Today is March 1, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

Tuesday’s expiration of pandemic-related padding to food stamp allotments is expected to push already taxed food banks and pantries to the limit, according to leaders from Colorado Springs charities that feed the hungry.

Inflation and historically high food costs already have led more people in the past year to turn to organizations for food assistance, said Jeane Turner, spokeswoman and special events director for the El Paso County Salvation Army church and its social outreach programs for low-income seniors, military veterans and homeless families.

“Our numbers have gone up significantly, to the point that our shelves are nearly bare of nonperishable items,” Turner said. “We’re really struggling already.”

Colorado groceries and convenience stores that added full-strength beer to their shelves in 2019 are about to pop the cork on wine sales.

Beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Safeway, Walmart, King Soopers, 7-Eleven and others can begin to sell wine – the result of Proposition 125, a hard-fought ballot measure that was narrowly approved by Colorado voters in November and authorized an expansion of wine sales beyond traditional liquor stores.

Denver has spent nearly $8 million responding to an immigration crisis that has seen more than 5,000 immigrants seek shelter in the Mile High City.

The $7.9 million in costs – provided by the City and County of Denver’s Joint Information Center (JIC) – were through Monday.

Personnel accounts for the lion’s share of the spending.

Though Colorado passed the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act in 2019, requiring businesses to provide equal pay to employees performing substantially similar work, many women say they continue to face pay discrimination in the workplace.

Lawmakers are trying to address these gaps with Senate Bill 105. If passed, the bill would implement measures to enforce the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and make other updates to the law. The bill cleared its first committee hearing on Tuesday.

A special House committee dedicated to countering China began its work Tuesday with a prime-time hearing in which the panel’s chairman called on lawmakers to act with urgency and framed the competition between the U.S. and China as “an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.”

While some critics have expressed concern the hearings could escalate U.S.-Chinese tensions, lawmakers sought to demonstrate unity and the panel’s top Democrat made clear that he doesn’t want a “clash of civilizations” but a durable peace.