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A four-year-old is worth more than a fifth grader to Colorado schools
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State, Uncategorized

A four-year-old is worth more than a fifth grader to Colorado schools

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The incentive structure hiding in Colorado’s UPK I recently shared a video that went into (among other important things to know about school finance) how Colorado’s public school enrollment is dropping. That video is linked below if you missed it before; it’s great and cheap education on school enrollment and funding. Not too long after I put up the newsletter with that video, I had a reader send me something I thought interesting enough to share. There is a marked disparity between how much money someone gets from our Universal Pre K program for a child vs. how much they get for educating a child in K - 12. The second link below is to the state’s UPK rate sheet. It lists the 2026-27 rate the UPK progra...
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DHS Secretary Mullin Visits Colorado, Addresses Immigration Enforcement and Aurora TB Dispute
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

DHS Secretary Mullin Visits Colorado, Addresses Immigration Enforcement and Aurora TB Dispute

By Karen Morfitt | CBS Colorado A visit to Colorado this week by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin largely flew under the radar. Mullin visited Colorado's supermax prison, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center and Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in southern Colorado before holding a private meeting with Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District, and Hispanic faith leaders. Mullin said on Friday he wanted to address what he called "false rumors" about immigration enforcement. "Being able to talk to faith leaders who can talk to their congregation about the actual facts instead of what they say online, I think they were very thankful," Mullin said. CBS Colorado caught up wit...
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Colorado utilities said a regional grid would strengthen reliability. July 20 tested it.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado utilities said a regional grid would strengthen reliability. July 20 tested it.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice On April 1, Colorado Springs Utilities and Platte River Power Authority, two of the utilities that initiated SPP's western expansion effort, joined other Colorado utilities in the Southwest Power Pool, a regional grid operator headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Neither utility was legally required to join. Both chose to. Jason Frisbie, Platte River's general manager and CEO, said the move would help his utility "maintain the reliability and affordability that our communities and their customers expect." One hundred and ten days later, Frisbie was asking those same communities to hold off on running their dishwashers. "We are monitoring conditions and working closely with SPP regarding this emergency alert," Fri...
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Democrats Launch Spanish Language Ad Against Gabe Evans in Key Colorado House Race
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Democrats Launch Spanish Language Ad Against Gabe Evans in Key Colorado House Race

By Ernest Luning | The Denver Gazette A national group tied to House Democratic leadership launched a six-figure Spanish-language TV ad in Colorado this week targeting Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans and the GOP’s signature budget legislation. The 30-second spot is part of $15 million in new TV and digital ad reservations announced earlier this week by House Majority Forward, a nonprofit affiliated with House Majority PAC, covering 19 targeted House districts across the country. The ad is set to run through August on an initial buy of just under $200,000, Punchbowl’s Ally Mutnick reported. Evans is seeking reelection to a second term in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, the state’s most competitive seat. He’s facing a challenge from state Rep. Man...
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Colorado teacher home loan program puts school fund money at risk in foreclosures
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado teacher home loan program puts school fund money at risk in foreclosures

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I wrote earlier in the week about Impact Development and taxpayer-subsidized mortgages. That newsletter is linked first below if you’re interested.I have an update of sorts to share. It’s not so much the program I outlined earlier, more a related program run out of Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).The program is called the Schools to Home Program. The CHFA website for this program is linked second below. I’ll run through the details and a quick example here, but as I do, I do not want you to lose track of something.Hidden in all of the graphics and words are the following: public money is given out on loan to the people who are in the program, and they get generous terms on their loans that others woul...
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Colorado Fire Departments Sound Alarm Over Staffing and Funding Shortfalls
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Colorado Fire Departments Sound Alarm Over Staffing and Funding Shortfalls

By Veronica Acosta | Denver7 LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A new statewide assessment found two-thirds of Colorado fire departments can't fund their full operations, and nearly 80% can't afford the equipment and staffing they say they need — a gap agencies like West Metro Fire Rescue say is now pushing them toward asking voters for more money. Colorado's fire departments are being asked to do more than ever, and a new state report shows most of them don't have the money to keep up. The 2026 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment, released this month by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), surveyed 122 of the state's roughly 340 fire departments and found that two in three — 66.4% — say their current funding isn't enough to run all of their department's oper...
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Colorado Voters Will Decide Right To Natural Gas in November
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Voters Will Decide Right To Natural Gas in November

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A citizen initiative that seeks to enshrine the right to natural gas has qualified for the November ballot, Colorado’s election office confirmed on Thursday. Petitions containing signatures for Initiative No. 177 were turned in to the Secretary of State’s Office for review in late June. On Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office said 146,165 of the 189,508 signatures collected were valid, surpassing the threshold. The initiative from Advance Colorado establishes consumers’ right to purchase natural gas for cooking and heating their homes and businesses, as well as the right of distributors and utilities to sell natural gas to homes and businesses. “Natural gas is a clean, reliable and affordable form of energy...
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Colorado’s Renewable Energy Milestone Looks Different When Coal Outages Are Counted
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Independence Institute, Approved, State

Colorado’s Renewable Energy Milestone Looks Different When Coal Outages Are Counted

By Sarah Montalbano | Independence Institute On July 9, 2026, I wrote an article for the Independence Institute breaking down the math behind Colorado’s renewable energy milestone in Q1 2026 and explaining why it is largely driven by the Comanche 3 coal outage, rather than a surge in wind and solar generation. For Coloradans, it’s worth checking if milestones like these are real, because figures like these are cited as proof that the state can shed its remaining coal and natural gas without consequences for reliability and affordability. The article’s main point, which was supported with EIA generation data, was that Colorado produced less in-state electricity in Q1 2026, and therefore the share of electricity generated by wind and solar looked larger beca...
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Hunters and Anglers Rally Behind Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Hunters and Anglers Rally Behind Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish

By Chris Dorsey | The Denver Gazette For generations, Coloradans hunted elk, caught trout and managed wildlife without consulting a constitutional attorney. That was before wildlife management became a recurring statewide election issue, replete with consultants, national pressure groups and enough political mail to denude an aspen grove.   Now comes Initiative 302, the proposed “Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish,” driven by sportsmen who have concluded that activities legal today may require constitutional protection to remain legal tomorrow. Supporters submitted more than 180,000 signatures on July 8, well above the 124,238 valid signatures required. The secretary of state has until Sept. 2 to verify them. Nothing says “settled Colorado tradition” quite li...
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Colorado campaign connects hungry families with local farmers
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado campaign connects hungry families with local farmers

By Scott K. James | Commentary, Scott's Sheet A Colorado campaign aims to connect local producers with families facing hunger, proving that neighborly common sense can still do useful work. There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a kitchen table when the grocery money runs out before the groceries do. Parents know that quiet. It is the sound of someone mentally moving numbers around, stretching one dinner into two and wondering whether the kids will notice that the cereal box is mostly optimism and cardboard dust. A few miles away, a Colorado farmer or rancher may be doing some difficult math of his own. The crop is ready. The cattle have been fed. The work has already been done. The buyer, however, is never guaranteed. You would think connecting ...
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