Call it “Clash of the Ballot Initiatives.” Two measures — either of which would be, if passed, disastrous, critics say — seek to set new land-use standards in Colorado. One would require oil and gas drill rigs be set back 2,500 feet from homes and natural features such as streams. The other would give landowners […]
Politics and Government
Posted inEnvironment, Growth, Health, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Three years after the Gold King Mine spill there’s no fix to leaky abandoned mines. What’s the holdup?
CLEAR CREEK COUNTY — When the Gold King Mine spill sent a plume of yellow sludge cascading down the Animas River in southwest Colorado three years ago, environmentalists and conservationists saw an opportunity to educate the public about a problem that’s been around for decades. They also saw it as a way to draw new […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
The FBI is training political campaigns to fight foreign influence in Colorado elections. And here’s what voters can do.
The FBI hosted a first-in-the-nation training for candidates and campaigns in Colorado to help them guard against cybersecurity attacks ahead of the November election. The closed-to-the-public seminar Monday focused on steps campaigns can take to protect voter data and efforts of foreign governments to influence politicians or the election. Calvin Shivers, the outgoing special agent […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, News, Politics and Government
UPDATE: A guide to the outside money paying for TV ads and more in Colorado’s governor’s race
Updated on Oct. 10, 3 p.m. The big spending in the race for Colorado governor is not coming entirely from Democrat Jared Polis and Republican Walker Stapleton. The two candidates reported raising nearly $23.5 million so far, with nearly $20 million in personal contributions from Polis and $1 million from Stapleton. Even though the campaigns […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Super PAC ads on initiatives draw campaign finance complaint
Colorado Common Cause is accusing a state super PAC of airing radio ads in July without disclosing spending or donations used to pay for the ad. A complaint filed with the Secretary of State’s office says Better Jobs Coalition aired radio ads in Colorado Springs urging people not to sign initiative petitions. Better Jobs Coalition is […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Republican voters want Walker Stapleton to be Donald Trump, and that could be a problem
THORNTON — Dana Scott came to a Republican Party field office in Adams County — a crucial 2018 battleground — one recent Saturday to get a better feel for gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton. But before the two-term state treasurer even spoke, Scott knew what he wanted to hear: Donald Trump 2.0. “I love him,” the […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s PERA board may ditch its longtime financial adviser after $1.3 billion mistake
The Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s board of directors is considering jettisoning its longtime financial adviser after an accounting mistake caused the firm to underestimate the Colorado state pension’s liabilities by $1.3 billion. The error was spotted by an internal audit, triggering what the board president described as a “serious fire drill” to rewrite the pension’s […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Campaign ads in Colorado: Why they matter and what they tell you about the candidates
If you watch TV, you’ve seen the ads: Radicalifornia, missed meetings, high taxes, and on and on. And it isn’t just the race for governor. There’s the 6th Congressional District, state Senate seats and ballot initiatives. If you watched all the political ads booked so far this year, it would take nearly 68 straight days. […]
Posted inNews
High-country Colorado towns wrangle big-city problems with homelessness
DURANGO — From his vantage point in a homeless camp on a scrubby mesa above Durango, Corey Davis could look down this summer on what resembled a Western-themed diorama. Tiny figures darted up and down Main Avenue as a coal-fired steam train chugged out of a historic depot trailing a black cloud of coal smoke. […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado doctor on influential state Medicaid board resigns after Sun report on pharma money
A doctor who served on a state advisory board that helps decide when Medicaid patients can be prescribed certain drugs has resigned following a Colorado Sun report that he failed to disclose thousands of dollars in payments and perks from pharmaceutical companies. In his email to state officials resigning from the Colorado Drug Utilization Review […]