Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

State

Before the funding push: How Colorado’s childcare case is being built
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Before the funding push: How Colorado’s childcare case is being built

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The building of the childcare narrative, ahead of a taxpayer funding push This is a lengthy story, so I want to start with a quick introduction/overview. There is a push to get government to pay for (and/or perhaps operate?) childcare in Colorado. I am sure that the policy moves will be in the legislature and/or on the ballot soon enough, but you and I are lucky enough to be witness to it in its infancy. We are lucky enough to see the narrative being built from the ground up. What I have for you today is a couple of posts falling loosely into the categories of “how do the media work in concert with market research and evaluation consultants to help drive your opinions?” and then “how are the high ups in...
Read More
Gonzales Challenges Hickenlooper While Baisley Awaits November Matchup for Colorado Senate Seat
No Comments
DENVER7, Approved, State

Gonzales Challenges Hickenlooper While Baisley Awaits November Matchup for Colorado Senate Seat

By: Colette Bordelon | Denver7 Denver7 spoke with Senator John Hickenlooper, State Sen. Julie Gonzales, and State Sen. Mark Baisley ahead of the June 30 primary election. DENVER — With less than two weeks until Colorado's primary election, voters have a number of important decisions to make. At the top of both ballots are the candidates vying to either win — or maintain — one of the coveted two spots in the U.S. Senate. The seat is currently held by Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, who is being challenged by State Sen. Julie Gonzales in the primary election. State Sen. Mark Baisley is running unopposed on the Republican ballot. Unaffiliated voters in Colorado can choose between the two primary ballots, but cannot submit both. Ballots must be receiv...
Read More
Colorado’s July Laws Reshape Firearm Sales and Wildfire Insurance Rules
No Comments
kdvr.com, Approved, State

Colorado’s July Laws Reshape Firearm Sales and Wildfire Insurance Rules

By Maddie Rhodes | KDVR DENVER (KDVR) — Several Colorado laws are set to go into effect starting in July. While Colorado laws get passed all the time, the effective date is sometimes delayed to make sure people have time to comply with the law before there are penalties. Usually, several laws go into effect in January at the start of the year and in July, just past the halfway point of the year. In January, laws surrounding gun show requirements and deceptive pricing practices went into effect. Now, laws including the sale of firearm ammunition and property insurance policies are going into effect on July 1. Colorado laws going into effect Here are some of the laws going into effect: New requirements for sale of firearm ammunition House...
Read More
Crank Says Colorado Springs Needs Results Not Anti-Trump Politics From Democrats
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Crank Says Colorado Springs Needs Results Not Anti-Trump Politics From Democrats

By Vince Bzdek | Colorado Politics For U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, who’s unopposed in the Republican primary for the 5th Congressional District but the main target of both candidates in the lively Democratic primary, the big question in the midterms is not who will stand up to President Donald Trump best. “The question, and I think this will be one in this race, is, does this community just want somebody who’s anti-Trump to fight and push back on Trump? Or do they want somebody who, no matter who the president is, whether it’s Joe Biden or Donald Trump, is going to go try and work to represent this community and get the best things for this community that they can?” Crank has been criticized by the Democratic candidates Jessica Killin and Joe Reagan for not standing up to Tr...
Read More
Before you return your ballot: What you get to decide, and what’s already decided.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Before you return your ballot: What you get to decide, and what’s already decided.

By RMV Staff Ballots are already coming back across Colorado, but many voters are still making up their minds. Since January, RMV has followed candidates from campaign launches and candidate forums to assemblies, debates and ballot qualification fights. Before you return your ballot, here's what stood out. The race that could end a 24-year streak For Republicans, the governor's race is the biggest decision on the ballot. It has also been a losing one for a long time. No Republican has won the governor's office since Bill Owens in 2002. Democrats have held it ever since, through Ritter, Hickenlooper and two terms of Polis. Barb Kirkmeyer, Scott Bottoms and Victor Marx are asking Republican voters for the chance to end it. RMV asked all three candidates the same questions, ...
Read More
Colorado Activists Push Ban on Traditional Lead Ammunition for Hunters
No Comments
Sportsmen’s Alliance, Approved, State

