Today is Aug. 20, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

In DNC swansong, Biden tells the country: ‘I gave my best to you’

CHICAGO — A month ago this was going to be President Joe Biden’s re-nominating convention.

But four weeks later Biden finally became the “bridge” to future party leaders that he pledged to be during the 2020 Democratic primary, underscoring his record while encouraging the country to vote for his vice president and political rival that election cycle, Kamala Harris, during his address Monday at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Biden’s convention swansong was a 50-minute address that hit familiar notes about the importance of democracy and the potency of his partnership with Harris, with the vice president watching on in the United Center and joining him on stage with his family at his speech’s conclusion.

Top five takeaways from the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention

CHICAGO — On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, party members gathered to reflect on the theme “for the people” as President Joe Biden gave a semi-swan song paving the way for a party made in the reflection of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Several labor leaders addressed the convention in the lead-up to Biden’s speech, including Elizabeth H. Shuler, president of the influential American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers. Fain would later rip off his blazer to unveil a red [Donald] “Trump is a scab vote Harris shirt.”

Chicago legendary activist Rev. Jesse Jackson made a surprise appearance onstage accompanied by another civil rights legend, the Rev. Al Sharpton, in an emotional moment. Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) electrified the crowd by appealing to blue-collar workers and immigrants.

Colorado's Yadira Caraveo among vulnerable Democrats called out by House Republicans for skipping DNC

The House Republicans’ campaign arm wants people flocking to the Democratic National Convention to know that a handful of vulnerable Democratic incumbents — including U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo — won’t be on hand this week in Chicago.

Caraveo, a Thornton pediatrician seeking reelection in Colorado’s battleground 8th Congressional District, is among five House Democrats targeted with a mobile billboard hired to circle the convention, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee told Colorado Politics.

“Have you seen me?” says the electronic billboard, alongside photographs of Vice President Kamala Harris and the five Democrats labeled “Harris enablers” by the NRCC.

Cost for Colorado's required emissions testing could go up by 40%

The air quality planning agency for the Denver metropolitan area wants the state to raise the fee for vehicle emissions test by 40% — from $25 to $35 — for the more than one million cars getting tested annually in Colorado.

About 10% of those cars fail the test.

Air Care Colorado, the state’s privately contracted vehicle emission testing program, hasn’t raised the price of a standard emission test in almost 30 years.

With close to a million new Coloradans projected to arrive in the next 25 years, officials from Regional Air Quality Council said they are looking for ways to improve and update vehicle emissions testing.

Report: Colorado's federal trial court saw drop in criminal trials, explosion in insurance verdicts

The number of criminal jury trials dropped significantly in Colorado’s federal trial court, insurance cases made up half of all civil jury trials and self-represented litigants only filed one-quarter of all lawsuits last year.

Those were the trends highlighted in an annual report of the U.S. District Court’s workload presented last week by Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty. Hegarty, the most senior magistrate judge on the court, compiled the 2023 statistics with the assistance of his law clerk, Marissa Joers.

“We maybe used to have 60, 70, 80 trials a year — maybe more,” Hegarty told an audience of lawyers last week at the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse. Last year, the court saw 51 trials total: 33 civil and nine felony cases tried to a jury, plus nine bench trials before a judge in mostly civil matters.