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Follow the funding: Commentary examines Gary Community Ventures media grants and Colorado Sun coverage
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Follow the funding: Commentary examines Gary Community Ventures media grants and Colorado Sun coverage

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project An example of the coverage Gary Community Ventures (GCV) supported This post is a continuation of a series on the media grants issued by Gary Community Ventures. The first link below is to Monday’s newsletter, the previous installment. It will have a link to the first installment in it. In today’s post, I want to look at the coverage that GCV paid for, specifically the efforts by the progressive outlet Colorado Sun. In previous posts, I mentioned how the Colorado Sun raised their hand when GCV asked if anyone would like grant money to fund coverage on childcare in Colorado. I also mentioned how the Colorado Media Project (CMP, and some of its consultants like journalism professor Corey H...
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Following the funding: A closer look at Gary Community Ventures’ role in Colorado advocacy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Following the funding: A closer look at Gary Community Ventures’ role in Colorado advocacy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Meet Gary Community Ventures Earlier, I wrote about an effort by Gary Community Ventures, GCV, to (from their perspective) start a conversation about childcare in this state. I showed you their “Request for Proposals” to pay media outlets to write about Colorado’s struggling childcare system. That newsletter is linked first below. As before, what I hope you take from this is to get an understanding of how grant-funded coverage like the Colorado Sun’s is generated, as well as a framework with which to assess the players. Rather than offering you a definitive take on some ulterior motive--something that I’d be lying if I told you I had--I will offer you information with which to come to your own ...
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“The market can’t fix childcare”: Who is shaping Colorado’s narrative
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

“The market can’t fix childcare”: Who is shaping Colorado’s narrative

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Gary Community Ventures, The Colorado Sun and setting common sense The Colorado Sun recently launched a series, “Out of Reach”, describing what they term “Colorado’s crumbling child care system”. The series caught my eye due to a statement appearing in the first installment. William Browning, president and CEO of Clayton Early Learning in Denver, said (among other things, and I quote here from the first link below): “The market can’t fix child care.” This brought to mind something a friend had told me a while back. Depending on the individual the blame may lay anywhere on the spectrum from intent to a variety of unrelated factors lining up, but the thinking is the same. If the childcare ...
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Electric school buses and winter limits: What physics has to say
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Electric school buses and winter limits: What physics has to say

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project So, about those electric school busses… It's been so mild here in Colorado, I wonder if this has been noticed, but I saw the NY Post article below and thought I'd share.It details some parental complaints out of New York about the mandated electric busses. Quoting the lede:"Parents in Western New York are raising alarms over cold rides and breakdowns after officials mandated that all school bus purchases must be electric by 2027."The problem's not hard to figure out. It's so fundamental that it goes all the way down to energy conservation (and something I've touched on more than once in the past -- see "Related" below).For an internal combustion engine, the heat in the compartment is either waste heat from t...
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CORA changes would extend deadlines and expand government discretion
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

CORA changes would extend deadlines and expand government discretion

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Kipp is back with another stab at CORA. I had heard from my state senator (B Pelton) that Senator Kipp would be back this year with another run at modifying the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA).Her bill recently came out and I link to it first below. The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition (CFOIC) article on the bill is linked second below as an additional resource if you want it.I will be advocating against this bill both here and, hopefully, by testifying against it in committee (as of this writing there is no date set).To her credit, Kipp is not oblivious to past criticism (or strident enough to not care a la Senator Sullivan) about her previous attempts at modifying CORA; having been following her ...
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Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado Times Recorder (CTR), Hutchins, the Gazette, and Glass Houses There was an interesting bit in Journalism Professor Corey Hutchins' media newsletter recently. That newsletter is linked first below and the quote I reference is attached as screenshot 1. Because pictures don't have working links, I put the CTR article Hutchins links to second below for convenience's sake. Both the CTR piece and Hutchins blurb are pretty chatty, as much about the insider ball of producing news as anything, but a quote from the CTR piece helps point to another dynamic I think is at play here. It's subtle, stay with me.Copied here with link intact:"Criticizing the Gazette newspapers isn’t something loc...
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Did Colorado’s gun violence prevention director visit your community in 2025?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Did Colorado’s gun violence prevention director visit your community in 2025?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Did the director for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention come to your town? Part 2 I wanted to update a 2023 story (see the first link below for the original) about the all of the places the Director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention went to in Colorado.As with 2023, I don’t think you could call the list of places anywhere near representative of all the diverse views and experiences of this state.I will let the current Director give you how she describes her yearly roundabout in her own words. Quoting her letter from the January 2026 newsletter out of the Office:“What also helps me to feel grounded in focus is the perspective I gain through the conversations I’ve had and continue to have across Colorado...
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Colorado’s proposed habitat map update could reshape oil and gas development
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s proposed habitat map update could reshape oil and gas development

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project ECMC’s 2026 High Priority Habitat Maps I recently got an email update from the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) about how they are going to update their High Priority Habitat Maps.The first link below is to their webpage on this update, but let's go back a bit and firm up some context on this issue before diving in to more details.A quote from the rulemaking notice gives plenty of detail for what we'll discuss. It's lengthy, so I attached a picture of it as screenshot 1. In brief, high priority habitat maps help dictate where in this state oil and gas development can occur and under what kinds of rules.CPW (per their explainer page linked second below) has no role in regulating ...
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