Politics & Government

This weekend is the fortieth anniversary of the Rocky Flats Truth Force, and the truth keeps spilling out.

Brad Levin thought he had the ballot petition in the bag. He collected 16,000 signatures, far more than the 10,500 signature requirement to get on the statewide ballot. He was wrong. The state threw out 7,000 of his signatures. Some were thrown out over technicalities. Others were thrown out because the signatures were of unaffiliated voters, who are not legally locked out of the candidate petition process. Now, the Democratic candidate for attorney general is suing to get his signatures back.

In a recording obtained by Westword, Walker Stapleton told a crowd earlier this month that he pitches out-of-state donors by telling them that property taxes on their vacation homes in Colorado would double or triple under a Democratic governor.

Two Democratic lawmakers in the Colorado House have introduced a bill that would severely limit non-mandatory cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Protests, like plutonium, lasts forever.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice has changed its mind about suspending legal orientation trainings at immigration detention centers.

United Airlines is threatening the community as the company pushes back against an effort by its catering workers to unionize.

The anti-queer agenda under the guise of religious liberty is still rampant at the Capitol.

On April 19, a Senate committee approved several amendments to civil rights commission’s composition and procedures.

A revision of Castle Rock’s animal code that removes its pit-bull ban passed on first reading on April 17.

Colorado is consistently ranked as one of the most productive state legislatures in the country,

The Eligibility Colorado Road and Community Safety Act now moves to the governor’s desk.

Vote for Our Lives is designed to sign people up to vote and educate them on gun issues and school safety. The first rally in Colorado takes place on April 19, 2018, at Clement Park in Littleton.

What do a CSU journalism student, a documentary filmmaker and a lawyer all have in common? They’ve been sued by Denver-based Extraction Oil and Gas over an anti-fracking protest in Greeley next door to Bella Romero Academy, a school that serves a predominantly low-income and minority community.

Denver City Council president Albus Brooks, who had surgery for cancer in 2016, has revealed the recurrence of the disease. Surgery to remove a newly discovered tumor has been scheduled for the first week of May.

In the wake of #MeToo and Time’s Up, statehouses around the country are grappling with how to hold legislators accountable for sexual harassment in an environment where there isn’t a traditional boss. The most severe form of punishment is expulsion, the equivalent of being fired, but that is rarely ever wielded. This year, Colorado expelled a House Democrat, the first time a state legislator was expelled in more than 100 years. Other statehouses have also been aggressive in the fight to eradicate sexual harassment. But in true Colorado fashion, the Centennial State is leading the country in creating a safe, harassment-free environment at the Capitol. That’s if legislators can agree on the fix.

Seven Colorado cities currently prohibit pit bulls, with such regulations resulting in thousands of dogs being euthanized in Denver alone. But the number of bans could be reduced by one within weeks. Tonight, Castle Rock’s town council will hear the first reading of a new animal ordinance that repeals breed-specific legislation, and if it moves to the next stage, as expected, it could become law as soon as next month. Advocate Jen Dudley hopes the new rules serve as a template for repealing and replacing the bans in Denver and beyond.

Effective April 30, the Department of Justice is suspending funding for know-your-rights trainings at immigration detention centers, including at Colorado’s sole detention center in Aurora

No one was surprised when former state treasurer Cary Kennedy and Representative Jared Polis landed spots on the ballot as gubernatorial candidates via April 14’s Colorado Democratic Party state assembly, the complete results of which are on view below. But the Colorado Republican Party state assembly, held on the same day, contained a stunner. Former Parker mayor Greg Lopez, who few political observers took seriously, knocked state attorney general Cynthia Coffman out of the guv sweepstakes based largely on the power of a single speech.

Colorado is one of seven states participating in “Cyber Storm,” a network security exercise led by the Department of Homeland Security.

Second-term state treasurer Walker Stapleton says one of the main reasons he’s running for governor of Colorado in 2018 is because he believes the state is at a crossroads, and if the wrong policies are put in place, the current economic boom may prove short-lived. He explains why and offers what he sees as solutions in the following in-depth interview.

The most prominent challenger so far to Mayor Hancock’s re-election has raised over $100,000 in campaign contributions, campaign finance reports show.