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Rural Hospitals Deploy AI to Fight AI as Claim Denials Add Financial Pressure
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Rural Hospitals Deploy AI to Fight AI as Claim Denials Add Financial Pressure

By Thelma Grimes | Colorado Politics Editor’s Note: Colorado’s healthcare system is entering a period of accelerating instability — a “tsunami,” as multiple leaders describe it — driven by collapsing hospital finances, shrinking Medicaid reimbursements, disappearing services and a political fight over who is responsible for this unraveling. Healthcare Freefall is a multipart series examining how Colorado arrived at this moment, what H.R. 1 will do next and why communities across the state are bracing for deeper shocks. Rural hospitals in Colorado say they are being pulled into a technological fight they didn’t choose. Hospitals said insurance companies have deployed artificial intelligence to deny claims faster and more efficiently, and they are scrambling to adopt the...
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Greg Lopez Puts People Over Parties in Unaffiliated Bid for Colorado Governor
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KJCT-TV ABC 8, Approved, State

Greg Lopez Puts People Over Parties in Unaffiliated Bid for Colorado Governor

By Brianna Chappie | KJCT The unaffiliated-party nominee spoke with KKCO prior to his campaign stop in Clifton for Saturday evening. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - In KJCT’s continuing coverage of Colorado’s gubernatorial race, reporter Brianna Chappie spoke with unaffiliated-party nominee candidate, Greg Lopez, ahead of his campaign visit on Saturday. Lopez is an air force veteran, and seasoned politician— having served as mayor for the town of Parker, a Colorado Director for the Small Business Administration (SBA) and recently as a House Representative for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. But now, instead of running as a Republican, Lopez is unaffiliated. “I didn’t leave the Republican party because all Republicans are bad or the Democrats are a...
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Aspen Realtor Running for Congress Campaigns on Housing Affordability While Selling Luxury Homes
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The Washington Free Beacon, Approved, State

Aspen Realtor Running for Congress Campaigns on Housing Affordability While Selling Luxury Homes

By Ethan Barton | Washington Free Beacon Dwayne Romero, whose own house is worth up to $25 million, has accused 'Wall Street behemoths' of driving up rent while holding positions with BlackRock, Blackstone, and Airbnb. The Democratic nominee for Colorado's Third Congressional District, Dwayne Romero, has made housing affordability a tent-pole issue for his campaign, accusing "Wall Street behemoths" of "buying up homes and driving up rents." Yet, for years, his real estate firm has made big money selling multimillion-dollar luxury homes in Aspen, where residential property is so expensive that even the city's doctors and lawyers can't afford to live. Romero also holds stakes in BlackRock, Blackstone, and Airbnb, his personal financial disclosure shows. Romero t...
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Colorado Homeownership Slips Further Out of Reach as Prices Outpace Incomes
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The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Colorado Homeownership Slips Further Out of Reach as Prices Outpace Incomes

By Nate Trela | The Coloradoan A new study on homeownership shows just how unaffordable buying a home is across the country, including two Colorado metro areas where homebuying is out of reach for most of their residents even if mortgage rates were set to 0%. The report using data .from Ziffy.ai, an AI-powered real estate investment platform, included the Boulder and Grand Junction areas among dozens of examples of markets where more than half of the homes are unaffordable for most households, even if mortgages did not require paying interest. The analysis defines affordability as when the total monthly housing costs — principal, interest, taxes and insurance — are no more than 30% of the median household income in a market. It based the mortgage calculations...
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New Wolf Pack Confirmed in Eagle County as Colorado Monitors Population Growth
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

New Wolf Pack Confirmed in Eagle County as Colorado Monitors Population Growth

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A new gray wolf pack has formed in Eagle County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced on Wednesday. Known as the Piney Ridge Pack, it is the fourth pack of gray wolves in the state to have produced pups this year. According to CPW, the average litter size for wolves is four to six pups. More information about the packs will be included in the agency’s annual report next spring. “Detection of pups in late spring or early summer is inherently challenging, because of their use of remote habitats in dense cover, secretive nature of very young animals and time potentially underground,” said CPW’s Wolf Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell. “We are continuing to monitor the four reproducing packs in Colorado and will include...
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No way out: Rural Colorado is outvoted at every turn
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

