In The NOCO

Temple Grandin sees the world through a different lens. The Colorado State University professor of animal science is neurodivergent, and her differences as an autistic person have been foundational to her work – especially when it comes to advocating for the humane treatment of animals. She is also an advocate for neurodivergent thinkers of all ages. Her new book for children, “ Different Kinds of...

Advocates say failing to invest in childcare is a missed opportunity to address inequity. And the lack of investment is hitting Northern Colorado families in multiple ways. For one, it leaves rising kindergartners unprepared to enter public schools.  “The achievement gap is present well before children enter kindergarten,” said Tarryn Morrisey , a professor of child and family public policy at Ame...

The cash bail system continues to face scrutiny in the U.S. Activists say it subverts the long-held American ideal that a person is innocent until proven guilty. In other words, under the cash bail system, if you can’t afford to post bail, you could end up sitting in jail for days, weeks or months waiting for a trial regardless of your innocence.  In Colorado, like other states, people of color ar...

The need to screen students for learning disabilities is on the rise in Northern Colorado and mental health providers are having trouble meeting the demand. Marybeth Rigali-Oiler , a child and adolescent psychologist with the Health District of Northern Larimer County, says finding answers isn’t always straightforward, either. “You also have to kind of throw a broad net to see, well, is it actuall...

Water – and how to manage it – is a perennial topic in the parched American West. So today on  World Water Day , we are looking at some of the most pressing water issues of the moment and how we in Northern Colorado can better appreciate and conserve this precious resource.  "I just wish people would realize the foresight it took to build some of these water systems that we take for granted now,”...

Many of us have been told that our twenties are the best time in our lives. But some data suggests otherwise. At least one new report says 20-somethings in the U.S. are some of the most unhappy in the world.  "I have yet to meet someone who's like, ‘Gosh, I wish I could be in my 20s again,’” said Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist who specializes in this formative decade of life. “You know, your 20s...

Prisons in Colorado are severely understaffed and that is hitting workers especially hard. But the effects of this shortage stretch far past the staff. “You have not only the stress on the staff from the vacancy, you have the disruption of normal functionality for the department as a whole and, then of course, this incredible negative impact on the people who are incarcerated,” said Christie Donne...

In many communities across Colorado, teens say there are few things for them to do after school. In Summit County, as local leaders work on a long-term plan for the future, young people are asking for more affordable indoor spaces. KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson sat down with local students to discuss why these hangout spots are so important to them and their well-being. She joined...

The launch of a passenger rail line in Northern Colorado felt a smidge closer to reality last week at Union Station. That’s when the first passenger train in decades departed from Denver to Longmont . The passengers included state lawmakers, transportation pros and Governor Jared Polis, who did the honors of calling passengers aboard. We have been dreaming about a Front Range passenger rail since...

Imagine keeping your cool with 10 crying babies in a classroom. Yes, childcare is hard work and it is crucial to our fast-growing community.  “We're not just babysitters, we just don't show up in a warehouse and play with kids all day. The work that we do is essential so that children are ready for school. To enter kindergarten, they're ready at third grade reading levels, and they're ready to gra...

Author and activist St. Clair Detrick-Jules uses words and images to capture personal stories that celebrate and center Black liberation, the immigrant experience, and women's rights.  “Historically in this country, Black people haven't been able to really control the narrative of our own stories, of our own lives and experiences,” she said. “And so I think that for us being able to share our firs...

When KUNC senior managing editor Stephanie Daniel journeyed into the mountains to work on her podcast The Colorado Dream , she met Javier Pineda, a snowboard instructor and Mexican immigrant. She was reporting on the housing crisis in Summit County, which has had a major impact on Pineda’s life. But as is often the case with journalism, telling one story led to the discovery of another.  Daniel le...

Although it is technically still winter — at least until March 19 — the flowers will soon be in bloom at Colorado State University’s Trial Garden. That is where many of the flower varieties hitting garden stores in the coming weeks undergo a rigorous, real-world testing process to see which varieties are resilient enough for Northern Colorado. The garden was started back in the 1970s on a small pl...

A national childcare shortage has its grip on Northern Colorado. It is affecting not only parents trying to hold down jobs, but also communities more broadly and local economies. The need is so great, in fact, that in February,  Larimer County had to freeze enrollment in its state-subsidized childcare program because it ran out of funds. “Childcare is this cyclical, community issue, where we need...

People of color in Denver breathe some of the area’s worst air. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder not only shows that the air in some neighborhoods is more polluted than others, it also links that disparity to an outlawed practice called redlining. In the 1930s and 40s, lenders and governments used color-coded maps to identify areas where people of color lived and deny those res...

Today is Super Tuesday — traditionally the biggest day for primary elections and caucuses across the nation. In Colorado, unaffiliated voters can cast a ballot for either the Republican or Democratic candidates. For more on the election and how KUNC is working to engage Coloradans in the democratic process, KUNC statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. In today’s ep...

In the West, two elements play an outsized role in our quality of life — fire and water. We know wildfire is part of the natural cycle of life here, yet climate change has intensified fires, making them deadlier, more destructive and more frequent. Meanwhile, our Western snowpack determines just how much water we have available to sustain our people, plants and animals. The relationship between th...

Just off Highway 34 outside of Greeley sits a ghost town dotted with a couple of deteriorating buildings and a sign. In the early 1900s this area was home to Dearfield . The thriving agricultural community founded by O.T. Jackson was Colorado’s largest Black homesteading site. Settlers grew corn, winter wheat, melons and strawberries and the community enjoyed great prosperity until drought, the Du...

Wolves are a contentious topic in the West, especially in Colorado where they were recently reintroduced. They are also central to a new 20-year study looking at their removal and reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park and what that means for disruptions to the food web.  Tom Hobbs and his research team at Colorado State University found that reintroducing apex predators like wolves failed to...

In 2021, Nicki Gonzales became Colorado’s first Latina state historian. History is a lifelong vocation for the Regis University professor – one that has helped to inform her own identity, and honor her family’s legacy. "When I was state historian, I would dedicate my presentations and my activities to my paternal grandmother, who I never met, but who was a single, mother of three boys here in Denv...

One in 27 students in Poudre School District is experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. That’s a statistic that KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson recently stumbled on. Her reporting on youth mental health had suggested there was a problem, but this number told her the issue was more urgent than she’d thought. “It is on the radar of all of the school districts that I interact...

Museum curator Acoma Gaither has been a student of Black history for as long as she can remember. She’s pored over rich historical accounts of Black life in America’s North, South and East. But she says a lot of the history of Black life in our state still needs to be uncovered.    “And that's what really drew me to Colorado,” Gaither said. “I think there's so much opportunity and learning about t...

Health care is a fast-growing industry in Colorado, but finding people to work these jobs is a constant struggle amid the state’s ongoing worker shortage. State leaders are hopeful that a new bipartisan bill will alleviate some of the pressure. It would fund healthcare training across the state, including a new medical school — the College of Osteopathic Medicine — at the University of Northern Co...

One of Cary Morin’s guitars is proudly displayed at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery . That black Fender electric speaks to his musical legacy here in Northern Colorado as an Americana artist — or rather, "Native Americana," as some have dubbed his musical style. It is a style with deep Indigenous roots that Morin brought with him from Montana and replanted in Fort Collins four decades ago. "T...

As a teen, author Oscar Hokeah was an avid reader. He devoured dark fantasy novels and envisioned writing Native American versions of those stories. His studies drew him on a more literary path — but it took a long time to get there.   "So the last grade I completed was sixth grade, and then I got a GED when I was 17," Hokeah said. "And so I didn't even think of myself as being [a writer] even tho...