VFW Post 6101, San Luis, is holding a building fund-raiser, with first prize being one cow elk tag for a January 9-15 hunt at Cielo Vista Ranch. The tag is courtesy of Cielo Vista Ranch. Second prize is one lamb on the hoof, and third prize is $50.

The drawings will be held January 5th at 10:30 A.M. at the covered Wagon Café in San Luis. Winners need not be present to win but will be contacted by phone. Tickets are $10 each and are available from Post 6101 members or Covered Wagon Café. For more information contact Commander Sam Medina at 672-3156. All proceeds will benefit VFW Post 6101 Building Fund.

A suspected drunken driver is in custody after leading authorities on a Friday morning high speed chase in which he rammed several police cars and drew gunfire from officers.

Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner with a Spanish outdoor Horno is a 13-year-old-tradition at Boyd Elementary. Educator Laura Malouff discusses the tradition and about the Educators, Parents, Student Volunteers involved.

A trio of Southern Colorado health care centers have been picked for a pilot program that will link patients to specialists via a tele-health network that includes audio and video links. UnitedHealthCare will set up the test program by 2010 in Buena Vista, Del Norte and Lamar, allowing physicians in some specialty fields to diagnose patients from hundreds of miles away. "The biggest thing it's going to do is improve access to health care for those residents who cannot get out of the (San Luis) Valley, especially during winter months," said Arlene Harms, administrator for the Rio Grande Hospital in Del Norte.

"Guilty" by Teresa Nolen Pratt

The works of Teresa Nolen Pratt and Joyce Michelina Centofanti will open December 5, 2009 at the new art gallery, Wildethyme Art on Grand Avenue in Monte Vista, CO. The gallery and exhibit will be open throughout the Holiday Festival Art Tour December 5 and 6th and run through January 5, 2010. More about both artists and their work can be found at http://wildethymeart.com. Gallery hours for the show will be 1-7PM Thursdays, 10AM-6PM Fridays and 10AM-4PM Saturdays. The Gallery will be open extended days Christmas week. Wildethyme Art is owned and operated by Monte Vista artist, Laura Murphy.

Los Cócanos del Rio Conejos is a Colorado Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation who's motto is "Conservation of the Wild Turkey and Preservation of our Hunting Heritage." Gobble Gobble!

Tessera Solar continued its quest to gain public support Tuesday as it prepares to propel its proposed 200-megawatt solar facility through the Saguache county regulatory process. But locals told the company it hasn't addressed noise and how the project would effect neighbors, livestock and wildlife.

A nationally acclaimed poet and instructor of creative writing at Adams State College in Alamosa, Abeyta has found time to pursue yet another passion - football. Coach ’Beta, as he's known, helped rebuild an Antonito High School program that had fallen on hard times. The Trojans marched through an undefeated season and deep into the 8-man state playoffs this fall.

A string of calf mutilations earlier this month have left a local rancher and law enforcement scratching their heads. Rancher Manuel Sanchez has had four calves mutilated over a three-week span in a pasture he leases near Los Vallejos, just southeast of here, with the most recent victim coming on Nov. 16.

As availability of H1N1 vaccine grows through weekly shipments, Valley health care providers will soon be giving a second round of doses to children in certain age groups. Rio Grande County Public Health Agency has a flu clinic scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec 3 at the Church of Christ in Monte Vista and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 10, at the Rio Grande County Annex in Del Norte. At this time, this will be for the following vaccines and priority groups: H1N1 Vaccine for those eligible at this time which include: household members of infants less than 6 months old; children 6 months through 24 years of age; and adults 25-64 years of age with underlying risk conditions. Seasonal flu vaccine will be administered as quantities last. The H1N1 vaccine is free. The seasonal vaccine for children is $10 and $20 for adults. Children’s Medicaid is accepted and Medicare is accepted. For more information, contact the Rio Grande County Public Health Agency at 657-2286 or go to www.rgcph.org.

