The Roundup | From human rights to water rights

This week’s roundup of stories speaks to the power of collaboration. Every story is the result of award-winning journalists asking the tough questions, and following curiosity with tenacity to seek complex answers. Each story is shared in print and broadcast through public radio and on our website. What you’ll read and listen to this week is the result of collaboration across newsrooms and benefitting from the expertise of journalists and broadcasters. And, most importantly, these stories take a hard look at the legal rights and wellbeing of the people within our community, asking what kind of future is available and what kind of decisions need to be made to ensure it. As one recent donor said, “I believe in facts, and journalism helps keep the light on the facts.” Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting this nonprofit newsroom.

– Curtis Wackerle
Editor and Executive Director
Aspen Journalism

When it comes to questions of recreational water rights, three heads are better than one

Insight from Heather Sackett on a three-part series in collaboration with The Water Desk and KUNC
At the beginning of 2025, I started brainstorming ideas with my colleagues at The Water Desk and KUNC about potential collaborative projects. We started talking about recreational water rights. All of us had reported on water for recreation to some extent, but agreed this particular legal mechanism for keeping water in rivers deserved a closer look.

The three central questions we set out to explore were: Given that these recreational in-channel diversions rarely exercise their legal authority by placing calls, how effective are they really at keeping water in rivers for boaters? With the huge expense (and sometimes headache) of building whitewater parks, have RICDs been worth it for communities reliant on an outdoor recreation economy? And in a hotter, drier future, how can river recreators find creative ways to leave water in streams?

Luke Runyon, Alex Hager and I break it all down in our three-part series for the web and radio, as we take a deep dive into water for recreation.

Local arrests by ICE reported, but public information is lagging

With an uptick in community reports of federal immigration enforcement actions in the Roaring Fork Valley and Interstate 70 mountain corridor last week, Eleanor Bennett shares what she learned from her reporting on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), local law enforcement agencies, immigration attorneys and advocacy groups. Listen to this latest story from the Social Justice Desk – a conversation between social justice reporter Eleanor Bennett and Aspen Public Radio’s Halle Zander.

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