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Fentanyl, weapons, other drug seizures at northern border setting records
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Approved, National, The Center Square

Fentanyl, weapons, other drug seizures at northern border setting records

By  Bethany Blankley | The Center Square Federal agents working at ports of entry in northern U.S. cities and in small towns along the U.S.-Canadian border are continuing to thwart illegal activity. Federal agents working in Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati and in a small border town of North Dakota continue to interdict fentanyl, weapons, fake e-cigarettes and illegal prescription drugs stemming from the border crisis. In Detroit, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations agents seized nearly six pounds of fentanyl in one enforcement action at the Fort Street Cargo Facility. It was the largest seizure of its kind for the Port of Detroit, and one of the largest inbound fentanyl seizures at the northern border in the last five years, CBP says. READ THE FULL ...
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Report: Taxpayers are funding services for illegals; Congress, including Republicans, approved it
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Approved, National, The Center Square

Report: Taxpayers are funding services for illegals; Congress, including Republicans, approved it

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square Taxpayers are not only funding the border crisis, but they are also paying for numerous free services illegal foreign nationals receive, according to a new report published by the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.  The committee blames the Biden administration in its new report, "Chauffeur at the Border, Concierge in the Interior: How the Biden Administration Rewards Illegal Aliens on the Taxpayers' Dime" for costs to U.S. taxpayers.   It also notes that Congress, including Republicans, voted to fund the programs it identified as wasting taxpayer money and facilitating the border crisis when Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill in M...
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Survey: Colorado business leaders’ confidence ‘tempered but positive’
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Survey: Colorado business leaders’ confidence ‘tempered but positive’

By Joe Mueller | The Center Square A survey of Colorado’s business leaders revealed their confidence is “tempered but positive” going into the third quarter of the year. The Leeds Business Confidence Index, a report from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, found all measured components posted year-over-year gains heading into the second half of the year, but all components slipped from the second quarter of this year heading into the upcoming third quarter. The index examines the national and state economy, industry sales, profits, hiring plans and capital expenditures. “Across the array of reasons given to explain their outlook, interest rates, election uncertainty, and sentiment were commonly cited as the most pressing factors,” according to the report. REA...
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56 Colorado counties with tax-exempt federal lands getting $48M, that’s $2 per acre
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56 Colorado counties with tax-exempt federal lands getting $48M, that’s $2 per acre

By Joe Mueller  | The Center Square Fifty-six counties in Colorado will receive $47.8 million as payment for approximately 24 million acres of tax-exempt federal lands within the state, or about $2.00 per acre. The funding, called “Payments in Lieu of Taxes,” was created in 1976 and rewritten and amended in 1982. The money paid to help local governments offset losses in property taxes for the nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries. A formula is used to calculate the payments. Population, revenue-sharing payments and the amount of federal land within the county are taken into account. “Payments in Lieu of Taxes” are made in addition to other federal funds paid for oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing, and timber harvesting, according to the U.S. Department of the Interi...
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Colorado utility bills may increase 10% over four years to pay for wildfire mitigation
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Colorado utility bills may increase 10% over four years to pay for wildfire mitigation

By By Joe Mueller | The Center Square Monthly Xcel Energy bills will increase approximately 10% or more by 2028 to pay for a wildfire mitigation plan submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The utility emphasized its primary focus is safety for both the communities it serves and its customers in a media release announcing the submission. If the agency approves the plan, residential bills will increase through incremental bi-annual amounts until reaching approximately $8.88 a month by Jan. 1, 2028. “Our goal is to ensure that no catastrophic wildfire is started by Xcel Energy assets,” Bob Frenzel, president and chief executive officer of Xcel Energy, said in a statement. “And, while we’ve made significant wildfire safety progress in Colorado and achieved key goals, t...
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Report: Colorado can and should improve energy permitting process
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Report: Colorado can and should improve energy permitting process

By Joe Mueller | The Center Square Colorado can improve its procedures, public input, timelines and coordination of state, federal and local governments to improve the environmental permitting process, according to a report. The state made significant progress in reforming regulatory processes in the past decade but improvements need to be made, according to James Broughel, a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of the report, “Distilling Efficiency; Colorado’s quest to refine its permitting process.” “The state appears to be moving in the wrong direction with recent changes targeting the oil and gas industry, which have created a more burdensome permitting environment,” according to the report. “Enacting targeted legislative changes, insti...
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Biden, Trump spar over inflation, border, more in first presidential debate
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Biden, Trump spar over inflation, border, more in first presidential debate

By Casey Harper and Ireland Owens | The Center Square President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump grappled over inflation, illegal immigration, abortion and more during the first debate of this election cycle Thursday night in Atlanta. A Quinnipiac poll released the day before the debate shows Trump with a 49%-45% lead over Biden, showing Biden needed to turn the tide Thursday night. But throughout the debate, Biden showed moments of murmuring, blank stares, trailing off in his responses, or seeming to lose his train of thought. “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” Trump said early in the debate. “I really don’t think he knows what he said either.” Questions have surrounded Biden, 81, for a growing number of stumbles and miscues in...
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U.S. House Republicans prioritize funding border security, defunding Mayorkas’ salary
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Approved, Local, The Center Square

U.S. House Republicans prioritize funding border security, defunding Mayorkas’ salary

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square The U.S. House of Representatives laid out a plan to prioritize funding border security and cut programs Republicans argue facilitate illegal immigration and national security threats when debating HR 8752, The Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2025. House Republicans also passed an amendment to the bill to defund Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ salary after they impeached him in February. House Republicans argue his policies facilitated the border crisis and escalated terrorist threats. Since January 2021, an estimated 12 million foreign nationals from more than 150 countries have illegally entered the U.S.; federal agencies, including DHS, have acknowledged they can’t locate millions of them, T...
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Trump, Biden prepare lines of attack heading into presidential debate
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Trump, Biden prepare lines of attack heading into presidential debate

By Casey Harper | The Center Square Former president Donald Trump has taken several shots at his opponent, President Joe Biden, heading into Thursday night’s first presidential debate, and Biden is returning fire. Both Trump and Biden are the presumed nominees of their respective parties this time around, a rematch of the 2020 election where Biden unseated incumbent Trump. This time, Trump is seeking to do the same to Biden, and he isn’t expected to hold back. Trump has repeatedly mocked Biden for his verbal flubs and moments of appearing lost and confused on stage. Biden has responded, with him and his team mocking Trump for his legal woes. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE CENTER SQUARE
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Signatures being gathered to get charter schools protection in Colorado constitution
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Approved, State, The Center Square

Signatures being gathered to get charter schools protection in Colorado constitution

By Joe Mueller | The Center Square An organization attempting to enshrine charter school rights in Colorado's Constitution published a report supporting the move as it gathers signatures to get it on the ballot. Advance Colorado, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization, has until July 25 to gather at least 124,238 signatures of registered voters for Initiative #138 to be on the November general election ballot. It also must get at least 2% of the total registered electors in each of the 35 Colorado state senate districts. “Protecting Educational Freedom: Why School Choice Must Be Placed in the Colorado Constitution,” is a 15-page report by Michael Tsogt, a policy analyst with Advance Colorado. The report states school choice in Colorado received bipartisan support throu...
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