🫡 Happy Tuesday! Capt. Robert says permission to stay in bed five more minutes is granted.

• Today's weather: Me, all day. Sunny. High 68.

🗳️ Robert's reading: Our 1-minute voter guides.

🤑 Situational awareness: Reader Raquel checked out the $100 bill we found while cleaning up my adopted street in Parker.

• Her bank says it's legit!

📱 Your local news, right in your feed. Stay in the know with us on Instagram and Facebook.

Today’s newsletter is 901 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Did you spot an impossibly handsome man riding an electric scooter through Meridian in an ill-fitting helmet?

• Me too. That jerk blew past me at 15 mph.

🛴 The big picture: Like him, I tried Denver South's $1-per-trip electric scooter pilot program, which debuted this month in Douglas and Arapahoe counties.

• And you can, too.

State of play: Colorado's first regional scooter corridor links previously separate Spin networks along parts of I-25 — including Meridian, Centennial and Greenwood Village.

• The fleet of 210 scooters covers roughly 8.7 square miles, connecting riders to light rail, jobs and businesses.

Denver South — a regional economic development organization — and five metro districts expect to spend roughly $500,000 through next September, hoping for 76,650 trips.

How it works: I downloaded the app and entered my information and credit card number.

• I struck out at RTD's RidgeGate Parkway Station but found a scooter near Lincoln Avenue and South Oswego Street. I scanned the QR code near the handlebars and scoot scoot.

Confession: I'd never ridden an electric scooter.

• Thank goodness for YouTube.
• I started at 10–12 mph and slowly gained confidence.

✈️ Reality check: If you've never done this, dear reader, 12 mph feels like the Concorde.

Pro tip: Plan your route using Spin's app — and scope out no-ride zones.

• Constantly stopping to check your phone gets old.

🤬 Yes, but: My scooter lost power adjacent to some parks and golf courses — where riding's off-limits — which forced unexpected pushing and four-letter words.

• Did you spot the day's second-most-handsome rider dragging a powerless scooter?
• I was a mile behind him, juice-less on a hill.

🎶 They see me rollin'...

• I eventually made it to Fiddler's Green.
• The ride back was less scary — especially crossing Lincoln.

By the numbers: 14.7 miles, 138 minutes.

• $1.05 — $1 ride, 5-cent tax.

😘 The bottom line: It took some time to regain feeling in my jostled hands, but I did it for you.

Election Day's closing in (finally) — meaning information overload is real.

• ...but not spectacular?

Let me turn that firehose into a trickle:

✅ Wrong county, who dis?

The Trump administration's Justice Department told Douglas County last week that federal election monitors were coming — then admitted the notice was sent "in error."

🧠 My thought bubble: Before the walk-back, I wondered whether the Trump administration was eyeing a potential Democratic upset in the 4th District, where U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert faces challenger Eileen Laubacher.

• The Cook Political Report just shifted the race from "Solid Republican" to "Lean Republican."

"This district, which voted for Trump by 18 points in 2026, should not be close to competitive. But GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert has left $6 million worth of attack ads unanswered..."

Even Polymarket bros are narrowing the race.

✅ Tax fight gets spicy

Amendment 87 — which would raise income taxes on Colorado's highest earners — is dividing political and business leaders, my Axios Boulder amigo Mitchell Byars says.

• DougCo's commissioners oppose it, as does Gov. Polis.

✅ Two wildcards for the road

1️⃣ Can faith help Dems?

• Some Democratic candidates are leaning into Christianity to challenge the GOP's' dominance among religious conservatives nationwide.

🧠 My thought bubble: Is Laubacher trying this? She recently released a video, saying "faith has guided" her life.

2️⃣ Will Trump's tariffs hurt Boebert?

• GOP optimism about tariffs fell from 52% in August 2025 to 40% this month, Pew Research reports.
• 🐘 Boebert defended Trump's tariffs as a "tool" during an early October debate.

⁉️ What's next: Your move, DougCo.

🥷 Castle Rock Town Council candidate Chris Phelen was caught on camera removing opponent Tiffany Coyle's campaign flyer from a voter's porch. He admitted to taking campaign materials and said he apologized to Coyle. (Denver Gazette 🔐)

🚀 DougCo commissioners OK'd up to $2.7 million in job incentives and a 35-year tax rebate for Lockheed Martin's planned $29 million Highlands Ranch expansion.

• The aerospace giant could add up to 450 jobs over four years. (Denver Gazette 🔐)

⛪️ Sedalia's Jesuit-run Sacred Heart Retreat Center is selling nearly 80 acres divided into eight residential lots to fund its first major renovation since 1959.

• Six smaller lots are under contract. (Denver Post 🔐)

🗑️ Lone Tree residents in single-family homes who use the city's trash service can leave up to five bundles of branches and 10 bags of yard waste curbside on regular trash days for the next four weeks.

My dad celebrates his 80th birthday on Halloween.

• That means my wife and I will party with him before racing across the county to make sure our neighborhood's little gremlins don't find an empty doorstep.

🎃 Heads up, gremmies, gremmy parents and grand-gremmies:

• Sunset's around 5:59pm.

HMU at 6:15ish.

• The lights will be on.
• 🐕 And my goldens are friendly.

⏰ Oh, remember ... daylight saving time starts Sunday.

• Yuck.

🥰 Robert is one proud dad after his son, Michael, won his fraternity's election for vice president.

Thanks to my editor, Gigi Sukin.