Colorado

Art against domestic violence

Colorado passes new law to reform handling of sexual assault cases and reduce rape kit backlog

/

Currently, it takes 554 days for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to process DNA evidence kits from sexual assaults, leaving 1,369 cases in limbo as victims and investigators wait for results. The new law, now officially signed by Gov. Polis, requires increased oversight of CBI and creates a 60-day turnaround goal per DNA evidence kit, three times faster than the state’s current 180-day guidance. Sexual assault victims will be entitled to updates on their pending evidence kits every 90 days under the new law.

Colorado voters move to put existing abortion laws into state constitution

/

The amendment is similar to a law Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed in 2022 and would codify protections for abortion including barring local governments from passing their own laws to try to restrict the procedure. It would also remove Colorado’s current constitutional ban against public funding for abortions. That would allow the state to cover the procedure under Medicaid and add it to state employee health plans.

Cryo sauna for whole body cryotherapy

Cryo-cooling breakthrough slashes the energy cost of serious cold by 71%

/

Cryogenic cooling is used to preserve tissues, eggs, sperm, and embryos and CAT scanners, CERN’s massive particle accelerators, and the James Webb Space Telescope possible. It may also one day be the key to making fusion power or quantum computers a reality. However, it is also quite energy-intensive. Fortunately, researchers at the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards & Technology have recently discovered a way to reach near-absolute zero up to 3.5 times faster or using about 71% less energy.

Bicyclist on city street

Denver will now pay residents who commute on bikes

/

The city’s new Bicycling Rewards Program aims to encourage community members to ride a bike instead of driving. The program comes as a response to the city’s lagging climate goals. According to Denver Streets Partnership, transportation was responsible for 30% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, and this incentive is part of a larger research project to see what motivates locals to ditch their cars.

Heat pumps

Nine U.S. states, including California and New York, sign heat pump agreement to clean up air pollution

/

Nine U.S. states have inked an agreement to promote climate-friendly heat pump sales. The memorandum of understanding sets a 2030 target for heat pumps to make up 65% of residential heating, cooling, and water heating equipment sales. By 2040, the goal is for heat pumps to account for 90% of the HVAC and water heating market. The states on board with the agreement include: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island.

Houseless person lying on the ground

Denver meets goal of housing 1000 unhoused people before 2024

/

With the opening of a new micro-community in northeast Denver, Mayor Mike Johnston estimated over 1,100 hundred people will have been housed before the end of 2023. “As of yesterday, this city succeeded, in under six months, in moving more than 1,000 people off of the streets and into housing,” he said.

Mail-in ballot with pen

Colorado to be first state in the U.S. to expand automatic voter registration to tribes

/

Tribal communities in Colorado share some of the same registration and voting barriers as other rural communities across the U.S., like geographic isolation and unreliable mail delivery. But according to the Native American Rights Fund, tribal communities also commonly experience obstacles like language barriers, a lack of voter registration opportunities, and state laws in some parts of the country that block polling places on tribal lands.

Scroll to Top