Today is Nov. 2, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

On Thursday, the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board began its examination of the history of Kit Carson Mountain, following a request to consider changing it.  

At 14,165 feet, Kit Carson Mountain is Colorado’s 24th highest fourteener. The mountain is actually made up of three peaks. The two lower peaks already have names: Challenger Point, adopted by the federal group in 1985, and Columbia Point, adopted in 2003.

The third peak is officially unnamed.

But the proposal for a different name submitted in 2020 to the federal board accused Kit Carson, then a U.S. army officer, of a bloody campaign against the Apache and Navajo people. 

Ken Buck’s departure from Congress appears to have happened the same way Ernest Hemingway’s classic, “The Sun Also Rises,” describes a character’s descent into bankruptcy: “‘Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

Midway into his fifth term, Buck surprised no one by announcing he plans to retire after the Windsor Republican’s current term concludes.

The former Weld County district attorney, 2010 U.S. Senate nominee and chairman of the Colorado GOP has voiced complaints about Washington since his arrival there in 2015, including writing a book published in his second term that promised to expose the everyday corruption that prevents Congress from grappling with big problems, much less solving them.

Although he’s mused publicly over the years about leaving his safe House seat behind, this year Buck’s burgeoning discontent spilled over and – to hear Buck tell it – made his decision to head for the exit an obvious one.

Political division has long been a staple of the American experiment in representative democracy, but a Pew Research revealed just how deep the polarization trended in the last several years. 

“Increasingly, Republicans and Democrats view not just the opposing party but also the people in that party in a negative light,” Pew Research noted. “Growing shares in each party now describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans.”

Against this backdrop, two seasoned politicians from the country’s two major parties seek to offer – not necessarily a remedy – but perhaps a way to get there.

Or, at the least, to keep the conversation going.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, insist it’s not just laudable but also possible to work through incessant differences in order to find solutions to America’s most difficult problems.

Witnesses called by Donald Trump on Thursday in the hearing to address whether he is ineligible to appear on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot recalled a “festive” gathering prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack in Washington, D.C. – despite being confronted with evidence of people shouting for an invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

A Denver judge heard from multiple people who attended Trump’s speech at the White House Ellipse before the deadly mob attack. They testified to their belief that there was no insurrection on Jan. 6 and that “antifa” – meaning “anti-fascist” activists – was the real source of violence. The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack found no meaningful connection to antifa.

Since Monday, lawyers for four Republican and two unaffiliated voters seeking to exclude Trump from next year’s ballot have argued the former president is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The provision, enacted after the Civil War, bars members of Congress or “an officer of the United States” from occupying state or federal office if they took an oath to the U.S. Constitution, but subsequently “engaged in insurrection.”

It is an open question in the case whether Jan. 6 was an insurrection and if Trump engaged in it.

Jeff Hurd, a Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District primary, won an endorsement Thursday from GOP Rio Blanco County Commissioner Ty Gates.

Gates told Colorado Politics he believes Hurd can do a better job representing the rural county’s residents than the incumbent has.

“In my conversations with Jeff, he has shown a strong dedication to his family and the state of Colorado,” Gates said in a statement. “I believe that his conservative values will benefit the state and its constituents, particularly in terms of promoting economic development, energy solutions, and independence within the district, as well as preserving our water resources, rural lifestyle, and the well-being of future generations in western Colorado.”