Colorado
How Colorado’s elected officials reacted to President Donald Trump’s inauguration
When President Donald Trump was sworn in for his return to office Monday for a second term, it was a historic moment for the country — and a relatively muted one for much of Colorado’s highest profile politicians.
Some Colorado Democrats were uncharacteristically silent on the event and what Trump said from the U.S. Capitol.
Here’s a roundup of notable public comments by Colorado officials:
Gov. Jared Polis, who attended the inauguration as the chair of the National Governor’s Association, reiterated a weekend statement in an X post Monday: “The relationship between states and the federal government is critical to getting things done and delivering for Americans, and I look forward to making sure that the voice of the Governors and the states is heard in Washington D.C.”
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Republican congresswoman for eastern Colorado in the 4th Congressional District, tweeted “Daddy’s home!!” paired with Time Magazine’s recent cover illustration showing Trump back at the desk in the Oval Office. In a follow-up statement, she said Trump’s inauguration “marks the start of a new, magnificent era for America.”
“Coloradans should know that President Trump and Vice President Vance will put their interests first and I am thrilled to work with them to enact an agenda that prioritizes the 4th District’s needs,” she wrote. “We will unleash our oil & gas producers to make America energy dominant, secure our Southern border to protect our families from crime and fentanyl, and get our ranchers, farmers, and Colorado’s agriculture community the support they need to continue feeding families across our state and country.”
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat who represents the 7th Congressional District in the center of the state, quoted former President Joe Biden in her own X post: “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
“While this is far from what we wanted to see, I will still try to work with the new administration when possible,” she wrote. “However, I am also ready for the fight ahead to protect our freedoms, our democracy, and increase opportunity for working people.”
U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, the Republican newly elected to the Colorado Springs-centered 5th Congressional District, posted a photo from the Capitol and added, “Let’s make America great again!” Fellow Republican newcomer U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, from northern Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, also posted a photo from the ceremony and said he was “so honored to be a part of a historic day for our country.”
Colorado’s third newly elected Republican, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd of the Western Slope, wrote: “It was an honor to be a part of the peaceful transfer of power and to celebrate our Constitution and American democracy. Congratulations to (Trump). I am eager to work together and deliver for (the 3rd District). Republicans are ready to get to work!”
In a statement published on his website, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow — who represents Aurora — called on Trump to work with Democrats to address the cost of housing, food and gas.
“Donald Trump won the election and is our new President,” he wrote. “… I have always made it my priority to get results for Coloradans. With President Trump taking office, I will work to find common ground with President Trump to meet our country’s challenges. I’ll also not be afraid to continue speaking up on issues that matter most to Colorado.”
In a post on X, the Colorado Democratic Party wrote that Trump’s victory “was not the result that many of us worked for, and this is going to be a difficult day for many as we watch Donald Trump and his cabinet of billionaires prepare to take our country backward.”
“The many challenges facing Colorado, our country, and the world call for leadership that can rise to the moment, bridge our divides, and work toward the betterment of all,” the party wrote. “That said, we all know Trump’s track record from his first time, what he campaigned for, and we have the receipts to show how unlikely it is that regular working people will benefit from his presidency. If this is anything like last time, the rich will get richer while the rest of us struggle to get by.”
As of 2:30 p.m., the Colorado Republican Party and neither of Colorado’s U.S. senators, John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, had appeared to make any public remarks about the inauguration.
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The Farnik family lives in Raymer in Weld County and is touring the damage after severe storms struck Tuesday afternoon. That part of northeastern Colorado was hit by severe storms and at least one tornado.
CBS
“My dad starts screaming, ‘Tornado! tornado!’” said Marrek Farnik.
According to First Alert Meteorologist Joe Ruch, a destructive combination of high humidity and warm temperatures spawned tornadoes that hit near the small town of Raymer on Tuesday.
“I look up to the north and there’s a beautiful translucent rope tornado just dancing through the fields, just drifting through the north,” said Jeff Farnik.
CBS
The tornado skipped over open fields and eventually struck the family’s shed, leaving it in pieces.
“It was pretty close! A few more feet and it would have taken our roof instead of the roof of the old grainery,” said Margaret Farnik.
“This is northeast Colorado. Weird stuff happens out here between the Palmer and the Cheyenne,” said Marrek Farnik.
CBS
No one was injured in the storm, and there has been only one confirmed tornado report.
The Colorado River basin has lost 27.8m acre-feet of groundwater in the past 20 years, an amount of water nearly equivalent to the full capacity of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, a new study has found.
The research findings, based on Nasa satellite imagery from across the south-west, highlight the scale of the ongoing water crisis in the region, as both groundwater and surface water are being severely depleted.
“Groundwater is disappearing 2.4 times faster than the surface water,” said Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist at Arizona State University and the study’s senior author.
“Everyone in the US should be worried about it, because we grow a lot of food in the Colorado River basin, and that’s food that’s used all over the entire country,” he added. “These days, we’re also supporting a number of data centers and computer chip manufacturers, and these are essential to our economy.”
The Colorado River basin provides water to approximately 40 million people across seven US states, as well as to millions of acres of farmland. Most of the groundwater losses since 2003 occurred in the Lower Colorado River basin, including Arizona, Nevada and California, the study found.
The decreasing availability of surface water is easy to visualize across the west. There are the stark photographs of the dropping levels of water in Lake Powell and Lake Mead, and images of the Colorado River, whose flow has decreased approximately 20% in the past century.
But groundwater is different, Famiglietti said: “It’s invisible. It’s mysterious. The average citizen doesn’t really understand it.”
With less visibility has come less regulation: California only instituted statewide management of its groundwater in 2014, and before that, groundwater use was largely unregulated. Arizona, which has seen big groundwater decreases, still does not regulate groundwater usage in the majority of the state, Famiglietti said, which means that most property-owners can simply pump out as much groundwater as they want.
“Overpumping” is the main cause of groundwater losses over the past 20 years, he said. “There’s nothing illegal about it, it’s just unprotected.”
Most water across the west is used for agriculture, and as “large-scale industrial farming” has expanded in the south-west, and particularly in Arizona, so have the resources for farmers to dig deeper and bigger wells to extract groundwater, Famiglietti said. In Arizona, many of the new farms grow alfalfa, which is used as hay to feed cows. Data centers, though a much smaller overall factor than agriculture, also are a growing business that require water.
The new study found that the depletion of water storage in the Colorado River basin has sped up in the past decade. Since 2015, the basin has been losing freshwater at a rate three times faster than in the decade before, driven mostly by groundwater depletion in Arizona.
While the researchers are advocating for better management of groundwater supplies in the future, Famiglietti also said that the efficacy of groundwater regulations so far was still unclear.
The effects of the climate crisis, including rising average temperatures and more frequent and severe droughts, are expected to make the region’s water shortages worse in the future.
Colorado
Colorado first responders help deliver newborn, mother and baby okay after roadside delivery
Sunday was a day some Colorado firefighters and sheriff’s deputies will never forget.
South Adams County Fire
South Adams County Fire Department’s Engine 23 team responded to what they initially thought was a vehicle crash. It turned out to be a childbirth in progress.
Deputies from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office had arrived moments earlier, and when the firefighters got there, they said “they found a (deputy) holding a newborn baby, delivered moments before.”
The firefighters quickly provided care to the new mother and baby girl. They helped to cut the umbilical cord and heard the baby’s first cry.
Once the baby and mother were taken to the hospital, a physician praised the first responders for providing great care.
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