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Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Seeing an “affordable housing” project from the inside. I wrote about a project to build so-called affordable housing on a weird little quadrangle of land up near Golden, the Golden Range project. The newsletter from March of this year is linked first below if you’d like to go review. After talking to their media person, I set a reminder to follow up later in this year to see about any new developments. The project was just in its infancy when I wrote about it before. If it was in its infancy in March, it’s now in its toddlerhood. We are still a long ways from the end, but I have some updates to share. As the title of this post suggests, this will be one of multiple updates on this project; its a great...
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Colorado Faces Growing Concerns Over Grid Reliability and Energy Costs
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Faces Growing Concerns Over Grid Reliability and Energy Costs

By Mike Krause | Complete Colorado In a recent episode of Independence Institute’s* PowerGab energy podcast, hosts Amy Cooke and Jake Fogleman look at the mounting consequences of Colorado’s forced energy transition to renewables, focusing on recent warning from Xcel Energy before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) that the state could face a significant power generation shortfall beginning next summer, increasing the risk of rolling blackouts. Cooke and Fogleman contend that regulators have prioritized emissions reductions while giving short shrift to the costs and reliability challenges of replacing dispatchable generation with renewable energy and battery storage. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COMPLETE COLORADO
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Children’s Hospital Denies Violating Court Order In Colorado Gender Care Lawsuit
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Children’s Hospital Denies Violating Court Order In Colorado Gender Care Lawsuit

By: John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The hospital is accused of violating an order stemming from the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that it resume prescriptions for transgender youth. Children’s Hospital Colorado on Monday pleaded not guilty to allegations it has violated a court order to resume gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The plea came during a brief hearing in Denver District Court, during which Judge Ericka F. H. Englert scheduled a multiday trial in mid-September to determine whether Children’s should be held in contempt. Children’s is being sued by four transgender youth and their families who say the hospital discriminated against them when it stopped writing prescriptions to patients under the age of 18 for the purposes of gender-affirmi...
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Colorado turns the first Trump DOJ’s own words against its Second Amendment lawsuits
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado turns the first Trump DOJ’s own words against its Second Amendment lawsuits

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice When the Justice Department sued Colorado in May over its large-capacity magazine ban, the state went looking for ammunition of its own. It found it inside DOJ's filing cabinets. In its federal court filing on June 30, Colorado submitted a motion to dismiss that leverages two memos from Jeff Sessions, the first attorney general in Trump's first term. The state utilizes these documents to contend that the DOJ is attempting to assert an authority that its own former leadership said it should not exercise. The 2017 memo told department heads that "it is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies." The 2018 memo warned that long-term federal court supervision of state an...
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Colorado Health Care Costs Keep Climbing Despite Growing State Subsidies
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Health Care Costs Keep Climbing Despite Growing State Subsidies

By: Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado In economics, it is well understood that the larger a business becomes, the more cheaply it can produce goods or services due to lower relative fixed costs, more technical know-how, and increased specialization.  Why then is Colorado’s largest industry in terms of employment–health care–only becoming more expensive?  Subsidies inflate costs Let’s back up. In 1990, Colorado’s largest industry by employment was retail, which also dominated most of the rest of the country’s employment as well, along with manufacturing.  Along the way retail and manufactured goods became cheaper for consumers, as expected, relative to inflation.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COMPLETE COLORADO ...
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Colorado’s renewable milestone deserves a reality check
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s renewable milestone deserves a reality check

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Sarah Montalbano, the author of the Complete Colorado piece below makes a great point in her article about renewables. In response to a recent article by fellow energy writer Allen Best, see the second link below, about Colorado hitting an energy milestone of “More than half the state’s electricity came from wind, solar and hydro during the first months of 2026”, Montalbano notes that perhaps it’s not time for celebrating yet. Quoting from her Complete piece, “The trouble is that this jubilant announcement of a ‘majority’ renewables power grid owes more to a stark drop in coal-fired generation than the wind and solar that was added. Percentages rely on both the numerator — how much wind, solar, and hydropower...
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Colorado Taxpayers Face Billion-Dollar TABOR Refund Money Grab Under Proposition NN
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Taxpayers Face Billion-Dollar TABOR Refund Money Grab Under Proposition NN

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A coalition that includes the state teachers’ union on Tuesday launched a campaign for a ballot proposal that would reduce more than $1 billion in taxpayer refunds and spend the money on education. The measure is among several campaigns taking shape this year over state revenue. Broadly speaking, one side has long sought to raise more money, arguing what the state collects is insufficient to pay for services and programs. The other side counters that current revenues are sufficient but used unwisely, and what policymakers need is fiscal discipline. Referred to the ballot by the state legislature via Senate Bill 135, the average Colorado taxpayer would lose about $7,300 in TABOR refunds between the 2026-27 and 2036-37 fisca...
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Colorado’s New Semiautomatic Firearm Law Takes Effect Aug. 1
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado’s New Semiautomatic Firearm Law Takes Effect Aug. 1

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette A Colorado law passed in 2025 established new requirements for individuals planning to purchase semiautomatic weapons. Here’s what residents should know before Senate Bill 003 goes into effect on Aug. 1. From a ban to a training course For decades, advocates have been pushing for a ban on semiautomatic weapons with detachable magazines, which they have described as “assault weapons,” though efforts escalated following the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. After the 2012 movie theater shooting in Aurora, the Colorado legislature passed House Bill 1224, which prohibited the sale, transfer and possession of ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds. However, some advocates wanted mor...
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Colorado Air Commission Advances Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment Restrictions
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The Sum & Substance, Approved, State

Colorado Air Commission Advances Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment Restrictions

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Hoping to ween commercial landscapers off emissions-producing gas-powered equipment, Colorado regulators will consider rules later this year to limit the percentage of companies’ mowers and blowers that are revved by fossil fuels. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission on Thursday voted to schedule a November rulemaking that is a successor of sorts to a 2023 rule that banned the summertime use of the same equipment by the state and local governments over the past two years. AQCC members declined to impose the same regulations on commercial operators back in 2023, saying at the time that they worried a quick shift away from traditional equipment would cost too much for companies and lead to job losses. Three years ...
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Colorado Faces Long Fire Season As Crews Gain Momentum On Major Blazes
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Faces Long Fire Season As Crews Gain Momentum On Major Blazes

By Justin George | The Colorado Sun Procession along I-70 scheduled Monday for pilot killed fighting Gold Mountain fire. On Sunday, firefighters worked across Colorado and prepped for monsoon weather. As firefighters work to fortify containment lines on wildfires burning across Colorado, a procession is set for Monday to escort the body of helicopter pilot Nicholas Dale from Montrose to Denver International Airport.  Dale, 56, of Canada died July 12 when his helicopter crashed into Silver Jack Reservoir while fighting the Gold Mountain fire near Ouray.  A small convoy of about 10 emergency vehicles is scheduled to leave Montrose at 7 a.m. Monday from Cripping Funeral Home and will travel north to Grand Junction then east on Interstate ...
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