On this week's Colorado Edition, the word of the day is "dry." We talk about dry weather, drying up farms and neon, which is not dry but still interesting.
First up, fire updates. Dry conditions across the state have led to an already very active wildfire season. A handful of wildfires have led to thousands of evacuations and the closure of the San Juan National Forest.
Then we talk about financial aid and the paperwork nightmare known as the Federal Application for Student Financial Aid, or FAFSA. For a rising number of students across the state, it's even more of headache than usual. Stephanie Daniel reports on a jump in the number of applications flagged for audits.
Then we get back into primary coverage, this time with a look at three of the four Republican candidates for governor. The presumed frontrunner, state treasurer Walker Stapleton, was noticeably absent from the Colorado Public Television debate. Bente Birkeland brings us highlights of the topics they discussed, including everything from health care to marijuana.
As a reminder, there's a special episode of this podcast available now that covers both GOP and Democratic gubernatorial debates, along with some talk about unaffiliated voters and their first-time access to the primaries.
Colorado's growth is taxing a lot of systems — including water. Fast growing cities, especially on the Front Range, need more water, but most of it is owned by farmers. That's where the practice known as "buy and dry" comes in. Reporters Matt Bloom, Luke Runyon and Esther Honig explain the concept in a very comprehensive way.
From Stacy Nick, we hear about the dying art of neon and people fighting to keep it alive. It might not be as popular as it used to be, but repairs are happening to some historic neon in Denver they say is worth preserving.
In our weekly film review, critic Howie Movshovitz, who teaches film and television at CU-Denver, says Ocean's 8 may flip the cast to all women, but the roles themselves? Pretty much exactly the same.
Our intro music is "Remember Me" by Colorado musician Kalatana. Our outro is "Good Grief" by Ryan Little. Other music this week:
- "New Skin" by Podington Bear
- "Only Knows" and "Day Bird" by Broke for Free
- "Flying Pea V1" by Daddy Scrabble
- "The Ash Settled and There Were Two" by The Aurora Principle
- "Jurassic" by Hanetration
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 Play , Stitcher or wherever (RSS) you get your podcasts.