Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

State

Gov. Polis Faces Lawsuit Alleging Forced Labor Continues in State Prisons
No Comments
DENVER7, Approved, State

Gov. Polis Faces Lawsuit Alleging Forced Labor Continues in State Prisons

By Allie Jennejahn | Denver7 Does slavery still exist in Colorado? That's the question a class action lawsuit heading to trial Tuesday is looking to answer. DENVER — Does slavery still exist in Colorado? That's the question a class action lawsuit heading to trial Tuesday is looking to answer. It's against Governor Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC), and it's focused specifically on forced labor in prisons. It goes back to the 13th Amendment which has a clause that states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States." That clause has previously allowed forced labor in prisons, but in 2018, Colorado voters amended the state's constit...
Read More
Colorado Supreme Court Expands Who Can Sue Over Secret Government Meetings
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Supreme Court Expands Who Can Sue Over Secret Government Meetings

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that organizations are entitled to the same recovery of their costs as individuals when they successfully pursue a public entity’s violation of the state’s open meetings law. The Colorado Open Meetings Law permits “any person” to challenge a violation of the law. At the same time, it grants “the citizen” who proves a violation the right to relief and to recover the cost of litigation for holding the government accountable. The question for the Supreme Court was whether an organization, such as a newspaper, is a citizen entitled to the benefits of the law. By 6-1, the court answered yes. “It would be absurd to allow corporations — who are recognized as persons in one part of the statutory scheme an...
Read More
Is Rep. Marshall’s narrow 2024 win now at risk in Douglas County?
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Is Rep. Marshall’s narrow 2024 win now at risk in Douglas County?

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Rep. Bob Marshall (D-HD43) represents one of Colorado’s most politically mixed suburban districts, covering parts of Highlands Ranch and Littleton. The area is built around families, good schools, and a long-standing belief in local control and fiscal restraint. Marshall often calls himself a centrist Democrat and a retired Marine who puts people before politics. But his voting record at the Capitol tells a different story.  Marshall once appealed to a wide mix of voters. Whether that still holds is an open question, especially given how much the mood in Douglas County has changed. Prices have climbed. Crime feels closer. And faith in state leaders is wearing thin. Out of Douglas County’s 323,000 regist...
Read More
Why Ditching the Flat Tax Would Be Colorado’s Biggest Mistake
No Comments
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Why Ditching the Flat Tax Would Be Colorado’s Biggest Mistake

By Jake Fogleman | Commentary, Complete Colorado The battle over Colorado’s future tax system has officially begun, and the stakes for families, businesses, and the state’s economy couldn’t be higher. Backed by a coalition of advocacy groups that consistently push for higher taxes as the solution to Colorado’s challenges, the Bell Policy Center submitted proposed language for the 2026 ballot that would overturn nearly four decades of sensible tax policy by abandoning Colorado’s flat-rate income tax and adopting a graduated tax system. Under their proposals, Colorado taxpayers would be forced to confront a new five-bracket tax system with marginal rates up to 9.5 percent, among the highest in the country. The proponents claim it’s about fairness, equity, and making t...
Read More
Colorado Becomes First State to Limit Price of a Specific Drug
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Becomes First State to Limit Price of a Specific Drug

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado became the first state in the nation to set a price cap on a specific medication last week, following a unanimous decision by the Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board to limit the cost of a drug used to treat inflammatory conditions. On Oct. 3, the board voted to set an Upper Payment Limit, or UPL, of $600 per 50mg unit of Enbrel, an injectable medication used to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and plaque psoriasis. That comes out to about $30,000 a year, more than $20,000 less than the average insurance plan paid for the drug per person in 2023, according to the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. “This decision is a victory for hardworking Colorado families who have been stretched thin...
Read More
Supreme Court to Weigh Colorado Ban on Therapy for Gender Identity Counseling
No Comments
CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Supreme Court to Weigh Colorado Ban on Therapy for Gender Identity Counseling

By Anna Alejo | CBS Colorado On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a case set to determine if Colorado's ban on so-called "conversion therapy" for minors violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment. The Lee family in Wellington filed an amicus brief in support of overturning Colorado's ban on the therapy. A Colorado law passed in 2019 restricts therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of kids under the age of 18. They opposed the law after they say it limited access for their daughter to receive therapy that met their family's needs. "They are forbidden by law from going down that path of helping a child through their gender confusion versus further into that confusion and so there's been lots of paren...
Read More
Colorado: Where Criminals Come to Stay and Play
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado: Where Criminals Come to Stay and Play

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The FBI recently released detailed data on more than 14 million criminal offenses from calendar year 2024, reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program by participating law enforcement agencies. More than 16,000 state, county, city, university, college, and tribal agencies, covering around 95.6% of the population of the United States, submitted data to the UCR Program through the National Incident-Based Reporting System and the Summary Reporting System. By overlaying Census Bureau population estimates on the FBI data for individual states and territories, a curious party (like yours truly) can see how many violent or property crimes occur per 100,000 people—and thus see how crime rates vary between states. Because th...
Read More
GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Clash Over Medicaid Cuts and Budget Deficit
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Clash Over Medicaid Cuts and Budget Deficit

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Nine Republican candidates for next year’s gubernatorial election participated in a debate Thursday night hosted by the Denver Press Club, where they faced questions on issues like the budget, cost of living, and Medicaid from moderators Marianne Goodland and Ernest Luning of Colorado Politics. Those candidates were: Sen. Mark Baisley of Roxborough Park, an engineer who was elected to the State Legislature in 2018 Bob Brinkerhoff, a retired State Trooper Jason Clark, an Army veteran from Centennial on his third run for governor Jon Gray-Ginsberg, an IT professional and cybersecurity specialist from Frisco Joshua Griffin, a former Colorado State University football player and Army veteran Kelvin “K-Man” Wimberly, an Oklahoma ...
Read More
Worried about what your child is reading at school? You’re not alone
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Worried about what your child is reading at school? You’re not alone

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Substack Worried about your school requiring books that might conflict with your values? I am signed on to the Independence Institute’s newsletter. One installment last week had the following blurb written by Pam Benigno of their education policy center, quoted here at length and with links left intact:“Last week, I spoke at a women’s club about how Colorado’s Social Studies Academic Standards have been hijacked by those trying to shape young children’s hearts and minds by exposing young children to literature intended to “disrupt” their understanding of gender identity. Bringing some good news, I explained how Mahmoud v. Taylor, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, requires elementary schools to provide n...
Read More
Bingo Boom or Accounting Bust? Colorado Nonprofits Face Scrutiny
No Comments
denvergazette.com, Approved, State

Bingo Boom or Accounting Bust? Colorado Nonprofits Face Scrutiny

By David Migoya | The Denver Gazette Editor’s note: This is the last in a three-part series examing Colorado’s $110 million charitable gaming industry. Colorado nonprofits that rely on charitable gaming to raise funds – most through bingo nights – are required to file regular financial reports with state regulators that track how much money comes in, how much goes out and where the dollars are dispersed.  Although nearly all of the more than 600 organizations licensed for charitable gaming in Colorado are tax-exempt groups recognized by the IRS, not all of them have given the federal government the same complete picture of their bingo finances that they’ve given the state, tax records show.  A three-month Denver Gazette investigation into Colorado’s charitable gaming ...
Read More

FD863768-0ACF-495E-9D21-2EF784DFFA6B[1]

Join us at RMV's Freedom Festival

Click Here for Tickets!

This will close in 0 seconds