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On Friday, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold visited Towaoc and met with officials from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to discuss automatic voter registration for the state’s tribal communities. The Colorado Votes Act passed by the legislature earlier this year means some enrolled tribal members in Colorado will be automatically registered to vote. It’s the first instance of automatic voter registration for enrolled members of tribal nations in the U.S., and is part of a broader election reform package by the Secretary of State’s office. Griswold says that since she was elected in 2019, her office has been considering ways they could try to reverse the historical voter suppression of Native American people in Colorado. And the funeral for the Cortez police officer who was killed in the line of duty last week takes place on Wednesday morning.

Data from USDA’s Economic Research Service suggests that net farm income will drop sharply from last year, the Colorado Wolf Restoration Final Plan outlines release locations and constraints, major tractor manufacturers anticipate bringing smaller utility electric tractors to the market, and suggestions for bringing home a pest-free live Christmas tree this year.

An officer in the Cortez Police Department was shot and killed in the line of duty on Wednesday. The officer conducted a traffic stop on South Broadway around 11:30 a.m., during which he was shot and injured. The suspects fled in their vehicle but were quickly located. One suspect was shot by police and died at the scene, the other was taken into custody. The officer, who has not yet been identified, was taken to Southwest Memorial Hospital and later died from his injuries. And on Tuesday, the Cortez City Council passed a resolution in support of a grant to fund archaeological surveys of Carpenter and Geer natural areas to identify prehistoric sites. The city’s Historic Preservation Board recommended that the city apply for the grant from the Colorado Historical Society. A preliminary survey conducted in 1993 by the city found six areas of interest in the Carpenter area alone. Geer has never been studied.

A grassroots community group on the Navajo Nation is making winter supply runs to deliver water and food to elders in the Black Mesa region of northern Arizona. Diné Land and Water is a Navajo-led organization based out of Sanders. Mercury Bitsuie, a project manager for the group, hauls water, wood and food to elders and families who live in a highly remote area in Black Mesa’s Big Mountain community. Big Mountain is just north of the Hopi Nation and is located on land that has historically been the subject of disputes between the Hopi and Navajo tribes. Many Navajo families who live there don’t have access to clean water or electricity according to Bitsuie, and roads in the area can frequently become impassable due to snow. Bitsuie says his group is actively raising funds on GoFundMe for winter supply runs. And Colorado workers can now start signing up online for more paid time-off through the state.

Pork producers make an attempt to overturn Proposition 12 in California, the U.S. Global Change Research Program releases it's most recent analysis of current trends in global climate change, and the Rural Mainstreet Index reports some concerning trends for the rural economy.

A federal program tasked with surveying abandoned uranium mines used during the Cold War era held a meeting last week about mines located on the Navajo Nation. More than 3,400 defense-related uranium mines are scattered throughout the Four Corners region, the result of a prospecting rush beginning in the 1940s sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The meeting was held in Sanostee, New Mexico, a community that’s home to 12 such abandoned mines, many of which are located at the base of the Chuska Mountains near the Sanostee Wash. The Defense-Related Uranium Mine program, or DRUM, is a Department of Energy initiative started in 2017 to both survey abandoned mines and ensure they’re sealed off and inaccessible to the public. Some Sanostee residents who attended the meeting expressed concern about runoff from the mines and its effects on livestock that graze nearby, as well as potential health problems for residents, like cancer.

Food producers and retailers team up to fund sustainable agricultural practices, the 1976 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act may get revised to address new concerns, a possible grey wolf sighting in northwest Colorado, and the USDA announces grants to help livestock producers implement solutions that balance benefits to land, livestock, and wildlife.

The drought that affected much of the country in 2023 is still impacting the beef cattle herd, the U.S. House passes a bill that will allow whole, reduced fat and other milk varieties back into school cafeterias, and the average age of farmworkers in the Great Plains and upper Midwest is rising at a much faster rate than in the rest of the country.

On Wednesday morning, flags were lowered to half mast for the funeral service for a Cortez police officer who was killed in the line of duty last week. Hundreds of police vehicles formed the motorcade for Sgt. Michael Moran. The funeral was held at the Cortez Recreation Center and was not open to the public. And Montezuma Land Conservancy will hold a sheep celebration event at Fozzie’s Farm in Lewis, Colorado on Tuesday next week, in partnership with Navajo sheep herders. The event will include the butchering of a sheep in accordance with Diné cultural tradition, starting at around 8 a.m. At 10 a.m., Diné fiber artists will hold workshops and demonstrations. Herders in Teec Nos Pos loaned their sheep and goats to Fozzie’s Farm as part of a cultural exchange with Montezuma Land Conservancy, or MLC.

Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land has been a popular target for state legislators his year, growing seasons are slowly shifting across the United States, agencies will collaborate to manage the reintroduction of gray wolves on Colorado’s Western Slope, and John Deere moves toward digitizing self-repair for its customers.