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07_24_2025MMHeadlines Ainsley Coogan
Xcel power shutoff plan
Xcel Energy is taking the wraps off of a new system of warning the public when there is about to be an emergency power shutdown.
Xcel has worked with Boulder’s Office of Disaster Management and other local agencies to define under what conditions they’ll cut power. Known as Public Safety Power Shutoffs, or PSPS, they were developed following Xcel’s decision, in the midst of an intense windstorm last year, to cut off power to some 55,000 of their customers with little warning.
As a result of that decision to cut power, businesses in the area lost some $1.4 million in revenues, according to the Boulder Reporting Lab. The wastewater plant in Boulder nearly contaminated Boulder Creek.
The situation only got worse when Xcel offered what many found to be unsatisfactory explanations for why they cut off power.
With the new PSPS protocol, the utility has established distinct time periods for potential shutoffs. They include a potential event phase, when the public is alerted to a possible shutdown; a pre-event stage, which includes urging preparedness, like having batteries and emergency kits; and a final warning stage just before a shutdown.
Organizers say they’re confident the strategy can work.
Colorado increase in gender-affirming care
More and more people are coming to Colorado in search of gender-affirming medical care for minors, in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling last month.
The high court’s ruling in the United States V. Skrmetti allows individual states to ban gender-affirming care for minors. But it remains legal in Colorado.
The Trans Continental Pipeline, a group that helps transgender people relocate to Colorado and other safe states, received about 550 requests for help in the first month following last year’s presidential election, according to Colorado Newsline.
A director at the LGBTQ+ advocacy group One Colorado, said they’re hearing more and more about families moving across state lines for gender-affirming care.
Colorado has passed many laws protecting both gender-affirming care and abortion access since 2023.
But Jack Teter, the vice president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said that the Skrmetti ruling could indirectly impact care in Colorado. He compared it to the Dobbs ruling against abortion, where hospitals will need to figure out ways to expand capacity due to an influx of patients.
Additionally, most of Colorado’s gender-affirming care is concentrated in metro areas. Denver Health and Children’s Hospital Colorado temporarily stopped providing that care to minors earlier this year.
Vibrant Denver bond package
The Denver City Council will begin reviewing a $935 million bond package next week, and could end up placing it before voters this fall.
The bond package, known as Vibrant Denver, made it out of the council’s Finance and Business Committee on a 6-1 vote Tuesday.
Nearly half of the $935 million would be used to pay for transportation, mobility, and road safety projects over a six year period, according to the Denver Post. About a quarter of it would go to improvements to city buildings and cultural facilities. Parks and Recreation would get about twenty percent.
Not all council members are on board with the Vibrant Denver bond in its current form, and further changes are possible. A final decision on whether to put it before voters is scheduled for August 4.
Colorado Records To ICE
Colorado state officials have turned over records requested by ICE at least four times this year. The state Department of Labor and Employment turned over information three times in response to subpoenas, including once by mistake. The Marijuana Enforcement Division provided records once.
Gov. Jared Polis’ office said on Tuesday that state agencies have received a total of nine immigration related subpoenas from the Trump administration.
The compliance to the requests have sparked controversy, as state law generally prohibits government employees from overturning personal identifying information to ICE, unless it is ordered by a judge or needed as part of a criminal investigation.
Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman said that one subpoena was erroneously answered by a labor department employee who “produced records in response to a subpoena request without first getting final approval from department leadership.”
Wieman said that the remaining subpoenas were correctly fulfilled since they were in relation to criminal investigations.
When asked why the state responds to some subpoenas and not others, Wieman said it was based on state and federal law. It was also stated that the department made their protocol stricter after the erroneous submission.
