WEEK OF AUGUST 22, 2024
VOLUME 61 | ISSUE 3
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Colorado Wild cats on the November ballot counted fewer Ballot measure seeks to protect big cats from hunting, trapping start-ups this year
BY MONTE WHALEY MWHALEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Research notes sharpest decrease in new businesses since 2005 BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN
A 21.7% dip in folks filing to start a business in Colorado during the second quarter was largely attributed to the end of a program more than a year ago that reduced filing fees to $1, according to the latest quarterly data from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. “It was the sharpest decrease yearover-year in the state (that) we’ve been tracking since 2005. That’s both in percentage terms and absolute numbers,” said Brian Lewandowski, executive director of University of Colorado’s Business Research Division, which analyzed the data for the Secretary of State’s Office. New business filings reached a second-quarter high last year at 54,940. The fee returned to $50 in June 2023 and now, one year later, filings dropped to 43,029 for the quarter. That’s still above prior years, including years before the pandemic. Lewandowski called it “a normalization of activity because of that somewhat anomalous growth we experienced with that fee reduction a year ago,” he said during a recent news conference.
Cheddar the African lion keeps a watchful eye on interlopers Aug. 9 at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg. The sanctuary hosted a celebration of a November ballot issue that seeks to put a ban on sport hunting of mountain lions and other PHOTO BY MONTE WHALEY Colorado wild cats.
SEE START-UPS, P6
NORTHGLENN-THORNTONSENTINEL.COM • A PUBLICATION OF COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
NOTES ON COOPERATION
Colorado AMP aims to bring student musicians together P15
Buddy the mountain lion peers from behind a grassy knoll at the visitors looking at him through a fence at a windy corner of the 33,000-acre Wildlife Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg this week. The facility is home to over 950 animals that have been abused and locked up in basements and cages and then displayed by callous owners looking to squeeze a profit from the animal’s captivity. Buddy was part of a caged exhibit in a Des Moines, Iowa shopping mall for several years until he was rescued and taken to the Sanctuary to live out his life in peace, said founder Pat Craig. While in the mall, Buddy’s enclosure was among others that housed big cats as well as bears and more wildlife, Craig said. “It was awful, an absolute mess,” he said. “It was not a place for a wild animal like Buddy.”’ Buddy seems to appreciate his new home in the wide expanse of the sanctuary, about 25 miles east of Denver. “He can stay just around his den and enjoy the fresh air and natural environment,” Craig said. “I think he’s found his forever home here.” SEE WILD CATS, P4