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Bill Targeting Government Purchase of Personal Data Faces Law Enforcement Opposition
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Bill Targeting Government Purchase of Personal Data Faces Law Enforcement Opposition

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A bipartisan coalition of Colorado lawmakers is advancing a bill that would prohibit police from purchasing personal consumer data without a warrant, setting up a clash with prosecutors who warn the measure could hamper criminal investigations. House Bill 1037, sponsored by Reps. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, and Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Evergreen, would prohibit law enforcement and government entities from purchasing “certain personal data” from third parties without a warrant, except in emergencies. The bill, which sponsors are calling the “Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act,” aims to prohibit personal data purchased from a third party from being used as evidence in court. “Fundamentally, w...
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CORA changes would extend deadlines and expand government discretion
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

CORA changes would extend deadlines and expand government discretion

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Kipp is back with another stab at CORA. I had heard from my state senator (B Pelton) that Senator Kipp would be back this year with another run at modifying the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA).Her bill recently came out and I link to it first below. The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition (CFOIC) article on the bill is linked second below as an additional resource if you want it.I will be advocating against this bill both here and, hopefully, by testifying against it in committee (as of this writing there is no date set).To her credit, Kipp is not oblivious to past criticism (or strident enough to not care a la Senator Sullivan) about her previous attempts at modifying CORA; having been following her ...
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Did Colorado’s gun violence prevention director visit your community in 2025?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Did Colorado’s gun violence prevention director visit your community in 2025?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Did the director for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention come to your town? Part 2 I wanted to update a 2023 story (see the first link below for the original) about the all of the places the Director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention went to in Colorado.As with 2023, I don’t think you could call the list of places anywhere near representative of all the diverse views and experiences of this state.I will let the current Director give you how she describes her yearly roundabout in her own words. Quoting her letter from the January 2026 newsletter out of the Office:“What also helps me to feel grounded in focus is the perspective I gain through the conversations I’ve had and continue to have across Colorado...
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Denver Budget Cuts Cost City Over 1,100 Years of Experience
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Budget Cuts Cost City Over 1,100 Years of Experience

By Deborah Grigsby | The Denver Gazette Last summer, the city of Denver lost nearly 160 employees as part of structured layoffs to help Denver Mayor Mike Johnston close a $250 million budget gap. But the city lost much more than just its employees. It lost more than 1,158 years of combined experience, according to analysis and reporting from Axios. Along with the loss of 265 years of experience among 30 employees, the city’s transportation department took the biggest hit, followed by planning and development, which lost 128 years of experience. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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Who is Rob Andrews? Questions grow around leadership, accountability and public trust
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Who is Rob Andrews? Questions grow around leadership, accountability and public trust

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack Every election season, voters are introduced to a carefully curated version of the candidates seeking their trust. Titles are polished. Résumés are condensed. Claims are simplified into slogans. And too often, no one pauses to ask whether the story being told actually matches the public record. Think George Santos, the former New York Republican who was expelled from Congress for fabricating his background and misusing funds. Rob Andrews’ campaign narrative is a case in point. At a recent town hall, Andrews positioned himself as a metrics-driven CEO—a leader who builds organizations, measures outcomes, and delivers results. He emphasized his experience creating “several successful businesses,” presenti...
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Inside the Assessor’s Office: Why Greg Ketcham Is Running for Jefferson County Assessor
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Inside the Assessor’s Office: Why Greg Ketcham Is Running for Jefferson County Assessor

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice For most Jefferson County residents, the assessor’s office only becomes visible when a valuation notice arrives in the mail. For Greg Ketcham, the office has been his professional home for more than eight years — and it’s the reason he decided to run for Jefferson County Assessor. Ketcham currently works in the county assessor’s office and has experience in both residential and commercial appraisal. He also previously worked at Jefferson County Open Space, helping build park infrastructure throughout the county. He describes his career path not as political, but practical — rooted in county service and hands-on work. “I really liked it because you get to interact with everybody in our county,” Ketcham said of h...
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Watch closely: The PUC sunset hearing could reshape Colorado energy policy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Watch closely: The PUC sunset hearing could reshape Colorado energy policy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Watch for the PUC sunset hearing. Not only will it be a chance to weaken local control, DORA wants less transparency for them.I will be watching and posting (from what my state senator B Pelton said, it should be late February or early March), but I wanted to put a bug in your ear to watch for the Public Utilities Commission's sunset hearing in front of the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee.As I wrote [last week], there are rumblings about changing the mission of the PUC to perhaps grease the skids for state-level siting of renewables.The PUC sunset hearing will be the time that they do this, but there are other things I've heard. I wrote back last year about a CFOIC article showing the Department o...
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When gun storage becomes public health policy in Colorado
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

When gun storage becomes public health policy in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Guns and public health: Safe Starts at Home program The Anschutz Family Foundation recently gave a grant to CU Anschutz and its associated schools to develop a program called Safe Starts at Home.I linked to the press release I saw first below.Quoting from the press release with links intact:"The program [Safe Starts at Home] began in response to requests from several Colorado counties and was developed by the Injury and Violence Prevention Center (IVPC) and the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative (FIPI). The IVPC and FIPI teams packaged research on effective household safety practices to prevent firearm and overdose injuries and deaths, and developed training for these county staff who v...
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Who funds Colorado’s legislative fellows and how much influence do they have?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, State

Who funds Colorado’s legislative fellows and how much influence do they have?

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project Meet the Fellows SB25-309, linked first below, has lofty and not-unreasonable goals. Quoting the bill’s fiscal note:“The bill authorizes the Legislative Council Committee to approve agreements between the Legislative Council Staff (LCS) director and nonpartisan organizations to place nonpartisan legislative policy fellows in LCS. Any agreement approved by the committee must ensure that the director retains supervisory authority over fellows, and also specify that any work created during the fellowship remains the property of the General Assembly.”The concept is simple. We all have our areas of expertise and education, and we are all ignorant outside of those areas. Our legislators are no exception; they’re not super men...
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The RMV stories readers didn’t scroll past in 2025
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The RMV stories readers didn’t scroll past in 2025

By RMV Editorial Board This list wasn’t built in a meeting. It formed over time, story by story, as readers decided what was worth stopping for. What follows are the 25 RMV stories that held attention in 2025—and didn’t let go. Looking across the year’s top 25 stories revealed patterns, which we reflect on at the end. 1. School unions gave $11K to Jeffco candidate who admitted to a sealed juvenile sexual offense RMV reported that a Jefferson County school board candidate privately acknowledged a sealed juvenile sexual offense while receiving financial support from education unions. The story documented information voters did not have before ballots were cast and raised questions about disclosure, trust, and institutional accountability in school leade...
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