Hey there, Colorado, and welcome to another edition of The Temperature.
I’m out of ideas for an intro today, so let’s check the PR pitches in my email inbox. (Note: These are real pitches I’ve received in the past week.)
“We’d love to arrange an unforgettable interview to experience the mind-blowing skills of the world’s youngest mentalist.” If he was that great, he would have already known my answer is no. Next.
“Free ivermectin!” Only if it’s for birds. Next.
“Not many people think about the mind behind their sex toys.” Well, I suppose that is true. But next.
“Expert Available: Time change impacts on children’s sleep.” Ahh, that’s the sweet spot.
Yes, this weekend marks the return to dark, groggy mornings as we mortgage sleep to buy more light in the evenings. Just a reminder that this is bad for our health and the consensus among sleep scientists is that sticking with sun time year-round is the best idea.
Alas, that does not seem to be where we’re headed, so be sure to put those screens down on Saturday night so you can get to bed earlier.
But this week’s newsletter will certainly keep your eyelids open, so let’s dive in.
Reporter
TEMP CHECK
HEALTH
Why Colorado’s Health Department wants to help you do your taxes
The first time the news release for tax help from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment hit my inbox, I thought it was a mistake.
Why would CDPHE — an agency better known for vaccination campaigns and pollution regulations — want to help people claim various tax credits? And not even tax credits directly related to health or the environment?
The answer lies in a 4-year-old CDPHE program intended to improve families’ economic mobility as a way of improving community health. And it’s another example of how public health agencies are thinking more broadly about their mission and including the underlying socioeconomic circumstances that can contribute to poor health.
“It’s simply that economic wellbeing is a driver of health. Health is connected to wealth,” said Isabel Dickson, the manager of CDPHE’s economic mobility program. “Health leads to wealth and vice versa.”
The program runs the Get Ahead Colorado campaign, which helps individuals and families find free help to file their taxes — for free, if eligible — and to make sure they are claiming all the tax credits to which they are entitled. Providing this service puts more money back into people’s bank accounts, allowing them to buy higher-quality food, pay for child care and safe housing, lowering their stress levels, and just generally making life a little bit easier.
Take, for instance, both the state and federal versions of the earned income tax credit. Dickson said estimates in Colorado are that only about 72% of eligible people are claiming the credit on their taxes — more than a quarter are not, making Colorado the fifth-worst state in the country for the rate of eligible people not claiming the credit.
That’s valuable money that low- and middle-income Coloradans are missing out on from a credit regarded as the most effective anti-poverty measure for working-age people.
“It’s a powerful anti-poverty lever,” Dickson said.
The Get Ahead Colorado program started as an initiative of the Colorado philanthropic organization Gary Community Ventures before transitioning to CDPHE. It works closely with another initiative called Tax Help Colorado, which is run by Mile High United Way and helps people with tax filing.
Dickson said AmeriCorps volunteers working with Tax Help Colorado have helped people claim $14 million worth of credits over the last two years.
To learn more, you can go to GetAheadColorado.org, or, in Spanish, HaciaAdelanteColorado.org. People without internet access can dial 211 and ask for information on tax credits, tax help and free tax filing.
Section by John Ingold | Reporter
MORE HEALTH NEWS
WOLVERINES
We promise, no “Red Dawn” jokes, wolverine reintroduction is real
Fun news, Colorado: Looks like we’re going to get real, live, claw-heavy wolverines back in the state even quicker than wildlife advocates were hoping a few months ago.
All parties, including the crucial folks at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, are lining up behind a bipartisan bill to authorize wolverine reintroduction, a local step required by the federal Endangered Species Act. If the bill passes, which appears highly likely given the wide, coordinated support, Colorado could begin reintroduction after federal officials finish writing a rule protecting landowners’ rights to continue certain activities even if wolverines arrive in their area.
Colorado could support 100 to 180 of the solitary animals eventually, state wildlife researchers said, with our high, snowy terrain likely to hold up better against climate change for wolverine habitat than lower, rainier northwestern states.
