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Families Declare Colorado Court Competency Laws Broken
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kdvr.com, Approved, State

Families Declare Colorado Court Competency Laws Broken

By Jared Dean | KDVR Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — Joel Lang was in court, accused of hitting, dragging and eventually killing Kirsty Kerst at a Monument McDonald’s drive-through in 2024. Lang, who turned himself in after police sent out a bulletin with his vehicle in the image, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. His charges were dropped after he was found incompetent to stand trial earlier this month. “This really has changed our entire lives. There is no going back to normal for us. This is our normal. We’re standing up to fight against injustice, and that’s not a small thing,” Kerst’s daughter Britany Visage said. The Kerst family is now part of an advocacy group asking for a change in Colorado’s competency laws. “I don’t want this to keep happening to other peo...
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Big Beautiful Bill Sparks Heated Debate Among Colorado Lawmakers
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State, Approved, KUNC

Big Beautiful Bill Sparks Heated Debate Among Colorado Lawmakers

By Lucas Brady Woods | KUNC All eight of the state’s U.S. House members shared a stage Tuesday at the Colorado Chamber of Commerce’s congressional luncheon in Denver, where they touted bipartisanship but remained divided over issues like health care and energy. The panel discussion spanned tariffs, the budget deficit, workforce challenges, the environment and energy policy, with much of it centered on the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” a sweeping federal spending measure passed earlier this year and signed into law by President Donald Trump, and how it will impact Colorado. Republican members praised the measure while Democrats criticized various parts of it, underscoring the partisan divides despite repeated calls for bipartisanship.The most significant partisan disagreements at ...
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Six cities sue Colorado over zoning and parking laws as state stays silent
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State, Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Six cities sue Colorado over zoning and parking laws as state stays silent

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “As of this writing we have not heard back from the State.” That’s how Greenwood Village Mayor George Lantz summed up the status of a lawsuit the six Front Range cities filed in May against the state of Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis, the Department of Local Affairs and its executive director, Maria De Cambra. The case targets two 2024 laws—HB 24-1313 and HB 24-1304—that, according to the cities, trample Colorado’s constitutional guarantee of Home Rule. The mayors say the fight is about constitutional rights, not political turf wars. “Contrary to some criticisms, the current fight is not based on party politics… Our residents deserve to have a voice about land use in their own communities and neighborhoods,” they wrote in a joint open July 14 let...
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Colorado Filed a Pre-Big Bill Application that Could Save Provider Payments
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State, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Filed a Pre-Big Bill Application that Could Save Provider Payments

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing submitted an application for a state directed payments program seven days before the bill became law. Colorado is hoping a just-under-the-wire application to the federal government will help soften the blow of Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the recently signed tax and spending measure. The application is to create what is known as a state directed payments program. Such programs pull down extra federal Medicaid funding that can then be paid to health care providers with the goal of expanding access to care and improving the quality of the care. Colorado submitted its application to federal health care authorities June 27. Seven days later, President Donald Trump signed t...
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Garbo: The Dangerous Hubris of Deputizing Non-Citizens to Police Americans
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Garbo: The Dangerous Hubris of Deputizing Non-Citizens to Police Americans

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Why Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and Trust Demand Citizenship in Law Enforcement Since 2016, various jurisdictions in Colorado began allowing non-citizens - specifically lawful permanent residents and in some cases, DACA recipients - to serve as police officers.  This is not a progressive step forward, but rather, it is a profound public policy misstep. It is the height of hubris to assume that someone who is not a full citizen of this country should be vested with the authority to police those who are. Law enforcement is not merely a career track or a staffing challenge. It is a solemn extension of state power, a delegation of the people's sovereignty. In the American system of self-governance, that sovereignty lies exclusi...
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Colorado Faces $800 Million Budget Gap With No Deal In Sight
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State, Approved, denvergazette.com

Colorado Faces $800 Million Budget Gap With No Deal In Sight

By: Luige Del Puerto | The Denver Gazette Colorado legislators will convene at the state Capitol in about two weeks without first having secured a deal — with the governor or among themselves — outlining how to plug an $800 million budget deficit, which means the upcoming special session could be more open-ended and the fiscal prescriptions, whatever they may be, less defined. An agreement might materialize between now and the special session later this month, as policymakers scramble to line up ideas on how or where to cut the state budget. Gov. Jared Polis said his proclamation a few days ago set the parameters of what the legislators will discuss — but it will be up to the latter to decide the details of the fiscal remedy. "The legislators decide what bills to pass...
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Kaiser Permanently Ends Gender Transition Services for Colorado Minors
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Kaiser Permanently Ends Gender Transition Services for Colorado Minors

By Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette Citing pressure from the Trump administration, Kaiser Permanente is the latest health system to acquiesce to demands that it cease providing gender transition services to minors that includes chemical or surgical procedures. Kaiser CEO Greg A. Adams announced the change in an email to executives, saying “there has been significant focus by the federal government on gender-affirming care” for minors since President Donald Trump assumed office. “After significant deliberation and consultation with internal and external experts including our physicians, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause gender-affirming surgical treatment for patients under the age of 19 in our hospitals and surgical centers,” Adams said in the email. While the p...
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O’Donnell: Colorado isn’t creating jobs—it’s creating unemployment
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

O’Donnell: Colorado isn’t creating jobs—it’s creating unemployment

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  January 2023 was a changeover month of sorts in the United States because it marked a division between the taxpayer subsidized COVID economy and the less subsidized post-COVID economy. According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the United States added 3,149,000 jobs between January 2023 and June 2025, a 2.0 percent increase for the nation as a whole.  Employment growth so far this century has averaged just under one percent a year, so the 2.0 percent figure is roughly on track (although preliminary July BLS data are less positive and subject to revision). At the same time, unemployment increased by 1,268,000, a 22.1 percent rise. This is a less positive aspect of the economy that few seem ...
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Over 100K Acres Burn As Lee Fire Ranks Among State’s Worst
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State, Approved, The Gazette

Over 100K Acres Burn As Lee Fire Ranks Among State’s Worst

By: Jonathan Ingraham | The Gazette The Lee fire southwest of Meeker, Colorado in Rio Blanco County has become the sixth largest wildfire in Colorado history, eclipsing the 2012 High Park fire, which burned 87,284 acres west of Fort Collins. The fire grew from over 88,000 acres to over 92,000 acres throughout the day on Saturday, with no containment, state fire officials said. By Sunday morning, the fire had burned 106,672 acres, however, some progress had been made and the fire was at 6% containment, according to state fire officials and federal fire maps.  A map published by the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025 shows the growth of the Lee and Elk Fires near Meeker, Colorado. Credit: Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team, Facebook Mand...
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Kerber: How Colorado’s density push is an attack on the single-family home
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The Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Kerber: How Colorado’s density push is an attack on the single-family home

By Dave Kerber | Commentary, The Gazette Our neighborhoods and communities are faced with a challenge to the very character of the place we have chosen to live. We live in a unique and astonishing place. People flock to Colorado because of our blue skies, fresh air and mountains. Coloradans have no desire to be New York City. These are two distinct and very different lifestyle choices. Yet, those in charge of Colorado at the moment want to bring that New York density here to Colorado — to change forever what makes Colorado such an incredible place to live and work. As a species, we have always wanted to live and work in larger spaces. It’s human nature. Two hundred years ago, it was common for families to live in a one-room cabin. One hundred years ago, it was normal to have 2-3 peop...
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