Fronteras

The U.S. census has released data showing a 15 percent increase in the population age 65 and over. That amounts to more than 40 million Americas. Western states like Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico had the fastest growth of older residents. A number of counties across the southwest experienced a more than 70 percent increase in the number of seniors. Scottsdale, Arizona is the country's oldest city, where 20 percent of the population is over age 65. The census bureau attributes most of this growth to people who move south after retirement. As a whole, the nation is getting older.

U-S Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico says the grants will expand much-needed services in rural and often remote communities. The federal program has awarded almost half a million dollars to the Navajo Nation to meet increasing transportation demands within the country’s largest reservation that’s the size of West Virginia. Many tribal members live far from medical or veterans services. And many tribes bus students a hundred miles or more to and from school. One tribe in Nevada, the Duckwater Shoshone, lives 75 miles from the nearest town.

LAS VEGAS — The unending rash of foreclosures and falling home prices in Las Vegas continues to cause despair. But the same housing crisis is causing some investors to see opportunity. Home prices have dropped to 1990s levels, and many homes in the area are selling for below the amount it would cost to build them.

In fact, these Las Vegas homes are getting noticed from buyers all over the world.

Kevin Chu recently toured Las Vegas for the first time to check on his investment firm’s properties.

LAS VEGAS — Like most Southwest cities, the Las Vegas growth model was to expand out, creating sprawling suburbs and quiet gated communities.

But one trendsetting local business – the online shoe company, Zappos – thinks an urban setting would be a better fit for its employees and industry.

PHOENIX — Pigs will probably fly in the Southwest before homebuilders stop constructing new homes here. But the types of homes people will need in the next 20 years might look very different.

We’re staying single longer. We’re having fewer children. We’re paying more for gas and utilities. Is it time to re-think the all-American suburb? Arizona State University graduate students in design and architecture think so.

PPHOENIX — Homebuilders have long made a living expanding the edges of Southwestern cities. But look around these days and you’ll find construction projects that have screeched to a halt.

Up to 1 million lots in Central Arizona were in some stage of approval for new homes when the market crashed, according to the Sonoran Institute.

Mexico and the United States are working toward a broad package deal that would help revive the Colorado River Delta.

Seven years ago, the U.S. began working on the project to line an earthen portion of the All-American Canal in Imperial Valley and send the saved water to San Diego. Many in Mexico and the U.S. opposed the lining, saying it prevented seeping water from reaching fields and wetlands in Mexico. The lining project was completed in 2010.