4,896. That’s four thousand, eight hundred and ninety-six. What’s that number? Well, now that half the Epstein files have been released – only seven weeks after they were ordered to…
Jim and Terry Fitzgerald were giants in the oil and gas accountability movement that took root in La Plata County in the late 1980s. They both died on Dec. 30,…
City Council has voted 3-2 to eliminate all lot size requirements for ADUs in all three old neighborhoods in Durango. In doing so, they ignored a large segment of the…
I am a retired bilingual play therapist currently volunteering helping families affected by ICE actions. From January through October 2025, 3,800 children under 18 – including 20 infants – were…
Los Angeles is finally legalizing playing catch in front of your home. Yes, you read that right. Playing catch has been, and still is, illegal on the streets or sidewalks…
The article “We’re keeping people alive: Inside the warming center” (Herald, Jan. 28) focused on the warming center at Sacred Heart Parish Hall. While the focus of the article was…
Human power, rooted in public lands, is a force. People in our region absolutely hold great value in our public lands. Access to healthy public lands is an inherent self-definition…
Publicly traded companies on the New York Stock Exchange and the S&P 600 own and operate for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers in the U.S. The two largest examples are…
As La Plata Electric Association’s elected board of directors, we serve on behalf of the cooperative’s member-owners. Our responsibility is one of governance and fiduciary oversight: setting policy, providing strategic…
They came with boots stomping the ground. They came with guns unholstered. They came with force to dominate. With no intent to bolster. The throngs of marchers were strong and…
I recently read Sen. Michael Bennet’s press release regarding his suggestions for ICE. While I applaud a few of them, the idea of retraining ICE agents is fanciful, to put…
When I was a young boy in school, I believed that when a person swore on a Bible “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,”…
It has been months since a masked ICE agent was filmed putting a 57-year-old mother, Franci Stagi, in a chokehold and throwing her down a hill. While the community stood…
As a student at DHS, I walked out of school in protest of ICE in our school, community and country on Friday, Jan. 30, for the Nationwide Shutdown to oppose…
For decades, Republican politicians and conservative influencers peddled fear that Democrats were “coming for your guns.” The message was relentless and effective. Many voters believed it, and it shaped elections…
To all anti-ICE protesters, please be aware of the possible danger you are putting yourselves into. The people you are demonstrating against could make a mistake. Gerry Schaerer Durango
The demeaning name “Catch of the Day” reveals the dehumanizing nature of Trump’s immigration policies. Likening immigrants to fish one might catch for supper rather than human beings is shocking…
Buying a puppy from a pet store should never mean unknowingly supporting cruelty. Yet many puppies sold in retail stores come from large-scale commercial dog breeders where profit comes before…
After George Floyd was killed by police in broad daylight while being filmed, many Minneapolis residents snapped. They let their outrage get the best of them and their protests turned…
A recent opinion column on nonprofit board governance is timely and important (Herald, Jan. 25). As the column notes, many nonprofit boards hold significant authority, and when transparency is limited,…
The most dangerous person in Washington today is the shadow president, Stephen Miller. Hitler’s Nazi criminality is OK even though Miller’s Jewish family fled Europe to escape concentration camps and…
Believe your eyes and act accordingly. Horrifically, Alex Pretti was shot to death by federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement in Minnesota – a state that does not rank in…
Thank you for the inspiring missive from Scott Perez (Herald, Jan. 23). In his concluding remark, he reminded us, “Working together, we can accomplish anything. A community united cannot be…
It’s time to reach across the political spectrum to build a strong response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s extreme, horrifying and oppressive tactics this year. Our Durango community has endured…
I am horrified by what is happening in a major city in the United States. I am ashamed to be an American. And I am afraid for all of us,…
When I was a little boy in my father’s black three-quarter ton Ford in ‘59, moving across the Mojave at barely fifty, every time we’d stop there among the rocks…
The U.S. has more people imprisoned than any country on Earth. A.I. and companies like Flock Safety are about to increase the incarcerated population by orders of magnitude. Today, your…
Mike Sigman argues that applying the term “fascism” to Republicans is problematic (Herald, Jan. 2). However, equating communism and socialism with fascism reflects a misunderstanding of political doctrine. Most students…
Back in 2014, residents of established neighborhoods worked closely with city planners and councilors to create workable rules allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) into our older, single-family neighborhoods. Unfortunately, those…
