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Tag: Government transparency

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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Bongino’s Departure From the FBI Sparks Public Debate, Take the Poll
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Just The News, Approved, National

Bongino’s Departure From the FBI Sparks Public Debate, Take the Poll

By Just the News staff | Just the News The announcement followed months of speculation over his future at the agency and came amid longstanding rumors of a rift with Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Epstein files. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Wednesday announced his plans to leave the FBI at the end of the year. "I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January. I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose," he posted on X. " Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you. God bless America, and all those who defend Her." READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT JUST THE NEWS
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Liberty Vote’s Big Buy: What It Means for Colorado Voters and Why Questions Remain
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Liberty Vote’s Big Buy: What It Means for Colorado Voters and Why Questions Remain

By Colorado Institute for Fair Elections | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Imagine this: You're heading to your local polling place in Colorado, ready to cast your vote on a crisp November morning. You scan your ID at a digital check-in station, mark your paper ballot, and feed it into a machine that tallies it up. Sounds straightforward, right? But behind the scenes, the company running much of that tech—Dominion Voting Systems—just got bought out and rebranded as Liberty Vote. For everyday folks like you and me, this could affect how secure and trustworthy our elections feel.  Announced on October 9, 2025, the deal promises a fresh, all-American start. But as we unpack it, some red flags pop up that make you wonder: Is this real change, or just a shiny ne...
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Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Update-a-palooza on legislative livestreams and campaign finance complaints I wanted to update some stories I’ve been following before they get too stale (as you can see in today’s third post, I’ll be taking the rest of the week off). First, and simplest, is an update to whether or not the state legislature will continue what was a pilot program to livestream legislative committee hearings (video and audio instead of just audio). The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition story linked first below offers more details, but the upshot is that the legislature is a decided “maybe” on whether or not to continue it. The livestreams, at least according to the article, are pretty popular but it seems the sticking point ...
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The numbers didn’t match: El Paso’s canvass exposes a statewide reporting failure the state never explained
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The numbers didn’t match: El Paso’s canvass exposes a statewide reporting failure the state never explained

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado voters expected a routine post–Election Day canvass after the November 4 coordinated election. Instead, El Paso County became ground zero for the latest crisis involving Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office after a canvass board member noticed that the numbers on the state’s website didn’t match the county’s certified reports. The mismatch surfaced publicly after businessman and election analyst Peter Bernegger posted screenshots of the Election Night Reporting (ENR) CSV file on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/PeterBernegger/status/1991610012989329540?s=20 What began as one discrepancy quickly revealed a statewide reporting failure. The ENR CSV file published by the Secretary of State contained contest-level totals that ...
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The Press Has Become the Enemy of Truth and The Epstein Pattern Proves It
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Press Has Become the Enemy of Truth and The Epstein Pattern Proves It

By C.J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice There was a time in this country when journalism meant something. It meant moral courage. It meant truth telling. It meant pulling corruption into the light even if it scorched the powerful. That era is gone. The modern press no longer defends truth. It orchestrates narratives. It does not expose the darkness. It manages it. If you want the clearest proof, look no further than the Jeffrey Epstein case. No story in modern American history has better revealed the press’s rotting soul. Epstein ran a global trafficking operation involving the rich, the powerful, and the politically connected. Children were abused. Women were exploited. A network of elites participated or enabled. And yet the media’s coverage has been sporadic, ...
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Colorado Ethics Watch Alleges Misconduct by Democratic Legislators at Vail Retreat
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Ethics Watch Alleges Misconduct by Democratic Legislators at Vail Retreat

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado Common Cause filed complaints Wednesday with the state ethics commission against 12 Democratic state lawmakers, alleging they accepted funding from the “dark money” group One Main Street Colorado for a three-day retreat at a luxury hotel in Vail last October. The complaints said the lawmakers accepted illegal gifts from One Main Street that violate Amendment 41, the state’s ethics amendment, also known as Article 29 of the state Constitution. Under that amendment, lawmakers are not allowed to accept gifts exceeding $75 per person per year. But the cost of the rooms at the Sonnenalp Vail came in at about $25,000 for the lawmakers. The complaint claimed the hotel charges $316 to $500 per night. Common Cause also said th...
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