In The NOCO

If you visit the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Denver, you see different types of wildlife, miles of hiking and biking trails and acres of rolling prairie.   But you don’t see any trace of the astonishing history of what happened there during the Cold War: Rocky Flats was the site of a plant that made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons until it was shuttered in the early 19...

You likely haven’t heard the word ‘bipartisanship’ used much lately when it comes to news out of Washington. Republicans control the presidency and both chambers of Congress – and they’re making big policy moves.  But Democratic Congressman Jason Crow still sees value in members of the two parties working together. Crow represents Colorado’s 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which...

Manipulating the clouds to make it rain or snow sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But the technology behind cloud seeding is nothing new: It dates back to the 1940s.  That science got a new look recently when lawmakers ordered the Government Accountability Office to re-examine the possibilities of cloud seeding as water becomes a more precious resource in the U.S. The newly published repor...

JBS is one of the largest meat producers in the world. The company – which is headquartered in Greeley – reportedly earned $76 billion last year.    And the company relies on immigrant labor to keep their meatpacking plants, like the one in Greeley, operating.    A new story from the Food and Environment Reporting Network and the investigative journalism show Reveal offers a look at the community...

The recent news stories about wildfires in California seem all too familiar to Coloradans. We see homes destroyed by wildfires here every year.   But we’ve also been hearing reports of a second, slower-moving disaster in news reports out of California: insurance companies pulling out of high-risk areas , leaving thousands of homeowners with no ability to get coverage.   That kind of crisis is some...

Clinicians who treat patients with eating disorders have endured a perfect storm of challenges in recent years.    Specialists say the pandemic, and the years that followed, saw more people developing eating disorders and often taking longer to seek help. On top of that, treatment for these conditions is expensive. At the same time, lawmakers have heard terrible stories of patients being mistreate...

Parents worry about getting parenting right : limiting screen time, teaching responsibility, helping with homework.  It’s a lot of pressure.  Author Deborah Winking is an elementary school educator in Fort Collins. And she found her fears about raising a well-rounded child magnified after one of her children, Jack, was diagnosed with Sotos syndrome ,  a rare neurological disorder. Doctors weren’t...

A new vending machine opened for business recently in Boulder.   Instead of snacks or soda, customers who visit the machine can grab safe containers for needles ... fentanyl testing strips... or condoms. And all the items are free.  Health officials call it a "harm reduction vending machine." It’s funded by restitution money from lawsuits against manufacturers of prescription opioids. Supporters h...

Members of Congress are required to show up in person to vote on any measures. That creates challenges for representatives who are in the final weeks of pregnancy, or who just gave birth.   U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen , a Democrat from Lakewood, understands these rules from experience. And she says they’re unfair. She’s due to give birth to her second child in a few days – which means she’s under...

As President Donald Trump begins his second term, one of his promises to supporters has been to carry out what he calls the largest deportation in U.S. history. This has a number of Colorado communities on edge, especially in places where immigrants without legal status make up a large part of the population.   It has also prompted education leaders across Colorado to prepare for how their student...

Old firehoses. Used forklifts. Two-thousand sheets of acrylic plastic.  These are the kinds of things you can find at repurposedMATERIALS in Lafayette. The company acquires discarded industrial materials and products and resells them instead of sending them to a landfill.   Damon Carson founded the business in 2011 after running two trash companies. The repurposedMATERIALS location in Lafeyette is...

Coloradans who struggle with anxiety or depression will soon have a new treatment option. Psychedelic treatment with a licensed therapist– will be as legal in Colorado as prescription antidepressants.  Colorado voters approved this . Starting in April, licensed healing centers can offer psychedelic therapy using psilocybin, the psychedelic component in some mushrooms.   We wanted to understand wha...

When Colorado writer X. Ho Yen was a kid, he loved to read science fiction.    X. Ho Yen is autistic. He liked how some sci-fi stories, like the Star Trek series, depicted a more enlightened future society where neurodivergent people were treated equally.    Eventually he began writing his own science fiction novels. His newest release is titled Space Autistic Author’s Puzzling Innerverse . It’s d...

If you think of Baroque music, it might bring to mind ornate-sounding pieces by composers like Bach, Vivaldi or Handel. But a pair of concerts in Denver this weekend will offer listeners a different flavor of Baroque music – one that blends European-style harmonies with rhythms and percussion from Mexico and other Latin American countries. The performances, by the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colo...

Visitors to Colorado ski resorts can ride to the top of the mountain in a sleek gondola, or take a high-speed, four-person chairlift.   Or, if they head to one of the state’s smallest resorts, they can ride up in a trailer pulled by a snowcat.  Cuchara Mountain Ski Park in southern Colorado operates on weekends without a functioning ski lift, and serves just a few dozen skiers per day. They charge...

You may have heard the recent news of a scandal involving state lab technicians who falsified some test results of drinking water . The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment suspended further testing for now, saying the results couldn’t be trusted.   You may also have heard about bogus test results in monitoring for water contamination near oil and gas wells around the Front Range ....

When it’s time to get a good night’s rest, women have it harder than men. Women are more likely than men to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .   But the treatments that doctors prescribe for sleep disorders, like medication or different bedtime routines, may be based more on data about male sleep patterns than female sleep...

Have any of your New Year’s resolutions included to live a happier life this year? If you said yes, one recent study suggests you’re probably not alone.   Americans feel less happy than in previous years, according to the recent World Happiness Rep, which collects data on happiness from countries around the world every year. The U.S. finished 23rd, behind countries like Kuwait and Slovenia.   So w...

The start of a new year often involves making changes in pursuit of a healthier life.  For many of us, that means fewer processed foods, more veggies, and – maybe – a few more trips to the gym.    Or perhaps your resolution is to work on relationships – to make new friends or reconnect with existing ones. After all, friendships are a key part of our well-being. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sa...

When someone dies nowadays, their online accounts and social media profiles can become a poignant online memorial. Or sometimes, those accounts can become a hassle for grieving loved ones.    For many people who have recently lost someone, knowing what to do with a loved one’s online accounts is a mystery.  Sometimes an account gets deleted by the organization that manages them. Sometimes the acco...

Colorado teachers say their students are missing something that helps determine their academic success. Call it grit.   If a student who struggles with math studies hard and performs well on their math test, that’s grit. If they complete a homework assignment that was tough to finish, that's also grit.    Erica Breunlin covers education for The Colorado Sun . Since the pandemic, she says teachers...

An electrical grid on the moon.  It’s an idea that could eventually power a small lunar colony and help take space travel to a new level.   And research by two Colorado School of Mines graduate students may help make it a reality.  Chris Tolton and Ken Liang built a prototype of that lunar grid and presented it during a recent competition run by NASA. The prototype worked – and Chris and Ken won a...

These shorter, colder days over the midwinter holiday are the perfect time to break out that bag of roasted Pueblo chile peppers some of us have kept stashed in the freezer since the fall. They're just waiting to be turned into a big batch of spicy green chile.   And for many pepper aficionados, only the Pueblo chile will do.    But the popularity of these Colorado-grown peppers is a relatively re...

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science made an exciting announcement this year: A new species of cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion had been discovered in the foothills outside Boulder. Researchers named it Larca boulderica – a nod to the city of Boulder – and say the only place on the planet where you’ll find it is in just two caves near the Boulder Flatirons.     We reached out to David Steinmann, th...

Scientists have found a promising new way to break down harmful “forever” chemicals.   Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS , are found in many household products including nonstick cookware or waterproof clothing. They’ve also found their way into our drinking water, our food and our bodies.  They’re called forever chemicals because they were designed and manufactured...