In The NOCO

It’s a Christmas tale as old as the Bible. During a cold snap in Denver last December, Pastor Eddy Hopkins responded to an urgent call from Larimer County leaders. They told him Denver was overwhelmed with migrants who’d recently arrived in the city from the U.S. southern border. They asked if he could help. The pastor sprang into action and Peak Community Church in Fort Collins became a shelter f...

People tend to trust local and state leaders more than federal lawmakers. A recent Gallup poll found that 59% of Americans have faith in state government yet only a third of respondents trust federal legislators. But, as we’ve learned time and again from our reporting at KUNC, transparency is a problem at all levels of government. For the last year, KUNC investigative reporter Scott Franz has been...

There’s a long history of Americans taking to the streets to make their voices heard. To march, and to protest has come to define one of the more powerful ways people participate in our democracy.  Recently a group of local immigration activists embarked on a long-distance march that mirrored the multi-day marches of the Civil Rights Movement. Members of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition wal...

Longmont-based 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 instances of when people have tried to control nature and ultimately it's failed,” Miller says. In his new book, “Over the Seawall,” Miller examines the deeper impacts of...

Musician Domi Edson ’s move from Seattle to Colorado wasn’t fueled by the typical cliched reasons. She came for the jazz. “I had heard really good things about both the size and the quality of the jazz scene here,” Edson told In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. It is a scene defined by sense of place — Edson says the local jazz world has a quintessential “Colorado vibe.”  “It’s just a very positive thing...

Amid Israel’s intensifying military campaign in Gaza, more than 2,000 people gathered in Denver last week for the Jewish National Fund's annual Global Conference for Israel. The violence in Gaza follows an attack by Hamas militants in October that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel. Hamas took hundreds more hostage. Since then, Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 15,000 in Gaza and di...

The trauma of domestic violence is a scar that survivors carry with them for many years — and often silently. A recent report from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office tells us that more people in Colorado are enduring this kind of abuse, and not surviving it.  It shows the number of domestic violence deaths in 2022 was roughly 1.5 times higher in comparison to the last seven years. A lot of fac...

The sugar beet industry began in Colorado right around 1900. Today it's only a small part of the state's economy, but through the early part of the 20th century , beets were the most significant agricultural product grown here. They were so important to the economy that people  referred to sugar beets as 'white gold.' During this time, thousands of Hispanic and Mexican people came to Northern Colo...

Hollywood has long depicted Native Americans in the most problematic of ways. American Westerns are some of the biggest offenders. Their portrayals of Indigenous people as savagaes has only deepened the intergenerational trauma Native people face. But these portrayals and the film industry more broadly are changing, somewhat.  “Killers of the Flower Moon” tells the story of a massacre that Osage p...

During Jim Crow and even after those laws were overturned in the 1960s, green book sites were safe havens — places where Black Americans could stop when they were traveling without fear of discrimination or violence. The sites bear the namesake of what’s known as the Green Book . It contained listings for hotels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores and more. Terri Gentry says her grandparent...

Colorado’s wine producing roots trace back to the 1800s, when Italian miners brought wine culture to the state. The grape-growing industry would later become a casualty of Prohibition, when grape vines were torn from the earth at the government’s behest. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that wine started to make a comeback in the state.  Today, wine culture in Colorado is having a moment. A recent...

Every year on Thanksgiving, radio stations around the country play Arlo Guthrie's 1967 track "Alice's Restaurant." But how did this 18-minute satirical song about littering and the Vietnam War become a Thanksgiving classic?    The song, based on a true story, is about Guthrie and fellow musician Rick Robbins. “They were home for Thanksgiving, and they were hanging out with their friend Alice and t...

For a holiday centered on gratitude, Thanksgiving is also a recipe for tension. If you’re among the 60 percent of Coloradans traveling for the holidays , you’re likely navigating congested roads or chaotic airports. (Yeah, we're looking at you, DIA!) If you’re hosting dinner, you’ve got a whole other set of concerns, like catering to an array of dietary needs, and getting a hundred different dishe...

