Thank you to the loyal readers and supporters of The Colorado Independent (2013-2020). The Indy has merged with the new nonprofit Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) on a new mission to strengthen local news in Colorado. We hope you will join us!

Visit COLab
Home The Beats

The Beats

A short list of select topics

Stonewalled: Kiowa County sheriffs won’t explain why they killed Zach Gifford

Dear reader, Brandon, population 21, lies three hours southeast of Denver. It's a speck of a place amid Colorado's Southeastern Plains as they reach...
Relatively small average donations are becoming commonplace as candidates expand beyond big donors to seek smaller, often monthly, donations from previously untapped individuals.

President Donald Trump is raising big money in Colorado, far outpacing Democrat Joe Biden...

President Donald Trump is collecting the bulk of campaign donations from Colorado, but former Vice President Joe Biden began to close the gap after...
Illustration by Desolina Fletcher

Greene: On longing What's moving you in this time of isolation and unrest?

Dear reader, Tina and I have spent much of the last month knee-deep in documents for a difficult investigative project we’re still piecing together. So...
Lobbyists gather in the room immediately outside the doors to the state House chamber at the Colorado Capitol early in the 2020 legislative session. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)

Coronavirus bills push lobbying to record total in Colorado. Here’s a look at the...

The total spent on lobbying at the Colorado Capitol topped $40 million this session — a record driven in part because of contentious last-minute...
Ben Rosenthal, second from left, with his sister Ariella, mother Inka, father Robert and brother Adam.

Greene: The hardest stories Colorado has one of the highest suicide rates in the...

Dear readers,  The story of Ben Rosenthal’s death last year is not mine to tell. For starters, I never met the 26-year-old from Marin County, California....
Empty classroom at Lakewood High School.

Guest Post: How many teacher deaths are we OK with?

I have a question for the school boards and administrators who have decided that we should go back to 100% in-person learning this fall:...
Kayla Frawley, a single mom, plays with her 2-year-old son, Josiah, in their Denver apartment in 2018.

Guest Post: Child care costs in Colorado — why some moms don’t take the...

I remember crunching numbers all the time when my child was one-year-old and in a Head Start program: How much of a raise would...
James Marshall protesting in Alamosa, Colorado on June 4, 2020 minutes before he shot driver Danny Pruitt. (Photo by Megan Colwell/Valley Courier)

Triggered: How one of Colorado’s smallest protests became its most violent

ALAMOSA — The protesters, about a dozen in all, gathered on June 4 in the intersection of State Avenue and Main Street. Like protesters...
Immigrant youth and their supporters rallied outside the Supreme Court of the United States on Nov. 12, 2019. Supreme Court Justices heard arguments on the legality of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows for temporary protection from deportation and permission to work and study in the U.S. for qualified young people. (Photo by Robin Bravender/States Newsroom)

A note about Thursday’s DACA story Standing aside to let people speak for themselves...

Dear reader, Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been interviewing Colorado DACA recipients about their states of mind as they waited for the U.S....
Photo by Brad Wilson via Flickr: Creative Commons

Denver Public Schools announces return to in-person classes this fall

Denver Public Schools plans to hold classes in person this fall, joining a number of other metro area districts in a more complete return...