In the Rockies today, tiny aquatic hitchhikers make their way into Western waters.

For more than a decade, the 100th Meridian Initiative has been sounding the alarm about quagga mussels and other invasive species crossing the 100th meridian, a historical boundary separating the East from the West.

But those warnings did not deter the determined mussels from making their way from the Great Lakes to the waters of the Colorado River.

And now the quagga mussels appear ready colonize Lake Mead, and have traveled down the Colorado River into reservoirs as far south as the Imperial Dam, just north of the Mexico border.

And in our In-depth section, we provide updates on wildfires in the West, with Utah experiencing its first of the season.

Rockies today

Quagga mussels invade the Colorado River
Tiny, destructive quagga mussels are in Lake Mead, having made their way West over the Rockies on trailers and recreational boats, and the invaders will no doubt wreak the same level of devastation on the ecosystem of the lower Colorado River as they have on the Great Lakes.
New York Times; June 17
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Federal mine safety agency hires hundreds of inspectors
In order to beef up its efforts to improve mine safety, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has hired more than 300 new inspectors to perform evaluations of the nation's 731 underground coal mines from West Virginia to Utah.
Washington Post (AP); June 17
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• Mine operators automatically appealing citations
  Mine Safety and Health Administration officials said efforts to ramp up safety inspections of the nation's underground mine were being stymied by mine operators' automatic appeal of safety citations, including UtahAmerican Energy, a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp., a co-owner of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah where six miners and three rescuers died last August, which had instituted a "blanket policy" of contesting all MSHA citations.
  Salt Lake Tribune; June 17
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