In The NOCO

It was a shocking crime. In January, thieves in Wichita, Kansas allegedly stole and destroyed a bronze statue of Jackie Robinson , the trailblazing baseball player and civil rights hero. Only the statue's bronze shoes were left behind. The statue had stood near ballfields used by League 42 – a youth baseball league named after the number on Robinson’s uniform.  News of the crime generated an outpo...

A tiny parasite is an emerging threat to honeybees globally. And a scientist at the University of Colorado is sounding the alarm.  Dr. Samuel Ramsey is an entomologist, someone who studies insects. Dr. Sammy , as he is also known, is assistant professor of entomology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and talks about science on his YouTube channel . The tropilaelops mit...

Each spring, the Front Range endures miller moth season. Even in relatively mild years like this one, the tiny winged visitors enter our homes, annoy us and even frighten us.  But they’re also fascinating. So we asked Karim Gharbi – an insect expert and horticulture specialist with Colorado State University Extension – to help us unpack the mysteries of the miller moths.  Where do they come from?...

For many of us, Memorial Day is the first day of the year we get to fire up the grill. We make hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks - all foods that taste good with a bit of a char and that added smoky flavor.  They’re also all meats.  So what if you want a plant-based Memorial Day cookout, but you don’t want that frozen veggie patty from the grocery store? Today on the show: some easy ideas for a meat-fr...

The phrase "gardening season" may bring a few images to mind: large beds of colorful wildflowers… rows of neatly staked tomato plants… big bags of mulch stacked up against the side of the house. Or perhaps your mental image of gardening looks a little more modest. As in, potted herbs growing on a windowsill.  That's the case for KUNC digital producer Natalie Skowlund. She recently decided to resea...

Adjusting street lamps and other exterior lights to allow the stars to shine more brilliantly – that's part of the process for becoming a certified Dark Sky community. More than 200 places in 22 countries around the world have this designation.  Advocates say limiting light pollution helps preserve expansive views of the night sky, and helps nocturnal creatures thrive. And the Colorado Tourism Off...

Danielle SeeWalker is a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta artist living and working in Denver. Her work incorporates traditional Native American materials and themes.  This past January, SeeWalker was approached and offered a residency by the town of Vail. The residency would have included SeeWalker creating a public mural. However, on May 9, town officials backed out on that plan. They stated a concern about the...

One of the most definitive signs that spring has arrived is the sound of lawnmowers filling the neighborhood. But this month, that rumble may be a little quieter than usual. That's because of a recent trend in yard care called " No Mow May ."  The idea is simple: wait until June to mow to allow flowers like dandelions and clover to grow and support bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. The con...

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.  At its peak there were around 300 residents, and Dearfield boasted a number of businesses including a grocery store and...

Patients in Colorado feel the brunt of a growing healthcare crisis every day. Most Colorado counties have a shortage of primary care doctors and other healthcare workers – and that has an outsized impact on low-income and rural communities. And that shortage is projected to get even worse as physicians near retirement age. About a third of doctors in the state are 60 or older, according to a recen...

Access to a great education – and finding a way to pay for it – was a common thread running through some of the most notable bills Colorado lawmakers introduced at the state capitol in recent months.  The 2024 legislative session wrapped up last week with lots of new laws on the books, including one that offers two years of free community college to some state residents. Another bill, designed to...

Springtime in Northern Colorado means the return of a quintessential summer pastime. The Fort Collins Trolley resumed service last weekend. This season marks 40 years since the restored trolley began once again to take passengers on a leisurely journey along Mountain Avenue into Old Town.   The electric streetcars were once a common sight in the streets of Fort Collins, at least until the early 19...

A shortage of affordable housing – and a shortage of teachers – recently forced leaders in Eagle County to try an ambitious new project. They’ve taken the unusual step of becoming a builder and landlord for some of the school staff on their payroll. Miller Flats is a 37 unit housing complex built exclusively for school staff in Edwards. Last year reporter Rae Solomon listened in while second grade...

