The high cost of gun-related injuries

Good morning, Colorado!

There’s nothing quite like cooking over a campfire to get in the mood for summer, so last weekend I took advantage of the fire pit at my campsite near Twin Lakes and the absence of a fire ban to make some campfire-baked brie. I put the cheese, along with fresh rosemary, grapes, almonds and a drizzle of honey in a large cast iron dutch oven and let the fire do its magic. It was a hit.

Camping season is in full swing, but before you go planning your next trip, we’ve got a Sunriser stacked with important news for you — from an elections guide for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District to a new report that shows just how expensive gun-related injuries cost Coloradans. Let’s get to it.

Olivia Prentzel

Reporter

THE NEWS

HEALTH

Gun-related injuries cost at least $8.4 million in medical bills in Colorado in 2022

Injuries related to firearms in Colorado racked up at least $8.4 million in medical bills in 2022, according to a report by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care. The report is the first of its kind to look at some of the economic impacts of firearm injuries, John Ingold reports. To gather the data, researchers used the state’s all-payer claims database, which has amassed anonymized data from more than a billion Colorado medical claims drawn from more than 5.5 million people.

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EDUCATION

A group helps Colorado teens write laws. Now it’s looking for its next crop of students.

Imagine helping shape bills and the direction of the state as a kid in high school. That’s exactly what Olivia Christiansen, a Poudre High School graduate, did as part of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council, the legislature’s longtime nonpartisan organization that opens the Capitol up to teens across the state. The council is now looking for its next cohort of idea-makers and policy shakers who will urge lawmakers to listen to their generation, Erica Breunlin reports.

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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Where Republican candidates in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District stand on big issues

Politics reporter Sandra Fish asked the Republican candidates running in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District where they stand on big issues — everything from abortion access to foreign policy. The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman who lost to Lauren Boebert by 546 votes in 2022, as well as candidates from the Libertarian and United parties.

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OUTDOORS

Eldora Mountain Resort withdraws objections to ski patroller union vote

Managers at Eldora Mountain Resort originally objected to the vote by ski area patrollers to approve a union because not all volunteer ski patrollers were included, but withdrew those objections last week, Jason Blevins reports. In a letter to ski patrollers, Eldora president Brent Tregaskis said he hopes the withdrawal of election objections marks a move toward “good faith” bargaining over a new patrol contract.

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Section by Olivia Prentzel | Reporter

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Arapahoe Basin announces closing day as ski season in Colorado draws to a close. Clocking in at an impressive 222 days, the A-Basin season will officially close June 16.
  — Summit Daily
• Mike Johnston just pledged to end unsheltered veteran homelessness in 2024. “The first step to ending unsheltered homelessness for everyone is ending unsheltered homelessness for veterans,” said Johnston, who campaigned with a promise to end homelessness in his first four years in office.
  — Denverite
• Soldier sues Denver for $3M after it seized his downtown restaurant. U.S. Army specialist Antonio Miller left his Penthouse Caribbean Restaurant in the hands of his managers when he was sent to Oklahoma for training. But in the few months he was gone, the restaurant fell behind on sales tax payments and the city seized — and sold — its assets. Now Miller is suing the city for violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
  — Business Den 🔑
• Colorado enacts first-in-nation law making in-person voting available inside all jails. The law requires Colorado’s county jails to provide at least six hours of in-person voting in the days before Election Day.
  — The Denver Post 🔑

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

SunLit

“Children of the Storm” began their day in the deceptive warmth of a Colorado spring

In 1931, 20 children would be stranded in their school bus for 33 hours during a sudden, massive snowstorm on Colorado’s Eastern Plains near the Kansas border. But in this excerpt from “Children of the Storm: The True Story of the Pleasant Hill School Bus Tragedy,” we’re introduced to unsuspecting individuals who awoke that morning to weather that carried the promise of springtime.

READ AN EXCERPT

• Interview with the author. Co-authors Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest, who worked with what then was called the Colorado Historical Society, felt they needed to tell the story of survivors who were just kids at the time of the tragedy — and whose perspectives were largely ignored as the narrative gained national attention. 

Section by Kevin Simpson | Writer

Thanks for joining us today on this fine Tuesday morning. Hope to see you back here soon.

— Olivia & the whole staff of The Sun

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