Good morning! I would say “happy Tuesday” but when one of the biggest smiles in Denver sports history is gone too soon it doesn’t seem too happy.
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (yes, those are all his names) was 7 feet and 2 inches of shot-blocking, community-building fire who became one of the Denver Nuggets’ superstars in the ’90s. Beyond the incredible achievement of powering the eighth-seeded Nuggets over the No. 1 Seattle Supersonics in the 1994 playoffs, Mutombo was a genuinely larger-than-life personality, with his famous finger wags and bon mots to the press (“Man does not fly in the House of Mutombo,” etc.) helping to reestablish Denver on the basketball map.
For that, he was practically a folk hero to all of the kids on my block growing up in Yuma, especially after one friend down the street hung up the famous (to any Colorado sports fan) life-size promo poster that towered over us.
I could wax on for ages about his charity, the generosity he shared with the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and countless other good works, but suffice it to say, he left bigger shoes to fill than just his size 22 Nikes.
We have a jam-packed newsletter to get to, so let’s lace up and hit the court, shall we?
WATER MYTHS
The West doesn’t have enough water. The East has it in abundance. The solution seems simple, right? But as KUNC’s Alex Hager reports in the third story of our water myths series, it won’t happen for three reasons — politics, engineering and money.
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WILDLIFE
As the paperwork was filed for a formal petition to delay the introduction of any more wolves to Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife was conducting an operation to capture an uncollared gray wolf pup — believed to be a fifth member of Copper Creek pack previously relocated because of livestock deaths. Jennifer Brown has more.
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ECONOMY
“Watch what they do, not what they say, because Kroger has shown lowering prices is not their business strategy. They look to raise prices on consumers by conducting price probes and by looking for ‘no-comp’ stores. After this merger, there are likely to be even more no-comp stores, especially in Colorado.”
— Attorney Arthur Biller with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office
While the FTC’s own lawsuit to block the proposed merger of Kroger (owner of King Soopers and City Market) with Albertsons (owner of Safeway) is under way, the Colorado Attorney General’s antitrust suit hit the Denver District Court. Tamara Chuang has all the highlights of the first day, including Kroger’s argument that they face more competition from Amazon and Walmart than each other.
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SOCIAL SERVICES
After two years of work, a state task force investigating the issue of kids in foster care running away from home says that the lack of any basic, extractable data about such runaways makes it hard to conduct “any meaningful analysis.” Jennifer Brown has more from the recommendations.
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PUBLIC LANDS
In front of dozens of law students in the Wittemyer Courtroom at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Utah continued its fight to reduce the authority a president has to resize national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. And as Tracy Ross reports, the results of this fight could impact newly designated national monuments in Colorado.
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ELECTION 2024
Continuing our series of guides to this year’s general election, we have stories on a statewide attempt to lock in abortion access and a push by animal activists to remove Denver’s last slaughterhouse and prevent any new ones from opening.
What do you want candidates to talk about during the 2024 election as they compete for your vote? Our survey is still open. Tell us what you think!
THE COLORADO REPORT
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BOOKS
“Epoch: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga” offers glimpses of an imagined post-AI world
Most of author Dave Jilk’s “Epoch” appears in the form of an epic poem, but this prose excerpt offers a glimpse into one aspect of an imagined post-AI world, the “pastoral” segment of humanity in which progress is frowned upon. And it reveals how the dominant AI powers deal with human outliers within that anti-intellectual template.
READ AN EXCERPT
- Interview with the author. Jilk understood from the start that this literary project wasn’t for every reader, but he felt it was a book he absolutely had to write. In a wide-ranging Q&A, he goes deep into the form and substance of this unusual approach to the advances of artificial intelligence.
You’ve made it this far in the newsletter, so here’s a little secret bonus: The Colorado Sun has new mugs! This time around, they’re lightweight enamel steel mugs that will make a great addition to your camping gear or your kitchen cabinets. We have a limited supply, so get yours while they’re hot!
Have a great day and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
— Eric & the whole staff of The Sun
Corrections & Clarifications
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