News
Biden’s big social spending bill caught in snags in the Senate
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s giant social and climate spending bill on Thursday night appeared stalled in the U.S. Senate for some time to come, a deep frustration for congressional Democrats who aimed to pass the ambitious package by the Christmas recess. At risk also is a temporary expansion of the child tax credit, the […]
Arizona Sen. Sinema opposes filibuster carveout to advance voting rights legislation
Arizona’s enigmatic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to weakening the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for moving ahead on legislation, even as other Democrats are floating the idea of making an exception to the chamber’s rules to pass major voting rights measures. In a statement to States Newsroom, a Sinema spokeswoman said the senator supports the […]
‘Ghost guns’ would be banned under proposed Denver law
Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson and Mayor Michael Hancock proposed an ordinance last week to ban ghost guns, which are privately-made firearms without serial numbers on them, making the guns untraceable. If passed, the bill would ban the possession, carry, use, manufacture and sale of non-serialized guns in Denver, according to the executive summary of […]
Transportation Commission approves planning rule aimed at greenhouse gas cuts
Colorado officials have approved a major overhaul to state transportation planning rules that advocates hope will shift billions in funding towards public transit improvements and other multimodal projects — and curb a decades-old pattern of prioritizing highway and road expansions linked with climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. On a 10-1 vote, the state’s Transportation Commission on […]
State officials encourage families to catch up on routine childhood vaccinations
Like many other states, routine childhood vaccination rates have declined in Colorado since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment encourages families to catch their children up on routine childhood immunizations. “With all of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been difficult to keep up with our […]
Gov. Polis: Omicron likely to become dominant COVID-19 variant in Colorado, urges boosters
Gov. Jared Polis is urging Colorado residents to get a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine in anticipation of an increased spread of the omicron variant, which he said he expects to become the dominant strain of the virus. “We’re fortunate to have these safe and effective vaccines, and we now face a new threat […]
As fentanyl kills more Coloradans, prosecutors call for stricter penalties
An assortment of Colorado’s top prosecutors and state lawmakers, along with the mother of a young man who died after taking pills containing fentanyl, are calling for stricter penalties for drug dealers peddling the powerful synthetic opioid. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment predicts the number of drug overdose deaths in the state […]
Colorado’s 2021 overdose deaths on track to break last year’s record
It’s all but certain: More Coloradans will die of drug overdoses in 2021 than in any other year in recent history. According to preliminary data from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, as reported by Colorado Politics, the state lost 1,230 people to overdoses between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31. That’s significantly more than […]
Sen. Bennet pushes for continued child tax credit in Build Back Better Act
Wednesday marked the last time 600,000 Colorado families will get a monthly child tax credit payment unless Congress acts to extend the program through the pending Build Back Better Act or — even less likely — through standalone legislation. Sen. Michael Bennet, a longtime champion for the child tax credit, said he is working to […]
How an election denier’s fan club got its start in the states
WASHINGTON — The suddenly famous election denier behind the circulation of a PowerPoint filled with plans to overturn the 2020 election has a long history of election subversion attempts in multiple states. Retired Army Col. Phil Waldron also has close ties to former President Donald Trump’s legal team and served as one of its key […]
Sen. Bennet supports eliminating filibuster, spokesperson confirms
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet supports eliminating the Senate filibuster, his office confirmed Wednesday. Bennet, a Democrat and Colorado’s senior senator, had repeatedly criticized Republican “abuse” of the filibuster and signaled an openness to reforming it in recent months, but his remarks had not been widely interpreted as explicitly calling for the filibuster’s elimination. As of […]
Sen. Hickenlooper says ‘time to change the filibuster’ to protect voting rights
Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado on Wednesday announced his support for “changes” to the filibuster, as Senate Democrats move to take up voting rights legislation in the final weeks of the year. “We’ve been here almost a year, and we’ve seen enough: It’s time to change the filibuster to protect voting rights,” Hickenlooper said in […]