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The High Cost of Ignorance: Why Special Interests Are Fighting Prescription Drug Transparency in Colorado
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The High Cost of Ignorance: Why Special Interests Are Fighting Prescription Drug Transparency in Colorado

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Editor’s update: House Bill 26-1056 will be heard in the House Health & Human Services Committee on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, upon adjournment in HCR 0112. The committee is scheduled between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Readers may listen live here: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00327/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20260217/-1/18053#handoutFile_  “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair It's easy to be wrong when it makes you money.  If the average savings from using a Pharmacy Stewardship Program (PSP) are $1,500 per member per year, and Colorado has around 2 million workers covered by employer health plans, th...
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At Durango forum, GOP candidates field rotating questions submitted from across Colorado
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

At Durango forum, GOP candidates field rotating questions submitted from across Colorado

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Instead of posing the same question to an entire panel and allowing candidates to respond in sequence, organizers of the Feb. 13 Republican candidate forum in Durango tried something different. For the most part, candidates received different questions in turn. There wasn’t much room to sit back and think through an answer while someone else talked. Once your name was called, it was your turn.  VFW Post 4031 hosted the event, with RMV, Southwest Republican Women and the La Plata County Republican Central Committee working together to put it on. Clark Craig emceed the evening, and local GOP members Lisa Zimmerman and Amber Morris helped organize it. JJ McKinzie joined the Secretary of State panel shortly before t...
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Democrats advance gun barrel regulation bill on party line vote
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Democrats advance gun barrel regulation bill on party line vote

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Gun barrels are not serialized. They are not a regulated “firearm” under federal law. But Colorado lawmakers are preparing to vote on whether they should be treated more like one. The bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Sullivan of Centennial, would require barrels to be sold through a federally licensed dealer instead of privately. Dealers would keep purchase records for five years. Violations could carry fines — and up to 30 days in county jail. The proposal advanced out of committee on a narrow vote and now heads to the full Senate. Supporters describe it as the next step after last year’s ghost gun legislation. Critics argue it regulates a part that cannot be traced. At the center of the debate: whethe...
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Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado Times Recorder (CTR), Hutchins, the Gazette, and Glass Houses There was an interesting bit in Journalism Professor Corey Hutchins' media newsletter recently. That newsletter is linked first below and the quote I reference is attached as screenshot 1. Because pictures don't have working links, I put the CTR article Hutchins links to second below for convenience's sake. Both the CTR piece and Hutchins blurb are pretty chatty, as much about the insider ball of producing news as anything, but a quote from the CTR piece helps point to another dynamic I think is at play here. It's subtle, stay with me.Copied here with link intact:"Criticizing the Gazette newspapers isn’t something loc...
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Budget Crunch Drives Colorado Medicaid Board To Approve New Caps On Disability Services
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Budget Crunch Drives Colorado Medicaid Board To Approve New Caps On Disability Services

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Medicaid benefits that pay for people with disabilities to go on community outings and cover household cleaning, cooking and laundry are the latest services facing cuts as Colorado deals with a major budget shortage.  A governor-appointed board that sets rules for the state Medicaid program voted 6-1 Friday to preliminarily approve the cuts, despite rejecting other cuts requested by Medicaid officials this year.  The federal-state health insurance program will save $1.2 million in state money this year and $10 million next year by placing stricter caps on the number of hours that caregivers are paid to take people on outings through a benefit called “community connector.” Capping the hours allowed for “homemaker” services,...
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Historic Drought And Political Divide Stall Colorado River Agreement
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Historic Drought And Political Divide Stall Colorado River Agreement

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics With the Feb. 14 deadline looming, the seven states in the Colorado River Basin failed to reach an agreement on how to manage the river after the 2026 operating guidelines expire later this year. John Entsminger, Nevada’s chief negotiator, said there is no deal in place. “The seven Colorado River Basin states have failed to reach an agreement to collectively protect our respective communities and economies in the face of almost certain reductions to our use of the river,” Entsminger said. “As I talk with people throughout Southern Nevada, I hear their frustrations that years of negotiations have yielded almost no headway in finding a path through these turbulent waters.” Entsminger added, “As someone who has spent countle...
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Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette Named in Epstein Correspondence
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Westword, Approved, State

Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette Named in Epstein Correspondence

By Hannah Metzger | Westword Emails between Jeffrey Epstein and Barbro Ehnbom suggest a disturbing partnership between the convicted sex offender and the Swedish businesswoman; from Ehnbom sending Epstein a photo of a “little blond girl” who she thinks would be of his “taste,” to offering up her “brainy and sensual” project manager to be Epstein’s “wife choice this year.” Amid their correspondence, a surprising name arises time and time again: Diana DeGette. The Colorado congresswoman’s name appears in over a dozen emails between Epstein and Ehnbom sent from 2009 to 2016, according to documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Though there is no evidence that DeGette ever communicated with Epstein directly, his emails ...
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Colorado Democrats Push To Legalize Prostitution Statewide By July
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Push To Legalize Prostitution Statewide By July

By The Denver Gazette | The Denver Gazette A group of Democrats is seeking to legalize prostitution in Colorado, arguing that current penalties “endanger” consenting adults. The proposal, if enacted, would decriminalize prostitution statewide and preempt local ordinances that ban it. If signed into law, it will take effect this July, making Colorado one of two states to legalize prostitution. The other state is Nevada. The bill would maintain the felony classification for pimping, though it would eliminate the word “prostitution” in the state laws and change it to “commercial sexual activity.” The bill — sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Nick Hinrichsen, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Lisa Cutter and Reps. Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart — said repealing pro...
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Buyers walk free, survivors carry the scars: Colorado debates sentencing for child traffickers
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Buyers walk free, survivors carry the scars: Colorado debates sentencing for child traffickers

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado lawmakers confronted a question this week that has lingered for years under the gold dome: how far should the state go in punishing those who buy and traffic children? Two bills offered two different answers. Senate Bill 26-015 cleared Senate Judiciary on a 6–1 vote and was referred, as amended, to Appropriations. Senator Nick Hinrichsen cast the lone “no.” HB26-1082 went the other direction. Representative Scott Bottoms’ bill would have required life without parole in certain cases involving trafficked minors. It stalled in the House Judiciary Committee. No one in the room disputed the harm. That wasn’t the fight. The debate centered on sentencing, and whether judges should still have ro...
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Trump Administration Rolls Back EPA Climate Authority, Phil Weiser Vows Yet Another Lawsuit
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Trump Administration Rolls Back EPA Climate Authority, Phil Weiser Vows Yet Another Lawsuit

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun It’s a regulatory win for conservatives that will set back state’s antipollution efforts and greatly impact the car and truck economy, officials say. he Trump EPA’s Thursday repeal of an Obama-era “endangerment finding” that allowed federal regulation of greenhouse gases from vehicles and other sources will set back Colorado air pollution efforts, but progressive environmental groups and supportive state officials vowed to “play the long game” to restore key controls.  Repealing the EPA’s right to set greenhouse gas controls was a long-stated target of GOP politicians and conservative business groups, who find the regulations excessive and question the practicality of slowing global warming. The immediate impact of negating th...
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