Colorado Politics

 Appeals judge to Supreme Court: Please endorse a single reasonable doubt definition for Colorado

A member of Colorado’s second-highest court asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to endorse one definition of “reasonable doubt” for trial judges to use — out of the three versions currently on the table. Colorado’s template jury instructions for...

 Palmer Lake adopts voter-approved ordinance with big implications for Buc-ee’s

Earlier this month, voters in Palmer Lake voted in favor of an ordinance that would make any request to increase the size of the town an automatic ballot question. That would include the controversial annexation request from developers of the...

 Colorado Republicans again weigh whether to boot unaffiliated voters from party primaries | TRAIL MIX

For the fifth time since Colorado voters created the state’s semi-open primary system, Republican Party officials are set to decide if unaffiliated voters can cast ballots in the party’s upcoming primary. More than 400 members of the Republicans’ state central...

 Virginia Giuffre’s family urges Rep. Crank’s help in release of Epstein files

Family members of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and other survivors called for the release of the Epstein files outside 5th District U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank’s office Wednesday in Colorado Springs. “As...

 Hickenlooper pitches in $100K for Colorado Democratic Party’s grassroots organizing

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper has raised $100,000 for the Colorado Democratic Party’s organizing efforts ahead of next year’s election, the party said on Thursday. The former two-term governor, who is seeking reelection to a second Senate term in 2026, said...

 The future of Colorado water: How the fight over Shoshone water rights affects the Front Range

A million acre-feet of water in the Colorado River — and the efforts by Western Slope water partners to keep it there — became the subject of a recent two-day hearing that could decide just who gets water and how...

 Colorado Republican leader criticizes Democrats’ comments about Charlie Kirk

The new Republican leader of the Colorado House sharply criticized Democrats over recent comments about conversative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month during an event at a university in Utah. In a letter to the House speaker...

 Could this be the next big outdoor destination in Woodland Park?

Could a golf course be the next great outdoor escape in the “City Above the Clouds” west of Colorado Springs? Advocates in Woodland Park think so. The 18-hole Shining Mountain Golf Course “is such a big parcel, with so much...

 Jeff Hurd primary challenger Hope Scheppelman signs Libertarians’ pledge in bid to avoid ‘spoiler’

Hope Scheppelman, the Bayfield Republican challenging first-term U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd in next year’s GOP primary, has signed a pledge prepared by the Colorado Libertarian Party as part of an arrangement meant to discourage the minor political party from running...

 Ted Cooke reflects on turmoil over his nomination to Bureau of Reclamation

Ted Cooke, the former nominee for commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, called the decision to scuttle his nomination “feckless.” President Donald Trump had nominated Cooke, the former director of the Central Arizona Project, in June to head the bureau,...

 Federal judge rejects conservative podcaster’s attempt to ‘blame his spam folder’ for missing deadline

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the claims from a conservative podcaster about why he missed his deadline to respond, instead ordering Joe Oltmann once again to pay for the costs of litigating his own contempt proceedings. Earlier this summer,...

 Western governors’ eye nuclear for power demand

The Western Governors’ Association’s two-day “Energy Superabundance” workshop this week brought together Gov. Brad Little of Idaho and Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah with federal regulators, utility executives, investors and supply-chain managers. The workshop in Idaho Falls focused on nuclear...

 Xcel Energy to pay $640 million in settlement related to Marshall Fire

In December of 2021, the Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 buildings in Colorado’s Louisville, Superior, and unincorporated Boulder County. Nearly four years later, a settlement involving Xcel Energy has been reached. The Denver Gazette’s Michael Braithwaite reports that Xcel...

 Appeals court addresses defendant’s request to get property back 3 years after Supreme Court laid out process

Almost three years after the Colorado Supreme Court clarified how a convicted defendant may ask law enforcement to hand over his seized property, the state’s second-highest court found an El Paso County judge wrongly denied the man’s request to return...

 Xcel Energy reaches settlement agreement over Marshall fire

Colorado’s largest utility company said it has reached an agreement to settle all claims relating to the 2021 Marshall fire, which tore through a thousand homes and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Xcel Energy said under the...

