Teen in poverty dreams of college
Luis Robles' family has been working hard in Colorado for more than a decade, but that hasn't really been enough. Now, as Luis dreams of attending a four-year college, he too struggles with dashed hopes. He has one year of community college paid for, but doesn't know how to pay for the second. “I know they’re proud," Luis says of his parents, "but at the same time I know that they’re going through a lot. So I don’t want to bother them with what’s going on with me. More here.
Paralympian Amy Purdy to speak with Colorado Matters
More than 15 years ago, Amy Purdy lost both her legs to a severe care of meningitus. Since then, she's become the top-ranked female adaptive snowboarder in the country and a finalist on "Dancing with the Stars." On Monday, she'll join Ryan Warner at the Tattered Cover on Colfax to talk about her new memoir, "On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life.” While you wait, watch videos of Purdy crushing it on the dance floor and on the slopes. More here.
Colorado Children's Chorale learns 14 national anthems
Normally, host cities for the Alpine World Ski Championships stick with orchestrations when it comes time for the medal ceremonies. But in Vail, the Colorado Children's Chorale memorized 14 different national anthems to sing at this year's ceremony. To learn the anthems, artistic director Deborah DeSantis broke the kids up into groups. Each group memorized one anthem and then had to teach the song to another group. More here.
Follow the world championships
The Americans have struggled a bit to reach the podium in Vail so far this year. Bode Miller crashed out in the men's downhill Thursday, Lindsey Vonn took fifth in the women's downhill Friday, while Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin haven't had their best days yet. But we're keeping abreast of the events and festivities in the Vail Valley in our live blog. More here.
The Stanley Hotel will finally get a 'Shining' maze
Despite what you may have seen in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of “The Shining," the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park has never had a hedge maze. Not ever in its 106-year history. But this spring, the hotel will install a 3 feet tall version of a design from Mairim Dallaryan Standing of New York. Dallaryan's design was chosen from 329 entries from 40 different states and countries all over the world. More here.
For undocumented immigrants, 5 years for a driver's license?
Two years ago, Democrats in Colorado’s state Legislature voted to allow undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses again. But last month, Republicans in the state Legislature drastically reduced the program. That means there's there’s only one place in Colorado for undocumented immigrants to get a driver’s license. And it could take years to get one. The DMV is telling people who don’t have appointments to check back next January. More here.
Tommy Caldwell and the Dawn Wall
Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgensen became the first people to free climb, in one push, the most difficult face of Yosemite National Park's El Capitan, called the Dawn Wall. It took the climbers 19 days. They finished on January 14, and Caldwell told Colorado Matters that he's not looking for any more big new challenges right away. He shared some photos with us scaling rock faces with his dad when he was just a tyke. More here.
