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Colorado experts predict what the state’s economy will look like in 2025
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado experts predict what the state’s economy will look like in 2025

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun The Herculean effort of predicting how the current year has gone and what will happen to Colorado’s economy in next year took 140 local experts from every major industry sector, meetings since September and dozens of staffers at University of Colorado’s business school putting in roughly 1,000 hours of work.  On Monday, it was summed up with a sentence: “The economy is on stable footing.” The full 171-page report is also available online for those who prefer to dive deeper, but on Monday, senior economist Richard L. Wobbekind, the faculty director of the Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business, shared highlights during the annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook & Forum event. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO ...
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Colorado Parks & Wildlife vows to do better job at Rd. 2 of wolf reintroduction starting in January
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Parks & Wildlife vows to do better job at Rd. 2 of wolf reintroduction starting in January

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Colorado Parks and Wildlife is vowing to do a better job at wolf reintroduction ahead of the planned release of 15 gray wolves from British Columbia starting in January.  That’s according to a joint news release by CPW and the Colorado Department of Agriculture in which CPW director Jeff Davis said “staff and partners have been working hard, learning and adapting through the first year of restoration in Colorado” and that they’re “coming back with a stronger conflict minimization program” for the well-being of ranchers, their livestock and wolves.  The assurance comes during a time of pushback on the Colorado wolf program and the agency in charge of managing not only wolves but hundreds of other wildlife species in the state.  READ THE...
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‘You are here to serve’: As Colorado’s pension costs grow, some PERA members say its board isn’t listening
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State, The Colorado Sun

‘You are here to serve’: As Colorado’s pension costs grow, some PERA members say its board isn’t listening

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Months before five Colorado school districts took the drastic step of suing the state pension plan, their elected representative tried to bring their concerns to the Public Employees’ Retirement Association Board of Trustees. “We (the Board) rarely hear from people in the field about how PERA staff decisions affect their organizations,” Scott Smith — a PERA board trustee at the time — wrote in a November 2023 email to school administrators. “If you have issues or concerns with any recent PERA staff decisions, I would encourage you to sign up for public comment.” The exercise got the board’s attention — just not the way Smith intended. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Final price tag of race in Colorado’s highly competitive 8th Congressional District: $40 million
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State, The Colorado Sun

Final price tag of race in Colorado’s highly competitive 8th Congressional District: $40 million

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun The final price tag of the race in Colorado’s highly competitive 8th Congressional District this year was about $40 million, with three-quarters of that sum being spent by super PACs.  Most of the money — or about $24 million — was spent to benefit incumbent U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat. But it wasn’t enough, as she lost to Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans by about 2,500 votes, or about 1 percentage point. Caraveo’s campaign raised about $8.1 million for her reelection bid, spending all but about $90,000 of that through Election Day, according to her campaign finance report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. The report reflected fundraising and spending from Oct. 17 through Nov. 25.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE...
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Colorado’s first biomass energy plant closed, set for auction as owner files for bankruptcy protection
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado’s first biomass energy plant closed, set for auction as owner files for bankruptcy protection

By Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun The pioneering biomass plant in Gypsum — the first in the state to begin converting shredded beetle-kill trees into electricity — has shut down and its owner has filed for bankruptcy protection citing more than $40 million in debt.  The closure has terminated wildfire mitigation efforts in Colorado’s forests and reveals the growing struggle of burning biomass for electricity as demand grows for more affordable renewable energy options like solar and wind. The highest bidder for the plant and the 94-acre property along the Eagle River in Gypsum — revealed last week in Colorado U.S. Bankruptcy Court — is an Illinois-based real estate firm that proposes paying $2.45 million. The trustee in charge of the sale said the Urban Investment Research Cor...
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Gov. Polis proposes shielding funding for major water programs as state’s $1 billion deficit looms
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State, The Colorado Sun

Gov. Polis proposes shielding funding for major water programs as state’s $1 billion deficit looms

By Jerd Smith | The Colorado Sun Colorado’s largest water agency may be shielded from significant funding cuts as the state addresses its financial woes, under the 2025-26  budget proposed by Gov. Jared Polis. The Colorado Water Conservation Board would see a $6.9 million increase in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, rising from $98.1 million in revenue this year to $105.1 million, according to the governor’s office. But in 2026, funding would drop to $97.6 million due to a decline in severance tax revenue, which is derived in part from oil and gas production and is a key part of the CWCB’s funding. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Colorado senator barred from having state-paid aides after repeated complaints from staffers
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado senator barred from having state-paid aides after repeated complaints from staffers

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Colorado Senate leaders Tuesday barred a Democratic state lawmaker from having state-paid aides after two of her most recent staffers filed a workplace misconduct complaint claiming she used one of them to do chores like yard work and bartend at a party at her home. The complaint marks the second time in the past year state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont has been accused of mistreating her legislative aides. “This is now clearly a recurring issue,” outgoing Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, said in a letter to Jaquez Lewis. “In good conscience we cannot support placing an aide in your office while this behavior and complaints continue.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Kids in Colorado’s poorest counties are more likely to experience the death of a parent, sibling
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State, The Colorado Sun

Kids in Colorado’s poorest counties are more likely to experience the death of a parent, sibling

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Children who live in Colorado’s lowest-income counties are 131% more likely to experience a parent or sibling death than their peers living in the highest-income counties, according to a new report by Judi’s House and the JAG Institute in Aurora. And those lowest-income counties also happen to be Colorado’s most rural, the study says. Micki Burns, CEO of Judi’s House, said authors of the study grouped counties together based on median income and came up with “five income distribution bands.” They then ran the groups through a statistical tool called the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model to calculate their findings.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Developers have the go-ahead for new construction in northern Weld County after a three-year freeze
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Local, The Colorado Sun

Developers have the go-ahead for new construction in northern Weld County after a three-year freeze

By Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun Residents of northern Weld County might see new construction now that a local water district has given developers the go-ahead to request water services after a three-year hold. North Weld County Water District stopped real estate development in its tracks in 2021 when it announced a moratorium on tap sales and new requests for water amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a statewide housing craze. Developers’ projects stalled. A growing housing stock halted.  The district’s work began: They had to pull the reins to figure out if they even had enough capacity to serve everyone who wanted water, said Tad Stout, board president for the district. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Feds sue Free Land Holders group that put up fence, claimed ‘original’ ownership over 1,400 acres of forest
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National, The Colorado Sun

Feds sue Free Land Holders group that put up fence, claimed ‘original’ ownership over 1,400 acres of forest

By Olivia Prentzel and Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun A group that fenced off about 1,400 acres of U.S. Forest Service land outside Mancos after claiming ownership over it is now being sued by the federal government. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court of Colorado, U.S. attorneys called the Free Land Holder group’s fence “unlawful,” citing the federal government’s title to the land that it manages through the Forest Service for recreation purposes and cattle grazing.  The U.S. is filing the lawsuit, attorneys wrote, to prevent further harm to the land and public and “ensure continuing free and lawful access to public property.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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