By Quentin Young | editor
“This moratorium will allow us to think of equitable regulations that put our communities first.”
– Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, member of Denver City Council
Construction on a data center expansion at the QTS site in Aurora, Colorado is pictured on Aug. 6, 2026. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
By Sara Wilson
Amid a nationwide race to develop large data centers to drive the artificial intelligence boom, some local Colorado governments hit pause by enacting moratoriums to research what local regulations make sense. Public criticism concerns the environmental and health effects of data centers, especially hyperscale sites that provide massive computing power for companies like Google and Amazon, and inaction from the state government.
A flare stack burns at a natural gas facility in Garfield County on May 16, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
By Chase Woodruff
Amid a historic drought, record heat and a deadly wildfire season, Coloradans will be asked by a right-wing “dark money” group this year to enshrine a “right” to a major source of climate pollution in the state constitution. Initiative 177 proposes a two-sentence constitutional amendment that would give consumers the right to buy natural gas for cooking and heating, as well as producers the right to sell it. The use of natural gas as a fuel for appliances in homes and businesses accounts for roughly 15% of Colorado’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
An 1874 photograph shows J.B. “Wild Bill” Hickok, second from left, alongside other famous frontier figures, including William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, center. (Courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections, Z-6084)
TIMELINE 1876
By Chase Woodruff
The shooting deaths of two different gamblers made headlines in the brand-new state of Colorado in early August 1876, though only one would still be the stuff of legend 150 years later. One was James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok. Days after Hickok’s murder, another gambler met his end in southern Colorado after a dispute involving a poker game. Like Hickok, Tim Shay had made a living in storied Wild West cattle towns like Dodge City, Kansas, which recorded some of the highest homicide rates in U.S. history during the 1870s. Both men, in the expression of the day, “died with their boots on.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
| By Lindsey Toomer
As federal protections fade, disabled Americans fear a return to institutions | By Anna Claire Vollers
Commentary: Colorado history rhymes | By Quentin Young
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