By Quentin Young | editor
“For decades, the companies producing and selling fossil fuels knew that their products contribute to a changing climate. These companies are asking the Court to help them evade responsibility.”
— Boulder County spokesperson
An aerial view of a Boulder County neighborhood that burned in the Marshall Fire, on Dec. 31, 2021. (Hart Van Denburg/CPR, pool)
By Chase Woodruff
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority Monday appeared broadly sympathetic to fossil fuel companies’ argument that allowing two Colorado local governments to sue them over climate change in state court would be a “recipe for chaos.” Attorneys for both sides in Suncor v. Boulder, along with the Trump administration, presented oral arguments in a two-hour hearing, the first of the Supreme Court’s 2026-27 term. The case originated in Colorado in 2018, when Boulder’s city and county governments sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy, seeking monetary damages under state tort law for their role in contributing to climate change.
President Donald Trump gestures as he exits the stage during a midterm election rally at the Choctaw Event Center on Oct. 1, 2026, in Durant, Oklahoma. (Photo by Jessica Tobias/For Oklahoma Voice)
By Jonathan Shorman
When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued. “Every day we find new things to be astonished about but I think that we just want residents to not be afraid to vote because that’s ultimately what the president was after,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, said in an interview. Johnston and other local and state officials across the country are bracing for possible federal election interference from now through Nov. 3 — even as they remain unsure of what will actually happen.
The third floor of the First National Bank building on 15th Street served as the chambers of Colorado’s 1876 constitutional convention. (Courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections, X-23704)
TIMELINE 1876
By Chase Woodruff
After a month-long sprint of political campaigning across the new Centennial State, Coloradans went to the polls to vote in the first state elections on Oct. 3, 1876 — and telegrams arriving in Denver throughout the day soon left little doubt as to who the victors would be.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Republican Victor Marx fined $58K for campaign finance violations | By Chase Woodruff
Hiring slows in September with job growth of 29K | By Tim Henderson
Here’s what’s driving the Gen Z gender gap | By Mariel Padilla
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