On this week's Colorado Edition, a look at a case of discrimination in Denver, the cost of sexual harassment at the Capitol and how the #MeToo movement is challenging the way Coloradans think.
The legislative session for Colorado's lawmakers ended just over a month ago. The time they spent working on legislation and passing a budget was sometimes overshadowded by sexual harassment allegations against five lawmakers. Bente Birkeland investigated how much money the state spent to address those allegations.
Then, we check in with Desmond O'Boyle and Kyra Buckley. They spoke with Coloradans about how Coloradans are thinking about the #MeToo movement. They spoke to students, faith leaders and PR managers in this in-depth discussion.
Next, we visit rural veterinarians. There's a shortage of them that's leaving cattle and the nation's food supply at risk. Work for large animal vets isn't glamorous. The hours are long and the patients are often grouchy and weigh hundreds of pounds. As Esther Honig explains, student loan debt, low wages and rural life are discouraging graduates from taking this career path.
Then we go from the country to the big city, Denver, and a discrimination case in one of the city's most diverse neighborhoods. Discrimination cases in the state have gone up over the past two years. The cases can be difficult to prove without substantial evidence to back them up. But as Michael de Yoanna reports, in this case, there's more than just plaintiffs and defendants pointing fingers -- there are tapes.
For the curious: After we broke this story, it recieved an overwhelming response. We checked back in with Rashad Khan to see how he was dealing with the attention.
In his weekly film review, critic Howie Movshovitz, who teaches film and television at CU Denver, says Hereditary starts out as a unique look at grief, but when it turns to horror in the second half, the cliches ruin it.
Our intro music is "Remember Me" by Colorado musician Kalatana. Our outro is "Good Grief" by Ryan Little. Other music this week:
- "Strange Dog Walk" by Blue Dot Sessions
- "Feel Good" by Broke for Free
- "Lullaby" by ghost
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.