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U.S. Postal Service advises voters to send mail-in ballots ASAP to ensure timely delivery
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U.S. Postal Service advises voters to send mail-in ballots ASAP to ensure timely delivery

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The United States Postal Service (USPS) is advising voters who plan to cast their ballot by mail to do so soon to ensure their vote is counted in this year's election.    USPS data indicates that it takes about one day for ballots to ship from voters to election officials. However, USPS recommends that voters mail their ballots at least one week before election day on Nov. 5 to be safe.  Regardless of when or how they vote, USPS is reassuring voters that their ballots will be delivered in a secure manner.  READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Denver considers $1M contract with Denver Health for homeless response
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coloradopolitics.com, Local

Denver considers $1M contract with Denver Health for homeless response

By Noah Festenstein | Colorado Politics, via Denver Gazette The Denver City Council on Monday will consider a $1 million contract to better utilize the city’s hospital system for homeless response efforts. If approved on second reading Monday, Denver Health will receive $990,900 from the city to become more involved with homeless response efforts and Roads to Recovery until at least Sept. 30, 2026. The money is planned to “support and strengthen existing internal infrastructure focused on partnerships with Denver homelessness resolution partners and the Roads to Recovery project to better align housing and health supports for some of the most at-risk persons experiencing homelessness,” city officials said in the council’s resolution request. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLI...
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Aurora police e-mails reveal internal conflicts, political concerns with Tren De Aragua
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coloradopolitics.com, Local

Aurora police e-mails reveal internal conflicts, political concerns with Tren De Aragua

By Nicole C. Brambila | Colorado Politics Aurora officials knew, or strongly suspected, for much longer than previously disclosed that the Venezuelan gang operating in their city was much larger than a handful of members at a single apartment complex, according to emails obtained by The Denver Gazette. Authenticated by city officials, the cache represented more than two dozen internal Aurora Police Department emails dating back to Sept. 11, 2023. This is nearly a year before it was publicly known that the Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua (TdA) was operating in the Denver metro area and before city officials shuttered an apartment complex. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Return to Nature owners plead guilty to wire fraud charge at federal court hearing
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coloradopolitics.com, Local

Return to Nature owners plead guilty to wire fraud charge at federal court hearing

By Zachary Dupont | Colorado Politics, via The Gazette Return to Nature Funeral Home owners Jon and Carie Hallford appeared in federal court on Thursday to accept a plea deal, which could land the couple in prison for up to 15 years.  In September, Jon and Carie Hallford, the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, filed a notice of disposition and a motion requesting a change of plea on the 15 counts of wire fraud the pair face in federal court.  The funeral home, about 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, came under a multi-agency investigation in October after reports of a complaint about a foul odor in the area. Investigators said they found nearly 190 bodies in various states of decomposition that were not properly stored. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO...
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In two weeks, $6.6 million was raised for 14 ballot issues on the Colorado ballot
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In two weeks, $6.6 million was raised for 14 ballot issues on the Colorado ballot

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics In just under two weeks, the issue committees battling over most of the 14 statewide ballot issues have collectively raised more than $6.6 million. The most fundraising between Oct. 10 and Monday is Colorado Voters First, which backs Proposition 131, the open primary/ranked choice voting measure. Ben Walton, of the Walton family that owns Wal-Mart, donated $1 million on Oct. 18 to the pro-131 committee. That brings his total to $2 million. Through Oct. 9, the committee had already raised $10.8 million. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Group opposed to ranked-choice voting warns it will make elections less secure
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Group opposed to ranked-choice voting warns it will make elections less secure

By Brady Knox | Colorado Politics, via Washington Examiner An anti-ranked choice voting group warned that ballot initiatives in favor of the practice would make elections less secure. Eight states and the District of Columbia will have ballot initiatives related to ranked choice voting. RCV is a method of voting where voters can vote for multiple candidates in order of preference. While activists praise the method as being more fair and allowing voters' voices to be better heard, opponents making up the Stop RCV Coalition, such as Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead, argue that the process serves only to confuse voters. "Ranked choice voting is a convoluted scheme that confuses voters," he said. "Across the country, millions of citizens...
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Elbert County commissioners seek to dismiss lawsuit filed by county residents
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coloradopolitics.com, Local

Elbert County commissioners seek to dismiss lawsuit filed by county residents

By Deborah Grigsby | Colorado Politics, via Denver Gazette Three Elbert County Commissioners named in a lawsuit alleging they conducted official business outside of public purview have asked the court to dismiss the case that could hold them financially responsible for contracts they awarded. In September, a group of Elbert County residents sued the board and commissioners Chris Richardson, Dallas Schroeder, and Grant Thayer in their official capacities after it was discovered they gave hefty employment contracts to County Manager Shawn Fletcher and longtime County Attorney Bart Greer.  The defendants, as stated in court documents filed on Friday, assert that two plaintiffs' three claims are moot because the county approved the employment contracts in question at a speci...
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Colorado insurance rates will increase more than three times the rate of inflation in 2025
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Colorado insurance rates will increase more than three times the rate of inflation in 2025

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics With open enrollment for health insurance set to begin in two weeks, Colorado's Division of Insurance has finalized rates for premiums in the individual and small group markets. Premium increases in both markets for 2025 are set to rise at more than three times the rate of inflation forecast for next year. Individual premium increases will rise 5.6%, and small businesses, those with 100 or fewer employees, will rise 7.1%. However, medical inflation rises faster than consumer inflation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In an August report, the foundation said that in June 2024, medical prices grew by 3.3% from the previous year, higher than the 3.0% overall annual inflation rate. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Colorado justices, 4-2, rule tenants have right to a jury trial in eviction cases
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Colorado justices, 4-2, rule tenants have right to a jury trial in eviction cases

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics Noting that trial courts across the state are routinely denying tenants the ability to have a jury hear their eviction cases, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that certain types of disputes do qualify for a jury trial after all. By 4-2, the Supreme Court's majority acknowledged the concern that county courts, where evictions largely are heard, could become overwhelmed if even a fraction of tenants demand jury trials. But Justice Carlos A. Samour Jr. explained numerous other states honor the right to a jury trial and several factors work to limit the actual frequency of eviction trials. "And of those cases that do proceed to trial, many are ineligible for a jury trial," Samour wrote in the Oct. 21 opinion, given that a jury would...
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Study finds homeless sweeps don’t reduce crime, may even increase violence
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Study finds homeless sweeps don’t reduce crime, may even increase violence

By Jenny Deam | Colorado Politics Despite prevailing public and political wisdom that removing homeless encampments is necessary to reduce crime in an area, a new national study looking specifically at Denver’s crime rates after sweeps found the narrative was, in fact, mostly false. “There is no evidence that sweeps make our community safer,” said Pranav Padmanabhan, the Denver-based lead author of the study published Wednesday in the national Journal of Urban Health. Padmanabhan is a graduate student in Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and one of four authors affiliated with the medical school. The fifth is with the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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