The city of Monte Vista declared a temporary moratorium on medicinal marijuana dispensaries during the Nov. 19 council meeting, effectively stopping even a submission of an application for this purpose.

Saturday Dec. 5 between 2 and 4 p.m., retired police chief Richard Pena, and his successor, Dan Martinez, will be honored by the Town at a cake and liquid refreshments get-together at the Northerners Senior Center located at 413 Main St.

Manassa Police Chief Charles DeHerrera was arrested Nov. 12 by Conejos County Sheriff's deputies who responded to a disturbance call in the community. DeHerrera, 55, was arrested on charges of felony menacing, third degree assault and prohibited use of a weapon. The menacing charge is a class 5 felony, the assault charge and the weapons charges are class 2 misdemeanors.

As the 1800’s came to an end, Celedonio Mondragon was achieving a degree of success in the Valley. Because the young jeweler was a business owner, he was picked to serve as Conejos County’s postmaster. But it was more than his entrepreneurial skills that caused him to stand out. “He had vision,” said Eppie Perea, Mondragon’s grandson and a Denver businessman. “He saw a lot of discrimination and wanted to get rid of it.” On Nov. 26, 1900, Mondragon and six other men, all Valley stock, formed La Sociedad para la Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos (Society for the Mutual Protection of United Workers).

The lion's share of the the Gunnison sage-grouse's population -roughly 4,700 - live in the Gunnison Basin, but an estimated 44 birds live in a 20,400-acre area on Poncha Pass in northeastern Saguache County, according to the agency's 2005 estimates. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will review whether the small bird should be listed as threatened or endangered.

www.slvheritage.com is "the official website of the cultural heritage of the San Luis Valley".

Jeramie Parker of Alamosa is in prison for allegedly shaking his girlfriends 9-month-old baby. Sgt. Rick Needham of the Alamosa Police Department said that Parker has been charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. Needham, saying the case is still under investigation, didn’t elaborate on why police suspect Parker was involved, saying only that the 22-year-old man “was the caregiver at the time” and that “a child this age can’t really injure them self this way.”

A Colorado State Trooper was seriously injured Saturday night in a one-vehicle crash while responding to a report of a suspected drunk driver. The Colorado State Patrol did not release details on how the trooper crashed, but said it happened just before 9 p.m. on Rio Grande County Road 3. The injured trooper was taken to San Luis Valley Medical Center and was later airlifted to St. Anthony Central Hospital with serious injuries. According to authorities, the trooper's condition was listed at stable on Sunday morning. The trooper's name was not released.

In the book A Tortilla Is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado by Carole M. Counihan, Counihan features extensive excerpts from these interviews to give voice to the women of Antonito and highlight their perspectives. Three lines of inquiry are framed: feminist ethnography, Latino cultural citizenship, and Chicano environmentalism. Counihan documents how Antonito's Mexicanas establish a sense of place and belonging through their knowledge of land and water and use this knowledge to sustain their families and communities. Women play an important role by gardening, canning, and drying vegetables; earning money to buy food; cooking; and feeding family, friends, and neighbors on ordinary and festive occasions. They use food to solder or break relationships and to express contrasting feelings of harmony and generosity, or enmity and envy. The interviews in this book reveal that these Mexicanas are resourceful providers whose food work contributes to cultural survival.

Located in the southern San Luis Valley of Colorado, the remote and relatively unknown town of Antonito is home to an overwhelmingly Hispanic population struggling not only to exist in an economically depressed and politically marginalized area, but also to preserve their culture and their lifeways. Between 1996 and 2006, anthropologist Carole Counihan collected food-centered life histories from nineteen Mexicanas--Hispanic American women--who had long-standing roots in the Upper Rio Grande region. The interviews in this groundbreaking study focused on southern Colorado Hispanic foodways--beliefs and behaviors surrounding food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption.

Possible Cause for Salmonella Outbreak in 2008

Agriculture Secretary and Interior Purchase Land (Par-Cels)

Jorge Ortiz Sports Reporter Sign Off