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The transparency fight for public records despite private agendas in Durango 9-R
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State

The transparency fight for public records despite private agendas in Durango 9-R

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Access to public, governmental records ensures transparency, but in Durango School District 9-R, accessing them can come with hurdles. Parents say their Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests have been met with delayed responses and roadblocks. Brit Hanson, a Durango parent, started looking into the board’s decision-making processes after growing frustrated with its policies. Her concerns began during the COVID-19 pandemic. "My elementary son wore a mask for an entire year and developed an insane rash. He was on medication. Then he would go to violin class afterwards and still have to wear a mask," Hanson said. At one school forum, she recalled how officials dismissed parents’ concerns. "We had over a hundred par...
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HB 1135, requiring schools adopt student cell phone usage policy, advances out of committee
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State

HB 1135, requiring schools adopt student cell phone usage policy, advances out of committee

By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice The debate to end all debates may soon reach a conclusion. State lawmakers Wednesday advanced House Bill 25-1135, by Steamboat Springs Democrat Rep. Meghan Lukens and El Paso County Republican Rep. Mary Bradfield, a measure requiring schools adopt and implement a student communication device policy. The bill now moves to the House floor on a 11-1 vote of the House Education Committee. While the measure's concepts were broadly supported in the committee hearing, in many schools across the state, suspension of cell phone access in the classroom has raised the ire of parents and students. Many schools have local policy restricting cell phone use, largely brought by educators who have increasingly said classroom distractions have grown beyond the...
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‘Let there be a run on guns’: Senate Democrats advance semiauto gun ban to Colorado House
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State

‘Let there be a run on guns’: Senate Democrats advance semiauto gun ban to Colorado House

By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice A debate Tuesday on the proper role of government and at what point constitutional liberty has been infringed, led by Senate Republicans, fell upon deaf ears. Senate Bill 25-003, what some deem to be the most overreaching gun-control proposal in the country, was passed by a 19-15 vote of the Democrat-dominated Senate and now heads to the Colorado House. If it were to clear the House, the bill would land on Gov. Jared Polis' desk. The bill, if it were to be signed into law, would allow for future purchase, sell or transfer of only certain semiauto firearms on a Democrat-submitted list and would create a de-facto gun owner registry through other requirements, such as mandatory hunter's and firearms education classes prior to purchase. "We ha...
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Danielle Jurinsky will seek second, four-year term on Aurora City Council
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Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Danielle Jurinsky will seek second, four-year term on Aurora City Council

By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice Danielle Jurinsky had been an entrepreneur and business owner, military veteran and single mom, and then, four years ago, added policymaker to the list. She announced Tuesday her intention to seek a second, four-year term to an Aurora City Council at-large seat. The City Council includes 11 members in three wards and at-large seats. Election Day is Nov. 4, 2025. More detail is available through the City of Aurora's website. “Coming through the pandemic as a restaurant owner, my business and many others like mine faced government overreach and increasing costs that threatened to shut us down,” Jurinsky said. It inspired her run for City Council in support of other business owners, who were confronted by local and state governments forcing t...
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In Grand Junction, officials and community alike want to know more on future resource center site
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Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

In Grand Junction, officials and community alike want to know more on future resource center site

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice City officials are negotiating to relocate Grand Junction’s Resource Center to North Avenue, but residents and business owners have thus far been left uninformed. Despite past assurances a new location should limit its impact on businesses, Rocky Mountain Voice has confirmed that city officials are in the process of acquiring 2851 and 2851 ½ North Avenue, a strip mall surrounded by businesses and residences. Councilmen Dennis Simpson and Scott Beilfuss confirmed the deal is underway, but said the Council has not yet considered it in a formal session. “We’re in the process of negotiating to buy 2851 and 2851 ½ [on North Avenue]. I guess there are two different properties probably [to combine],” Simpson said. Beilfuss...
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SB 5, the undoing of the 81-year-old Labor Peace Act, is headed to Colorado House
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State

