Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

State

Colorado legislature passes bill punting to local governments on how much restaurant servers are paid
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado legislature passes bill punting to local governments on how much restaurant servers are paid

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun A contentious bill pitting many restaurant owners against workers over how much tipped employees should earn was approved by the Colorado legislature Tuesday, with the restaurant industry feeling like it had achieved a small victory.  While the industry sought to offset tipped workers’ paychecks with more of their gratuities, therefore reducing their base pay in some scenarios, the decision has been punted to local governments.  Under House Bill 1208, which now heads to Gov. Jared Polis, relief won’t come immediately — if ever. Especially not in Denver, where dozens of restaurant owners testified that high minimum wages exacerbated their struggles to survive and keep up with rising food, rent and insurance costs. Some members on Denver...
Read More
Enos: What rushed gender and abortion bills say about the legislature’s priorities
No Comments
Approved, Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Commentary, State

Enos: What rushed gender and abortion bills say about the legislature’s priorities

By Colleen Enos | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Transparency is not really our current General Assembly’s goal. We would like to believe that our state government works for us, but the majority party in charge is more concerned with covering its own tracks to avoid any repercussions of accountability with the voters.  They also consider any opposing views or opinions to be dissent that must be squashed at all costs, even if it means forcibly gagging their opposition by disallowing all debate. This is not exactly an overflow of reasoned debate, which we would like to encourage amongst our lawmakers. For example, HB25-1312, Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, was introduced in the State House on Friday, March 28th, at the end of the day and assigned to the J...
Read More
Outnumbered but not outmatched: House Minority Leader Pugliese’s grassroots push
No Comments
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Outnumbered but not outmatched: House Minority Leader Pugliese’s grassroots push

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice At the Colorado Capitol, House Republicans are outnumbered two to one. But House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese is still swinging—and she’s not swinging blindly. She’s drawing from somewhere real. “My father started his life with 50 cents in his pocket and a dream to own his own restaurant.” Pugliese added, “Almost every day it feels like I’m back to having spare change and a big dream—only this time it’s at the legislature.” The daughter of Italian immigrants, Pugliese was the first woman in her family to graduate from college.  https://twitter.com/RoseforCO/status/1904928098535223618 She now juggles two jobs, the House minority leadership and single parenthood—raising two children on her own, including a ...
Read More
Parents and Pastors Rally at Capitol to Stop HB25-1312 from Becoming Law
No Comments
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Parents and Pastors Rally at Capitol to Stop HB25-1312 from Becoming Law

By Rocky Mountain Voice Staff A coalition of pastors, parents, and constitutional advocates will gather Thursday on the West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol to oppose HB25-1312, the controversial “Kelly Loving Act” that critics say represents a direct attack on parental rights, religious liberty, and free speech. The event—organized by Fight 1312, a Colorado-based grassroots movement—will begin with a rally and prayer walk at 1:00 PM, followed by a press conference at 2:30 PM featuring local faith leaders and conservative advocates, including former Trump appointee William Wolfe. “HB25-1312 is an attack on parental rights, free speech, and the ability of families to raise their children according to their values,” said Pastor J. Chase Davis, one of the event organizers and Lea...
Read More
Polis’s $4M legal fund to fight Trump? GOP Senators say it’s a political power grab
No Comments
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Polis’s $4M legal fund to fight Trump? GOP Senators say it’s a political power grab

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board Colorado Governor Jared Polis wants $4 million in taxpayer money to fight off the return of Trump—literally. Under HB25-1321, Democrats in the Colorado legislature are moving to shift $4 million from the state’s infrastructure fund directly into Polis’s office, allowing him to wage legal and administrative battles against the federal government, particularly policies implemented by the Trump administration.  The bill gives Polis sweeping discretion to use the funds however he sees fit, including hiring outside legal teams, launching lawsuits, and defending state officials under federal investigation. The bill—ironically titled "Support Against Adverse Federal Action"—has raised red flags across the aisle, with critics calling it a pa...
Read More
CHSAA pressed by over 68 school leaders to follow federal guidance on girls’ sports
No Comments
Approved, completecolorado.com, National, State

