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Colorado Mountain Towns Feel Economic Pain After Historic Dry Winter
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Mountain Towns Feel Economic Pain After Historic Dry Winter

By Bernadette Berdychowski | Colorado Politics Rocky, snow‑starved slopes. Rivers rising too soon. Resorts shutting down in April. Drought rules spreading statewide. These aren’t just signs of a bad winter — they’re red flags. And now another one is flashing across the Rockies: falling sales‑tax revenues that threaten the budgets and stability of mountain towns already stretched thin. Sales‑tax revenues — a key measure of local spending and a major source of city funding — dropped across many Colorado mountain towns in the first months of the year, largely because the unusually dry winter kept visitors away. In December, some towns saw only slight declines or even small gains. In Breckenridge, businesses said tourists who had already booked their trips an...
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Colorado Copper Theft Disrupts Transit And Emergency Communications
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Copper Theft Disrupts Transit And Emergency Communications

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette At the state Capitol, legislators have responded by passing a bill aimed at cracking down down on the sale of stolen metals used in critical infrastructure. While signing the legislation, Gov. Jared Polis said it would deter individuals from selling stolen metal. “Theft of any kind is unacceptable and this new law will help protect Colorado’s infrastructure. This will help keep our trains running, homes heated, and buildings safe. By signing this bill into law today, Colorado is cracking down on crime to prevent copper wire theft, and keep our communities safe,” Polis said in a statement. But others have expressed worries about people who legally collect scrap materials and who rely on the immediate cash from selling it to bu...
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Copper Creek Wolves Drive Majority Of Colorado Livestock Losses
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The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Copper Creek Wolves Drive Majority Of Colorado Livestock Losses

By Miles Blumhardt | The Coloradoan Beef, and mutton, are often what's for dinner for one Colorado wolfpack that has racked up a $700,000 tab, according to a review by the Coloradoan. The Copper Creek pack has been implicated in more than 60% of the state's confirmed depredations — 49 of 78 —since Colorado began reintroducing wolves in December 2023, a review of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's confirmed depredations records and ranchers' depredation claim filings shows. Those losses led to payouts by the state exceeding $700,000. That is greater than 40% of the total amount Colorado has paid for wolf depredations in that time. In total, the agency awarded ranchers more than $1.6 million in wolf depredation claims combined in 2024 and 2025. That's more than doub...
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Colorado Officials Push Back As Trump Administration Expands Voter Roll Verification
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DENVER7, Approved, National

Colorado Officials Push Back As Trump Administration Expands Voter Roll Verification

By Micah Smith | Denver7 An Associated Press report found the Trump administration has already run millions of voter registrations through a federal government database to determine if the registered voters are eligible to vote. According to the AP, 67 million registrations mostly from Republican-led states have been run through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s verification program and tens of thousands of non-citizens and people who have died have been flagged. Critics said the percentage of non-citizens and deceased individuals is a small fraction of registered voters. As the Trump administration moves to federalize certain election functions, several states including Colorado have sued to block the administration from gaining access to vot...
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Colorado’s New Gun Licensing Scheme Faces Growing Legal Pushback
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado’s New Gun Licensing Scheme Faces Growing Legal Pushback

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER– In the run-up to Colorado’s  semi-automatic gun licensing scheme, going into effect on August 1, the Colorado Department of Revenue released guidelines which includes approximately 900 firearm makes and models that will be heavily regulated by the looming new law, many of which have gun-rights advocates calling foul.    As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the Democrat-backed Senate Bill 003, passed during the 2025 legislative session, heaps a long list a list of new burdens on potential gun buyers prior to purchasing a semiautomatic firearm.  Among other things, the law requires Coloradans complete a 12 hour, in person, firearms course through their local sheriff’s office, after a backg...
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Where did the road money go?: Examining Colorado transportation claims
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State

Where did the road money go?: Examining Colorado transportation claims

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project HB26-1430 (see the first link below for some earlier context) is the Colorado Democrats’ measure to kneecap Initiative 175, the measure that would enforce that road dollars actually go to building roads. The measure passed the legislature with some last-minute fussing, and included some new amendments. The Sum and Substance article linked second below details how things went down in the last days of the legislative session. The purpose of this post is not to look at HB26-1430 in its final form or how that will affect (or not) Initiative 175. There’s more coming in the saga and I’ll hold off on updates til something concrete pops up. No, I wanted to share a couple of quotes from Democrat politicians appearing in the Su...
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Hickenlooper Moves To Block Tina Peters From Trump Compensation Fund
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Approved, National, The Colorado Sun

Hickenlooper Moves To Block Tina Peters From Trump Compensation Fund

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper plans to force Republicans to vote on an amendment aimed at prohibiting the Trump administration from sending money to former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and others convicted of crimes that affected elections or election equipment from a $1.8 billion fund created to compensate allies of the GOP president who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” of $1.776 billion is part of a settlement that resolves President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. It will allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to apply for payouts, cr...
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Zero Tolerance Policy Targets Rising Lawlessness In Pike National Forest
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Approved, Local, Pikes Peak Courier

Zero Tolerance Policy Targets Rising Lawlessness In Pike National Forest

By Pat Hill | Pikes Peak Courier A recent operation in Pike National Forest by Sheriff Jason Mikesell and his officers resulted in 100 contacts and issued 42 citations. At the same time, the officers put out campfires left unattended. “That was in one weekend,” Mikesell said. Speaking four days before holding a press conference, Mikesell offered a heads-up on the chaos on the forest. “We’ve seen over 300 side-by-sides; the people are from Denver, Aurora, Pueblo, Colorado Springs and out-of-state,” he said. “We’ve found that they are ruining wildlife areas, running off road and tearing up roads that are an access to wildlife.” The sheriff tells of an incident where drivers in a side-by side did multiple “360s” around a tent where a family was probably sleeping at 1:20 a.m. ...
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Southern Ute Tribe Secures Historic Energy Agreement With Interior Department
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Approved, KJZZ, State

Southern Ute Tribe Secures Historic Energy Agreement With Interior Department

By Gabriel Pietrorazio | KJZZ Earlier this month, a tribe from the Four Corners region has inked a historic deal with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum advancing the Trump administration’s “Unleashing American Energy” agenda. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe in southwest Colorado sitting above the border of New Mexico has entered the first-ever TERA — or Tribal Energy Resource Agreement — more than two decades after Congress enacted the law. This allows the nearly 1,500-member tribe to handle its own business — without obtaining expressed permission from the feds to lease energy projects and issue right-of-ways on the 700,000-acre reservation near Durango. Doing so is supposed to streamline the process by reducing delays. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT KJZZ
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Supreme Court Case Could Expand Liability For Freight Brokers In Trucking Accidents
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Approved, National, The Federalist

Supreme Court Case Could Expand Liability For Freight Brokers In Trucking Accidents

By Brianna Lyman | The Federalist hirty people died in 17 semi-truck crashes caused by noncitizen commercial truck drivers in 2025, according to the Department of Transportation. That number is almost certainly an undercount. Prior to 2025, the immigration status of a commercial truck driver was mostly not recorded in crash reports, court filings, or news coverage. The national conversation focuses on the truck driver at fault for the latest accident, but rarely goes deeper. Why was this truck driver on the highways? What trucking company hired him? How are operations like this still in business? Somewhere between receiving a package from the distribution center to your doorstep, there is a strong possibility that a freight broker was involved. Freight brokers exist to manage freight...
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