Welcome back, campers!

The 2026 legislative session is upon the good citizens of Colorado, and for a few, the first Monday of the session, Jan. 19, was pretty special.

There are at least four folks in the Capitol who are proud alumni of Indiana University, which won its first-ever national championship in football, beating Ohio State, Alabama, and Oregon on their way to the finals, where they defeated the University of Miami in a nail-biting 27-21 victory.

Over the years, your faithful correspondent has found fellow alumni and fans, always of basketball or the Little 500 cycling race, because that’s what happens at Indiana.

Football is one of those things that does not happen. Indiana lost more games in its 137-year football history than any other university in the FBS. That’s 714, for those keeping count. Until last October, Indiana, which was moving up the rankings during the season, was STILL the worst team in college football. Northwestern took that title in October (sorry, Ed Sealover).

So the win Monday night brought out the Hoosier faithful in Colorado, starting at Stoney’s on Lincoln St., where we ran into former state Rep. Lori Saine, who joined our little group of 1,000 or so Hoosiers.

Word has it that Colorado Sun reporter Brian Eason, whose wife is an IU graduate, was also there.

Also watching from around the state: former Sen. Mike Foote, who was the student manager of the Little 500 when he was at IU; and former Sen. Janet Buckner; she and her late husband, John, are both proud IU alums.

At the Capitol on Tuesday, the celebration was on, featuring lobbyist Jason Hopfer, Rep. Emily Sirota, and Logan Souder, the chief of staff to Rep. Manny Rutinel.

Rutinel is amazingly tolerant of all this Hoosier nonsense, as evidenced by this:

Sirota, Hopfer and Capitol M (with the latter two in those garish candy-stripe pants favored by Hoosiers), showed off our Hoosier pride. Jason decided that when IU won the natty, it was a call to wear candy stripes to the Capitol the day after. So we did.

The funny thing is, nobody at the Capitol seemed to be too surprised by any of this. Go figure.

Stock Show season is coming to an end

Every year, lawmakers raise money to purchase livestock raised by Colorado kids at the junior livestock auction, which takes place on the last Friday of the National Western Stock Show.

This year, it was more of a challenge than usual: with the legislative session starting on Jan. 14, it gave lawmakers barely 10 days to raise the funds they’ll need on Jan. 23 to buy those Colorado lambs, pigs, sheep, or cattle.

Thursday, rodeo queens from the 120th NWSS visited the Capitol, to the delight of many.