Rocky Mountain Voice

State

Colorado Capitol Clash Erupts Over Nonprofits Receiving Advanced Taxpayer Funds
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Capitol Clash Erupts Over Nonprofits Receiving Advanced Taxpayer Funds

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER – GOP opposition to a bill passed in the final hours of the 2026 Colorado legislative session around tax dollars going to non-profits stirred up a pot of anger and controversy among Democrat legislators tied to organizations that stood to benefit. So much so that one state senator pledged to pursue restriction next session prohibiting sitting lawmakers from profiting on taxpayer’s money. House Bill 26-1274, sponsored by Democrat Representatives Monica Duran from Jefferson County and Mandy Lindsay from Arapahoe County and carried in the Senate by Democrats Katie Wallace of Boulder and Mike Weissman of Adams County, changed the way non-profits can collect a portion of state grant money in the future. But amendments offered in th...
Polis Responds To Peters Controversy With Taped Mouth Protest
DENVER7, Approved, State

Polis Responds To Peters Controversy With Taped Mouth Protest

By Robert Garrison | Denver7 Denver7 has been following the latest developments in the Tina Peters case. DENVER — Just a week after Democrats censured Gov. Jared Polis for granting Tina Peters clemency, the governor appeared during a party Zoom meeting Wednesday with tape over his mouth. The governor’s stunt during an internal party briefing was seemingly a reaction to last week’s 89.8% censure vote by the Democratic Party’s central committee, of which he is a member. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DENVER7
Tina Peters asks Colorado Supreme Court to overturn convictions after juror wondered if she was “targeted”
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Tina Peters asks Colorado Supreme Court to overturn convictions after juror wondered if she was “targeted”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Business phone lines belonging to a juror were cut on the first Friday of Tina Peters’ trial. For the next 10 days, the juror wondered if she was being “targeted.”  The Colorado Court of Appeals said in April that none of that required a hearing.  Peters is now asking the Colorado Supreme Court to rule otherwise. Peters’ lawyers say what happened with the juror had a solution that was set by precedent, a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. And they asked for it—a hearing to investigate whether outside influence may have affected the juror.  Peters’ attorneys filed the motion for the hearing on September 20, 2024. Barrett turned it down later that afternoon. This spring, the Court of Appeals agreed with him. What the ju...
Patti Fox’s daughter was building a life. A driver ran a stop sign.
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Patti Fox’s daughter was building a life. A driver ran a stop sign.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Something woke Patti Fox at midnight. She looked at her phone screen and saw missed calls going back to 10:15 p.m. A friend of Carissa's had called over and over from Chicago. He'd been tracking her on a location app and saw that she'd been moved to a hospital.  Fox started calling hospitals in Aurora. Getting anyone to tell her anything was its own fight. Carissa didn't have her driver's license on her that night and had been checked in as a Jane Doe. When Fox finally located her at HCA Health One, the message from staff was short. "They said, ‘get here,’" Fox told RMV. With two kids in tow and her husband Daniel beside her, Fox drove an hour and a half south in the dark. "The whole time I was just praying ...
Colorado Mountain Towns Feel Economic Pain After Historic Dry Winter
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Mountain Towns Feel Economic Pain After Historic Dry Winter

By Bernadette Berdychowski | Colorado Politics Rocky, snow‑starved slopes. Rivers rising too soon. Resorts shutting down in April. Drought rules spreading statewide. These aren’t just signs of a bad winter — they’re red flags. And now another one is flashing across the Rockies: falling sales‑tax revenues that threaten the budgets and stability of mountain towns already stretched thin. Sales‑tax revenues — a key measure of local spending and a major source of city funding — dropped across many Colorado mountain towns in the first months of the year, largely because the unusually dry winter kept visitors away. In December, some towns saw only slight declines or even small gains. In Breckenridge, businesses said tourists who had already booked their trips an...
Colorado Copper Theft Disrupts Transit And Emergency Communications
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Copper Theft Disrupts Transit And Emergency Communications

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette At the state Capitol, legislators have responded by passing a bill aimed at cracking down down on the sale of stolen metals used in critical infrastructure. While signing the legislation, Gov. Jared Polis said it would deter individuals from selling stolen metal. “Theft of any kind is unacceptable and this new law will help protect Colorado’s infrastructure. This will help keep our trains running, homes heated, and buildings safe. By signing this bill into law today, Colorado is cracking down on crime to prevent copper wire theft, and keep our communities safe,” Polis said in a statement. But others have expressed worries about people who legally collect scrap materials and who rely on the immediate cash from selling it to bu...
Copper Creek Wolves Drive Majority Of Colorado Livestock Losses
The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Copper Creek Wolves Drive Majority Of Colorado Livestock Losses

By Miles Blumhardt | The Coloradoan Beef, and mutton, are often what's for dinner for one Colorado wolfpack that has racked up a $700,000 tab, according to a review by the Coloradoan. The Copper Creek pack has been implicated in more than 60% of the state's confirmed depredations — 49 of 78 —since Colorado began reintroducing wolves in December 2023, a review of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's confirmed depredations records and ranchers' depredation claim filings shows. Those losses led to payouts by the state exceeding $700,000. That is greater than 40% of the total amount Colorado has paid for wolf depredations in that time. In total, the agency awarded ranchers more than $1.6 million in wolf depredation claims combined in 2024 and 2025. That's more than doub...
Colorado’s New Gun Licensing Scheme Faces Growing Legal Pushback
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado’s New Gun Licensing Scheme Faces Growing Legal Pushback

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER– In the run-up to Colorado’s  semi-automatic gun licensing scheme, going into effect on August 1, the Colorado Department of Revenue released guidelines which includes approximately 900 firearm makes and models that will be heavily regulated by the looming new law, many of which have gun-rights advocates calling foul.    As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the Democrat-backed Senate Bill 003, passed during the 2025 legislative session, heaps a long list a list of new burdens on potential gun buyers prior to purchasing a semiautomatic firearm.  Among other things, the law requires Coloradans complete a 12 hour, in person, firearms course through their local sheriff’s office, after a backg...
Where did the road money go?: Examining Colorado transportation claims
Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State

Where did the road money go?: Examining Colorado transportation claims

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project HB26-1430 (see the first link below for some earlier context) is the Colorado Democrats’ measure to kneecap Initiative 175, the measure that would enforce that road dollars actually go to building roads. The measure passed the legislature with some last-minute fussing, and included some new amendments. The Sum and Substance article linked second below details how things went down in the last days of the legislative session. The purpose of this post is not to look at HB26-1430 in its final form or how that will affect (or not) Initiative 175. There’s more coming in the saga and I’ll hold off on updates til something concrete pops up. No, I wanted to share a couple of quotes from Democrat politicians appearing in the Su...
The Poudre records: How a school “safe space” became a five-year parental-rights battle
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The Poudre records: How a school “safe space” became a five-year parental-rights battle

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice It has been just over five years. No one has been held accountable. That is how Erin Lee describes what happened on May 4, 2021 and everything since. Federal litigation, Supreme Court petitions and public records battles have produced thousands of pages of emails, court filings and internal policies. "It's been an insane five years," she told RMV in May. “She came home and excitedly proclaimed she was transgender” The Lees moved from Florida to Wellington, Colorado in 2020. Erin says she and her husband were "faithless, left-leaning parents" with a close relationship with their daughter. In spring 2021 that daughter had just turned twelve and was enrolled at Wellington Middle School. Her homeroom and art teacher was Jenn...