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The Beats

A short list of select topics

A view of the San Juan Mountains near Telluride.

U.S. Senate passes measure to fully fund Land and Water Conservation Fund, tackle National...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a bipartisan bill that would achieve the long-held goal of fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund...

In final Senate debate, Hickenlooper and Romanoff pitch different visions for change

John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff, Colorado’s 2020 Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, met in a television studio for a debate Tuesday night. It was...

Littwin: Neil Gorsuch’s ruling for LGBTQ rights proves that irony is not quite dead...

I have long insisted that in the age of Trump, irony has died along with it. But then comes Neil Gorsuch to prove me...
A demonstrator raises a rainbow colored flag while passing the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on Colfax Avenue during the Pride Liberation March in coordination with Black Lives Matter 5280 in Denver, June 14, 2020.

Colorado’s LGBTQ community says SCOTUS ruling is a step forward, but there’s still more...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination. In Colorado, the federal decision does not...
Death penalty

2020 battle for power at Colorado’s Capitol starts with these big-money legislative primaries A...

Colorado’s legislative primaries are coming down to a battle of partisanship: Is one Republican more conservative than another? Which Democrat will hold the party...
Members of the Colorado House of Representatives toil as lawmakers try to wrap up the 2020 session in the State Capitol Monday, June 15, 2020, in Denver.

Police reforms, hard budget choices mark the end of Colorado lawmakers’ strange year

Colorado lawmakers have finished their work, bringing an end to one of the most unorthodox legislative sessions in recent memory. Possibly even the most...
An electron microscope photograph from Elizabeth Fischer shows viral particles being released from a dying cell infected with the coronavirus. The dozens of small, blue spheres emerging from the surface of a kidney cell are the virus particles themselves. The images produced by the electron microscopes are black-and-white; a visual artist colorizes them. (Courtesy of Elizabeth Fischer)

Coloradans are increasingly out and about after months of staying home Phone data shows...

As restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus have been eased, Colorado residents are spending their days at home far less...

Guest Post: Undocumented workers are essential. Let’s treat them like it.

As an American who has benefited immensely under our system of capitalism, I so want to believe the purpose of capitalism is to increase...
A demonstrator wears a face mask and latex gloves while waving a placard along Lincoln Avenue during a protest Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in Denver over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis. (David Zalubowski/AP)

Here’s how policing may change under Colorado’s police reform bill

Update: SB20-217 "Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity" passed the legislature Friday afternoon and is now awaits Gov. Jared Polis' signature. An expansive proposed law that will require...
Protesters march through downtown Denver to demand justice for George Floyd, the black Minneapolis man killed by a white police officer on May 25, 2020. (Photo by Evan Semón, Evan Semón Photography)

Guest Post: Beyond the tears and protests: let’s stand-up, act and spark change

Amid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, another plague likely to outlast the virus runs deep in the history of American life - systemic...