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Colorado Voter Guide | 2024 primary election

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House Democrats book $1.5 million in fall TV ads to defend Colorado's 8th Congressional District

The House Democrats’ independent expenditure arm this week reserved $1.55 million in fall TV advertising in Colorado’s largest media market, likely targeting the state’s tossup 8th Congressional District as the party bids to retake the majority in the chamber in November.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee booked the ads in the Denver market as part of its $28 million round of initial national ad reservations on broadcast TV, streaming and digital platforms. The total includes $12 million in digital reservations, doubling what the DCCC initially reserved two years ago, the group said in a release.

While the group can reallocate its spending as the election approaches, it appears the Democrats are preparing to defend first-term U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo in the evenly divided 8th CD, which stretches from suburbs north of Denver to Greeley. Caraveo will face the winner of Tuesday’s primary between state Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, and former state Rep. Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs.

Colorado to launch first-in-the-nation app that could revolutionize responder safety

A tanker stalls on the side of the highway. A driver runs into tanker’s back end. The tank explodes. The incident shuts down the highway. Emergency personnel, firefighters, and law enforcers scramble.

If that sounds familiar, it should. A similar situation happened on I-70 on May 16, when an SUV rear-ended a stalled tanker. The black smoke from the fire could be seen all the way to downtown Denver.

As the first responders scrambled that day, Ben Miller, director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety’s Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting, watched them in real time using a technology the military first created and used by special forces.

The technology — whose use is widespread among federal government agencies — has never been deployed at the state or local level.

And now Colorado is poised to be the first state in the nation to use it.

Now a pack: Colorado confirms birth of first gray wolf pup since reintroduction

For weeks, rumors have been flying that two of the Oregon wolves released into Grand County were showing signs that the female was about to, or had already, given birth.

It’s official — Colorado has its first confirmed gray wolf pup since voters approved reintroduction of the apex predators roughly four years ago.

On Thursday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed that the pup was sighted in Grand County during routine wolf monitoring efforts. That includes attempts to observe the wolves from the air and ground, as well as remote cameras and public sightings.

Colorado to see 'enormous decrease' in revenue, less TABOR refunds because of new tax laws

The latest revenue forecast for Colorado’s state government reflected the effects of some of the 30 laws approved this year that changed tax policy, resulting in less revenue for state operations and decreased Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds to residents.

The overarching message is the 2024-25 budget was tight — and 2025-26 is going to be even tighter.

And that doesn’t yet include the potential effects to the state budget from two ballot measures that could require the state to backfill up to $3 billion to cover lost property tax revenue for school districts and local governments.