By Chase Woodruff | senior reporter
Wednesday, Aug. 12 marked 90 days since the end of Colorado’s 2026 legislative session, the date on which laws passed during the term typically take effect. State laws that went into effect this week include new restrictions on sports betting, reporting requirements for missing college students, limits on the use of artificial intelligence in mental health settings, and more. Meanwhile, a gun-rights group sought an injunction against a 2025 state firearm purchasing law, and Democratic state Rep. Mandy Lindsay was questioned by her fellow lawmakers over an ethics complaint she is facing for allegedly mismanaging caucus funds. Below are some of our other top stories from the week.
Low water levels on Lake Granby, a reservoir on the Colorado River and part of the Colorado-Big Thompson water storage project, are pictured last month. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
By Chase Woodruff
A record-breaking stretch of high temperatures late last month was Colorado’s worst heat wave in the 75 years that such records have been collected, state climatologists said Tuesday. The four-day period from July 25 to 28 included the first- and third-hottest days in Colorado’s recorded history, as measured by the statewide average temperature. The statewide average of 78.75 degrees Fahrenheit on July 27 exceeded the previous daily record, set in 2005, by more than 1.5 degrees.
Kathleen Sullivan Kelley rides one of her horses at her Rio Blanco County ranch. (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Sullivan Kelley)
By Sharon Sullivan
A group of Colorado ranchers filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit brought by the city of Boulder and Boulder County against three Suncor Energy entities and Exxon Mobil. Boulder is seeking monetary damages for costs incurred responding to wildfires, repairing transportation infrastructure, restoring watersheds and other harm related to climate change. “Our (weather) conditions have changed so much during my lifetime,” one of the ranchers said. “Now three-quarters of the year is fire season. We’re watching for fire all the time. That’s our life now. We’re constantly thinking about fire mitigation.”
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, at mic, and U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Fort Lupton Republican, at center right, hold a press conference Tuesday after participating in a roundtable with Colorado farmers and ranchers at Bobcat of the Rockies in Henderson. (Photo by Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
By Lindsey Toomer
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans on Tuesday defended funding cuts and work requirements Republicans added to federal food assistance programs that have led to thousands of Coloradans losing benefits. Rollins and Evans, a Fort Lupton Republican, hosted a roundtable with Colorado farmers and agricultural producers at Bobcat of the Rockies in Henderson. At a press conference after the roundtable, which was closed to the media, the pair talked about challenges farmers in Colorado face and how the federal government supports them and the agriculture industry.
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