The questions we’re not asking about water

Hello and salutations on this, the penultimate morning of 2024!

I wish that we could be celebrating the year with solid conclusions of two of the biggest sports stories in Colorado, but we’ll just have to take the Buffs and Broncos losing in distinct, heartbreaking ways into 2025 as lessons in humility (and hopefully, perseverance).

Even as we drift along in this liminal space between Christmas and New Year’s, the news keeps a-comin’, so let’s soak these black-eyed peas and get cooking, shall we?

Eric Lubbers

CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

⏰ P.S. — Our winter membership drive ends tomorrow! We’re more than 80% of the way to meeting our goal of welcoming 200 new Colorado Sun members this month. If you’re not yet a member, make your 2025 bright with trustworthy, local news by joining today. Plus — when you join, you’ll help us unlock a $2,000 matching grant from Newsmatch to support our newsroom! Thanks for helping to power The Sun, Colorado.

THE NEWS

WATER

What to ask your real estate agent about water in Colorado

It may not be the first topic on your mind when you’re buying property in Colorado, but water issues could be some of the most impactful aspects of any new home purchase. Shannon Mullane talked to attorneys, developers and brokers to figure out which questions you should be asking before you take a dive into real estate.

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HEALTH

Psilocybin enters the chat: Starting Jan. 1, Coloradans will have a new psychiatric treatment option

If you’ve lived in Colorado for long enough, you remember the hype and hullabaloo of the legalization of recreational cannabis. Well, the legalization of psilocybin for psychiatric treatments won’t be anything like that, Lincoln Roch reports. Click through for more on how “magic” mushrooms will be easing into Coloradans’ options for therapy.

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CRIME AND COURTS

New Colorado gun law aims to shore up victim services

A steady stream of revenue from the sales of guns and ammunition will be plugged into cash-strapped support systems for the victims of gun violence, Rae Ellen Bichell reports, once Colorado’s new “Pigouvian” tax begins April 1.

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MORE NEWS

• Fact Brief ☀️Can the American black bear in Colorado sport a brown coat? Yes. In the Eastern U.S., most black bears have black fur, but brown coats are common in the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest.

COLORADO SUNDAY

Inside the search for 180 missing cows on Colorado’s Western Slope

While cattle rustling is far from the only factor that can thin the herds of Western Slope ranchers, a striking rise in the number of unaccounted-for animals — mostly calves — has ranchers and state regulators on the lookout for thefts, diseases or overactive predators. Olivia Prentzel has more from the search.

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Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Denver funds homeless shelters accused of discrimination. Advocates plan to sue the city for funding shelters — including the St. Francis Center, Catholic Charities and the Denver Rescue Mission — that allegedly lack accessibility and discriminate against disabled people.
  — Denverite
• “Marijuana recession” threatens Denver’s fledgling cannabis delivery businesses. One of the core tenets of Denver’s launch of marijuana delivery companies was to give people who were harmed by the enforcement of past marijuana laws a leg up in starting a business. But as more states legalize and sales continue to dip, industry leaders and officials worry some businesses may never get off the ground.
  — The Denver Post 🔑
• US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people. Federal officials say the United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country.
  — AP News
• Denver recovers record amount in restitution for minimum wage workers. The beefed-up Denver Labor office had a busy 2024, returning more than $2 million to workers who were paid less than minimum wage or otherwise had wages improperly withheld.
  — 9News

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE OPINION PAGE

COLUMNS

• Trump’s circus-tent governance will make its return in 2025. The re-election of Donald Trump has already led to numerous chaotic outcomes weeks before he returns to the White House.
  — Mario Nicolais

CARTOONS

• Peter Moore: AI in, garbage out. Our state legislature passed a bill to regulate artificial intelligence in Colorado, and our tech overlords were mostly OK with it. Uh-oh.
  — Peter Moore

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.

I’ve now uttered this sentiment six times (every December since 2018), but thank you so much for spending time with The Sun learning about Colorado this year. We’ve got big plans for 2025 and you’ve got a front-row seat.

We’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow to finish this year off strong, so have a great day and we’ll see you then!

— Eric and the whole staff of The Sun

The Colorado Sun is part of The Trust Project. Read our policies.

Corrections & Clarifications

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