The $10.5 million ticket was sold at a King Soopers in Conifer, Colorado Lottery officials announced Thursday. The cash value of the prize is $5.25 million.

The winning numbers were 4, 9, 12, 22, 26 and 34, and players have a one in 3.8 million chance of winning, according to the agency.

Coloradans spent more than $800 million on lottery tickets last year, with the revenue going toward cash prizes and , including parks, open spaces and youth programs.

Previous big-ticket winners have included a $3.3 million ticket sold in Broomfield in February and a “Lucky for Life” ticket sold in Lafayette worth $5.75 million in December.

Re: “Aurora police need more training,” Aug. 9 editorial.

As a former police officer, police chief, and a mediator for the U.S. Department of Justice, I have found that no other event raises the public consciousness as the police use of fatal force. This awareness is exacerbated when the person against whom fatal force is applied is an African American, Hispanic or other minority person.

The Denver Post editorial calls for more training and a public reckoning. In my experience, training is only one factor. Community trust is critical and must be developed over time through an open and honest relationship with the community that is served. The editorial mentions that the department culture must be changed. This is a key factor and originates with the attitude of the chief.

If the police chief stresses conduct that respects the sanctity of human life and follows up with close administrative review, the officers will respond accordingly. If the public believes that fatal force is used indiscriminately, then that trust cannot be achieved. The department’s mission statement should clearly state and emulate the respect for safeguarding human lives, police officers included. The Aurora Police Department’s mission statement, as indicated on its website, is: “To make Aurora safer every day.”

This would be a good step forward, create a mission and values statement which emphasizes the value of every human life and echoes the police code of ethics: “As a law enforcement officer my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the constitutional rights of all men(persons) to liberty, equality and justice.” Police training should start with and include the mission statement and the values of the department.

Philip Arreola, Denver

Ask yourself in November if it really belongs in the Constitution

Re: “Fall Ballot Chock-Full,” Aug. 9 news story.

I was disturbed to read that as many as 10 of the citizen-led initiatives headed for our November ballot are constitutional amendments. When approached to add my signature to one of these, my response has been that the state Constitution is becoming a junk drawer stuffed with issues of the moment.

Some clearly collide – a proposed amendment to shift Colorado income tax from its flat rate to a graduated rate where high earners pay more, faces off against another amendment that would cap the state’s income tax.

Then there’s the “right to hunt and fish,” purporting to be a method for managing wildlife – which, let����ap be honest, it is not. Letting individuals decide how many fish or game animals they can kill is the opposite of wildlife management. This free-for-all disregards impacts on wildlife from climate change, habitat loss due to human encroachment, and the big picture of herd health and land carrying capacity. This is also a “solution” in search of a problem, and as a Coloradan, I already have a right to hunt and fish.

A right to use natural gas for cooking and heating? Does this really belong in the Constitution?

When you get your ballot, review these citizen referenda carefully and if they involve amending our Constitution, vote No.

Nancy B. Weil, Denver

Hunters can’t manage wildlife populations alone

I fully support the spirit of the Colorado Right to Hunt and Fish Initiative, but I take issue with proposing harvest regulations as the preferred population management method. Hunting is one tool in the wildlife manager’s kit and is not nearly as effective as might be expected.

As an ecologist who has primarily studied white-tailed deer, I have seen legitimate challenges to the assumption that hunting controls deer populations. There are simply too many other factors involved for hunting to play a primary role in population regulation. Even intense, targeted hunting has a very limited impact.

It is fruitless and possibly counterproductive to assign first-line responsibility to an activity that demonstrably cannot achieve desired results. But the wording of this amendment would prioritize hunting and fishing regulations as the preeminent tool for population management. This is a mistake.

If populations are low due to poor habitat quality, would hunters want the state to be forced to first try lowering bag limits and shortening seasons to reduce harvest and let more deer live to the next season? Of course not. Any sensible person would prefer to see effective habitat management begin immediately as the first step in recovery. Overabundant populations may be reduced somewhat by increased harvest, but even those results are typically small and transitory.

Let our wildlife professionals be free to choose their most effective strategies to provide sound, effective wildlife management benefiting the wildlife resource and the public (including hunters and fishermen!) seeking to enjoy it.

