Why doesn’t fire mitigation work lower your insurance bill?

Today is a lot. We’re getting a new president of the United States while remembering the nation’s greatest civil rights leader of all time. Here in Colorado, there are 20 more wolves roaming the wilderness, as voters requested, but the most in-your-face news of all is that it’s so cold outside that staying out there too long could kill you.

I’m applauding the people going out in the deep freeze later for Denver’s annual MLK Marade (though delayed and shortened). I’ll offer up my favorite of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic quotes: “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” He was speaking in favor of peaceful protests, but I like to think he was also talking about the words we choose when trying to make a point in a world filled with combative opinions.

Stay warm out there, Colorado. Great day to grab a hot mug, watch the inauguration and catch up on the statewide news.

Jennifer Brown

Reporter

THE NEWS

CLIMATE CHANGE

Nonrenewals are fueling Colorado’s growing homeowners insurance crisis

There’s nothing worse than finding out that your homeowners insurance premiums are doubling next year. Unless, as many Coloradans are finding out, your insurer is leaving the market altogether and you’ve been dropped. Tamara Chuang and Olivia Prentzel take a deep dive into the crisis to look at how extreme weather events made more common by climate change are pulling the rug out from under some homeowners — and how unprofitable the industry can be.

READ MORE

• Why disaster mitigation can protect your house, but may not lower your insurance bill — yet. In part two of their look at the state of homeowners insurance, Tamara Chuang and Olivia Prentzel explore the new technology and upcoming legislation that could make rising insurance premiums finally reflect the efforts owners put into lowering risk.
• Woman accused of sparking Colorado wildfire previously threatened to burn her home after losing insurance.
  Teller County investigators say Lacey Tillitt had been fighting with her insurance company for more than a year about her coverage being dropped.

WILDLIFE

20 gray wolves released in Pitkin, Eagle counties, Colorado Parks and Wildlife says

It’s official: There are now 20 more wolves roaming the high country after Colorado Parks and Wildlife completed three controlled releases last week. Click through to read more, including why CPW says the relocation of the Copper Creek pack “is by no means a precedent for how CPW will resolve wolf-livestock conflict moving forward.”

READ MORE

NEWS

Jared Polis reveals his stance on the gun, labor and housing bills before the Colorado legislature this year

If you missed The Colorado Sun’s conversation with Gov. Jared Polis about the 2025 legislative session, don’t worry. Jesse Paul and Brian Eason break down the governor’s positions on a swath of hot-button topics that will be driving this year’s session and the state’s relationship with the incoming Trump administration.

READ MORE, WATCH THE DISCUSSION

• Lawmakers aren’t allowed to have guns in the Colorado Capitol anymore, but there’s no proactive enforcement. The prohibition on carrying guns in the state Capitol was expanded this year to include lawmakers, but it didn’t come with any new security protocols or enforcement.
• Scott Bottoms, Republican state representative, will run for Colorado governor in 2026. Bottoms is one of the most conservative members of the legislature and has embraced election conspiracies and opposed efforts to protect and expand the rights of transgender people.

ENVIRONMENT

Colorado identifies its top five toxic air contaminants. Next comes rules to regulate them.

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission named five pollutants — formaldehyde, benzene, hexavalent chromium compounds, ethylene oxide and hydrogen sulfide — as “priority air toxics,” Parker Yamasaki reports. The identification is a key step in a process to ratchet down air pollution in neighborhoods.

READ MORE

MORE NEWS

• What’s behind downtown Denver’s 34.9% office vacancy rate? While leasing picked up last quarter, Tamara Chuang reports on how the city is planning to address the fact that more than one-third of its office space is vacant as 2025 kicks off.
• Historic Western Slope water rights purchase receives $40 million surge of federal funding.
  Western Slope cities and water agencies want to buy the small Shoshone Power Plant’s mighty water rights, and the new federal funds put the effort within range of its funding goal.
• Fact Brief ☀️ Can putting cooking spray on a shovel make snow removal easier? Yes. A coating of cooking spray or similar oil can keep snow from sticking to your shovel, easing the task of clearing driveways and walks.

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Colorado lawmakers back bill targeting price gouging, especially in grocery stores. House Bill 1010 would expand an existing state law prohibiting price gouging during disasters and broadly bar the raising of prices on certain products by 10% or more in a 90-day period.
  — The Denver Post 🔑
• U.S. Forest Service presents results of beaver inventory. With $100,000 in funding from Pitkin County, technicians surveyed nearly 300 sites on 66 streams and found that 17% of the sites were currently occupied by beavers, 34% showed signs of recent beaver activity and 37% showed evidence of past beaver occupation.
  — Aspen Journalism
• Colorado’s “J6 Praying Grandma” among Capitol rioters allowed to attend Trump inauguration. Prosecutors didn’t object to allowing Colorado bed-and-breakfast operator Rebecca Lavrenz — the self-described “J6 praying grandma” — to attend the inauguration while she is on probation.
  — Sentinel Colorado
• As rural bus routes thrive, Colorado builds on what is working. Even as RTD struggles to attract passengers within the Denver metro area, Colorado ranks No. 1 in the country in rural ridership thanks to successful expansions of the Bustang lines and robust participation in local bus systems like the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority.
  — The Denver Post 🔑

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE OPINION PAGE

COLUMNS

• For progressives who have taken a vacation from the news, Monday is your wake-up call. The stakes are so high that you might even need to bite the bullet and watch Donald Trump take the oath, presumably on a Trump-branded Bible.
  — Mike Littwin
  
• Fight over the future priorities of Lakewood, and land adjacent to a major park, heats up. Even as the Park Hill Golf Course controversy concluded, a dispute over property adjacent to Lakewood’s Belmar Park reached a boiling point.
  — Mario Nicolais
  
• The social media world is a cesspool of lies, and we’re drowning in it. Social media barons are immune to the consequences of our culture of deceit, but the rest of us will continue to suffer.
  — Diane Carman
  
• TikTok is only part of the problem. Meta and X need regulating, too. All social media apps are underregulated. If we’re serious about national security and data privacy, that era must come to an end.
  — Trish Zornio
  

COMMUNITY

• Justice demands that Colorado legislators modernize the state’s labor law this session. With Senate Bill 5, getting rid of a second election to form a union would go a long way to fix the state’s 81-year-old laws built on oppression.
  — Fredrick D. Redmond
  

CARTOONS

• Peter Moore: 7 life lessons from the National Western Stock Show. Meet your new personal coaches, currently standing in their own manure on Denver’s north side. But hurry! Office hours end on Jan. 26!
  — 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.

Thanks for starting out your week — and your experience under the Trump administration round two — with us. Things are going to be moving fast, so if you’d like to stay on top of the most important stories in Colorado without waiting for the next edition of The Sunriser, now’s a great time to install The Colorado Sun app! It’s free, fast and the best way to read news in Colorado, with curated reminders to read stories you may have missed.

Stay safe, stay warm, stay strong and we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning!

— Jen 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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