 Federal judge advances claim against prison guard for allegedly outing man as ‘snitch’

A federal judge last week agreed an incarcerated man could sue a prison guard for allegedly putting him in danger and retaliating against him by revealing to other inmates that the plaintiff filed a sexual harassment complaint. The plaintiff, who...

 Joint Budget Committee greenlights $2.8M for Colorado prisons amid overcrowding crisis

The General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee has approved nearly $3 million in supplemental funding for the Colorado Department of Corrections to cover the cost of additional prison beds amid an ongoing crisis of prison overcrowding. Last month, DOC facilities reached...

 Ava Flanell wins House District 14 vacancy seat in El Paso County

A vacancy committee for House District 14 in El Paso County wasted no time in finding a replacement for former House Minority Leader Rep. Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs. The 54-member GOP vacancy committee, on Monday, selected gun store owner...

 Colorado sports betting brings in big bucks for state water plan projects

Funding for the state’s 2015 water plan started as a trickle. But sports gaming revenue has now turned that trickle into a steady stream. The Colorado Division of Gaming announced this week that nearly $33.8 million from 2024-25 will be allocated...

 Lakewood City Council approves reconfiguring of single-family zoning

The controversial section of Lakewood’s new proposed planning document that aims to add more affordable housing to the city was approved Monday evening. The Lakewood City Council approved an amended version of Article 3 of the city’s 2026 zoning code...

 ACLU sues ICE over plans to expand agency’s detention capacity

The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking records on the government’s plans for expanding its detention capacity in the state. “Already, our previous requests and subsequent lawsuit have revealed how ICE may...

 Colorado justices toy with test for reviewing extreme sentences for unconstitutionality

The Colorado Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday about whether a woman’s 29-year prison sentence for causing a fatal drunk driving accident was constitutionally excessive, but also considered tinkering with the procedure for how judges approach claims of “gross disproportionality”...

 Colorado human services agency faces buzzsaw at state Supreme Court as justices critique non-disclosure argument

Several members of the Colorado Supreme Court pushed back on Monday against the state’s position that it could not disclose the number of child abuse reports at individual group living facilities because doing so would improperly reveal a person’s address...

 Appeals court ‘reluctantly’ sides with Jeffco DA in disapproving judge’s self-defense ruling

Colorado’s second-highest court, by 2-1, agreed last week that a Jefferson County judge should not have let jurors consider whether a defendant acted in self-defense at a trial that resulted in his acquittal for menacing a police officer. However, members...

 Federal judge to challengers of Colorado’s aid-in-dying law: Is key plaintiff’s death problematic to case?

A federal judge on Friday asked those challenging a provision of Colorado’s aid-in-dying law to reconsider whether they want to continue litigating, after a key plaintiff died earlier this month. This year, three people alleged Colorado’s assisted suicide law, which...

 Colorado’s fiscal future continues to be clouded by tariffs, revenue drops and recession fears

State economists on Monday presented continuing data that shows a weakened economic outlook for Colorado and continued risks for a near-term recession. The Joint Budget Committee, comprised of six lawmakers from the General Assembly who annually craft the state budget,...

 Crow joins call for limiting Trump’s war powers after third missile strike

After the U.S. launched a third missile strike against an alleged drug trafficking vessel Friday, Colorado Democratic Rep. Jason Crow joined Senate Democrats on Monday in a call to end military action against cartels without congressional approval.  “The illegal flow...

 Colorado justices weigh ‘cascade of errors’ in Arapahoe County murder trial

There was no dispute that Terrence G. Davis died by gunshot in an Aurora alleyway in 2017. At the trial of Davis’ suspected killer, jurors reached two conclusions. First, they believed he was guilty of second-degree murder for causing Davis’ death....

 End of federal EV subsidies will hurt Colorado sales

With a ticking clock on Gov. Jared Polis’ 2019 aspirations to put 940,000 electric vehicles on Colorado highways by 2030, his plan hit a major pothole when President Donald Trump ordered cancellation of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act Clean...

 Colorado Springs to lose Army Reserve helicopter units as brigades shutter nationally

The Army Reserve expects to divest all of its helicopters and associated units over the next year, including a brigade headquarters and one of its companies in Colorado Springs.  Fort Carson-based  Col. Adam Stanley, commander of the 11th Expeditionary Combat...