Neighbors have difficult conversation

DEAR ABBY: I live in a 55-plus community. I was 49 when we moved here. We have lost 49 neighbors during the past five years. Others are in nursing homes. While walking my dog...

Grocery stores dogged by unauthorized pets

I love dogs and I have two that go almost everywhere with me. But I just came home from Walmart and City Market and there were three dogs in each grocery store, either carried, riding in the...

Bill to protect airline passengers doesn’t go far enough

Here we go again. Congress is trying to pass yet another Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, a rare opportunity to help airline passengers by enacting meaningful...

Sisters’ lifelong rivalry escalates into silence

DEAR ABBY: Our daughters aren’t speaking. One says she really doesn’t “like” the other. These are mature women who have had their differences throughout their lives. But they have tolera...

McClellan: Verlena’s last summer, and hopes of seeing first snowfall

By Martha McClellan This is a gift we are receiving from Verlena Collentine, sharing her last months of life with us. Her journey through ovarian cancer (the “silent killer”) has ...

McClellan: Choice should be difficult, but not because of unnecessary hospital hurdles

Sixty-six percent of Colorado voters approved the End of Life Options Act last November. This is the law that allows physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ...

Duthie: Honesty and disclosure at the heart of effective justice

I have always believed that the criminal justice system is based on a pursuit of the truth. The facts, circumstances, background and evidence are unique to each client’s case that a criminal...

Butcher: Small towns the place to challenge immigration policy

This month, Rosa Sabido, a 53-year old woman of “impeccable character,” became the 11th person nationwide currently in sanctuary in a church. The other churches providing sanctuary sit in me...

Gangloff: Shrink Bears Ears? Teddy’s rolling over in his grave

There isn’t a lot of “there” there in Interior Secretary Zinke’s recent report to President Trump of the Bears Ears National Monument - he recommends that it be shrunk, be broken into smalle...

Twins disagree to go separate ways

DEAR ABBY: My twin sister and I are juniors in high school and starting to plan to apply to colleges. It has always been assumed that we would go to the same college and be roommates. My...

Sheep wagons: From Old West function to New West fashion

Across the Old West, what was once function is now fashion. Well-worn cowboy boots, spurs, saddles and Stetsons all have a new cachet as collectibles. One man’s junk is another man’s buffed ...

An update on panhandling downtown

I have been told multiple times over the past month that the panhandling situation is better. Here is what the Durango Business Improvement District is seeing: Panhandling has def...