Phillip D. Jones, Grand Junction

Don’t make immigrants fear police

Don’t be fooled by Initiative 95, which is on the ballot in November. Initiative 95 will not make Colorado safer. This amendment would alter our constitution to require local law enforcement to collect and share information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concerning any immigrant who is arrested for a felony or violent crime.

Immigrants in our communities are less likely to report a crime if they live in fear of local law enforcement. Immigrants historically have similar or lower crime rates as citizens. In fact, studies indicate that communities with high rates of immigrants are safer. Also, any person in America is innocent until proven guilty.

Of note, the League of Women Voters is against this initiative. They state, “a person charged with a violent crime is not necessarily guilty.” They also note that racial profiling could be used to locate immigrants charged with a crime.

Do not be taken in by the fear-mongering language of Initiative 95. What makes us safe and what makes us better is our humanity, our understanding that immigrants are people and that all of us are created equal.

 Bill J Fyfe, Denver

Did voters know what they were signing?

Re: “Colorado voters are being tricked into signing billionaire-backed petitions,” August 2 commentary.

When I saw petitioners outside our local King Soopers, I assumed they were collecting signatures for a good cause — why else would the store allow it?

Friends later told me the petition was for “voter ID.” Next time, I told the circulator that Colorado already requires some form of identification for in-person voting and verifies every mail ballot by signature. There is no documented fraud to justify changing the law.

He replied: “Tell that to Georgia.” That struck a nerve. Georgia’s 2020 fraud claims were investigated and repeatedly disproven, so hearing this from him felt like a tell about this petition’s purpose.

So I wondered who funded this ballot measure. The answer: Advance Colorado, a 501(c)(4) “dark money” nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors. The circulator is paid, not a volunteer. At their table, you could also find #95 (immigration reporting), #232 (locks in the current flat tax, blocking a graduated system), and #251/252/256 (blocking Colorado’s redistricting response). Voters needed to know what they were signing!

King Soopers isn’t endorsing anything — the sidewalk outside is a public forum. But voters deserve to know who’s funding what before they sign.

I support secure elections. I also support knowing who’s asking for my signature, and why.

Lorraine O’Hara, Thornton

Decades-old trope from Marx supporter was antisemitism

Re: “Victor Marx and Melat Kiros are horrible candidates but probably not antisemitic,” Aug. 9 opinion.

Sean Pond, Republican Montrose County commissioner, posted an antisemitic poster of Democratic Governor candidate Phil Weiser wearing the horns of a devil, and Krista Kafer passes it off as an “artless effort” by a Victor Marx supporter. She further instructs us that there’s “no point getting exercised by it.”

These comments come after reporter Kyle Clark had pointed out that it is a well-documented, centuries-old, ugly, antisemitic trope that’s been used to demonize Jews around the world, thus justifying violence against them, and Kafer still contends it was harmless?

Pond claimed he didn’t know that Weiser was Jewish. Does that imply he wouldn’t have done it had he known? Therefore, he knew the demeaning and dangerous nature of that image; we can’t know for certain.

But what I do know is we owe it to each other, to society, to any group that’s been marginalized or threatened, to educate ourselves and call out hate whenever we see it and demand that any image of it be taken down. When we know better, we must do better. That goes double for anyone who has a public forum.

Lynne Popkowski, Littleton

America’s tax system perpetuates inequality

Income inequality and affordability are real-life issues for at least half the country. Yet our income tax system rewards the wealthy and high earners, including large corporations, with generous loopholes and write-offs. This is the opposite of what is needed. Flip it upside down and give income tax write-offs to the lower half of earners (or thereabouts) for health insurance, childcare, rent or mortgage interest. Eliminate loopholes, gimmicks and write-offs for (as an example) those whose annual gross is $400k as individuals, $600k as a couple. Eliminate the same for large corporations and give the break to small businesses.

You would see the economy rapidly take off and the social safety net enhanced without creating another bureaucracy or agency to do oversight. No need to raise income tax rates either.

John W. Thomas, Fort Collins

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

A King Soopers in Castle Pines sold the winning $500,000 Powerball Double Play ticket, Colorado Lottery officials said Tuesday. The lucky numbers 4, 23, 31, 32, 57 and Powerball 23 were drawn Monday.

Double Play is a separate drawing from the main Powerball drawing. For an extra $1, players have another chance at matching their numbers in a second drawing, according to the state.

Players can win up to $10 million on Double Play, and the odds of winning the $500,000 prize for matching 5 numbers is roughly 1 in 11.7 million.