SB 5, the undoing of the 81-year-old Labor Peace Act, is headed to Colorado House

By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice When she opened the 75th General Assembly with other lawmakers, Douglas County Republican Sen. Lisa Frizell noted Democrat Gov. Jared Polis' description of "the free state of Colorado". The passage of Senate Bill 25-005 out of the upper chamber Tuesday is proof enough, Frizell says, that those were only words from the head of the ruling party, which led the labor bill. "This bill does nothing more than to put handcuffs on workers and businesses alike," Frizell said, noting Colorado is already rated as the sixth most-regulated state in the country. Senate Bill 25-005, by Majority Leader Sen. Robert Rodriguez and Democrat Sen. Jessie Danielson, which would undo significant portions of an 81-year-old labor relations law, was adopted on a 22-1...
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Legislature recognizes contributions of nurses, EMS responders
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Legislature recognizes contributions of nurses, EMS responders

By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice The role of emergency workers and nurses was recognized Tuesday in the Colorado Senate, with a selection of each seated in the chamber. Adams County Democrat Sen. Kyle Mullica, an emergency room nurse when he's not serving in the state legislature, noted that a nurse is comfort in trying times. "It has been a tough [few] years to be a nurse," he said. "They take care of us in our most difficult times." And before a patient many times reaches the hospital or emergency room, emergency workers care for them, El Paso County Republican Sen. Larry Liston said. Republican Sen. Mark Baisley introduced EMS workers in the chamber. "Every now and then we need a hero," he said. "When that emergency medical situation comes on us or our family, or...
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Final hearings today for Senate’s labor, semiauto firearms ban bills as state legislature returns to business
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Final hearings today for Senate’s labor, semiauto firearms ban bills as state legislature returns to business

By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice A three-day weekend in the Colorado General Assembly may have been needed for the ambitious schedule lawmakers may keep today, Tuesday, Feb. 18. Another marathon session of the Colorado Senate could be on tap, as Senate Bill 25-003, the semiauto firearms ban, returns to the floor for third reading. At issue, bill sponsor Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan said, is whether, in the interest of stemming mass shootings in the state, Coloradans should sacrifice constitutionally-provided gun ownership rights. “We’re concerned about the next firearm, not the one you have,” said Sullivan, which identified the bill’s approach to prohibit purchase, sale and transfer of common-use firearms that many on the political right find unconstitutional. “If we allow ...
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Hunter: I’ve got the ‘bug’ only the Denver Fly Fishing Show can cure
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Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Hunter: I’ve got the ‘bug’ only the Denver Fly Fishing Show can cure

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The screaming and whirling of the drag as I set the hook into what I hoped would be a whopper rainbow was unforgettable. The trout surfaced and then nearly pulled me in the river, waders and all, and that was enough. I was "hooked", you could say. OK, maybe it wasn't a "whopper" and maybe it didn't exactly go down like that. Maybe the trout was the size of the fish Deion Sanders catches in that commercial with Nick Saban. It felt like a whopper to this novice, and I had "the bug" you could say for fly fishing. That's why I'm like a kid in a candy store this week. The 23rd annual Denver Fly Fishing Show is making its return to the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center from Friday-Sunday, Feb. 21-23. The Fly Fishing ...
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Local ranchers get wolf training from Delta County Livestock Association
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Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Local ranchers get wolf training from Delta County Livestock Association

By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice There have been no reported wolf depredation of cattle or sheep in Delta County, so far, but Robbie LeValley, on behalf of the Delta Livestock Association, gave a Feb. 13 presentation to more than 130 ranchers in Hotchkiss, Colo., emphasizing how critical precise record keeping will be — should and must likely when the quiet ranching community is impacted by wolf depredation. Hotchkiss is a small town with a population of 929 people, all of whom are impacted by the local ranching economy. Hotchkiss is located in the North Fork of the Gunnison River, between Paonia and Delta, in Delta County. “We are not here to argue about the wolves, they’re here. Wolves are close, they are on top of us,” LeValley said. The informat...
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