Tax Soda Less, Tax Rich People More

One of Denver’s best poke shops closed its doors suddenly last month, but a local chopped cheese food truck has rolled up in its place. Turtle Boat Colorado Poki Salads, located at 2231 S. Broadway, closed without word at the end of April. Brothers Jeremy and Darren Song opened the counter-service poke shop in 2017, and it quickly gained popularity for its heaping portions and a wide variety of ethically sourced fish, like Alamosa-raised bass and Idaho-raised trout. In October, USA Today ranked the restaurant, which served poke bowls ranging from $10 to $18, No.

A 15-year-old girl is missing after she was last seen in Colorado Springs on Wednesday, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.  Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | Two brothers reported missing in Security-Widefield return home, officials say Crime and Public Safety | 15-year-old with mental disability reported missing in Aurora Crime and Public Safety | 14-year-old girl missing from Englewood found safe Thursday Crime and Public Safety | 16-year-old boy with mental disability reported missing in Aurora found safe Crime and Public Safety | Teen with developmental disabilities reported missing in Loveland found safe Leah Black was last seen near Constitution Avenue and Marksheffel Road in Colorado Springs on Wednesday night, agency officials said in a missing person alert Thursday. Leah is Indigenous and described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 130 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing black pajama pants and a black hoodie with white Crocs. Anyone with information about her whereabouts can call 911 or Colorado Springs police at 719-444-7000. Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.

Denver International Airport officials confirmed what some hawk-eyed H2O fans had already noticed — the filter status indicators on more than 100 water bottle-filling stations across DIA don’t work. That’s because DIA shut off the indicators about a year ago. The airport’s senior maintenance official said this week that the decision was made because the indicators were throwing off maintenance cycles. The filter indicator light is disabled on a water bottle filling station on Denver International Airport’s Concourse C on May 9, 2024, in Denver.

Participation in America’s running races took a hit from the pandemic and its aftermath, but race officials say rebounding registration numbers for Colorado’s two largest road races, and others around the country, demonstrate the sport is thriving again. “It’s back,” said Andrea Dowdy, executive director of Denver Colfax Marathon, “and in a lot of cases, it seems like a resurgence.” Registration for the Colfax Marathon and its associated events — a half marathon, 10-miler, 5K and marathon relay races, all of which will be held this weekend — have surpassed 24,000.

The mother of a 22-month-old Brighton girl who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022 pleaded guilty Thursday to child abuse resulting in death and drug possession with intent to distribute. Nicole Danielle Casias, 32, pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death and drug possession with intent to distribute in a Thursday morning disposition hearing, according to court records. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | DA brings 10 new charges against Littleton bus monitor accused of beating autistic child Crime and Public Safety | Jeffco Public Schools substitute teacher arrested on child sex assault, abuse charges Crime and Public Safety | Former Poudre school paraprofessional sentenced to more than 12 years for assaulting disabled students Crime and Public Safety | Colorado paraprofessional arrested after police say video shows her beating autistic child on school bus Crime and Public Safety | Father of Brighton toddler who died from fentanyl overdose sentenced to 40 years in prison Casias was arrested in January 2022 after her daughter, Aviyana Montoya, was found unresponsive in her crib. Investigators found Aviyana ingested 10 times the amount of fentanyl needed to kill an adult and that she was in the same room while her parents used and sold drugs.

Before the pandemic, Colorado recorded some of the strongest population growth in the country, with many newcomers settling in metro Denver and up and down the northern Front Range. But the latest Census numbers, released Thursday, show 13 of the state’s largest towns and cities, defined as those with a population of 20,000 or more, have fewer people than they did on July 1, 2020.