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Tag: Jared Polis

Same Colorado law, different outcomes: Probation in Denver, prison in Mesa County
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Same Colorado law, different outcomes: Probation in Denver, prison in Mesa County

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice In Colorado, the same felony statute led to two very different courtroom outcomes. One walked away with probation. Peters is now serving a prison sentence that stretches close to a decade. The case against Peters unfolded under Colorado’s statute on attempting to influence a public servant—§ 18-8-306, the same law used in the prosecution of former Colorado state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis. In Denver District Court, jurors convicted Lewis on four felony counts tied to forged letters submitted during a Senate ethics investigation. The Mesa County verdict came with far steeper consequences. Peters received a prison sentence totaling nine years. Gov. Jared Polis referenced the Lewis sentencing this week while ...
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From ethics complaint to felony conviction: How forged letters ended a Colorado lawmaker’s career
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

From ethics complaint to felony conviction: How forged letters ended a Colorado lawmaker’s career

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The investigation that ended former Colorado Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis’ political career did not begin with police or prosecutors. It began inside her own office. It ended in a Denver courtroom. There, jurors found the former lawmaker guilty on four felony counts tied to letters submitted during a legislative ethics investigation. The workplace dispute had become a criminal case. No prison sentence followed. The judge handed down two years’ probation, 150 hours of community service and a $3,000 fine. Months earlier, aides had begun raising complaints about how Jaquez Lewis ran her office. They accused her of mistreating staff and assigning work unrelated to legislative duties. Those complaints quickly reached S...
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Rural Lawmakers Reject Polis Backed Pesticide Restrictions
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Rural Lawmakers Reject Polis Backed Pesticide Restrictions

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics A proposal to limit the use of neonicotinoid-coated crop seeds collapsed in the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee last week, as rural lawmakers, including two Democrats, joined Republicans to reject what they called an expensive, impractical mandate on farmers. Senate Bill 65 would have required farmers to obtain permission from third-party evaluators before using crop seeds coated with neonicotinoid pesticides, also known as neonics. But the committee’s rural lawmakers, including two Democrats, weren’t persuaded that the program sponsored by Democratic Sens. Katie Wallace of Longmont and Cathy Kipp of Fort Collins was the right step, killing the bill in a 2-5 vote last week. Wallace claimed farmers are p...
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$7.2 Million in Federal Climate Dollars to Fund Colorado Building Efficiency Projects
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

$7.2 Million in Federal Climate Dollars to Fund Colorado Building Efficiency Projects

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette The Colorado Energy Office awarded $7.2 million Wednesday to help owners of large buildings across the state pursue high-impact projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions through improved energy efficiency and electrification. The grants, drawn from federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant funds authorized under the 2022 Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and awarded to Colorado by the Environmental Protection Agency, support 15 projects through the Large Building Decarbonization Showcase Grant Program, CEO officials said. The awards go to building owners already meeting requirements under Building Performance Colorado standards and include five major implementation retrofits and 10 high-level planning efforts. The g...
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State approval to farm? Lawmakers debate new limits on seed and pest control
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

State approval to farm? Lawmakers debate new limits on seed and pest control

By Sen. Byron Pelton | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s farmers and ranchers already face significant challenges, including volatile commodity prices, rising input costs, labor shortages, and unpredictable weather. They should not also have to contend with a state legislature that increasingly seeks to regulate how they protect crops and livestock.  Yet that is precisely what Senate Bills 26-062 and 26-065 represent: a top-down attack on agriculture that increases costs, undermines private property rights, and signals deep disrespect for the men and women who feed our nation and the world. A Direct Hit on Practical Pest Control SB26-062 would significantly restrict the sale and use of common rodenticides and glue traps. While intended to pr...
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Colorado Regulatory Climate Draws Scrutiny After Palantir Relocates Headquarters to Florida
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Regulatory Climate Draws Scrutiny After Palantir Relocates Headquarters to Florida

By Vanessa Rutledge | Commentary, Complete Colorado The technology company Palantir recently announced it is relocating its headquarters from Denver to Miami. This is not a minor startup leaving quietly. Palantir is the largest public company headquartered in Colorado when measured by market capitalization. It is one of the most prominent and profitable artificial intelligence companies in the country. In explaining its reasoning, Palantir made no bones about what prompted the move. In its 2025 10-K filing, the company stated: “In addition, Colorado has passed a Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence bill introducing state-level oversight of ‘high-risk’ AI systems, which mirrors language and several provisions appearing in the EU AIA.” That is a dir...
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Colorado should drop its membership in the California Clean Car Cartel. 
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado should drop its membership in the California Clean Car Cartel. 

By Sean Paige | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice President Trump's recent repeal of the "endangerment finding"—a Barack Obama-era rule that handed the federal government absolute power to regulate almost anything that emits CO2 emissions, in response to the alleged climate crisis—marks a potential turning point for Colorado.  Why?  Because it gives Colorado an opportunity, an invitation, to decouple from California clean car mandates we've been operating under for years.  Most Coloradans probably don't know that their state’s "clean car" mandates are written by an unelected board of all-powerful ecocrats called the California Air Resources Board (CARB.)  But why would most Coloradans know this, since it was never debated by the legislat...
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High Court Says Congress Holds Tariff Power Drawing Fast Response From Colorado Lawmakers
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kdvr.com, Approved, State

High Court Says Congress Holds Tariff Power Drawing Fast Response From Colorado Lawmakers

By Brooke Williams | KDVR DENVER (KDVR) — The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a bulk of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports from many foreign trading partners. The Supreme Court justices ruled 6-3 that his expanded use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs without Congressional approval was unlawful. The act gives the sitting president authority to regulate various economic transactions after declaring a national emergency, according to Congress.gov. Trump is the first president to attempt to invoke the act to impose tariffs. “Changes in the use of IEEPA powers since the act’s enactment in 1977, including its use to impose tariffs on imports from almost all countries in 2025, have caused some Membe...
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Polis Joins Other Blue States And Aligns Colorado With WHO Global Health Network
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Polis Joins Other Blue States And Aligns Colorado With WHO Global Health Network

By John Daley | Colorado Public Radio Last month, the Trump administration announced a breakup: its official withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization. The president initiated the split with an executive order on the first day in office of his second term. But Gov. Jared Polis clearly thinks a global health partnership has value.  He said Friday that Colorado intends to join the WHO’s Global Outbreak and Response Network, a step which will mean the state will work more directly with the WHO to ensure its “cutting-edge health science can benefit Coloradans.” The move follows other states and one city that also have Democratic leaders. The World Health Organization said last week, California, Illinois, New York a...
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Colorado Lawmakers Face Tough Choices As Medicaid Drives Increased Spending
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Face Tough Choices As Medicaid Drives Increased Spending

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics This week, the state Senate is reviewing revisions to the 2025–26 state budget, which has been reduced by hundreds of millions of dollars in each round of cuts. But the bottom line is that, because of Medicaid costs, the state will spend more in 2025-26 than lawmakers approved in the 2025 session. Last week, the 29 bills in the supplemental package were approved by the House, with most passing with broad support. That didn’t mean all of them did: bills changing the budgets for the departments of state, treasury, health care policy and financing, personnel, public health and environment and higher ed all passed largely along party lines. A supplemental for the Department of Corrections, which increased its budget by $29...
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