Grocery-store giant Kroger is paying out 70 million dollars to Colorado as part of a national settlement over the company’s role in the opioid crisis. Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Friday he had reached a preliminary agreement with the company.
Kroger will pay a total of 1.3 billion dollars to states and local governments. Weiser said the money coming to Colorado will be distributed to local authorities for treatment, recovery, and prevention programs, as well as education around substance use.
Kroger owns King Soopers and City Market grocery stores in Colorado.
Weiser was recently in Delta and Montrose to gather community feedback on a merger between Kroger and Albertson’s. Safeway employees at the Montrose town hall raised concerns around Kroger monopolizing the community’s groceries, some saying that if the major chain were to experience a supply chain issue in the winter months, that could impact the food supply.
KVNF will have a Local Motion later this month overviewing Weiser’s visit.
A final judgment has been issued in a multi-party civil action against Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and related parties, reports the Montrose Daily Press. The judgment resulted in a significant increase in financial penalty due to accrued interest.
Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, which operated Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services in Montrose, faced legal action following an FBI raid in 2018. This ultimately led to federal indictments in 2020 against owner Megan Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch. The indictments revealed a scheme in which Hess and Koch obtained human remains under the guise of offering low-cost cremations.
Instead of performing the cremations as agreed, they harvested and sold bodies and body parts without the knowledge or consent of the deceased's next of kin. In some cases, families had only approved partial donations, unaware that their loved one's entire body had been harvested and sold.
This case resulted in multiple civil suits, with one involving 30 parties. In 2021, the Montrose District Court found Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, Hess, Koch, and Hess' father, Alan Koch, liable for violations of various laws. Initially totaling around $16 million, the judgment has now swelled due to the calculation of prejudgment and post-judgment interest.
The plaintiffs, including lead plaintiff Chris Artrup, were awarded significant sums in damages, with additional prejudgment and post-judgment interest calculated. However, the chances of the plaintiffs receiving payment are uncertain, given that Hess and her mother are incarcerated in Minnesota and face federal restitution orders from their criminal case.
A trio of illnesses is set to converge in our region — COVID, RSV and the flu.
Health experts say preventative measures are needed to protect your family and safeguard the health care system, reports KUNC’s Robyn Vincent. Getting vaccinated can mean the difference between a mild case – or a severe one that lands you in the hospital, especially if you have underlying conditions.
The U.S. Forest Service recently released the latest version of its revised Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests land management plan. The plan nearing its final stage provides a roadmap for managing over 3 million acres of the forests on the Western Slope for the next 20 years. KVNF’S Lisa Young spoke with one local environmental organization on the what’s next.
In our region, the 4th of July is well known as a risky day for wildfires, but new research paints a more detailed picture of the relationship between the holiday and fire starts. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Murphy Woodhouse reports.
A land trust in Eagle County is helping establish a new community conservation center and gear library. Eric Galatas has this story.
