In The NOCO

If you pay attention to your local elections office this time of year, you often see recruiting ads for seasonal election workers. These folks might manage a polling place or help process ballots after votes are cast.  This year in Boulder County, the elections office is recruiting for a different kind of role, which they call an Election Champion .   They've invited the public to attend trainings...

Wolf & Wren Press in Longmont has built its reputation by designing cards that capture an emotion. Their offerings include a sympathy card for someone who’s lost a pet dog. Or a Mother’s Day card for a woman who’s been like a mother to you.  Wolf & Wren has won four Louie Awards , which honor outstanding greeting cards. The company takes its name from its co-founders, Liz Wolf and Lauren S...

A day on the slopes. A horseback ride along a mountain trail. An afternoon in an escape room, or at the pickleball court.   Those activities are how some homeschool students have spent their days , under the banner of enrichment. And Colorado taxpayers have funded many of these outings – to the  the tune of tens of millions of dollars last year.   If these activities sound a bit more extravagant t...

Colorado recently reached a new clean energy milestone : In the first six months of this year, the majority of its electricity – 53.5 percent– came from renewable sources, like wind, solar and geothermal.    That's according to a recent article from the energy news website Big Pivots . And it marks a significant step toward Colorado's goal of getting to 100% emission-free electricity by the year 2...

Jeff Kagan and Paige Doughty have been wearing rainbow-colored socks while performing songs about nature and science in front of kids in Boulder for more than 20 years.   Their performances get kids rolling, crawling, and acting out animal moves while they sing fun, catchy lyrics about scientific concepts.    The duo, who perform under the name Jeff and Paige, recently created a TV show called Rai...

Table settings that reveal a deeper understanding of what life was like for Black women in Colorado throughout different periods of history.   That concept is the core of a traveling History Colorado exhibit on display in Leadville, called 12 Tablecloths . Artist and historian Chloé Duplessis , who specializes in fabrics and textiles, created the show, which has traveled to several cities around t...

Nearly one in five new moms experiences anxiety or depression during pregnancy or after giving birth. These conditions can lead to difficulty bonding with a newborn, or a higher risk of suicide, if left untreated.    But a new experimental treatment is giving some researchers hope. It's a psychoactive substance derived from mushrooms called luvesilocin.  In a recent set of FDA trials , a single do...

If you ask a wildlife official – moose are relatively new arrivals to Colorado.  In the late 1970s, wildlife managers released two dozen moose captured in other states into Routt National Forest near Walden. Before that, moose may have occasionally wandered in and out of Colorado, but didn’t have a permanent home here, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s official moose webpage .  But a rese...

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials made a major announcement last week: They will no longer kill wolves believed to have repeatedly preyed on livestock.   It's a shift in how Colorado has managed its fledgling wolf population. Previously, officials tried to strike a balance between Colorado voters’ desire to reintroduce wolves – and the concerns of ranchers who say the animals kill and harass t...

Across Colorado, public schools are serving more students with autism.   The increases over the past five years are striking: In Denver Public Schools, the state's largest district, there's been a nearly 75% increase in the number of students with an autism diagnosis who seek help from special education services. And while the exact increase varies from district to district, those figures are high...

It’s fall in Colorado – which means mountain roads have been filled with people enjoying the sight of all those red, orange and gold aspen leaves that cover the hillsides.  And you can bet that quite a few of those tourists will look at those vibrant aspen trees and wonder why they can't just plant one in their own yard.   John Murgel, a horticulture specialist with Colorado State University Exten...

A library that’s focused on encouraging people to get outside might feel a bit odd – especially in a state like Colorado with a multitude of ways to hike or camp or spend time outdoors.   But getting out into nature isn't always within reach for everyone. For example, a camping trip can require expensive gear like tents, backpacks and sleeping bags.  The new Anythink Nature Library in Thornton ope...

The Colorado Rockies have some of the most loyal fans in all of baseball. And that might be part of their problem.  As we look back on another historically bad season, consider this statistic: The Rockies now have the dubious distinction of being just the fifth team in major league history to lose at least 100 games in four consecutive seasons.  And yet, plenty of fans still show up.  That's been...

