Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

State

Colorado officials thought they had 3 more years to spend $1.5B in federal COVID aid. They have 11 months.
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado officials thought they had 3 more years to spend $1.5B in federal COVID aid. They have 11 months.

By Brian Eason | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN Colorado state budget writers are in a race against the clock to spend $1.5 billion in leftover federal pandemic aid before the end of 2024 thanks to new guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department. The deadline is two full years sooner than state lawmakers and Polis administration officials had expected. That has set off a mad scramble to rewrite the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, to allow the state to spend federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars faster than lawmakers intended. The time crunch arose from shifting guidance from federal officials on how they define “obligated,” a term that doesn’t exist in state law. Federal law has long required ARPA recipients to “obligate” all of their funding by th...
Read More
How Colorado voters are reacting to Lauren Boebert’s congressional district swap
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

How Colorado voters are reacting to Lauren Boebert’s congressional district swap

By Jesse Bedayn, The Associated Press/Report for America | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN LAST CHANCE — Fleeing a tough reelection bid in the district where she lives, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is moving from the mountains to the plains, in the hopes of finding conservative pastures green enough to salvage her place in Congress. To win, she’ll have to convince a new swath of voters that her brand of white-hot, far-right political activism — built on divisive one-liners and partisan ferocity in the U.S. House — is more needed in Washington than the home-grown Republicans she now faces in the primary. While Boebert’s new district voted for President Donald Trump by a nearly 20 percentage point margin in 2020, more than double the margin in her old district, and some Republic...
Read More
THIS WEEK AT THE COLORADO CAPITOL | Week of Jan. 22, 2024
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

THIS WEEK AT THE COLORADO CAPITOL | Week of Jan. 22, 2024

By Marianne Goodland | SOURCE: COLORADO POLITICS Here are legislative committee hearings and other events of note for the week ahead for the Colorado General Assembly. Committee schedules are subject to change. Schedules for both the House and Senate can change at any time. The website is the best resource for keeping up with daily activities.  Options for public testimony during committee hearings can be found here.  Regulations for remote testimony by the public can be found here. READ FULL ARTICLE ON COLORADOPOLITICS.COM
Read More
“I forced Lauren Bobert to Change Districts”: Meet the Libertarian Running for Congress in CD 3, James Wiley
No Comments
Approved, freestatecolorado.com, Local, State, Western Slope

“I forced Lauren Bobert to Change Districts”: Meet the Libertarian Running for Congress in CD 3, James Wiley

By Brandon Wark | SOURCE: FREE STATE COLORADO James Wiley is marching for peace. Not only is he marching around the State Capitol in Denver, but he will be marching to Washington DC if he wins his Congressional campaign. James, a local pro-liberty activist is running as a Libertarian for Congress in CD 3. James was running against Lauren Boebert before she switched districts because in part, Boebert refused to sign the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s Pledge for Pro-Liberty Republicans. He is still committed to ensuring that the Republican nominee supports pro-liberty positions and is not going to drop out of the race until there is a signer to the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s Pledge. In this interview, James explains how he became a pro-liberty activist, why he decided...
Read More
Colorado’s Attorney General Grants $3.9M for Opioid Abuse Treatment in Prisons
No Comments
Approved, State, thelobby-co.com

Colorado’s Attorney General Grants $3.9M for Opioid Abuse Treatment in Prisons

SOURCE: THELOBBY-CO.COM Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has recently come under fire for allocating a staggering $3.94 million grant to the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) for the treatment of opioid addiction. Critics argue that these funds should have been prioritized for law enforcement to prevent the distribution, sale, and use of opioids first. The two-year agreement between the Colorado Department of Law and the CDOC will focus on delivering medications for “opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment,” behavioral health counseling, and care coordination for inmates in state correctional facilities. According to Weiser, "Two-thirds of today's incarcerated population, on a nationwide basis, struggles with a substance use disorder, and that percentage is even higher in...
Read More
Colorado Introduces a New Railroad Safety Bill in Response to Recent Derailments
No Comments
Approved, State, thelobby-co.com

