Welcome to Friday.

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 92.

✡️ Situational awareness: Happy Rosh Hashanah to those celebrating. Shanah tovah!

Today's newsletter is 967 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Twenty-five years ago, Mark Nagel walked outside DIA and heard something he'd never heard there before: almost nothing.

• The roar of jet engines and ground vehicles vanished. All he could hear were military planes flying around Buckley.
• "It was very eerie," Nagel, now DIA's interim chief operating officer, tells Axios.

Why it matters: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks transformed DIA in mere hours — and permanently rewrote the rules for how Americans fly.

Flashback: Nagel, who's worked at DIA for 35 years, was acting security director that Tuesday while his boss was at a conference.

• He remembers thinking the day's big news would be Broncos receiver Ed McCaffrey breaking his leg during "Monday Night Football."
• Shortly before 7am, he got a call that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
• Nagel rushed to the airport, where he and the FAA's security manager began working through emergency plans as information trickled in.

What happened: The FAA issued the first nationwide ground stop in U.S. history and ordered thousands of aircraft to land.

• Around 8am, DIA closed.
• Police blocked Peña Boulevard; passengers were evacuated; and diverted aircraft piled up around the airport.
• By 2pm, the airport was "a ghost town," Nagel says.
• DIA wouldn't resume commercial flights for days.

The big picture: Americans returned to airports later that week to find the rules of flying had transformed.

• "We know everybody that works at the airport and we know everybody that's getting on an aircraft more so than we ever did before," Nagel says.

By the numbers: Nagel estimates hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in security technology at DIA over the past 25 years.

• That's allowed the airport to shift toward intelligence- and risk-based security, he says.

What we're watching: Cyberattacks, artificial intelligence and drones are among today's emerging risks. But what worries Nagel most is whatever comes next.

• "We don't know what we don't know."

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Fifteen-year-old Gabe Evans watched the carnage unfold at home in Colorado. In Wisconsin, college senior Jason Crow saw the attacks on TV — and made a life-altering choice.

Why it matters: The Sept. 11 attacks helped propel both future Colorado congressmen toward military service, shaping careers that would eventually carry them from combat zones to Capitol Hill.

• Both served in the U.S. Army and National Guard and deployed to the Middle East.

Crow, a Democrat, says 9/11 prompted him to seek active-duty service. "I was unwilling to let other people go and do my fighting for me," he said in a video out today.

• Crow's roughly four-year military career included combat tours, and he earned a Bronze Star for his service.

Evans, a Republican, joined in 2007 and served 12 years. His family's military history — including a grandfather who served in World War II — drove his decision, with memories of 9/11 weighing on him.

• He signed up while in college, reaching the rank of captain while serving abroad and specializing as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot.

Between the lines: Evans belongs to the bipartisan For Country Caucus, whose nearly 40 veteran members pledge not to campaign against one another.

• Crow, a former caucus co-chair, is no longer listed as a member and has publicly backed Evans' opponent.

Still, Evans says military service gives veterans in Congress common ground even when they disagree.

• "We all wore our country's uniform and nobody cared what your political party was," Evans tells us.

Crow strikes a similar tone, but goes a step further, questioning the legacy of wars that followed 9/11, saying the U.S. "should not be in an endless cycle of conflict."

• "I think we have to have a national conversation about it," Crow adds.

Go deeper

🍨 Tiny Rino Treat House newly opened inside Denver Central Market as an extension of the nearby Izzio Bakery, serving frozen desserts and pastries. (Westword)

🐺 State wildlife officials killed another young wolf Wednesday for preying on livestock in Grand County — the third this week, Alayna reports.

🗳️ Denver sued the Trump administration alongside three civil rights groups to block ICE agents from polling places. (Denverite)

Denver's emerging from two years of budget cuts, with no layoffs planned for 2027 — but Mayor Johnston isn't rushing to restore what was lost.

Why it matters: His proposed budget, unveiled yesterday, marks a sharp turn from last year's "cuts to the bone" just as he launches his re-election campaign.

Johnston is proposing a $1.68 billion General Fund budget, up 1% from this year, roughly matching projected revenue growth.

Yes, but: The reductions largely aren't being restored. Johnston said departments permanently restructured after last year's $200 million-plus shortfall.

What he's saying: "We're happy to not be in crisis, but we're still going to be cautious," Johnston told Axios.

The budget breakdown

The Denver Art Museum's annual Friendship Powwow brings music, dance and art from the local and regional Indigenous community tomorrow.

Why it matters: The event offers a chance to learn about and celebrate Native culture, but also marks the debut of a dance regalia set made by acclaimed Dakota and Nakoda artists.

The vibe: The grand entry featuring powwow dancers begins at 11am inside the Sie Welcome Center and Sturm Grand Pavilion.

• There'll be hands-on activities, food and vendors selling jewelry, crafts and more.

If you go: Admission's free from 10am–5pm.

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🗓️ John is OOO.

🛍️ Alayna is vintage shopping at the Trésorerie pop-up during the Highlands Farmers Market on Sunday.

🏃🏽‍♂️ Esteban is aiming for a PR at DIA's 5K on the Runway tomorrow (blame him for any early-morning delays).

Thanks to our editor, Gigi Sukin.