The overall and will be the eighth-largest prize in Powerball history. The . The largest Powerball jackpot was $2 billion in 2022.

 fund programs for parks, wildlife and school construction.

Native Roots, one of Colorado’s foundational marijuana companies, will shut down its indoor grow facility at 4990 Dahlia St. and permanently lay off 141 workers, according to a notice filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

The closure will happen on Oct. 2, Jon Boord, CEO of owner NR ParentCo LLC, informed the state in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) letter.

80 Acres Farms, based in Ohio, also filed a WARN letter stating it would lay off 60 workers at its vertical farm at 18000 E. 40th Ave. in Aurora.

Kroger was an investor in and vendor of that company, which supplied microgreens, lettuce, fresh herbs and prepackaged salad kits to King Soopers, Whole Foods and Sprouts locations in the state.

The decision to close came suddenly after a pending sale fell apart at the last minute.

“Without the anticipated transaction proceeds and with no other funding available to sustain operations, the Company was required to make the immediate decision to wind down its business,” co-founders Mike Zelkind and Tisha Livingston said in their WARN letter.

80 Acres established a foothold in Aurora in early 2025 with the purchase of a 90,000-square-foot vertical farm from Kalera, a food tech startup out of Florida that built the facility in 2022 and went bankrupt the following year.

Although 80 Acres purchased the vertical farm at a steep discount and claimed it could grow crops using 95% less water than outdoor methods, high electricity prices proved the company’s undoing.

In the case of Native Roots, the decision to close its growhouse represents the latest in a string of closures caused by a glutted wholesale cannabis market.

Other closures have included The Cannabist Co., PharmaCann, Green Dragon and Terrapin Care Station.

Boord agreed to sell the , retaining a handful of retail locations and the growhouse.

“We believe this transaction represents a constructive outcome for the company and its retail employees and provides a clear path forward for the business,” Boord said in a statement announcing the sale in March.

Verdant’s Native Roots locations are not part of the growhouse closure.

A collapse in wholesale prices, even as retail sales in the state have continued to increase over time, has crushed indoor producers, who face higher operating costs than outdoor producers.

Wholesale flower prices have fallen from $1,700 a pound during a pandemic peak to an average of $575 a pound, .

High-efficiency greenhouses and outdoor operations are producing marijuana at a much lower cost than traditional indoor facilities, which must cope with higher electricity and labor costs.

Producers in Colorado are also prohibited by federal law from exporting their surplus product to other states that have recently legalized and are facing supply shortages.

Jessica Trowbridge, a spokesperson for King Soopers and City Market, said last week that the company has identified a buyer for the vacant property at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. and is working through the details of the sale.

The company did not name the buyer or provide additional details.

In June, BusinessDen reported that Denver-based Kentro Group was looking to buy the site, and after pushback from neighbors, had agreed not to seek rezoning, which would have allowed a taller building.

Kentro Group, alongside San Antonio-based Embrey and its development team, has made another proposal to redevelop the 7-acre center at the southwest corner of East Exposition Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

Norris Design, a Denver-based architecture and planning firm, submitted a formal site development plan letter in May on behalf of Embrey, detailing plans for a four-story, wrap-style apartment building with 347 residential units on approximately 5 acres.

The multifamily property will feature studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

In accordance with the city’s affordable housing requirements, the letter also said 10% (35 units) of the project����ap residential units will be leased at 60% of the Area Median Income. The affordable units include three studio units, 19 one-bedroom units, 12 two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit.

Although plans with a buyer appear to be moving forward, the project still faces additional steps before advancing. As of Monday afternoon, the Denver Permitting and Licensing Center’s online portal listed the project����ap formal site development plan record status as “resubmittal required,” while the overall project is “in progress.”

Alexandra Foster, communications director for the city’s Community Planning and Development department, said on Monday that the department is awaiting a resubmittal of the site development plan for the multifamily project after completing its initial review.

“We are actively advancing the project through the city’s review and permitting process, including responding to the comments received on our site development plan. We remain fully committed to the project,” Casey Klein, vice president of development at Embrey, said in an email statement to The Post on Friday.

The former King Soopers grocery store served the community for more than 50 years before closing in June and relocating to a new $37 million store at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave.

The new location, developed by the Kentro Group, is about a mile south of the shopping center in Denver’s Virginia Village neighborhood.

