Colorado Matters

Powerful people in this state do not believe climate change is a real or imminent threat. Among them: State Sen. Kevin Lundberg of Berthoud, a ranking Republican. He reached out to Colorado Matters after hearing our climate change coverage, and had a very different story to tell. He appeared on the program with a climate scientist from Colorado State University. Then, this election year we're following two Coloradans who are running for office for the first time. They spent the summer knocking on doors and marching in parades. Plus, Colorado folk act Paper Bird gets a reboot with new talent and a new sound.

Privately run prisons have been deemed less safe then ones run by the federal government, so the Department of Justice is phasing them out. But Colorado will keep its private prisons open. CPR's Andrea Dukakis explains why. A trip to Colorado's Conundrum Hot Springs is on the bucket list for many, but the area is suffering for it. Paralympian Alana Nichols wants her team to get the same fanfare as Olympians got in Rio. She could become the first female athlete, Paralympic or Olympic, to win gold in three different sports. And a trip to singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov's Boulder County farm.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper opposes universal health care but otherwise leans in favor of most issues on the fall ballot. A leader of Colorado Hispanics For Trump supports the candidate’s immigration policies. In a changing world, future American diplomats will need social media skills as much as a mastery of history, according to the University of Denver’s dean of international studies.

Latinos' economic contributions are undervalued because they're often demonized, says former Colorado businessman. Also, a man buys a Montrose funeral home and discovers the abandoned ashes of 200 people. And, a Colorado musician hears echoes of jazz and the blues in birdsong.

Behind liver, tofu was the most reviled food in the US back in the 1980s... It's mainstream today, in no small part because of Steve Demos. He founded the Colorado company "White Wave," maker of Silk. He joins us as White Wave is sold -- in a controversial deal -- to a French conglomerate. Then, studying exo-planets is en vogue these days in astronomy. One's been discovered that could support life. We hear from astronomer Doug Duncan, our regular guest from Boulder's Fiske planetarium. And, the dobrato is a "Frankenstein" instrument made in Gunnison, Colorado. It's played by some big name musicians. We meet the inventor.

Who gets to use what bathroom is one of the hottest topics this school year around the country. Boulder Valley School District's transgender policies were praised by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice recently. Then, why many parents choose not to vaccinate their kids, despite most public health advice saying they should. A Denver sociologist has studied families at the heart of this controversy for over a decade. And, six-word essays on race are being collected at the Denver Public Library, with answers like, "It's one identity; I have many."

Governor John Hickenlooper is back from California, where he visited companies like Google and Dell to find learn the latest cyber security strategies. He also sought support for the new National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs. The center aims to be a national hub to protect companies and governments from attacks. Also, our education reporter learns what it's like for someone with dyslexia to read what look like scrambled words. Then, a preview of a forthcoming album from three Boulder punk rockers.

A member of the Northern Arapaho tribe says putting a memorial to the Sand Creek massacre near the state Capitol could foster healing. "Equity," a new film playing in Denver and Boulder, portrays women on Wall Street in a raw, complicated and modern way. A Boulder developer's long illness showed him the worldwide reach of video games and "saved my life." In a sport called freestyle reining, horseback riders wear costumes and choreograph their animals' moves to their favorite music. They'll compete at the Colorado State Fair.

The streams at Great Sand Dunes National Park may be key to preserving the Rio Grande cutthroat trout in the age of climate change, while restoration ecologists work to preserve other species and lands. Also, athletes are getting bigger and stronger. But is that a good thing? Then, humans have tried to kill coyotes going back more than 100 years. In Denver in the 1920s, a plant manufactured poison to exterminate them. But coyotes survived, and even multiplied and spread, while other animals in the same situation did not.

When students returned to the University of Northern Colorado this week they were joined by four new classmates with intellectual disabilities. Also,in Kent Haruf's final novel "Our Souls At Night," people in the fictional town of Holt are scandalized when they hear news about two of their neighbors. Jane Fonda and Robert Redford will star in the film adaptation of Haruf's book for Netflix.