In The NOCO

A lot of young skiers and snowboarders nowadays want to break into an especially daring form of competition called freeskiing. It’s all about performing jumps and other stunts on camera, often in the backcountry. Freeskiers build huge followings on social media and win endorsement deals.     But breaking into this sport is dangerous.  Last week marked one year since the death of 21-year-old Colora...

Nuclear energy is now clean energy in Colorado. That’s according to a new law recently signed by Gov. Jared Polis.   The law adds nuclear power to a list of clean energies like wind and solar. Colorado leaders have set a goal of using only clean energy to power the state by 2040.     The law didn’t pass without pushback from critics who point out that nuclear energy produces radioactive waste. But...

There are many types of mental health therapy you can access these days: talk therapy, art therapy, even music therapy.  Jen Ikuta leads sessions in what's called cuddle therapy. It’s a growing field .   Jen works with clients who want to learn to be more comfortable with another person’s touch. Many of her clients have experienced physical trauma, and many have autism.   Jen usually works with cl...

Researchers have proposed a plan to transform empty high-rise office spaces into living spaces to reduce the housing shortage in the Denver metro area. Denver is one of many American cities with a tight housing market and a glut of unused office space.  A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the architecture firm Gensler calls for converting high rise offices to shared residential spaces...

Egg prices in Colorado and across the nation remain stubbornly high. If you’ve been grocery shopping lately, it won't come as a surprise that the cost of eggs shot up 40 percent over the last year.  Some experts have blamed outbreaks of avian flu, which forced farmers to cull millions of chickens and turkeys across the country. And while that is certainly one factor, a Colorado professor says that...

A few weeks back we talked about how many Coloradans are planting native plants in their yards. And about how native plants are hardier, use less water, and can support bees and other pollinators in our ecosystem.   We also invited you and other listeners to share your questions about native plants. And you sent us loads of responses.  In this episode of In the NoCo, Erin O’Toole visits again with...

If you spend time in the mountains, you’re probably familiar with sitting in traffic on I-70.  That congestion is annoying – and costly.   Colorado officials estimate the state lost nearly $320 million in revenue last year from delays on I-70. Some leaders in mountain towns blame these losses on semis that cause accidents or hold up traffic.   So one veteran railroad employee has pitched an idea h...

The trial of a driver accused of hitting and killing a promising young competitive cyclist has made headlines in recent days. Seventeen-year-old Magnus White was struck and killed in 2023 while riding his bike on Highway 119 between Boulder and Longmont.  Today we’re sharing a conversation about technology that might prevent similar tragedies.  Magnus White’s parents and other cycling safety advoc...

An extraordinary Colorado athlete gets some much-deserved recognition.   Libby James, a runner from Fort Collins, has a slew of accomplishments under her belt. She’s run 10 marathons – including Boston, Tokyo and Pikes Peak. She’s the most dominant female runner in the history of the Bolder Boulder 10k , having finished in the top 20 for her age group an incredible 28 times.   And she did most of...

Gluten free foods are everywhere nowadays.   They’re designed for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance – people who get sick if they eat gluten, which is a kind of wheat protein.   But our guest today thinks many of those products miss the mark. So, she did something about it.  Chennelle Diong and her husband, Justin Beaver – both of whom have celiac disease – founded GoodLove Foods ....

Coloradans who struggle with anxiety or depression will soon have access to a different kind of treatment option.   At the start of 2025, a new law took effect that opened the door to psychedelic-assisted therapy offered by licensed treatment centers in Colorado. State officials had projected April as the date these centers could begin offering therapy sessions using psilocybin, the psychoactive c...

Some state lawmakers in Denver are using the term “education deserts” to sound the alarm around underperforming schools. It refers to a ZIP code where at least two-thirds of the students attend a school with subpar math and reading scores. One estimate says about 123,000 public school students in Colorado fall into this category.   Some Democratic lawmakers have recently proposed an unprecedented...