Colorado Introduces a New Railroad Safety Bill in Response to Recent Derailments

SOURCE: THELOBBY-CO.COM A new train safety bill is currently making its way through the Colorado legislature, aiming to enhance safety measures for railroads across the state. House Bill 24-1030, if passed, will require railroads to implement additional safety features, impose restrictions on the length and weight of trains carrying hazardous materials, and limit the duration that trains can block major intersections during their passage. PRIME SPONSORS Rep. Javier Mabrey Sen. Lisa Cutter Sen. Tony Exum The prime sponsor of the bill, HB24-1030, emphasizes that this legislation had been in progress prior to the tragic derailment incident that occurred north of Pueblo on I-25 in October. The sponsors, who are predominantly Democrats, assert that their primary concern i...
Read More
Over a million dollars raised in push to add abortion guarantee to the Colorado Constitution
No Comments
Approved, completecolorado.com, State

Over a million dollars raised in push to add abortion guarantee to the Colorado Constitution

By Mike Krause | SOURCE: COMPLETE COLORADO PAGE TWO DENVER–Proponents of a citizen-initiated ballot measure to place a guarantee of abortion access in Colorado’s state Constitution have spent over $440,000 just on signature gathering towards the effort, with the campaign reporting there’s plenty more where that came from. According to the Jan. 16 contributions and expenditures filing with the Colorado Secretary of State, the issue committee pushing the measure–Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom–has raised $1,368,811 thus far, while spending just $578, 488, leaving over $790,000 in cash on hand, likely more than enough to ensure the question ends up in front of voters. Currently numbered as Initiative 89, the measure would add a new section to the Colorad...
Read More
Boebert’s Permissive Attitude Towards Teen Pregnancy Raises Concerns for Voters in Both CD3 and CD4
No Comments
Approved, State, thelobby-co.com

Boebert’s Permissive Attitude Towards Teen Pregnancy Raises Concerns for Voters in Both CD3 and CD4

SOURCE: THELOBBY-CO.COM Colorado Representative and now carpetbagger Lauren Boebert's recent comments about teen pregnancy and her own experiences with contraception have sparked controversy and raised questions about her permissive attitude towards this issue. Both have drawn criticism from conservatives who believe in promoting responsible behavior and traditional family values. During a House Oversight Committee hearing in May 2023, Boebert shared a personal story about the conception of her third son. She revealed that she couldn't afford her birth control prescription and decided to forgo it, leading to her unintended third pregnancy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lvJGyRd0EJA?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1 May 23, 2023 "My staff is probably going to talk to me about...
Read More
Failed Biden Economic Policies Lead to Increase in Unemployment Filings in Colorado
No Comments
Approved, State, thelobby-co.com

Failed Biden Economic Policies Lead to Increase in Unemployment Filings in Colorado

SOURCE: THELOBBY-CO.COM The state of Colorado, initial filings for unemployment benefits have surged in the past week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The increase in jobless claims is indicative of the detrimental impact that President Biden's failed economic policies are having on hardworking Coloradans. The latest data reveals that new jobless claims in Colorado reached 2,748 in the week ending January 13, marking an increase from the previous week's 2,648 claims. These numbers paint a stark picture of the struggles faced by Colorado residents in finding and maintaining stable employment. While the nation as a whole experienced a decrease in unemployment claims, with numbers dropping to 187,000 last week, the situation in Colorado tells a different story. It is ev...
Read More
Trump campaign names former legislator Justin Everett as Colorado state director
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, National, State

Trump campaign names former legislator Justin Everett as Colorado state director

By Ernest Luning | SOURCE: COLORADO POLITICS Donald Trump's presidential campaign has hired former state Rep. Justin Everett as its Colorado state director, the Colorado Republican Party announced Friday, The move comes less than a month before mail ballots are set to go out for Colorado's March 5 presidential primary, where Trump is set to face three other Republicans in a vote to determine how the state GOP will apportion delegates to the Republican National Convention. On Sunday, the state Republican central committee formally endorsed Trump in an unprecedented break from the party's longstanding practice of staying neutral in primaries. After representing a Jefferson County house district for three terms, from 2013-2019, Everett lost a primary for state treasurer ...
Read More