Other plans at the center include Dardano’s interest in redeveloping a 1.35-acre site at 865 S. Colorado Blvd. for a new shoe store. The property, which sits adjacent to the former King Soopers, is currently occupied by a vacant liquor store building.

Documents submitted to the city in May by G3 Architecture Inc. on behalf of Dardano’s said the proposed project involves demolishing the existing 8,884-square-foot liquor store building and replacing it with a new 14,910-square-foot, single-story, single-tenant building featuring a 3,124-square-foot mezzanine.

The proposed building would be 18,034 square feet, with 57 parking spaces on-site, and along E. Ohio Ave.

Foster said the department is awaiting a formal site development plan application submittal following the proposed Dardano’s store’s release from concept review.

Representatives from the shoe retailer did not respond to several requests for comment regarding project details.

This is a developing story and may be updated.��

Tell us what you think about this story

There are several varieties, but all Olathe (pronounced o-lay-thuh) corn is grown near Montrose in the Uncompahgre Valley. Like Palisade peaches, the crop thrives on the vacillating temperatures of hot days and cool nights.

In the past, corn lovers have grabbed it as fast as they could find it at farmers markets, King Soopers and a few other grocery stores. But this summer, there’s a bit of a catch: The Olathe harvest will be significantly smaller than normal.

The low snowpack has exacerbated an already taxing drought, and less water means fewer crops. Couple that with an influx of devastating pests, increased labor costs and outsized demand for product. As a result, some of the major growers — there are about 15 total — have downsized their operations. That includes one of the largest, the Tuxedo Corn Company.

This year, the Tuxedo Corn Company planted fewer than 200 acres of Olathe Sweet, down from 1,000 acres last summer and 1,600 acres in previous years. And instead of sending its corn to Kroger grocery stores, the company is moving to a direct-to-consumer model. A decidedly old-school approach, Tuxedo will sell pre-packed boxes of Olathe Sweet — a name that Tuxedo founder John Harold trademarked — from the back of refrigerated trucks along the Interstate 25 corridor from Wyoming to Albuquerque.

In order to keep pace with modern demand, the company will take pre-orders on its website , as well as bring additional corn to sell to impromptu buyers. (Two dozen freshly harvested ears will run you about $30 off the truck.) Two trucks will visit 46 towns in three states over eight weeks between July 22 and early September.

John Harold’s son David, who joined the operation in the 2000s, calls it the “truck tour,” and said it harkens back to the corn trucks of his youth when he, his brothers and their friends picked corn in the early morning, loaded the bounty into the back of a pickup, shoveled ice on top, and drove to Montrose to sell until the ears were gone. Tuxedo was founded in 1986.

“I dug up some cassette tapes of my dad talking about Olathe Sweet as it was getting popular. The focus has always been on outstanding corn, iced down, delivered super fresh, and we’re still committed to that,” David Harold said.

But it����ap not nostalgia that����ap driving this change, it����ap the need to downshift, take stock and return to a system that focuses on quality rather than quantity.

“It����ap about great farming practices, soil health, human health, our workers, and telling our story. We want to give consumers that clarity and the opportunity to support our brand,” David Harold said.

“It����ap also extremely risky. Are we going to sell 10 or 1,000 boxes a stop? We don’t know,” he added.

Despite the risk, Dawn Thilmany, professor of agricultural and resource economics at Colorado State University, said she’s thrilled to see Tuxedo trying the direct-to-market model.

“It shows a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. That����ap how they get the whole dollar part, but it comes with a lot of work. And that����ap not trivial,” she said.

“I think that����ap the reason they’re doing it — peach stands have been doing it forever. But peaches can sit a few days after harvest and still be high quality. Anyone who knows sweet corn knows that it����ap best within 24 hours. The problem is that all the people are here and their farm is over there,” she added.

Nevertheless, while the economic impact of a smaller crop may be small for Colorado as a whole, “it will be noticed in the town of Olathe and the communities that have farms, workers, and even a festival” based on the region’s reputation, Thilmany said. “In rural communities with smaller economies, even a 25% decline in harvest and sales can have a substantial impact.”

Reid Fishering, owner and president of 40-year-old Mountain Quality Farms, a collective of nine family farms growing Olathe sweet corn, has also decreased production this year. In total, he said his members planted about 50% fewer acres for a total of just 675. That said, because of the co-op model, Mountain Quality plans to supply its regular customers while also filling the Kroger gap left by Tuxedo.

