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The Beats

A short list of select topics

The state Capitol on Jan. 8, 2020, the opening day of the session. (Photo by John Herrick)

Transparency, media literacy measures axed in purge of pre-pandemic state legislation

Two transparency bills died Tuesday during a purge of proposals left over from before the coronavirus pandemic forced a suspension of the 2020 Colorado...
Empty classroom at Lakewood High School.

Colorado schools in the fall: 10 people per class, face masks, and remote learning...

If Colorado schools return to classroom instruction in the fall, it could look very different, with temperature checks, face masks, and very small class...
Lawmakers packed into the House floor with clear dividers between desks for the restart of the legislative session on May 26, 2020. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)

“It’s an 11 on the weird scale”: Colorado legislature makes an awkward return to...

The hallways were mostly empty. The lawmakers were mostly masked. The interactions were mostly awkward.  The General Assembly’s return to the state Capitol after a...
Photo of smoggy downtown Denver skyline via the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Air Pollution Control Division, Technical Services Program, Wednesday, March 6, 2019.

Clearing the air: Stay-at-home eases Denver’s ‘brown cloud’

As Denver and the state begin to reopen this month, people will emerge from their houses having gotten a taste of some potential new...
Andy Starret stands in front of the Knights Inn in Aurora, where his daughter Ally was murdered. May 22, 2020

Speedy trials or pandemic protections? Colorado faces an oncoming court logjam

Andy Starrett’s teenage daughter was murdered in a hotel room almost three years ago. The man accused of the crime, his daughter’s ex-boyfriend, fled to...

The coronavirus pandemic is widening the chasm between Colorado’s haves and have-nots There was...

On April 15, Randy Narvaez posted on Facebook that his best friend had just died of COVID-19. “Way too close to home for me,” he...
At the Country Road 133 and County Road 3 junction, a sign expresses that nonessential travel in Gunnison County is illegal on Wednesday, May 20, 2020.

Small Colorado mountain town popular with tourists wants them to stay out during holiday...

The tiny town of Marble is used to being woken up from its winter slumber by throngs of tourists in the late spring, but...
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)

Scientist has ‘invisible enemy’ in sights with microscopic portraits of coronavirus Colorado native visualizes...

From her laboratory in the far western reaches of Montana, Elizabeth Fischer is trying to help people see what they’re up against in COVID-19. Over...
A sign reminds residents to practice social distancing on a path near the Poudre River in Fort Collins.

Social distancing in Colorado began before ‘stay-at-home’ order and eased before it was lifted,...

Colorado’s statewide “stay-at-home” order began March 26 and lasted 32 tumultuous days. The spread of the novel coronavirus slowed, as hoped, but businesses shuttered,...
LONE TREE, CO - MARCH 27: From left, Physician Lucas Rylander, registered nurse Anne Auger, medical assistant Dao Nguyen, and registered nurses Andrea Martell and Jill Ross work in the tent for COVID-19 test at Kaiser Permanente Lone Tree Medical Offices in Lone Tree, Colorado on Friday March 27, 2020. Kaiser Permanente has 10 drive-thru testing locations for COVID-19 across the metro area. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Growth in deaths from Colorado’s coronavirus outbreaks shows signs of leveling off Denver detention...

The growth in deaths from Colorado’s COVID-19 outbreaks appears to be leveling off, though it’s far from certain that the trend will continue. The Colorado...