CHSAA pressed by over 68 school leaders to follow federal guidance on girls’ sports

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — A letter signed by some 60 school district administrators and school board members from across the state is calling on the Colorado High School Activities Association to come into compliance with a recent Trump administration order around biological boys competing in girls’ sports. “The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) must immediately adopt rules and practices to ensure that boys are not permitted to compete as girls in girls’ sports,” the letter reads in part. “This action is not only a matter of safety and fairness for our female athletes, but also aligns with recent federal directives that reinforce the protection of women’s sports under Title IX.” Names on the letter include board members who  have prev...
Read More
Can the America-First movement win in Colorado? Heidi Ganahl and Rasmussen pollster break down Colorado’s GOP identity crisis
No Comments
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Can the America-First movement win in Colorado? Heidi Ganahl and Rasmussen pollster break down Colorado’s GOP identity crisis

By Rocky Mountain Voice Staff With Colorado’s 2026 elections on the horizon, Republicans are once again asking the question: What kind of candidate can actually win statewide? On the latest episode of Unleashed, Rocky Mountain Voice founder Heidi Ganahl sat down with Mark Mitchell, head pollster for Rasmussen Reports, to dig into exclusive polling data—and the identity crisis facing Colorado’s GOP. [Click here to listen or watch the full episode on YouTube or Rumble.] “This is one of the biggest quandaries,” Mitchell said. “How do you unpack this very particular issue in Colorado?” A Party Divided The polling, commissioned by Ganahl’s Road to Red project, looked at likely Republican primary voters in Colorado. But in a state where unaffiliated voters outnumber both parties, ...
Read More
Hillman: TABOR is the people’s law—Democrats want to sue it out of existence
No Comments
Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Hillman: TABOR is the people’s law—Democrats want to sue it out of existence

By Mark Hillman | Colorado Politics Lawmakers and special interests routinely ask Colorado voters to raise taxes so they can spend more of our money. Most often, voters say, “No!” Now certain “progressive” Democrat lawmakers plan to use our own tax dollars to sue us for limiting their power to raise our taxes. That’s disgusting even by the gutter standards of this legislature. Having demonstrated their contempt for the rights of law-abiding Coloradans to exercise freedom of speech and to keep and bear arms as protected by the U.S. Constitution, Democrats at our State Capitol now want us to believe they care about respecting that same Constitution. Led by Reps. Sean Camacho (D-Denver) and Lorena Garcia (D-Adams County) and Sens. Lindsay Daugherty (D-Arvada) and Iman Jodeh (D-...
Read More
Rural towns squeezed by state’s bureaucratic delays and shifting wastewater mandates
No Comments
Approved, State, Water Education Colorado

Rural towns squeezed by state’s bureaucratic delays and shifting wastewater mandates

By Jerd Smith | Water Education Colorado Dozens of small towns in Colorado have banded together to protest new wastewater treatment permits that are designed to protect state rivers and streams, saying they  contain new rules that are too costly to implement and they haven’t had time to make the necessary changes to comply. The controversy comes as climate change and drought reduce stream flows and cause water temperatures to rise, and as population growth increases the amount of wastewater being discharged to Colorado’s rivers. In response to the towns’ concerns, the water quality control division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has taken the unusual step of holding off on taking enforcement action against at least some of the towns that say they can’t...
Read More
Menten: HB25-1327 punishes citizen participation and violates the Constitution
No Comments
Approved, Colorado Politics, Commentary, State

Menten: HB25-1327 punishes citizen participation and violates the Constitution

By Natalie Menten | Colorado Politics Petition rights in Colorado have been under increasing attack, and that trend continues with House Bill 25-1327 (HB 25-1327), recently introduced in the Colorado State legislature. Among other things, HB 25-1327 would reduce the time available for citizen-led initiative efforts by moving the deadline for Title Board hearings up by two weeks. Under current law, Title Board hearings may be held through the third Wednesday in April. This bill shifts that deadline to the first Wednesday in April— a 14-day reduction in time that proponents would otherwise use to finalize their language before gathering nearly 200,000 signatures within a tight window to secure a spot on the ballot. It’s worth noting Colorado voters recently rejected a similar propos...
Read More