Good morning, Colorado.
Today marks 10 months without a drop of alcohol for me. I stopped drinking last October when I realized alcohol wasn’t adding anything to my life and it felt like the right time to try a year without it. It was definitely a transition at first, with a few uncomfortable questions I’ve found answers to along the way: Like will anyone eye me warily when I order a mocktail at happy hour? How do you survive a first date without a drink? And is it even possible to let loose on the dance floor at a college friend’s wedding without some champagne courage?
The more time that has passed without wine or beer or a cocktail, the less it feels like deprivation. Sure, I miss a crisp glass of entirely too sweet wine on a summer patio, but waking up every Saturday morning sans the cruel hangovers of my twenties is even sweeter. Plus, there are so many non-alcoholic options these days thanks to the sober-curious movement that a lot of times, drinking an NA beer feels like downing the real deal.
Overall, I think I’ve become sharper minded and a smidge more hydrated in the past 10 months and grown more confident in how much of a hoot I am without alcohol. I’m also happy to report that a Shirley Temple was all I needed to tear it up on that dance floor.
Now let’s pop the cork off today’s news roundup and polish off a few stories, shall we?
Education Reporter
THE NEWS
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Colorado governor calls special legislative session to deal with nearly $1B budget hole, artificial intelligence law
Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Aug. 21 mainly to deal with the effects of the Big Beautiful Bill Act, congressional Republicans’ federal tax and spending measure. They’ll also debate what to do about Colorado’s first-in-the-nation Artificial Intelligence law, which is set to take effect in February. Jesse Paul breaks down what they hope to accomplish.
AGRICULTURE
Is “growing food illegal” in Teller County? A family who built a greenhouse at 9,200 feet is ordered to tear it down
$105,000
Amount the Loops have invested to build their greenhouse
Virginia and Zac Loop had a dream of growing their own food, sharing with the neighbors and selling their extra zucchinis, potatoes and mangoes to fellow Teller County residents. They researched state and local laws, decided they did not need a permit, took out a home equity loan and built a $60,000 greenhouse on their 4-acre lot not far from Woodland Park. Jennifer Brown reports they now face the possibility of losing their home after county officials told them to tear down the greenhouse.
OUTDOORS
The man who led Yellowstone’s wolf reintroduction has a lot to say about Colorado’s efforts
Doug Smith led the Yellowstone Wolf Project for nearly 30 years. But it was a big contrast to the way Colorado wolves have been released, on state or private land only, and in a state with 6 million people compared with a combined 3.6 million in the northern Rockies states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming (and far fewer in 1995). He talked with Tracy Ross about what Colorado can expect.
ENERGY
A nuclear reactor at the Denver airport? Here’s what you need to know.
DIA chief executive Phil Washington said considering a small modular reactor as one alternative for the megawatts needed for airport growth would help Denver be “the masters of our own energy fate,” and that the study using $1.25 million in airport money for a study is not a commitment to any plan. As Michael Booth reports, critics immediately shot back with a long list of challenges for the world’s sixth largest airport going nuclear.
WATER
A Colorado program that opened the door to large-scale rainwater harvesting likely to end next year
State lawmakers created the initiative in 2016, but it generated little interest, with only one Douglas County district stepping up to research and test what could be an important source of renewable water. Individual homeowners will still be allowed to collect rainwater in barrels at their homes. Jerd Smith of Fresh Water News has more.
Section by David Krause | Editor
COLORADO REPORT
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Section by David Krause | Editor
THE OPINION PAGE
COMMUNITY
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What’s Happening
Aug. 7-13
“Assassins” at Miners Alley. There’s a phrase by Phillip Roth that’s been making the rounds lately: “the indigenous American berserk,” lifted from Roth’s 1997 Pulitzer Prize winning novel “American Pastoral.” It’s often used by critics as a shorthand to refer to a dark and dangerous undercurrent that drives Americans, gripped by unfulfilled promises, to violence.
Most recently the phrase has been whirling around the movie “Eddington,” which is about — to severely oversimplify the plot — the political division of a fictional town in New Mexico during the early days of COVID-19.
Here in Colorado, that phrase might soon be tossed toward the Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden, where the Tony-winning musical by Steven Sondheim, “Assassins,” opens Friday.
The play follows nine real historical figures who attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents, or succeeded. The play premiered in 1990, returned to Broadway in 2004, and more recently, in the 2020s, has taken the stage in Chicago and New York. With each decade that passes, a new layer of context backlights the production, casting the current political moment in a new, if familiar, light.
The play, it probably goes without saying, has been noted for its grim, cynical outlook. But it’s also thought of as a dark comedy, and offers theatergoers an unsettling blend of musical styles — folk, country, military marches and classic Broadway — that point toward a distinctly American absurdity.
Play is recommended for ages 14 and up.
$35-65; Aug. 8-Sept. 14; Miners Alley Performing Arts Center, 1100 Miners Alley, Golden
Section by Parker Yamasaki | Reporter
Thank you for running down today’s news with us. Don’t you feel all bright-eyed, bushy tailed and informed? See you tomorrow — same time, same place!
— Erica & the whole staff of The Sun
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