Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

The Colorado Sun

Do just 2 in 5 Colorado fourth graders meet expectations in math?
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Do just 2 in 5 Colorado fourth graders meet expectations in math?

By Por Jaijongkit | The Colorado Sun Around 42% of fourth graders in public schools tested at or above their grade level in math in standardized testing. Results come from the 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress, administered to fourth and eighth graders once every two years.  The NAEP measures whether students can demonstrate grade-level proficiency and apply their knowledge to real-world situations.  Colorado’s average fourth grade math score was 239 out of 500, compared with the national average of 237. The percentage of students scoring at or above grade level rose to 42% from 36% in 2022.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Shutting down the Colorado Youth Advisory Council would save about $50k a year
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Shutting down the Colorado Youth Advisory Council would save about $50k a year

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun The Colorado legislature, as part of its efforts to close a budget hole of more than $1 billion, is planning to axe a nearly two-decade program that enlists teenagers from across the state to help draft and offer input on bills. Shutting down the Colorado Youth Advisory Council would save about $50,000 a year. That’s a relatively paltry amount, but it’s meant to send a message that costs must be trimmed wherever possible.  The cut foreshadows the big, and often painful, line-item reductions the legislature will have to make in the coming weeks. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Colorado’s budget hole is now $1.2 billion, as Medicaid costs continue to climb
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado’s budget hole is now $1.2 billion, as Medicaid costs continue to climb

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Colorado’s looming budget shortfall just keeps getting worse. In a letter to the Joint Budget Committee this week, state officials said Colorado will need to spend an additional $73 million on Medicaid this budget year, which ends June 30, as demand for health services continues to surge beyond the administration’s expectations. Costs are expected to continue to rise next budget year, when the state now expects to spend $86 million more than previous estimates. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Ballot measure to overturn Colorado wolf reintroduction clears title board in first hurdle
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Ballot measure to overturn Colorado wolf reintroduction clears title board in first hurdle

By Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun Wolf reintroduction could return to the Colorado ballot next year.  The Colorado Secretary of State’s Title Board on Wednesday approved language for a proposed ballot measure that would ask voters in 2026 to end the reintroduction of gray wolves by the end of that year.  “The only thing we are doing with this ballot measure is asking voters to approve a day where wolves would no longer be introduced in Colorado by humans,” said Stan VanderWerf, a former El Paso County commissioner who helped write the ballot measure. “This proposal does not make any other changes to state or provisions that address the management of wolves or reimbursement for depredation. It’s a very simple proposal.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE ...
Read More
Interstate power lines threaten farmers’ land in southeastern Colorado
No Comments
Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Interstate power lines threaten farmers’ land in southeastern Colorado

By Parker Yamasaki | The Colorado Sun Quay County, New Mexico, is best known as a neon blip along historic Route 66, with a cluster of retro motels in its county seat, Tucumcari, about halfway between Albuquerque and Amarillo, Texas. Besides that, it’s a relatively rural part of the country, populated by multigenerational farmers and ranchers. Ed and Patty Hughs are some of those ranchers. And Ed was surprised to find his property on a different kind of map last year: smack in the middle of a path for new power lines drawn by the U.S. Department of Energy. The map shows one of three proposed routes for a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, the result of a Biden administration program to accelerate transmission projects in areas where coverage could soon falter. RE...
Read More
King Soopers, 10,000 statewide grocery workers end strike for 100 days to resume bargaining
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

King Soopers, 10,000 statewide grocery workers end strike for 100 days to resume bargaining

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun More than 10,000 supermarket workers involved in a two-week labor walkout will return to their jobs at King Soopers stores Tuesday after the labor union and the Colorado grocery chain reached an agreement late Monday to stop picketing and get back to work.  There’s no new contract yet, but the two sides plan to resume negotiations to work out their differences. They agreed to a “100-day period of labor peace, ensuring negotiations continue in good faith and without further disruptions,” according to King Soopers officials. The strike ended at midnight, two days earlier than the planned two-week walkout. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Colorado lawmakers eye term limits, transparency rules for PERA board
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers eye term limits, transparency rules for PERA board

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun The Colorado state pension board would be subject to term limits and new transparency requirements under a measure introduced in the state legislature earlier this month. The proposal, Senate Bill 147, comes in response to growing concerns from state pension members about how their retirement funds are being managed. Years of benefit cuts and contribution hikes have helped improve the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s shaky finances since a landmark reform package was adopted in 2018. But the changes have also left workers and public agencies paying more than ever for a pension that provides less and less to its retirees. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Bipartisan bill would let Colorado counties triple lodging taxes to pay for more than affordable housing
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Bipartisan bill would let Colorado counties triple lodging taxes to pay for more than affordable housing

By Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun Colorado lawmakers Thursday dropped bipartisan legislation that would allow local voters to raise their county lodging tax rate to 6% from the existing 2%.   The potential tripling of local lodging taxes — which mountain town voters have recently embraced as a way to fund affordable housing — would also come with an expansion in the types of projects that could be funded with lodging tax revenue.  House Bill 1247 would allow increased lodging tax revenue to fund infrastructure, preserve historical sites, land and wildlife habitat, promote sustainable tourism practices, and employ more police and emergency workers.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Douglas Co. leaders weigh which three Highlands Ranch schools to close while prioritizing safety, continuity
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Douglas Co. leaders weigh which three Highlands Ranch schools to close while prioritizing safety, continuity

By Erica Breunlin | The Colorado Sun As Douglas County School District leaders and board members weigh closing three schools in Highlands Ranch, they’ll prioritize keeping together groups of students and staff from individual schools, ensuring student safety in traffic zones and analyzing current and future enrollment projections. Those are among the parameters the board approved Tuesday to guide them in determining which schools to close beginning in the 2026-27 school year from a list of 16 schools. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Colorado universities are now closer to paying athletes. But the public may never know how much
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado universities are now closer to paying athletes. But the public may never know how much

By Ben Markus | The Colorado Sun The University of Colorado Boulder would be able to pay football players and keep the individual dollar amounts secret under a bill that passed a key committee vote Thursday in the state House of Representatives. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Education Committee advanced House Bill 1041 even as they continued to express concern about a provision of the measure exempting the contracts between players from public disclosure through the Colorado Open Records Act, known as CORA. “CORA is a really important tool, along with public procurement law, to help the public understand how money is being spent from its public institutions,” Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, said before casting a “no” vote on the bill, which passed 9-4 late ...
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