District 59 constituents are vocal, regularly letting me know how they think, and what I should do about it. By far, the issue concerning them most, generating the most heat and presenting the most co...

The month of March on the ranch is jumping with activity. All the tractors are in use feeding hay to the cows and horses. The heavy equipment is in use clearing snow piles and diverting muddy runoff f...

Dear Editor: In a recent letter to the editor entitled “What kind of country do we want to be” Debra Menger claimed to be a fiscal conservative. I wonder if she was in favor of the tax bill that favor...

What were you doing in third grade? Mike was among the denizens of Dartmouth Elementary School in Aurora dutifully learning multiplication tables and sentence diagramming, while longing to play outsi...

Living in Ouray County affords us with countless opportunities to enjoy the surrounding beauty simply by walking out the front door. It also means, however, that we may spend more time than we’d like ...

Dear Editor: To those people who are concerned about socialism, I would like to point out that both the public library and the public schools meet the definition of socialism. I like them both and wou...

Slow progress on education funding More than ever, I am hearing about the struggles with Colorado’s school funding formula. Educators want a livable wage, administrators want more safety precautions a...

Dear Editor: Colorado's economy continues to grow every year, yet the state is near the bottom of the list of states in funding K-12 education and teacher pay, according to the Colorado Education Asso...

Editor’s note: We hope you enjoy the first column from our newest contributor, Willie Richardson of Ridgway. Willie is a natural storyteller who has translated his ability to mesmerize audiences by a ...

Stand up and be counted. Since 1790, every person in America has been counted every 10 years through the U.S. census. Data gathered is used by the federal government to distribute money to states to p...

In the article “Man, town clash over candidacy” published on Feb. 13, the story should have indicated the protection order granted to Andy Michelich against David Gottorff is temporary, not permanent....

It was the first day of the new year, and Sarah Kaplan from The Washington Post was all doom and gloom: “Global emissions are expected to hit an all-time high this year, and humanity is on track to cr...

A group of legislators toured the Winter Colorado Outdoor Recreation Convention in Denver last week, where companies from around the world touted their incredible selection of outdoor equipment, cloth...

We’re launching our new readers’ choice awards in today’s edition of the Plaindealer and online at ouraynews.com. You might wonder why we’ve taken this on, in addition to the other changes we’ve made ...

After a couple of weeks celebrating our Western heritage at the National Western Stock Show, hobnobbing with steers in the Brown Palace Hotel during their high tea, enjoying dinner with members of the...

President Ronald Reagan signed a bill marking the third Monday of January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983, and for years the Ridgway School District took that Monday as a holiday break. Faculty ...

Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doors who sees both past and future, might be the most appropriate symbol for this third decade of the 21st Century. The deep winter doldrums of January slow down the...

New organizations in Colorado will soon get some much-needed extra legal firepower to fight wrongful denials of access to government records and proceedings. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the...

FROM THE PUBLISHER Getting to the bottom of a story often means locating a public record, or some piece of paper documenting what happened. Sometimes that takes considerable effort. It takes some digg...

Our rivers are shrinking, populations are rising, and many rural communities are suffering from drought and economic dislocation. Urban water use is declining, despite population growth, and communiti...