Good morning, Sunriser readers!
I’m currently experiencing a return to fiction. It started last year, after spending the better part of the decade deep in the world of nonfiction: mostly memoirs, essays and hard-to-categorize books like this one about basketball and this one about Annie Dillard’s backyard. Last year I finished exactly one novel out of the dozen or so books I read. That book was Joy Williams’ “The Quick and the Dead,” and it was exactly the book I needed to usher in this new phase — a thorny parable about three motherless girls killing time in the American desert. It’s haunting and borderline surreal, and reminded me of all the interesting things fiction can do to a mind.
We’ve got a lot of stories from the real world for you today, including poison fish and polluting landfills, colluding algorithms deciding rental rates, and a heated debate over a beaver-themed gas station. You can’t make this stuff up.
Parker Yamasaki
Reporter
P.S. If owning a home feels like a distant fantasy (or, hopefully not, a horror) come by our free “Take Me Home” event next Wednesday, where an expert panel will talk about the overlooked options and programs to help you buy your first home, moderated by Sun staffer Danika Worthington.
THE NEWS
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Jared Polis vetoes bill that would have restricted the use of rent-setting software, like RealPage
$136/month
Increase in Denver rents due to algorithm-based price coordination
The bill would have banned rent-setting algorithms, which consumer protection advocates have argued enable landlords to drive up the price of housing in recent years. Gov. Polis said he agrees with the intent of the bill, but that it inadvertently targeted legitimate technologies and could do more harm than good to the rental market. Brian Eason and Jesse Paul have more.
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Man who threatened to kill Colorado, Arizona election officials gets 3 years in prison. Teak Ty Brockbank was characterized as a “keyboard warrior” during his trial and apologized for the “ugly posts” inspired by far-right conspiracy theories, Colleen Slevin reports.OIL AND GAS
Uinta Basin Railway supported with U.S. Supreme Court ruling that may push more crude through Colorado
Train cars are parked along the Colorado River on April 10, 2024, in Bond. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)“A risky scheme.”
— Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on the railway
An 88-mile railway connecting Utah’s oilfields to the national rail network got the go-ahead from the U.S. Supreme Court, where the plan was challenged by environmental groups and Eagle County. The high court’s decision narrows the scope of the environmental review process, which some have argued hinders infrastructure construction. Jason Blevins has the details.
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ENVIRONMENT
Colorado warns anglers and families to limit eating fish laden with PFAS at popular lakes
Birds float in the water near a construction site in Barr Lake State Park on Sept. 26, 2023. (Chloe Anderson, Special to The Colorado Sun)100%
Fish that tested positive for PFAS in a 2020 study
While the Food and Drug Administration recommends two to three servings of fish a week, no one should eat more than one serving a month of smallmouth bass caught at Chatfield Reservoir, Michael Booth writes. That’s according to a map released by the state health department showing the risk of ingesting PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” and mercury at some of Colorado’s popular fishing spots.
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Colorado landfills generate as much dirty air as driving 1 million cars for a year. Proposed regulations require landfills to measure and collect their excess methane, and close loopholes in federal law. Jennifer Oldham reports.TECHNOLOGY
Colorado’s quantum Tech Hub partners with IBM to train 3,500 workers
Inside one of IBM’s quantum computing laboratories at IBM Research headquarters in Yorktown Heights, New York. (Provided by IBM)“A role that may have required a Ph.D. in the past, now you can get it with a master’s degree. And those that required a master’s degree, now you can get it with a bachelor’s degree.”
— Bradley Holt, workforce development lead at IBM
A new partnership with IBM enables Elevate Quantum, the Colorado-based technology consortium, to roll out a quantum training curriculum in local colleges and universities, with a goal of training 3,500 workers by 2030. Tamara Chuang has the details.
