by Michael | May 29, 2012 | Colorado, Wildfire
This Memorial Day, Carolyn and I climbed the Storm King 14 trail, on Storm King Mountain, overlooking Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs, CO. The trail leads to the sites where 14 of America’s elite wildland firefighters – smokejumpers, hotshots and...
by Michael | May 22, 2012 | Radio, Social Issues
Today the Colorado Public Radio program Colorado Matters told the story of Paul and Connie Sacco’s attempts to find their daughter, Aubrey, who vanished in Nepal two years ago. While most of the world only focuses on the climbers on Mount Everest, where four...
by Michael | May 15, 2012 | Colorado, Wildfire
The Hewlett Fire crests a ridgeline in Poudre Canyon, northwest of Fort Collins, CO, on Monday night. The fire broke out around 1 p.m. Monday about a mile from Poudre Park, northwest of Fort Collins. The fire burned actively through the night rather than laying down...
by Michael | May 10, 2012 | Colorado
Today, as I was walking across the University of Colorado campus with a friend who was visiting from New York for her nephew’s graduation, I came across a trio of students headed out to cool off in Boulder Creek. One of them wore a personal flotation device in...
by Michael | Apr 25, 2012 | Conservation, Resources
Russ Bowles unloads dogfish that will be sold to make fish and chips from the Serena. The vessel changes the species it fishes for based on quotas set by the National Marine Fisheries Council. As the region’s quote for a more valuable species is met, and...
by Michael | Apr 16, 2012 | Colorado
Early this morning a bear climbed a tree near CU Boulder’s Bear Creek apartments. Carolyn was working on a video on the “Buff Bus” that serves the apartments and the nearby Will Vill high-rise dorms. Drivers of the buses were warned of the bear,...
by Michael | Apr 3, 2012 | Photojournalism, Social Issues
Watching all the pageantry surrounding the NCAA basketball tournaments during the past couple weeks reminded me of this photo I took nearly 30 years ago during a photography internship at the Kansas City Times (back when the Star was Kansas City’s afternoon...
by Michael | Mar 24, 2012 | Colorado
Otto, our cat, lost a tooth in a fight with Lionel, a neighbor’s cat that often strays through our back yard. The two cats have had ongoing tensions. Otto had already had a tough week. The previous Saturday, when we let him outside into the unseasonably warm...
by Michael | Mar 20, 2012 | Radio, Social Issues
When someone claims they are serving a higher truth, perhaps it’s because they’re lying to you. That’s proven to be the case with a spate of recent journalistic and documentary works. Most recently it was monologuist Mike Daisey, whose one-man-show,...
by Michael | Feb 7, 2012 | Colorado, Conservation
A tiger at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, CO. (Photo © Michael Kodas) When I worked in newspapers, it wasn’t at all uncommon to compete head-to-head with other newspapers on a big story, and to see that subject lead all of the papers on the same day....