- Fueled by the fast-moving omicron variant, Colorado hit a new record for positive COVID-19 cases in a single day — 11,018 on Dec. 31. That was after two days of case numbers above 9,000. Public health experts agree that the dramatic rise in COVID cases is largely because of the more transmissible omicron strain.
- How does a city address its housing crisis? The Denver Basic Income Project has one idea: give people experiencing homelessness money each month. They've partnered with the University of Denver to try it out for a year, and they just began a soft launch with ten people as they ramp up for a full rollout moving forward. Mark Donovan is the founder of the Denver Basic Income project. Jennifer Wilson is a researcher with the University of Denver. We spoke about the program in April.
- “Horses lend themselves to stories,” writes Sarah Maslin Nir. And Maslin Nir knows stories. She has crisscrossed the globe as a staff reporter for The New York Times. And when she's on assignment, if there's a sliver of free time, she checks out a place’s horses. Her new book is "Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal." It includes a chapter on how Black cowboys have been largely left out of the story of the American West.
- Earlier this month sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended from Olympic competition after she tested positive for marijuana. It was a controversial move by the World Anti-Doping Agency, with many decrying the rule as unfair and nonsensical. We wondered: Does marijuana have any effect on athletic performance? And why is it a banned substance to begin with?