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SB280 offers millions to tech giants—some say it’ll leave ratepayers holding the bill
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

SB280 offers millions to tech giants—some say it’ll leave ratepayers holding the bill

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun With the help of generous corporate tax breaks, the state of Virginia has built up a data center industry that’s the envy of some Colorado lawmakers. The tax incentives helped bring Virginia over $9 billion in economic investments and some 75,000 jobs. In some communities, data centers make up as much as a third of the local tax base. But in the wake of a 2024 state audit detailing the growing environmental and financial costs for Virginia residents, public officials there have growing doubts over whether those jobs were worth the price. A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants Colorado to follow in the footsteps of states like Virginia that offer big tech companies a blanket sales tax exemption for data centers, the energy-hungry server far...
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Montana governor urges gunmakers to ditch Colorado after new weapons ban
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Approved, Fox News, National, State

Montana governor urges gunmakers to ditch Colorado after new weapons ban

By Alec Schemmel | Fox News FIRST ON FOX: GOP Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte is launching a video campaign to remind gun manufacturers in Colorado that if they move just a few hundred miles to the north, they can be free of one of the nation's most restrictive gun control bills signed into law earlier this month in their state. "Do you want to move back to America?" Gianforte is asking Colorado gunmakers, after Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed S.B. 25-003 into law earlier this month. The new law, which is slated to go into effect in August 2026, effectively bans the manufacture, sale or purchase of semi-automatic firearms that accept detachable magazines, which include most AR-15s and AK-47 rifles sold in the United States. Some tactical shotguns and a few select handguns wi...
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Colorado’s ‘totalitarian’ transgenderism bill sparks concerns from parents
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Approved, Fox News, State

Colorado’s ‘totalitarian’ transgenderism bill sparks concerns from parents

 By Taylor Penley | Fox News Parental rights advocates are cautioning against a "totalitarian" transgenderism bill rammed through the Colorado state House that they say could jeopardize parents' chances in custody battles if they "misgender" or "deadname" their children. "This is giving the authority to our state to take our children away if we don't agree with these gender transitions, so it's got huge ramifications for all parents, especially those in custody situations who are fighting with their ex-spouses to stop their children from being medicalized," Erin Lee, a mom from the Centennial State, told "The Faulkner Focus" on Monday. She added, "It opens the door for all parents to potentially have their children forcibly removed by the state if they're not willing to affir...
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Colorado joins multistate lawsuit challenging Trump administration tariffs
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Approved, denvergazette.com, National, State

Colorado joins multistate lawsuit challenging Trump administration tariffs

By Marissa Ventrelli | Denver Gazette Colorado has joined a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration for imposing tariffs on about 90 different countries, Attorney General Phil Weiser and Gov. Jared Polis announced Wednesday. Weiser and Polis said the tariffs are "destroying our economy, increasing costs on Americans, plunging markets, and putting America on the track to a recession." The president has argued that the tariffs would reverse decades of what he called unfair treatment in the form of a trade deficit by the rest of the world. His trade policy, he said, would result in factories and jobs moving back to the United States. The states on the suit included Oregon, Arizona, Illinois, and New York. "Coloradans are already starting to feel the effects of the T...
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Court sides with new Colorado GOP Chair, blocks committee tied to former leadership
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Court sides with new Colorado GOP Chair, blocks committee tied to former leadership

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A district judge in El Paso County has rejected an attempt by the Colorado Republican Party’s Investigative Committee—an entity formed under former chair Dave Williams—to intervene in a lawsuit that the party’s current leadership has moved to dismiss. In a ruling filed April 23, District Court Judge Amanda J. Philipps found that the Investigative Committee lacks standing and legal authority to join or intervene in the ongoing civil case, saying the group was assigned "limited tasks" and does not possess independent power to act on behalf of the Colorado Republican State Central Committee (CRC). "Absent an express statutory right, a subordinate state agency lacks standing or any other legal authority to obtain judicial rev...
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Colorado law limits what voters can verify—and critics say that needs to change
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Approved, Local, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado law limits what voters can verify—and critics say that needs to change

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Mesa County’s Ballot Verifier tool has been praised for giving residents unprecedented access to redacted ballot images and cast vote records. But for some longtime election integrity advocates, it’s only part of the solution. “This is a great step forward,” said Ed Arnos, a Mesa County resident and former lottery systems designer. “But it doesn’t verify the most important part—how the ballots were actually read.” This article is Part 3 of a three-part series on the Ballot Verifier: Mesa’s launch, Ada County’s pilot and the debate over election transparency laws. A philosophical divide Mesa County residents Tom Keenan and Ed Arnos have supported election transparency efforts for years. But both say the current syste...
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Uber warns it may leave Colorado if new rideshare bill becomes law
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Uber warns it may leave Colorado if new rideshare bill becomes law

By Marissa Ventrelli | Denver Gazette The largest rideshare company in the US says it will be forced to stop operations in Colorado if a bill that places certain regulations on transportation network companies becomes law.  House Bill 1291, sponsored by Reps. Jenny Willford, D-Northglenn, and Meg Froelich, D-Englewood, and Sens. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, and Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, would require rideshare companies to conduct background checks on drivers every six months and prohibit them from hiring applicants who have been convicted of crimes including domestic violence, stalking, and harassment. The bill also requires companies to investigate complaints about drivers within 72 hours. If the allegations are found to likely be true, they must deactivate the ...
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Polis faces pressure as veto showdown looms on sweeping social media bill
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Approved, KUNC, State

Polis faces pressure as veto showdown looms on sweeping social media bill

By Bente Birkeland | CPR News On November 8, 2020, Chelsea Congdon’s life changed forever.  She and her husband had invited friends over for a backyard party at their home in Old Snowmass. They were building a bonfire when a car from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department pulled up.  “The policeman came and found us there and let us know that our son Miles had died in Boulder and his body had been discovered that morning,” she recently recalled to CPR News. “It felt very unreal. And it feels as if your entire life just shatters on the floor and for some reason, you’re still standing. I mean, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s impossible to put together losing a kid.” Her son, Miles Brundige, was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Colorado. He’d grown up big ...
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Children ‘Do not belong to government,’ Education Dept. warns Colorado on transgender bill
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Approved, National, State, The Daily Signal

Children ‘Do not belong to government,’ Education Dept. warns Colorado on transgender bill

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell  | Daily Signal As Colorado lawmakers consider a bill that would take custody rights away from parents who diverge from transgender orthodoxy, the Trump administration’s Education Department says that children aren’t the property of the government. “Children do not belong to the government. They belong to parents,” Education Department spokeswoman Julie Hartman told The Daily Signal. The Colorado House of Representatives passed a bill April 6 that would remove kids from parents’ custody for behaviors such as “misgendering” and “deadnaming” a transgender-identifying child. The bill has yet to progress in the Colorado Senate. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DAILY SIGNAL
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Federal judge extends Colorado deportation ban tied to 1798 law as legal fight escalates
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Approved, ASSOCIATED PRESS, State

Federal judge extends Colorado deportation ban tied to 1798 law as legal fight escalates

By Nicholas Riccardi | Associated Press DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has extended her order temporarily preventing the Trump administration from moving or deporting anyone from Colorado under an 18th century wartime act that has become ensnared in a U.S. Supreme Court battle. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney cited the high court’s weekend order barring removal of anyone from North Texas, where the ACLU had contended the administration was preparing to deport Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 without giving them the legal notice required under a prior Supreme Court ruling. Sweeney continued her freeze on removals from Colorado until May 6 and indicated she may extend it further. She required the federal government to provide 21 days’ notice to a...
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