Colorado would ban the sale, transfer and importation of so-called assault weapons under a bill introduced Tuesday in the state House. The measure, HB24-1292, is similar to legislation that a House committee killed last spring in its first hearing, but this year’s version may have better chances. The new bill would define assault weapons as … Read more
A Democratic state lawmaker voluntarily killed her own bill Thursday over a wave of criticism –and some threats — sparked by the proposal to require Colorado pet owners to register their animals and pay fees. The bill, HB24-1163, would have required pet owners to pay a small, per-animal annual fee to support shelters across the … Read more
Eleven years ago, Democratic state lawmakers faced protests and recalls over their passage of a high-capacity magazine ban and universal background checks for gun buyers in the wake of the Aurora and Sandy Hook mass shootings. The legislation cost two senators their seats, including the Senate president, and a third resigned. The backlash left a … Read more
Colorado’s unaffiliated voters can continue to participate in Republican primary elections, a federal judge ruled Friday, in the latest blow to the state GOP’s attempts to close its races to independents. The ruling comes more than five months after the Colorado Republican Party filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate Proposition 108, the 2016 ballot measure … Read more
For the second time in two months, Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed a bill into law that temporarily doubles Colorado’s match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, boosting the amount of money that will go to working families this year. The new law — the first legislation signed by Polis during the 2024 … Read more
At first, Bruce Brown thought the substance in his son’s room was a performance supplement, like the plastic bottles alongside it. He’d never heard of sodium nitrite, so he searched it on the internet. But he accidentally typed in the wrong word, searching instead for sodium nitrate. Still, even the results for the wrong substance … Read more
Former City Council member Julia Marvin was selected Thursday night by a Democratic vacancy committee to represent Thornton and the surrounding area in the Colorado House this year, weeks after her predecessor resigned. Marvin, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Thornton last year, beat fellow former council member Jacque Phillips on a 9-7 vacancy committee … Read more
Housing, housing, and more housing will dominate Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ agenda this legislative session as state leaders aim to encourage more building across the state. The governor, entering his sixth year in office, previewed his priorities Thursday in his annual State of the State address to a packed Colorado House chamber. Roughly the first … Read more
The return of Colorado’s legislature to the Capitol this week brought lofty talk from legislative leaders about the need for civility. It also came with a harsh reality: the acrimony and vitriol that marred last year’s proceedings have done anything but fade away. Simmering tensions have built up for several years, lawmakers on both sides … Read more
From the moment the Colorado General Assembly’s leaders gaveled their chambers into session Wednesday, they acknowledged the undercurrent of acrimony that’s seeped ever more deeply into state politics. The Capitol’s two top Democrats touted past achievements and pledged to do more this year, but they also made repeated references to social media eroding civility. They … Read more
