Headlines Tuesday, June 9, 2026
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Primary ballots mailed; Trump administration investigating Cherry Creek schools; Bureau of Reclamation announces Colorado River management plan KGNU News
Primary ballots mailed
Colorado voters should see their primary ballots show up in their mailboxes soon.
Elections officials began mailing out ballots yesterday, and in a first, more are being sent to unaffiliated voters than to those registered as Democrat or Republican.
Unaffiliated voters now make up just over half of Colorado voters, according to the Denver Post, citing Secretary of State voter data. They’ll be mailed ballots for Democratic and Republican primary elections.
Voters registered to a specific party will only get their party’s ballots.
The Post says there are about one million active, registered Democrats in Colorado, and some 910-thousand active, registered Republicans.
Colorado’s primary Election Day is Tuesday, June 30th.
Trump administration investigating Cherry Creek schools
The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into Cherry Creek schools, alleging racially discriminatory programming in the district’s clubs.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights will look into allegations that Cherry Creek school district sponsors clubs that exclude students based on their race, requires teachers to consider race when assigning classes and provides differing levels of academic support based on race.
Cherry Creek School District issued a statement yesterday, saying the announcement mischaracterizes the district’s programs.
A Cherry Creek Schools spokesperson wrote in the statement, “We strongly disagree with the characterization of District programming. The District has not yet received a copy of the complaint. Without the complaint, we are not in a position to respond further.”
This is the third K-12 school district in Colorado that the Trump administration’s Department of Education has targeted since Donald Trump returned to office.
Bureau of Reclamation announces Colorado River management plan
The Bureau of Reclamation has announced its plan to manage the Colorado River.
The agency says it will use a ten-year framework, with specific operating guidelines issued on a two-year interval.
The plan, announced last week, is a blow to water users and experts hoping for a long-term plan to address warming and drying conditions in the basin.
Negotiators from both Colorado and Nevada have said they find it hard to imagine renegotiating the river’s operating guidelines every two years… and many water experts say the same.
“That makes it really difficult to plan, it makes it difficult to make investments, it creates ongoing uncertainty,” said Chris Winter, an environmental attorney at CU Boulder’s law school. He says the fact remains that climate change has worsened drought in the region.
Winter said, “And it doesn’t really tell us what we need to do to, again, align consumptive use with supply across the basin.”
A new study from the Colorado River research group says that if the next water year is as dry as this one was, reservoir storage in lakes Powell and Mead would likely be mostly depleted.
The study also found that even a very wet year would only provide two years of additional water storage before the reservoirs were once again at risk of running dry.
This story was reported by Rocky Mountain Community Radio.
Colorado under statewide drought emergency
Colorado is now under a statewide drought emergency.
Governor Jared Polis signed an emergency declaration last week, due to ongoing dry conditions that include Colorado’s warmest winter on record, according to Colorado Newsline.
The emergency drought declaration means the state is now in Phase 3 of its Drought Response Plan. Governor Polis says Phase 3 allows the state to better coordinate agencies, prepare for worsening conditions, and support communities.
Under the declaration, state agencies must reduce outdoor water use at all state facilities. It also opens up potential emergency funding, and a possible federal disaster declaration.
The governor is encouraging everyone to use water wisely. A Drought Task Force convened in March will continue to meet regularly.
New Boulder Public Information Center
The City of Boulder is readying a new state-of-the-art Public Safety Information Center.
The center, expected to open later this summer, is described as a shared hub that allows different city departments to coordinate scaled responses in emergency situations.
The new center is located at the Boulder Police Department. But it’s also available to Boulder Fire-Rescue, Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, and others. The city said in a press release that the new center represents a unified, cross-departmental approach to public safety.
The press release emphasized the new information center’s enhanced use of technologies such as a Drone- As-First-Responder program, or DFR. DFRs are meant to let authorities gather accurate information during unfolding situations more quickly. The city added that there are strict policies on the use of DFRs, in order to protect the rights of citizens, and that they are not used for passive or routine surveillance.
The new Public Safety Information Center is also expanding the use of a software program called Axon Fusus, which integrates data from body-worn cameras and other information systems.
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