Hey, everyone. Today's edition of me telling you about the news is going to take us all around Colorado, starting right here in Denver and spiraling out to include the Gold King Mine, a sugary fight in Boulder, the Clinton campaign and Castle Rock.
Goodbye, Little Fyodor.
Little Fyodor & Babushka Band have been playing yelpy, punky Eastern European-themed shows around Denver since the late 1980s. The group's last show will be Oct. 15 at the Lion's Lair, before it goes on indefinite hiatus. (Westword)
An EPA employee won't be criminally charged in the Gold King Mine spill.
The environmental agency's investigators were looking into whether an unnamed employee had violated clean-water laws and made false statements. High-ranking Republicans say the EPA did find evidence of wrongdoing, but the U.S. attorney general's office has declined to prosecute. (Wall Street Journal)
The Boulder soda fight is for real.
With $1.2 million spent already, the proposal to put a tax on sugary drinks ($0.02 an ounce, or $0.24 a can) already is the most expensive in the city's history. Surprisingly (to me), the pro-tax folks are spending more than the beverage lobby. It stands at about $724,000 for and $503,000 against the measure. Click through for more analysis from Alex Burness. (Boulder Daily Camera)
Two black men were pulled from a car by police in Colorado Springs. They're suing for racial profiling.
A video shows Ryan Brown repeatedly asking why he and his brother were pulled over, without an apparent answer from the officer. The new lawsuit claims that officer David Nelson pointed a stun gun at Benjamin Brown, the driver, and frisked him without justification. Nelson then pulled Ryan Brown from the car, as the video shows.
Ultimately, Benjamin Brown was ticketed for nothing more than a cracked windshield. The officer claimed that he pulled the men over because they had been seen driving slowly through a "high crime area." The Browns say they were just out to buy bread. (The Gazette)
Hillary Clinton made a working-class appeal in Pueblo.
Pueblo has historically gone Democratic, thanks lately to its high Latino population. Its loss of steel-industry jobs, though, would seem to line it up with Donald Trump's disaffected workers campaign, and the county has supported Republicans at the state and local level. So, unsurprisingly, Pueblo has gotten some attention from both campaigns lately. Check out Corey Hutchins' write-up of Clinton's visit for a sense of the mood there. (Colorado Independent)
And her allies are looking confident in Colorado.
One of the largest Democratic super PACs won't advertise in Colorado for the last two weeks of the campaign, a source tells Politico. The group reportedly is axing about $2 million in planned spending here, showing confidence that Hillary Clinton will take this swing state. The Clinton campaign itself also is reducing spending here. (Politico)
Downtown... Castle Rock?
A developer will spend $60 million to bring 228 apartments, plus office and retail, to downtown Castle Rock. Our southern neighbor reportedly is pretty lively on weekend nights, but it doesn't have the residences to keep the rest of the week active. I've never been. Anybody got Castle Rock suggestions? (BusinessDen)
