Today is Dec. 13, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

State Sens. Bob Gardner and Larry Liston on Tuesday endorsed congressional candidate Jeff Hurd, the Grand Junction Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in next year’s GOP primary.

The Colorado Springs Republicans say they’re supporting the first-time candidate because they believe Hurd will deliver results.

“Jeff is a leader of character who will work hard to deliver on issues important to western and southern Colorado. He will deliver for our farming and ranching families, fight to protect our water, push for energy independence, and always put Colorado first,” said Gardner and Liston in a joint statement released by Hurd’s campaign.

“Jeff is a man of integrity, whose behavior and conduct represents Colorado values, and he will work hard to always deserve our support,” the longtime legislators added.

After Colorado’s second-highest court concluded the University of Denver’s promise of a “thorough, impartial and fair” investigation into alleged sexual misconduct was sufficiently descriptive to be an enforceable contract, the school appealed, claiming accused students should not be able to sue over vague terms like “fair.”

During oral arguments on Tuesday, the justices agreed with DU in principle, but noted the Court of Appeals had actually given more concrete guidance than that.

“What the Court of Appeals said was the investigation required that the investigator conduct interviews as necessary, review documents and any other relevant information,” said Justice Richard L. Gabriel. “Those are specific things in here.”

In the case at hand, a male student, identified as “John Doe,” was expelled from DU after an investigation found he engaged in non-consensual sex with female student “Jane Roe.” The university’s procedures committed to a “thorough, impartial and fair” investigation, but Doe pointed out several irregularities that bolstered his accuser’s evidence, while minimizing his own.

The environmental groups criticized the lawsuit on Tuesday. The critics – which are, by definition, “special interest groups” – called the cattle and livestock growers “special interest groups.” Broadly speaking, a “special interest” group is any entity that advocates for a particular policy or represents an interest.

“Livestock industry members have filed this obstructionist lawsuit just as state employees are finalizing logistics to reintroduce wolves after the iconic keystone species has been functionally absent from the state for 80 years,” the WildEarth Guardians said.

WildEarth Guardians insisted that authorization for reintroduction activities comes from the recently finalized federal ’10(j) rule,’ which the group said involved “extensive public involvement and robust environmental analysis.”

A historically highly attractive place to live, Colorado faces an “inflection point,” in which warning signs have emerged, notably in the area of housing, according to a new report from a Denver-based think tank.

Those warning signs show that Colorado has lost some of its competitive edge to other states, and lawmakers’ actions over the next few years are critical, the Common Sense Institute said in its latest “Free Enterprise Report.”

As it has in the past, the group argued that Colorado can maintain a strong economy and provide its residents with opportunity if the state embraces free enterprise principles, arguing that approach has, over time, proven to be “most effective for creating economic prosperity.”