Heart Mountain was an internment camp in northwest Wyoming where Japanese Americans were relocated against their will during World War II.

It was the subject of a recent PBS TV special, and will also be featured in the Alliance for Historic Wyoming's new Placed-Based Stories project.

Dakota Russell, executive director of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, said while the camp closed at war's end, many families who had lost everything they owned after relocation decided to stay in Wyoming.

"We should, of course, take away the lessons that we need to learn about injustice, and about standing up for democracy, that we can take away from this story," Russell stated. "But we should also celebrate this community and the contributions they made to the history of our state at the same time."

Widespread misinformation campaigns claimed, without evidence, that Japanese Americans could not be trusted, and cast many as enemy spies. Surrounded by nine towers guarded by armed military police, the camp's 10,000 residents operated their own hospital, grew their own food, and built irrigation systems that continue to provide a lifeline to the area's farms and ranches.

Alan O'hashi's family was already living, by choice, in a vibrant but little known Japanese American community in downtown Cheyenne when relocations to Heart Mountain were under way.

O'hashi, an author and filmmaker, said his PBS Special "Beyond Heart Mountain" is in part a response to the high levels of anti-Asian racism during World War II, and most recently after COVID was dubbed the Chinese Flu.

"Hearing stories from people different from yourself, and trying to understand those histories, enables more civil relationships," O'hashi explained. "So that we're not basing our attitudes on preconceived stereotypes or preconceived ideas."

Heart Mountain's original barracks, after the government sold them off for one dollar each, continue to be used across Wyoming. Russell's group has recovered one, which will be open to visitors once it's been restored. Russell said there's a distinct power of place when you get to stand on the same ground where people's lives were changed forever.

"There's something about walking around the site," Russell noted. "There's something about walking into that barrack that we're restoring that really evokes that place in time in a way that you can't get from any book."

The public has until February 13th to weigh in on new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce methane pollution at oil and gas facilities.

Emma Galofre Garcia, a doctoral student at C.U. Boulder's environmental studies program, said the EPA has an opportunity to build on successful efforts led by states including Colorado to rein in methane emissions, a dangerous air pollutant.

"It's a precursor to ozone and smog, causing lung damage, heart damage, greater susceptibility to respiratory infections. It causes and worsens lung disease such as asthma and bronchitis," Garcia said.

Some critics of proposals to limit methane pollution, including those passed in Colorado that require oil and gas operators to find and fix leaks and reduce flaring, have argued that the cost of implementation can be prohibitive. Proponents argue that companies benefit by capturing emissions and bringing more gas to market.

Some communities face greater risks than others. Latinos are twice as likely to go to the emergency room for asthma, and Latino children are twice as likely to die from asthma as white children.

Garcia said Latinos historically have had no other option but to live in the shadows of refineries and other sources of air pollution, but the goal should be to make all neighborhoods safe for families.

"Communities of color, Latinos have only had access to housing that have been red-lined and that are in areas that are more polluted," Garcia said. "But it's also that we don't want places like that to exist."

She added industrial methane emissions targeted in the EPA's new rules also come with toxins linked to cancer, damage to immune systems and developmental problems in children.

"Outdoor workers, who are disproportionately Latino, and children, who spend a lot of time outdoors, are at a higher risk of health problems caused by smog - since they spend more time outdoors in polluted air," Garcia said.

The five largest cities in Texas are spending far more money on criminal justice than on community services, according to a new study.

The Social Movement Support Lab data showed money spent on police departments, court systems, and corrections departments in Texas' five largest cities was much higher than the amounts spent on such services as affordable housing, parks and recreation, and mental health programs.

Christopher Rivera, criminal injustice outreach coordinator for the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the state has one of the world's highest incarceration rates, even as people need community services, like housing, more than ever.

"Especially now, since there's so many people facing eviction," Rivera pointed out. "I think that's why people are so appalled that we notice that there's so much money being taken away from actually keeping communities safe, and put into systems that criminalize us and penalize everyday people."

The study found Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin all spend more on police than community supports, and it is especially true for Fort Worth, which is spending six times more; about $1,300 per household on law enforcement, compared to $200 per household for community care. Many police departments cite increased crime during the pandemic as a reason they need more money.

In 2022, Houston spent $1 billion on what the study refers to as "mass criminalization," compared with just $213 million on community care.

Rivera, who monitors budgets in the Houston area, noted while crime is often reduced when people have access to affordable housing, Texas cities are not responding.

"Texas has always had a mass incarceration problem," Rivera pointed out. "I just know locally, the last 10 years we see that police budgets have gone up, but yet services for like housing, public libraries or even health care have gone down."

In 2021, as Austin appeared poised to reduce some police spending, the Texas Legislature passed a law effectively barring cities from doing so. The city sent more than $130 million back to the police department.

Colorado's Spanish-speaking communities can now access comprehensive pricing information for health-care services through a new Spanish portal in the Shop For Care tool developed by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care.

Cari Frank, vice president for communications for Center for Improving Value in Health Care, said the tool is a game-changer, and has saved consumers thousands of dollars in medical bills, because it allows anyone to see the true costs of medical procedures across all of the state's hospitals and other care facilities.

"This tool actually enables people who maybe have high copays to be able to say, 'OK, if I need a colonoscopy, or I'm having a baby, I can actually use this tool to figure out where I can get the best quality of care at the lowest price,'" she said.

Creating a tool that Spanish-speaking Coloradans could access has been a top priority for the center. Frank said it works to improve health equity. More than half of Colorado Latinos speak Spanish and it is the sole language spoken by one in ten Coloradans, according to the Latino Leadership Institute. The Spanish and English versions can be accessed at the Center's website: 'civhc.org.'

Shop For Care also has been used by health-care providers to see how their prices compare, and to help patients without health insurance find lower-priced options. Frank said some medical procedures can cost as much as $60,000 more at one facility versus another. When consumers are better informed about their choices, she said they can be a significant driver in lowering health-care costs.

"And if a consumer makes a choice to go to the lower-cost facility that has just as great quality, then we're actually lowering the overall cost of health care, which reduces premiums for all of us," she said.

Price is not the only important factor to consider when choosing a health-care facility, so the tool enables consumers to compare health-care quality and patient experience at many facilities. In addition to the Spanish addition, Shop For Care has been improved to make the tool more mobile friendly, and can now be accessed using multiple devices.