The internet provides predators a 24/7 instruction manual for targeting your children. This week’s lead story documents the systematic grooming tactics criminals use—from targeting vulnerable teens through social media and gaming to normalizing sexual activities and maintaining control through shame and sextortion threats. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports offenders now use AI to request guides on how to groom children more efficiently. John DiGirolamo details the specific tactics parents need to recognize, including how predators offer money for increasingly explicit images, pretend to work for modeling agencies, and threaten to create fake content using AI. The article provides concrete protective measures including regular phone checks and reviewing all installed apps.
Water dominates the mountain corridor’s agenda. Buena Vista adopted conservation plans showing the town will exceed its water rights in 37 years, requiring tiered pricing and restrictions on outdoor irrigation that drives summer use to triple winter levels. Park County approved agreements with Aurora Water providing up to $150,000 to fund the county’s review of the Wild Horse Reservoir project—commissioners warned this begins “a very long process” that could reshape the upper Arkansas basin. Hot Sulphur Springs requested $3 million in Grand County open space funds to purchase 110 acres with Colorado River frontage, but a resident opposed it noting the land is designated for development with Highway 40 frontage—the only location where the town could generate retail sales tax.
Aspen’s housing study documented what mountain communities already know: households earning 300 percent of area median income ($301,800) cannot afford homes where median single-family prices hit $7.3 million. The regional assessment shows 71 percent of projected housing need falls below 130 percent of AMI—families the private market won’t serve. Chaffee County hired a Working Lands Resilience Coordinator specifically to help younger generations afford continuing family agricultural operations, acknowledging succession challenges threaten the valley’s ranching heritage.
Teller County unanimously opposed the state’s clean heat mandate requiring utilities to phase out natural gas, calling it unconstitutional government overreach that removes consumer choice. Vice Chair Eric Stone said the mandate forces utilities to meet electrification benchmarks while creating two-tiered regulation where some Coloradans can choose energy sources but others cannot. The Public Utilities Commission adopted rules demanding 41 percent emission cuts by 2035—nearly double the legislature’s original 22 percent by 2030 target—despite opposition from utilities, consumer advocates, and unions. Del Norte and Buena Vista both prohibited graywater systems, joining municipalities opting out of state authorization.
A Denver Police officer hit 102 mph fleeing a Colorado State Patrol trooper on October 24, then fled again from officers at his home that same night. Christopher Thomas remained on duty for six weeks until his December 6 arrest. He faces felony vehicular eluding creating substantial risk of bodily injury—carrying one to three years in prison. A federal jury convicted former Loveland officer Dylan Miller of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl while on duty after he removed his name tag and body camera before the attack. Miller faces life in prison on federal charges plus six additional state charges including first-degree kidnapping.
These cases raise uncomfortable questions when former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters serves nine years for election record tampering—a conviction involving no high-speed chases, no fleeing from law enforcement, and no substantial risk of bodily injury. U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak wrote Peters “without question” raises important constitutional questions about viewpoint-based sentencing, but the Younger abstention doctrine prevents federal intervention while state appeals proceed. Judge Matthew Barrett explicitly considered Peters’ refusal to recant her views as an aggravating factor, calling her “a danger to the community” specifically because releasing her would allow continued public speaking.
Colorado’s Energy & Carbon Management Commission let operators skip 8,772 production reports without penalty—the third consecutive audit finding identical failures despite promised fixes. One operator reported producing gas for four years but paid zero conservation levies. The agency’s tracking system missed 4,436 missing reports and accepted 32,391 errors without requiring corrections. ECMC made promised system changes after the 2021 audit but never trained staff to use them, blaming a 1999 database while setting implementation dates for fixes extending to December 2027.
Senator Michael Bennet leads Attorney General Phil Weiser 53-22 in the Democratic gubernatorial primary that will determine Colorado’s next governor in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2007. Both served during 18 years of Democratic governance producing systematic failures: Proposition FF running 65 percent over budget, healthcare for undocumented immigrants costing 1,600 percent more than projected, and an $850 million structural deficit. Neither raised concerns about cost projections before voters approved programs. Neither offered solutions when overruns emerged.
The Justice Department announced December 8 it’s investigating Colorado’s 21 state prisons and 12 youth facilities for constitutional violations after state courts ordered the state to fix prison healthcare three times without compliance. The investigation examines inadequate medical care, unsafe conditions, and excessive force while DOC operates at 97 percent capacity. Congress reauthorized Secure Rural Schools after a two-year lapse, providing retroactive payments for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. Fremont County receives just over $100,000 annually from the program. Senate healthcare bills failed 51-48, guaranteeing enhanced ACA subsidies expire December 31 and premiums double for 22 million Americans in January.
Plus comprehensive coverage from county and municipal meetings across the mountain corridor, St. John the Baptist’s Advent call to reform your lives, and commentary on the PUC’s regulatory fantasyland where math and physics apparently don’t apply.
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