By Quentin Young | editor
“While a two-year operating plan is the bare minimum needed to operate the river, a long-term, consensus agreement that recognizes real hydrologic conditions is the only durable solution to bring certainty to the Colorado River.”
— U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado
Glen Canyon Dam holds back the waters of Lake Powell near Page, Arizona, on Feb. 2, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Chase Woodruff
The federal government on Friday formalized a set of guidelines for managing water use in the Colorado River Basin over the next decade, if Colorado and six other Western states can’t come to an agreement on how to deal with declining flows caused in large part by climate change. Under the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s “preferred alternative” for the management of the river’s reservoir system, outlined in a extensive environmental impact statement, the burden of the most severe cuts would continue to fall on the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada, which could face mandatory cuts of up to 3 million acre-feet of water. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming would face only voluntary conservation targets totaling 200,000 acre-feet.
A view of the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse in downtown Denver on May 30, 2023. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)
By Sara Wilson
Lawyers for the private company that runs Colorado’s only immigration detention center told a judge Friday that a new state law is unfairly discriminatory and should be struck down. The GEO Group sued the state over a new law that requires more frequent health and safety inspections inside immigration detention centers and allows the state to impose civil penalties for noncompliance. GEO operates the facility in Aurora under a contract from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The litigation coincides with GEO and ICE refusing to comply with a public health order issued by the Adams County Health Department around a confirmed tuberculosis case at the detention center.
Victor Marx, then a Republican candidate for governor, participates in a forum hosted by Colorado business groups in Glendale on May 28, 2026. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
By Sara Wilson
Republican Victor Marx has tapped George Markert, a retired Marine colonel, as his running mate in the race for Colorado governor, Marx announced Friday morning. Markert ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate this year, but did not make the ballot. Before that, Markert was an advisor for a strategic artificial intelligence program at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had a career in the Marine Corps for over 20 years and has lived in Broomfield for about three years. Marx won the Republican nomination in the June primary election and will face Democratic nominee Attorney General Phil Weiser and unaffiliated candidate Greg Lopez in the general election.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Trump looks to veterans to fill trucking jobs after booting immigrants from industry | By Ariana Figueroa
Small town in southeast Colorado declared abandoned | By Lindsey Toomer
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