Federal judge blocks Trump budget cuts to Colorado; Longmont YMCA pausing services amid financial troubles; CU partners with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to campuses

Headlines Friday, February 13, 2026

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    Federal judge blocks Trump budget cuts to Colorado; Longmont YMCA pausing services amid financial troubles; CU partners with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to campuses KGNU News

Federal judge blocks Trump budget cuts to Colorado

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah has blocked a $600 million public health funding cut from the Trump administration, aimed at Colorado and three other states. The cuts impact numerous Colorado grants, including statewide HIV prevention therapy. The ruling is a temporary restraining order, as Colorado could lose $22 million in public health funding from the CDC.

The attorneys general of Colorado, California, Illinois, and Minnesota jointly brought this case, arguing that the cuts stem from policy disagreements, as the states impacted have continued programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Federal officials have stated these reductions are related to mismanagement of federal funds, but have yet to provide any evidence of widespread fraud in Colorado. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18, to determine if the cuts will be allowed to proceed.

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Longmont YMCA pausing recreation services due to financial troubles 

The YMCA of Northern Colorado is closing all recreation and fitness programs at their Longmont location at the end of February, as continued funding struggles have made it impossible to continue operations. Federal funding cuts have affected the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which has affected the YMCA’s overall budget by around $5 million (DOLLARS). The YMCA of Northern Colorado’s CEO and president, Chris Coker, has stated that, as the Longmont location’s overall budget was at $22 million, that loss of funding was difficult to work around.

Longmont City Council has spoken with the YMCA regarding a potential transition plan that would have the city reopen the facility as a public recreation center, but that plan has yet to be finalized, as they say talks remain in a preliminary stage. Longmont YMCA members can reach out to the YMCA’s offices, if they wish to transfer their membership to surrounding locations.

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CU partners with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT access to its campuses

Just as ChatGPT is being blocked for K through 12 students in the Boulder Valley School District, the University of Colorado has announced their new agreement with OpenAI, an annually renewable contract that will give the CU system access to ChatGPT Edu, a university specific model. The first year of this plan is expected to cost CU around $2 million, based on an expectation of 100,000 users. In their announcement, CU underlined the significance of the ecological impact of AI usage, and claimed they will continue to evaluate their AI policy based on that impact.

CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz has touted the security benefits of this partnership, as it will allow data belonging to CU to not be sent to OpenAI’s general processing servers. This partnership follows a similar program recently launched by Colorado State University, which gave its students, faculty, and staff access to Microsoft’s generative AI platform.

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