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Colorado’s homelessness and housing funds recorded $153 million in phantom federal money, audit finds
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s homelessness and housing funds recorded $153 million in phantom federal money, audit finds

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado wanted more control over its share of federal pandemic aid before the money hit its federal spending deadlines. So in 2024, the state moved it. It pulled hundreds of millions in American Rescue Plan money back out of four state programs, three of them tied to housing and homelessness, and replaced it with state general funds, so it could spend the federal dollars elsewhere before the deadlines ran out. Then the Department of Local Affairs set those funds up in the state's accounting system as if they were still federal. Every time the department spent a state dollar out of the four programs, the system automatically booked a federal reimbursement that was never coming. By the end of the fiscal year the departm...
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Jeffco Schools Chief Counsel to Retire During High-Stakes Title IX Fight With Feds
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Jeffco Schools Chief Counsel to Retire During High-Stakes Title IX Fight With Feds

By Matt Kyle | The Denver Gazette As Jeffco Public Schools continues to fight a legal battle with the federal government, it will soon be without its top attorney. Julie Tolleson, chief legal counsel for the district, will retire at the end of the current school year, according to a letter sent to district staff Tuesday by interim Superintendent Rob Stein. Tolleson has been known among Jeffco staff as a “common sense” attorney who used her legal expertise to uphold student rights, Stein wrote in the letter. He also praised Tolleson for avoiding “unnecessary controversy” during her tenure. “Julie’s legal acumen will be hard to replace,” Stein wrote. “Her wisdom and perspective will be missed.” Tolleson has been with Jeffco since 2022. Her tenure ha...
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Colorado Sues Trump Administration Over Medicaid Funding for Gender Transitions for Minors
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Sues Trump Administration Over Medicaid Funding for Gender Transitions for Minors

By Thelma Grimes | The Denver Gazette Colorado on Wednesday filed yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration — this time to stop a new rule that prohibits Medicaid dollars from paying for transgender transition services for minors. The question of transgender services has increasingly become a core election matter in Colorado. This November, residents will vote on two measures that implicate the question. Phil Weiser, the attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, announced that Colorado joined a coalition of states challenging the Trump administration’s “attempt to prohibit states from using federal Medicaid funds for gender-affirming healthcare for low-income minors or some young adults.” Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicai...
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New Federal Rule Ends Medicaid Funding for Some Youth Gender Treatments in Colorado
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

New Federal Rule Ends Medicaid Funding for Some Youth Gender Treatments in Colorado

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The new rule blocks federal dollars from being spent on the care. The change will affect hundreds of transgender youth in Colorado. Colorado will suspend Medicaid coverage for hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for transgender youth due to a new federal rule, the state agency that oversees the program said. The rule, finalized earlier this month, blocks federal funds from being used to pay for the care for youth. Specifically, the rule applies to coverage for people under 18 who are covered by Medicaid and people under 19 who are covered by a companion program called CHIP, which in Colorado is known as CHP+. The rule affects coverage for hormone therapy and puberty blockers, as well as other procedures. It do...
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Colorado Rural Hospitals Fight to Survive as Costs and Regulations Mount
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Rural Hospitals Fight to Survive as Costs and Regulations Mount

By Thelma Grimes | Colorado Politics Editor’s Note: Colorado’s healthcare system is entering a period of accelerating instability — a “tsunami,” as multiple leaders describe it — driven by collapsing hospital finances, shrinking Medicaid reimbursements, disappearing services and a political fight over who is responsible for this unraveling. Healthcare Freefall is a multipart series examining how Colorado arrived at this moment, what H.R. 1 will do next and why communities across the state are bracing for deeper shocks. Healthcare Freefall Colorado’s rural hospitals are facing severe financial strain — with 75% operating on unsustainable margins and some worrying they may have to close. Southwest Health CEO John Theine said the situation is especially frustrating, given ...
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Colorado Lawmakers Grapple With Strict Rules for $200 Million Rural Health Program
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Grapple With Strict Rules for $200 Million Rural Health Program

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Members of the Colorado legislature’s new Commission on Medicaid raised concerns Wednesday about the federal Rural Health Transformation Program created under H.R. 1. The bipartisan, bicameral commission, created in the last legislative session to guide implementation of Medicaid changes under H.R. 1, met Wednesday to begin shaping its recommendations. Cristen Bates, deputy Medicaid director at the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told members that Colorado is slated to receive $200 million in federal funding each year for the next five years to support rural health care initiatives. CMS requires states to apply for the Rural Health Transformation Program by November, with awards expected by year’s...
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Colorado’s Medicaid debate: Should lawmakers fix spending before seeking more federal dollars?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Medicaid debate: Should lawmakers fix spending before seeking more federal dollars?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Drawing down more Federal money as the solution to Colorado’s Medicaid problem? Have you ever heard the saying, “the first step is admitting you have a problem”? Nash Herman’s piece on the Colorado Medicaid Commission (linked first below) made me think of that. The reason being that, per what he writes about their first meeting, the commission seems to largely be focused on wringing more money out of the Feds than dealing with the bloat that Colorado lawmakers have heaped upon the program since 2014 and Obamacare. Quoting from the piece with embedded links left intact: “The most recent Commission meeting raised questions about the government’s priorities in addressing Medicaid and the state budget. A re...
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Federal Officials Say Jeffco Must Change Transgender Policies or Lose Federal Funds
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Federal Officials Say Jeffco Must Change Transgender Policies or Lose Federal Funds

By: Matt Kyle | The Denver Gazette The U.S. Department of Education on Friday warned Jeffco Public Schools it has 10 days to correct alleged Title IX violations over the Colorado district’s transgender policy or lose federal funding. The Notice of Impending Action is the latest development in an ongoing saga between the district and the federal government that started last year, when the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights started an investigation into Jeffco over alleged Title IX violations relating to the district’s policies regarding transgender students. The results of the investigation, released in March, alleged that the district had 61 “male students” participating in girls’ sports and allowed access to restrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations bas...
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Gabbard Releases Declassified Files Alleging Fauci Ties To Wuhan Research
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Just The News, Approved, National

Gabbard Releases Declassified Files Alleging Fauci Ties To Wuhan Research

By Joseph Weber | Just the News Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the COVID pandemic. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday, on her final day on the job, said she is releasing "never-before-seen" communications and documents "exposing" how Dr. Anthony Fauci provided millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab in China. Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. China has said the virus jumped from animal to human at a food market near the lab, which has also conducted so-called gain of function research, which is generally regarded as manipulating a virus to gain...
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Federal Officials Give Jeffco School District 10 Days To Address Girls Sports Findings
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Fox News, Approved, Local

Federal Officials Give Jeffco School District 10 Days To Address Girls Sports Findings

By: Jackson Thompson | Fox News ED says the district also allowed males to access female-only facilities and overnight accommodations. FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Department of Education (ED) sent a warning letter to the Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado on Wednesday, after the department determined in March that the school district may have allegedly put up to 61 male students on girls' sports teams, Fox News Digital previously reported.  Wednesday's letter warns the district that it has 10 days to come to a resolution with ED, or it will receive a follow-up letter of impending enforcement action, and risks termination of the district's federal education funding. "Not only did the District trample on females’ sex-based protections by ...
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