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Colorado - Thu. 01/08/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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COLORADO’S PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION: ITS COVERAGE IS BROAD
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One of the first and major considerations facing the Colorado Legislature when it convenes on Jan. 14 is the renewal of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The Colorado PUC is scheduled to sunset Sept. 1, 2026, by statute. The Colorado PUC has a director and three commissioners, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate. Although many people recognize the role of the PUC in approving matters like utility rates, the Colorado PUC has broad responsibilities. It fully regulates 178 utilities and 379 transportation carriers; has partial authority over two municipal utilities; one cooperative electric utility and 276 telephone service providers that deliver connections via the internet; it also deals with the safety of a total of 1,810 transportation carriers; as well as 109 gas pipeline operations in Colorado.
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CDOT OPENS COMMENTS ON PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENTS ON I-270
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The Colorado Dept. of Transportation has opened public comment on proposed improvements to the congested Interstate 270 corridor, where heavy traffic, unreliable travel times and aging infrastructure create daily headaches for commuters and freight haulers. The department identified a preferred alternative that adds one tolled Express Lane in each direction along the six-mile stretch between Interstate 25 and Interstate 70 while keeping two general-purpose lanes and accommodating transit. The opportunity to comment on the draft environmental impact statement runs through Jan. 20, 2026.
The department scheduled three in-person public hearings and two webinars in January to present the proposal and gather feedback. All five sessions cover the same information, with in-person events at Adams City High School in Commerce City from 9 a.m. to noon on Jan. 10, and 5 to 8 p.m. Jan. 13. A webinar will take place Jan. 15 from 5 to 6 p.m. The full draft statement is online at codot.gov/projects/studies/i270study.
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COLORADO UNEMPLOYMENT RATE CONTINUES TO FALL IN NOVEMBER
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After missing data for the month of October due to the government shutdown, the Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment Wednesday reported a 3.9 percent unemployment rate in November, down from 4.1 percent in September and the high of 4.8 percent recorded in May 2025. The number of unemployed individuals in Colorado fell to 125,900, down by 8,400. Colorado’s unemployment rate has been below or at the national average over the last two decades until 2024, when the state’s unemployment rate started climbing faster than the rest of the country. That was short-lived as Colorado’s rate began to fall and the U.S. unemployment continued to climb.
The U.S. unemployment rate rose from 4.4 percent to 4.6 percent between September and November. The number of individuals employed in Colorado and participating in the state’s labor force is also dropping. Colorado’s labor force participation fell from 67.3 percent to 67 percent. It’s the state’s lowest participation rate since October 2020. The number of people with jobs in Colorado fell to 3,137,000, down by 900. The City and County of Denver had a 3.8 percent unemployment rate; Boulder’s was 3.4 percent and El Paso County was at 3.7 percent.
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QUITE A TURNAROUND: COLORADO GOES FROM INBOUND STATE TO OUTBOUND STATE
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The UniGroup Cos., parent of United Van Lines and Mayflower, has measured the ratio of inbound moves to outbound moves for states since 1977. For the vast majority of that time, Colorado was not just an "inbound" state, from 2013-17, it was a "high inbound" state, with 55 percent or more of its moves inbound. Eily Cummings, vice president of corporate communications at United Van Lines, said there was a major change last year, “2025 is the first year that Colorado has been listed as a high outbound state since 1990.” New Jersey leads the country with nearly 70 percent of its moves outbound. New York, with its larger and older population and high living expenses, had the second-highest outbound ratio at 57.8 percent. Retirees are a big part of the outbound moves in both states.
Where are the former Colorado residents headed? Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Virginia and nearby states like Kansas are where most of the moving trucks leaving Colorado are headed. About 3 in 10 Colorado movers, in either direction, cite family as the primary reason for relocating. The largest age groups moving in both directions are 65-plus, followed by 55- to 64-year-olds. Combined, they accounted for six in 10 outbound moves and about 54 percent of inbound moves.
