Colorado Matters

Researchers are offering treatment to inmates who've suffered brain trauma. And, big funders are backing efforts to bring a bike race to Colorado. Also, two authors talk about characters that are "outsiders" and a 100-year-old school teaches English to refugees.

Denver is walking into new territory by hiring its first full-time pedestrian planner, and listeners expressed their thoughts on the city's streets. Then, the new president of Colorado Christian University is a pastor and an academic -- a very different background from his predecessor, who was a politician. What that means for the school's role on hot button issues. Plus, a vexing problem for people with Down Syndrome and their families: Regression means for some young people with Down Syndrome, the ability to talk and move deteriorates. How the Sie Down Center in Denver is trying to fight it.

A debate on the ballot proposal to raise Colorado's minimum wage. Then, from her office in Littleton, a woman is fighting to protect giant pandas. She’s just been recognized by the Chinese government for her work. Plus, the national Museum of African-American History and Culture opens Saturday in Washington D.C. It includes a statue of Colorado pioneer Clara Brown.

Two small towns have changed permanently as a result of floods that ripped through the Front Range three years ago this week. A check back in on Jamestown and Lyons, which has struggled to replace affordable housing destroyed by the record-breaking flood. Then, from freedom fighter to working at a pharmacy in Denver, Kahsay Abraha shares his story of fighting with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Army in the 1970s. And, an exhibit on women in abstract expressionism at the Denver Art Museum.

The bodies of two Colorado men killed fighting against ISIS are nearly back in Colorado. Workers have begun the dismantling a stockpile of chemical weapons in Pueblo. A new film tells the story of Greek American coal miners in southern Colorado who helped create workers' rights to unionize.Two football coaches are jockeying for the most wins ever. And, Colorado cities are encountering challenges as they adopt LED lights.

Decades before San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem, a Denver Nugget launched a similar protest. Colorado's universal healthcare proposal spurs economic debate. The first openly gay bishop of the United Methodist Church reflects on her first Denver sermon. The family-owned Cascade Cottages have been sold to Rocky Mountain National Park. TruTV's "Those Who Can't," features a Denver comedy trio.

STEM is a buzzword in education circles these days, meaning science, technology, engineering and math. But few schools here actually teach it, according to Chalkbeat Colorado, which surveyed the state's 30 largest districts. Then, a new choral work is dedicated to Matthew Shepard, the gay teen who was murdered outside Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. It draws on his diary entries. And, the western slope is the backdrop for the new thriller, "Nothing Short of Dying." We meet the author, who wrote it while living in his small hometown of Rangely. Lastly, we examine the merger between Colorado Springs' Fine Art Center and Colorado College.

Colorado-based Liberty Media is buying Formula One Racing. It's popular abroad, but in the U.S. where NASCAR has the poll position, what's the appeal? Then, two Colorado Olympians -- cyclist Mara Abbot and wrestler Adeline Gray -- on how they're moving on from losses at the Rio Olympics. Plus, the actress who played the grating, gum-chewing girl "Violet Beauregard" in the original Willy Wonka movie lives in Denver. She remembers Gene Wilder at an event in Littleton this week. Also, an artist has nearly completed her goal of painting from the top of all of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks.

The Libertarian party’s candidate for U.S. Senate, Lily Tang Williams, says her experience growing up in China drives her conviction that less government is better government. Teachers whose students were not alive at the time of the 9/11 attacks grapple with how to educate them about what happened that day. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg returns from a sabbatical in Argentina to some good news about test scores, but the district still faces challenges in areas such as student discipline.

The Colorado Green Party's U.S. Senate candidate explains why he wants the job. Then, listeners respond to our coverage of climate change. Also, a Coloradan who's spent the year simulating life on Mars returns home. And, a video series explores the complex relationship between people and the food they eat.