The Colorado Sun

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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Can Gross Dam expansion be completed before activists and courts dry it up?

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As Save the Colorado and Denver Water prepare to face off in a federal courtroom Tuesday, water officials across the state are watching the Gross Dam expansion case closely for its environmental impact and its affect on water projects across the West.

Kirk Klancke, a long-time Grand County environmentalist and president of the Colorado River Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said a decision that shuts down the $531 million water project, could also shut down 12 years of work on the Fraser River and its tributaries.

Here’s why: Denver Water owns much of the Fraser with water rights dating back more than 100 years. And it is that water that has historically been piped through the Moffat Tunnel near Rollinsville to fill the existing Gross Reservoir. The new water for the expanded reservoir will come largely from that river as well.

Can Gross Dam expansion be completed before activists and courts dry it up? Read More »

Yadira Caraveo’s former aides say they were mistreated, traumatized by Colorado congresswoman

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U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s behavior last year while serving in Congress and running for reelection was so frightening and traumatizing to staff that aides proposed a safety plan requesting that sharp objects be removed from the Colorado Democrat’s offices. They also wanted assurances that subordinates not be responsible for talking her “through suicidal thoughts” or “keeping her company during a crisis.”

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Colorado braces for special session over bloated Medicaid spending amid federal pressure

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There are now only seven days left in Colorado’s legislative session. But lawmakers and other state officials have for weeks been bracing for the possibility of coming back to the Capitol later this year to deal with potential federal cuts to Medicaid likely to be included in Congressional Republicans’ still-being-written budget proposal.

“There certainly are a lot of indicators that would suggest that we might end up having to come back in the event that there’s a dramatic cut to Medicaid,” state Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat and member of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said last month, as first reported in The Colorado Sun’s politics newsletter, The Unaffiliated.

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Colorado legislature declines to override Jared Polis’ veto of social media bill after House caves

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The Colorado legislature Monday declined to override Jared Polis’ veto of a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting children from the harms of social media, sparing the governor the embarrassment of the state’s first veto override in 14 years.

Colorado legislature declines to override Jared Polis’ veto of social media bill after House caves Read More »

Gross Reservoir safety work can continue under appeals court ruling

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Denver Water may continue shoring up its partially-finished Gross Dam expansion in southwestern Boulder County until a May 6 U.S. District Court hearing detailing long-term safety issues of a permanent injunction against further construction, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said late Friday. 

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SB280 offers millions to tech giants—some say it’ll leave ratepayers holding the bill

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With the help of generous corporate tax breaks, the state of Virginia has built up a data center industry that’s the envy of some Colorado lawmakers.

The tax incentives helped bring Virginia over $9 billion in economic investments and some 75,000 jobs. In some communities, data centers make up as much as a third of the local tax base.

But in the wake of a 2024 state audit detailing the growing environmental and financial costs for Virginia residents, public officials there have growing doubts over whether those jobs were worth the price.

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Colorado lawmakers pass budget cutting roads, aid to keep health care afloat

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Colorado lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to a $43.9 billion spending plan that cuts funding for transportation projects, local governments and dozens of social programs in order to keep up with the rising costs of health care and education.

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Colorado legislature passes bill punting to local governments on how much restaurant servers are paid

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A contentious bill pitting many restaurant owners against workers over how much tipped employees should earn was approved by the Colorado legislature Tuesday, with the restaurant industry feeling like it had achieved a small victory. 

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