Good morning and welcome back to Monday! I enjoyed a lovely (and yes, slightly forced) hike with my kids yesterday to celebrate Mother’s Day. I also received a ceramic stack of pancakes, complete with a clay pat of butter on top and lifelike golden-brown syrup dripping down the sides. My daughter made them in her ceramics class. Not on my wish list exactly, or even remotely on my radar to be honest, but I’m sure, as moms do, I will cherish them forever as they sit on the kitchen windowsill.
Please tell me you have all signed up for Colorado SunFest on Friday? Get a ticket here, pick up your new Sun tote bag and meet me at the coffee reception. It’s always a fun day filled with interesting people and conversations.
See you there! Until then, here’s what’s been going on in Colorado.
Jennifer Brown
Reporter
We’re trying to build a better Colorado. Want to be in the room with us? The Colorado Sun is hosting Colorado SunFest on May 16 to discuss solutions to the state’s biggest issues at the University of Denver.THE NEWS
HEALTH
Colorado mental health providers say they were “betrayed” by state Medicaid program
A sign marks the entrance to the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration offices in Denver on July 1. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)“Now we have no clue what we are going to be paid. We are in limbo. No one knows anything.”
— Haley Wise, owner of Compassion Collaborative clinic in Colorado Springs
A 2022 shakeup of Colorado’s behavioral health system — which ended contracts with giant regional medical centers and enticed independent clinics to step up to fill the needs with higher reimbursement rates — has left those smaller providers out on a limb with no guarantee of getting paid at the rates promised. Jennifer Brown has more.
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HEALTH
Weld County oil well blowout exposed people miles away to high levels of benzene, researchers say
Footprints in a pond close to Willow Creek near Weld County County Roads 72 and 51 on May 6, near where Chevron’s Bishop well blew out in Galeton on April 6. Much of the work around the well involves protecting the creek and other waterways from liquids that spewed from the well for nearly five days. (Tri Duong, Special to The Colorado Sun)“People were potentially exposed to a chemical soup.”
— Emily Fischer, a CSU professor of atmospheric science
The uncontrolled blowout of the Chevron Bishop well in Galeton, a community of 256 about 7 miles northeast of Greeley, began April 6, sending a white geyser of water, crude oil and gas high into the air. After a five-day process to secure and seal the leak, Mark Jaffe reports that levels of toxic benzene have been detected along the plume from the leak.
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HOUSING
Colorado’s largest community built from shipping containers is providing a housing road map
Jerry Champlin initially planned a dozen rentable tiny homes built around a courtyard on a residential lot in downtown Buena Vista. After nearly four years of approvals and working with the town, Champlin, a first-time developer, has built what is considered the largest community of shipping containers in the state. (Brian Malone, Special to The Colorado Sun)“I ended up with more of an art project that you get to live inside versus an affordable village of tiny homes.”
— Jerry Champlin, the first-time developer behind BV Basecamp
How difficult could it be to build some tiny homes with a shared courtyard near downtown Buena Vista? Six years — and many permits and redesigns later — BV Basecamp has transformed into a housing project that could help tackle the housing shortage in tourist towns and big cities alike, Jason Blevins reports.
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MORE NEWS
Colorado Rockies fans watch in disbelief late in the game against Arizona on Aug. 15, 2023, at Coors Field in Denver. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) The White Sox lost 121 games last season. This year’s Rockies have been worse so far. When the new pope’s favorite ball club lost 121 games last year, it was a level of dysfunction baseball fans may have thought to be once-in-a-generation. But the Rockies’ inability to play basic baseball — see their 21-0 loss to the Padres this weekend followed by the firing of manager Bud Black — could give Chicago a run (or a strikeout) for their money. (If you’re wondering how and why this could happen in 2025, see our series “What is wrong with the Rockies?” and columnist Mike Littwin ’s piece in the opinion section later on in this newsletter) After school laptops set on fire, Colorado Springs firefighters warn about TikTok “Chromebook Challenge” CSFD said schools in the Pikes Peak region had contacted them about 16 incidents of students intentionally setting laptops ablaze. Fact Brief ☀️ Was the Colorado Capitol dome covered with 4 pounds of real gold? Yes. A restoration of the Colorado Capitol dome completed in 2013 used just over 4 pounds of gold to restore its iconic luster.COLORADO SUNDAY
AmeriCorps workers are doing good all over Colorado. Why is DOGE cutting its funding?
Every one of Colorado’s 64 counties has benefited from the work done by young people in the AmeriCorps program since its founding in 1993. Those same young people were able to gain job experience and learn how to be an adult in the process. Tracy Ross reports on the past, present and uncertain future of a stepping stone program in peril.
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Could an army of young conservationists fill a firefighting gap in Colorado? One of the ways AmeriCorps volunteers contribute to Colorado is through one of the state’s eight conservation service corps that help prevent wildfires, build trails and eradicate invasive species — all for an average of $500 a week. Tracy Ross has more on this aspect of the program in this week’s edition of “What’s Working.”Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
THE COLORADO REPORT
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Investigation finds minority students at Colorado school district almost three times more likely to be disciplined for bullying than white students. An investigation by CBS Colorado revealed disparate outcomes in student discipline in the Boulder Valley School District. “The bullying that she was experiencing was really traumatic. And it wasn’t just the children, it was also adults who were participating in that,” Jamilla Richmond said about the treatment of her daughter.— CBS News Colorado “I’m not going to allow sermons”: Odd trial over pastor’s crypto scheme wraps. An unusually messy civil trial — with biblical passages and modern prophecies, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies, and more disruptions than any observer could count — played out across three odd days in a downtown Denver courtroom last week, Justin Wingerter reports. “There was no exchange, so it was a fantasy,” one buyer testified. “It was stardust, man.”— BusinessDen ? ICE: 18 people from Colorado Springs DEA raid are now subject to final order for removal. ICE said the 104 detained were from varying countries, including Guatemala, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Chile and Honduras. Of the 104, ICE says 18 were subject to a final order of removal; 14 had previous criminal histories. The DEA did not release information of any new charges for undocumented immigrants that stemmed from the raid. — KRDO Mine collapse spurred millions in bonuses for Denver executives. One month after a landslide at a Turkish gold mine killed nine people last year, the mine’s owner, Denver-based SSR Mining, approved $5 million in bonuses for its top executives that it said were intended to keep executives on board rather than fleeing to another company and leaving the response to the disaster in someone else’s hands.— Denver Business Journal ? A new life for Keenesburg newspaper. Keenesburg’s biweekly newspaper, The Lost Creek Guide — which was owned and operated by Bob Grand, who passed away in 2024 — now has a new publisher, Ed Morales, and owner-editor, Tammy Whitaker. It is now called The Lost Creek Sentinel. — Colorado Community MediaSection by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
THE OPINION PAGE
COLUMNS
We are witnessing the death of due process under Trump. By undermining outcomes provided under due process, President Trump has put a fundamental building block of our democracy on life support.— Mario Nicolais The Rockies’ lesson this spring is that epically bad is more interesting than plain old mediocrity. I once covered the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who lost their first 21 games. This Rockies season will almost certainly be worse.— Mike LittwinThe 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 [email protected].
See you on Friday at SunFest!
— Jennifer and the whole staff of The Sun
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