Colorado Public Radio

At first glance, this modest home nestled against a hillside in the mountains somewhere west of Colorado Springs appears to have all the amenities you'd expect in a quiet retreat. There's even a two-story tower built right in. An otherwise peaceful place to catch the 360-degree view of winter's splendor.

"[It's a] really nice place to sit and vacation — enjoy. But, if necessary, it's a guard post," Drew Miller pointed out.

Half of a million Colorado workers are set to receive new labor protections that go into effect in 2020, but not everyone is happy. Some employers are upset with the new rules, and some workers are upset that they have been left out.

A few workers who traditionally haven’t gotten protections like overtime pay and guaranteed rest breaks will get them, but critics say the proposed rules will change things too slowly and for too few people.

The seven members of Colorado’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation will cast historic votes Wednesday on whether to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump.

Looking back, it now seems the vote was inevitable. As with past impeachments, there has been a strong partisan tinge to the debate. 

The state’s three Republican representatives were clear from the start that nothing they’ve seen or read about the president’s conduct amounts to an impeachable offense.

On a beautiful late spring day a few years ago, Mark Bergman was driving his Mazda Miata through the Vail Valley. The scenic ride turned sour when the car in front of him kicked up a rock and threw it backward — right into his windshield.

“I’m just glad I had the top up,” he said.

Scientist Gabrielle Petron looks out into the world and sees numbers. In her work for the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Petron plots data on her computer like most people complete a shopping list on the back of an envelope. 

Richard Dash of Alumina Energy stood in front of a small crowd gathered inside the white, marble hallways of the Colorado Governor’s Residence. This was his chance to pitch oil and gas executives on his company’s thermal storage system to capture energy from renewable or fuel-fired power plants. 

Public hearings in the impeachment inquiry begin in the U.S. House today. Coloradans of various political stripes said this week they will watch the hearings closely, but hope the process goes quickly. 

At the Federal Center light rail stop, just west of Denver in Lakewood, on Tuesday, voter Joe Brosky said the public hearings would ideally bring more facts to light.

Federal officials have arrested a man accused of plotting to attack a historic synagogue in Pueblo. The co-conspirators turned out to be undercover FBI agents.

Court documents say Richard Holzer, 27, of Pueblo, was arrested Friday just after the agents brought him what were supposedly two pipe bombs along with dynamite to blow up Temple Emanuel.

If Proposition DD passes this November, not only would sports betting become legal, but Colorado could secure a new way to fund “state water projects and obligations.”

This is the first installment in CPR’s series Teens Under Stress, a months-long examination of the pressures adolescents are under and what can be done about it.

Neal Levine remembers the reaction he would get when he first introduced himself to statehouse legislators as a cannabis lobbyist.

“‘Is that a real job?’” he recalled. Yes, it is a real job.

As more and more states legalize marijuana in one form or another, it’s become a billion-dollar industry that has attracted the attention of federal lawmakers and lobbyists.

State officials will pay homeless advocates $3.4 million to refurbish 28 studio apartments so mentally ill people stuck in the criminal justice system awaiting restoration to competency before they stand trial won’t sit in jail.

The 28 units will be specifically designed for mentally ill homeless people caught in limbo within the criminal justice system. These are people who have usually been charged with very low-level crimes — trespassing or public urination or drinking, for example — but have been deemed mentally incompetent to face the criminal charges filed by prosecutors. 

There’s a bee species that lives in the White Rocks Nature Preserve between Valmont and Lookout roads northwest of Louisville, and rumor has it that this species lives only in that area of Colorado.

Former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s entrance into Colorado’s U.S. Senate race has brought the contest to the national spotlight, in part for the rifts exposed between Democratic party leaders and progressive activists on the ground.

Open space is coveted territory for hikers and mountain bikers. Hitting the trails in Westminster or Jefferson County can mean less traffic than a trip up the mountain to a crowded Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Open space is wild-looking land set aside for preservation with the idea that it won’t be developed. Typically, voters weigh in on a tax to buy, manage and maintain it. And the city also doesn’t carve up the land into a park with picnic tables, baseball diamonds and jungle gyms.