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KUNC's Colorado Edition: In With The 'Insta' Crowd

Nate Hegyi
/
KUER
Around 50 tourists and photographers were huddled near Mesa Arch to catch a glimpse of the sunrise on Saturday, May 4, 2019.

It's the unofficial start of summer, and crowds are flocking to national parks and public lands in search of the perfect Instagram shot. We also look at a different kind of crowd — of the home-buying variety — vying to purchase a limited supply of real estate in northern Colorado, and explore how climate change is threatening national security at the North Pole.

That and more in this week's episode of Colorado Edition.

Gov. Jared Polis is continuing his bill-signing bonanza. Statehouse reporter Scott Franz gives us the rundown of the most prominent bills, including a measure that lets cities and counties decide on minimum wage and a "democracy package" that aims to increase voting access and transparency in political spending.

With more people moving to northern Colorado, cities like Fort Collins and Greeley are having a hard time keeping up with the demand for housing. So, in February, Greeley city council passed an ambitious plan to promote development and ease the area's growing pains. Matt Bloom has more on how it's panning out.

For a lot of people, Memorial Day was the kick-off to the summer travel season. If you're planning a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, Old Faithful, the Grand Tetons or the Grand Canyon, you're likely to encounter dozens of people taking selfies on their smartphones. Nate Hegyi has more on how this phenomenon is changing our connection with the outdoors.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, is based in Colorado Springs, but it relies on a network of radars in the Arctic to track potential threats. Some of those radars, which date back to the Cold War, are now endangered — not by Russian bombers, but by climate change. To learn more, KUNC investigative reporter Michael de Yoanna traveled to the Arctic Circle in collaboration with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. He joins us to talk about what he found.

The movies of Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou have won awards all over the world — and he designed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. KUNC film critic Howie Movshovitz, who teaches film and television at CU Denver, says his latest film Shadow is just as dazzling, and then some.

In the headlines:

  • The Transportation Safety Administration has reversed their policy on allowing airline passengers to fly with hemp products, stating that most hemp-derived CBD products are now legal to fly with, either in carry-on or checked luggage. This includes the FDA approved drug epidiolex.
     
  • Triceratops? Torosaurus? The Denver Museum of Nature and Science isn't saying for sure what their latest find at Highlands Ranch construction site is — except that it's exciting.

Colorado Edition is made possible with support from our KUNC members. Thank you!

Our intro music is "Remember Me" by Colorado musician Kalatana. The midshow break is "Bling Bong" by Robbie Reverb. Other music this week by Blue Dot Sessions:

  • "Lamplist"
  • "Game Hens"
  • "Astrisx"
  • "The Stone Mansion"

This episode was hosted and produced by assistant news director Erion O'Toole and Karlie Huckels. Digital editor Jackie Hai handled the web. News director Catherine Welch and managing editor Brian Larson contributed to this episode.

KUNC's Colorado Edition is a weekly look at the top stories from our newsroom. It's available every Friday on our website, as well as on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher or wherever (RSS) you get your podcasts. You can hear it on the air every Sunday at 9 p.m. on KUNC.

Stories written by KUNC newsroom staff.