Today is Aug. 17, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

Two attorneys with strong Colorado ties were among the 18 people indicted along with former President Donald Trump by a Georgia grand jury on Monday on criminal charges alleging an elaborate scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

John Eastman, who currently represents the Colorado Republican Party, and Jenna Ellis, a former assistant professor at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, were named in the 41-count indictment, which alleges violations of the state’s anti-racketeering law, the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, traditionally used against organized crime.

Eastman, who advised Trump in the months following the 2020 election, faces nine counts, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit forgery, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath and filing false documents. 

A member of the Trump’s legal team after the election, Ellis is accused on two counts: racketeering and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.

In 2009, three-term state Rep. and Speaker Pro Tempore Kathleen Curry rocked the Colorado House with the announcement she was leaving the Democratic Party to become unaffiliated.

Curry is ready to try again for the state House and return to the Democratic fold. She announced Wednesday she’s running for House District 58, the seat currently held by Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, who is term-limited in 2024.

She changed her voter registration in June.

Her party switch in December 2009 cost her both the speaker pro tem position, as well as her role as chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Because the announcement came too late for her to file as an unaffiliated, she ran as a write-in candidate in 2010, but lost. She ran again in 2012 as an unaffiliated candidate but lost in a five-way race to Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon.

A second Colorado elected official has raised concerns regarding the potential merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which own and operate King Soopers and Safeway stores in the state respectively. 

Kroger announced the potential merger with Albertsons in October. The acquisition by Kroger carries a $24.6 billion price tag.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and a team of secretary of states filed a letter with the Federal Trade Commission opposing the merger, according to a Wednesday news release.

Six other secretaries joined her in letter of opposition. The secretaries, together, represent seven states with a total of 4,996 potentially affected stores, according to the letter.

They claim the merger would create a monopoly under the Kroger name, raising prices for the average consumer and local suppliers. 

Denver is asking small organizations to bid on contracts to operate or provide supportive services at the “micro-communities” that Mayor Mike Johnston’s plans to open as part of his homelessness reduction strategy, although the city can’t provide estimates on costs or where micro-communities will exactly be located.

Johnston and his senior homelessness adviser, Cole Chandler, provided an update on the administration’s homelessness initiatives on Wednesday, when they also said strategies they have deployed to improve the conditions of encampments have proved successful.

The city’s deployment of trash pickup and providing access to bathrooms at encampments has improved public safety and health conditions, Johnston said.

More than two dozen people took advantage of additional services, as the city ramped up outreach to prepare people to move out of encampments and into housing, the mayor said. One person who has never had housing in his adult life was connected with housing, while another woman who was pregnant and living in an encampment was able to move into a hotel, the mayor said.

Federal money will flow into Colorado this year to help small businesses build up defenses against cybersecurity attacks that often lead to small companies closing. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced this week that Colorado would be one of six states to receive about $1 million in grant funding, money that flows to a collaboration among the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and the National Cybersecurity Center based in Colorado Springs. 

The money will fund training for cyber consultants who will provide free cyber-cleanups and checks to small businesses across the state, said Brandon Eldridge, the executive director of the Pikes Peak SBDC.