Denver in 5 minutes: What you need to know today, Oct. 24

Here's your read of the mornings news, with stories on Colorado's plan for cleaner power, more arguing about the A Line, some new development concepts and also liquid hot magma.

Outdoor portrait of men and women in a canoe at City Park Lake in Denver, Colorado; costume includes swimming suits and a flowered hat. Between 1904 and 1915. (Charles Lillybridge/History Colorado/90.152.417 DPLY)

Hickenlooper is still thinking about a plan to cut carbon emissions.

A draft proposal from Gov. John Hickenlooper's office could order the state's power producers to reduce their release of the greenhouse gas by up to 35 percent by 2030. He offered no updates on that proposal as he celebrated the opening of a solar farm in Fort Collins. (CPR)

The U.S. Air Force ignored the dangers of a chemical that now contaminates water near Colorado Springs.

Studies dating to the 1970s found risks associated with a firefighting foam. The Environmental Protection Agency said 16 years ago that the substance shouldn't be used. The Air Force contends that the toxic and likely carcinogenic foam was the only product that met its needs. Only now, after the contamination was revealed, has the Air Force started to change much of anything. (Gazette)

What redlining looked like in Denver:

Federal housing policies made it practically impossible to get a mortgage in communities of color. Megan Arellano has an excellent look back at where and how this happened in Denver. (Denverite)

Hickenlooper as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture?

Politico says he's one of five contenders under consideration by Hillary Clinton's team. This is like the veepstakes all over again! (Politico)

Denver's talking about some major transportation spending.

Mayor Michael Hancock and the council will ask voters in 2017 to approve new spending on infrastructure. We don't know what projects specifically would be included, but the city has named more than $100 million of bike, pedestrian and transit projects as priorities. David Sachs has more. (Streetsblog)

This developer's plan looks a lot like a giant bathtub.

Or a cruise ship. They want to put it in Boulder. (BizWest)

In other "renderings of stuff" news, here's a Denver condo plan with tons of solar panels. (Denver Infill)

Did God mess up the A Line?

Pardon the sacrilege, but that's the gist of the argument between RTD and the contractor that built the train to the plane. The contractor, Denver Transit Partners, argues that a lightning strike was the cause of a spectacular shutdown on a bridge this May, and that this"force majeure" (aka an "act of God") was essentially not DTP's fault. RTD says the cause is still under investigation, and staffers in emails argued that DTP didn't properly protect the train from lightning. Unsurprisingly, this could end up in court. (DBJ)