Thornton will be able to build a critical segment of a 70-mile pipe to bring water from the Cache la Poudre River to the fast-growing suburb north of Denver, after elected leaders in Larimer County unanimously — if begrudgingly — approved a permit for the northern segment of the pipe on Wednesday night. Colorado’s sixth-largest city, with a population of nearly 160,000, has been claiming for years that without access to Poudre water shares it has owned for decades, long-planned residential growth in the city is jeopardized — including affordable housing. But a procession of county residents ha ..read more

It’s been more than five years since the Larimer County commissioners said no to Thornton burying miles of pipe in the county to transport water from the Cache la Poudre River. Now the northern Denver suburb is back in the same hearing room. And it has the same basic request: Let us move the water we own to our fast-growing and thirsty community. Larimer County’s board of commissioners will decide the fate of the 70-mile, half-billion-dollar infrastructure project as soon as Monday. As now proposed, the pipeline would follow an alignment that’s different from the one rejected in 2019. Instead ..read more

Cannabis advocates in Colorado cheered the Biden Administration’s reported move to reclassify marijuana and said the decision likely would reduce businesses’ tax burden significantly. Industry leaders cautioned that such a move — if finalized — would not resolve some major challenges facing the industry, such as limited access to banking. But they pointed to the symbolic importance of preparations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to downgrade the substance’s drug classification. A man pours cannabis into rolling papers as he prepares to roll a joint the Mile High 420 Festival in Civ ..read more

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But with the Craft Brewers Conference underway there, the results of the event’s hallmark competition, the World Beer Cup, were bound to get out. On Wednesday night, beermakers from around the globe celebrated their accolades in what’s billed as the industry’s largest and most prestigious competition. This year, World Beer Cup judges evaluated 9,300 beers from 2,060 breweries. Participation was down substantially from 10,213 beers from 2,376 breweries in 2023, possibly due to the fact the competition now happens annually instead of every other yea ..read more

Colorado’s first Buc-ee’s is nothing short of a phenomenon. On March 18, the Texas-born travel center opened one of its largest locations in the nation in Johnstown with a 74,000-square-foot convenience store, 116 gas pumps, and enough beaver nuggets to feed the entire Rocky Mountain region. Hundreds of fans attended its grand opening, some coming from other states just to bask in the red and yellow “aura,” as one fan put it, of mascot Buc-ee beaver. Even in the weeks after, cars full of visitors backed up from the gas station to the highway exit ramp, which sits in a mostly rural section of C ..read more

UPDATED April 9 at 11:33 a.m. to include interviews with the brewery owners.  Since 2011, Telluride Brewing Co. has made beer exclusively at its production facility in its namesake mountain town. But that will soon change. According to a recent announcement, the brewery plans to relocate 83% of its production to Ska Brewing Co. in Durango, citing rising operational costs including expenses associated with wastewater management. Through the partnership, the brewery’s owners hope to save money and bolster revenue without having to increase beer prices. Ska will begin brewing Telluride beers ..read more

Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems). The first time I ever used trekking poles, they felt cumbersome, clunky and, at times, downright annoying. It was February 2017 and my then-boyfriend (now husband) had convinced me to trade a day riding on the slopes in Telluride for a snowshoeing adventure. I had never snowshoed before and recall feeling like a newborn deer, shakily trying to ..read more

For the first time in more than 40 years, a congressional district in Colorado is without a voice in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1983, a seat sat vacant because Jack Swigert, a former astronaut on the Apollo 13 who was elected the previous November, died of cancer one week before taking office. This time around, it’s because Republican Ken Buck stepped down from Congress late last month — more than nine months before the end of his fifth term representing the 4th Congressional District. Congressional candidate Jack Swigert casts his vote on Nov. 2, 1982. He won the election but died ..read more

Doing good for families, the arts, the outdoors and public health is also good for Colorado’s bottom line, according to a new report that says nonprofits contributed $62 billion to the state’s annual economy and supported 262,000 jobs. The total economic impact is up significantly from the $40 billion detailed in the last report on Colorado nonprofits, released in 2019. Jobs directly and indirectly tied to nonprofit organizations employ more people than the agriculture, mining, and information industries combined, according to the analysis released Thursday by the Colorado Nonprofit Associatio ..read more

Business confidence in Colorado is surging and has turned positive for the first time in two years as concerns over inflation and recession ease, according to the Leeds Business Confidence Index from the University of Colorado Boulder. Looking ahead to the second and third quarters, the 178 panelists surveyed reported a positive outlook for the national economy, state economy, industry sales, profits, hiring plans, and capital expenditure. That hasn’t happened since mid-2022, when high inflation came to dominate the headlines. “A year ago when we were talking about this report it was pretty ne ..read more