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SB26-005: Colorado Bill Opens State Suits for ICE-Related Rights Violations—Even Against Private Actors
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

SB26-005: Colorado Bill Opens State Suits for ICE-Related Rights Violations—Even Against Private Actors

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado lawmakers have introduced Senate Bill 26-005—legislation that would allow lawsuits in state court when an individual claims their rights under federal law have been violated as a result of civil immigration law enforcement. This bill creates a new state-level cause of action tied specifically to immigration enforcement activity. Its reach is broad. The text applies to “any person whether or not under color of law,” language pulled directly from the bill as introduced. The prime sponsors of the bill are Sen. Mike Weissman, Sen. Julie Gonzales, Rep. Javier Mabrey, and Rep. Yara Zokaie. It has been sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee—which Weissman chairs. That matters. He will be able to control how f...
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Colorado’s prisons are on the verge of total collapse. 
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s prisons are on the verge of total collapse. 

By Ahnaf Kalam | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado's prisons are on the verge of total collapse. As of late 2025, state facilities are operating at nearly 98% capacity, while being severely understaffed. Men's prisons alone are projected to run out of beds entirely in the next fiscal year unless drastic measures are taken to reduce the population or add capacity. Inmates are backing up into county jails which were never designed or funded for long-term state housing, while prison staff face mandatory overtime, burnout, and reduced security and rehabilitation programs. And yet, amid this crisis, the Colorado Department of Corrections has found it in its budget to staff a full-time, taxpayer-funded practitioner of "gender-affirming care" for prison inmates. ...
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Watch closely: The PUC sunset hearing could reshape Colorado energy policy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Watch closely: The PUC sunset hearing could reshape Colorado energy policy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Watch for the PUC sunset hearing. Not only will it be a chance to weaken local control, DORA wants less transparency for them.I will be watching and posting (from what my state senator B Pelton said, it should be late February or early March), but I wanted to put a bug in your ear to watch for the Public Utilities Commission's sunset hearing in front of the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee.As I wrote [last week], there are rumblings about changing the mission of the PUC to perhaps grease the skids for state-level siting of renewables.The PUC sunset hearing will be the time that they do this, but there are other things I've heard. I wrote back last year about a CFOIC article showing the Department o...
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Colorado Unveils Detailed Plan to Restore Wolverines to High Country
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Unveils Detailed Plan to Restore Wolverines to High Country

By Spencer Wilson | CBS Colorado Colorado Parks and Wildlife has released more information about how, where, and why it plans to reintroduce wolverines into the state and why wildlife officials say Colorado is critical to the species' future. The 106-page report details the plans behind the bipartisan effort. The state confirmed plans to reintroduce wolverines in 2024, but until now, many of the specifics had not been made public. The newly released plan outlines a multi-year strategy, highlighting distinct differences between this effort and Colorado's controversial gray wolf reintroduction. Colorado currently has no resident wolverines. CWP said in the report that the species was wiped out nearly a century ago through poisoning, trapping, and "pre...
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Runaway Medicaid Spending Forces Colorado Toward Hard Choices
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Runaway Medicaid Spending Forces Colorado Toward Hard Choices

By: Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) recently held a hearing with the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF), the Governor’s office, and Manatt, a healthcare consulting firm, to address the unsustainable growth of Colorado’s Medicaid spending. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from the hearing. Runaway spending According to HCPF and the Governor’s office, General Fund spending on Medicaid increased at an average rate of 6 percent from fiscal year 2015-16 to fiscal year 2018-19. However, after the federal government windfall from COVID, General Fund spending blew up, growing at an average rate of 19 percent from fiscal year 2021-22 to fiscal year 2024-25. Health c...
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State signals renewed push to override local control on renewable energy siting
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

State signals renewed push to override local control on renewable energy siting

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Both the Colorado Sun article linked first below, and the video which they likely drew from for the article which is linked second, have our governor saying essentially the same thing. Quoting form the article: “Democrats also plan to make energy and the environment priorities at the Capitol this year, though the details of their plans remain in flux. ‘You’re going to hear a lot about energy this session,’ Polis said, ‘including making it easier to permit energy projects and get them done. One of the reasons we can’t have nice things is we don’t let them be built.’ Some of those changes may be tied to a rewrite of the laws governing Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission, which oversees how much some consumer...
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Polis Takes a Victory-Victim Lap in Final State of the State Address
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Polis Takes a Victory-Victim Lap in Final State of the State Address

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday took an 82-minute victory lap in his eighth — and final — State of the State address. He touted his work in the areas of early childhood development, education, health care, housing and public safety, pointing to major initiatives he has launched. He sought to paint a picture of a strong state under attack by the Trump administration. Indeed, he blamed much of Colorado’s woes on federal actions, notably funding cuts and a policy agenda from the White House that he described as “not the Colorado way.” To Polis, policies coming out of Washington, D.C. — uncertainty over tariffs, an immigration crackdown, letting a key health care subsidy expire — are standing in the way of Colorado’s progress. ...
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New Colorado Nonprofit Targets Judges and DAs Accused of Being Soft on Crime
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

New Colorado Nonprofit Targets Judges and DAs Accused of Being Soft on Crime

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Two elected officials representing a hefty swath of the Front Range are teaming up with a Colorado radio host because they say they have had enough of rogue judges releasing violent criminals onto the streets, only to repeat offend. Their desire to change that trajectory led them to form a new non-profit educational group aimed at shining a light on those they believe need to move on from the bench. Conservative talk show host Jeff Hunt, State Rep. Dan Woog (R-Frederick), and 4th Congressional District CU Regent Frank McNulty (R-Highlands Ranch), have joined forces to form Law and Order Action, which they say is “dedicated to holding pro-crime judges, district attorneys and lawmakers accountable.” Woog’s legislat...
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The numbers Polis didn’t tweet about Colorado’s workforce decline
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The numbers Polis didn’t tweet about Colorado’s workforce decline

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I found it curious that Governor Polis felt a need to post to his half a dozen, die-hard, mentally-ill supporters on ‘X’ this week, a tweet to the effect that contrary to President Trump’s assertion that people are leaving Colorado “in droves,” Colorado’s population has continued to GROW under his august leadership since 2019. To support this assertion, he pasted a screenshot from factcheck.org stating that “since Polis took office in 2019, the moderate upward trend in the state’s population over the last decade has continued, although the data is only through 2022.” https://twitter.com/GovofCO/status/2010759061692641539 This fact checker also stated that similar supporting data was available from the ...
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“You don’t get to ride both horses”: Appeals court presses both sides in Tina Peters case
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

“You don’t get to ride both horses”: Appeals court presses both sides in Tina Peters case

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “Reset the clock.” Defense attorney John Case used a football analogy as the Colorado Court of Appeals sorted out timing for oral arguments in Tina Peters’ appeal. It had nothing to do with the case itself—just how much time each side would have. But the aside drew a brief laugh before judges turned to a record years in the making. Defense attorney Peter Ticktin, who represents Peters and spoke with RMV after the hearing, said the depth of the judges’ questions tracked the briefs closely. “This is a big file,” Ticktin said. “This isn’t something you can read in an afternoon. They clearly did the work. They were chasing down each avenue and each argument that we had in our briefs.” Watch the full oral arguments below ...
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