For many communities in the West, the water that flows out of kitchen faucets and bathroom showerheads starts high up in the mountains, as snowpack tucked under canopies of spruce and pine trees.

This summer’s record-breaking wildfires have reduced some of those headwater forests to burnt trees and heaps of ash. In high alpine ecosystems, climate change has tipped the scales toward drier forests, lessened snowpack, hotter summers and extended fire seasons.

Wildfires don’t just cause problems while they’re burning. For municipal drinking water systems, fires are felt for years after they’re snuffed out.

Few places in the West know that as well as Fort Collins, Colorado. Until eight years ago, one of the city’s of main water sources, the Poudre River, was nearly pristine. All year round, it tumbled out of the Rocky Mountains and into the city’s treatment plant for use by 135,000 people.

“We had been privileged and in some ways probably took for granted that these watersheds were providing us consistently clean, clear water, all the time,” said Jill Oropeza, the city’s water quality manager.

ANAHEIM, California – Guidelines for theme park reopening are coming “very shortly,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in mid-September, but the Magic Kingdom remains closed and Disney fans, laid-off workers and city officials are pleading for tourism’s return to Orange County.

Newsom last week pointed to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and told reporters the state “is in no hurry” to reopen theme parks. California has the second-highest weekly rate of new infections in the country after Texas, according to the CDC, and Newsom chooses to err on the side of caution. Disneyland has been closed since March 14.

“We are going to be led by a health-first framework,” he said in an Oct. 7 news conference. “We’re going to be stubborn about it and that’s our commitment.”

The solid streaming continues at The Loft Cinema, along with their Open Air Cinema series. There are plenty of ways to get your Loft fix in these crazy times!

This week's streaming highlights:


TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL


A documentary on our pandemic that, not surprisingly, appears to paint our current douche President in a bad light. That's not a hard thing to do, making Trump look like a jackass. I mean, I have to commend the fucking asshole. He is actually terrific at making himself look like a jackass. His talent in this realm knows no bounds. Anyways, this is a movie about how he and his cronies have seriously fucked shit up old school. Yes...I'm cursing a lot...because I am fucking pissed...and you should be, too.


MARTIN EDEN


Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, Martin Eden is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics.



WHITE RIOT

United Kingdom, 1976. The far-right National Front is gaining in popularity. Racist attacks are on the rise. In response, a group of activist and artists launch Rock Against Racism, a new movement to fight extremism and xenophobia.

HARRY CHAPIN: WHEN IN DOUBT, DO SOMETHING


Tells the incredible life story of the award-winning singer/songwriter, filmmaker and global activist who inspired and entertained music fans with such ‘70s hits as Cats in the Cradle and more.

I loved his songs when I was a kid. I lived in Long Island, N.Y. when he died in a car crash, and drove by his accident scene, crying in the backseat of my car. It's about time somebody made a movie about this great man.


SHE IS THE OCEAN


An award-winning, in-depth exploration into the lives of nine extraordinary women, scattered across the globe, who share one thing in common: a profound love for the sea.

For months now, we here in Arizona have said that health care is on the ballot this November—and that is even more true today than it was six months ago when this pandemic began.

The dual public health and economic crises from the coronavirus have raised the stakes even higher when it comes to the importance of having quality, affordable health care coverage,  especially in our rural and border communities.

As someone who has worked in public health for 35 years, I know how important it is for working families across Arizona to have the peace of mind that comes with quality, affordable health care coverage.

So when I see Donald Trump and the Republican Party try to rush through a Supreme Court appointment just to overturn the Affordable Care Act, especially in the middle of a pandemic, I am as confused as I am horrified. Why fight to undermine something that has benefitted so many people?

The Affordable Care Act helped more than 400,000 people in Arizona gain coverage and led to a 42 percent reduction in the uninsured rate.

But if Trump and Republicans have their way, the Supreme Court will decide to rip away health care from 363,000 Arizonans and strip away protections from 2.8 million people in Arizona with preexisting conditions. To make matters worse, overturning the ACA would jeopardize protections for people with pre-existing conditions at a time when complications from COVID-19, like lung scarring and heart damage, could become the next deniable pre-existing condition.

By continuing his crusade to dismantle the ACA, Trump is gutting the protections that so many Arizonans families in our rural, border, and foothills communities depend on. We have worked so hard over the last several years to create a safety net infrastructure among our communities in Arizona with critical access hospitals, rural health clinics, and our community hospitals.

We can’t let Trump undo the progress we’ve made. Arizonans deserve so much better. We need leaders who will fight to protect our care and put working families first. That’s Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will protect and build on the Affordable Care Act to give Americans more choice, reduce health care costs, and make our health care system less complex. This will greatly benefit families in our border and rural communities who depend on the ACA to keep themselves and their families safe and healthy.

Biden and Harris also have a plan to help rural, border, and foothills communities like ours across Arizona meet the pressing health challenges they are faced with. When elected, Joe and Kamala will adequately fund our rural hospitals, double funding for community health centers, and help build new clinics and deploy telehealth in rural communities.

These common-sense solutions will help our neighbors and families stay healthy, especially as we continue to battle COVID-19.

We can’t afford four more years of attacks on our health care. I’ve seen the faces, I’ve seen the devastation, I’ve seen the work that my doctors do every day to save lives. Dismantling the Affordable Care Act and ripping away health care coverage is not an option. We cannot let it happen—and that starts with voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November.

Former Arizona State Senator Amanda Aguirre presently serves in the capacity of President & CEO of the Regional Center for Border Health, Inc. since 1991 and its subsidiary San Luis Walk-In Clinic, Inc., a primary care rural health medical center. Ms. Aguirre has been involved for more than 35 years in health care and business administration.

The Tucson-based restaurant chain eegee's has announced their plans to expand to the Phoenix area in 2021, with five new locations slated throughout the Valley. The openings will begin in the second quarter of next year and take place in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and two locations in Gilbert.

While eegee's has expanded to two dozen locations throughout Tucson (and one in Casa Grande) since 1971, this marks the first time the restaurants will operate outside of Southern Arizona. Various locations throughout the Phoenix area already serve frozen eegee drinks, but none are a full restaurant.

The company was bought in 2018 by a partnership of 39 North Capital and restaurant investor Kitchen Fund.

In addition to expanding north, eegee's also plans to open seven more restaurants in the Tucson area in 2021, although the exact locations have not yet been announced.

For more information, visit eegees.com/locations

PHOENIX – In the first two weeks of the high school football season, the 6A conference has seen a high volume of blowouts. Twenty-five out of 34 matchups in the first two weeks in the 6A conference have been won by at least 17 points.

You can probably blame the pandemic.

Week two saw multiple head-scratching beatdowns, including Chandler’s 64-0 shutout of Pinnacle, Liberty’s 30-0 shutout of Red Mountain and Hamilton’s 64-22 smackdown of Perry. Pinnacle and Perry were 2019 state quarterfinalists in the Open Division and 6A conference, respectively, and Red Mountain came up six points short of the 2019 6A Conference state title.

Coach Rick Garretson credited the Chandler Wolves’ outscoring of their first two opponents 108-10 to his team’s length of preparation in the offseason. Many other schools have had less time to prepare.