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Southern Ute Tribe taps Animas–La Plata water rights after 60 years of roadblocks
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Southern Ute Tribe taps Animas–La Plata water rights after 60 years of roadblocks

By Shannon Mullane | Colorado Sun For years, two tribes have pointed to the barely used, multimillion-dollar project near Durango to show tribal water access challenges in the Colorado River Basin This summer, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe rolled out miles of temporary rubber water lines. The above-ground tubes had one job: carrying water to oil and gas operations on the reservation. But the pipelines also represent something else: a historic moment in a drawn-out, arduous debate over water in southwestern Colorado. In May, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe tapped into its water in the controversial Animas-La Plata Project, the first time a tribe has used its water from the project since it was authorized in 1968. The Animas-La Plata Project has come to encapsulate long-held dre...
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‘This is no longer an agriculture-friendly environment’: Colorado ranchers slam Polis agenda
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

‘This is no longer an agriculture-friendly environment’: Colorado ranchers slam Polis agenda

By Rachael Wright | Colorado Politics Ranchers and farmers assess Polis administration Janie VanWinkle is contemplating something she never thought she’d ever consider — selling the family ranch after four generations of living and working in Colorado. “The political environment is so toxic that if we do speak up at all, it falls on deaf ears,” said VanWinkle, a Western Slope rancher. “This is no longer an agriculture-friendly environment or atmosphere. Five years ago, I could never imagine having this conversation with my family.” Colorado's agricultural industry is the state's second-largest economic driver, accounting for more than $47 billion in activity and employing more than 195,000 people. The export of Colorado cattle as of 2024 generated nearly $4.5 billion, making Co...
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Gimelshteyn: Don’t blame Trump—Colorado’s education crisis was created by failed state and local leadership
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, State

Gimelshteyn: Don’t blame Trump—Colorado’s education crisis was created by failed state and local leadership

By Lori A. Gimelshteyn | Commentary, Colorado Politics According to the 2024 Colorado Measures of Academic Standards (CMAS) results, an alarming seven in 10 students in Denver Public Schools (DPS) are not meeting grade-level expectations in math and nearly 60% of students are not proficient in English. That is not a small gap; it is a catastrophic failure. But instead of taking responsibility, DPS and progressive politicians are pointing fingers at the federal government, pretending they had no warning of federal funding requirements, all while defending classrooms increasingly focused on ideology instead of academics. On July 2, CBS Colorado reported the Trump administration froze nearly $7 billion in federal education funding nationwide, including $70 million earmarked for Colo...
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Coloradans rally after school abduction case tossed under new ‘incompetence’ law—demanding legislative change
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Coloradans rally after school abduction case tossed under new ‘incompetence’ law—demanding legislative change

By Natalie Chuck , Joe Vaccarelli | Denver7 Legislation passed last year states that a judge must dismiss charges if a suspect is found incompetent to stand trial and not restorable ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — A state lawmaker, elected officials and community members called for legislative action on Wednesday, stating that a state law requiring courts to drop charges against individuals found to be incompetent needs to be revised. This comes after news that a suspect accused of attempting to kidnap children at an Aurora elementary school last year will have the case dropped sparked outrage and received national attention. "When we're looking at this law, it needs to be reconsidered,” said Susan Payne, founder and former executive director of Safe2Tell. Solomon Galliga...
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Colorado braces for $858M healthcare shift as feds pull back Medicaid, SNAP funding, prompting special session
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado braces for $858M healthcare shift as feds pull back Medicaid, SNAP funding, prompting special session

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado legislators met at the state Capitol on Friday morning to review how the recently-adopted federal budget will affect health issues in the state. The review is among the steps lawmakers are taking in preparation for an expected special session. Multiple sources have told Colorado Politics that the special session will take place during the week of Aug. 18. Friday's meeting wasn't publicly announced on the legislature's website; the General Assembly had earlier cut funding for many interim committees due to budget constraints.  Senate Democrats announced on their website an "informal meeting" of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which drew a dozen lawmakers and dozens of lobbyists, journalists and others to the ...
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Secret call reveals top-down tampering in Colorado wolf probe
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The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Secret call reveals top-down tampering in Colorado wolf probe

