Helping tough people with tough issues

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Good morning and happy Monday! Hope everyone fared well during the late spring snow, but we have a couple of things this morning that could help you thaw out.

First, today’s the day we’re opening up nominations for Colorado’s Best 2024, where we ask our trusted readers to help figure out the best small businesses, restaurants, nonprofits and more in all corners of the state. We’ll be accepting nominations for a few weeks, but don’t wait! Make sure your favorite business is in the running by heading to coloradosun.com/colorados-best/.

Second, this week marks the launch of The Colorado Sun’s collaboration with Gigafact, where our team of journalists researches a question circulating in the local discourse and provides the concise, definitive and well-supported answer (with plenty of sources cited). We’ll get into it more a little later in this newsletter.

Both of these new ventures are part of The Sun’s mission to provide the people of Colorado with information they actually need in their lives, whether it’s debunking a politician’s claim or just helping you find the best dog-friendly patio in your region.

If you aren’t already supporting our work as a member, today would be a great time to invest in your community by becoming one at coloradosun.com/join. And if you’re already a member, then it’s a great day to tell a friend, family member, coworker or neighbor about The Sun!

OK, we’ve got too much news to recap to spend more time here, let’s roll!

THE NEWS

HEALTH

Rural Colorado’s “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in agriculture?

In a state that has one of the country’s highest rates of suicide, Colorado farmers and ranchers are dying at higher rates than the general public. Up against isolation and the stress of debt, drought and pests, the “cowboy up” mentality makes these mental health issues all the more deadly. Jennifer Brown reports on the new “Buck the Trend” workshop designed to help tough folks deal with tough issues in a healthy way.

READ MORE

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COLORADANS

Three deaths in one week left Grand County reeling. Residents are helping each other grieve.

Between April 6 and April 9, three “larger than life” members of the Grand County community died in tragic events. With a mental health network already strained by need, Tracy Ross reports on how residents bonded to help take care of each other.

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HOUSING

Boulder County’s Sans Souci mobile home park jumped at Colorado’s “opportunity to purchase.” Here’s how it’s going.

“Sans souci,” when translated from the French, means “without worry.” But as the residents of the long-standing mobile home park just outside of Boulder were able to alleviate one big worry by buying the park themselves in 2019, many more common worries — governance, infrastructure and management — have creeped into their daily lives. Kevin Simpson explores how the community is making it work.

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GIGAFACT

Did crime go down in Colorado in 2023?

In this first edition of our twice-weekly Gigafact Fact Brief series, reporter Justin George found that, yes, crime in Colorado fell in nearly all categories, while still being higher than pre-pandemic levels. We’ll be publishing fact briefs like this every Monday and Friday — and you can submit your questions and sign up for our upcoming fact briefs newsletter at the bottom of each brief.

READ MORE

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MORE NEWS

• Locals-only detour around U.S. 50 bridge closure to open Monday, Gunnison County officials say. After state transportation officials shut down all traffic across the bridge Thursday due to a 3-inch crack in a steel beam, residents will be able to use a detour route two times a day across a dirt county road. All other traffic must take alternative routes that add between six to seven hours in travel time. 
• More than 50% of Colorado’s businesses employ workers outside the state. In this week’s “What’s Working,” a report from workers’ compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance indicates that more local companies have at least one employee out of state who needs coverage, including local libraries and construction companies.

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Colorado Sunday

Firefighting archaeologists are protecting Colorado’s historical sites from wildfires

Brian Flynn isn’t just a firefighter — he is one of three fire archaeologists for the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado. So when he saw a plume of smoke rise above Grand Mesa last summer, his mind went immediately to the Ute artifacts at risk of being lost forever. When fires aren’t burning, the archaeologists survey the land for pieces of history, while assessing the risks that fire and mitigation tactics pose to those artifacts. Tyler Hickman, Devin Farmiloe and Samantha Tindall detailed what’s possible when the different worlds of archaeology and fire come together.

READ MORE

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Indian restaurant duped investors out of $380K, state says. State regulators say that Saucy Bombay, on East Colfax Avenue in Denver, used “half-truths and lies” to sell investors on its grandiose plans for a nationwide expansion.
  — BusinessDen 🔑
• Want a free tree? Here’s how to get one. Several organizations in Denver are offering to plant a tree on residents’ properties for free in an effort to improve the city’s tree canopy, which is one of the worst downtown tree canopies among big cities in the U.S.
  — Denverite
• Here’s when you might get to see the inside of the Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy. With an anticipated $240 million price tag, the chapel restoration is the largest, most complex and expensive construction project currently underway at the academy.
  — CPR
• Prosthetics chief at Aurora VA improperly canceled 1,000 orders without telling veterans, feds say. Whistleblowers told The Denver Post the chief ordered lower-level staffers to delete the orders to help alleviate a substantial backlog.
  — Denver Post 🔑

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

THE OPINION PAGE

COLUMBINE AT 25

• On the 25th anniversary of Columbine, we mourn the dead and grieve the lack of will to honor them.  The Columbine effect is global, but in America, where guns are the leading of cause of death in children and teens, we offer thoughts and prayers
  — Mike Littwin
• Dave Sanders was more than a hero at Columbine. He equipped me for life. Twenty-five years after the Columbine massacre, Sanders’ legacy lives on in the hearts of the many students he saved but also in places much more ordinary
  — Justin George
• The legacy of Columbine and the father who won’t let it be forgotten. Tom Mauser knows that meaningful change can take time. But doing nothing is not the answer, he says
  — Diane Carman 

COLUMNS

• Colorado Republican impeachment effort was aimed at undermining our elections.  Immune to evidentiary fact or logical argument, Republican legislators’ only goal against Secretary of State Jena Griswold was to lay the foundation for electoral malfeasance allegations in 2024
  — Mario Nicolais
• Caitlin Clark deserves to be paid the same as the men. No excuses.  Women everywhere can relate to sexism at work, and Clark shouldn’t be the poster child
  — Trish Zornio

COMMUNITY

• Rural Coloradans need greater access to opioid addiction treatment and a new federal bill would help.  Allowing addiction medicine specialists to prescribe methadone would improve the availability of a lifesaving treatment
  — Paul Christine, Christine Neeb and Jarratt Pytell, Denver doctors

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.

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Thanks for kicking off your week with us, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite businesses over at coloradosun.com/colorados-best! Have a great week and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

— Eric and the whole staff of The Sun

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.