Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor held an outreach event in Shiprock, New Mexico on the benefits available to some coal and uranium miners on the Navajo Nation. Current and former uranium miners attended the meeting to get more information about accessing benefits through the Energy Workers Program. Coal miners went to the meeting to learn more about their eligibility for federal black lung benefits. Justin Tsosie, a former coal miner and union representative who worked at the Kayenta surface Mine in Arizona, says he frequently encountered dust when he worked as a serviceman at the mine. And the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said on Tuesday that a resident of Montezuma County has tested positive for the plague.

Colorado is ramping up its efforts to distribute the monkeypox vaccine after President Biden declared it a health emergency. And fourteen tribes in the Colorado River basin say they’re being kept “largely in the dark” about plans to conserve an unprecedented amount of water amid historic drought.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has launched a new COVID testing program in the state’s schools. Not only is it free, but this year it also comes with incentives. KGNU’s Shannon Young spoke with Sarah Hamma, CDPHE’s COVID-19 Community Testing Branch Chief.