Orphans are paying for their own foster care

Good morning, Colorado, and Happy Colorado Gives Day! ????

It’s an important day in Colorado — last year this giving event raised more than $54 million for organizations across our state. Your inbox is likely full of heartfelt messages from the nonprofits to which you’re connected — the ones that mean something to you or have influenced your life. It’s a nice reminder that impactful work is happening all around us. Today is a day to celebrate the ways in which these organizations make a difference in our lives.

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Lauren Whynott

Director of Membership, Marketing & Audience Engagement

THE NEWS

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Colorado orphans, disabled kids have to pay for their own foster care unlike other children

For years, county child welfare departments have applied for federal benefits and parental death benefits on behalf of Colorado foster children and then used the funds to cover the cost of foster care. In many cases, the foster kids weren’t aware that their benefits were claimed until they were out of the system. The nationwide practice was little known and without scrutiny, until recently, Jennifer Brown explains.

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ECONOMY

Colorado experts predict what the state’s economy will look like in 2025

Experts at the Colorado Business Economic Outlook summed up the state’s economy with a single sentence Monday: “The economy is on stable footing.” But Tamara Chuang has more specific details and numbers from the 171-page report to explain where they see job growth and loss coming in the next year.

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OUTDOORS

Colorado Parks and Wildlife vows to do better job at round 2 of wolf reintroduction starting in January

Next month, wildlife officials will release 15 more gray wolves from British Columbia into the wild and they are vowing to do a better job than last time. Among the list of improvements, CPW said it will respond to livestock deaths quicker, launch a robust range rider program and publish a guide to help producers reduce conflict. Tracy Ross has the details.

READ MORE

Section by Olivia Prentzel | Reporter

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Goats paraded through Barnum — to celebrate someone every neighborhood needs. If there’s one thing I love, it’s when a neighborhood has “a guy.” And the way a Denver neighborhood honored Kurtis Keele — “the goat guy” — sounds like it was a fitting way to celebrate a community fixture.
  — Denverite
• Douglas County school board weighs addition of AP African American studies course. The elective course, which is drawing pushback from conservatives around the country, covers centuries of Black history, including the still-visible effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws.
  — The Denver Post ????
• In pursuit of hemp compliance, Colorado AG settles with one company, sues another. Attorney General Phil Weiser, using the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, reached a settlement with Bee’s Knees Enterprises over allegations of deceptive trade practices — including misrepresenting the source of its extracts as “Colorado farms” with no documentation — and filed a suit against Mesa County’s Foxhole Farms for marketing marijuana products as federally legal industrial hemp.
  — HempToday
• An ice-free day on the Arctic Ocean? It’s coming sooner than we realized, a CU researcher says. “Chilling” probably isn’t the best word to describe listening to Dr. Alexandra Jahn talk about the Arctic Ocean, but that’s definitely how I felt reading that it could happen within three years.
  — KUNC

???? = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

THE OPINION PAGE

COMMUNITY

• Implementing Project 2025 would harm Colorado’s climate and economy. Colorado’s federal and state officials can protect our communities and confront the climate crisis.
  — Silvio Marcacci , Energy Innovation

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.

SunLit

REVIEW

In “After Anne,” author L.M. Montgomery begins her famous novel

While “Anne of Green Gables” has long been a literary staple, and spun off into film and television, author Logan Steiner not only loved the book, she soon felt compelled to tell the story of Lucy Maud Montgomery — not only about her rise to literary fame, but the events that transpired “After Anne.” In this excerpt from her historical novel, Steiner describes a writer on the cusp of attempting her first full-length novel, and foreshadows the arrival of the man she would later marry.

READ AN EXCERPT

• Interview with the author.
  Steiner has always felt drawn to creative types, so when she learned about the complicated story of Maud Montgomery, it wasn’t long until she committed to a historical novel exploring the author’s life.
  

Section by Kevin Simpson | Writer

Thanks, as always, for sharing your morning with us. See you tomorrow.

— Olivia & the whole staff of The Sun

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.