No way out: Rural Colorado is outvoted at every turn

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Tom Harrington manages a 500-cow operation on the Crystal River Ranch, two miles from the town of Carbondale on a mesa west of town.  He grew up in Ridgway.  A friend sent him some papers from the North Park area of Walden showing the school news, a note from the old folks' home and local ads. "I looked through these papers and I thought, man, this is like the 70s in Ridgway," he said. Those things have disappeared from the Carbondale he lives in now. "They've certainly left here." He has also watched the valley floor transform in his 18 years on the ranch, hayfields replaced by a shopping complex and apartment buildings, the quiet gone with it. "Once things are paved over," he said, "they never come back....
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Volunteers bring America’s 250th birthday party to Grand Junction’s fairgrounds
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Volunteers bring America’s 250th birthday party to Grand Junction’s fairgrounds

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice July 4 has always meant fireworks in Grand Junction. This year, a group of local volunteers think it should mean something more. Liberty on the Lawn – America 250 comes to Mesa County Fairgrounds/Lions Club Park on July 4, noon to 7 p.m. It's free. Bring a chair, a cooler and the kids. Austin Dewitt, the event's coordinator, had one goal going into it. "I wanted Liberty on the Lawn to be more than just another Fourth of July celebration,” he told RMV. “I wanted to create something that brings people together, honors America's 250th birthday, and reminds us that even with different backgrounds and perspectives, we share a lot more in common than we often realize." How it came together About a dozen community membe...
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She circled his photo in seventh grade. For America’s 250th, she’s taking his name to Washington
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

She circled his photo in seventh grade. For America’s 250th, she’s taking his name to Washington

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Days before leaving on a trip she has waited 50 years to take, Rahna Autrey walked into her garage and found a face she had promised never to forget. The tub of childhood keepsakes sat on a shelf in her garage. Inside was her seventh-grade scrapbook, Partridge Family magazines and all. Inside was the brochure that came with her bracelet. One photograph had a blue circle drawn around it. "I couldn't believe it," she said. "What a God thing, huh?" The soldier was Staff Sgt. William "Sandy" Sanderlin, lost over South Vietnam on Dec. 2, 1969. She never met him. But she wore a bracelet with his name for five years, until it broke when she was a senior in high school. Across the country in those years, Americans wore POW/MIA bracelets, each ...
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New Analysis Examines Why Homelessness Is Concentrated in Mesa County
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The Business Times, Approved, Local

New Analysis Examines Why Homelessness Is Concentrated in Mesa County

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times Why does Mesa County account for such a large share of Western Slope homelessness? As the Grand Junction City Council debated whether to amend city code to strengthen enforcement of the camping ordinance, questions about shelter capacity and the size of the local homeless population took on new importance. The shelter-capacity discussion is further complicated by the fact the shelter system serves more than just Mesa County residents. Many neighboring communities have either no shelter at all, only seasonal shelter options, or significantly fewer homeless services. The question of whether Mesa County is carrying a regional burden has also surfaced during Grand Junction City Council discussions. During a Nov. 19, 2025, m...
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Roan Plateau Acreage Included In Potential December Oil and Gas Lease Auction
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Grand Junction Sentinel, Approved, Local

Roan Plateau Acreage Included In Potential December Oil and Gas Lease Auction

By: Dan West | Grand Junction Daily Sentinel This screenshot shows acreage on the Roan Plateau being considered by the Bureau of Land Management for a December lease sale.Source: BLM This week, the Bureau of Land Management opened a 30-day public scoping period on a proposed oil and gas lease sale of up to 126,744 acres, including acreage on the Roan Plateau between De Beque and Rifle. The BLM is seeking public input on 114 oil and gas parcels in Colorado that could be included in a December 2026 lease sale. Several parcels included are on the Roan Plateau north of Parachute, an area that has been the focus of past legal battles over oil and gas development. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT GRAND JUNCTION DAILY SENTINEL
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