Colorado Activists Push Ban on Traditional Lead Ammunition for Hunters

By Sportsmen’s Alliance | Sportsmen’s Alliance Anti-hunting extremists—led by disgraced former Humane Society of the United States executive who was forced to resign amid sexual harassment allegations Wayne Pacelle—petitioned the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission (CPW) to ban hunting with traditional lead ammunition in the Centennial State. This move comes just months after they snuck an amendment into the federal Farm Bill that would have banned hunting with dogs—a move that Sportsmen’s Alliance defeated. Why are Activists Targeting Lead Ammunition and Tackle? Banning traditional lead ammunition has been the goal of these groups for some time. In 2010, several groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban the manu...
Read More
PowerGab Examines the Cost of Energy Mandates as Xcel Seeks Massive Rate Hike
No Comments
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

PowerGab Examines the Cost of Energy Mandates as Xcel Seeks Massive Rate Hike

By: Mike Krause | Complete Colorado In a recent episode of Independence Institute’s* PowerGab energy podcast, hosts Amy Cooke and Jake Fogleman look at Xcel Energy’s request for a massive electricity price hike in Colorado (originally $355 million, now pared down to roughly $245 million). The duo zero in on why utility bills keep rising, and how decisions made years ago are now hitting ratepayers hard. Cooke argues that rate hikes are “lagging indicators,” the result of layers of policy choices, regulatory approvals, and energy mandates dating back more than a decade. She points specifically to the Colorado Energy Plan and the decision to accelerate retirement of coal-fired power plants, with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) prioritizing emissions red...
Read More
Super PACs Rush to Defend DeGette as Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Gains Momentum
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Super PACs Rush to Defend DeGette as Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Gains Momentum

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun The spending, most of it going toward ads attacking Melat Kiros, is the clearest sign yet that DeGette is at serious risk of being dislodged from Washington after nearly three decades. trio of super PACs is dumping $1.3 million, most of it from unknown sources, into the Democratic primary in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District in a last-minute effort to prevent longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette from being unseated by political newcomer and Democratic socialist Melat Kiros. The spending, most of it going toward ads attacking Kiros, is the clearest sign yet that DeGette may be at serious risk of being dislodged from Washington after nearly three decades. Kiros, 29, is running as a liberal insurgent and is pitching vote...
Read More
New Colorado Laws Bring Major Changes July 1 for Gun Buyers, Homeowners, and Hunters
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

New Colorado Laws Bring Major Changes July 1 for Gun Buyers, Homeowners, and Hunters

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado will usher in a new set of laws on July 1 that touch everything from ammunition sales to insurance transparency and wildlife trafficking enforcement. Here is a look at some of the state’s new laws: Ammunition sales Sponsored by Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, and Rep. Lindsay Gilchrist, D-Denver, and Sens. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, and Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, House Bill 25-1133 raises the minimum age to purchase ammunition from 18 to 21 years old. The bill also requires written notice to delivery drivers transporting boxes of ammunition, requires them to verify that the recipient is at least 21 and directs sellers to store ammunition in a secure area inaccessible to customers with...
Read More
Beverly Aikins on faith, recovery and the next right thing
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Beverly Aikins on faith, recovery and the next right thing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Hillbilly Elegy made her a character in her son's book. Ten years into recovery, the nurse and grandmother is telling it herself—and bringing it to the RMV Freedom Fest on June 26. Last Christmas, everyone in Beverly Aikins' family opened a gift she had made by hand. She had not sewn in years. The machine had been quiet a long time. Somewhere in a decade of getting well, it started running again. She counts that as recovery. Not the headlines. The sewing. Most people who know Aikins know her secondhand. Her son wrote about her addiction in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. He talked about it again at the 2024 Republican convention, where the cameras found her in the crowd. This time the questions are hers to answer. Aikins...
Read More