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Governor Issues Disaster Order as Wildfires Sweep Western Colorado
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State, Approved, denvergazette.com

Governor Issues Disaster Order as Wildfires Sweep Western Colorado

By Nick Smith | The Denver Gazette After several lightning strikes set parts of western Colorado aflame two weeks ago, five wildfires have consumed 42,431 acres as incident management teams make headway on containment. A drought in the West, hot temperatures and powerful wind gusts have allowed the fires to thrive while crews have had to deal with challenging mountainous terrain. The Turner Gulch, Sowbelly, South Rim and Wright Draw fires prompted several evacuations and caused Gov. Jared Polis to issue a disaster declaration. This allowed the state to mobilize its resources, including supplies, equipment and personnel, to assist in battling the blazes. The declaration also allowed Colorado to request aid from FEMA and other federal agencies, should that become necessary. The d...
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Colorado Supreme Court opinions shrink in volume but stir policy debate
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Colorado Supreme Court opinions shrink in volume but stir policy debate

By Michael Karlik | Denver Gazette Justice Richard Gabriel outpaced his peers by far in the volume of written opinions and his frequency in dissent The Colorado Supreme Court's most visible decision of its recently concluded term may actually be the one it made five years ago. In 2020, with the retirement of then-Chief Justice Nathan B. Coats, the court's other members decided to switch to a rotational method of filling the seat, with the judicial branch's top job term-limited to approximately three years. Last summer, the first rotation occurred, with Justice Brian D. Boatright stepping down and Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez stepping in. Since then, the "Márquez court" has made big moves in key areas. It decided a bundle of five appeals about crim...
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D-11 takes on media trust crisis with new high school journalism course
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D-11 takes on media trust crisis with new high school journalism course

By Debbie Kelley | Denver Gazette With longstanding principles of objectivity, truth and fairness in news reporting up for debate in recent years, a homegrown Career and Technical Education course launching in Colorado Springs School District 11 for the fall semester will explore such topics under an overarching theme of “ethics in journalism.” So while juniors and seniors receive real-world training in broadcast, podcast, video and print media creation and production, they'll also be schooled on how to do it all by “upholding the highest standards of journalistic integrity,” said course founder Chaim Goldman. He’s also the executive producer and host of The Peak News, a “hyper-local news” radio show that’s on hiatus from the airwaves over the summer. In May 2024...
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Homeschooling surges 51% in Colorado as parents reject failing schools
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Homeschooling surges 51% in Colorado as parents reject failing schools

Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette Homeschooling is on the rise in Colorado, with enrollment growing 51% over the past decade — far outpacing traditional public schools. While homeschooling once primarily appealed to families looking for curriculum aligned with their religious beliefs, today's parents are more likely to cite concerns about school safety, bullying and drugs. Take Cassandra Alvarado, who is home schooling twins. “I grew up and was bullied a lot,” Alvarado said. “For us, this was a big reason.” That — and she wanted her children’s first language to be Spanish, not English. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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30,000 Acres and Counting: Western Colorado Faces Worst Fire Season Yet
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State, Approved, denvergazette.com

30,000 Acres and Counting: Western Colorado Faces Worst Fire Season Yet

Grace Brajkovich | The Denver Gazette Several wildfires continue to eat their way through western Colorado's mountainous terrain, with one growing more than 6,000 acres overnight and another crossing over from Utah, according to emergency officials. The four major wildfires on the western half of the state, including the one coming from Utah, have burned over 35,000 acres of land, according to Inciweb, a government wildfire tracker.  The scorching weather and "extreme" drought conditions still fan the blazes' flames as firefighters try to navigate steep, jagged terrain and fight back the four wildfires that prompted Gov. Jared Polis to issue a disaster declaration Sunday.  Here's a roundup from fire officials Wednesday. Turner Gulch and Wright Draw firesM...
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Sengenberger: Weiser’s CU intervention reveals his true priorities
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Sengenberger: Weiser’s CU intervention reveals his true priorities

By Jimmy Sengenberger | Commentary, Denver Gazette On Sunday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser picked a fight he shouldn’t have. In a thread on X, Weiser — a Democrat running for governor — defended CU Regent Wanda James by blasting her colleagues for recently censuring and sanctioning her in a bipartisan vote. The board had censured James, who is a pot shop proprietor, after she tried to discredit and defund the university’s award-winning “Tea on THC” awareness campaign. It educates the public on the risks of marijuana use for kids, including during pregnancy. James, a Democrat who boasts of being the nation’s first Black owner of a legal retail marijuana business, had demanded earlier this year that the campaign’s website be “taken down immediately” over “racist” illustr...
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Colorado’s Housing Crisis: Not Enough Homes Fuels Third-Highest Rent in America
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State, Approved, denvergazette.com

Colorado’s Housing Crisis: Not Enough Homes Fuels Third-Highest Rent in America

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette Colorado had the third highest rent and fifth highest home prices in 2023, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis from a zoning group. Compiled by a group called National Zoning Atlas, the analysis examined zoning codes in all 334 of Colorado's jurisdictions to assess how zoning affects housing affordability in the state. Of those 334 jurisdictions, 275 have zoning codes — but not all are openly available to the public, the analysis said. "Affordable" housing has been a top priority of Gov. Jared Polis since he was first elected in 2019, a goal shared by policymakers, though they often sharpy differ how to achieve that aim. Some push for greater density as a solution to many of the state's urban problems. In Denver, that reason...
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17 Colorado sheriffs to Polis: Fix inmate transfer crisis straining local jails
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17 Colorado sheriffs to Polis: Fix inmate transfer crisis straining local jails

By Marissa Ventrelli | Denver Gazette A coalition of 17 county sheriffs urged Gov. Jared Polis to resolve the Department of Corrections' backlog in inmate transfers and increase what the local officials described as the state's inadequate reimbursement rate for housing inmates in county jails. Current conditions are unsustainable according the group. In a letter signed by the sheriffs of El Paso, Douglas, Pueblo, and other counties, the group warned that prolonged delays in transferring of DOC-sentenced inmates from county jails into state custody, combined with what they called an "outdated and underfunded" per diem reimbursement rate, is creating a fiscal and public safety crisis.  "County jails were never designed — or funded — to house state inmates for extended periods,”...
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Lightning-sparked fires top 1,600 acres overnight at Black Canyon National Park
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Lightning-sparked fires top 1,600 acres overnight at Black Canyon National Park

By Nick Smith | Denver Gazette Reaching 1,640 acres in size, the wildfires in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park continue to burn with no signs of containment after two lightning strikes sparked the blazes Thursday. Evacuations for the park remain Friday, and there is no estimated time for reopening, according to fire and incident information agency InciWeb. The agency stated in a late-night news release Thursday that dry, receptive fuel aided by warm temperatures and wind has made for great circumstances for the fire to burn quickly. Incident Management Team San Juan Team 8 took command of wildfire containment operations early Friday. Lori Rome, a spokesperson for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, said one fire started near the Kneeling Camel Overlook, and the other wa...
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