In The NOCO

Fatal traffic accidents involving pedestrians are on the rise in Colorado. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available,135 pedestrians died in Colorado traffic accidents. That’s more than twice as many pedestrians as died in traffic crashes a decade earlier, according to a story from the Colorado Sun .   But the number of pedestrian deaths has actually decreased in one city. Official...

If you've tried a slew of dieting routines with minimal success – think the Keto Diet, Caveman Diet, or South Beach Diet – a new study says you might have better luck fasting a few days per week.   University of Colorado researchers recently found that participants who fasted three days each week were more successful at losing weight than participants who followed a reduced-calorie diet every day....

Recycled wooden barrels. Used steel beams. Reclaimed railroad ties.  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 Lafeyette location is one of six across the cou...

A growing number of home gardeners are turning to drought-tolerant plantings – think native plants like yucca, milkweed, or yarrow.  For years, many homeowners’ associations in Colorado didn’t make it easy to install xeric landscaping or water-saving tools like rain barrels.    But homeowners, state law is on your side.    In recent years, Colorado legislators passed a handful of laws that make it...

Mountain Plovers are a celebrated bird species in parts of Colorado. But if you’ve never seen one, you’re in the majority.   Mountain Plovers nest on Colorado’s eastern plains and are sometimes referred to as the “prairie ghost” because their sandy-colored plumage makes them hard to spot.   The annual Mountain Plover Festival in Karval – which begins this Friday – celebrates this bird.    The fest...

Colorado health officials are watching with concern as measles cases increase around the country.   Outbreaks of the highly contagious disease are on the rise in two dozen states. Most of the country’s 800 cases so far are in Texas.   But the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has confirmed three cases in our state so far – and officials there are warning about the potential for...

Housing costs in Colorado’s mountain resort towns are so high that many workers can’t afford an apartment or room in the towns where they do their jobs.   In Summit County, dozens of workers opt for an unusual solution. They pay $75 a month for a pass that lets them sleep in their car in a parking lot in Frisco.    The nonprofit Unsheltered In Summit runs the Summit Safe Parking Program. The progr...

Leaders in Colorado are grappling with how to respond to the Trump administration's immigration policies that might affect students.  State lawmakers last week gave initial approval to a bill that would limit cooperation between federal immigration officials and public schools.  And for months now, education leaders have been gathering advice on how to respond if immigration raids affect students...

Friendships are an essential part of our well-being. Mental health experts say that loneliness is an epidemic that harms mental health and even physical health.    So, if you want to build better friendships – and strengthen the ones you already have – you might be wondering how to go about it.  Fortunately, there’s a bona fide “friendship expert” at Colorado State University.   Natalie Pennington...

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...