Monica Alvarez-Muniz VOICES Radio Hour Monica Alvarez-Muniz is a hairdresser and caregiver for her deaf and special needs brother. She has raised an amazing, intelligent and ingenuitive daughter. She honors her Latin heritage through cooking and creating. She enjoys singing in the Aspen Choral Society, volunteering for community events, doing yoga, dancing and her deeply […]
Opinion
Posted inColumns
Living ground: The biocrust of Red Hill
Red Hill CouncilPublic Service Announcement Before you take your next step on Red Hill, look down. That bumpy, dark crust beneath your feet might be thousands of years old. It’s called biological soil crust, or “biocrust” for short, and it’s a living skin over the soil made of cyanobacteria, lichen, moss and fungi working together. […]
Posted inOpinion
The masters of disinformation
In the 1970s, Exxon scientists informed the board of directors of the deleterious effects of burning their product on the climate. Did the bigwigs take the socially responsible action and tell the world and immediately switch to power sources with no emissions? No chance. The industry made the capitalistic move and kept the scientific information […]
Posted inOpinion
Third spaces
“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career,” is a memorable quote from a very impassioned speech by Lloyd Dobler in the movie “Say Anything” (coincidentally available to check out on DVD by asking the staff at a library branch closest to you). The movie and Lloyd’s desire […]
Posted inOpinion
Críticas: Looking for change
If you’ll allow me to talk in very abstract terms for a bit, I’ll hope to impart some wisdom I’m finding in my late-twenties. There was a time when I more or less knew what was coming next. Life used to have a sense of progression marked by clear lines of change. Summer vacations, graduations, […]
Posted inColumns
Ps & Qs: A ranch in a valley along the river
Long before River Valley Ranch (RVR) was a posh golf course neighborhood, it actually was a ranch in a valley along the river. My younger sister, Annie, remembers sitting in the big comfy chair in our grandparents’ living room when some men showed up in clean western-style shirts and brand-new cowboy hats. Thirty-odd years ago, […]
Posted inLetters
Letters – Aug. 6, 2026
CORRECTION: It was incorrectly reported that Adam Quisenberry took third place in singles horseshoes at the 55th Annual Mountain Fair. He placed first! Medicaid cutsColorado’s medicaid cuts are shortchanging addiction recovery. As Colorado continues to grapple with a devastating overdose crisis, state officials are quietly pulling back the safety net for our most vulnerable neighbors. […]
Posted inColumns
Don’t sugarcoat the dangers of added sugar
By Dr. Greg FeinsingerGuest Column Big Food cares about their bottom line, not your health. Like the tobacco companies before them, they hire scientists to figure out how to make their products more addictive. The scientists found that people get hooked on sugar, salt and fat. Respected nutrition expert Dr. Michael Greger notes that “the […]
Posted inColumns
Historiography: Mountain Fair is history
As the town recovers from its annual Mountain Fair with this year’s theme of “Camp Bonedale,” it’s worth noting similarities to another famous gathering in the Rocky Mountains involving vendors, music, dancing, games and merriment. Carbondale’s celebration was not the first mountain fair in Colorado. That distinction goes to a rendezvous that started in 1825, […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking fire
I remember my father weeping when President Kennedy was shot. For a 12-year-old to see their father weep uncontrollably — a bomber pilot who in 87 missions had seen the world’s pain, a man who in that darkness loved quoting the soaring idealism of Don Quixote — was wrenching and bewildering. He was heartsick. Kennedy […]