Good morning, Colorado!
I’m both the perfect seat neighbor on a flight you’ll ever get or the worst. As a lot as I like asking folks questions for my job, once I’m suspended tens of hundreds of toes off the bottom, I’m, effectively, fairly standoffish. Earbuds in, eyes ahead, minimal chitchat with anybody round me. Flying, in any case, is the one time I can (largely) ignore my cellphone notifications and unapologetically take a break from actuality.
However Monday evening, as my airplane landed in Denver after a sun-filled respite in Phoenix, the lady to my left turned towards me, offered me along with her palm and requested if I wished a rock painted as a ladybug.
*Blink blink.*
I silently groaned. I didn’t desire a random rock from a random girl, a lot much less one disguised as a bug. However I additionally didn’t need to be impolite, so I plastered a smile on my face and accepted a pink ladybug from her. Again on the bottom, the reporter in me returned. I requested this blonde- and purple-haired stranger how lengthy she had been portray rocks and why she gave them away. She advised me she began a few year-and-a-half in the past, turning bizarre pebbles most of us would by no means discover into fun-size artworks. Ladybugs. Bees. Gnomes. Colorado’s state flag. She carries a lot of her stones along with her, gifting them to folks she comes throughout. Their smiles electrify her, she mentioned, and inspire her to maintain adorning rocks and doling them out.
After listening to a bit extra of her story, my smile turned to a real one. I didn’t even catch her identify (dangerous reporter!), however I did stroll away from our momentary encounter reminded how the easy heat of a complete stranger can mute the chaotic world round us, sparking a bit pleasure that usually feels tougher and tougher to search out.
And that, perhaps subsequent time I fly, I might strive speaking to somebody beside me. (OK, however not for the WHOLE flight.)
Right here’s my latest and cutest pal. Taking ideas for her identify.
Now let’s crawl our means all the way down to in the present day’s high tales, lets?
EQUITY
Federal cuts trimmed employees at Colorado’s Amache and Sand Creek Bloodbath historic websites. However advocates worry the impression may very well be felt past staffing shortages at these two websites, as they every cope with preserving the tales describing tough junctures in American historical past and will turn out to be anti-DEI targets. Kevin Simpson spoke with folks linked to each websites.
EDUCATION
Greater than 50 Colorado faculty district leaders are urging Home Speaker Julie McCluskie to plow ahead with the state’s new faculty funding formulation subsequent yr, regardless of a longtime funding miscalculation that threatens to upend the formulation. Erica Breunlin explains.
ENERGY
Dealing with questions over its price, effectivity and environmental impression, the Colorado Public Utilities Fee determined Wednesday to carry hearings on Xcel Vitality’s proposed $155 million Mountain Vitality Undertaking, Mark Jaffe experiences.
MORE NEWS
COLORADO REPORT
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Feb. 27-March 5
Month of Images. What you see is what you see in the course of the tenth annual Denver month of images, which kicks off this weekend on the Colorado Photographic Arts Middle.
Images in all types — from analogue photomaking to AI era — are exhibited in 75 gallery and occasion areas alongside the Entrance Vary, complemented by a sampling of workshops, panel talks, portfolio opinions and harder-to-classify occasions, just like the Beers and Cameras free photograph stroll, which meets at midday on Saturday at Union Station (for the beers), earlier than heading out on a strolling tour of decrease downtown (for the cameras).
A couple of extra highlights embody a portfolio stroll and ebook truthful, an expansive present of Colorado images from 1945-1995, a meals images exhibit, and an AI exhibition with accompanying panel dialogue.
Numerous costs; March 1-31; Entrance Vary
Take a second to exhale. We’ve made it to the tip of in the present day’s Sunriser — AND almost to the tip of February. We’ll see you again right here tomorrow and, collectively, start counting down the 21 days till spring.
— Erica & the entire employees of The Solar
Corrections & Clarifications
Discover one thing unsuitable? The Colorado Solar has an moral accountability to repair all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.