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USPS CLOSES REGIONAL TRANSFER HUB, AFFECTING MORE THAN 700 WORKERS
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The U.S. Postal Service has terminated its contract with the company running the agency’s Denver Regional Transfer Hub. Valley View, Texas-based Alan Ritchey, Inc., a trucking and distribution company, will lay off 729 employees at the facility near the end of February and close the hub. The Denver Regional Transfer Hub, the only one of the USPS’s 18 hubs operated by a contractor, was the subject of a 2025 USPS inspector general's audit that recommended the USPS insource operations and stop working with Alan Ritchey because of lapses in mail security and evidence of mail theft observed during several site visits. In July, USPS Deputy Assistant Inspector General Mary Lloyd issued a critical report of the operations at the Denver hub, stating that it lacked sufficient security measures to keep registered mail safe and recommending that the management contract be terminated at the end of 2025.
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JEFF DAVIS, FORMER CPW HEAD, TAKES POSITION IN WYOMING GAME & FISH DEPT.
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Jeff Davis, who was forced out as director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife in November, has found a new job with the Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. Davis will become deputy director at the Wyoming department, with an announcement expected this week, according to the Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. Davis joined Colorado as the state prepared to reintroduce wolves. On Nov. 25, 2025, the Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources, which oversees CPW, announced Davis "stepped down" as a "transition" from his director position to a senior policy position under DNR Director Dan Gibbs. Sources, who pursued open-records request information, revealed Davis resigned rather than being fired. The state Joint Budget Committee has requested the Dept. of Natural Resources to address concerns it has with Davis’s departure and implementation of the wolf plan at a scheduled 9 a.m. meeting Jan. 8. The DNR has said Davis’s last day is Jan. 31. His start date in the Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. is Feb. 2.
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FREE VACCINE CLINIC IN GJ ON FRIDAY
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The flu season is in full effect in Mesa County. After having very few flu cases and hospitalizations through mid-December, with just nine flu hospitalizations through Dec. 16, by Dec. 30 that number increased to a total of 76 flu hospitalizations. The Good Samaritan Clinic will host a vaccination clinic on Friday, Jan. 9, in partnership with the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment. The state’s mobile clinic is free to anyone without insurance, and it will be stationed in the Good Samaritan Clinic parking lot, 402 Grand Ave., from 1 to 5 p.m. The clinic will offer immunizations beyond the flu: hepatitis A & B, HPV, meningitis, MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), pneumonia, polio, shingles, varicella and DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis/whooping cough).
Individuals with health insurance could receive a bill from their insurance company, a third-party biller or VaxCare after their appointment. CDPHE added that insurance companies might send a bill to collect a copay, or the cost of the vaccine if not covered by their plan. Clients should call their insurer before their appointment to verify whether VaxCare is an approved provider.
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SUMMIT COUNTY HAS A BIG SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER…A DONKEY NAMED DONKEY
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Jordan Champalou lives in Silverthorne and in June he started an Instagram account. Jordan Champalou has a pet donkey, named Donkey, actually Champalou originally stole the donkey, freeing him from what Champalou considered a lack of care. He eventually paid the owner for Donkey and moved to Summit County and decided to show Donkey off on the Instagram site, Instagram.com/theWalkingDonkey. Little did he know Donkey would become a social media star, now with over 168,000 followers on Instagram, but a true influencer as Donkey also has an official sponsor, Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply. Donkey’s page now features videos of him strolling the aisles of Murdoch’s in a truly unique influencer-based marketing tactic.
Champalou, and his “donkey mentor,” Logan Groves, a Castle Rock-based donkey owner, who showed him how to deal with a donkey, acknowledged that they are seeingla more Instagram pages featuring miniature donkeys as they become more popular as pets. However, Champalou advises against getting a donkey as a pet unless you are ready for substantial commitments of time and money, and for a long time as donkeys can live up to 50 years.
