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1 week ago | 
rmpbs.org | Joshua Vorse |Alec Berg |Chase McCleary
The threat to public media has grown. Act now with a donation to sustain our work!GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Western peppergrass, green Mormon tea and claret cup cactus are some of the 3,300 species of plants that you can find on Colorado’s Western Slope. As temperatures warm in the approach to summer, native plants are emerging and blooming in places like Colorado National Monument, and Rocky Mountain PBS has the photos to prove it.
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2 weeks ago | 
rmpbs.org | Ziyi Xu |Chase McCleary |Cormac McCrimmon |Alec Berg
CORTEZ, Colo. — “Salsa, what kind? Green, red, or fire?” asked Esmeralda Estrada. The customers chose the fire salsa, and Estrada suggested they have it on the side — just to be safe. Esmeralda’s Ranchito is the only Mexican grocery store in southwest Colorado. Inside, customers find imported Mexican candies, a wall of spices, colorful paper decorations, piñatas hanging from the ceiling, and freshly made tamales.
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3 weeks ago | 
rmpbs.org | Chase McCleary |Cormac McCrimmon |Alec Berg |Peter D. Vo
SALIDA, Colo. — The Salida Fire Department is almost as old as the state of Colorado, and its 15-person crew still wear shirts reading “Salida Hose Company No. 1” to honor the station’s earliest days. This year, that station turns 123 years old. The station housed the Salida Fire Department and the South Arkansas Fire Protection District (SAFPD). Chief Aaron Jonke, who stepped into the chief position after more than three decades of service in Denver, leads both agencies.
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3 weeks ago | 
rmpbs.org | Alec Berg |Cormac McCrimmon |Peter D. Vo |Chase McCleary
DENVER — Tamika Cox has always wanted at least a dozen roommates. Soon, she’ll get her wish. Cox is one of five tenants approved by the Boulder Housing Coalition — which manages four affordable housing co-ops in Boulder — to join The People’s Mansion, a permanently affordable housing co-op in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The house, formerly called the Starkey Mansion, was built in 1901 as a single-family home.
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3 weeks ago | 
rmpbs.org | Alec Berg |Joshua Vorse |Chase McCleary |Cormac McCrimmon
AURORA, Colo. — Ky Von Borries always wanted to play tackle football. Von Borries, who is six feet tall, was just as strong as boys her age growing up. She proved she could hold her own in the backyard football games she played in her St. Louis, Missouri neighborhood. “I played just about every sport under the sun, but my mom didn’t want me to play football because she claimed the boys would outgrow me,” Von Borries, 22, said.
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1 month ago | 
rmpbs.org | Melanie Asmar |Ziyi Xu |Carly Rose |Chase McCleary
DENVER — Colorado will refuse a demand from the Trump administration to certify that its schools have eliminated what the federal government says are illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, state Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova said Thursday. “I am not signing that,” Córdova said.
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1 month ago | 
rmpbs.org | Cormac McCrimmon |Peter D. Vo |Chase McCleary |Alec Berg
FRISCO, Colo. — When Erwin Germain moved from Paris to Denver in 2015, it wasn’t the croissants or world-class museums he missed — it was public transportation and carpooling. Germain grew up at the foot of the Alps in Grenoble, France. Buses and trains provided easy access to skiing, and carpool apps offered affordable city-to-city transportation. What makes carpooling special is its “freedom and flexibility,” said Germain, who moved to the U.S. to live with his partner.
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1 month ago | 
rmpbs.org | Ziyi Xu |Chase McCleary |Peter D. Vo |Alec Berg
CORTEZ, Colo. — By noon, a line of people stretched down Beech Street, chatting while waiting for the doors of the Good Samaritan Food Center to open. When the clock struck 12, a volunteer stepped outside, tablet in hand, and began taking down names. One by one, shoppers entered the pantry, where carts awaited them. Unlike traditional food pantries, Good Samaritan operates more like a free grocery store.
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1 month ago | 
rmpbs.org | Carly Rose |Chase McCleary |Peter D. Vo |Andrea Kramar
With rising child care costs and insufficient state funding to help cover costs, even more families may depend on these informal providers. Like Jazmine Juarez-Gonzalez, 18, who brings her almost 2-year-old daughter to a free child care center on her high school campus. Without this free early childhood education center, partially covered by the now-frozen Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, Juarez-Gonzalez said she’d rely on her mom to watch her daughter so she could go to school.
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1 month ago | 
rmpbs.org | Chase McCleary |Peter D. Vo |Alec Berg |Kyle Cooke
BOULDER, Colo. — To beer or not to beer? That is hardly a question in the mind of Coloradans frequenting some of the state’s 400+ breweries. Colorado has the fourth-most breweries per capita in the United States and boasts barrels of home-brewed talent, many of whom took home medals at the U.S. Open Beer Championship last year.
