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

By Jerd Smith | Colorado Sun 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. ...
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Federal mandates, real costs: EPA’s gas policy hits Coloradans at the pump
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Federal mandates, real costs: EPA’s gas policy hits Coloradans at the pump

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun The future of Colorado’s ozone-fighting reformulated gasoline is getting a lot more complicated this spring.  To recap:  The Front Range creates so much toxic ozone that we blew through EPA limits a long time ago. One sanction the EPA gave us for these “severe” violations is that in summer months, we must buy “reformulated gas,” or RFG, that creates less ozone-causing vapor.  Oil companies and Gov. Jared Polis say the benefits of RFG in fighting ozone are minimal, and the refining process costs consumers up to 50 cents more a gallon.  The EPA said no, the extra cost is only a few cents a gallon. Plus, the EPA said, while Suncor controls 40% of the gasoline market here, other gasoline companies would expand their RFG pipelines and ...
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Yadira Caraveo’s former aides say they were mistreated, traumatized by Colorado congresswoman
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Yadira Caraveo’s former aides say they were mistreated, traumatized by Colorado congresswoman

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun 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.” The plan, a copy of which was obtained by The Colorado Sun, was dismissed and staffers say they were told they had a choice: either commit to contending with Caraveo’s mental health challenges or resign within a day.  This story is based on nearly a year of reporting and conversations with more than 20 people, including interviews with four former...
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Colorado braces for special session over bloated Medicaid spending amid federal pressure
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Colorado braces for special session over bloated Medicaid spending amid federal pressure

By John Ingold | Colorado Sun 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. Speaking to a group of health care leaders earlier this mo...
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Colorado legislature declines to override Jared Polis’ veto of social media bill after House caves
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Colorado legislature declines to override Jared Polis’ veto of social media bill after House caves

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun 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. The override effort failed when the state House caved by laying over the vote to override the veto until May 9, which is after the legislative session ends. That prevented representatives from having to vote against the override after backing the bill. “The votes are not here,” said Rep. Andy Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat and one of the lead sponsors of the bill. “That’s a fact.”  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Gross Reservoir safety work can continue under appeals court ruling
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Gross Reservoir safety work can continue under appeals court ruling

By Michael Booth | Colorado Sun 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.  The appeals court granted Denver Water’s request for a temporary stay of the halt to construction at least through the May hearing. “Denver Water makes numerous allegations of immediate and irreparable harm from the district court’s injunction of further dam construction,” the appeals court order said.  U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello had previously issued the injunction against further Denver Water construction on the dam raising, saying t...
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SB280 offers millions to tech giants—some say it’ll leave ratepayers holding the bill
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SB280 offers millions to tech giants—some say it’ll leave ratepayers holding the bill

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun 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. A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants Colorado to follow in the footsteps of states like Virginia that offer big tech companies a blanket sales tax exemption for data centers, the energy-hungry server far...
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Colorado lawmakers pass budget cutting roads, aid to keep health care afloat
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Colorado lawmakers pass budget cutting roads, aid to keep health care afloat

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun 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. But as difficult as this year’s budget was, there was widespread acknowledgement that — one way or another — the state’s financial picture is only expected to get worse from here. “Next year is going to be very bad,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, the Greenwood Village Democrat who chairs the Joint Budget Committee. “The cuts will be much more deep and much more painful.” The main budget bill passed the state House 43 to 21 and the Senate 24 to 11, with most Republicans opposed. From here it heads to Gov. Jared...
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Colorado legislature passes bill punting to local governments on how much restaurant servers are paid
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Colorado legislature passes bill punting to local governments on how much restaurant servers are paid

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun 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.  While the industry sought to offset tipped workers’ paychecks with more of their gratuities, therefore reducing their base pay in some scenarios, the decision has been punted to local governments.  Under House Bill 1208, which now heads to Gov. Jared Polis, relief won’t come immediately — if ever. Especially not in Denver, where dozens of restaurant owners testified that high minimum wages exacerbated their struggles to survive and keep up with rising food, rent and insurance costs. Some members on Denver...
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife settles with hunting groups that sued claiming commissioners violated open meetings rules
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife settles with hunting groups that sued claiming commissioners violated open meetings rules

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Two influential hunting organizations that sued members of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission claiming they violated Colorado Open Meetings Law and spread false information about mountain lion hunting say they agreed to a small cash payment and the promise that commissioners would be trained in open meetings law and the agency’s rules around hunting lions, lynx and bobcats.   CPW spokesperson Travis Duncan confirmed the groups had reached a settlement but said once the state proved the commissioners had never communicated outside of an official meeting, the hunting groups decided to settle for “a modest amount of $2,332 to avoid the expense of litigation.” Commissioners did participate in an open meetings training, he said, which “was also ...
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