Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: CDPHE

Aurora ICE Facility Operator Says Colorado Overstepped Authority With New ICE Inspection Law
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Aurora ICE Facility Operator Says Colorado Overstepped Authority With New ICE Inspection Law

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The private prison company that operates the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Aurora has filed a lawsuit against Colorado to stop the enforcement of a new law requiring additional health and safety inspections of immigration detention facilities. The lawsuit from Geo Group, filed Monday in Denver District Court, lists Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser as the plaintiff, along with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment executive director Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the department’s environmental health and sustainability director Jeff Lawrence, and Adams County Health Department executive director Kelly Weidenbach. Earlier this year, the Adams County Health Department conducted an on-site investigatio...
Health Officials Confirm Hantavirus Death In Douglas County
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Health Officials Confirm Hantavirus Death In Douglas County

By Robert Garrison | Denver7 DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — A Douglas County adult resident has died from hantavirus, state and county health officials reported on Saturday. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it’s investigating the incident and said the Douglas County case is not linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak. Early findings suggest the person was exposed to the virus locally through contact with rodents, which is the most common source of hantavirus in Colorado, according to CDPHE. The agency did not identify the Douglas County resident nor provide a date as to when the person died. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DENVER7
Manny Rutinel wants to represent Colorado’s oil country. His law is bearing down on its only refinery.
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Manny Rutinel wants to represent Colorado’s oil country. His law is bearing down on its only refinery.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice State Rep. Manny Rutinel is asking voters in the heart of Colorado’s oil country to send him to Congress. Seven weeks from now, a law Rutinel helped write could reshape how Colorado’s only petroleum refinery operates. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment published a refinery assessment on May 1 after HB24-1338—the 2024 bill Rutinel co-sponsored—required the state to conduct it. The state hired Eastern Research Group to do the work. ERG compared Suncor's Commerce City refinery—in Rutinel's own state House district—against standards in California, Texas and Indiana and found multiple areas where Colorado's current permits fall short. A public meeting on the assessment is May 13. If CDPHE acts on the findings, a new refine...
Report Ties Colorado’s Fentanyl Death Surge To Weaker Drug Laws
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Report Ties Colorado’s Fentanyl Death Surge To Weaker Drug Laws

By Jacob Mauk | Colorado Politics Overdose deaths from opioids rose in Colorado, diverging from the national trend, which has been decreasing, according to a new study from a think tank. In its new report, the Common Sense Institute said synthetic opioid overdose deaths in Colorado have grown by 17% since November 2024, the third-fastest growth rate in the country. The only states with higher spike rates are Arizona and New Mexico, according to the report. If Colorado had followed the national trend, some 1,600 lives could have been saved, the study said, adding the opioid deaths represented a cost of roughly $18.3 billion. “While this number does not encompass the entire value of human life, it does indicate that lives lost due to fentanyl and other opioids red...
From stomachache to ideology: How Colorado’s “Right to Know” built a hospital compliance registry
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

From stomachache to ideology: How Colorado’s “Right to Know” built a hospital compliance registry

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Just after midnight, an 18-year-old Colorado woman—identified here as “Clarity” to protect her identity—went to the ER, hoping the pain was only a severe case of gastritis. She’s a recent high-school graduate now working for a Colorado nonprofit and was granted anonymity by RMV. When Clarity was finally told she could leave, someone brought over an iPad and said she needed to finish a few discharge questions before going home. On the screen was Colorado’s Patients’ Right to Know Act Service Availability Form—pages of items about gender-affirming care, abortion services and end-of-life options. “She was yelling at us over Zoom, saying, ‘Do you understand that you have access to these services and you’re knowingly denying them?’” Clarity ...
Logan County Families Fear Foreclosure as Water System Fails
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Logan County Families Fear Foreclosure as Water System Fails

By Jaclyn Allen | Denver7 Sage Pointe residents told Denver7 Investigates their fight is part of a bigger rural infrastructure problem. STERLING, Colo. — Just west of Sterling, Colorado, the Sage Pointe neighborhood is in crisis. Families say their private water and sewer system is failing, and they are being asked to foot a skyrocketing bill. “There’s roughly 90 plus homes here,” Jason Sanders told Denver7 Investigates. “We had no awareness of it, no disclosure of it, but now we’re having to front the bill.” Sanders said his family was never informed that the community operates on its own well water and septic system when he purchased his home in 2023. That system is currently under a state cease-and-desist order due to past code violations. Heather Gage, secretary for b...
Henry Ford’s vaccine study backfired, and parents weren’t supposed to see it
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, National, Top Stories

Henry Ford’s vaccine study backfired, and parents weren’t supposed to see it

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Parents have long been told that the science on vaccines is settled. A study conducted inside Henry Ford Health in Detroit set out to reinforce that message. Its authors wrote that their goal was to “reassure parents of the overall safety of vaccination.”  The data didn’t land the way the authors expected.  Tracking over 18,000 children, the study showed higher chronic illness among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. At the ten-year mark, 57 percent of vaccinated children had at least one chronic condition. For unvaccinated kids, it was 17 percent. Parents online are calling out what the unpublished Henry Ford data really shows. https://twitter.com/catsscareme2021/status/1965753836145909911 The numbers that couldn’t be...
From ACIP to AAP: CDPHE proposes school vaccine rule shift amid 95% MMR goal
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

From ACIP to AAP: CDPHE proposes school vaccine rule shift amid 95% MMR goal

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is proposing a new playbook for school vaccines. The Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) plans to drop reliance on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — a CDC panel — and instead follow the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has rolled out its own schedule and supports only medical exemptions. The shift coincides with CDPHE’s campaign to lift MMR rates from 88 to 95 percent, the herd immunity target, amid national upheaval and rising parental concern. Colorado’s health department is pushing new changes to school vaccine rules, and parents have less than two weeks to weigh in. CDPHE will appear before the State Board of Health on Oct. 15 to request a rulemaking hearing. Public comments...
Polis Issues Order to Keep Pharmacies Administering COVID Boosters Without Doctor’s Note
State, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Polis Issues Order to Keep Pharmacies Administering COVID Boosters Without Doctor’s Note

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The orders follow the federal Food and Drug Administration’s decision to authorize COVID vaccine boosters only for certain people. Colorado officials on Wednesday issued public health orders aimed at making it easier for Coloradans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster this fall. The orders essentially create a standing prescription allowing for any Coloradan ages 6 months or older to receive a COVID shot if they or their parents choose. That is significant because pharmacy heavyweights CVS and Walgreens, amid confusion over federal vaccine policy, have thus far refused to administer COVID shots this year to anyone in Colorado without a doctor’s prescription. In addition, the state Board of Pharmacy will meet Friday to discuss ru...
Colorado sees 20% drop in youth suicides year over year
Fox31, Approved, State

Colorado sees 20% drop in youth suicides year over year

By Spencer Kristensen | Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) —The rate for youth suicide in Colorado is at its lowest since 2007, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Office of Suicide Prevention said in a press release on Monday morning. According to data from CDPHE, in 2024, there were 38 suicide deaths among youth between the ages of 10 and 18, resulting in a suicide rate of 5.85 deaths per 100,000 people between the ages of 10 and 18. The highest suicide rate occurred in 2020, when the rate was 12.91 deaths per 100,00 people between the ages of 10 and 18, a figure that represented 87 total suicide deaths that year. “The drop in youth suicides is encouraging, because we see that our shared efforts in communities across Colorado are indeed having a positive impact on ou...

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