Rocky Mountain Voice

The Denver Gazette

Federal Government Commits $250 Million to Colorado Power Grid Project
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Federal Government Commits $250 Million to Colorado Power Grid Project

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette The U.S. Department of Energy is investing $250 million in a transmission connection between Colorado and Texas, which it says will improve grid reliability and meet growing electricity demand. One connection will move from Lamar to the higher-capacity May Valley substation in Brandon. That connects it directly to the Colorado Power Pathway transmission network. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
Denver Council Presses Public Safety Leaders Over 911 Response and Surveillance Spending
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...
Michael Allen Calls for Colorado First Approach to Attorney General’s Office
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Michael Allen Calls for Colorado First Approach to Attorney General’s Office

By Thelma Grimes | The Denver Gazette Republican argues Colorado officials have been too focused fighting Trump. Michael Allen said his campaign for Colorado attorney general is rooted in a simple premise: the state’s top lawyer should focus on Colorado, regardless of who occupies the White House. The Republican candidate, a Colorado native and the elected district attorney for the 4th Judicial District, is vying for the position against Democrat Jena Griswold, the state’s current secretary of state. During the primary, Griswold has repeatedly told voters that she will focus on fighting the Trump administration as attorney general. That messaging permeates her campaign against Allen. Allen, who grew up in Thornton and Arvada and...
Lawsuit Challenges Colorado Graduated Income Tax Measure Over Petition Signatures
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Lawsuit Challenges Colorado Graduated Income Tax Measure Over Petition Signatures

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Denver District Court seeks to strike the proposed graduated income tax measure from the November ballot. One of Denver’s major law firms filed the lawsuit on behalf of Michael Andre Hancock of Arapahoe County, who challenged the ballot measure during the title board process earlier this year. The defendants are Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Amendment 87 proponents Chris deGruy Kennedy of the Bell Policy Center and Kiyana Newell of New Era Colorado. The lawsuit challenges how Protect Colorado’s Future — the coalition behind the measure — gathered its signatures. It claims the group failed to file training certificates for some of its pa...
Denver Mayor Talks Childcare and Housing With Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani
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
Pueblo Takes Center Stage in Battle for Colorado Senate Control
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Pueblo Takes Center Stage in Battle for Colorado Senate Control

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette Of the roughly two dozen state Senate seats up for election this year, one race in Southern Colorado is drawing particular attention. The outcome of this race could decide the contours of power at the state Capitol, with ramifications for what major policies get adopted next year. Just as importantly, this area called the “last purple” district in Colorado offers an interesting inflection point for a state that has become considerably bluer in each election cycle. Indeed, Pueblo presents a kind of political enigma — a union town that has voted for Pesident Donald Trump at the same time it had sent Democrats to the state Capitol. Mix in a fire that has devastated parts of the district, the debate over energ...
UNC Medical School Looks to Bring More Doctors to Rural Colorado
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...
Emergency Motion Extends Douglas County Ballot Fight With Ballots Already Sent to Printer
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Emergency Motion Extends Douglas County Ballot Fight With Ballots Already Sent to Printer

By Nicholas Fogleman | The Denver Gazette The legal battle over a Douglas County ballot measure to increase the number of county commissioners is continuing after Rep. Bob Marshall asked a judge to reconsider her rejection of a preliminary injunction that would halt two ballot measures from reaching voters. Marshall filed an emergency motion for reconsideration Sunday, outlining a new legal argument that he said would give the court authority to grant his request. The case stems from actions of the Board of County Commissioners who, in the final days before ballot certification, approved additional language for a citizen-led ballot measure that would increase the board from three members to five and adopted a competing county-initiated measure addressing how commi...
Marx Contests $51,427 Campaign Finance Penalty After Acknowledging Reporting Mistakes
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Marx Contests $51,427 Campaign Finance Penalty After Acknowledging Reporting Mistakes

By Deborah Grigsby | The Denver Gazette Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx hates that his campaign finance troubles have become a “distraction.” The outspoken Republican took to X on Tuesday with a cinematic explainer regarding the potential $51,000 in fines he faces from the Secretary of State for excessive contributions. “We’ve made honest mistakes, and we’ve never tried to hide them,” Marx said. “We’ve also been very transparent about the difficulties we’ve encountered correcting the campaign finance reporting through the Secretary of State system.” The state alleges Marx’s campaign accepted at least 204 contributions over Colorado’s $1,450 per-person contribution limit, totaling $83,560 from 111 different contributors. Marx, in a recent ...
Amendment 81 Puts Colorado’s Cooperation With ICE Before Voters
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Amendment 81 Puts Colorado’s Cooperation With ICE Before Voters

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette A coalition of advocacy groups and several district attorneys rallied outside the Colorado Capitol on Thursday to oppose a ballot measure that, if approved by voters in November, would require state and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Backed by Advance Colorado, Proposition 81 would require local law enforcement agencies to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they charge a person who is in the country illegally with a violent crime or when the individual has previously been charged with a felony. This also applies when the person’s legal status cannot be determined. Kristi Burton Brown, executive vice president of Advance Colorado, told Colorado Politics that the gr...