Hello, fellow readers. Today's news roundup includes good reporting on tiny homes in Aspen, fried chicken in Denver, schools, affordable housing, the pot church's finances and more. Let's go.
Lightning season:
A woman was killed Sunday by a lightning strike in Douglas County. Here's an explainer of the lightning threat that comes with Colorado summers and how you can protect yourself. (9, Denverite)
Aspen goes tiny:
Aspen Skiing Company will soon have about 40 new, super-small prefab homes for employees to rent. Long-term tenants of a camping area were evicted to make room. Skico estimates that it still will face a shortage of 600 beds for employees this winter, as Scott Condon reports. (Aspen Times)
Meanwhile, Aspen's acquisition of Winter Park and Steamboat is raising concerns about the emerging ski duopoly, which is like a monopoly except with two companies and they arguably own way too many ski mountains, Jason Blevins reports. (DP)
Fried chicken:
You know I like fried chicken. Now Rachel Greiman is *forcing* me to go try Low Country Kitchen. I am a poor judge, though, because I have literally never had fried chicken that I didn't like. I most recently tried Steuben's hot chicken on Friday -- it was hot, it was fried, I had a good time. (Eater)
Rural schools:
A compromise on hospital funding also is likely to send a one-time boost of $30 million to rural schools, as Nic Garcia reports. (Chalkbeat)
Also, Eric Gorski has a new feature on two charter schools whose fates may soon be intertwined. In short, Rocky Mountain Prep could soon be taking over Cesar Chavez Academy. (Chalkbeat)
Historic urban schools:
Denver Public Schools just paid $2.3 million for part of the Loretto Heights campus, a historic set of buildings overlooking South Federal Boulevard, as Amy DiPierro reports. (BusinessDen)
Threat to affordable housing:
Affordable-housing developers use special tax credits for much of their funding. President Donald Trump's talk of a tax cut has hurt the value of those credits, leaving builders scrambling to replace funding for low-income housing, as Emilie Rusch reports. (DP)
Broadway:
The Broadway bike lane will be extended north to meet the Cherry Creek Trail. It's significant progress for bike-ped advocates, and it foreshadows yet more fighting over who runs Denver's roads, as Jon Murray reports.(DP)
Weed and homelessness:
Do homeless people come to Colorado for legal marijuana? A leading researcher tells Denverite we need more research, but that all the evidence to date is that it’s not happening, as Erica reports. (Denverite)
Pot church pays members' firm:
The reason that Elevation Ministries is paying $10,000 per month to Bang Digital Media, a company that includes members of the church, is that they were the best people for the job, according to Bang's CEO. Critics of the church aren't so sure. Megan reports. (Denverite)
Swingers and squirrels:
The owners of the Scarlet Ranch Lodge for swingers -- which also has been home to a rehab for squirrels and other wildlife -- just bought the ranch the business had been renting in Littleton for $1.7 million. (Colorado Real Estate Journal)
Denver Post:
The Post sued former ad execs who went off to form their own agency. As Greg Avery reports in an in-depth piece:
"The Post's suit claims Wicoff resigned April 9, a Sunday, via email to the newspaper's CEO and publisher, Michael “Mac” Tully. That was a day after Wicoff, Staley and Brennan met at the Post ad offices on a Saturday afternoon, April 8.
The newspaper alleges that on April 8, hundreds of Denver Post documents — including client contact documents, ad rate information and contracts — were downloaded from the newspaper’s business Google Drive account from Staley’s and Brennan’s logins."
The defendants' attorneys say there was no training on confidentiality expectations and that nothing qualified as a trade secret. (DBJ, paywall)
Also, the Post is considering moving its news and printing operations from downtown to 5990 Washington Street in Adams County, north of National Western, as Mark Harden reports. (DBJ)
