Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

coloradopolitics.com

Group submits petition to ban hunting of bobcats, mountain lions, lynx
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Group submits petition to ban hunting of bobcats, mountain lions, lynx

By Deborah Grigsby | Colorado Politics A volunteer group seeking to ban the hunting of Colorado wildcats has submitted signatures to election officials to get the measure on the November ballot. The group called "Cats Aren’t Trophies," which is behind Initiative 91, delivered 188,000 signatures to the Secretary of State on Wednesday. The state requires valid signatures from 124,238 registered voters to secure the measure's placement on the November ballot. Supporters described the hunting of mountain lions and bobcats "inhumane" and called it "commercial killing." Opponents, meanwhile, countered that it's a threat not just to Colorado's hunting tradition but also to wildlife management itself.  READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
Read More
Following special election victory, Greg Lopez to be sworn in Monday to finish out ex-Rep. Buck’s term
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Following special election victory, Greg Lopez to be sworn in Monday to finish out ex-Rep. Buck’s term

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Greg Lopez is scheduled to be sworn into office on Monday, July 8, after winning last month's vacancy election in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, a Lopez spokeswoman and House Speaker Mike Johnson's office told Colorado Politics on Friday. The 60-year-old Lopez is expected to serve the roughly six months remaining in former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck's term, following the five-term Republican's resignation from Congress in March. Once Lopez is sworn in, Republicans will expand their slim majority in the House of Representatives to 220 members, compared to 213 Democrats, with two vacant seats remaining.  Lopez easily defeated Democratic nominee Trisha Calvarese for the solid GOP seat, which covers Douglas County...
Read More
Rural communities face critical firefighter shortage, in some cases, outlook is ‘bleak’
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Rural communities face critical firefighter shortage, in some cases, outlook is ‘bleak’

By Deborah Grigsby | Colorado Politics When Elizabeth Fire Chief T.J. Steck first entered the fire service more than 30 years ago, he was one of more than 2,000 applicants for just six full-time positions with Denver Fire. Competition was intense. That’s not the case now, Steck told members of the Colorado Wildfire Matters Review Committee on Tuesday.  “Now, fire departments across the Front Range are actually fighting each other for applicants and trying to poach from each other — because we don't have the number of applicants anymore,” he said. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
Read More
Analysis: Those candidates who raised the most won their state legislative races
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Analysis: Those candidates who raised the most won their state legislative races

By Luige Del Puerto  | Colorado Politics With a few exceptions, Colorado's candidates for the state legislature who raised the most money won their races. Longtime political observers also noted something unique from this year's primary elections — a concerted effort, they said, to pull politics back to the "center."     An analysis of the fundraising of dozens candidates largely confirmed an axiomatic presumption in campaigns — the person with the most money wins. That was true for both state Senate and House candidates, the results of last Tuesday's primary elections showed. “Money will always be the mother’s milk of politics. The more you raise and spend, the better chance of winning," Michael Dino, a political expert who served as campaign manager for fo...
Read More
Democrat Yadira Caraveo hauls in nearly $1.8M for quarter in Colorado’s toss-up 8th CD
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Democrat Yadira Caraveo hauls in nearly $1.8M for quarter in Colorado’s toss-up 8th CD

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo plans to report raising nearly $1.8 million in the most recent fundraising quarter in a bid to defend Colorado's battleground 8th Congressional District, her campaign told Colorado Politics. The first-term lawmaker heads into the general election with an eye-popping $3.3 million in the bank for a race that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives once ballots are counted in November. A spokesman for Caraveo's campaign said she raised more than $1,769,000 for the three-month period from April 1 to June 30, including more than $1.2 million in receipts since the pre-primary reporting period ended on June 5. The quarterly figure pushes Caraveo's total fundraising this cycle...
Read More
With wolf pup(s) on the ground, state’s wildlife director insists on non-lethal response to livestock killings
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

With wolf pup(s) on the ground, state’s wildlife director insists on non-lethal response to livestock killings

By Thelma Grimes | Colorado Politics The chief of Colorado Parks & Wildlife insisted that "non-lethal" means of managing wolves that kill livestock is crucial especially now that the two wolves brought to Colorado have a pup.  "And we believe that there are more pups within the recently named pack," Jeff Davis said in a round of letters in June with Sen. Janice Rich, who questioned whether he is taking the concerns of citizens who are being “impacted by wolf depredation seriously.” "Again," Davis said, "deployment of non-lethal actions will be critical in avoiding and minimizing future interactions between wolves and livestock as well as people." The round of letters confirmed the familiar points of contention between Davis and state policymakers who have criticized th...
Read More
Study: Fentanyl-related deaths cost Colorado estimated $16 billion last year
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Study: Fentanyl-related deaths cost Colorado estimated $16 billion last year

By Noah Festenstein | Colorado Politics It only takes 2 milligrams of fentanyl to be fatal. A record 425.6 kilograms of fentanyl — enough to kill the state’s population between 16* and 26 times over, depending on the purity of the drugs — was seized in Colorado in 2023 by the Drug Enforcement Administration Rocky Mountain Field Division. That year, Colorado saw a staggering $16 billion in costs associated with fentanyl-related overdose deaths, according to a recent study by the Common Sense Institute. “Colorado’s fentanyl problem is growing, and it is increasingly costly,” the group said. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
Read More
Wolves on the move in Colorado, but still haven’t crossed I-70
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Wolves on the move in Colorado, but still haven’t crossed I-70

By Spencer McKee | Colorado Politics Colorado Parks and Wildlife has released their monthly account of where the state's wolves have been detected, with the data coming from tracking collars on eight animals. Their recently published map shows what watershed areas wolves have been in at some point between May 21 and June 25. Overall, the range of the wolves over the past month was mostly similar to that of the month prior. Two key changes are that wolves appear to have moved to the northern side of Granby opposed to being closer to Winter Park and that wolves appear to be moving closer to a wider stretch of Interstate 70. With that I-70-related shift in mind, it's crucial to note that wolves have yet to cross I-70 to the south, despite some of the watershed areas displayed on t...
Read More
Pueblo County GOP ‘closing things down’ at its HQ after bullet hole discovered in window
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, Local

Pueblo County GOP ‘closing things down’ at its HQ after bullet hole discovered in window

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics The Pueblo County Republican Party chair said Tuesday the party is temporarily uprooting from its downtown headquarters in the southern Colorado city after volunteers discovered a bullet hole in a plate glass window days before ballots were due in the state's primary election. "We're closing things down now until we know we have a safe space for volunteers," county GOP chair Michelle Gray told Colorado Politics. Gray said she had no evidence the bullet was intentionally fired at the political party's headquarters in the 600 block of North Main Street and declined to speculate as to motive. "It can’t be the first window on Main Street that’s been shot out," she said. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
Read More
Colorado Supreme Court bars proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado Supreme Court bars proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday confirmed a proposed ballot initiative to ban gender-affirming care for children will not appear on the November ballot, while another measure that would revamp the state's primary elections and implement ranked-choice voting remains eligible. The justices reached their conclusions on narrow procedural grounds, revolving around the deadline for seeking Supreme Court review and the limited types of challenges the court may hear under existing law. Both initiatives arrived at the Supreme Court after consideration by the Title Board, the three-member body that screens citizen-initiated ballot measures. The board's responsibility is to determine whether a proposed initiative contains a single subject, as the st...
Read More