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Tag: Government Accountability

Lawmakers Move To Level Playing Field Between Lobbyists And State Agencies
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Lawmakers Move To Level Playing Field Between Lobbyists And State Agencies

By Rae Solomon | Colorado Public Radio Governor Jared Polis is strongly pushing back against a proposal that would treat legislative staff in his administration like any other lobbyist.  The primary job of those workers, called legislative liaisons, is to try to sway lawmakers and change legislation. They’re essentially lobbyists for the state government and the Polis administration, but they aren’t required to follow the same disclosure rules that govern most lobbyists.  A bipartisan bill moving through the statehouse would change that, a measure that appeared to ruffle feathers within Governor Jared Polis’s administration. “Staff members in the Governor’s office are not registered lobbyists, and it would be absurd to have them treated the same way,” ...
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Bongino Fears Retaliation After Uncovering Sensitive Crossfire Hurricane File
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Just The News, Approved, National

Bongino Fears Retaliation After Uncovering Sensitive Crossfire Hurricane File

By Misty Severi | Just the News Bongino, who left the bureau in January after roughly 10 months in the job, said he found the document in a burn bag that was related to the FBI probe into allegations of Russian collusion in President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino confessed in an interview Tuesday that he lives in constant fear that he’ll face retaliation after he shed light on corruption in the bureau and because of a document he found related to Crossfire Hurricane. Bongino, who left the bureau in January after roughly 10 months in the job, said he found the document in a burn bag that was related to the FBI probe into allegations of Russia collusion in President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. The former deputy director c...
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PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project A reader messaged me recently about concerns they had in their own local district. The concern centers around who was getting hired (well, re-hired) at their local school district. For a number of reasons, it’s not feasible to go and check out the reader’s district, but I hung on to the story because it felt like a good learning opportunity to share something I learned about, and it might be a concern you share. As best as I can tell (there may have been laws that refined or changed the original program), a 2017 law which I link to first below created a program in PERA, the Public Employees Retirement Association, to help get teachers into rural schools. In order to understand how this works, I have to bac...
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Federal Indictment Fuels New Questions Over Federal Handling Of COVID Origins And Vaccine Risks
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Just The News, Approved, National

Federal Indictment Fuels New Questions Over Federal Handling Of COVID Origins And Vaccine Risks

By Greg Piper | Just the News Indictment alleges quid pro quo between EcoHealth Alliance, Fauci senior advisor started with an "upper-mid tier" wine delivery. Sen. Johnson says FDA knew government database "masked" vaccine injuries, rejected transparency update. David Morens, senior advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci for 16 years, spent much of his career studying the threat of viral outbreaks posed by birds, especially when infections jump from wild fowl to poultry. Now he's facing the possibility of prison. The chickens have come home to roost for Morens, two years after congressional subpoenas exposed his avowed practice of circumventing the Freedom of Information Act to hide conversations ...
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Concerns Mount Over Transparency And Authority In State Capitol
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Concerns Mount Over Transparency And Authority In State Capitol

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, The Denver Gazette The great 19th-century historian Lord Acton said it best: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Acton was building on the teachings of his mentor, Homer Simpson, who put it more plainly: “The more power you have, the more you can mess things up. Woo-hoo!” And many in Colorado’s political elite have studied under the original oracle of power, Eric Cartman: “Respect my authoritah!” If there were a motto for the progressive machine that now rules Colorado, it would be simple: “Because we f***ing can, that’s why.” Ethics don’t matter. Consistency doesn’t matter. Respecting the will of the people, or even the institution of democracy itself, doesn’t matter. Raw political power to im...
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Polis Orders Review After State Agency Misses Red Flags In Hiring Process
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Polis Orders Review After State Agency Misses Red Flags In Hiring Process

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun The former regional executive director of CASA of Adams and Broomfield counties was hired by the state Behavioral Health Administration in November. The state Behavioral Health Administration, which lost its first two commissioners amid allegations of mismanagement, hired a deputy commissioner without checking with the nonprofit where she had worked for 12 years or learning she was under investigation for stealing $99,000 in a tuition-reimbursement scheme, The Colorado Sun has learned. Lindsay Salas, who was hired in November as a deputy behavioral health commissioner at the 4-year-old state agency, worked there until Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office revealed this week that Salas doctored tuition reimbursement records to take...
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Weiser’s record: 27,000 complaints. 17 settlements.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Weiser’s record: 27,000 complaints. 17 settlements.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice When a Coloradan files a consumer complaint with the attorney general's office — a contractor who vanished with a deposit, a lender charging illegal interest, a landlord who pocketed a security deposit without cause — the office receives it, logs it and adds it to a database. The complaint may help build a future case. It informs trend reports. For the person who filed it, that is usually where it ends. Coloradans filed a record 26,993 complaints with Attorney General Phil Weiser's Consumer Protection Section last fiscal year. That's nearly three times the number filed when Weiser took office in 2019. His March 2026 press release describes the growth as "over 200 percent." His office's own annual figures put the actual increa...
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Colorado Democrats Push Bill Expanding Lawsuits Against Public Officials
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Push Bill Expanding Lawsuits Against Public Officials

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette Colorado Democrats are considering a bill that would let people sue federal, state, and local officials for alleged constitutional violations — a change supporters say would check government power, while critics warn it could trigger a surge of lawsuits against public employees. Senate Bill 176, dubbed the “No Kings Act,” is sponsored by Sens. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, and Reps. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, and Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, would allow individuals who have been subjected to a “deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities” afforded in the U.S. Constitution to sue for civil damages within two years of the alleged violation. The bill still permits federal officials to claim absolute...
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Is Election Integrity Possible in the Digital Age?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Is Election Integrity Possible in the Digital Age?

By Maria Orms | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice It often feels like people in the United States fall into three broad perspectives when it comes to election integrity: Those who believe election tampering is happening Those who suspect there may be issues but are too scared to speak up Those who trust that elections are secure, as presented by mainstream narratives Regardless of where someone stands, there is a growing concern shared across these groups: a sense that individual liberty is eroding, that government accountability is weakening, and that large institutions—both political and corporate—are exerting increasing influence over the direction of the country. When people ask me which of these perspectives I align with, my answer is consistent: I come from a c...
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Colorado Democrats Push Controversial “No Kings Act” Sparking Legal And Political Debate
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CBS News, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Push Controversial “No Kings Act” Sparking Legal And Political Debate

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado With three weeks left in the legislative session, Democrats in the Colorado Legislature have introduced a bill titled the "No Kings Act." It has sparked a firestorm of controversy. While the "No Kings" rallies happening across the country are about one specific government official -- President Trump -- the "No Kings Act" at the Colorado State Capitol encompasses every government official. Under the bill, anyone who believes their constitutional rights have been violated could file a civil suit against any public official in state court. "All over the state and the country we are seeing gross abuses of people's constitutional rights and we don't have sufficient remedies in any law -- state law or fed...
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