPHE face confusion, paranoia about efforts to fight COVID in Mesa County
• Reporter Sandra Fish tracks political spending of Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort
• KGNU's Dave Ashton speaks to state senator Julie Gonzales and Denver County Clerk & Recorder Paul Lopez at All Star Voting Rights Rally in Denver, ahead of the MLB All-Star game tonight at Coors Field

• 107 degree temperature on Friday in Grand Junction was hottest ever
• USFS releases environmental impact statement for Berlaimont Estates project in Eagle County
• At CPAC, Lauren Boebert says, 'we don't want your welfare' and yet over 30,000 constituent families in CD3 receive SNAP benefits
• Steamboat Springs crackdown on short-term rentals in the name of housing causing friction

• Scott Green leaving Mead police department to be new Hotchkiss Marshal
• Hay crops down severely, prices way up
• At Grand Junction rally, Boebert says 'not a coincidence that Independence Day is on a Sunday this year'
• Former Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice under investigation
• Biggest wave of mortgage defaults in years coming in September
• Governor ends COVID state of emergency
• Historic drought increasing likelihood of bear conflicts, like in Log Hill this week
• Program helps migrant workers with housing & transportation

• Climber dies from fall after summiting Mt. Sneffels over the weekend
• CDPHE will ramp up COVID testing, while ending mask requirements at schools
• Redistricting Commission will hold public hearings in Montrose, Grand Junction on July 30
• Ouray suspends short-term rental licensing
• Dillon Reservoir is now 100% full
• Virgil Turner, regional broadband project director for Region 10, explains 3 new pieces of legislation that impact high-speed Internet in Colorado

This week on Local Motion, we hear a special program produced by KDNK and Carbondale Arts, in anticipation of the 50th annual Carbondale Mountain Fair, July 23-25. 50 years ago, people gathered in a small park in Carbondale to celebrate art, music, and community. Hear the voices, stories, and sounds as we take you on a journey of 50 years of the fair.

• CDPHE ends mask mandate for students
• Lawmakers expanded access to reproductive health care
• Center for Mental Health employee arrested, accused of bilking clients
• Ute Water Conservancy District pulling drinking water from Colorado River
• Fox in Montrose, Sherbino in Ridgway among local venues still awaiting federal grant dollars
• Kate Redmond discusses COVID outbreak at West Elk Mine with data analyst Terry O'Brien

• Talking Gourds Poetry Program presents Partridge Boswell at Bardic Trails tomorrow
• Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm promotes transition away from fossil fuels during Colorado visit
• KDNK's Kathleen Shannon reports on a new effort in the Roaring Fork Valley to connect locals dealing with housing insecurity to resources

• Mandatory watering restrictions decrease water demand, voluntary restrictions do not
• Facing false fraud allegations, County Clerks Association recommends changes to election system
• Grand Junction City Council rooting for defeat of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who says her office will no longer run the city's election
• Gunnison County Sheriff deputies arrest man with pipe bombs at Monarch Pass
• Second Chance vet tech Tabitha Wright offers ideas for scared dogs on 4th of July
• Jackson & Vail helping offering workers down payment assistance

• Little Blue Creek Canyon worker Ricardo Batista died Tuesday when a huge rock fell on his excavator
• MCSD Superintendent Carrie Stephenson now says mascot changes at Montrose High, Centennial Middle may cost $500k-$800k
• Rio Blanco Herald Times reporter Lucas Turner reports for KVNF on the firefighting efforts to contain the Oil Springs Fire near Rangely, which came within a mile of a large natural gas processing facility

• New law allows farmworkers to join unions, receive minimum wage & overtime pay, protects whistleblowers, requires employers to provide health & safety protections
• River District shares study with Pitkin County to address reduced flow in Crystal River 
• Community Options director Tom Turner talks with Gavin Dahl about the future of care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, funding disparities, and what he sees as his biggest accomplishment on his last day before retirement