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05_13_25_Headlines Jackie Sedley
BoCo E
xxon Lawsuit Advances
The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that the City and County of Boulder can continue with their lawsuit against Exxon Mobil and Suncor. This comes after the oil companies requested the case be dismissed.
The suit seeks to hold the two companies responsible for their contributions to climate change, and their lack of transparency around the danger of their products. The realities of climate change have continued to be a rising issue in Colorado, as it is one of the fastest-warming states.
The County and City of Boulder say they’re facing significant rising costs to address the environmental impacts, and that those costs could eventually fall onto local communities. Boulder wants Exxon Mobil and Suncor to “pay their fair share,” to avoid having to shift the burden onto the state’s taxpayers.
This is the country’s second state Supreme Court decision related to progressing this type of climate case. The first was in 2023, when the Hawaii Supreme Court allowed a similar case to move forward.
Boulder Budget Strains
Business experts are forecasting a cloudy future for the City of Boulder’s finances.
Two leaders from the Leeds School of Business, along with city staff, presented a memo on the city’s economic forecast to city council late last week, as staffers work to develop the 2026 budget. The memo stressed that city staffers are taking a conservative approach to the upcoming budget, and that Donald Trump’s fiscal policies are making it difficult to plan ahead.
The city is facing financial strain as revenue growth slows and federal funding is being taken away. New forecasts by city officials at the CU Boulder Leeds School of Business have found that the financial outlook shows uncertainty.
The tightening of the budget likely means the city will have to cut funding for some programs to prioritize others, according to Boulder Reporting Lab.
The forecast is already guiding decisions for the upcoming November election. Councilmembers will decide whether or not to refer two tax measures to voters, one would extend an existing sales tax, the other would create a property tax to fund parks and capital projects.
Roughly half of Boulder’s federal awards – which adds up to roughly $55 million – have not been disbursed yet. The city says that money could be vulnerable to future cuts.
Even with all of that in mind, the Leeds researchers and city officials predict that sales and use tax revenue could rebound in the coming years – possibly as a result of a rollback on tariffs.
The 2026 budget is expected to be adopted in October.
El Paso County SD Trans Athlete Ban
Colorado School District 49’s Board of Education has approved a new policy that restricts student participation in school sports to the sex they were assigned at birth.
The El Paso County district, which includes parts of Colorado Springs and Falcon, approved the policy last week. Named “Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports,” the new policy classifies school sports in three categories: male, female, and co-ed. The policy explicitly bans students of one biological sex from participating on the teams of another sex.
One board member who opposed the new policy said that since it would only apply to a small number of student athletes, it should be revised to consider the circumstances of individual students, according to Colorado Politics. That suggestion was not considered.
The District 49 Board also voted to register a formal position against House Bill 1312, approved by state lawmakers last week. That bill, if it is signed into law, establishes several legal protections for transgender people in Colorado.
18 Arrested in Federal Raid Already Set To Be Deported
Eighteen people arrested in a federal raid on a Colorado Springs nightclub last month already had deportation orders.
That’s according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The agency confirmed the eighteen people are “subject to a final order of removal,” or deportation. Fourteen of those individuals had allegedly been charged with or convicted of crimes prior to the raid.
They were among 104 people arrested in a major raid on an unlicensed Colorado Springs nightclub on April 27th. The Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, initially reported that 114 people had been taken into federal custody.
17 members of the military were found inside of the club at the time of the raid. One Fort Carson soldier was arrested on suspicion that he dealt cocaine and offered to sell illegal weapons to an undocumented individual while working security at the club.
An ICE spokesperson wrote last Friday that the 86 people who are not subject to a “final order of removal” are still being held by ICE pending immigration proceedings.
Busy Ski Season
The ski season in Colorado isn’t entirely over yet, but already the ski industry is reporting this year as one of its best seasons ever.
Nationwide, sixty-one million people visited a ski area in the 2024-25 ski season. That’s according to industry reports cited in The Colorado Sun. All those skiers make it the second-highest showing ever for American ski resorts.
The Rocky Mountain region accounted for nearly half of all those visits. Over 26 million people flocked to Rocky Mountain slopes this season, accounting for nearly 43 percent of ski area visits.
Most Colorado resorts are closed for the season now, but a few remain open. Winter Park is expected to stay open until May 18th, and Arapahoe Basin is projected to welcome skiers until June 8th.
