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Denver Ballot Measure Will Determine Xcel Partnership As Millions In Revenue Are At Stake
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Ballot Measure Will Determine Xcel Partnership As Millions In Revenue Are At Stake

By: Deborah Grigsby | The Denver Gazette This November, Denver voters will decide whether to renew the city’s longstanding franchise agreement with Xcel Energy. Members of the Denver City Council approved on Monday sending a proposed 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel that would deliver more than $180 million a year in franchise fees, infrastructure relocation savings and other undergrounding funds to the ballot. The vote was 10-2 with Councilmembers Shontel Lewis and Sarah Parady holding the two dissenting votes. “Denver has negotiated the strongest energy partnership agreement in the history of Colorado, and importantly, the benefits of this agreement and of being a franchisee extend far beyond any of the individual listed improvements and accomplishments,”...
Trump Takes Mail-In Voting Dispute to Supreme Court Before Midterms
CYBERSCOOP, Approved, National

Trump Takes Mail-In Voting Dispute to Supreme Court Before Midterms

By Greg Otto | CYBERSCOOP In a Monday filing, the Justice Department said states sued before agencies even decided how the order would work. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce an executive order that would restrict mail-in voting, after a federal appeals court kept the order blocked in nearly half the states just months before the November midterm elections. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that a Massachusetts federal judge acted too soon when she struck down key parts of the order, which blocked federal agencies from carrying it out in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Sauer said the order only directs agencies to study changes and has not yet produced a final rule, so no state has suffered harm. ...
Tragedy Strikes Eaton as Three Young Men Lose Their Lives in Rollover Crash
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Tragedy Strikes Eaton as Three Young Men Lose Their Lives in Rollover Crash

By: Stephanie Southey | Denver7 Eaton community mourns after crash kills 3 recent high school graduates. WELD COUNTY, Colo. — Three recent Eaton High School graduates were killed, and two others were injured in a single-vehicle rollover crash east of Ault in Weld County Saturday evening, according to the Colorado State Patrol. Investigators said a Chevrolet Tahoe was traveling at a high rate of speed west on Weld County Road 80 around 5:18 p.m. when it went off the road, lost control and rolled several times, ejecting all five occupants. Three men — a 19-year-old and 20-year-old from Eaton and a 19-year-old from Greeley — were pronounced dead at the scene, CSP said. The 20-year-old male driver from Wyoming was transported by air to a local hospital with...
Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States
Just The News, Approved, National

Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States

By Brett Rowland | Just the News Programs in question include Medicaid, food stamps and disaster relief. Twenty federal programs that route nearly $1.1 trillion through state governments – including Medicaid, SNAP and disaster relief – are vulnerable to fraud because of how the money is distributed, the Government Accountability Office reports. The money rarely goes straight from Washington to a recipient. It passes through states, then often to subrecipients, contractors and subcontractors. Every layer, GAO found, adds another entry point for fraud while making oversight harder to enforce. The report is the first in a planned GAO series examining fraud in state-administered programs. It reaffirms the agency's estimate that the government loses between $233 bi...
Does Aurora police provide equal protection to protesters and workers alike?
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Does Aurora police provide equal protection to protesters and workers alike?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Does Aurora PD offer equal protection to all? Let me start with the top-line story before I get to an easily-missed detail. The first link below is to a CPR article which details how an employee of the ICE detention facility in Aurora allegedly shot a protestor.** A quote gives some detail: “Police reported that Booth [the alleged shooter and employee of the facility] and his colleagues had been unable to get into the facility for their work shifts due to the protest. The two women reportedly took pictures of the employees’ cars and got into a verbal altercation with the employees before walking away. Booth then took out his personal firearm and fired one shot in the direction of the women, hitting ...
Newly Released Messages Reignite Questions About Fauci And COVID Origins
The Federalist, Approved, National

Newly Released Messages Reignite Questions About Fauci And COVID Origins

By: Hans Mahncke | The Federalist The greatest threat to public trust comes when powerful people and institutions use their authority to suppress the truth. The latest revelations from Sen. Rand Paul’s investigation into the origin of COVID expose what may be one of the most consequential scientific deceptions in history. The 1,123 pages of private Slack messages exchanged among the authors of the highly influential “Proximal Origin” paper reveal that the scientists who publicly declared that a laboratory origin of Covid was not plausible privately held a very different view. They repeatedly acknowledged that a laboratory origin remained possible, discussed flaws in their own arguments, and struggled to defend the natural origin theory. In ...
Colorado Election Officials Allege Victor Marx Campaign Repeatedly Exceeded Donation Limits
CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Election Officials Allege Victor Marx Campaign Repeatedly Exceeded Donation Limits

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado The Colorado Secretary of State's Office says the Republican gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx's campaign received nearly 200 illegal campaign contributions during the primary election. Campaign finance law caps individual donations at $1,450 to reduce the outsized influence of wealthy donors and prevent quid pro quo corruption. Colorado Secretary of State The Election Division received complaints alleging the Marx Campaign had repeatedly violated the law. It launched an investigation and found the campaign accepted 197 illegal contributions totaling more than $78,000 over the limit. It says he also accepted another $1,000 in illegal cash donations. Darcy Schoening filed the complaints against the campaign. She says Marx m...
Independent Candidate Enters High-Profile Congressional Race Against Socialist Melat Kiros
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Independent Candidate Enters High-Profile Congressional Race Against Socialist Melat Kiros

By Ernest Luning and Mark Samuelson | The Denver Gazette      Unaffiliated congressional candidate Shimon Blau, a Denver doctor, has qualified by petition for the general election in Colorado’s 1st District, where Democrat Melat Kiros defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in last month’s primary, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Friday. Blau, a newcomer to politics, submitted just shy of 2,000 valid signatures on July 8 days after starting his petition drive in response to Kiros’s upset primary win over DeGette. Election officials said 1,918 of the 2,212 signatures gathered by Blau were accepted, easily clearing the 1,500 signature requirement. Shimon Blau, who qualified to run for the 1st Congressional Distri...
Colorado Springs Planning Commission Keeps Data Center Project Moving Forward With Four New Conditions
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Colorado Springs Planning Commission Keeps Data Center Project Moving Forward With Four New Conditions

By Alex Edwards | Colorado Politics The Colorado Springs Planning Commission rejected appeals Thursday night against a proposed artificial-intelligence data center off Garden of the Gods Road. The vote of the commission was 6-2, but residents who filed the appeals will have 10 days to challenge that decision. While allowing Project Taurus to proceed, the commissioners set four conditions on the company, Raeden. These include: Requiring Raeden to report utility use data for the first 10 years of operation. Limiting utility use to a specified level of 50 megawatts, with the condition that if Raeden wants to exceed that, it must return to the commission for further approval. Raeden must furnish a corrected “single sheet” to the existing building plan. The...
Aurora’s debt proposal is why taxpayers need to speak up
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Aurora’s debt proposal is why taxpayers need to speak up

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Speak up for fiscal responsibility and join likeminded people The image heading this post is a flyer about a particular ballot issue put on the November ballot by city council. If you live in Aurora or know someone who does, give that image a share. The idea of, and push for, fiscal responsibility is not limited to Aurora, however. Spending someone else’s money is seemingly tempting for politicians of all parties. That’s why you need to engage and be active in forcing fiscal responsibility and restraint no matter where you live in Colorado. If you’ve been wanting to but find it easier to be a part of something instead of striking out on your own, I’ve got a group for you. The flyer comes from a group...