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Colorado House Republicans elect Jarvis Caldwell as minority leader after Pugliese resignation
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado House Republicans elect Jarvis Caldwell as minority leader after Pugliese resignation

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The Colorado House Republican caucus on Saturday chose Rep. Jarvis Caldwell of Monument as its next minority leader. Caldwell succeeds former Rep. Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs, who resigned on Sept. 15. Caldwell won 12 out of the 20 votes cast. Two other nominees – Reps. Ken DeGraaf of Colorado Springs and Larry Don Suckla of Cortez, both received four votes each. The caucus meeting showed the angst over what happened in the recent special session is far from over. Caldwell began by thanking Pugliese for her leadership. But “we’re in a moment we may never see again,” he told the caucus. This is a turning point in the state of Colorado, Caldwell said, with Democratic approval ratings underwater and Democrats in the House aud...
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Law tied sheriff’s hands as violent suspect walked free in Weld County
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Law tied sheriff’s hands as violent suspect walked free in Weld County

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics eld County Sheriff Steve Reams says a 2024 law required him to release a man who had been charged with attempted murder stemming from an incident in Greeley earlier this year. According to Reams, 21-year-old Debisa Ephraim was arrested in April and charged with second-degree attempted murder following an altercation between him and another man that had been captured on video. The victim suffered a brain injury and spent a “substantial” amount of time in the hospital and rehabilitation, but Reams says he is now mostly recovered. Ephraim, a refugee from Tanzania who had a previous record of violent behavior, had been detained in the Weld County Jail for several months when his defense team asked the court to determine whether he was compet...
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Mass Shooters Who Transitioned Raise Questions Not Answers
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National, Approved, Colorado Politics, Commentary

Mass Shooters Who Transitioned Raise Questions Not Answers

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Colorado Politics The 23-year-old shooter of Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis was born male. He identified as a woman and legally changed his name before he killed two and injured 18. The shooter of the Nashville Covenant School in March 2023 was born female. She identified as a man and killed six. So was the shooter at a Rite Aid in Maryland, female identifying as male. She killed three and injured three more. And in our backyard, the 22-year-old who killed five and injured 19 at Club Q in Colorado Springs was born male but declared himself nonbinary. The 16-year-old shooter at STEM School in Highlands Ranch was female identifying as a boy. She murdered Kendrick Castillo, the hero who died saving his classmates. Is there a connection ...
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How ballot initiatives play a role in Colorado policymaking
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

How ballot initiatives play a role in Colorado policymaking

By Colorado Politics For more than a century, Colorado voters have used the ballot box not just to elect leaders but also to make laws, shaping the state’s most defining policies through citizen-led initiatives. Those two avenues of policymaking — the first by legislators, the second by citizens — yet represent another point of tension that is inherent to America’s grand experiment in representative democracy. At times, it leads to reaction and counter-reaction, both within and outside the state Capitol. The threat of a ballot measure, for one, can prompt legislators to act. Indeed, some see the initiative process as a counterbalance to the Colorado legislature, serving as a check on state policymakers, at times overriding their will. Others prefer the legislative process, with...
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Arvada rolls $8M affordable housing bond into 2026 after developers show no interest
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Arvada rolls $8M affordable housing bond into 2026 after developers show no interest

By Sage Kelley | Colorado Politics The Arvada City Council voted to roll the city’s nearly $8 million bond into 2026 to potentially help create large-scale affordable housing amidst shortages throughout the region. The council met with the city’s Housing Manager Carrie Espinosa on Tuesday to discuss how the city should move forward with the 2025 Private Activity Bond, ultimately voting 4-1 to combine it with next year’s funds. Arvada received $7.9 million of private activity bonds from the State of Colorado Department of Local Affairs for 2025, with the intention to use the bonds to support private or public developers in making an affordable housing project. According to the request for proposal, affordable was defined as housing costs that are less than 30% of gross income fo...
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Air-quality politics put Denver first and rural Colorado last
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, State

Air-quality politics put Denver first and rural Colorado last

By Tony Olivero | Commentary, Colorado Politics  As former rural lawmakers, we’re no strangers to the state trying to squeeze us into the same box as the Front Range. But Colorado’s latest regulations take things to a new level: not only are they completely unworkable for our communities, but the rules also reveal a hypocritical double standard that puts rural Colorado last. Starting on Wednesday, Colorado’s air quality commission is holding hearings on their roll out of Regulation 31, a mandate that forces even the smallest landfills to install costly methane capture systems, regardless of whether those systems make scientific, environmental, or economic sense.   The process to get here was rushed and the new rules lack clear written implementation procedures and ignore...
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Polis signs AI bill he admits could crush innovation
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, State

Polis signs AI bill he admits could crush innovation

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Colorado Politics Disclosure: Gov. Jared Polis wrote much of this column. The epitaph on Jared Polis’ gubernatorial gravestone will simply read, “He knew better, but would not stand up to his own party.” For seven years, our hyper-progressive legislature has sent him one industry-killing bill after another. And he kept signing them, even when he knows they are bad policy, economically devastating, and even if they go against his strongest-held convictions. One such strongly held conviction is his faith in technology. In the tech world, the man’s no slouch. As much as I’d like to tease Jared for just being a rich kid who got richer putting his momma’s greeting-card company online, the fact is he made fortunes many times over in varied tech ventur...
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Salvation Army exit highlights strain of Denver’s homelessness experiment
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Salvation Army exit highlights strain of Denver’s homelessness experiment

By Deborah Smith | Colorado Politics The Salvation Army will cease managing operations at three of Denver’s hotel-turned-homeless shelters after fulfilling its current contracts with the city, according to a statement from the group on Thursday. Those contracts run through 2025. Citing the need to ensure “financial stability,” officials from the organization said the decision affects The Aspen and Stone Creek shelters, both located on Quebec Avenue in northeast Denver, and the Tamarac Family Shelter just off Hampden Avenue and I-25. The Salvation Army has been a pivotal part of Mayor Mike Johnston’s efforts to end homelessness in the city, Johnston spokesperson Jon Ewing told The Denver Gazette, adding that the organization stepped up to help solve one of the city’s biggest cha...
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Gabel: Denver’s anti-meat campaign is built on misinformation and contempt for agriculture
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, State

Gabel: Denver’s anti-meat campaign is built on misinformation and contempt for agriculture

By Rachel Gabel | Commentary, Colorado Politics Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s $3 million campaign to urge Denver residents and visitors to eat less meat to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) is tone deaf at best. There is no need for widening the divide between people and where their food comes from, especially here and now. Attempting to influence people’s food choices to fit an agenda funded by cause celebs is elitist, especially in a time when families are struggling to put nutritious food on the table. This is certainly further compounded by the shaky foundation of misinformation the campaign appears to be based upon when the priorities of the funding office shouldn’t have arbitrarily added livestock to the conversation. Colorado protein producers have embraced efficiencies and new ...
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Three Judges Taught at CU While Ruling on University Cases
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State, Approved, Colorado Politics

Three Judges Taught at CU While Ruling on University Cases

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A national report identified other judges who did not recuse from cases where one of the parties was the university where they taught on the side. Three of Colorado's sitting federal judges taught part-time at the University of Colorado's law school while they handled civil cases involving the university or associated entities. On July 30, the advocacy group Fix the Court released a report naming 24 federal judges throughout the country who did not recuse themselves from cases in which one of the parties was the university where they also taught as adjunct professors. The report identified U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter as someone who did not recuse from multiple cases involving CU. However, Colorado Politics' independent docket re...
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