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MORE NEWS
Fact Brief ☀️Does Xcel make more than $1B in profit annually? Por Jaijongkit picks apart the numbers of Colorado’s largest energy provider. Palmer Lake officials vote Buc-ee’s is eligible to annex land north of Colorado Springs. The massive gas station is one step closer to breaking ground on a second Colorado location, despite objections from longtime locals. Olivia Prentzel reports from the crowded town hall. Second Colorado measles infection linked to Turkish Airlines flight that landed at DIA. So far, two passengers — one adult and one child — have caught measles from an infectious traveler on a flight from Istanbul to Denver. Their cases are the sixth and seventh in the state this year. John Ingold has more.Section by Parker Yamasaki | Reporter
THE COLORADO REPORT
New Denver Animal Shelter program, Wild Tunes, will bring musicians in to play for dogs, cats. When Yuvi Agarwal began playing the keyboard for a room full of dogs at the Denver Animal Shelter on Thursday, the music was hard to distinguish between the barks and yelps of his audience.— The Denver Post ? Road tripping in Colorado’s mountains this summer? Construction projects will impact travel on popular routes. As Colorado residents and visitors begin planning summer trips, transportation officials are reminding travelers that summer is also road construction season in the mountains.— Vail Daily Durango fire chief stresses wildfire mitigation amid drought, limited resources. Following a mild winter in southwestern Colorado, the arrival of spring and summer brings a heightened risk for wildfires in the region — a risk that already has fire crews in Durango and the surrounding areas on edge.— Durango Herald Colorado communities have spent millions of dollars on whitewater parks. Are they worthwhile? Determining the value that recreational in-channel diversions, or RICDs, and river recreation bring to the state’s outdoor economy is difficult. But more than two decades after Golden acquired the state’s first RICD, 21 local governments in Colorado now have water rights for recreation.— Aspen Journalism?=source has article meter or paywall
Section by David Krause | Editor
THE OPINION PAGE
CARTOONS
Drew Litton observes that ownership of the worst team in Major League Baseball continues to suck the life out of long-suffering fans.
CARTOON
In “What’d I Miss?” the cartoonists wonder how accepting a used aircraft from a foreign country fits into the narrative of patriotically buying American.
CARTOON
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy and submit columns, suggest writers or provide feedback at opinion@coloradosun.com.
Podcast Playlist
CONVERSATION
Each weekday The Daily Sun-Up podcast brings you a thoughtful conversation and headlines of the day. We keep it tight so you can listen on the go, or stack up a few and tune in at your leisure. Download the Sun-Up for free on your favorite podcasting app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or RSS to plug into your app. Check out this week’s lineup from The Sun team:
Colorado is aging. Can we do it gracefully? In our series “Aging in Colorado,” we are looking at how communities are adapting to older residents. Reporter Jennifer Brown looks at a remote area in southern Colorado that has become the state’s oldest county, and one of the oldest in the country.LISTEN Thrilling backstory to new thriller. Colorado author Mark Stevens talks about his latest work, which has been stewing for nearly 25 years. “No Lie Lasts Forever” came in the night during a drive on I-25 through Denver. SunLit editor Kevin Simpson gets the dirt. LISTEN Rolling through Colorado’s San Luis Valley. It wasn’t meant to sound like a chamber of commerce session, but rural reporter Tracy Ross made a recent trip through the valley and came away with some stories to tell and places to visit.LISTEN Preservation, family farms and growth in Colorado. During this month’s Colorado SunFest, reporter Michael Booth convened a panel of experts to talk about these topics, and we’ve brought snippets of it to the Sun-Up.LISTEN?️ Remember, you can ask Siri, Alexa or Google to “play the Daily Sun-Up podcast” and we’ll play right on your smart speaker. As always we appreciate your feedback and comments at podcast@coloradosun.com.
Section by David Krause | Editor
I’m almost done with Karen Russell’s short story collection, “Orange World.” What strange tale should I pick up next?
— Parker & the whole staff of The Sun
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Corrections & Clarifications
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