© 2025 KVNF Public Radio
MOUNTAIN GROWN COMMUNITY RADIO
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

KVNF Regional Newscast: December 11, 2024

KVNF booth
Lisa Young
/
KVNF
KVNF booth

FEATURE: In some pricy corners of the Mountain West, housing has become so expensive that employers are stepping in to help their workers. In Jackson, Wyoming, a state agency has found a way to stretch limited dollars. They’re turning to MODULAR HOMES, which are built in factories. Like legos, entire sections of the house are assembled on permanent foundations. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach shadows one family from packing up to moving in.

TOP STORIES: U.S. Hwy. 50 has completely reopened to normal two-way travel with the full opening of the Lake Fork Bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir. According to a press release from CDOT, the U.S. 50 Middle Bridge reopened for two-way travel Nov. 13.

Crews finished removing the temporary scaffolding structures from beneath the Lake Fork Bridge earlier this month. Repairs involved fabricating 182-ton plates, 915 steel plates total, and used 20,500 bolts in areas that posed an imminent risk to structural integrity. Work will be officially completed in the spring of 2025 after the final coat of paint is applied to both bridges and should only require single lane closures.

A third-party investigator says the Secretary of State’s office violated two state cybersecurity policies when it accidentally posted voting system passwords online in October. Those policies cover training employees to keep nonpublic information confidential and reviewing documents for sensitive information prior to posting. A report from the investigator does not implicate Secretary of State Jena Griswold or her staff in any wrongdoing. It found that the breach was the result of a series of QUOTE “unforeseen and inadvertent” events. The report provides a series of additional security protocols for the Secretary of State’s office going forward. Griswold says she is committed to implementing them. The password breach did not impact the security of last month’s elections.

In San Miguel and Montrose counties, ranchers are reporting an unusually high number of missing cattle, mostly calves, a much higher percentage than the normal loss of animals due to natural causes or depredation, reports the Telluride Daily Planet. Three different ranches in the region have reported the disappearance of 150 head of cattle in the past three weeks. Officials say when the value of cattle goes up, more go missing. Calves are currently valued in the range of $1,800 and a cow-calf pair is worth about $3,000. You can find this story at telluridenews.com

REGIONAL NEWS: The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports on how vital groundwater resources are drying up in the West due to unsustainable farming practices and the rising demand for food production.

Stay Connected
Lisa was born in Texas but grew up on a small farm in Olathe, Colorado and considers herself a “Colorado native after six years of age.” Lisa has nine years experience in news reporting. She began her career as a News Director for a small radio station on Colorado's Eastern Plains. Following her initial radio career, Lisa worked as a staff reporter for The Journal Advocate and South Platte Sentinel in Sterling, Colorado and then returned to the Western Slope as staff reporter for the Delta County Independent.