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Republican Greg Lopez wins special election to serve out Ken Buck’s term in Congress
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Republican Greg Lopez wins special election to serve out Ken Buck’s term in Congress

The last time Lopez, an Air Force veteran and former Democrat, held elected office was in the 1990s, when he served as mayor of Parker By Jesse Paul and Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Republican Greg Lopez easily won the special election Tuesday in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, meaning he’ll serve out the term of former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, which ends in early January.  The Associated Press called the race at 7:34 p.m. when Lopez had 57% of the vote over Democrat Trisha Calvarese, a former speechwriter and congressional staffer.  “Neither of my parents had the opportunity to graduate from high school, and yet, this evening I was elected to serve in the United States House of Representatives,” Lopez said in a written statement. “I ...
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PERA’s investments bounce back in 2023, but the Colorado pension plan nets step backward
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PERA’s investments bounce back in 2023, but the Colorado pension plan nets step backward

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Colorado’s public employee pension system generated strong investment returns in 2023 — but its finances still deteriorated for the second time in five years as it struggles to bounce back from a miserable 2022. The Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s investments grew by 13.4% in 2023, according to its annual financial report released Friday. That matches its 13.4% loss from a year earlier. But because the pension has to average 7.25% returns a year to meet its funding targets, the net result was a step backward for the chronically underfunded pension. PERA’s unfunded debt to members grew by $1.2 billion to $27.5 billion, the report shows. Its funding ratio — the amount of money it has in the bank relative to...
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A new rule aids ranchers in killing wolves attacking their livestock at night
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A new rule aids ranchers in killing wolves attacking their livestock at night

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Colorado Parks and Wildlife will allow ranchers to use artificial light to aid in killing wolves caught in the act of attacking their livestock at night.  The change follows a 6-4 vote by the Parks and Wildlife commission at its meeting on June 13. The ruling is significant because wolves generally attack at night, yet ranchers have been unable to shoot them due to a statute that prevents hunters from shooting at an animal after dark and using artificial light.  Currently, livestock owners are allowed to use night vision technology to conduct hazing that doesn’t harm or kill a wolf. They’re also allowed to kill a wolf they catch it attacking livestock in daylight. The new rules gives them added support after dealing with wolv...
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Group tied to Kent Thiry drops $1.1 million into Colorado legislative primaries in final days before election
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Group tied to Kent Thiry drops $1.1 million into Colorado legislative primaries in final days before election

By Sandra Fish and Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun A group tied to Kent Thiry, the wealthy former CEO of the Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita, is spending nearly $1.1 million on TV and digital ads in 13 state legislative races in the days leading up to Colorado’s primaries on Tuesday.  The money supports more moderate Democratic and Republican candidates in their races against their more liberal or conservative opponents.  Let Colorado Vote Action, a state-level super PAC, was created Monday and spent the money Wednesday on ads that were to begin Thursday. The committee reported the spending Friday night, meeting a 48-hour campaign finance disclosure deadline in the lead-up to the primary.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Colorado employers may finally have found enough workers, but 1.7 open jobs remain for every unemployed worker
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Colorado employers may finally have found enough workers, but 1.7 open jobs remain for every unemployed worker

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun Colorado received some notable mentions in the latest national job-openings report. The state had the largest one-month increases in both workers who quit jobs or left involuntarily. That helped the state rank as the second highest in the nation for workers who quit jobs and third highest for those who lost them in April, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, or JOLTS. The last time the state hit a 3.5% quit rate was in the summer of 2021, when the Great Resignation took hold and employers faced the worst labor shortage in years. But the frustrations employers felt with getting ghosted by new hires back then doesn’t appear to be happening today, at least from what Tony Gagliardi is hearing. As state dire...
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Colorado tribes want to get into lucrative online sports betting. A dispute with the state is getting in the way.
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Colorado tribes want to get into lucrative online sports betting. A dispute with the state is getting in the way.

By Jerd Smith | The Colorado Sun Colorado tribes want to offer online sports betting. But their tax status, and other issues, has some people worried that allowing the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain tribes to offer remote wagering on professional sports might siphon valuable revenue away from Colorado water projects. The Colorado Department of Revenue declined to comment on the specifics of the dispute, while tribal representatives say they are frustrated with the state’s refusal to allow them to offer it. In November, a proposition referred to the ballot by lawmakers in House Bill 1436, will ask voters to allow the state to keep more of the revenue generated by sports gaming. Taxes collected on those bets, which were authorized in 2019, are projected to generate $34.2 million in t...
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Colorado wildlife officials confirm Grand County wolves have reproduced
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Colorado wildlife officials confirm Grand County wolves have reproduced

By The Colorado Sun At least one pup has been born to a pair of wolves transplanted to Colorado from Oregon in December. Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Thursday evening said a gray wolf pup was spotted on June 18 in Grand County but said it is likely as many as five more were born. Biologists tracking location data noted in early April that a female’s collar had stopped uploading GPS coordinates, but then resumed sending data later in the month. This led the biologists to believe she was likely in a den. Though CPW did not release a photo or video footage of the pup, a news release said biologists had observed the area where the female’s collar was transmitting from the air and ground, using remote cameras and public reports. The biologists will continue to observe the denning ...
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Colorado ends budget year $164M in the red with potential tax cuts looming on November ballot
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Colorado ends budget year $164M in the red with potential tax cuts looming on November ballot

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun The state of Colorado will end its budget year June 30 with a deficit of as much as $164 million, forcing it to dip into its reserves as it heads into an election cycle fraught with financial uncertainty. And the budget picture only deteriorates from there, according to revenue forecasts provided to the Joint Budget Committee on Thursday. Next fiscal year, which starts July 1, the state will start in a $35 million to $86 million hole that budget writers would have to close during midyear budget adjustments, which take place each year in January. That leaves little wriggle room if something unexpected happens in the meantime, like an uptick in health care costs or a slowdown in tax collections. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Young teachers at Denver school say they were sexually abused by special needs students for months without help
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Young teachers at Denver school say they were sexually abused by special needs students for months without help

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Three young educators at a Denver school for kids with severe behavioral issues were routinely sexually assaulted by students and ignored by administrators when they sought help, according to a new lawsuit.  The three women, recent college graduates who were passionate about working with children with special needs, said that for months they endured being groped, grabbed and choked at The Laradon School, a nonprofit with about 70 students in north Denver.  Victoria Schmidt, a paraprofessional hired in 2021, was repeatedly assaulted by a 13-year-old boy in her classroom, including the day he grabbed her in a hallway, placed her in a chokehold so tight that she feared she would die, and stuck his hand “deep inside her pants and underwea...
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New Colorado law protects tribal lands in response to contentious Durango, Southern Ute land dispute
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New Colorado law protects tribal lands in response to contentious Durango, Southern Ute land dispute

By Shannon Mullane | Colorado Sun A new law, rooted in a contentious land dispute in southwestern Colorado, says municipalities that want to annex land within a reservation must get tribal approval first.  While the idea made good sense to Colorado’s lawmakers — it breezed through this year’s legislative session — the law might pose a problem for Durango. The city has contemplated plans to spur economic growth and tap water stored in Lake Nighthorse, a federal reservoir south of the city. Some of those plans could involve annexing land within reservation boundaries. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, which said the city’s annexation discussions were secretive and dishonest, brought the matter to the state legislature. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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