More transparency in healthcare pricing – and fewer surprises from the billing department.    Those are the key concepts behind a new Senate bill called the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act . It would require hospitals to be more up-front about what they'll charge you for medical procedures, and to send an itemized breakdown of the costs after a patient receives care.   Colorado Democratic Sen. Joh...

A fictional shooting in a Colorado diner. A protagonist who finds himself in a space in between life and death. And a hero who's forced to grapple with whether or not he's led a meaningful life.   These are key elements of a thought-provoking new novel by Colorado author Melissa Payne, called In This Life or Another . It was published earlier this month.   The book explores the question of what it...

It's become common in recent years: In the first weeks after summer break ends, many educators find themselves dealing with stifling temperatures in the classroom. And a string of early release days often follows.  It happened again this year -- at the tail-end of a summer that saw record-breaking temperatures across the Front Range, according to meteorologists.   If you find yourself wondering if...

Director and longtime Estes Park resident Nick Mollé spent decades making documentaries . His subjects include Rocky Mountain National Park, birds of Costa Rica and Australia’s wild animals. And a few years ago, he turned his attention to one of the most prominent environmental crises in the U.S. – the drought-stricken Colorado River.   But midway through the project, Mollé faced a major setback:...

Capt. Frank Keesling runs a busy operation each summer on Dillon Reservoir in Summit County. Keesling owns the Dillon Water Taxi , which for the past decade has ferried passengers on a scenic journey across the reservoir and back – including people going to concerts at Dillon Amphitheater.   But this summer, things changed. Drought, low snowpack, and little rainfall have pulled the reservoir’s wat...

That heat wave that broiled Colorado and the U.S. this summer? Scientists are fairly certain it was made worse by climate change.  But with disasters like tornadoes or wildfires, drawing a clear connection to climate change is trickier.   Connecting those dots is part of a scientific field called extreme event attribution . And it matters because it influences how leaders, and the public, might ta...

In 2026, artificial intelligence can draw a picture for you. Or write you a song. Or a whole novel.   And a lot of people have strong feelings about that. Many artists and audiences find it uncomfortable when artificial intelligence replaces human creativity.  So, it may be surprising to meet a poet who has embraced writing AI poetry – and more recently, has begun teaching AI to write its own poem...

Doctors who practice at Children's Hospital Colorado find themselves in court as part of a case focused on one of the most divisive issues in the U.S.  Attorneys for hundreds of younger patients seeking gender-affirming care say doctors at the hospital are refusing to provide treatment like puberty blockers or hormone therapy. That’s in spite of a Colorado Supreme Court order instructing the hospi...

Using bees to gauge the health of an ecosystem.  Scientists in Boulder are testing out an unusual plan to use bees to gauge how  plants and other species in the city are thriving.   It works like this: A neighborhood group hosts a few hives on their property. Thousands of bees fly around the neighborhood collecting pollen and returning it to the hive.  Then, researchers can test the different type...

In recent weeks, Colorado has seen record-high numbers of bears roaming in places where they clash with humans: neighborhood streets, trash bins, cars – even people’s homes.   Severe drought conditions across the state, along with a late-spring freeze, have decimated the supply of berries and fruit that bears rely on. So, the animals head into town looking for other food .  And it turns out these...

This summer left yards across the Front Range devastated. Brown, dry patches of grass are everywhere – and so are yards that have been taken over by bindweed, thistles, and spurge.   Experts at Colorado State University Extension say they've been getting lots of calls from anxious homeowners with similar problems. And they say fall can be a great time for some lawn rescue projects to help get the...

A new lawsuit takes aim at the business model of some major Colorado ski resorts.   For years, skiers and snowboarders have watched the price of a one-day lift ticket climb by hundreds of dollars, while more expensive season passes have become the industry’s central product.  Now, a group of skiers has filed a lawsuit in Colorado’s federal court , arguing that the country’s largest ski resort comp...