“Kroger approached me to see what we can do,” Fishering said. “We can cover the Colorado market. I didn’t want to see us lose that.” (Mountain Quality will supply the Denver distribution center for King Soopers and City Market.)

In addition to less sweet corn on the market, the harvest will likely be significantly shorter, too. As Fishering explains it, the Western Slope’s irrigated water will likely be cut off on Sept. 1 instead of the end of October.

“(Our season has) been going until the end of September the past couple of years. But with the water, I’m barely going to be able to cover Labor Day — and it����ap paramount that we cover that holiday,” he said.

While recognizing that minimal water is creating additional struggle, Thilmany of CSU is heartened that the water that is available is going to high-value crops. “What I would love to highlight is that where we are still able to apply water in agriculture, we should encourage producers to use it on crops with a high value-per-acre like sweet corn, which currently creates revenues far greater than feed corn. Plus, we want economic activity that stays localized.

“In addition to sweet corn, we also see that localized impact be higher with fruit trees, as well as the wonderful Pueblo chiles and melons that will come in later this summer,” she continued. “That����ap the highest chance at capturing the most local economic activity with the water we keep in agriculture.”

Kroger said Wednesday it plans to buy regional grocer and pharmacy retailer Giant Eagle in a deal valued at $1.65 billion.

Giant Eagle, which is privately held, has 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. They would continue to operate under the Giant Eagle name under the terms of the deal.

Kroger, which is the largest U.S. supermarket chain, has 2,685 stores in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Its stores operate under various brand names, including King Soopers and City Market in Colorado, as well as Ralphs, Smith’s and Fred Meyer.

The transaction includes $1.25 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $400 million in outstanding liabilities, the companies said Wednesday.

“Giant Eagle is a well-run, high-quality regional grocer with a strong reputation for fresh products, pharmacy, private label and customer loyalty,” Kroger CEO Greg Foran said in a statement. “We evaluated the opportunity carefully and the strategic fit is clear.”

, a former Walmart executive, was named Kroger’s CEO in February.

Kroger and other traditional grocers have been squeezed in recent years as consumers do more of their food shopping at big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon and discount chains like Aldi.

In 2022, Kroger announced a with rival Albertsons, arguing that a larger chain would be better able to compete against rivals. But the Federal Trade Commission and two states — Washington and — sued to block the merger in 2024, saying it would raise prices and lower workers’ wages by eliminating competition. The proposed merger was scrapped in late 2024 after judges overseeing two separate cases .

Burt Flickinger, a longtime grocery industry analyst and managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a market research company, called Kroger’s acquisition of Giant Eagle “a master stroke” that gives Kroger a gateway to the mid-Atlantic, the Northeast and New England.

“There should be no antitrust concerns because Kroger consistently lowers prices when it makes acquisitions,” Flickinger said.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close next year. Kroger and Giant Eagle said they anticipate having to divest a limited number of Giant Eagle stores in order to receive the necessary regulatory clearance.

Kroger’s shares were flat in afternoon trading Wednesday.

Phil Weiser, elected as the state’s top attorney in 2018 and now term-limited, has had much of his tenure dominated by legal fights with the Trump administration.

In the one-on-one Democratic primary for Colorado governor on June 30, his appeal to voters against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is that he offers comparatively new blood, along with legal pugnacity in the Trump 2.0 era. He has sued or joined lawsuits against President Donald Trump’s administration since early 2025, claiming wins or favorable rulings of some kind in 37 of those cases and losses in eight. The rest are awaiting rulings.

Weiser, 58, first won public office as part of the 2018 blue wave that landed Democrats in all of Colorado’s top offices. Before his election, Weiser served in the Clinton and Obama administrations and as the dean of the University of Colorado Law School.

Weiser launched his campaign in early January 2025, just before Trump was sworn in for a second term, and before any other prominent Democrats tossed their hats in the ring. Affordability, housing shortages, climate change and the youth mental health crisis dominated his out-of-the-gate message.

Politicos have long joked that AG stands as much for “” as attorney general. For Weiser, himself restricted from running for the same post again and seeing fellow Democrats sitting in U.S. House or Senate seats that he might otherwise consider, the governor’s office was an obvious next move.

