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Elections for the Empire Electric Association’s board of directors are underway. Elise Goggin is a resident of Cortez and is running for a board seat against incumbent Kent Lindsay in the utility cooperative’s fifth district, which includes McElmo Canyon, Towaoc and parts of Cortez. Board members are elected by the members of the cooperative in a democratic election, and can play a role in determining what utility rates will be. And Governor Jared Polis signed a bill last week that supports the practice of agrivoltaics.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday making it harder for the federal government to enforce clean water rules has New Mexico environmental groups urging Congress to take the lead. The five-to-four opinion by conservative justices, minus Bret Kavanaugh, is a blow to the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate wetlands and waterways. And public buildings in Colorado will be required to include all-gender restrooms later this year. That’s thanks to a new law signed by Governor Jared Polis this week.

On Friday, elections for the Empire Electric Association’s board of directors will come to a close. David Sitton is a Cortez resident and a long-term incumbent running against Jennifer Magnuson in the utility cooperative’s sixth district, which includes parts of Cortez and Mancos. Sitton, who first ran for his board seat in 1996, says that one of the biggest challenges the cooperative faces is the need for additional infrastructure in order to handle higher demand for electricity. Sitton also says he doesn’t see the board as having political issues that need to be resolved, and that he views its main role as being to provide oversight of the business. And Governor Jared Polis vetoed several bills Tuesday that had previously passed the state legislature.

The Southwest Health System (SHS) board of directors announced Monday that they will not be closing the family birthing center. This comes after a contentious special board meeting last Thursday where several community members shared their concerns about the possible closure. Hospital officials previously said they’re temporarily closing the birthing center on July 1 in order to keep the organization financially stable. A press release from the hospital announcing their decision to reconsider was released on Monday. About 60 people, including several mothers, showed up to the board meeting last week near the hospital’s emergency services wing to voice their deep concern over the future of maternity care at SHS.

On Friday of last week, a community meeting was held on black lung disease among retired Navajo coal miners in Farmington, New Mexico. The meeting was hosted by Positive Nature Homecare, a home healthcare company which primarily assists uranium miners. Laurence Bekise is a former coal miner who worked at the San Juan and Navajo mines for decades. He says he hopes he doesn’t have black lung from exposure to coal dust in the mines, but that he isn’t sure. And Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is urging the federal government to keep a close eye on artificial intelligence.

On Friday, victims advocates held a walk in downtown Phoenix to raise awareness about predatory sober living homes targeting Indigenous communities like the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Colorado. Advocate Reva Stewart, whose cousin was taken by a group home recruiter from New Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona, says that recruiters often look for unhoused people in tribal communities, or those struggling with substance abuse. But Stewart says that a change made last week to Arizona’s Medicaid program closed a loophole that the group homes were exploiting. And today is the last day of Colorado’s legislative session.

A breakdown of what appropriations will be included in the new Farm Bill, the USDA boosts farm loan relief for producers, and Colorado State University is selected to run one of 12 regional food business centers as part of a new U.S. Department of Agriculture program.

Farmers in the Great Plains may abandon 85% of their wheat acres, the shift of land from agricultural production to urban uses could impact future food security, and the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a California law banning the sale of pork from pigs that were raised in tightly confined spaces was lawful.

The Montezuma-Cortez School District will hold its next school board meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. It’s expected that the recent conflict around staff changes in the district will be discussed during the public comment portion of the meeting. On April 20, students at the high school held a walk out in response to the dismissal of the school principal by Superintendent Tom Burris. Staff and students allege that Burris has a history of mistreatment of students in the district. According to Jake Myers, who was in 7th grade at the time, in August of 1998, then-Vice Principal Burris instructed him to sit on a large bucket in the multipurpose fields until the end of the school day as punishment for being disruptive in a band class.

On Tuesday evening, the Montezuma-Cortez School District held a board meeting where parents and educators voiced concerns on staffing upheaval and a subsequent student protest. Though the latest conflict in the district wasn’t officially on the agenda, about 25 people showed up to the meeting. Jarrett Watkins, a teacher at the high school who spoke at the meeting, says many other educators and staff are afraid to openly discuss the concerns they have around the dismissal of their principal.