- In our regular interview with Colorado Governor Jared Polis, we ask about COVID-19 vaccine boosters and wearing masks in school. Plus, is the state doing enough to address ozone and the impact on air quality in the face of climate change.
- Colorado Matters' Avery Lill talked with Rep. Diana DeGette about raising the debt ceiling, how COVID-19 impacts children's health, and Biden's handling of the departure of Afghanistan.
- Congress is split not just two, but three ways over the federal budget and key elements of President Joe Biden’s policy agenda. One of those fights could shut down the federal government by the end of next week. However, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, says she expects a deal will get done before the deadline.
- Instead of housing the Bureau of Land Management's national headquarters, Grand Junction will become the agency’s new Western regional hub. One of the people who helped lure the BLM to Grand Junction was Robin Brown. Until recently she headed a booster group called the Grand Junction Economic Partnership.
- The report documents a pattern of unlawful conduct including use of excessive force, racially biased policing and improper administration of the drug ketamine. The investigation by Weiser’s office was prompted largely by the death of Elijah McClain after a police stop in Aurora two years ago. The probe is the first of its kind under a new state law that gives an attorney general power to investigate police departments.
- To encourage students to get vaccinated, Colorado Mesa University's staff and faculty are holding information sessions about COVID-19 vaccines.
- Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall talks about the COVID-19 prevention and detection program that kept the school open for in-person classes during the last academic year and what's changed this semester.
- As some Colorado workers realized they could do their jobs anywhere, many packed up for the Western Slope.
- The war in Afghanistan may be over, but one Colorado woman's fight to get her family to safety has just begun. Narges -- we're not using her last name for safety reasons -- is here from Afghanistan on a Special Immigrant Visa. But she says her siblings face retribution from the Taliban -- and only one has managed to flee.
- The people who encountered Elijah McClain on Aug. 24, 2019, failed him, according to a 32-page criminal indictment filed Wednesday in Adams County District Court. The charges against five Aurora Police officers and paramedics in McClain's death that day include manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. State Representative Leslie Herod, D-Denver, has sponsored legislation to increase the accountability of police when it comes to use of force and chokeholds in arrests.
- People like Mariko Wilcox have been moving to Grand Junction during the pandemic where they've found they can work from home. What does that mean in the larger economic picture? Robin Brown, until recently the executive director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, joins us with answers.
- Earlier this year, Mesa County reported the state’s first cases of the highly contagious Delta variant. As Colorado Mesa University's 11,000 students return to class, the school's football players were recently encouraged to get vaccinated. It's one example of the university's strategy to combat COVID-19.
- And having more of the workforce at home could help the growing problems of pollution and climate change, Polis said.
- The death toll continues to rise in Haiti after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the island in the Caribbean last Saturday. So far, more than 2,000 people are confirmed dead and 10,000 injured. Those numbers are expected to climb as searches through rubble continues. The quake was centered in a rural area about 5 miles from the city of Petit Trou de Nippes where a Colorado non-profit called Locally Haiti has worked for more than 30 years.
- Some of the animals here have been abused by past owners. The sanctuary founder says people buying these animals and not knowing how to care for them has resulted in a captive wildlife crisis.
- The Wildlife Animal Sanctuary northeast of Denver has rescued hundreds of large animals once confined to roadside zoos and circuses, or housed by misguided people who wanted them as pets. The most recent rescues include tigers and other carnivores featured in the Netflix series “Tiger King.” Sanctuary CEO Pat Craig on providing a more natural environment for the animals and on the patchwork of laws prolonging the captive wildlife crisis.
