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Faith Winter, a top Senate Democrat, seeking treatment after appearing intoxicated at Wednesday meeting
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Faith Winter, a top Senate Democrat, seeking treatment after appearing intoxicated at Wednesday meeting

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Assistant Senate Majority Leader Faith Winter, the No. 3 Democrat in the Colorado Senate, is seeking medical treatment for substance abuse, she told The Colorado Sun on Thursday. Winter is specifically seeking assistance with alcoholism.  The Broomfield lawmaker’s decision comes after she appeared to be intoxicated Wednesday evening as she attended a community hearing in Northglenn about a state plan to open a controversial mental health transitional living facility that could house people convicted of sex offenses. Winter’s speech was slurred and halting and she seemed to struggle to gather her thoughts. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Colorado Democrats say property tax relief is coming. There’s no money in the state budget to pay for it.
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Democrats say property tax relief is coming. There’s no money in the state budget to pay for it.

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun With just a month left in the state’s legislative session, top Colorado lawmakers still haven’t come out with a plan to deliver promised property tax relief — but they insist one is coming. “This is still a very high priority,” Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who is leading the legislature’s tax discussions, said Tuesday. “I expect to pass a large property tax bill this session.” There’s just one problem. Unlike this time last year, there’s no money set aside in the budget to pay for it. That has left lawmakers with limited options — and difficult trade-offs — as they look to overhaul Colorado’s property tax code in the face of public outcry over rising tax bills. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN...
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Democrats select Trisha Calvarese to be their nominee for the special election to replace Ken Buck
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Democrats select Trisha Calvarese to be their nominee for the special election to replace Ken Buck

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Trisha Calvarese, a former congressional and campaign staffer, was selected Monday by a Democratic vacancy committee to be the party’s nominee for the June 25 special election that will determine who serves out the term of Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.  “I will fight to defend Social Security, to get the government out of reproductive choices and freedoms, I will work to create paths to well paid union jobs and apprenticeships right out of high school,” Calverese told committee members. “We can flip this seat.” Calvarese faces steep odds in the special election. The 4th District, which includes Douglas County and Loveland and spans the Eastern Plains, is highly favorable to Republicans. Buck,...
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House Bill 1363: Does it make charter schools more transparent, or is it a ‘blatant attack’?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

House Bill 1363: Does it make charter schools more transparent, or is it a ‘blatant attack’?

By Erica Breunlin | Colorado Sun A bill from a group of liberal Colorado Democrats aimed at increasing transparency and accountability at  charter schools has sparked major opposition, including from Gov. Jared Polis, bipartisan education groups and parents and students. The lawmakers who introduced House Bill 1363 this month say they value charter schools and simply aim to hold them to the same level of scrutiny that public schools face. “School choice is rooted in informed decision-making,” said Rep. Lorena Garcia, a bill sponsor and a Democrat from unincorporated Adams County. “If charter schools are not willing to be open and transparent and support informed decision-making within the parent population, then it begs the question of, what are they actually trying to h...
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Colorado lawmakers reject proposed ban on new oil and gas drilling after 2030
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Colorado lawmakers reject proposed ban on new oil and gas drilling after 2030

By Mark Jaffe | Colorado Sun A bill to ban new oil and gas drilling in Colorado after 2030 — which sparked a spate of industry TV ads with dire warnings — was rejected Thursday by a bipartisan majority of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee after a marathon hearing. The legislation, Senate Bill 159 — sponsored by two Democratic senators, Kevin Priola, of Henderson, and Sonya Jaquez Lewis, of Boulder County —  would have required state oil and gas regulators to stop issuing new drilling permits starting in 2030, with those permits to be used by 2032. Faced with projections of potentially severe impacts of climate change and the Front Range’s continuing struggles to curb ozone pollution, the bill was a necessary step to transition to cleaner energy,...
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List of orphan oil and gas wells swells to more than 1,000 in Colorado as small operators abandon the state
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

List of orphan oil and gas wells swells to more than 1,000 in Colorado as small operators abandon the state

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun The number of orphan wells in Colorado has topped 1,000 — a four-fold increase in four years — as the state takes over 358 wells from two defunct oil and gas companies this spring. The Energy and Carbon Management Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry and operates the state’s orphan well program, is adding the 339 wells of Dallas-based Omimex Petroleum and 19 wells from Centennial-based Chemco Exploration. The ECMC is also seizing $205,000 in bonds from Omimex — about $604 per well — and $60,000 in bonds from Chemco, equal to $3,158 for each well. The commission estimates that on average it takes $10,000 to $40,000 to plug and abandon a well and $100,000 for site remediation. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN...
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Colorado lawmakers reject request to hire state lawyers to prosecute gun crimes in federal court
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers reject request to hire state lawyers to prosecute gun crimes in federal court

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun The Colorado lawmakers who write the state’s budget rejected a request from the governor and attorney general to hire a group of lawyers to be loaned out to the federal government to prosecute gun crimes in federal court. The Joint Budget Committee voted twice earlier this month to reject the proposal, which would have set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire as many as four attorneys, as it finalized the budget for debate before the full legislature in the coming weeks.  The latest vote to sideline the request was 3-3, with Democratic Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver joining the two Republicans on the JBC last week to block the spending. (Tie votes on the JBC result in proposals being rejected.) READ THE FULL STORY AT T...
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Pharmaceutical company Amgen sues Colorado over price-setting prescription drug board
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Pharmaceutical company Amgen sues Colorado over price-setting prescription drug board

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun Amgen, the multinational pharmaceutical company that makes the blockbuster arthritis drug Enbrel, has sued Colorado over a state board’s efforts to possibly cap the price of the drug. In a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver, Amgen argues that the actions of Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board are unconstitutional because they conflict with federal laws and because they violate rights to due process. The company is seeking not just to overturn the board’s recent decisions about Enbrel but also to strike down major parts of the law creating the board. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Should Steamboat build 2,264 homes for 6,000 workers? Voters get a say on Tuesday.
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

Should Steamboat build 2,264 homes for 6,000 workers? Voters get a say on Tuesday.

By Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun Voters in Steamboat Springs on Tuesday will decide on the city’s plan to annex 420 acres to build a community of affordable housing for more than 6,000 workers.  The Brown Ranch plan illustrates the challenges with building affordable housing in Colorado’s high country as communities grapple with the scope and cost of building homes for workers who cannot afford living in mountain towns. The vote in Steamboat Springs will decide if the city of 13,000 can move forward on a plan to spend hundreds of millions on a new community that could grow the city’s population by nearly half.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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This Colorado rancher sees a world where conservation can turn a profit
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This Colorado rancher sees a world where conservation can turn a profit

By Tracy Ross | Colorado Sun Their hoofprints fan out in four directions but the elk that overwinter here have scattered. The snow is changing to ice and a brisk wind scours the ground. Maybe the gusts chased them off. Or a memory, stored deep in their DNA, of an elk caught in a barbed wire fence with a coyote eating it. That’s a slow, horrifying death, even though it’s just nature at work. Except it isn’t, says Dave Gottenborg, because of the fence.  Dave and his wife, Jean, bought the 3,000-acre Eagle Rock Ranch in Park County in 2012. But when they introduce themselves, they say they “manage” it.  That’s because Dave doesn’t like the idea of “owning” ground that’s been around millions of years longer than he has. In fact, he just worked with Colorado State University’...
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