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Colorado Democrats Advance New Oversight Rules For ICE Facilities
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Advance New Oversight Rules For ICE Facilities

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette Colorado state representatives voted along party lines to pass a bill establishing additional inspection requirements for immigration detention centers and expanding civil liabilities related to sharing information with federal immigration authorities. It’s the latest proposal to come out of the state Capitol, which has embraced so-called “sanctuary laws,” which limit or prohibit cooperation with federal authorities on enforcing immigration laws. Notably, House Bill 1276 permits the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to require ICE detention facilities to comply with certain health and safety standards and pay for environmental impact studies. It expands a current law prohibiting employees of ...
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Energy Foundation China Has Been Generous to Those Dealing in Colorado Politics
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Energy Foundation China Has Been Generous to Those Dealing in Colorado Politics

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Energy Foundation China has been generous to those dealing in Colorado politics. One of my recent op eds is linked below. It was a fair bit of research, but worth it. There is a group named Energy Foundation China, which, though it has a San Francisco address for its headquarters, is strongly tied to Beijing, the Chinese government, and the CCP. Another important thing to note is how generous Energy Foundation China has been to environmental and other nonprofits here in Colorado. I was barely able to scratch the surface given how interconnected the nonprofit ecosystem is here in Colorado, but I detail the heavy hitters in a recent op ed below. Follow the money. https://completecolorado.com/202...
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Judge Barrett refuses to step aside in Peters case, defends sentencing math
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Judge Barrett refuses to step aside in Peters case, defends sentencing math

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Judge Matthew Barrett denied Tina Peters' motion to disqualify him on Monday afternoon. In a 16-page order, he accepted every factual claim in the defense affidavits as true, then concluded none of them meet the legal standard for recusal. In a footnote on page 15, he answered the math the defense had used to challenge his letter to the governor. Barrett's order, filed at 3:37 p.m., clears the procedural condition he had cited as the reason he could not rule on Peters' renewed motion for bond pending appeal.  The bond question now sits on his desk under the 48-hour window Colorado Appellate Rule 9(b) sets for ruling on bond pending appeal. The defense's reply on that motion, filed late Sunday night, set up the dispute that follows—a fa...
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The lobbying blueprint behind Colorado’s parental rights erosion
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The lobbying blueprint behind Colorado’s parental rights erosion

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Editor’s note, April 28, 2026: HB26-1322 passed the House on April 2 and cleared Senate Judiciary on April 27. It is under Senate consideration. HB26-1309 passed House Judiciary on March 31 and is in House Appropriations. In 2019, a team of lawyers at one of the world's largest firms produced a document explaining, in precise detail, how to change the law around children and gender without the public knowing it was happening. That document is now a lens through which Colorado's last three legislative sessions make a different kind of sense. Formally titled "Only Adults? Good Practices in Legal Gender Recognition for Youth," the 65-page report was produced pro bono by Dentons — the world's largest law firm by att...
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Colorado Democrats Push Prison Release Measures As Capacity Pressures Mount
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Push Prison Release Measures As Capacity Pressures Mount

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado Three months after the legislative Joint Budget Committee approved emergency funding for nearly 1,000 more beds in Colorado's prisons, the system is already near capacity again. Gov. Jared Polis asked the committee for up to $200 million to reopen a private prison. It set aside about $6 million to partially reopen the facility but, it will cost another $40 million a year to operate it. That's a non-starter for many Democrats who have introduced bills aimed at lowering the prison population instead. State analysis shows that while admissions have been constant, releases are down. State Rep. Jennifer Bacon says the Parole Board has released only 29 inmates this year out of nearly 240 who are past their parole e...
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Colorado Bill Could Lock Xcel Customers Into Decades Of Power Plant Costs
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Bill Could Lock Xcel Customers Into Decades Of Power Plant Costs

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette State regulators would gain expanded power to order Xcel Energy to finance major costs for its chronically troubled Comanche 3 coal plant through bonds backed by a decades-long charge on every customer’s monthly electric bill. House Bill 26-1326, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission sunset bill that cleared its first committee on April 23, would let the PUC direct investor-owned utilities to use securitization under 2019’s Colorado Energy Impact Bond Act. The measure continues the PUC through 2037 while expanding its authority beyond voluntary utility applications. Securitization allows a utility to issue bonds backed by a decades-long charge on ratepayer bills. The charge stays on every bill, with periodic adjustments, only unt...
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Colorado Supreme Court Limits Reach Of Insurance Consumer Protections
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Supreme Court Limits Reach Of Insurance Consumer Protections

By Michael Karlik | The Denver Gazette The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the legislature’s consumer protections requiring insurance companies to take certain steps before they allege a policyholder failed to cooperate do not apply to any obligation specifically laid out in the policy. In 2020, the legislature changed state law to limit insurance companies’ ability to assert a failure-to-cooperate defense when they are sued for withholding benefits. Among other things, an insurer must give a policyholder time to address any specifically identified failures to cooperate in the claim investigation. Plaintiff Anthony Wenzell and the groups supporting him argued the law captures an insurer’s allegation of noncooperation across the board, including ob...
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If the state can take property without a conviction, no property is safe
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

If the state can take property without a conviction, no property is safe

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Civil asset forfeiture began as a narrow exception in colonial maritime law, not as a general tool of domestic policing. In those early admiralty cases, the government often had jurisdiction over the ship or cargo, but not over the owner. The vessel might be in port, but the owner could be overseas, unknown, or beyond the reach of the court. In that circumstance, proceeding against the property itself—an action in rem—was often the only practical way to enforce customs law.  Justice Neil Gorsuch recently highlighted this history in his concurrence in Culley v. Marshall and asked the obvious question: if the government today has full jurisdiction over the person—if it can arrest, charge, and prosecute them directly—...
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Trump’s DOJ joins xAI suit against Colorado AI law as Weiser agrees to halt enforcement
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Trump’s DOJ joins xAI suit against Colorado AI law as Weiser agrees to halt enforcement

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The Colorado attorney general agreed last week to stop enforcing the state's landmark artificial intelligence law. Not because a court told him to. Because he agreed to it himself. That voluntary freeze, formalized in a joint filing with plaintiff xAI LLC, came the same afternoon the U.S. Department of Justice moved to join the lawsuit challenging SB24-205 — Colorado's AI consumer protection law set to take effect June 30.  Chief Judge Daniel D. Domenico granted both the intervention and the standstill within hours. The scheduling conference set for June 16 is gone. Case deadlines are suspended. The courtroom is waiting on a legislature that has 16 days left in its session and a replacement bill that still hasn't ...
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Counties forced to pay: State landfill mandates come without funding
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Counties forced to pay: State landfill mandates come without funding

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Funded mandates on county landfills? One of the consistent complaints coming out of municipal and local governments is the sheer number of unfunded mandates our state government puts on them. For some context on that, I link to an Advance Colorado report on them first below. Not all mandates come from the state legislature either. Sometimes they come from one of the copious unelected boards running more of the state than they should. A recent decision by the unelected Air Quality Control Council imposed significant costs on smaller, municipal landfills regarding methane controls. As usual, this mandate did not come with any dollars to help fund it. My state senator, B Pelton, has put forward a bi...
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