Colorado State University (CSU)

As Colorado enters the hottest months of the year, drought and high temperatures are on most people's minds. But researchers at Colorado State University are still focused on snow.

In recent years, some Colorado cities and colleges have publicly recognized the land they are on as the traditional and ancestral homelands of Indigenous nations and peoples. These are known as land acknowledgment statements. A new class at Colorado State University is using them to help examine the reconciliation work that still needs to be done.

The city council will meet on Tuesday to consider rezoning the land as open space. Meanwhile, the university is pressing forward with its own plans to develop housing for staff and students.

As the state moves into the next phase of the pandemic, Colorado's higher education leaders are looking to return to pre-pandemic levels of state funding.

In 2019, 3.3% of households in Colorado did not have a checking or savings account or use other financial services. The reasons vary from not having enough money to distrust of financial institutions and inconvenient locations. But what about religious beliefs? A team of MBA graduates is trying to change attitudes around banking.

The bond between people and their pets can be incredibly strong. But it’s not always one that others easily understand.

Record-breaking wildfires in 2020 turned huge swaths of Western forests into barren burn scars. Those forests store winter snowpack that millions of people rely on for drinking and irrigation water. But with such large and wide-reaching fires, the science on the short-term and long-term effects to the region’s water supplies isn’t well understood.

Today on Colorado Edition: New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland is poised to become the nation’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary. We explore why her historic nomination may signal a shift in the relationship between tribes and the federal government. We look at the impact of recent deaths among young people in several Eastern Plains communities, and how they are responding with calls for action. We hear how farmers along the Colorado River are working to help downstream neighbors by modernizing their irrigation methods. And we discuss how ski areas in our state are adapting to climate change — and why it’s so important.

Today on Colorado Edition: As the first COVID-19 vaccines are distributed, we examine the logistics of inoculating staff and residents of long-term care facilities. We learn more about how lithium-ion batteries can help power a renewable energy future – but mining for the metal may be cause for environmental concern across the Mountain West. As more people than ever are choosing national parks to recharge during the pandemic, we look at the noisy toll that’s taking on those resources. And we’ll explore a rare celestial conjunction that will be at its peak on Dec. 21.

Today on Colorado Edition: As the state prepares to receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccines, we’ll hear the plan for how those first doses will be rolled out. Lawmakers in a recent special session swiftly approved pandemic relief for Coloradans. We look at why it may take months to get that funding into the hands of small business owners. We’ll explore how tribal councils across the Mountain West are making progress toward gender equality. And, we dive into new research that looks at how time spent in outer space affects the human body.