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Surprise. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t on the ballot in Colorado and here’s why.
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Surprise. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t on the ballot in Colorado and here’s why.

By Sandra Fish | Colorado Sun Reader question: I am an unaffiliated voter and plan to vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Why isn’t he on the presidential primary ballot? Answer: Kennedy initially announced his run for president as a Democratic candidate, then switched in October to run as an independent.  Colorado holds presidential primary elections only for Democratic and Republican candidates, and only candidates who are approved by their respective parties can appear on the ballot. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Under Prop. 123, Colorado has allocated millions in funds this year to governments and housing organizations
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Under Prop. 123, Colorado has allocated millions in funds this year to governments and housing organizations

By Tatiana Flowers | Colorado Sun State leaders have already distributed millions of dollars this year to dozens of local governments and housing organizations that have pledged to build affordable units across Colorado in the coming years. The state departments of local affairs and economic development and the Colorado Housing Finance Authority, for example, have awarded nearly $80 million to local governments and housing organizations that plan to build affordable units using funds solely from Proposition 123. Voters approved the ballot measure in November 2022 and it requires participating local governments to plan to build at least 3% more affordable housing every year for the next three years.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Colorado’s public defenders say they need 200 more attorneys to provide effective counsel
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado’s public defenders say they need 200 more attorneys to provide effective counsel

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun Colorado needs three times the number of public defenders it employs today to meet new workload standards for criminal defense, according to a national study backed by the American Bar Association. For next budget year, which starts July 1, Colorado’s Office of the State Public Defender is asking for 70 more attorneys and 58 new support staff, including paralegals and investigators, at a total cost of $14.7 million. That’s still far less than 230 new attorneys the office says it needs — let alone the 700-plus hires it would take to triple current staffing levels to meet the study’s recommendations. But even the partial request was enough to shock members of Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN...
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Postal Service floats idea of driving Western Slope mail to Denver and back before delivery
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

Postal Service floats idea of driving Western Slope mail to Denver and back before delivery

By Nancy Lofholm | The Colorado Sun The U.S. Postal Service faced a rowdy, critical crowd Thursday in Grand Junction, a city that has yet to suffer the same delivery problems that have bedeviled smaller towns across Colorado. The crowd, packed into a too-small meeting room at Colorado Mesa University, hooted, hollered and guffawed as Postal Service officials laid out a plan to change the Western Slope’s largest city from a regional to a local mail processing center. The crowd whistled and clapped when speaker after speaker took the microphone to criticize the plan. The crowd had made its way to the meeting room in spite of the fact that Postal Service notices announcing the meeting had gone out with a wrong address for the meeting location. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO S...
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A new — and much gentler — property tax hike is proposed for Colorado short-term rental properties
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

A new — and much gentler — property tax hike is proposed for Colorado short-term rental properties

By Jason Blevins and Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun A proposed property tax hike on Colorado short-term rental owners would only kick in for people with three or more homes under new legislation proposed as a gentler alternative to a further-reaching measure also being debated at the state Capitol this year.  State Rep. Shannon Bird, a Democrat from Westminster, hopes her House Bill 1299 will work as a compromise to slow the growth of short-term rentals that is pinching the housing supply, especially for local workers.  Her legislation would impose the state’s much higher commercial property tax rate on properties offered as short-term rentals when they belong to a person or business that owns at least two other homes.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Parents of medically fragile kids can’t find nurses because the pay is so low. They want Colorado lawmakers to step in. 
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Parents of medically fragile kids can’t find nurses because the pay is so low. They want Colorado lawmakers to step in. 

By Jennifer Brown | Colorado Sun Nurses willing to care for medically fragile children and adults — including patients who use feeding tubes, can’t walk or speak, and rarely leave their homes — are hard to find in Colorado.  Amid a statewide nursing shortage so dire that even state mental institutions offer $14,000 signing bonuses, the lowest-paying nursing positions are going unfilled. That means many parents who have relied on “private duty nurses” for in-home care for their children and adult children are getting no help.  Colorado’s Medicaid program reimburses the agencies that employ these in-home nurses at some of the lowest rates in the nation, according to the Home Care and Hospice Association of Colorado. The rate for registered nurses in Colorado is $...
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Colorado Democrats’ attempt to reduce gun violence is colliding with their criminal justice reform ethos
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Democrats’ attempt to reduce gun violence is colliding with their criminal justice reform ethos

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun When it comes to preventing gun violence in Colorado, there’s not much Democrats and Republicans agree on.  Getting gun rights and pro-gun regulation groups on the same page? That’s unheard of.  So when a bill was introduced in the legislature this year to increase penalties for stealing guns that brought those groups together, it seemed like a slam dunk. But the measure, House Bill 1162, was rejected in the House Judiciary Committee last week in a collision of two priorities for the Democratic majority at the Capitol: its desire to curb gun violence and its push to reduce the number of people being sent to prison. “We’re not going to incarcerate ourselves out of this,” said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat and one of the leg...
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Cory Gardner reenters Colorado political conversation to make endorsement in crowded 4th Congressional District race
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Cory Gardner reenters Colorado political conversation to make endorsement in crowded 4th Congressional District race

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun Cory Gardner reentered Colorado’s political conversation Wednesday to endorse former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg in the crowded Republican primary in the state’s 4th Congressional District, a race that includes U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.  “Jerry Sonnenberg is the conservative conscience of the 4th Congressional District,” Gardner, a former U.S. senator from eastern Colorado who lost his reelection bid in 2020, said in a written statement. “He will be a passionate and dedicated warrior for our nation and our shared conservative values.” Gardner represented the 4th District from 2011 to 2015 before he was elected to the Senate. He’s mostly shied away from the public spotlight since leaving Congress in early 2021, making his endorsement more notable. ...
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Colorado Springs cracks down on homeless camping in hopes of pushing people toward shelter, services
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Approved, El Paso County, Local, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Springs cracks down on homeless camping in hopes of pushing people toward shelter, services

By Jennifer Brown and Hugh Carey | Colorado Sun Jeremy Krause has a simple code for making it on the streets of Colorado Springs: “Stay dry and avoid the cops.”  To keep warm, he burns hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol. To steer clear of the police, he and his dog move often.  But avoiding them is not working as well anymore.  “It wasn’t so bad in the beginning, but the last two years they’ve been really irrational,” said Krause, who has been homeless for about eight years. “They’ve stolen my things like six times. They take your tent, your blankets, your heat, everything you need to survive. That’s to force us into the shelter.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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State funding could be withheld from Colorado cities that don’t tie housing to transit under new affordability push 
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

State funding could be withheld from Colorado cities that don’t tie housing to transit under new affordability push 

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun Colorado Democrats on Tuesday introduced a bill that would send millions of dollars to cities that agree to encourage denser housing near transit — and withhold state highway funding from those that don’t. The measure, House Bill 1313, is a key piece of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ plans to address the state’s housing shortage and combat climate change. It relies heavily on financial incentives, such as affordable housing tax credits and infrastructure funding, to coax cities into developing transit-oriented communities — a departure from last year’s failed attempt to force cities to zone for apartments and townhouses. But it has a punitive side, too: Affected cities that don’t take steps to meet housing goals laid out in the bill could see cuts ...
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