staging.rockymountainvoice.com

Menu

The Colorado Sun

Where will the wild horses go? BLM is looking for landowners to keep wild horses on pasture
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Where will the wild horses go? BLM is looking for landowners to keep wild horses on pasture

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Land managers are ramping up efforts to find homes for Colorado wild horses after capturing an unprecedented number in recent years as part of a national effort to thin herds.  About 2,200 mustangs have been rounded up via helicopter and bait-and-trap operations since 2021, and now federal officials are scrambling to increase adoptions and find long-term pasture options.  The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is seeking bids until Jan. 10 from ranchers or other landowners who want to contract with the federal agency to keep wild horses for the rest of their lives. The BLM currently contracts with 38 landowners in the country — none of whom are in Colorado.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
23 Colorado cities must replace at least 20,000 lead pipes that could taint drinking water, survey finds
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

23 Colorado cities must replace at least 20,000 lead pipes that could taint drinking water, survey finds

By Jerd Smith | The Colorado Sun A new statewide survey shows that 23 Colorado cities have aging lead water delivery pipes, roughly 20,000 of them, that could potentially taint drinking water.  Under federal rules, those cities must identify all contaminated pipes and replace them by 2037, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. But the initial survey, completed in October, also found that 170,000 additional water lines still need to be examined. Cities that have untested water delivery pipes are notifying customers of the risk and have November of next year to finish the identification process, according to Seth Clayton, executive director of Pueblo Water. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Historians say a Denver electrician helped spark a Christmas tradition years before it swept the U.S.
No Comments
Local, The Colorado Sun

Historians say a Denver electrician helped spark a Christmas tradition years before it swept the U.S.

By Por Jaijongkit | The Colorado Sun The tradition of hanging colored lights outside homes for Christmas originated in Denver in 1914 when a local electrician found a creative way to bring holiday cheer to his bedridden son. David Dwight Sturgeon dipped lights in red and green paint, strung them on an electric wire, and hung them around a pine tree for his ailing son to admire from his bedroom window. Soon neighbors began making their own outdoor light displays, and Denver Post coverage helped spread the practice through the city. While Sturgeon wasn’t the first person to display outdoor Christmas lights, the tradition he inspired in Denver is the first known instance of outdoor home Christmas lights becoming widespread in any city, according to History Colorado researchers.  R...
Read More
Colorado’s budget deficit may be smaller than the $1 billion hole originally predicted
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado’s budget deficit may be smaller than the $1 billion hole originally predicted

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Colorado’s state budget deficit next year is forecast to be about $250 million smaller than previously anticipated, economic prognosticators told state lawmakers Thursday, news that will make carrying out a fiscal trapeze act slightly easier.  Nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff and the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting, which presented their quarterly budget and economic forecasts Thursday to the Joint Budget Committee, said the state budget hole is more like $750 million, if not lower. That’s down from the roughly $1 billion hole originally estimated for the fiscal year that begins July 1 if the JBC maintained its current spending plans. The deficit is being caused by a number of factors, including decre...
Read More
Coyote killed near the child attack in Colorado Springs had human DNA on its paws, wildlife officers say
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Coyote killed near the child attack in Colorado Springs had human DNA on its paws, wildlife officers say

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Human DNA found on the paws of one of two coyotes killed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife suggests the animal was the one that attacked a child in Colorado Springs on Thanksgiving.  The capture comes after weeks of CPW trapping multiple coyotes in and around the northern Colorado Springs neighborhood where the attack occurred when the girl and a friend approached the animal hoping to feed it after mistaking it for a dog.  CPW spokesperson Bill Vogrin offered no details on how the coyote’s paws still had DNA on them three weeks after the attack, citing an ongoing investigation.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Ethics complaint filed against state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis over aide allegations
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Ethics complaint filed against state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis over aide allegations

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun A constituent of embattled state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis lodged an ethics complaint against the Longmont Democrat last week, alleging that Jaquez Lewis has failed to uphold her office with integrity and the public interest by mistreating her Capitol aides.  The complaint could lead to the most serious consequences yet for Jaquez Lewis, who has already been stripped of her committee assignments and barred from having state-paid staffers at the Capitol in light of the aide allegations. If leadership in the Senate agrees to advance the ethics complaint — as they’ve indicated they will do — it would initiate a committee investigation that could lead to a recommendation Jaquez Lewis be expelled from the chamber. It takes a two-thirds vote of t...
Read More
In race to push a landmark water bill through Congress, Colorado is one state in the way
No Comments
National, The Colorado Sun

In race to push a landmark water bill through Congress, Colorado is one state in the way

By Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun Tribal nations, Arizona and over 30 other stakeholders have just days to get a historic water rights settlement through Congress, and they’ll have to get past pushback from Upper Basin states, including Colorado, to do it. The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act would secure safe, reliable water for thousands of Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribal members in northeastern Arizona. It would give the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe a reservation. It would resolve water rights disputes, and potentially set up new funding streams for tribes. If successful, it would conclude about 60 years of work, advocates say. But some Congressional representatives have balked at the price tag: $5 billion. State officials...
Read More
Evans: ‘America must prioritize deporting gangsters, not grandmas’
No Comments
Commentary, The Colorado Sun

Evans: ‘America must prioritize deporting gangsters, not grandmas’

By Gabe Evans | Commentary, The Colorado Sun In a recent viral moment, the mayor of Denver, Mike Johnston, threatened to deploy local cops and thousands of Coloradans for a “Tiananmen Square moment” to stop the next administration’s strong immigration policies.  As a Coloradan, former Denver-area cop, grandson of an immigrant family and the next congressman for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, I strongly support a secure border and strong immigration policies, including immediate deportation for criminals or freeloaders.  For those who are contributing to our society, not causing problems, and want to legally join the American dream, I do not support immediate deportation or family separation. As the grandson of an immigrant from Chihuahua, I know that Am...
Read More
Hunting groups suing CPW commissioners over op-ed ahead of Prop. 127 election
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Hunting groups suing CPW commissioners over op-ed ahead of Prop. 127 election

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Two influential hunting organizations are suing members of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission saying they violated Colorado Open Meetings Law and spread false information about mountain lion hunting prior to last month’s vote on Proposition 127, which would have banned the hunting and trapping of mountain lions, lynx and bobcats.   When the proposition failed by a margin of less than 5 percentage points, it marked the first time since 1992 that Colorado voters rejected a wildlife ballot proposal and stirred hope among some of a bridging of Colorado’s urban-rural divide.  But Safari Club International and The Sportsmens Alliance Foundation sued commissioners Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy as well as former com...
Read More
Supermarket super merger that would have impacted 105 grocery stores in Colorado collapses
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Supermarket super merger that would have impacted 105 grocery stores in Colorado collapses

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun A day after two judges in two lawsuits ruled against the proposed $24.6 billion supermarket merger, Albertsons Companies said Wednesday it would end its merger agreement with Kroger. “Given the recent federal and state court decisions to block our proposed merger with Kroger, we have made the difficult decision to terminate the merger agreement. We are deeply disappointed in the courts’ decisions,” Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran said. At the same time, the Idaho grocery chain, which owns 105 Safeway and Albertsons grocery stores in Colorado, said it filed a lawsuit against Kroger for breach of merger agreement accusing the larger supermarket chain “repeatedly refusing to divest assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignoring regulators’ feedbac...
Read More