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Durango’s hotel-to-housing project financing is a first in Colorado
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

Durango’s hotel-to-housing project financing is a first in Colorado

By Mark Stevens | The Colorado Sun Giant plastic sheets seal off the hazard zones where asbestos abatement is in full swing. The swimming pool where travelers once lounged is buried under fresh fill. Kitchen appliances, new smoke detectors and media boxes for internet access are being added to each of the 72 rooms in the former roadside inn. Plumbers are fitting new sink drains. A new community room, laundry facility and fitness center are being readied off the main entry. Saws buzz, hammers pound, and a giant Volvo L60H loader kicks up dust as it makes runs to fill the foundation where a new general store will rise. Two new structures are going up behind this former Best Western motel a mile west of downtown Durango along Colorado 160. They will be home to 24 two-bedroom and 24 thre...
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Colorado lawmakers back off withholding road money from cities under plan to boost housing near transit
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers back off withholding road money from cities under plan to boost housing near transit

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Facing outcry from local officials, Colorado Democrats this week said they would back off a plan to withhold highway maintenance funding from cities that don’t meet proposed state targets for housing density near transit stops. But even with the biggest penalty in the bill on the chopping block, local government leaders across the Denver metro area remain divided over the legislation, the centerpiece of Gov. Jared Polis’ plans to reduce housing costs in Colorado. House Bill 1313 would require a number of urban and suburban local governments to allow more apartments and townhomes along major transit corridors. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Democrat Trisha Calvarese can remain on 4th District special election ballot, judge rules
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Democrat Trisha Calvarese can remain on 4th District special election ballot, judge rules

By Sandra Fish | The Colorado Sun Democrat Trisha Calvarese will remain on the June 25 special election ballot in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a Denver judge ruled Wednesday in throwing out a lawsuit seeking to dislodge her.  Calvarese “has presented a good faith effort to comply with applicable regulations and has not acted to mislead the electorate,” Denver District Court Judge David Goldberg wrote. The ruling came after a one-hour court hearing Tuesday in a lawsuit trying to keep Calvarese off the ballot based on the allegation that she hadn’t been registered as a Democratic voter in Colorado for long enough to qualify as her party’s nominee for the contest.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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One introduced wolf is dead in Colorado as another is likely expecting pups in Grand County
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

One introduced wolf is dead in Colorado as another is likely expecting pups in Grand County

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Just a few hours after U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists confirmed that one of the 10 gray wolves transplanted to Colorado in December was found dead in Larimer County, the state’s top wildlife official told ranchers he will not kill a wolf blamed for the death of four cows in Grand County because it is likely the mate to a wolf that appears to be denning. Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis on Tuesday said GPS points from the female wolf’s collar indicate that she is likely in a den. In early April, GPS points stopped uploading and very recently those points began to upload again.  “The biological interpretation of this is that she was likely in a den during the time when connectivity with the collar was interrupted, which aligns ...
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Democrats are set to unveil their Colorado property tax relief plan this week. Here’s what’s in it.
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Democrats are set to unveil their Colorado property tax relief plan this week. Here’s what’s in it.

By Jesse Paul and Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Democrats in the Colorado legislature are preparing this week to introduce a measure that would overhaul the state’s property tax system to limit future spikes in businesses’ and homeowners’ tax bills, with an eye toward providing more relief to people who own lower-value homes.  The legislation would let people exempt 10% of their primary residence’s value from taxation, up to $75,000. In most communities, that would represent a maximum savings of around $450 a year, though tax bills can vary greatly depending on local mill levy rates. Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and main sponsor of the measure, said the new homestead exemption would effectively lower the property assessment rate for most homeowners to 6.4% for taxes ...
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Rural “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in ag?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Rural “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in ag?

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun San Luis Valley cattle rancher George Whitten was halfway through a mental health workshop when he let himself tally up a figure he had never wanted to know — the number of people in his life who had died by suicide.  It was eight.  “You just sort of file that away in a gray box, a place in your mind that it’s there, but it’s not something you want to revisit,” said Whitten, who is 71 and runs 150 cows on land outside Saguache that has been in his family for 140 years. “There’s still a lot there that I really haven’t unpacked.”  All eight of those relatives and friends were from the rural, agricultural community, starting with Whitten’s cousin, who died at 18 after he was sent from the family’s ranch to Brigham Young Universit...
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Syphilis cases in Colorado are exploding. The state just issued a public health order to try to stop that.
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Syphilis cases in Colorado are exploding. The state just issued a public health order to try to stop that.

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun Syphilis is among the most brutal diseases known to humans, but it is also among the sneakiest. Dr. Michelle Barron, an infectious disease expert with UCHealth, calls it “the great masquerader.” Early symptoms in adults are often painless, temporary and easy to miss. After that, the disease can lie silent in the body for years until it makes itself known. And Colorado, like other states across the country, is now dealing with the devastating impacts that can occur when syphilis goes undetected and untreated. Since 2018, syphilis cases in the state have more than tripled, to 3,266 last year from 1,084 in 2018. Those 2018 numbers were already a significant jump from previous years. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Plan to quadruple property taxes on short-term rentals fails in late-night Capitol committee vote
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Plan to quadruple property taxes on short-term rentals fails in late-night Capitol committee vote

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun A bill that would have quadrupled the property taxes on many homes offered as short-term rentals in Colorado was rejected late Tuesday in a Colorado Senate committee, marking at least the third time in recent years that such a proposal has failed at the Capitol.  Senate Bill 33 was voted down 6-1 by the Senate Finance Committee during the bill’s first hearing, an outcome that came after months of loud opposition from vacation rental owners and companies like Airbnb and Vrbo.  The only “yes” vote on the measure came from its main sponsor, Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Colorado locked up middle-aged women for “lunacy,” old jail ledger reveals 
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado locked up middle-aged women for “lunacy,” old jail ledger reveals 

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun The leather-bound ledger smells of tobacco and dust, each page listing the names of people booked into the Jefferson County Jail more than 100 years ago.  The men in the ledger, identified in old-timey cursive as immigrants, Native Americans and miners, were mostly booked for crimes typical in Golden’s mining heyday — drunkenness, bootlegging, fighting and murder.  The most common charge for women, however, was lunacy. Of the 280 charges against women listed in the book, 74 are for “lunacy” or “insanity.” And of those women, at least 31 were sent from jail via train to what was then called the Insane Asylum at Pueblo. That’s 26% of all charges against women. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Lawsuit alleges Trisha Calvarese, Democratic nominee for 4th CD special election, is ineligible
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Lawsuit alleges Trisha Calvarese, Democratic nominee for 4th CD special election, is ineligible

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Trisha Calvarese’s selection as the Democratic nominee for the June 25 special election in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a race that will determine who serves out the rest of former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck’s term, is being challenged in court.  A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Denver against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold alleges that Calvarese was ineligible to be selected by delegates at a special Democratic convention last week because of a provision in state law known as  1–4-402. It says that “any candidate nominated by a political party must be affiliated with the party for at least twelve consecutive months prior to the date the convention begins, as shown in the statewide voter registration system.”  Calv...
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