Homeowners in Colorado’s foothills are used to the threat of wildfire. But after the Marshall Fire hit Louisville and Superior in 2021, some are taking wildfire mitigation more seriously. And how you landscape your yard is a big part of that work.  The good news is you can landscape your yard to be fire-resistant and beautiful at the same time.  Tommy Roth is a home horticulture coordinator for th...

Around the globe, thousands of languages are considered endangered – that's according to the language reference website Ethnologue . In many cases the people who speak them are passing away, and younger generations aren’t learning them.  But a pair of language scholars from the University of Colorado are working to stop these endangered languages from slipping away.  Zapotec is a family of languag...

On November 1, 1955, a man planted a bomb aboard a United Airlines plane shortly before it departed from Denver. The plane exploded in midflight over beet fields in Weld County, killing all 44 people aboard.    It was a mass murder that grabbed headlines across the country. And viewers saw footage of the trial on TV – which was unusual then. If you've never heard of this crime, though, you're hard...

Colorado is a tough state to be a restaurant manager in right now. Every day seems to bring news that another local favorite is closing.   It's expensive to run a restaurant . Costs for food and real estate have been on the rise. And for restaurants along Colorado’s Front Range, there’s one especially thorny issue: – employee pay.  For the last few years, Colorado’s minimum wage has been $14.81 an...

The Hayman Fire burned through a huge swath of forest southwest of Denver in 2002. It left behind a massive burn scar. Workers quickly replanted thousands of trees to reestablish the forest.   But more than two decades later, large areas of the Hayman burn scar still resemble a moonscape, with some scraggly young trees here and there.   Burn scars that take decades to heal are becoming a fact of l...

Tourists love the sight of a moose with their long noses, large sloping antlers, and gangly legs.   But Rocky Mountain National Park biologists say the growing moose population appears to be harming wetlands in the park. That’s according to a recent story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan. And state wildlife officials say they also want to make sure a ‘moose boom’ doesn’t threaten the willows, aspen...

A massive reservoir project that will eventually clear the way for a half-million new residents in Northern Colorado is now a step closer to breaking ground.   The $2 billion water project will create two new reservoirs that will feed 15 towns and water districts in Northern Colorado. Advocates for NISP, the Northern Integrated Supply Project, say it’s essential to ensure that these fast-growing c...

A bill under consideration at the state capitol would allow religious organizations to use their properties to build housing developments. It's an idea some state lawmakers see as an opportunity.  Supporters say it would help alleviate Colorado's housing shortage, using thousands of acres of available church-owned property around the state.  KUNC's Stephanie Daniel has been reporting on this issue...

March is Colorado’s snowiest month. Which means lots of us will be looking to make fresh tracks on that deep powder this time of year.   And if you live in Colorado, you know that amazing powder brings with it truly astonishing sunburns for skiers and snowboarders.   There are scientific reasons that your friends come home from the slopes with goggle marks scorched onto their faces. And one scient...

Last year, Colorado lawmakers passed an unusual law .   It directed every county in the state to set up in-person voting for incarcerated people in jails, many of whom are awaiting trial and haven’t been convicted of a crime.    The new law is the first of its kind in the nation. It's an effort to support voting rights for a population that is often considered out of sight, out of mind.   Alex Bur...

Spring is approaching, and the garden beckons. Which means it’s not too early to start making gardening and landscaping plans for the year.  And if you’re like a lot of homeowners in Colorado, you might be thinking about adding some native plants.  Experts say it’s a great way to save water. Native plants also support bees, birds and other pollinators. And native vegetation can require less prunin...

Five years ago this month, the coronavirus pandemic upended life in Colorado and around the world.    More than 14,000 Coloradans died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the state saw more than 1.7 million COVID-19 cases .  It was a global health crisis that also reshaped the state’s economy in an instant.   Businesses and air travel largely shut down for a time. Rem...

State wildlife officials will pay nearly $350,000 to reimburse ranchers in Colorado’s high country who saw their livestock killed or harmed by wolves last year.   The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to approve those claims recently. It’s a key part of the state’s program to reintroduce wolves. And it gets less attention than photos of newly released wolves turned loose by wildlife off...