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The road to nowhere: When planners decide how people should live and travel
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, State

The road to nowhere: When planners decide how people should live and travel

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com At Club 20 in the 1990s, we often fought against diverting highway funds for non-highway purposes, such as mass transit. We reminded national officials that “there will never be a Japanese bullet train from Slick Rock to Egnar.” They had never heard of either place, of course, so it was a succinct way to explain that what might work in Boston and New York can never work in Colorado, or anywhere in the West, where cities evolved around the automobile. People here do not live 20 floors above their offices. Even in Denver, hundreds of thousands of people live in single family homes strung out one after another, mile after mile, and workers commute great distances along the Front Range every day. Suburban commuters in Jefferson, Arapa...
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Lawmakers press agencies as SMART Act hearings expose budget growth and policy shifts
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Lawmakers press agencies as SMART Act hearings expose budget growth and policy shifts

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado The hearings were billed as SMART. The answers raised harder questions. The last two weeks have been full of SMART Act (State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent Government) hearings at the Capitol with a smattering of committee work on bills. The Joint Judiciary Committee met for three days, and the Joint Health and Human Services Committee met for two. Here are some of the highlights from the hearings. Attorney General Phil Weiser presented to the Joint Judiciary Committee on behalf of the Department of Law (DOL). During his presentation, he stated that Colorado, at his direction, has filed 51 lawsuits against the Trump Administration for a cost of approximatel...
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Democrats Push Bill That Would Blacklist ICE Officers From Future Government Employment
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Washington Examiner, Approved, National

Democrats Push Bill That Would Blacklist ICE Officers From Future Government Employment

By Ramsey Touchberry | The Washington Examiner Democrats are vowing to resist President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda by promoting policies to bar federal immigration officials from obtaining future government and law enforcement jobs. The pledges from progressive candidates seeking higher office go further than the party’s growing calls to “abolish ICE” or to slash its funding. Instead, they are warning of personal repercussions for Trump-era Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and deterring recruits from accepting lucrative sign-on bonuses. “The way I see it is, if you work for a fascist, forget about ever working for the state,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who’s running for governor in November, told the W...
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NGOs And The Rise Of An Unelected Shadow Government
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Defender of the Republic., Approved, Commentary, National

NGOs And The Rise Of An Unelected Shadow Government

By: Defender of the Republic | Defender of the Republic How Nonprofits Can Exacerbate Fraud, Launder Public Money and How Citizens Can Stop It. For years, Americans have been told that NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) are benevolent, independent charities doing work the government “can’t.” The truth is more complicated and more dangerous. Many NGOs today function as unelected extensions of government power, funded by taxpayer money, shielded from transparency, and largely immune from voter accountability. When abused, this structure can exacerbate fraud, enable money laundering, and distort public policy all while appearing charitable on paper. Now before you start questioning my reporting…isn’t about attacking char...
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Colorado Homelessness Linked More to Drugs Than Housing Costs Report Finds
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Colorado Homelessness Linked More to Drugs Than Housing Costs Report Finds

By: Shannon Ogden | Denver7 New study from CSI shows governments must take "treatment first" approach instead of "housing first." DENVER — A new report from Common Sense Institute (CSI) finds that Colorado ranks among the highest states in the country for homelessness and that it's not housing affordability that's driving it, it's illicit drug use, crime rates, and policing levels. The report examines 2024 homelessness data across all 50 states and the nation’s largest metro areas. The CSI reports finds that Colorado ranks: 9th nationally in total homelessness rate 7th in chronic homelessness 10th in unsheltered homelessness 7th in homelessness involving severe mental illness 7th in homelessness involving chronic substance abuse Amo...
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Meet the fellows: Who’s advising Colorado lawmakers
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Meet the fellows: Who’s advising Colorado lawmakers

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Meet the Fellows themselves (part 2) I want to wrap up the last of the posts on the Legislative Fellows by putting up the answers I got after sending them questions.If you want to see the earlier newsletters about the Fellows, the first link below will take you to the last newsletter where I showed what work was publicly available at that time. In that newsletter you'll find links to go back even further.Screenshot 1 shows you the questions I sent to all the Fellows. These were general questions I wondered about. Screenshots 2a-2c were particular questions put to Fellow Max O'Connor, FellowsDhivahari Vivek and Samantha Lattof, and Leena Vilonen respectively. The ...
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Loveland City Council Votes To Reset Homelessness Policy
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CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Loveland City Council Votes To Reset Homelessness Policy

By Dillon Thomas | CBS Colorado The city of Loveland is moving forward with two major changes to the way it is tackling homelessness in Northern Colorado. In a Loveland City Council meeting that lasted until nearly 2 a.m. Wednesday, the council finalized two votes to start making changes. "We have been a failure at (addressing homelessness). We need to do something different," said council member Kalina Middleton of ward three. The overall sentiment of everyone in attendance for the meeting was that Loveland needs to change the way it addresses topics involving the unhoused. No matter which side of the debate people fell on, everyone seemed to agree the current situation was not sustainable. "As Loveland continues to grow, the unhoused population for b...
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When caps don’t cap costs
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

When caps don’t cap costs

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A familiar promise, a familiar frustration Voters are often told that a policy includes a built-in safeguard — a cap, a limit, a hard stop designed to keep costs under control. In Colorado, that promise came with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, approved by voters in 1992 as a constitutional amendment limiting how much revenue state and local governments can keep and spend without voter approval. Nationally, it appeared in the Affordable Care Act’s limits on how much of each insurance premium can be kept for administration and profit under the law’s medical loss ratio rules. The two systems regulate very different things. One governs government revenue, the other private insurance markets.  But cr...
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From Hidden Fees to Gun Shows Colorado’s New Year Brings Major Regulatory Changes
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Approved, kdvr.com, State

From Hidden Fees to Gun Shows Colorado’s New Year Brings Major Regulatory Changes

By: Maddie Rhodes | KDVR Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — The beginning of the new year means a change of calendars and habits for some people, and for all Coloradans, the new year means there will be changes in the state laws. Colorado laws get passed consistently, but the effective date isn’t always right away. A lot of times, the effective date is delayed to make sure people have time to comply with the law before there are penalties. Several laws went into effect in July and August, and at the beginning of a new year, several laws often go into effect. Heading into 2026, laws ranging from gun show requirements to deceptive pricing practices are set to take effect. Colorado laws going into effect Jan. 1, 2026 Here are some laws going into effect at the start of the year: H.B. 25-1090...
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Douglas County Cracks Down on Retail Theft With New Reporting Rules
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Approved, CBS Colorado, Local

Douglas County Cracks Down on Retail Theft With New Reporting Rules

By: Olivia Young | CBS Colorado Douglas County Sheriff's Office says shoplifting is up in the county, but now county leaders want to crack down on the crime by encouraging businesses to report it. Douglas County Board of County Commissioners, the sheriff and the district attorney gathered Tuesday to reaffirm their support for strict penalties for theft and announced a new ordinance proposal. The ordinance would fine local businesses for not reporting theft. Leaders in Douglas County say the goal is to get corporations to change policies that disincentivize theft reporting. Nancy Schuster has worked at The Colorado Store for more than 15 years. "It's a small family business, so everyone kind of knows everyone, and it's definitely close knit," Schuster said. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CB...
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