Colorado Matters

When do we call an attack “terrorism”? Researchers say not as often as it happens. “When the perpetrators were saying a phrase that sounds like it was an attack committed in the name of Islam,” they say, “people were significantly more likely to call that terrorism than an absolutely identical attack where the perpetrator said ‘Heil Hitler.'” Then, All-Star pitcher Roy Halladay was a high school phenom at Arvada West High School. His former coach remembers Halladay, who died this week in a plane crash.

We look at the 2017 election results. Last night, Denver voters approved nearly $1 billion dollars to fund roads, libraries, and other public projects. Then, former University of Colorado football player Derek McCoy is working with the Broncos to prevent violence against women. McCoy says football’s macho culture is largely to blame.

Colorado may limit how many pain pills doctors can prescribe as part of the state’s fight against opioid addiction. It’s one of several bills a bipartisan group of lawmakers will bring to the Capitol next year in hopes of debate and passage. We speak with a lawmaker who helped shape these proposals, and with her mother, whose struggle with addiction motivated her daughter to act. Then, oil and gas drilling is coming closer to a spot in Western Colorado where a nuclear bomb was detonated underground four decades ago.

At one of the oldest African-American churches in Denver recently, about 200 people gathered in the sanctuary to hear the pastor and his wife, who’s a diversity consultant, share their views on racism. The topic: Whites can’t just be allies in fighting discrimination; they must be leaders. Also, in Colorado there are more kids who need foster homes than adults willing to take them in. People of color, especially, aren’t signing up.

After refusing to pay to graze his cattle on public lands, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy led an armed standoff against federal agents in 2014. His trial is underway, and could have impacts across the West. Then, why one city decided not to compete for Amazon’s headquarters. Plus, 1960s underground LSD operations in Denver. And, a pianist known for playing a few notes over long stretches of time.

Ride the CannaVan, where scientists detour around the feds to test extra-potent pot. Then, as the Trump administration considers shrinking Utah’s new Bears Ears National Monument, a look at how the law works and what’s really at stake. Plus, the syndicated column its author calls “notorious” is done. “¡Ask A Mexican!” ran in Denver’s Westword for several years.

Many on Colorado’s Western Slope fear the energy boom will never return, but a potential new project that would ship Rocky Mountain gas to Asia offers new hope. Then, we learn about a micro-brewery whose mission is to hire workers with disabilities. And, a new film is based loosely on “Walden,” but instead of New England, the first shot is of Colorado.

Victims in Las Vegas are now trying to navigate life after a mass shooting. Last week they got some help from a handful of Coloradans affected by the shootings at an Aurora movie theater in 2012 and at Columbine High School in 1999. Then, a Colorado seventh-grader is “America’s Top Young Scientist.” And, voters are considering ballot measures on marijuana, broadband, and oil and gas issues.