Pueblo health department: teen birth rates continue to dip

Teen birth rates in Pueblo are down more than 60 percent over the last six years. The department released this video explaining the drop:

We’ll have more on the story later today from Ashleigh Hollowell, but here is the tl;dr:

The Pueblo City-County Health Department partnered with local organizations like United Way mentoring, school districts and both Pueblo Community College and Colorado State University-Pueblo to implement programs and distribute a standardized message on the issue throughout the community.

After the implementation of positive youth development programs and sexual health and safety informational programs in local middle and high schools the use of clinic resources increased “…slightly, as youth also visited their own provider, Pueblo Community Health Center, and School Wellness Centers to inquire about LARCS and their sexual health,” according to the department.

PULP has been following this story since 2015, when some worried Pueblo’s teen birth rate would rise again after the state cut funding for programs that made the decrease possible.

When to expect Pueblo’s new marijuana stores

The pile of 20 applicants has been limited to eight stores — the number Pueblo City Council said it was comfortable letting operate in city limits.

Four stores will open north of the Arkansas River and four stores will open south of the river.

While the stores have been announced — that happened Monday — the chosen ones will have to still go through the licensing process. Council gave priority on an established points system to stores that already had some kind of base in Pueblo, such as operating a wholesale business or medical store.

Pueblo’s economy off to slow start in 2017

Strong spending habits were down in Pueblo, according to city manager Sam Azad. General sales tax fell by 4.3 percent compared to January 2016.

“In fact, consumer spending sank considerably in January compared to last year,” Azad said in an email. “Overall sales and use tax revenue declined 5.1 percent relative to January of 2016.”

But overall revenue was up 12 percent in the first month of the year. The lodger’s tax, an indicator of tourism, was up 11 percent. Auto sales were down — a typically strong driver of consumer spending — while department stores were led the pack.

The full story here.

But things are looking good in Trinidad

Trinidad is experiencing an economic uptick in several different sectors, according to the economic development director Jonathan Taylor.

The Trinidad Chronicle News reported:

“Within the past year and with the council’s goals in mind, we had a 15 percent increase in non-cannabis related sales tax,” Taylor said. “We had a 20 percent increase in our lodging tax revenue, and a 54 percent increase in residential sales and a 14 percent increase in commercial real estate sales. Now I’m going to assume that some of those real estate sales were related to cannabis, but that’s the overall economy of Trinidad.” — Jonathan Taylor, economic development director

Other factors, such as the average age dropping 1.5 years is added good news to the economy, as is the $.13 average wage increase.

You can read more of that Chronicle News report here.

Medicare opioid prescriptions in Colorado are above the national average

7.4 percent of Medicare prescriptions in Colorado in 2014 were for opioids — pain killers such as codeine and oxycodone. Most Medicare recipients are seniors. But people with disabilities or kidney failure can also qualify.

Colorado finds itself 1.7 percent higher than the national average of 5.4 percent of Medicare prescriptions being opioids. Rural counties, especially in the southern part of the state, tend to be higher.

But it’s difficult to correlate the Medicare prescription data to other troubling drug addiction statistics, such as overdose death rates — those include other drugs beyond prescription opioids.

Ready more on why here.

It probably won’t pass — the bills that are doomed to die in the statehouse

This week statehouse reporter Bente Birkland asked a pretty intriguing question: why do some lawmakers introduce bills that have zero chance of ever becoming a law?

Basically, to get attention.

Birkland reports:

“Whatever the message bill is, we get frustrated because there’s really important work that we have to do here at the capitol,” said Kelly Brough, president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. She said some issues can be damaging just by discussing them. She points to a religious freedom bill (House Bill 1013) that mirrored measures in other states. It would have allowed business owners opposed to same-sex marriages to deny services to LGBT individuals. It failed in its first Democratic controlled committee hearing.

More of the story here.