At a fall event, Weiser said Colorado was at an inflection point. It must both protect its values from “the craziness in Washington,” he said, and forge its own path forward.

“There is lower trust in our institutions right now (and) less ability to create solutions to get things done,” Weiser said. “… We have to find a way to meet this moment, create a similar can-do spirit — where we’re going to try a bunch of different things. Not all of it is going to work, but we’re going to try something.”

Weiser’s record as the state’s top attorney quickly swayed former Gov. Roy Romer, who led Colorado from 1987 to 1999, to believe in his higher aspirations.

“Phil, I’ve watched for years. He’s a good man,” Romer said, “and I just think he’ll make a great governor. Bennet, he’s my senator — and I hope he stays my senator.”

‘This campaign comes down to a choice’

That sentiment — Bennet for Senate, and Weiser for governor — has been catchy enough among the attorney general’s supporters to make it .

“This campaign comes down to a choice,” Weiser said during a May debate co-sponsored by The Denver Post. “The candidate of Colorado or the candidate who is from the Washington, D.C. establishment.”

Weiser, who grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., has spent much of his career bouncing between Colorado and Washington, D.C.

After graduating from New York University’s law school in 1994, Weiser worked as a clerk for 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge David Ebel in Denver. He headed back east to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg later in the decade, and he returned to Colorado in 1999 to join the faculty at the University of Colorado Law School.

He moved east again to work in the Obama administration, and he returned for a final time to serve as dean of the CU law school.��

A quick look at the Colorado governor candidates running in this month’s Democratic, Republican primaries

When Weiser turned to elected office eight years ago, he faced a tough Democratic primary. He edged out state Rep. Joe Salazar by fewer than 5,000 votes to win the nomination. His two general election wins, in 2018 and 2022, were less dramatic affairs amid Colorado’s overall political shift leftward. He won in 2018 by more than 6 percentage points and in 2022 by more than 10.

As a gubernatorial candidate, Weiser has set goals of halving the state's housing shortage and banning algorithmic rent setting by large corporations -- a measure vetoed by outgoing Gov. Jared Polis in 2025. He also wants to "Trump-Proof" Colorado and launch a "ColoradoCorps" service program for 18- to 26-year-olds looking at careers in firefighting, law enforcement, education and more.

Former U.S. Rep. David Skaggs, who represented a Colorado district from 1987 to 1999, crossed paths with Weiser at the CU law school after he left Congress. He was “struck from the get-go about how razor sharp his mind is, what a good lawyer he is and what an agreeable fellow he is,” Skaggs said.

But now, he points to Weiser’s willingness to “take on the Trump administration, both Trump 1 and Trump 2, and really fight for important values and legal principles.”

Weiser has been in the thick of state government for more than seven years now, and there’s no better preparation for managing it as governor than spending the better part of a decade lawyering for it, Skaggs said.

Former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, in an interview last fall, hailed Weiser as “a tremendous attorney general” and “one of the smartest people I know.” But he has backed Bennet in the gubernatorial primary, arguing Bennet has a broader base of experience, including his time working in local government as chief of staff to then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Hancock said such experience gave Bennet a deeper understanding of issues like local control and how to bring local governments along -- without wielding a stick, like recent zoning battles with the state have entailed.

"Mike will have a better understanding of those issues," Hancock said. "He knows the responsibility of local governments, particularly city councils, and how to negotiate and work those things through. I think he'll be a little more collaborative in that sense because of that knowledge."

Weiser's work as attorney general

Weiser argues his work as attorney general has prepared him to be governor.

While his tenure has turned on legal fights with both Trump administrations, he’s also overseen the distribution of tens of millions of dollars from settlements during the opioid crisis. He challenged the merger of the Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains -- the parent companies, respectively, of King Soopers and Safeway -- which was called off after judges blocked it. He's backed consumer protection litigation, and his office has been front and center in negotiations over the Colorado River, the lifeblood of the state and the broader West.

Weiser has campaigned as a bit of an underdog to the better-known Bennet, hoping he has a fighter's chance as people pay more attention to the race.

At a northern Denver union hall in January, Weiser invoked his lawsuits against Trump during a forum with Bennet, who has downplayed many of the legal actions as simply Weiser joining other states' lawsuits.

