Tina Peters guilty in breach of Mesa County election system

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Good morning, Colorado.

We’ve got a lot of news to cover this morning, so I’ll keep this intro quick. But I did want to make sure you saw a big story that broke after 5 p.m. yesterday. Reporter Nancy Lofholm was inside the packed courtroom in Grand Junction when a jury turned over their guilty verdict for Tina Peters. The conviction capped a yearslong saga that jeopardized Colorado’s voting system and marks another conviction tied to post-2020 election conspiracies.

This is just one example of the issues we at The Sun are committed to covering, no matter how long it takes to report, where it happens, or what time the news comes in. We’ve got that story and more in this morning’s Sunriser.

THE NEWS

CRIME AND COURTS

Tina Peters found guilty in plot to breach Colorado’s election system to prove voter fraud

After hearing eight days of testimony, a jury deliberated for roughly four hours and found former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters guilty of seven of 10 counts related to a 2021 breach of the county’s election system. As Nancy Lofholm reports, the jury debated clashing portraits of Peters, weighing an image of a law-breaking, publicity-seeking conspiracy monger who jeopardized Colorado’s voting system against that of a public servant who was only trying to protect sensitive election information.

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ENVIRONMENT

Tiny, endangered toads transplanted to Colorado pond successfully breed after 7 years

State wildlife biologists are calling the latest news about boreal tadpoles in a bog in the mountain above Pitkin “potentially life-changing.” Why? Because for seven years, biologists have been toting tadpoles to high-elevation ponds to try to save the boreal toad, and for the first time, the transplanted toads are making their own babies in the wild. Jennifer Brown has more.

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WATER

Four Colorado River states, feds ramp up negotiations over water conservation credit program

Colorado River officials have outlined a speedy timeline to negotiate a new agreement with the federal government to track, count and store water so it can benefit the four Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Water reporter Shannon Mullane has all the details on the potential conservation credit program.

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BUSINESS

Number of new Colorado businesses drops 21.7% nearly a year after filing-fee discount ends

There was a sharp decline in people filing to start a new business in Colorado during the second quarter, and some economists are attributing it to the end of a program that reduced filing fees to $1, Tamara Chuang reports. Now, filings are slowing down and getting back to the pace before the discount existed.

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STATE LEGISLATURE

Another special legislative session on Colorado property taxes appears imminent to avoid ballot measure fight

The session looms after a long list of top civic and business groups from across the political spectrum said they supported a deal to stop a pair of measures from appearing on the November ballot. Brian Eason and Jesse Paul break down how the idea of a special session came together.

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MORE NEWS

• A bylaw amendment could make it more difficult to dislodge embattled Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams. The change would make it harder to call a special meeting to vote on whether to remove Williams, the leader of the state Republican party, Jesse Paul reports.
• Colorado Springs-area woman, known as “praying Grandma,” sentenced to one year of probation for role in Jan. 6 riot. In a Facebook post before the ruling, Rebecca Lavrenz offered no apologies for her crimes and said she felt the judge’s decision was in God’s hands. 

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THE COLORADO REPORT

• Amid world’s hottest month on record, Colorado’s mountains were — mostly — spared. NOAA reported that the average global temperature for July worldwide was 2.18 degrees above the 20th-century average, but the central and northern mountain areas of Colorado stayed about a degree below what meteorologists consider normal.
  — Summit Daily
• Law enforcement is struggling to find alternatives to dangerous restraint technique. The face-down prone position Elijah McClain was put in by police officers contributed directly to his death and has been a target of police reformers for years. But even as the governor signed a law requiring local departments to define a policy for its acceptable use, the state attorney general’s office is warning that without standard guidance the state could end up with a patchwork of policies.
  — CPR News
• Denver pays $350,000 to a man injured by a police officer speeding against traffic without sirens or lights. Christopher Cordova, a delivery driver for Bimbo Bakeries, was struck by Officer Jacob Marsh, who said he was following a speeding driver going the wrong direction on Quebec Street in 2021.
  — Denverite
• Park Meadows owner pushes back planned apartments on its parking lot. Instead of a seven-story, 454-unit apartment building on the east side of the Douglas County shopping center, the mall owner has now approached the Lone Tree City Council with a new plan for another 20,000 square feet of retail space, a parking garage … and no apartments.
  — BusinessDen 🔑
• California’s first family of rice Is stepping down. The Koda family — whose pioneering rice farm survived the entire family being incarcerated at Colorado’s Camp Amache during World War II internment — is closing up shop, citing water scarcity and a mismatch between their heirloom rice varieties and their farm’s poor adobe soil.
  — New York Times 

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

THE OPINION PAGE

COMMUNITY

• All Colorado households deserve to have help with affordable housing.  The solution is in creating publicly owned mixed-income developments that can adapt to Coloradans’ evolving needs
  — State Sen. Jeff Bridges (D-Greenwood Village), Tamara Pogue (Summit County commissioner) and Peter F. LiFari (Maiker Housing Partners)

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.

SunLit

REVIEW

“The Girls in the Cabin” introduces a darkly troubled girl, a grieving family

Two slices of Caleb Stephens’ psychological thriller, “The Girls in the Cabin,” offer disturbing glimpses into what a widowed father hoped would be a healing camping trip for him and his two daughters — but which quickly turns into a nightmare scenario. Told from multiple points of view, Stephens’ Colorado Book Award finalist lays the groundwork for characters caught in a web of darkness.

READ AN EXCERPT

• Interview with the author Caleb Stephens. After finishing a complex apocalyptic novel, Stephens wanted his next book to be more of a straightforward thriller. 

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Thanks for joining us here, as always. Catch you here tomorrow.

— Olivia & the whole staff of The Sun

Corrections & Clarifications

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