Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

The Colorado Sun

Colorado Mountain Town Revolts After AI Cameras and Robots Spark Privacy Concerns
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, Local

Colorado Mountain Town Revolts After AI Cameras and Robots Spark Privacy Concerns

By Nancy Lofholm | The Colorado Sun Controversy is being stirred by a Silicon Valley refugee who says Paonia is “on the cutting edge of violating citizens’ privacy.” Now he’s running for mayor. First, it was the robots. They were trundling along sidewalks in Paonia last summer gathering data on how accommodating those thoroughfares were for people with disabilities. The wandering robots took townspeople by complete surprise. Then came the surveillance cameras mounted on poles and walls last fall. They were capturing those doing business at the town hall, coming and going from the town’s water plant, and dancing in front of the town park’s bandstand. Even those with impressive Western swing moves weren’t happy to unknowingly be caught on camera.   ...
Read More
Xcel Customers Face Largest Electric Rate Hike In Colorado History
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Xcel Customers Face Largest Electric Rate Hike In Colorado History

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun The $225 million increase would raise the average residential bill by $6.13, but the proposed rate needs PUC approval and consumer advocates oppose it. Xcel Energy, its corporate customers and unions are at odds with consumer advocates over a proposed settlement that would grant the utility the largest electric rate increase ever — $225 million. The proposed agreement between Xcel Energy and parties including the Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff, the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers, Walmart and Climax Molybdenum would raise the average household bill by $6.13 to $110.81 a month — a nearly 6% increase. Colorado Energy Consumers, which represents large industrial and commercial customers, also signed on to...
Read More
Colorado Officials Push For Emergency Drought Declaration As Conditions Worsen
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Officials Push For Emergency Drought Declaration As Conditions Worsen

By: Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun Shifting into the next phase of the state’s emergency drought response plan could unlock more resources and funding. WINTER PARK — Members of the Colorado Drought Task Force want Gov. Jared Polis to issue an emergency proclamation to unlock more help, potentially from state coffers, in face of worrisome drought conditions.  After a historically bad winter that ended a month early, Colorado is already feeling the impacts — whether that’s financial strain, tough business decisions or an overstressed environment. As part of the state’s response, the task force recommended Monday moving into the highest level, phase three, of the state’s drought response plan. The move could allow the state to tap more resources or seek a presi...
Read More
Peters Release Day Arrives With Key Details Still Unknown
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Peters Release Day Arrives With Key Details Still Unknown

By Nancy Lofholm | The Colorado Sun Gov. Jared Polis commuted the former Mesa County clerk’s sentence last month, making her eligible for parole and setting off a national firestorm over her role in attempting to interfere with an election. Tina Peters is scheduled to be released from a state prison in Pueblo Monday after Gov. Jared Polis controversially commuted the former Mesa County clerk’s sentence last month, cutting it in half.Peters, 70, has been imprisoned since 2024 for election fraud and official misconduct after she snuck an outside election denier into the off-limits Mesa County Elections Division office so he could copy the hard drive from the county’s voting system. Sentenced to nine years in October 2024, Polis cut her prison time in half on May 15 and made h...
Read More
Midwives Sue State Alleging Bias Is Hurting Maternity Care Access in Colorado
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Midwives Sue State Alleging Bias Is Hurting Maternity Care Access in Colorado

By: Daliah Singer | The Colorado Sun The reproductive health practitioners allege bias and sex-based discrimination by Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies division. Kalie Caler was 8 years old when she decided that she wanted to deliver babies for a living. Born and raised in Pagosa Springs, she completed midwifery school in Florida before moving home to start Mountain Roots Midwifery in 2019.  As the only midwife in town, she delivered more than a dozen babies during her first year, traveling an hour or more to support clients as far away as Mancos, Durango and Crestone. She also birthed all three of her own children at home.  Then, in February 2022, one of her clients went into labor and the birth didn’t go as expected. The baby boy wasn’t breath...
Read More
Hickenlooper Moves To Block Tina Peters From Trump Compensation Fund
No Comments
Approved, National, The Colorado Sun

Hickenlooper Moves To Block Tina Peters From Trump Compensation Fund

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper plans to force Republicans to vote on an amendment aimed at prohibiting the Trump administration from sending money to former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and others convicted of crimes that affected elections or election equipment from a $1.8 billion fund created to compensate allies of the GOP president who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” of $1.776 billion is part of a settlement that resolves President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. It will allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to apply for payouts, cr...
Read More
Colorado Nonprofit Steps In As Immigrants Exit Aurora Detention Facility
No Comments
Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Nonprofit Steps In As Immigrants Exit Aurora Detention Facility

By Jennifer Brown | Colorado Sun Casa de Paz gives people a warm meal, a suitcase, a phone charger and a way home, no matter how far that may be. Sitting on a couch in a one-story house near the immigration detention center in Aurora on a recent rainy weekday, J.R.V. began to retether himself to the life he was ripped from nearly five months ago. At his feet, tan work boots were in a plastic bag with his name written in Sharpie. He had last worn them on a Saturday morning in December when a sheriff’s deputy arrested him as he was driving to a construction site in Florida. They were a reminder of how quickly life changed. J.R.V., 40, spent about three days at the county jail followed by 12 at Alligator Alcatraz, the infamous, new immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades,...
Read More
Nonprofit Builds Real Time Network To Monitor ICE In Western Colorado
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Nonprofit Builds Real Time Network To Monitor ICE In Western Colorado

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Voces Unidas de las Montañas began as a political organization for Latinos. It pivoted when the federal immigration crackdown came to Colorado. CONFIRMADO. The Facebook post in Spanish is a community alarm for Colorado mountain towns along Interstate 70, a warning to stay alert because ICE is in action. Confirmed, it translates, a person was taken by ICE agents as he left the Mesa County Courthouse in Grand Junction at 10 a.m. May 1. Three days earlier: CONFIRMADO, a person with legal immigration status was taken by ICE agents from the parking lot of an apartment complex in Grand Junction.  And a few days before that: CONFIRMADO, federal immigration agents took a man from the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs.  The warnings from Voc...
Read More
Polis Predicts History Will Favor His Decision In Tina Peters Case
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Polis Predicts History Will Favor His Decision In Tina Peters Case

By Brian Eason and Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Gov. Jared Polis made the remarks at The Colorado Sun’s annual legislative recap event at the University of Denver, only to be drowned out by a small group of protesters. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday said he doesn’t regret his decision to commute the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, despite widespread condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, who said it will embolden election conspiracy theorists ahead of the 2026 midterms. “I think this will be remembered fondly,” Polis said at The Colorado Sun’s annual legislative recap event at the University of Denver. “The nation needs to have a reconciliation and healing. “People know I’m a man of action,” he added. “I’m a bold pers...
Read More
Colorado Moves Toward Month Long Voting Under New Elections Bill
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Moves Toward Month Long Voting Under New Elections Bill

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Another provision in House Bill 1113, a major elections bill headed to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk, would let the governor declare a disaster emergency if there is a major election disruption. Election Day is about to become election month in Colorado.  A bill headed to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk would let county clerks begin mailing ballots to registered voters 29 days before Election Day, up from 22. Clerks would have to finish mailing out ballots no later than 25 days before an election, up from 18.  State Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat and lead sponsor of House Bill 1113, said the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and elections advocates asked for the change because they are worried about the Trump administration ...
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