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FIND A BIT OF RURAL CHINA IN CALIFORNIA
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Chinese laborers were instrumental in building much of the West in the nineteenth century, working on the railroads, in mines, farms and towns across the West. There is little evidence of any Chinese communities in rural parts of the West, with the most visible evidence of the Chinese immigration reserved to “Chinatowns” in larger cities. The one exception is the small town of Locke, California, located in the California Delta about 50 miles south of Sacramento. Today, 110 years after its founding, Locke remains the best-preserved example of the rural Chinese settlements that once dotted Northern California, and the only one where some of the town's original descendants still live and run businesses. With its former Chinese school, boarding houses, gambling halls and men's associations now preserved as museums, Locke offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Chinese immigrants and their cultural influence on their new homeland.
Locke’s foundation came as a result of the California Swamp and Overflow Act of 1861, which opened the California Delta to farming by draining swamps and building levees. People living in the Guangdong, China (formerly Canton) region were skilled at drainage and building levees in the Pearl River Delta. The reclamation projects in California soon attracted Chinese settlements and between 1860 and 1880, Chinese workers drained and reclaimed a staggering 88,000 acres of soil in the California Delta. However, by 1872 there were laws prohibiting Chinese from owning land or securing business licenses.
One of the few areas where Chinese laborers remained and thrived was in Walnut Grove, which is about a mile south of Locke. Local businessman George Locke Jr. allowed a group of Chinese merchants and businesspeople to lease land and build homes on his property in 1912. The result was a dry goods store and saloon, a hotel and restaurant and a gambling hall followed by 45 one- and two-story wood-framed buildings between 1915 and 1917. During its heyday from the 1920s to 1940s, Locke was a thriving, culturally unique town with a population of roughly 600 people, most of whom were Chinese. The town included a Chinese-owned movie theatre, six restaurants, nine grocery stores, a hotel, boarding houses and a flour mill.
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AS THE WORLD TURNS TO THE NEW YEAR, THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
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According to Forbes, these were the top 10 richest people in the world, as of Jan. 1, 2026, at 12 a.m. ET. (The one non-U.S. citizen: France’s Bernard Arnault.)
- Elon Musk
- Larry Page
- Larry Ellison
- Jeff Bezos
- Sergey Brin
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Bernard Arnault
- Jensen Huang
- Warren Buffett
- Steve Ballmer
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SOME 2026 TRAVEL TRENDS, WITH FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
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The travel information/reservation system KAYAK released its survey results showing “What to expect for 2026 travel.” The summary was based on searches made on KAYAK in the period between April 1, 2025, and Sept. 30, 2025, for travel between Jan. 1, 2026, and Dec. 31, 2026. They were compared to searches in the corresponding period in 2024 for travel in 2025.
Overall:
- Interest in flights and hotels for travel in 2026 is up 9 percent compared to 2025
- International airfares are projected to be down 10 percent from 2025
- Domestic airfares are projected to be down 3 percent
- International hotel rates are projected to be 6 percent higher than this year
Europe, notably Eastern Europe, dominates the trending destinations, in terms of searches, for 2026, destinations with greatest increase in searches:
- Christchurch, New Zealand: +194 percent
- Prague, Czech Republic: +180 percent
- Sofia, Bulgaria: +136 percent
- Krakow, Poland: +106 percent
- Budapest, Hungary: +86 percent
- Bucharest, Romania: +80 percent
- Split, Croatia: +74 percent
- Tirana, Albania: +66 percent
- Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: +62 percent
- Castries, Saint Lucia: +51 percent
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2026 TRAVEL TRENDS, LARGEST DECLINES IN INTERNATIONAL AIRFARE
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From KAYAK’s “What to expect for 2026 travel,” largest declines in international airfare, based on economy, round-trip ticket:
- Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: -36 percent; $632
- Split, Croatia; -33 percent; $801
- Naples, Italy: -26 percent; $780
- Florence, Italy: -26 percent; $764
- Shannon, Ireland: -25 percent; $660
- Sapporo, Japan: -25 percent; $907
- Sofia, Bulgaria: -24 percent; $641
- Dubrovnik, Croatia: -24 percent; $911
- Guangzhou, China: -24 percent; $991
- Okinawa, Japan: -23 percent; $1,024
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MARKET UPDATE - 01/07/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 01/01/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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