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How 25 years of housing decisions boxed Colorado into a corner
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Approved, State, Yellow Scene

How 25 years of housing decisions boxed Colorado into a corner

By Santiago Nino | Yellow Scene Twenty-five years ago, Erie was just another small town on the Front Range, the kind of place you only thought about if you lived there. Scattered farmhouses sat under an endless sky, and families were happy to call the place their home. Then, developers saw money signs and started building houses, strip malls. The traffic followed.  Enough traffic to make any of these poor farmers lose it. Now, Erie is one of the fastest-growing towns in Colorado, growing more than 9% in the last year. Over the last 20 years, it became a haven for families priced out of Boulder and Denver. These families are chasing the American dream of a backyard, good schools, and a reasonable commute. For that, you have to live close to where you work. Developers saw opportunity, ...
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Ganahl: From Superior Elementary to sex camps — Colorado parental rights under attack
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Ganahl: From Superior Elementary to sex camps — Colorado parental rights under attack

By Heidi Ganahl | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In 2018, as a mom of four with three of my children in first and third grade at Superior Elementary, I was shocked to learn that our young students were being exposed to confusing gender identity discussions without parental knowledge.  This was done through a program called Queer Endeavor at CU Boulder, which trained thousands of teachers in the metro area to integrate “queering the curriculum” around “problematic parents.” As a statewide elected University of Colorado Regent at the time, I felt a responsibility to speak out, warning that this was the start of a dangerous trend.  I was called a fearmonger and mocked.  But today, that warning has become a chilling reality. Colorado schools and universiti...
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Free speech or safer feeds? Colorado reacts after Senate overrides veto of social media bill
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Free speech or safer feeds? Colorado reacts after Senate overrides veto of social media bill

By Marissa Ventrelli | Denver Gazette Several groups on Friday lauded the Colorado state Senate's veto override of a bill that seeks to impose certain regulations on social media platforms in the hopes they would crack down on users who violate their rules, while critics called the bill censorious and argued it would give tech companies "too much power" to "de-platform" people. The Senate voted to override the governor's veto on a 29-6 vote. The state House is expected to hold its override vote next week. Senate Bill 086 would require social media companies to evaluate reports of policy violations within 72 hours. If a user is found to have violated the policy, the platform must remove that person or entity within 24 hours. The bill would also require social media companies to sub...
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Colorado Supreme Court tightens child welfare case rules: No jury trial without parental presence
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Colorado Supreme Court tightens child welfare case rules: No jury trial without parental presence

By Michael Karlik | Denver Gazette The Colorado Supreme Court adopted on Monday a package of revisions to the rules governing child welfare cases, while modifying one section that governs when a parent surrenders their right to have a jury decide if their child is neglected. Earlier this month, the justices held a hearing to evaluate the long-running group effort to revise the rules of juvenile procedure. They heard the proposed package had achieved consensus among the entities with a stake in such proceedings. The proposal reflected recent changes to state law and clarified the unique position children occupy in dependency and neglect matters — the formal name for child neglect cases. However, the Supreme Court ended up tweaking the language that des...
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ACLU targets ICE to block detention facility expansion in Colorado
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Approved, kdvr.com, State

ACLU targets ICE to block detention facility expansion in Colorado

By Heather Willard | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — The American Civil Liberties Union is making Colorado a battleground state against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it sues to access what the nonprofit says should be publicly requestable documents. According to the ACLU and the ACLU of Colorado, it all stems from attempts by ICE to expand immigration detention in Colorado and Wyoming. FOX31 learned during an exclusive ride-along with ICE Denver agents earlier this week that there are plans to double the number of available beds for immigration arrests in the Denver area. FOX31 was told the new facility will have at least as many beds as the more than 1,500 beds in the existing Aurora ICE Contract Facility, and said the new facility would likely be located in Hudson and o...
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Colorado Senate overrides Gov. Jared Polis veto of social media bill
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Colorado Senate overrides Gov. Jared Polis veto of social media bill

By Marianne Goodland | Denver Gazette The state Senate voted 29-6 on Friday morning to override Gov. Jared Polis's veto of a social media bill. The 29-6 vote was five above the two-thirds majority required for an override. It's the first override of a Polis gubernatorial veto of a bill-or any bill from his three predecessors-since the administration of Gov. Roy Romer in 1988. There have been other veto overrides—in 2007 and 2011—but those were directions from the General Assembly to state agencies as part of the budget process. In at least three decades, no governor has vetoed a budget bill or even a line item in a budget bill, although they do veto those legislative directions occasionally. Senate Bill 86 would compel large social media companies to remove accounts engaged in ...
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Wolf dies in Rocky Mountain National Park, federal officials investigating
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Approved, kdvr.com, State

Wolf dies in Rocky Mountain National Park, federal officials investigating

By Heather Willard | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — A second gray wolf introduced to Colorado has died during April, this time inside the boundaries of Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said that the female gray wolf’s GPS tracking collar issued a mortality alert on April 20. The wolf was one of the 15 released by CPW earlier this year, brought to the state from British Columbia, Canada. CPW and the National Park Service confirmed the wolf died inside the boundaries of RMNP, and said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a necropsy and other investigative efforts because gray wolves are federally listed under the Endangered Species Act. In March, another one of the gray wolves brought to Colorado from Canada was shot and killed by Wildlife Ser...
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Gimelshteyn: The unraveling medical crisis that Colorado parents must pay attention to
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Gimelshteyn: The unraveling medical crisis that Colorado parents must pay attention to

By Lori Gimelshteyn | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Just a few years ago, parents were assured that “gender-affirming care” was lifesaving, compassionate, and backed by science. Affirmation, puberty blockers, hormones, and ultimately surgery were sold as the only path forward for a child questioning whether they were “born in the wrong body.”  But the cracks in this narrative are widening—and behind them lies a deeply troubling truth: children have been swept into a medical experiment that ignores mental health, underlying trauma, and long-term consequences. Families across Colorado have shared heartbreaking stories of what happened when they trusted this system.  Many parents believed they were doing the right thing—only to realize that the affirmative model...
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House Bill 1303: Transportation ‘tip jar’ ignores Colorado’s crumbling roads
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Approved, completecolorado.com, State

House Bill 1303: Transportation ‘tip jar’ ignores Colorado’s crumbling roads

By Rep. Scott Bottoms | Complete Colorado A friend told me about a recent experience at a fast-food restaurant. He arrived to pick up and pay for his order, and the cashier made a point of twice pointing him to the tip jar. My friend asked me, “Why should I pay him extra when I pick up a sack? Doesn’t everyone understand that I’ve already paid for that?” It’s a fair question, and one that springs to mind with Colorado House Bill 1303, which recently passed out of the House of Representatives. The legislation will create yet another “enterprise” (a government-run business designed to circumvent the taxpayer refunds normally paired with overcollected revenues under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights). It will be funded with a new fee impose on insurance companies that issue policies to C...
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Republican agenda gets rejected at Colorado capitol
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Approved, Axios Denver, State

Republican agenda gets rejected at Colorado capitol

By John Frank | Axios Denver GOP state senators started this legislative session with four bills they say would save Colorado families $4,500 a year by cutting regulations and fees. Why it matters: The legislation was doomed to fail in a Democratic-controlled Legislature. But it could force Democrats to take positions in favor of taxes and fees, which could haunt them on the campaign trail. State of play: Three of the GOP bills are dead and the other is not expected to advance. READ THE FULL STORY AT AXIOS DENVER
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