By Miles Blumhardt | Coloradoan A secretly recorded cellphone conversation between ranchers and a Colorado Parks and Wildlife wolf depredation investigator exposed how agency investigations receive top-down influence to alter the number of confirmed wolf depredations. The Coloradoan on July 20 was provided a copy of the nearly 20-minute recording by Merrilee Ellis of Coberly Creek Ranch that included a conversation between her husband, Mike Neelis; son-in-law, Adam Edwards; and state wildlife damage specialist Rhea Ebel-Childs on April 23. Ellis believes the recorded conversation was pivotal in the ranch winning a wolf depredation compensation claim that Colorado Parks and Wildlife had initially denied. The conversation centered around a wolf kill investigation on the southern ...
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Permits denied, leases lost: Inside the MOU reshaping oil and gas production in Colorado
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

Permits denied, leases lost: Inside the MOU reshaping oil and gas production in Colorado

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s 2024 MOU with BLM is being used to block drilling on federal land, reroute energy dollars and shift authority from Washington to regulators aligned with the Polis anti-fossil fuels agenda. In September 2024, a document quietly signed by BLM Colorado Director Doug Vilsack just eight weeks before the Presidential election may have done more than establish interagency cooperation. Critics say it handed away federal power. The document—a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC)—opened the door for Colorado to impose sweeping restrictions on oil and gas production.  Those restrictions now apply even to federally controlled minera...
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AGNC and Craig urge Congress: Let displaced coal workers access retirement without penalty
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

AGNC and Craig urge Congress: Let displaced coal workers access retirement without penalty

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice They built the grid. Now they’re fined for surviving. Colorado coal workers plead for relief amid forced transition fallout. In Craig, a coal worker with $60,000 in retirement savings could lose $6,000 of it overnight—just for trying to survive after losing his job. That’s the reality hundreds of families are facing in Northwest Colorado, where coal plants and mines are shutting down years ahead of schedule and federal tax law is punishing livelihoods already in freefall. Now, the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado (AGNC) and the City of Craig are calling on Congress to change that. The two entities are urging passage of the Energy Worker Penalty Waiver Act, a federal bill that would exempt displaced coal workers from the standard 1...
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Colorado Agriculture Under Siege from Regulation and Rewilding
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State, Approved, denvergazette.com

Colorado Agriculture Under Siege from Regulation and Rewilding

By Rachael Wright | The Denver Gazette Janie VanWinkle is contemplating something she never thought she’d ever consider — selling the family ranch after four generations of living and working in Colorado. “The political environment is so toxic that if we do speak up at all, it falls on deaf ears,” said VanWinkle, a Western Slope rancher. “This is no longer an agriculture-friendly environment or atmosphere. Five years ago, I could never imagine having this conversation with my family.” Colorado's agricultural industry is the state's second-largest economic driver, accounting for more than $47 billion in activity and employing more than 195,000 people. The export of Colorado cattle as of 2024 generated nearly $4.5 billion, making Colorado one of the 10 producers in the nation. Th...
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Outdated Systems and Bureaucracy Stall Critical Water Projects in Colorado
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State, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Outdated Systems and Bureaucracy Stall Critical Water Projects in Colorado

By Jerd Smith | The Colorado Sun A new report says that using new technology, and streamlining processes are among factors that allow other states to issue permits much faster Colorado lags far behind neighboring states when it comes to keeping special permits critical to stopping pollutants from entering streams current, a new report says. Colorado’s backlog has, at times, surged to 70%, while six other states surveyed have fairly few lapsed wastewater treatment permits, according to the report, with Arizona and Oregon, for instance, showing permit backlogs of just 10%. The analysis was commissioned last year to help the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and state lawmakers understand why the situation has deteriorated and how it can be fixed. The per...
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