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Colorado Responds To Federal Coal Extension Orders With New Emissions Requirements
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Responds To Federal Coal Extension Orders With New Emissions Requirements

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette Gov. Jared Polis signed into law a bill in reaction to orders from the U.S. Department of Energy to keep older coal units online. The federal government’s instructions applied to Craig Unit 1 in Colorado, one of five coal units affected nationwide. The state legislation requires installation of modern pollution controls and cost reporting for any Colorado coal-fired power plants that continue operating beyond planned retirement dates. The measure, House Bill 26-1226, also directs the Public Utilities Commission to support resource planning consistent with state clean energy goals. The legislation signed June 4 targets qualifying coal units that emitted significant nitrogen oxides or sulfur dioxide in 2024. It...
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Lawmakers Put Reliability And Energy Costs Ahead Of New Climate Mandates In 2026
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The Sum & Substance, Approved, Commentary, State

Lawmakers Put Reliability And Energy Costs Ahead Of New Climate Mandates In 2026

By: Ed Sealover | Commentary, The Sum & Substance This legislative session was supposed to be a defining one for the utility and energy sectors — one in which legislators would debate and pass a long-discussed plan to move up the net-zero emissions deadline by 10 years and also remake the Public Utilities Commission. But the story of the 2026 session for energy advocates instead turned out to be all about what didn’t happen. No 2040 net-zero plan got introduced. No radical changes came through the extension of the PUC. And for the first time in over a decade, no existential threats to the oil and gas sector received debate in the 75th General Assembly. The topics that took center stage instead were reliability and affordability of energy sources. Legislators h...
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Denver Post Backs Dougherty Over Griswold In Colorado AG Primary
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Denver Post Backs Dougherty Over Griswold In Colorado AG Primary

By Mike Krause | Complete Colorado (Editor’s note: The Denver Post endorsements linked are paywalled. Complete Colorado is offering this synopsis as a service to non-subscribing primary voters.) DENVER–The Denver Post editorial board on Monday endorsed Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty in the Democratic primary for Colorado Attorney General, passing over the race’s best-known candidate, current Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The Post considered all four Democrat candidates but focused its praise on Dougherty (as well as Hetal Doshi, a former federal prosecutor). While the board acknowledged Griswold as “the only candidate to have actually run a statewide agency,” that credential wasn’t enough. The endorsement makes clear that Dougherty “checked...
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Colorado grew on a wave. The wave is gone.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado grew on a wave. The wave is gone.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado crossed six million people in 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Headlines called it a milestone. What they didn't report is how the state got there, and what's left now that the wave behind the growth has receded. The Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimates, released across state, county and municipal data, include a breakdown most coverage did not examine. The growth wasn’t coming from where it used to From 2015 through 2019, Census Bureau historical data shows Colorado averaged roughly 50,000 net migrants a year. Most were Americans who had sized up their options and chose this state. Then it changed. In 2020, Colorado received a net 239 international migrants. By 2024 that figure...
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Who checks the groups spending Colorado eviction-defense money?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Who checks the groups spending Colorado eviction-defense money?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Following up on Community Eviction Defense Project Update as of 6am on 6/8/26: This post was updated to change the statement that CEDP offered per their request this morning. After writing a deep dive on the Community Eviction Defense Project (CEDP), see the first link below, I had a reader mention something on Twitter that I thought worthy of a follow-up. At about the same time, I heard back on an email I’d sent to the Eviction Legal Defense Fund regarding their grants to CEDP (the Fund being a major source of revenue for them). I’ll cover both in this post, starting with the video from Twitter. The second link below is to a Twitter account that shared a video of testimony before the Denver City Co...
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The Myth Of The Moderate In Today’s Political Landscape
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

The Myth Of The Moderate In Today’s Political Landscape

By Mike Rosen | Commentary, Complete Colorado The word “moderate” is a fashionable term these days as the remedy to the nation’s sharply divided politics, but it’s highly overrated and largely inaccurate.  A stark example is Democrat Abigail Spanberger who was elected governor of Virginia in 2025 as a self-declared moderate. Spanberger promised not to redistrict the state if elected, having branded gerrymandering as “detrimental to our democracy” as a member of Congres in 2019. Yet in her first year in office, she signed a bill that would gerrymander Virginia, giving Democrats a 10-1 advantage in the U.S. House, from 6-5. (Her voting record in Congress was anything but moderate with a 100% rating form the ACLU and 3% from the American Conservative Union.) President John ...
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DOC Lifts Statewide Visitation Ban At Most Facilities Following Deadly Prison Incident
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

DOC Lifts Statewide Visitation Ban At Most Facilities Following Deadly Prison Incident

By Jesse Sarles | CBS Colorado The Colorado Department of Corrections has lifted its suspension on visitations at all facilities statewide except one after a 27-year-old inmate and a 59-year-old inmate were killed and another was injured in an incident over the weekend at a southern Colorado prison. DOC spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez said the violent incident happened on Saturday in Las Animas at the Bent County Correctional Facility. No staff members were hurt. A lockdown was enacted right away. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CBS COLORADO
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Federal Judge Blocks Colorado From Enforcing Counseling Ban Against Springs Therapist
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Federal Judge Blocks Colorado From Enforcing Counseling Ban Against Springs Therapist

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A federal judge last week blocked Colorado from enforcing its restriction on conversion therapy for LGBTQ children against a Colorado Springs counselor, after both sides agreed that the state will not pursue professional disciplinary action while the case proceeds. The formalization of a preliminary injunction came days after one appellate judge argued that the Denver-based federal appeals court should decide the issue without delay, likely in plaintiff Kaley Chiles’ favor. In 2019, Colorado prohibited certain state-licensed professionals from attempting to change a minor patient’s gender identity, sexual orientation or to otherwise eliminate feelings of same-sex attraction. Chiles alleged the law violated her First Amendment right...
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Colorado calls its elections a model. Mark Cook says voters have lost oversight of them
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado calls its elections a model. Mark Cook says voters have lost oversight of them

By RMV Staff | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado's top election officials call the state's voting system a national model. Secretary of State Jena Griswold has described it as the "gold standard," pointing to first-in-the-nation risk-limiting audits, bipartisan checks and ballot tracking. Mark Cook argues that the people the system is supposed to answer to — voters, and the county clerks closest to them — have lost meaningful oversight of how it runs. Cook made that case during a recent appearance on Unleashed with Heidi Ganahl, where the conversation ranged from election transparency and county clerks to Tina Peters and Gov. Jared Polis. Cook's claim is not that one party rigged a result. It is structural: that administration has drifted upward over time, from county clerks to state...
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Property taxes up, TABOR refunds nearly gone: El Paso County data reveals the real cost of Colorado’s tax system
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Property taxes up, TABOR refunds nearly gone: El Paso County data reveals the real cost of Colorado’s tax system

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The first-half property tax payment is due every year by the end of February. The number on the front has gone up again. Somewhere near the bottom, a small credit appears: "TABOR credit."  El Paso County Assessor Mark Flutcher provided RMV with six years of certified tax data for two El Paso County properties: one in downtown Colorado Springs, one in Lorson Ranch, a newer subdivision south of the city.  The numbers show what has happened to Colorado homeowners.  The property tax bill for the downtown home rose from $1,165.61 in 2022 to $1,472.82 in 2025. The Lorson Ranch bill went from $3,369.39 to $4,933.31 over the same period.  The TABOR credit on both statements, which peaked a...
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