Last summer was brutal for the Colorado River - low water levels underscored the rising threats from a changing climate. Now, we're waiting on next moves from state and federal governments ahead of a quickly approaching 2026 deadline .  Several states have proposed new ways to divvy up water from the river, which serves about 40 million people in the southwest United States and Mexico. Tribes that...

Colorado Mountain College isn't your typical higher education institution. Ski and snowboard repair, avalanche technician, ski area operator, and fly fishing guide are among the many career pathways that CMC offers. The school serves roughly 12,000 students across 11 campuses in mountain communities like Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs and Leadville. It also acts as a bridge to larger universities...

The Force is strong with Colorado. For starters, there's Gov. Jared Polis, who regularly invokes Star Wars and other sci-fi stories in press conferences and state of the state addresses. Then there's the fact that the first-ever Star Wars Celebration - the largest gathering for fans of the franchise - was held in Denver in 1999. And a recent survey shows that Colorado is the fourth-most passionate...

Back in January we learned about a man whose life took a huge turn. David Carillo had been serving a life sentence for his involvement in a murder that happened in 1993. While incarcerated, he began taking classes, and earned a degree. He continued studying, until he became one of the first professors in the country to teach from behind prison walls.  And now, after Gov. Jared Polis granted him cl...

It’s a presidential election year. And in the months leading up to November 5, 2024, we’re focusing our coverage around the issues people in our community, including younger voters, say they care about most.  To better understand what's most important to college students and other young voters, we're working with student reporters at Front Range Community College. Isabel Delgado and Julian Hanes w...

Tourists choose to take vacations in Colorado for numerous reasons – like our breathtaking mountains and the chance to hurtle down them on skis or snowboards. There's lots of hiking, fishing, whitewater rafting – even cannabis tourism. But what about wolf-watching? Since ten wolves from Oregon were released on the Western Slope last December, there's been plenty of interest in them. Ranchers, for...

We're closing out this week by commemorating National Poetry Month. And who better to celebrate with than Todd Simmons, founder and director of Wolverine Farm Publishing in Fort Collins? In 2002, Simmons left his job in the field of social science to focus full-time on literature and poetry.  "I think creative expression, and the ability to communicate and give voice, is something that people are...

As human interaction with our planet has evolved over time, so has the human emotional experience of living on Earth. Perhaps it’s no surprise that, as we become more aware of the climate crisis affecting the planet, our emotions tend toward cynicism and sadness.  Charlotte Lin , the sustainability coordinator for the mountain town of Avon , thinks hope should be part of the emotional equation, to...

Anxiety about climate change is hitting the youngest of us hard. And if you’re too young to vote, it may feel like there’s nothing you can do to change what your future looks like. But students in the Boulder Valley School District proved otherwise this past school year. A group of high school students successfully campaigned for the school board to adopt the Green New Deal for Schools resolution...

Longmont author and journalist Stephen Robert Miller is fascinated by climate disaster stories. He says they’re often teachable moments. “There’s so much to be learned from looking in the past — environmental histories and histories of instances of when people have tried to control nature and ultimately it's failed,” Miller said. In his new book, “Over the Seawall,” Miller examines the deeper impa...

While Colorado is known for having breweries on every corner, there's a new trend in town: cocktails - without the alcohol. The popularity of non-alcoholic drinks is soaring – especially among young adults – and more bars and restaurants are starting to feature creative mocktails on their menus.  Currently, Colorado has only a few completely sober spaces where alcohol isn't served at all. But some...

Colorado is one of the healthiest states in the nation when it comes to physical fitness. Perhaps that’s no surprise given how much there is to do in the outdoors. But when it comes to mental health, Colorado ranks in the bottom half of states, according to a 2023 report by Mental Health America. While there are a few reasons for this poor ranking, we’re going to zoom in on one factor that has to...