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Colorado Lawmakers Split on Iran
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Split on Iran

By Thelma Grimes | Colorado Politics Colorado’s congressional delegation split sharply along party lines Saturday after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, triggering a fresh debate in America over presidential war powers. Trump announced early Saturday morning that U.S and Israeli forces had begun “Operation Epic Fury” after multiple explosions were reported around Iran. Later in the day, the president said that Iran’s leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. Iranian state media also confirmed Khamenei’s death. Both sides of the political aisle agree that Iran — one official called the country a “terrorist state” — should never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. But Democrats and Republicans clashed over the latest operations, just ...
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Rural Lawmakers Reject Polis Backed Pesticide Restrictions
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Rural Lawmakers Reject Polis Backed Pesticide Restrictions

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics A proposal to limit the use of neonicotinoid-coated crop seeds collapsed in the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee last week, as rural lawmakers, including two Democrats, joined Republicans to reject what they called an expensive, impractical mandate on farmers. Senate Bill 65 would have required farmers to obtain permission from third-party evaluators before using crop seeds coated with neonicotinoid pesticides, also known as neonics. But the committee’s rural lawmakers, including two Democrats, weren’t persuaded that the program sponsored by Democratic Sens. Katie Wallace of Longmont and Cathy Kipp of Fort Collins was the right step, killing the bill in a 2-5 vote last week. Wallace claimed farmers are p...
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Federal Audit Finds Colorado Misspent $78 Million On Autism Therapy
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Federal Audit Finds Colorado Misspent $78 Million On Autism Therapy

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun The state must repay the federal government $42.6 million after “questionable billing patterns.” Colorado made at least $77.8 million in improper payments for Medicaid services for children with autism and must refund the federal government $42.6 million, federal officials said Monday.  Auditors at the federal Office of the Inspector General found the state Medicaid program has been improperly covering care by uncredentialed behavioral technicians for children with autism, among other billing discrepancies.  The audit released Monday comes as the state is already dealing with a $1 billion budget shortfall and cuts to Medicaid benefits that have affected multiple programs for people with low incomes and disabi...
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“The market can’t fix childcare”: Who is shaping Colorado’s narrative
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

“The market can’t fix childcare”: Who is shaping Colorado’s narrative

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Gary Community Ventures, The Colorado Sun and setting common sense The Colorado Sun recently launched a series, “Out of Reach”, describing what they term “Colorado’s crumbling child care system”. The series caught my eye due to a statement appearing in the first installment. William Browning, president and CEO of Clayton Early Learning in Denver, said (among other things, and I quote here from the first link below): “The market can’t fix child care.” This brought to mind something a friend had told me a while back. Depending on the individual the blame may lay anywhere on the spectrum from intent to a variety of unrelated factors lining up, but the thinking is the same. If the childcare ...
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Why I’m Running for United States Senate
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Why I’m Running for United States Senate

By Sean Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is being managed into decline. Not in one dramatic collapse. Not in one headline. In slow motion. Costs go up. Public safety goes down. Energy gets strangled. Rural communities get ignored. And government keeps getting bigger. I am running for United States Senate because I am tired of watching it happen. I am not running to join the club. I am running to reverse the direction this state is headed. I am a fifth generation Coloradan. A Navy veteran. A county commissioner. A business owner who has signed the front of paychecks and felt the weight of bad policy in real time. I have lived under the consequences of decisions made in Denver and...
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State bill creates new path for school discrimination complaints, sparks debate over harassment standard
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

State bill creates new path for school discrimination complaints, sparks debate over harassment standard

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice House Bill 26-1141 cleared the House Education Committee last week on a 9–3 vote and now moves to the Appropriations Committee before it can reach the House floor. The proposal would create a state-level process for handling discrimination complaints in K–12 schools and higher education. Complaints would go through the Colorado Civil Rights Division. The agency could investigate, try to resolve cases through mediation, and, if necessary, allow a case to move into court. The proposal covers claims tied to legally protected characteristics — or even the perception that someone belongs to one of those groups. The categories aren’t new. They’re the same ones already written into Colorado’s civil rights law — race, ...
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Arizona Activist Group Revives Effort To Block Wildlife Fur Sales In Colorado
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Arizona Activist Group Revives Effort To Block Wildlife Fur Sales In Colorado

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–An out-of-state animal rights group is back for another swing at banning the sale of wildlife fur in Colorado. As with a previous, failed attempt, hunting, fishing and conservation interests are lining up in opposition. As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity filed a citizens’ petition for rulemaking in June, 2025 urging the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission to amend agency regulations to “prohibit the commercial sale, barter, or trade of wildlife fur in Colorado.” While that effort never made it past commissioners, the petition has been filed again for another round in 2026 and will be heard by the CPW commission in early March. &nb...
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Colorado’s Political and Regulatory Climate Faces Questions as Major Firms Relocate
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Political and Regulatory Climate Faces Questions as Major Firms Relocate

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, The Denver Gazette At this point, if you hear beeping downtown, it’s not a construction crew. It’s a company backing out. And look, I get it. Businesses relocate for all sorts of reasons: taxes, regulations, labor costs, office space, crime, commute times, the haunting feeling your chief executive is one City Council meeting away from being declared a single-use plastic. But Colorado’s political class has been turning “headquarters” into an endangered species. Take TIAA, the financial services giant whose name has for decades been glowing atop a downtown Denver skyscraper like a Bat-Signal for retirement funds. They’re relocating to Frisco, Texas. Texas? Of course, Texas. If Colorado is the place where we hold hearings on the carbon ...
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Wolf Claims to Exceed Annual State Allocation Topping One Million Dollars
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The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Wolf Claims to Exceed Annual State Allocation Topping One Million Dollars

By Miles Blumhardt | The Coloradoan More than $700,000 in wolf depredation claims by ranchers in 2025 have been recommended for approval by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, doubling the amount budgeted by the state. Six claims totaling $706,460.91 were listed among agenda items to be heard at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting March 5 in Denver. Claims listed under the consent agenda can be removed for discussion at another meeting, approved or denied by vote of the commission, which has final say. The agenda also shows three claims totaling $53,611.71 that CPW is recommending be denied. The awarded claims are only a partial list of total claims statewide in 2025. Total compensation to ranchers for wolf depredations will exceed $1 million, an amount&...
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“Apologize to the Constitution”: House rejects amendment on 3D gun bill
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

“Apologize to the Constitution”: House rejects amendment on 3D gun bill

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The debate over 3D-printed firearms took an unexpected turn Friday when Rep. Scott Bottoms stepped forward with a constitutional warning. House Bill 26-1144 would ban the 3D printing of firearms and certain gun parts. Bottoms said if it violates the Constitution, it should fall. His amendment would have required the entire measure to rise or fall as one. The amendment failed after a standing division vote. “I would like to apologize to the Constitution for what we just did to it,” Bottoms said. The vote marked the most dramatic moment in a lengthy second reading debate over a bill that would make it illegal to 3D print firearms and certain gun parts, and restrict the sharing of digital files used to produce th...
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