🛫 DIA hacks for your holiday travel

🔥 What Was All That Smoke?

A massive fire that broke out at an Aurora construction site on Saturday left thick smoke lingering over Metro Denver all weekend. Authorities said the intersection at Colfax and Peoria could be closed “for days” as crews work to fully extinguish the fire and an investigation gets underway. No injuries were reported. [CPR]

🏥 A Win for Abortion Rights

Denver Health, Colorado’s largest “safety net hospital,” is now offering abortions for the first time in the hospital’s 163-year history, Axios Denver reports. The move comes a little over a year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Since then, abortions in Colorado have skyrocketed as patients from neighboring states — where the procedure is banned — flood Colorado clinics. [Axios Denver]

🛫 Better Luck This Season, Southwest

As part of a government-issued settlement, Southwest Airlines will pay a $35 million fine for an operational incident last December that resulted in 17,000 canceled flights and 2 million stranded passengers. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.1 billion in refunds and lost sales that the chaos cost the airline. [Denver Post 🔒]

🍄 Where Do You Buy Legal Mushrooms?

Psychedelic mushrooms are legal in Colorado now. But who’s allowed to buy them? And when? And where?? Denver District Attorney Beth McCann is taking a closer look at the burgeoning gray market for magic mushrooms. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

Mayor Johnston’s ‘Deception’, DA Looks at ’Shrooms, and a New Colorado Christmas Song

Colorado legalized psilocybin mushrooms in 2022, but how to purchase them remains murky. A unique co-op selling “support services” along with free ’shrooms recently popped up and it’s on District Attorney Beth McCann’s radar. Plus, Mayor Johnston’s House1000 plan gets more complicated as news outlets accuse the administration of being deceptive with the data.