The Colorado Sun

Western Slope pushes $99M deal for historic Shoshone water rights—Front Range says not so fast

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Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Northern Water voiced opposition Wednesday to the Western Slope’s proposal to spend $99 million to buy historic water rights on the Colorado River from Xcel Energy.

The Colorado River Water Conservation District has been working for years to buy the water rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant, a small, easy-to-miss hydropower plant off Interstate 70 east of Glenwood Springs. The highly coveted water rights are some of the largest and oldest on the Colorado River in Colorado.

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Polis backs federal halt after his own AI law faces fierce blowback

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Nine months: that’s all the time left before companies have to start complying with Colorado’s first-in-the-nation anti-discrimination law for AI systems, unless policymakers act.

Business and industry groups have been begging for a delay. They say the law as it stands is unworkable — they’re urging Colorado’s lawmakers to give all sides more time to try to find a compromise.

But consumer rights advocates say AI’s rapid spread into more and more areas of life makes it critical to put guardrails on how the technology is working. Many advocates for the law also feel some in the tech industry won’t be satisfied with anything other than a full capitulation on the policy’s most meaningful consumer protections.

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AT&T expands in Colorado as Lumen offloads home broadband business

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AT&T’s $5.75 billion purchase of Lumen Technologies home fiber-internet business will impact 1 million customers nationwide, including an undisclosed number in Colorado who buy fiber service from Quantum Fiber, a brand that originated under CenturyLink.

The deal, pending regulatory approval, was announced Wednesday, and means AT&T will step into the consumer world of fiber internet service for the first time, at least here in Colorado.

Besides picking up Lumen’s Colorado market, AT&T will add customers in 10 other states for a total of 1 million fiber customers. Lumen’s current network could serve 4 million households if every home ordered it.

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Colorado Republican Congress members rally behind Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

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President Donald Trump left a meeting with the Republican caucus Tuesday morning predicting a great victory.

His trek to the U.S. Capitol came as GOP leaders try to get his “big, beautiful bill” passed in the House this week.  

House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose party holds a slim majority, has been trying to stitch together a bill that can deliver on Trump’s agenda while threading the needle between his far right faction, his swing seat members, and others in the caucus, as the different factions seek opposing changes to the bill.

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Cities sue Polis over housing mandate, cite threat to local control

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Six “home rule” cities in Colorado are suing the state, alleging it has unconstitutionally usurped their local authority over land use and zoning as it pushes communities to allow denser housing development. 

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of an executive order Gov. Jared Polis signed last week to withhold some state grants from local communities if they fail to implement a slate of recent housing laws. The cities say the order encroaches on the powers of both the General Assembly and the judiciary to say what the law is and is “beyond the governor’s authority.”

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Jared Polis vetoes Colorado labor movement’s priority bill. Union leaders say they’ll be back.

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Gov. Jared Polis made his expected veto of Senate Bill 5 official on Friday, a decision that’s sure to deepen the rift between him and the Colorado labor movement, as well as Democrats in the legislature. 

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School board in El Paso County moves to restrict transgender athletes, citing safety and fairness

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At an April school board meeting near Colorado Springs, debate raged over a proposed policy to ban transgender students from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

A high school student named Sadie, who spoke against the policy, asked why her district would need a blanket policy when a tiny percentage of student athletes are transgender.

A 60-year-old man who supported the policy and described himself as stronger than any woman in the building claimed a transgender girl could slam a ball into a girl’s head hard enough to put her in the hospital.

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Colorado gives $8 million tax credit to fuel “clean iron” plant in Jefferson County

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A Boulder company with a patented method to take most of the carbon emissions out of the energy-intensive iron and steelmaking process will use $8 million from the inaugural state industrial tax credit to build a manufacturing plant in Jefferson County, officials said Tuesday. 

The patented process produces “clean” industrial iron at the temperature of a cup of coffee, rather than the 1,200-degree Fahrenheit furnaces traditionally used in iron and steelmaking, according to Electrasteel Inc, known as Electra. Currently employing more than 130 people, Electra uses an electrochemical process and hopes to cut 30% or more of the carbon emissions from traditional production.

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Rural Southwest Colorado farmers face 65% water shortfall after dry winter

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Ken Curtis, a water manager in southwestern Colorado, had two words to describe his district’s expected water supply this summer: “Pretty bad.”

“(We’re) looking at about 30%, maybe 35% supply,” said Curtis, who manages the Dolores Water Conservancy District.

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Colorado’s gray wave drives up costs, exposes policy gaps

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“The only reality in the world is that we are going to get older and we’re going to die.”

Nobody can escape that reality, according to Christian Itin, a member of the Colorado Strategic Action Group on Aging.

“I think we need to remind folks that this will happen to me,” he said. “It will happen to you. It’ll happen to your family. We can’t put our heads in the sand and hide from that reality.”

In Colorado, the older population is growing fast, with ramifications for the major challenges the state already faces, notably housing, healthcare costs and workforce needs. It also affects student enrollment, which, in turn, means a direct impact on school financing.

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