Utah’s public education system is expected to get another budget increase this year.

An increasing number of people are moving to small towns in rural America to, in part, take advantage of cheaper housing. But some local residents and long-term renters are being forced out.

Colorado lawmakers have introduced more than one hundred and sixty bills in the first week of their new session. And Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert has been elected by members of the House Freedom Caucus to serve as their Communications Chair.

Communities across the US are experiencing surges of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. But the Omicron wave is only starting to pick up momentum here in Southwest Colorado, where about 60% of the population is vaccinated, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. To get details on the situation, KSJD's Lucas Brady Woods spoke to Mark Meyer, head of infection control at Southwest Health System, who says severe COVID infections are concentrated among the unvaccinated.

The Ute Mountain Ute tribe of Southwest Colorado is turning to solar generation to provide cheap electricity for its members and infrastructure. But it also has solar ambitions that go beyond the community level. As Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Lucas Brady Woods reports, they include generating solar power that can be sold for a profit.

Montezuma County Commissioner Joel Stevenson has died, after a weeks’ long battle with COVID-19. And it’s taken less than a week for Colorado lawmakers to start engaging in some of the first shouting matches of their new legislative session.

There are new calls for stronger building codes in Colorado after devastating suburban wildfires. The towns weren't considered at high risk for fire, but the warming climate is changing that calculus.

As the Biden Administration aims to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and combat climate change, many of the battles between conservationists and business interests are being waged over federal land across the vast Mountain West. Will Walkey of KHOL Jackson reports from Wyoming, where millions of acres, and thousands of livelihoods, are at stake.

Colorado Secretary of state Jena Griswold is suing to stop Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from overseeing this year’s election. And the state of Colorado saw more deaths on the road last year than it’s seen in almost two decades.

An Indigenous woman arrested for protesting former President Trump's border wall in Arizona is in federal court, asking a judge to reconsider whether she can use a religious freedom law as a defense.