Advocates expect far fewer conflicts between landowners and wandering wolverines than are playing out during the Colorado gray wolf reintroduction. Ski areas have asked some pointed questions about being able to continue their operations and expansions if there are endangered wolverines moving into ski country. But the largest members of the weasel family tend to eat carrion and stick to their isolated, steep terrain, rather than lurk in forests near ranches or tread near busy ski areas.
The prospect of a hundred wolverines in Colorado is spectacular if you know that only 400 are known to remain throughout the lower 48, said Megan Mueller of Rocky Mountain Wild.
“The really important thing here is that wolverines really need Colorado,” Mueller said. “Climate change is shrinking their snowy habitat across the West. So bringing them back to Colorado is the best way to help them survive.”
In backing the legislation, Senate Bill 171, Colorado Parks and WIldlife noted the reintroduction would only go forward after a compensation plan is in place, for the rare occasions a wolverine does do livestock damage.
“I think it’s really neat to see bipartisan leadership and support for a wolverine reintroduction,” Mueller said. “That’s not very common in wildlife conservation.”
We’ll have more on the wolverine reintroduction in Thursday’s ColoradoSun.com. In the meantime, wildlife fans can start learning signs of wolverine life they might eventually see on a high country hike.
“If you really love the mountains, you can’t help but be impressed by the wolverine,” Mueller said.
Michael Booth | Reporter
SUNCOR
State wants to grab more oversight of high-polluting Suncor
Air pollution bills are coming fast and furious this year at the Colorado legislature. And not all of them are no-chancers. Pressure has built so much on the Polis administration, in fact, that some of the more powerful proposals are coming straight out of Polis agencies.
The latest is House Bill 1338, backed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which carries out air pollution rules through the Air Pollution Control Division. A key part of it is aimed at “refineries,” of which (checks notes) there is exactly one. You may have heard of it, goes by the name Suncor.
The bill would pay for the department hiring a refineries expert to assess potential new rules for controlling Suncor’s repeated violations of pollution limits. Suncor would also have to boost real-time emissions monitoring for the state to watch.
The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Manny Rutinel of Commerce City and Elizabeth Velasco of Glenwood Springs, and Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, also of Commerce City. All three are Democrats.
Other elements of the legislation include:
To recap some of the other air pollution bills filed this session: One would expand the Air Quality Control Commission with positions favored by progressives, and close loopholes in industrial air emissions caps. Another would phase-in an eventual ban on new oil and gas wells in Colorado. Another package of three bills tied together would increase potential fines for polluters, overhaul the permitting process, and “pause” new oil and gas activity during the crucial summer ozone months.
Section by Michael Booth | Reporter
MORE CLIMATE NEWS
CHART OF THE WEEK
There was big news last month for people who suffer from multiple food allergies: The federal Food and Drug Administration approved a longstanding anti-asthma drug called Xolair to help prevent life-threatening reactions that come from accidental exposure to food allergens.
The drug, which is delivered via injection, is not a cure for food allergies. But it reduces the chance of anaphylaxis enough that most people with severe food allergies won’t have to worry as much about eating something with traces of undeclared ingredients like peanut products.
As the chart above shows, the approval comes none too soon, with incidence of peanut allergies in kids booming over the last two decades. But the FDA’s approval has also been a long time coming. Doctors at Denver’s own National Jewish Health studied the use of such drugs to treat peanut allergies 20 years ago.
Watch ColoradoSun.com in the coming days for a story on how Colorado doctors contributed to this breakthrough for people with food allergies.
Section by John Ingold | Reporter
HEAT MAP
CLIMATE
HEALTH
That’s it for us this week. If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for next Tuesday’s virtual panel discussion — moderated by our own Jennifer Brown — about how Denver is working to sustain support for new immigrants from South America. As the world’s youngest mentalist would probably tell you: I know you want to.
Details on the event, which kicks off at 6 p.m. on March 12, are at ColoradoSun.com/events.
And we’ll see you here next week for another edition of the newsletter. Be well, folks.
— John & Michael
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.
