Good morning and welcome to the twilight zone. Not “The Twilight Zone,” mind you, but the particular haze that settles over everything at the beginning of a week with an oddly placed holiday.

On the one hand, you’re rushing to get everything done before Thursday. On the other, you know that any momentum you’d usually have built up by Wednesday will go off the rails as soon as the clock strikes 5 o’clock.

Luckily(?) for us here at The Sun, there is always something interesting happening in Colorado that needs our attention, so before you get too deep into your busy and/or relaxed holiday week, let’s take a tour through the state’s freshest summer news.

Let’s light this sparkler (observing local fire restrictions, of course), shall we?

Eric Lubbers

CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

P.S. — There’s still time to make your (other) vote count! Celebrate your favorite businesses in our Colorado’s Best reader’s choice survey. Click here to cast your vote!

THE NEWS

HEALTH

Good food and stable housing have huge effects on health. So Colorado Medicaid wants to cover those, too.

It sounds like common sense: Healthy food and a stable place to live are key factors to keeping a person healthy. But in the world of Medicaid, where funds are largely restricted to medical treatment, Colorado officials are working on a plan to use some of the funds to pay rent and buy medically tailored meals to keep people out of the hospital and cost taxpayers less in the long run. Jennifer Brown explains the plan, as well as the federal approvals necessary to launch it.

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• These were the most common causes of death in Colorado in 2023. John Ingold explains the most recent data about how Coloradans die, including the fact that COVID-19 dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 2020.

EQUITY

Demographics are changing quickly in America but not in the outdoors. Enter a new Colorado excursion company.

Wanderland Outdoors has only been operating since May, but as Tatiana Flowers reports, the company is offering something that’s still a rarity in the outdoor industry: experiences tailored to participants’ ethnicity, culture, sexuality and abilities. Angel Massie and her husband, Bobby Massie, a former Denver Broncos lineman, are putting together experiences that they hope will inspire new generations of people to see the potential of being outdoors.

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TECHNOLOGY

Colorado’s deadline for websites to add “Do not sell my data” detector is today

While the Colorado Privacy Act has been in effect since 2021, today marks a deadline for websites that operate in the state to make it easier for site users to automatically declare their intentions about their personal data. Tamara Chuang explains what it means for users and website operators in this week’s edition of “What’s Working” — plus a quick tour of other news about the economy.

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MORE NEWS

• Fact Brief ☀️Do Colorado miller moths eat clothing? You may have grown up putting cedar blocks in your closet to protect your sweaters, but the annoying little brown bugs that are swarming your porch lights every summer are not the same bugs that have an appetite for clothes. Justin George breaks it down in today’s Fact Brief.

COLORADO SUNDAY

How Colorado homeowners are using data as a new line of defense against wildfires

After years of watching the shrub called rabbitbrush ignite in the open space behind their Highlands Ranch home, Jim and Bernie Remley wondered what could be done to protect their home before wildfire devoured it. They stumbled upon a new tool that crunches multiple data sets to offer property owners an instant risk assessment for climate-related risks. Kevin Simpson has more on the tool helping Coloradans who live along the wildland-urban interface in this week’s Colorado Sunday.

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Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Progress is a parasitoid wasp for Colorado wheat farmers plagued by sawfly. The sawfly, which feeds inside developing wheat stems, is one of the biggest concerns for winter wheat farmers on the Eastern Plains. Now, a counteroffensive by parasitoid wasps is offering farmers promise.
  — KUNC
• A major fossil fuel group has a plan to sue Denver over its climate-minded building policies. After Denver approved a landmark climate policy to reduce gas emissions from the city’s tall office towers, landlords and building operators filed a lawsuit saying Denver’s building rules ran afoul of a federal energy efficiency law and placed an unfair financial burden on the real estate industry.
  — Colorado Public Radio
• The oversimplified guide to hiking a fourteener with your kid. Fourteeners are a feat for any age. Here are some tips to mentally and physically prepare a small human for big climbs.
  — 5280

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Section by Olivia Prentzel | Reporter

THE OPINION PAGE

COLUMNS

• It’s time for Joe Biden to step away.  It’s not clear which Democrat could best take on the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump. Only that it can no longer be Biden.
  — Mike Littwin
• Are Biden and Trump the best America can do?  In a nation of over 300 million people, it shouldn’t be this hard to find someone to defeat a 34-time convicted felon.
  — Trish Zornio
• Stopping extremism in June protected Colorado from bad outcomes in November.  In both Republican and Democratic primaries, elections influenced heavily by unaffiliated voters helped send a message to those pushing the most extreme views.
  — Mario Nicolais

COMMUNITY

• Essay: A century ago, Denver newsmen helped unearth nation’s biggest political scandal. The story of Teapot Dome lends historical perspective to today’s polarized, weaponized era of uncivil discourse.
  — Jack McElroy, former managing editor of the Rocky Mountain News and author of “Citizen Carl: The Editor Who Cracked Teapot Dome, Shot a Judge and Invented the Parking Meter” 

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.

Don’t worry, you’ve got two whole days left after today before the holiday. Or, conversely, you only have two days left! Please use whichever version of this message you need to get through the week. See you tomorrow!

— Eric and the whole staff of The Sun

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Corrections & Clarifications

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