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PERA seeks legislation to push the next auto-adjust to 2044
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

PERA seeks legislation to push the next auto-adjust to 2044

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun State pension officials plan to ask lawmakers to relax some provisions of Senate Bill 200 in order to provide financial relief to PERA’s members. For the first time since the state pension’s finances cratered in the early 2000s, the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association is putting together a legislative proposal to bring some relief to its beleaguered members. At the pension board’s annual retreat in Colorado Springs earlier this month, pension officials offered a number of ideas to prevent — or at least delay — another round of automatic adjustments to the system’s finances. If the legislature agrees, the changes could spare retirees from additional cuts to their monthly pension checks, and stave off even higher payroll d...
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Colorado Officials Block GOP Pick for House Seat Over Vacancy Rule Dispute
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Officials Block GOP Pick for House Seat Over Vacancy Rule Dispute

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office told the GOP vacancy committee in House District 14 that its members did not get 10 days of notice ahead of making their appointment as is required by state law. State elections officials Monday rejected a Republican vacancy committee’s pick for a seat in the Colorado legislature, finding that the panel didn’t follow state law in making the selection.  The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office told the GOP vacancy committee in House District 14 that its members did not get 10 days of notice ahead the gathering to make their appointment as is required by state law. The committee was picking a replacement for former House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese. She resigned Sept. 15. The vacancy vote was he...
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Colorado Judge Orders Losing Plaintiffs to Pay Terumo $5.2 Million
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, Local

Colorado Judge Orders Losing Plaintiffs to Pay Terumo $5.2 Million

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun The multinational medical manufacturer, based in Lakewood, uses toxic ethylene oxide as a sterilizer. Jefferson County residents attempted to sue for health damage. A Jefferson County District Court judge ordered cancer-stricken patients who unsuccessfully sued Lakewood medical manufacturer Terumo BCT for toxic pollution releases to pay just under $5.2 million in the multinational company’s legal fees. Terumo uses ethylene oxide, or EtO, to sterilize its blood processing equipment before shipping, and neighbors of EtO-using industries around the nation have filed lawsuits claiming the companies are liable for cancer and other major health problems. A Jeffco jury in March found Terumo not negligent, after four women sued the company for damages i...
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Colorado Supreme Court to decide if state wrongly denied child abuse hotline data to media orgs
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Supreme Court to decide if state wrongly denied child abuse hotline data to media orgs

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun The news agencies wanted to know the number of times child residential treatment centers had called the child abuse hotline but were denied by state human services officials A legal battle over child abuse hotline data requested four years ago by The Colorado Sun and 9News has reached the Colorado Supreme Court.  The case centers on the news organizations’ joint request under the Colorado Open Records Act for the number of calls made to the state child abuse hotline from three child residential treatment centers in the Denver area from 2018 to 2021. Journalists sought the information while investigating the safety of children in residential centers, including the death of a 12-year-old boy who ran away from Tennyson Center and...
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State Budget Growth Cap Leaves Colorado With Tough Choices Ahead
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State, Approved, The Colorado Sun

State Budget Growth Cap Leaves Colorado With Tough Choices Ahead

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Providing the same level of government programs and services next fiscal year is predicted to cost $850 million more than the legislature will have available to spend. It’s one state budget crisis after another.  That’s the takeaway from quarterly economic and tax revenue forecasts presented Monday to the Colorado legislature by nonpartisan Capitol staff and the governor’s office.  The General Assembly just wrapped up a special session to plug a roughly $750 million hole in the state’s current budget caused by tax code changes made through congressional Republicans’ tax and spending bill, which was passed and signed into law in July. But more trouble is on the horizon in the form of what’s referred to as Colorado’s structural...
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Colorado’s new law shields renters from fees, businesses say protections should be next
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado’s new law shields renters from fees, businesses say protections should be next

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun The Colorado legislature banned CAM fees — charges for common area maintenance — in residential leases starting Jan. 1. Without warning, Le’Toya Garland’s landlord tripled the common area maintenance fees she owed on her hip-hop dance studio in Aurora. In June 2024, the $300 to $500 a month she had paid throughout her lease jumped to $1,693. And while she managed to scrape together the funds to cover her new monthly tab — including the $2,900 she already owed in monthly rent — she couldn’t afford what came next: a $9,000 bill for back-charges she’d never been told she had to pay. “It just showed up in our account,” said Garland, who co-owns the School of Breaking. “It was the first time ever that we’ve gotten a bill like that, and it wa...
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Kids’ mental health ER visits jumped 26% at Children’s Hospital Colorado this summer
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Kids’ mental health ER visits jumped 26% at Children’s Hospital Colorado this summer

By Erica Breunlin | The Colorado Sun Summer usually marks a quiet time for mental health programs at Children’s Hospital Colorado. This year, the hospital system saw more students with more severe struggles. A surge of kids struggling with mental health crises spent part of their summer in the emergency department at Children’s Hospital Colorado — a season medical professionals say is typically quiet with a lull in patients. Children’s Hospital Colorado reported a 26% uptick in children showing up at the emergency department because of mental health challenges between June and July this year compared with the same timeframe last year. And the number of kids needing inpatient care at the hospital system jumped more than 55% from 2020 to 2024, according to data provided by the hospi...
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Families Mourn After Experienced Hunters Found Dead In Colorado Wilderness
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Local, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Families Mourn After Experienced Hunters Found Dead In Colorado Wilderness

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko went missing in Rio Grande National Forest a week ago. Porter’s aunt posted on a GoFundMe page that both were found deceased. Two elk hunters missing since Friday were found dead Thursday morning by Colorado search and rescue teams, according to Lynne Runkle, the aunt of Andrew Porter, one of the missing men. “It is with a broken heart and through tears that I give you this update,” Runkle posted on a GoFundMe page she had set up to pay for the search. “Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko have both been found deceased. Their bodies were discovered earlier today by Colorado Search and Rescue. I will provide another update tomorrow. Please keep Andrew’s and Ian‘s families in your thoughts and prayers.” Saguache County Search ...
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Families Offer $10,000 Reward as Two Hunters Remain Missing in Rugged Colorado Wilderness
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Local, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Families Offer $10,000 Reward as Two Hunters Remain Missing in Rugged Colorado Wilderness

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko sent their last communication Sept. 11. Porter’s fiancée says they are experienced, but whatever happened “depends on if they were in sound mind, if they were disoriented or panicked, or if they were hypothermic.” A search is on for two experienced elk hunters who went missing in the Rio Grande National Forest in Conejos County on Sept. 11, and the fiancée of one is imploring people with experience hunting, hiking or traveling by horse in the rugged terrain on the New Mexico border north of Chama to head to the Rio de Los Pinos trailhead or surrounding area to help search. Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, were last heard from Thursday afternoon at around 2:45 p.m. when Porter shared his location with his fiancée, ...
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Western Slope Officials Push to Delay Shoshone Water Rights Decision
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State, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Western Slope Officials Push to Delay Shoshone Water Rights Decision

By: Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun The request for a delay comes days before the state planned to decide whether two powerful Colorado River water rights could be used to help the environment. DURANGO — Western Slope water officials are asking for more time to negotiate before the state decides whether influential Colorado River water rights can be used to help the environment. A state water agency, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, is scheduled to make its final ruling Thursday on the future usage of a pair of water rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant, owned by an Xcel Energy subsidiary called Public Service of Colorado. On Tuesday, the Xcel subsidiary and Colorado River District — the Western Slope water entity leading the effort to use the rights to help the environ...
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