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Colorado Republicans Slam Bennet, Hickenlooper Over Prolonged Shutdown
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Republicans Slam Bennet, Hickenlooper Over Prolonged Shutdown

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado As the government shutdown stretches into another week, federal funding for food assistance is set to run out in just over a week. Friday was supposed to be the payday for many federal employees who have been furloughed for a month. Instead, some employees got a paystub showing zero dollars. Colorado's Republican members of the United States Congress are growing increasingly frustrated with the refusal of Democratic members to pass a funding bill. U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd fired off a letter to U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and warned Coloradans are suffering because of the shutdown. Fifty-five thousand federal employees are facing financial hardship, and more than 600,000 Colorada...
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Rep. Hurd refuses pay, passes first bill and earns Trump endorsement in decisive week
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Rep. Hurd refuses pay, passes first bill and earns Trump endorsement in decisive week

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice President Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement” of Congressman Jeff Hurd on Saturday capped a remarkable week for the freshman lawmaker from Colorado’s Third District. Trump praised Hurd's “strong Record of SUCCESS,” for “fighting tirelessly to… Advance American Energy DOMINANCE, Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations...” and “HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN.” Hurd has characterized his first term as a test of performance over politics. “If you look at all that we’ve accomplished in the first eight months of this Congress, it’s more than a lot of congresses accomplish in their entire two years,” Hurd told Rocky Mountain Voice before returning to session after the summer recess. “We’ve passed 27 pieces of legislation that have actually gotten...
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The Upper Basin Compact in a nutshell
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The Upper Basin Compact in a nutshell

By Steve Harris | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Editor’s note: This is Part 5 of 6 in the Water Time Reflections series by Steve Harris, marking 100 years since the Colorado River Compact. In this installment, Harris examines the 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact—how it divided water among the Upper Basin states, shaped drought management, and continues to guide allocations today. For those of us in the Upper Colorado River Basin, we have the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (UBC) that was negotiated from 1946 to 1948, and was ratified in 1948 (a copy is available by clicking here). The UBC is as important to the Upper Basin States as the Colorado River Compact (CRC) is for the entire basin because it allocates water to each state including during shortages. Though n...
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License Plate Readers Expand Across Colorado, Raising Privacy Concerns
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

License Plate Readers Expand Across Colorado, Raising Privacy Concerns

By: Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado Police across Colorado say they make communities safer, but privacy experts have a different opinion about license plate readers. While license plate readers have been around for decades, the cameras now capture, not just license plates, but vast troves of information. That information is fed into a national database, where it can be combined with other surveillance to develop detailed travel patterns of millions of people as they go to a political rally, or an abortion clinic, a house of worship, or a gay bar. The cameras are so prolific that it's difficult to avoid them in many cities. Boulder software engineer Will Freeman is the first to begin mapping them. A year ago, he didn't even know what license plate readers looked like, let alone w...
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Feds to Polis administration: Stop importing wolves from Canada
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Feds to Polis administration: Stop importing wolves from Canada

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette Efforts by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to bring in more wolves from Canada later this year may have hit a snag after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service told the state it may not do so. In an Oct. 10 letter, Brian Nesvik, director of USFWS, told Gov. Jared Polis and Jeff Davis, director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), that Colorado is not allowed to bring in gray wolves from Canada or Alaska. Any wolves brought to Colorado as part of the wolf reintroduction program must come from one of the lower 48 states, the agency said. Nesvik cited what’s called 10(j) rule, noting USFWS authorized the state to release and establish gray wolves in Colorado as an experimental population “subject to Service oversight.” However, the 10(j) rule o...
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Colorado’s clean-energy crusade looks a lot like Germany’s—and that should scare us
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Substack, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s clean-energy crusade looks a lot like Germany’s—and that should scare us

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Michael Hancock’s Undercurrent A warning for Colorado before it repeats Europe’s green mistakes. Germany tried to save the planet — and ended up saving nothing, not even itself. The same ideology that shut down its nuclear plants, drove up energy prices, and gutted its industries is now being repackaged in Colorado under the banner of “climate justice.” The warnings are flashing red, but our leaders seem too busy chasing virtue to notice the cliff ahead. Germany once led the world in renewable energy. It also now leads it in self-inflicted economic decline. After spending hundreds of billions of euros to “go green,” the country that once symbolized industrial excellence now faces soaring energy prices, factory closures, and an exodus of jobs. ...
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Cracks in Colorado’s left: Democrat infighting spills into the headlines
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Cracks in Colorado’s left: Democrat infighting spills into the headlines

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado Sun follows Democrat dark money?! Like a Yukon fur trapper making his semi annual visit to town to see the store, bar, and brothel, the Sun recently decided to delve into Democrat dark money. Their story is linked first below and details a Vail conference some Democratic state lawmakers recently had.The conference was put on and attended by a group of lawmakers going by the name the Opportunity Caucus. This caucus is set up as a nonprofit and doesn’t reveal its donors, though it also gets funding from its legislator members. The Opportunity Caucus was helped (incubated?) by one of Colorado’s copious lefty nonprofits, One Main Street.Why would the Sun pick these groups to investigate and report on out of all the...
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Five Suspects Nabbed in Organized Crime Spree Across 25 Jurisdictions
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kdvr.com, Approved, State

Five Suspects Nabbed in Organized Crime Spree Across 25 Jurisdictions

By: Heather Willard, Jacob Factor | KDVR FOX31 DENVER (KDVR) — The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday morning executed nine search warrants after an 18-month investigation of an alleged criminal enterprise that committed crimes in 25 Colorado jurisdictions, resulting in the arrest of five people. One person remains at large. The 20th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said that the crime ring is responsible for over $828,880 in stolen property and $39,880 in damaged property, impacting more than 55 victims. County officials said on Wednesday morning that the nine search warrants were part of a “grand jury investigation,” and on Wednesday afternoon, officials said that a crime ring that targeted the Front Range had been brought to a “halt.” The Boulder County District At...
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As Paychecks Stop, Colorado Helps Federal Workers Stay Afloat
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DENVER7, Approved, State

As Paychecks Stop, Colorado Helps Federal Workers Stay Afloat

By: Jessica Porter | Denver7 The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment held its second virtual town hall for federal employees affected by the government shutdown. DENVER — The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) held its second virtual town hall on Wednesday for federal employees affected by the government shutdown. The shutdown is now the second-longest in U.S. history, marking its 22nd day on Wednesday. The CDLE advises workers not to wait until they have exhausted their funds or missed a paycheck to apply for benefits. They should file a claim the day after their last day of work by going to MyUI+. “If you wait to file, you may not be able to get benefits for the weeks you were out of work and didn’t apply,” said Phil Spesshardt with...
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Colorado Wolf Reintroduction May Have Violated Federal Law
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Wolf Reintroduction May Have Violated Federal Law

By: Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado A plan to import 15 more wolves to Colorado from Canada may violate federal law.  Wolves are listed as an endangered species here, so Colorado Parks and Wildlife needs a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to relocate wolves here from other states. The permit issued by USFWS in 2023 lists six states where Colorado can source wolves. It doesn't list Canada, where CPW got 15 wolves last year and plans to get another 15 wolves this year. Former congressman and current gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez says USFWS dropped the ball by allowing CPW to import wolves from Canada, which he says is a clear violation of its federal permit.  "The terms and conditions are that they can only get wolves from the Northern Rocky Mountains. They...
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