Colorado has made multiple strides toward representation and equality for queer residents. The Movement Advancement Project, an independent think tank, gives our state high ratings for a range of policies that protect sexual orientation and gender identity. This marks a big change from a few decades earlier, when Colorado was dubbed the 'Hate State' after voters approved a 1992 ballot initiative,...

Across the state, people are struggling to find and keep affordable housing. That’s especially true in Colorado’s mountain towns. KUNC managing editor Stephanie Daniel recently pulled back the curtain on this issue with the latest season of her podcast The Colorado Dream Season 3: Housing Wanted .  What separates these mountain towns from other communities confronting the state’s housing shortage...

In communities across Northern Colorado, people are struggling with their mental health, while also struggling to get the care they need. And the problem is widespread – around a quarter of residents reported having poor mental health in the most recent Colorado Health Access Survey . Of the 1 in 6 Coloradans who were unable to get needed care, nearly half said they had a hard time getting an appo...

A lot of Coloradans love the idea of recycling. But our recycling habits are in the dumps. In 2020, the rate of recycling statewide was just 15 percent — less than half the rate nationwide. That’s according to a report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group and Eco-Cycle . Perhaps that's because the actual practice of it can be confusing. It seems like the rules are often changing – and...

There’s so much going on behind the scenes when you sit down at a restaurant. In the back of the house, cooks are rushing to prep, cook and plate your food. Dishwashers are trying to keep pace with those cooks — and hungry diners. In the front of the house, the servers are sweating, too. They’re deciphering complex requests, running through mazes of tables, chairs, and people, to deliver your dish...

We’re sifting though some of the results from Tuesday’s election, which brought roughly 42% of registered voters to the polls.  Loveland resident Lee Rhodes visited a dropbox in Fort Collins this week to weigh in on Proposition HH. “That was important. I like the idea of the government keeping to a budget,” he told In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole.  The complicated measure, which intended to address a l...

Today we’re turning back the pages of Colorado’s not-so-distant past to better grasp the problems of the present with a discussion about Indian boarding schools. The U.S. government established hundreds of these schools across the U.S. to forcibly dismantle the cultural identities of young Native Americans.  A recent 140-page state report that is the result of a 2022 state law uncovers the trauma,...

Young people in Colorado continue to struggle with their mental health . KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson has helped us to understand the complexities of this problem. She joins In The NoCo to discuss some of her recent reporting , which looks at a new law that will provide statewide mental health screenings for kids. She tells us how this effort holds promise — and why some experts...

Diversity isn’t exactly classical music’s strong suit. The work of white, European composers has been center stage for for centuries. Today, people of color comprise a small  percentage of musicians in American orchestras, though that number appears to be growing. Black violinist and author Brendan Slocumb says representation plays a big role in this. “When I was a kid, had I seen someone who look...

Dia de los Muertos is an ancient cultural tradition that has strong roots in Mexico and is celebrated in many of our Northern Colorado communities. The holiday is celebrated from October 31 to November 2. Not to be confused with All Hallows' Eve — it is a way to honor friends and family who have died. People write and recite satirical poems about the dead, calaveras literarias, which translates to...

Election Day is less than a week away and Coloradans are already casting their ballots with early in-person voting at dozens of voting centers. Others are using the hundreds of dropboxes throughout the state, or they’ve already mailed in their votes. All of this happens under the purview of Colorado’s top election official, Secretary of State Jena Griswold. She says she has embraced the mission of...

Ghost stories have been on Heather Kelley’s mind for a long time. Kelley is an actor and educator at University of Colorado Boulder where her research focuses on dark tourism, ghosts as manifestations of trauma, and haunted attractions, to name a few. Since the early days of her acting career, Kelley has heard no shortage of haunting tales about the theaters and venues where she’s performed, begin...