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Tag: John Hickenlooper

Colorado Drivers Feel Economic Squeeze As Gas Nears $4.50 Per Gallon
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Drivers Feel Economic Squeeze As Gas Nears $4.50 Per Gallon

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun It’s even more painful for truckers and ride-sharing drivers. Many are contractors who are paying out of pocket to fuel up. Before Feb. 28, Kareem Sawadogo paid about $40 to fill up his tank. Now, it’s over $65, said Sawadogo, a driver for both Lyft and Uber. And if he’s driving full time, which is 40 to 60 hours a week, he must fill up daily. Combine the higher cost of gas with the rising prices of auto insurance and car maintenance, and it seems cheaper to just park his car.  “If you do the math, 30 times seven, that extra is a lot of money,” said Sawadogo, who’s taken on another job — organizing for the Colorado Independent Drivers United, which estimates there are 41,000 ridesharing drivers in the state. “I cannot a...
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Colorado Democrats Set Primary Field After Contentious Assembly
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Set Primary Field After Contentious Assembly

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado PUEBLO–Colorado Democrats gathered for their party assembly in Pueblo over the weekend, with nearly 1,400 delegates casting votes to send candidates on to the June 30 statewide primary election. Candidates needed to garner at least 30 percent of the vote to advance, with the top-vote getter appearing first on the ballot Notably absent were big-name Democrats John Hickenlooper, running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, and Michael Bennet, a sitting U.S. senator running for governor.  As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the two men successfully petitioned on the primary ballot, allowing them to forgo the caucus and assembly process. Here’s the results for statewide races. Governor The gubernationa...
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George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Dinner one night back in 2018 was seafood and gator sausage, with family around the table. Before long the conversation landed where it usually does in the Markert family—service. George Markert was on official Marine Corps business at the time in Pensacola, Fla. Markert was leading a high-level investigation as a colonel. His uncle got word he was in Pensacola and insisted they get together before he left. The worn Constitution changed hands at the end of a family dinner in Pensacola. When Markert flipped it open, he saw a handwritten note. “The note read, ‘This was your grandfather’s, and he held it sacred,’” Markert said. “He did a tour in Washington, D.C. in the Navy back in the 1950s and used to take my dad and his three sibling...
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Colorado Lawmakers Split on Iran
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Split on Iran

By Thelma Grimes | Colorado Politics Colorado’s congressional delegation split sharply along party lines Saturday after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, triggering a fresh debate in America over presidential war powers. Trump announced early Saturday morning that U.S and Israeli forces had begun “Operation Epic Fury” after multiple explosions were reported around Iran. Later in the day, the president said that Iran’s leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. Iranian state media also confirmed Khamenei’s death. Both sides of the political aisle agree that Iran — one official called the country a “terrorist state” — should never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. But Democrats and Republicans clashed over the latest operations, just ...
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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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A different kind of Republican: Windholz urges support for Dr. Janak Joshi for U.S. Senate
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

A different kind of Republican: Windholz urges support for Dr. Janak Joshi for U.S. Senate

By JoAnn Windholz | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Not all doctors are the same just as not all candidates for elected office are the same.  One such doctor and candidate, Dr. Janak Joshi is my pick to be Colorado's Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Having served with Dr. Joshi I know he is the perfect example of servant leadership. He treats everyone with dignity and kindness, while refusing to compromise his values and principles.  It’s evident to anyone who knows him that his strong faith and patriotism drive his passion and commitment to protecting Colorado families, providing relief to taxpayers, defending the unborn, and standing strong for our Constitutional liberties.   Dr. Janak Joshi is different from all the rest.   ...
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“I’m not a politician”: Montrose commissioner Sean Pond enters U.S. Senate race
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

“I’m not a politician”: Montrose commissioner Sean Pond enters U.S. Senate race

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “I’m not a politician,” Sean Pond said. “I’m just that guy that stood up and said no to federal overreach.”  Pond said that decision eventually led him beyond local fights. Appointed to the Montrose County Commission in February 2025, Pond said the conversations didn’t stop once he took office. A question sits at the center of Pond’s campaign launch video, released Sunday, and the conversations he said ultimately pushed him into the U.S. Senate race. “What keeps you up at night?” https://youtu.be/mV7iEAuX-fM Pond said the question at the center of his campaign launch video wasn’t new. He said he began asking it months earlier, including on social media, as a way to hear directly from Coloradans about what felt...
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Trump Rejects Arkansas Valley Water Pipeline Bill Citing Federal Taxpayer Burden
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Trump Rejects Arkansas Valley Water Pipeline Bill Citing Federal Taxpayer Burden

By Sophia Villalba | Denver7 DENVER — President Trump has vetoed a bill aimed at providing reliable, clean drinking water to rural communities in southeastern Colorado. It's another setback for the decades old "Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act" that would have completed a 130-mile pipeline bringing drinking water to 39 Colorado communities on the Eastern Plains. This is the president's first veto of his second term in the Oval Office. He rejected the bipartisan bill that passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate unanimously, saying the project would cost federal taxpayers too much money. The Arkansas Valley Conduit was first approved back in 1962, but according to the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, it wasn’t built for deca...
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The cost of obedience: How Colorado’s senators strengthened economic malfeasance
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The cost of obedience: How Colorado’s senators strengthened economic malfeasance

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice It is both sad and disappointing that Colorado’s two U.S. senators are incapable of independent thought. As the simple puppets of their overlords, they have selfishly voted fifteen times NOT to reopen the federal government—even though their “no” votes hurt the Coloradans they supposedly represent.  Colorado was already struggling economically before the federal shutdown.  Between January 2023, the start of the post-COVID economy in the U.S., and August 2025, job creation in Colorado had been growing at less than half the national rate and unemployment was growing at around twice the national rate.  How state unemployment changed since January 2023: Colorado up 58.5% vs U.S. 28.5%. How ...
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