Mapping our changing school districts

Good morning! Who’s excited for another Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’ll watch for the snacks, I guess, maybe. But I feel a little like my 10-year-old nephew, who was so disappointed after a long day of football watching that he buried his face in a furry purple bean bag and quit talking to the rest of us for a while.

It’s OK, because we’ve got plenty of other things to think about, including important water news and a middle-of-the-night immigration raid that ended with nearly 50 accused gang members on a bus to the ICE detention center in Aurora.

Have a great week everyone, and apologies to Kansas City and Philly fans for my tone.

Jennifer Brown

Reporter

THE NEWS

EDUCATION

How is enrollment changing in your Colorado school district? This interactive map breaks it down.

Since 2020, student enrollment around Colorado has undergone some massive demographic shifts. Erica Breunlin and the nonprofit Keystone Policy Center have put together an interactive map so you can see exactly how your school district has changed.

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BUSINESS

Colorado has a new climate-jobs coalition, as Trump pulls back on green energy

A wide-ranging coalition of labor unions in Colorado has formed Climate Jobs Colorado, with a “triple aim” of advancing climate goals, improving the ability to organize workers in the green economy and fighting income inequality. Tracy Ross and Tamara Chuang have this and more updates on the economy in this week’s What’s Working column.

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• Subscribe to What’s Working for free! Get the latest scoop on the Colorado economy from Tamara Chuang every Saturday, right in your inbox. Click here to sign up.

WATER

Rio Grande dam operator, in hot water with locals, asks state for more cash

After funding the repair of the dam on the upper Rio Grande Basin near Creede four years ago, one of Colorado’s top water agencies will have to decide whether to give more public money to a district that has repeatedly fallen short on its environmental promises. Jerd Smith of Fresh Water News has more.

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• Colorado water experts push for agreement on managing the Colorado River’s future. Colorado River officials are at odds over how to store and release water in the basin’s reservoirs when the current rules lapse in 2026. “I have no idea what’s going to get them to agreement,” said Jennifer Pitt, the Colorado River program director for the National Audubon Society. “To me, the biggest pressure seems like time is running out.”

COLORADO SUNDAY

Bob Jackson’s photo of Jack Ruby’s shot captured a historic moment — and was an early peak in the Coloradan’s career

Bob Jackson was 29 years old when he captured one of the most famous images in American history. Then he just kept taking pictures. Kevin Simpson met up with Jackson to look back on the photo, its ripple effects and the decades of work that followed.

READ MORE

MORE NEWS

• Dana Crawford, credited with saving Denver’s Larimer Square from destruction, dies at 93. She slowed urban renewal that rolled through Denver in the 1960s, then helped preserve historic buildings from Trinidad to Idaho Springs.
• Manny Rutinel, Democratic state representative, is running Colorado’s 8th Congressional District. The Commerce City lawmaker is in his second year at the Colorado Capitol. Rutinel is a lawyer who is involved in environmental activism.
• Federal agents arrest Venezuelan gang members, seize drugs and weapons in overnight party bust in Adams County. DEA and ICE agents took nearly 50 people into custody after seeing social media posts about an invite-only party in Adams County.
• Fact Brief ☀️ Are employers in Colorado required to pay workers for unused vacation time? Yes. Earned vacation time is protected under the Colorado Wage Act, which prohibits use-it-or-lose-it policies in the workplace.

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE COLORADO REPORT

• “It could have been anyone”: Witness searches for answers after hammer throw accident kills spectator. One person is dead after a throw from one of the athletes at the high school indoor meet “cleared certified barriers” and struck the spectator sitting in the stands. “This lady sat next to us and she commented about how the bleachers that were next to the hammer throw or the cage and she was like, ‘That’s terrifying, why is it next to that?’” one witness told KKTV.
  — KKTV
• Can mold exposure cause Parkinson’s disease? Colorado Springs family hopes to prove “landmark” legal case. A Colorado Springs family hopes to win what they believe would be a landmark legal verdict by proving to jurors next month that mold exposure in a rented apartment caused Parkinson’s disease in Steve Locke, the former head of several Olympic sports organizations.
  — The Denver Post ????
• Team Germany wins gold at the 2025 International Snow Sculpture Championships. The Germans’ “Apex — zero-gravity series” won the gold by turning a 25-ton block of snow into a delicate, piece of geometric artwork. Summit Daily has a lot more photos here.
  — Summit Daily
• Rare earth elements found in Lincoln Creek raise new questions. “You get a phone’s worth of neodymium coming down the mineralized tributary about every 5½ minutes,” said Adam Odorisio, a graduate student and researcher at CU’s environmental engineering department. “This translates to 96,000 phones per year. And what I think is the most striking fact in this is that this is for one tributary. You multiply this across hundreds of acid mine sites in Colorado and potentially thousands across the Western U.S., and it’s very exciting for resource extraction.”
  — Aspen Journalism
• Rent costs drop as wave of new apartments hits market, Denver-area vacancies rise. Experts say the end of 2024 featured the softest quarter for Denver-area landlords in years as the average rent across the metro area dropped $69 between quarters and 1.5% year over year. The Apartment Association of Metro Denver says it’s only the third time in 34 years that rental rates declined.
  — Denver Business Journal ????

???? = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE OPINION PAGE

COLUMNS

• ICE is coming to a neighborhood near you. We just don’t know when or how the roundup of migrants begins. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says the city won’t cooperate with ICE raids and worries that schools could be targeted.
  — Mike Littwin
  
• GOP opposition to a proxy for Rep. Brittany Pettersen is anti-family and anti-democratic. As Rep. Brittany Pettersen approaches her pregnancy due date, the House Speaker has rejected a plan that would let Pettersen do her job.
  — Mario Nicolais
  
• Trump’s war on science is back. This time, it’s worse. Multiple federal agencies have already been hit with gag orders, bans, safety repeals and more. The war on science is a recipe for disaster.
  — Trish Zornio
  

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.

Enjoy the warmup and the sunshine this week, Colorado. We can spend more time outside now that football season is over. ????

— Jennifer and the whole staff of The Sun

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