Today is Jan. 15, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

The Colorado Republican Party endorsed former President Donald Trump’s bid for another term late Sunday, nearly two months before state voters are set to cast ballots in Colorado’s presidential primary.

In an unprecedented decision, the state GOP’s central committee voted to endorse Trump over objections from some Republicans that the move abandons the party’s policy of staying neutral in primaries.

The party approved the endorsement in an online meeting of its roughly 400-member governing committee, held on the eve of the GOP’s first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, where polling shows Trump holds a commanding lead.

The endorsement resolution passed with 65% of the committee voting in favor, 34% voting against, and the remainder abstaining.

“On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, the Colorado Republican Party wanted to give President Donald J. Trump a big send-off by enthusiastically endorsing him for president in November,” said Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams after the vote, adding that the state party “is more than happy to stand with President Trump because he risked it all to stand for this country.”

During last week’s opening ceremonies, Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado’s lawmakers sought to pick up where last year’s regular and special session left off by immediately focusing on one of the state’s most persistent problems – the lack of affordable housing units. Here are five takeaways.

From columnists Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy: 

Nearly 200,000 mostly stalwart and predominantly evangelical Iowa Republicans will brave frigid cold weather and snow on the ground tomorrow evening to officially kick off the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest.

Public opinion polls already tell us former President Donald Trump will be the likely winner. The only question is what his percentage of the statewide vote will be. It should be somewhere between 45% and 60% – probably in the middle of that at just over 50%.

Iowa Republicans hold their caucuses at 7 p.m. on a Monday evening in a local church hall or the gymnasium of a neighborhood public school. After briefly discussing the various candidates for the Republican nomination, each person writes their choice on a small piece of paper and turns it in, or something like that.

Amid plummeting temperatures and the anticipation of even colder weather, Gov. Jared Polis issued a disaster declaration to mobilize the state’s emergency services tasked with deploying resources for the cold snap looming this weekend.

This declaration authorized the use of the Colorado National Guard to ensure people can access resources they need to stay safe as temperatures drop into single digits, followed by dangerous wind chills.

“No one should freeze to death in our state for lack of shelter. We are working with cities and local communities to ensure that everyone has a warm place to go during this extreme cold snap,” the governor said in a news release.

Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright reiterated his concern that the pay for judicial staff throughout the state, including probation personnel, is unsustainably low.

“We do have a need for judges,” he said. However, at the most recent judicial conference, the judges “all conceded that our No. 1 thing needs to be to take care of our employees.”

Boatright elaborated that 40% of judges were appointed in the last four years and 50% of staff have also turned over. The judicial leaders highlighted the need for more training of staff, given the large number of new personnel, as well as replacement of the 27-year-old case management system.