“As your attorney general, I have sued this administration again and again and again,” Weiser said. “And we’re winning again and again and again. And if some people said lawsuits don’t matter -- hypothetically, maybe even in the last couple hours -- I gotta tell you, for transgender Coloradans, they matter,” he added, referring to a recent freeze on gender-affirming care for young people by the Trump administration.

Staff writer Seth Klamann contributed to this story.

The division of Cincinnati-based Kroger closed its store at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood at the end of the day on Tuesday. The store had operated for more than 50 years.

King Soopers debuts a new $37 million store at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave. in the Virginia Village neighborhood on Wednesday. It����ap about a mile south of the Belcaro store.

The new store was developed by Denver-based Kentro Group, which broke ground on it in early 2025. The site was formerly the headquarters of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Kentro is poised to purchase the Belcaro site that King Soopers has vacated. The development firm already agreed, after pushback from neighbors, not to seek to rezone it.

The site is 7 acres. San Antonio, Texas-based Embrey wants to build a 4-story, 347-unit apartment complex on 5 of those acres, replacing the strip mall where King Soopers operated, according to plans submitted to Denver.

Dardano’s, a shoe store, is eyeing an adjacent 1.3-acre lot, where a vacant liquor store building sits. Last month, an architecture firm representing the company said it was considering demolishing the existing building and building a 15,000-square-foot one.

Dardano’s has two stores, in Denver and in Broomfield. Its Denver store is a mile south at 1550 S. Colorado Blvd. An executive didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“Everyone’s working to get it done, but there’s still uncertainty,” Kentro co-founder Jimmy Balafas said of the development deals.

“You will see a significant reduction in the time fresh food is sitting on the trailer before it actually gets to a store, and it also gives us a lot more flexibility when you think about weather,” said Amy Probst, a senior vice president with Target.

Palisade peaches that might have been shipped from Grand Junction to a distribution facility in Denton, Texas, only to make the trip back to the Front Range, now can come straight down Interstate 70.

And the facility, beyond serving an 11-state region, will be a central transfer point where vendors can bring their products to one location rather than having to drop them off at multiple warehouses.

The facility contains more than half a million square feet of refrigerated space and will employ 380 warmly dressed workers, including 37 holding salaried positions.

Wages for the hourly positions will range from $15 to $24, Probst said. The facility will run around the clock, with most workers on four 10-hour shifts, with three days off.

Target employs 9,300 people across 45 stores in Colorado, as well as at a dry goods distribution facility in Pueblo and a sorting center in Denver. Employees at other locations are being offered the chance to work in Thornton.

The company has hired employees from careers outside distribution, said Juan Armendariz, who joined the company in February.

Target takes the time to bring its workers up to speed and has a focus on safety, he added. But the work isn’t for everyone.

“You have to like cold,” he said.

Most of the facility is kept at a constant 34 degrees , which is balmy compared to the minus 15 that those working in the freezer section must endure.

A focus on healthier options

Although both got their start as general merchandisers, Target has lagged Walmart in appreciating the power groceries have to drive store traffic and sales.

Walmart now accounts for just under a fifth of U.S. grocery sales, followed by Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers, and Costco, with about 10% each.

Albertsons, which operates in the state as Safeway, and Ahold Delhaize USA, owner of Food Lion and Giant, round out the top five grocery providers.

Target falls into the bracket of the next five largest grocery retailers, but it historically has been treated as a “fill-in” rather than a “stock up” source of food.��“Fill-in,” as in grabbing a gallon of milk while shopping for school supplies after remembering the jug at home is running low.

Until recently, the company relied on third-party vendors to distribute its fresh food offerings, which increased supply costs by adding middlemen.

Walmart, by contrast, built a “hub and spoke” distribution model for refrigerated goods and mastered the art of moving items with a short shelf-life.��Its efficiency allowed it to beat larger grocery-dedicated chains in price and, over time, surpass them in sales.

Playing catch-up, Target has built three new distribution hubs in the past four years to replace the capacity third-party partners previously provided.

Thornton represents its fourth and largest facility in square footage, and it has enough room to allow for an expansion in the products that can be carried, Probst said.

The new center will allow Target to offer its customers a greater variety of products, improve freshness and carry healthier options, she said.

Target has overhauled its food and beverage lineup to include more health and wellness items, like premium protein and meat products and products that promote improved gut health.

The “mass wellness” strategy, as some analysts describe it, also emphasizes “clean” ingredients. In late February, the  from its cereal line by May.

