Bente Birkeland
Bente Birkeland has covered Colorado politics and government since spring of 2006. She loves the variety and challenge of the state capitol beat and talking to people from all walks of life. Bente's work has aired on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, American PublicMedia'sMarketplace, and she was a contributor for WNYC's The Next Big Thing. She has won numerous local and national awards, including best beat reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. Bente grew up in Minnesota and England, and loves skiing, hiking, and is an aspiring cello player. She lives in Lakewood with her husband.
-
Tina Peters — a local Republican election clerk who has been indicted on 10 charges of election tampering and misconduct — is running for Colorado's top election job in Tuesday's primary.
-
State Rep. David Ortiz was paralyzed from the waist down while serving in Afghanistan. To give him access to the House podium, legislative staff say they have built the first lift of its kind.
-
The Colorado Caroling Company shares the joy of performing holiday favorites for appreciative audiences.
-
Election officials are trying to win over voter trust that ballots are handled and counted securely. In Colorado, a clerk went so far as to invite one skeptic to work at his office to see for herself.
-
Reports of psychosis associated with new cannabis concentrates have half a dozen states proposing new regulations They're also proposing more taxes to fund research about the unknowns in concentrates.
-
No governor expects they'll have to lead their state through a global pandemic when they take office, but the last year has thrust them all into the spotlight, including Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado.
-
Voting technology companies are using lawsuits to take on false claims that they were involved in stealing the 2020 election. They say the flood of election disinformation has hurt their bottom line.
-
As the GOP split reverberates across the U.S., the head of one Colorado county Republican Party insinuates that COVID-19 is a hoax, calls on militia group for security and faces calls to resign.
-
A Colorado state team has picked up a mock vaccine at Denver's airport to deliver to a remote mountain hospital to test the ability to maintain the vaccine's required temperature.
-
NPR visits one politically divided married couple in Pueblo, Colo., as they debate politics ahead of the 2020 election.