Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Local

Castle Pines Growth Spurs Redistricting and Campaign Finance Changes
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Castle Pines Growth Spurs Redistricting and Campaign Finance Changes

By Nicholas Fogleman | Colorado Politics Castle Pines officials are moving forward with proposed changes to the city’s election system that would make it easier for candidates to raise money and reshape district boundaries to accommodate rapid growth.  During a City Council meeting Tuesday, the council discussed redistricting municipal voter districts and approved the first reading of an ordinance that would increase campaign contribution limits for local races. As a home-rule municipality, has the authority to establish its own campaign finance rules. The council approved a proposal on first reading to raise the limit on contributions to candidate committees to $2,000, matching limits in Greenwood Village and Lone Tree. Under curre...
Read More
Denver Council Presses Public Safety Leaders Over 911 Response and Surveillance Spending
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Council Presses Public Safety Leaders Over 911 Response and Surveillance Spending

By Nico Brambila | The Denver Gazette Longer 911 response times, police surveillance technology and the integrity of Denver’s crime lab drew scrutiny from the Denver City Council on Wednesday, as public safety officials defended their operations and outlined challenges facing their departments. Officials attributed longer response times in part to a sharp increase in employee leave, saying average leave hours reached 306 in 2025, compared with 170 previously. The issue, officials said, isn’t just staffing. “We can’t hire ourselves out of the ability to answer more quickly,” said Andrew Dameron, director of Denver 911. Councilmembers complained to Public Safety officials, saying they haven’t experienced the improved response times the d...
Read More
Boulder Valley Board Votes 5-2 to Close Schools Despite Pushback
No Comments
CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Boulder Valley Board Votes 5-2 to Close Schools Despite Pushback

By Sarah Horbacewicz | CBS Colorado The Boulder Valley School District's Board of Education on Tuesday approved a plan to close some schools and consolidate others. The plan that adopts the following changes passed with a 5-2 vote: - Douglass Elementary School (Boulder) will close.- The Community Montessori building in Boulder will close and the program will be moved to the current High Peaks location.- High Peaks (Boulder) will be moved to the Douglass building.- Mesa Elementary School (Boulder) will be closed and it will merge with Bear Creek Elementary School.- Flatirons Elementary School (Boulder) will close and its attendance will be divided between Whittier and Foothills schools.- In Louisville and Superior, Monarch K-8 will transition to a middle school and E...
Read More
Commerce City Weighs Six-Month Pause on Data Center Development
No Comments
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Commerce City Weighs Six-Month Pause on Data Center Development

By Alex Dowd | Denver7 COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Commerce City leaders are deciding Monday night if the city should hit pause on data center development. At their regularly scheduled meeting, city council will consider a six-month moratorium on approving data center development plans or zoning applications. Council communications say the city’s land development code doesn’t address some of the “unique characteristics of data center facilities.” The draft ordinance says data centers can have significant impacts on city infrastructure like power and water supply, neighborhood character and surrounding land use. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DENVER7
Read More
Denver Voters Face Xcel Decision but 3% Utility Fee May Remain Either Way
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Denver Voters Face Xcel Decision but 3% Utility Fee May Remain Either Way

By Nico Brambila | Colorado Politics Xcel Energy’s slogan makes this promise: “Our energy. Your power.” Denver voters will have the power in November when they decide whether to approve a new 20-year franchise agreement with the utility. But even if they say no, they will continue paying the 3% franchise fee on their electric and natural gas bills. The reason? A provision on page 22 of Denver’s existing 20-year agreement with Xcel says that, if the franchise is not renewed, the utility must continue paying the city an amount equal to the franchise fee as long as Xcel continues using Denver’s public rights-of-way to provide service. The agreement expires Dec. 31. Colorado law requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to order utilities to recover muni...
Read More
Denver Mayor Talks Childcare and Housing With Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Mayor Talks Childcare and Housing With Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani

By Daniel Boniface | The Denver Gazette Denver Mayor Mike Johnston this weekend shared a conversation with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on how to make housing, childcare and transit more affordable. That’s according to a post from Johnston’s Instagram that showed Denver’s mayor riding alongside Mamdani in an open-air bus ride in New York City at the Urban20 Summit, a gathering of mayors from major cities. Mamdani, a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America, made free childcare for children 5 and under one of his signature policy priorities during his successful run for New York mayor. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
Read More
Sex and gender data limits clear Denver committee 5-0, heads to full council
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Sex and gender data limits clear Denver committee 5-0, heads to full council

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Kevin Flynn asked the question two different ways on two different days. What data does Denver collect or share now that it wouldn't under this ordinance? By the time the committee voted, he had one narrow answer about collection and none about sharing. "What are we doing today that under this ordinance we will no longer be doing?" the Southwest Denver councilman asked Monday, when the Sex and Gender Identity Protection Ordinance came before the Budget and Policy Committee for a briefing. "I'm having trouble understanding or visualizing it." He tried again Wednesday, when the same bill reached the Health and Safety Committee for a vote. He said he was "surprised to learn that we're sharing this information with anybody...
Read More
Colorado Springs Delays Data Center Decision After Intense Public Opposition
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, Local

Colorado Springs Delays Data Center Decision After Intense Public Opposition

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Public overwhelmingly against massive computing warehouse, as 3 protesters are arrested and 1 hit with stun gun. Colorado Springs City Council voted Thursday night to delay a hotly controversial data center proposal near Garden of the Gods, after a raucous daylong hearing with speakers overwhelmingly and profanely shouting down the concept. A scuffle broke out between police and speakers who claimed they had been denied a time slot and grabbed a megaphone to denounce the project. Social media and local TV stations showed one man being hit with a stun gun while he was being handcuffed, as police and at least two protesters wrestled between the theater-style seats. Colorado Springs Police said on X.com they had “three people in custo...
Read More
UNC Medical School Looks to Bring More Doctors to Rural Colorado
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

UNC Medical School Looks to Bring More Doctors to Rural Colorado

By Hap Fry | The Denver Gazette Editor’s Note: Colorado’s healthcare system is entering a period of accelerating instability — a “tsunami,” as multiple leaders describe it — driven by collapsing hospital finances, shrinking Medicaid reimbursements, disappearing services and a political fight over who is responsible for this unraveling. Healthcare Freefall is a multipart series examining how Colorado arrived at this moment, what H.R. 1 will do next and why communities across the state are bracing for deeper shocks. Be it Thanksgiving, Christmas or the Fourth of July, Longenecker could always bank on someone arriving at her family’s doorstep in Limeport, Penn.  More often than not, those visitors would be locals from the area with no family ties — other than the fac...
Read More
New Uses for Pueblo Half Cent Tax Prompt Debate Over Voter Intent
No Comments
Uncategorized, Approved, Commentary, Complete Colorado, Local

New Uses for Pueblo Half Cent Tax Prompt Debate Over Voter Intent

By Nicki Hart | Commentary, Complete Colorado Pueblo offers a cautionary tale for communities across Colorado being asked to extend, renew, or continue a dedicated tax. When voters approve a tax for one purpose, how much can the government redefine that purpose before it must return to the people for permission? That debate is unfolding in Pueblo over the city’s Half-Cent Sales Tax Fund, a voter-approved revenue source that has existed for more than four decades. The fund originated in 1984 following the collapse of Pueblo’s steel economy. In 1992, voters fundamentally reshaped the program around a more specific economic promise that public funds would support capital improvements that create “primary jobs.” Primary jobs are those that bring new money into the local ec...
Read More