“Certified” refers to FDA-inspected synthetic colors, typically derived from petroleum sources, such as Blue No. 1 and No. 2, Red No. 3 and No. 40 and Yellow No.5 and Yellow No. 6.

“We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and we’re moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs,” said Cara Sylvester, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at Target, in a release in February.

The company has reformulated its in-house Good & Gather brand to reduce artificial colors and sugar content. And to keep in the retailer’s good graces, national suppliers have reformulated their cereals and other products.

WK Kellogg Co., for example, is providing Target with an exclusive Wild Berry version of Froot Loops made without certified synthetic colors.

And the retailer plans to carry more exclusive boutique brands, like Boulder-based Purely Elizabeth, which will provide a Protein Granola, and new offerings from Lovebird out of Minneapolis.

Target is known for its mass-market prestige or “masstige” lines in clothing and home decor, such as its partnership with Missoni, the Italian apparel design house, and its collaboration first with Michael Graves and then Studio McGee for household goods.

“We’re just seeing a lot more celebrity and design intention within our food and beverage. That’s a fun element, and we are seeing a lot of growth there,” said Ashley Lowes, a spokeswoman for the company.

Top Banana

But curated brands won’t ever dethrone the uncontested king atop the grocery store food pyramid — the common banana.

Highlighting its importance, the tropical fruit receives special accommodations at the new food distribution center with 12 dedicated rooms, said Sean Walker, quality manager at the new facility.

Bananas, as they are at most grocery stores, are the top-selling item at Target, surpassing other staples like milk, eggs and bottled water in popularity.

In contrast to more seasonal fruits, they remain available and popular year-round. But that requires providing special ripening rooms where they can bathe in ethylene after arriving in the U.S.

Bananas release the gas naturally during ripening as complex starches turn into simple sugars, and the green chlorophyll in the peel softens.

But soft bananas don’t travel well. It takes about six to eight days for a newly arrived and green banana to get the proper yellow tan required to head to market, under the watchful eye of a ripening system powered with artificial intelligence.

Ten of the rooms are “single” rooms that can accommodate 21 pallets at a time, and two of the rooms are double rooms. Each pallet carries a ton of bananas.

If all the rooms were at capacity, the Thornton facility could host about 1.5 million or more bananas at any given time.

A strong Colorado connection

Target’s first location opened in 1962 in a suburb of St. Paul, and when the retailer expanded outside of Minnesota in 1966, it didn’t head to neighboring Wisconsin or Iowa.

Instead, Colorado received two stores, and six decades later, the one launched in Glendale remains one of the company’s most active.

Colorado has one of the highest concentrations of Super Target stores, which have expanded food and beverage sections. And the company’s focus on wellness plays well in a state that was at the center of the health food movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

The food distribution center represents an investment of more than $300 million, a significant chunk of the $5 billion in capital spending Target plans to make this year.

It will serve 130 stores in a region stretching from Salt Lake City to Kansas City, Mo., and from the Dakotas down to Texas.

“This gives us the added capacity to really continue to accelerate growth in food and beverage,” Probst said.

Colorado should see additional Super Target stores opening in the years ahead, part of the ongoing investment the company is making.

And existing stores in the state should see fresher food compared to the previous system that brought food in from Denton, Texas, and Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Regional suppliers also should benefit. Several consolidation docks between the inbound and outbound sides of the building will handle vendor shipments.

After arriving, those items will be transferred immediately into other outbound trucks, along with other incoming deliveries, and sent out to other warehouses.

The setup is designed to reduce the number of stops and miles that vendors have to complete to reach the various distribution facilities. And the trucking firms that Target contracts with can operate with fuller loads.

But it will also mean a lot more trucks on the road in Thornton.

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann, who attended the center’s opening ceremony along with several Thornton City Council members on May 20, said the area is commercial with no residential nearby.

Food processors operate in the area, and the hope is that the distribution center will drive more of them to locate there.

As to truck traffic, the center is on Washington Street, south of E-470 and east of Interstate 25.

Trucks will have easy highway access and will spend a minimal amount of time on local roads, like Washington Street, which has been expanded to handle higher freight volumes, she said.

“They have a good plan for managing it,” she said.

Target has also agreed to help the Food Bank of the Rockies and Food for Hope with its surplus product, she said.