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High Court Declines Sovereign Immunity Shortcut For Private Prison Firm In Colorado Case
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DENVER7, Approved, State

High Court Declines Sovereign Immunity Shortcut For Private Prison Firm In Colorado Case

By The Associated Press | Denver7 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against a private prison company facing a lawsuit alleging immigration detainees were forced to work and paid only $1 a day in Colorado. The unanimous ruling is a procedural defeat for the GEO Group, but it's not a final decision. The company is fighting a lawsuit from 2014 alleging detainees in Aurora had to perform unpaid janitorial work and other jobs for little pay to supplement meager meals. GEO defended its practices and argued that the case should be tossed out because it's immune from lawsuits as a government contractor. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DENVER7
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$7.2 Million in Federal Climate Dollars to Fund Colorado Building Efficiency Projects
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

$7.2 Million in Federal Climate Dollars to Fund Colorado Building Efficiency Projects

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette The Colorado Energy Office awarded $7.2 million Wednesday to help owners of large buildings across the state pursue high-impact projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions through improved energy efficiency and electrification. The grants, drawn from federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant funds authorized under the 2022 Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and awarded to Colorado by the Environmental Protection Agency, support 15 projects through the Large Building Decarbonization Showcase Grant Program, CEO officials said. The awards go to building owners already meeting requirements under Building Performance Colorado standards and include five major implementation retrofits and 10 high-level planning efforts. The g...
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State approval to farm? Lawmakers debate new limits on seed and pest control
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

State approval to farm? Lawmakers debate new limits on seed and pest control

By Sen. Byron Pelton | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s farmers and ranchers already face significant challenges, including volatile commodity prices, rising input costs, labor shortages, and unpredictable weather. They should not also have to contend with a state legislature that increasingly seeks to regulate how they protect crops and livestock.  Yet that is precisely what Senate Bills 26-062 and 26-065 represent: a top-down attack on agriculture that increases costs, undermines private property rights, and signals deep disrespect for the men and women who feed our nation and the world. A Direct Hit on Practical Pest Control SB26-062 would significantly restrict the sale and use of common rodenticides and glue traps. While intended to pr...
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Running on the American Dream: Inside Joshi’s Senate Campaign
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Running on the American Dream: Inside Joshi’s Senate Campaign

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Dr. Janak Joshi is back on the campaign trail — this time seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The physician and former state legislator is entering Colorado’s caucus process, which begins March 3, ahead of district and state assemblies and the June primary. When asked why he entered the race, his answer centered less on political ambition and more on concern — about affordability, opportunity and what kind of country future generations will inherit. “I am running for US Senate because we are seeing that the Democrats, and particularly the liberals, haven't done much in the last five years to help in any way to Colorado and as a country.” He spoke about rising costs, businesses closing and ...
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Bill Opening Door To Lawsuits Against Immigration Officials Clears Colorado Senate
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kdvr.com, Approved, State

Bill Opening Door To Lawsuits Against Immigration Officials Clears Colorado Senate

By Jacob Factor | KDVR DENVER (KDVR) — A Colorado bill that would open the door for lawsuits against immigration officials who injure people in the state passed the Colorado Senate Tuesday morning, moving one step closer to becoming law. Senate Bill 26-005, “Rights Violation in Immigration Enforcement Remedy,” states that it is meant to protect Coloradans constitutional rights during civil immigration enforcement. The bill comes amid heavily scrutinized federal immigration operations throughout the U.S., including a recently ended crackdown in Minnesota in which immigration officials killed two American citizens and injured more. SB26-005 creates a cause of action for people injured during civil immigration enforcement actions “by another person who, whether ...
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Colorado Regulatory Climate Draws Scrutiny After Palantir Relocates Headquarters to Florida
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Regulatory Climate Draws Scrutiny After Palantir Relocates Headquarters to Florida

By Vanessa Rutledge | Commentary, Complete Colorado The technology company Palantir recently announced it is relocating its headquarters from Denver to Miami. This is not a minor startup leaving quietly. Palantir is the largest public company headquartered in Colorado when measured by market capitalization. It is one of the most prominent and profitable artificial intelligence companies in the country. In explaining its reasoning, Palantir made no bones about what prompted the move. In its 2025 10-K filing, the company stated: “In addition, Colorado has passed a Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence bill introducing state-level oversight of ‘high-risk’ AI systems, which mirrors language and several provisions appearing in the EU AIA.” That is a dir...
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From $8 Billion to $16 Billion: How Colorado’s Medicaid Budget Doubled in a Decade
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

From $8 Billion to $16 Billion: How Colorado’s Medicaid Budget Doubled in a Decade

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice If you ask most Colorado families how they feel about health care right now, the answers aren’t complicated. It’s expensive.It’s confusing.It keeps going up. And for taxpayers helping fund Colorado’s Medicaid program — known as Health First Colorado — another question has started to surface: If enrollment has come back down, why hasn’t spending followed? Ten years ago, Colorado’s Medicaid agency operated on roughly $8 billion. Today it’s closer to $16 billion. The Common Sense Institute (CSI) calculates that as 101 percent growth over the decade. CSI reports that the rest of the state operating budget grew 64 percent during that same period. The story of enrollment is different. ...
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Colorado should drop its membership in the California Clean Car Cartel. 
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado should drop its membership in the California Clean Car Cartel. 

By Sean Paige | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice President Trump's recent repeal of the "endangerment finding"—a Barack Obama-era rule that handed the federal government absolute power to regulate almost anything that emits CO2 emissions, in response to the alleged climate crisis—marks a potential turning point for Colorado.  Why?  Because it gives Colorado an opportunity, an invitation, to decouple from California clean car mandates we've been operating under for years.  Most Coloradans probably don't know that their state’s "clean car" mandates are written by an unelected board of all-powerful ecocrats called the California Air Resources Board (CARB.)  But why would most Coloradans know this, since it was never debated by the legislat...
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Federal Reimbursement Model of ‘Perverse Incentives’ Fuels Colorado Medicaid Expansion
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Federal Reimbursement Model of ‘Perverse Incentives’ Fuels Colorado Medicaid Expansion

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado’s ongoing budget-gap struggles are the predictable result of structural problems with Medicaid.  Paragon Health Institute, a non-partisan research institute, recently published a new report, Preserve and Improve Medicaid, which explains the program’s inherent challenges and how states such as Colorado can take advantage of One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) reforms to improve outcomes.  However, it remains ultimately up to Colorado legislators to address the program’s systemic issues.  Medicaid’s ‘perverse incentives’ As economist Linda Gorman recently explained, the rapid 2010 expansion of Medicaid did not produce large gains in physical health, suggesting that the new expansion ...
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Supreme Court To Weigh Limits On Colorado Climate Lawsuit Against Energy Producers
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Supreme Court To Weigh Limits On Colorado Climate Lawsuit Against Energy Producers

By Melissa Quinn | CBS News Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up an effort by energy companies to end a lawsuit filed in state court that seeks billions of dollars in damages for the impacts their fossil-fuel products have had on the global climate. The decision from the Supreme Court could impact the ability of state and local governments to hold oil and gas companies accountable in state courts for the consequences of climate change. Dozens of cities and counties have filed similar cases around the country, but the justices had turned down similar disputes that have landed before them. The court will likely hear arguments in its next term, which begins in October. The legal battle was brought by the city of Boulder, Co...
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