State

Money matters: Colorado lawmakers pass bill adding financial literacy to graduation requirements

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Colorado just became the 27th state to turn financial literacy courses into a graduation requirement after the bill passed the Senate with a vast majority vote on Wednesday. 

The bipartisan bill’s third reading passed with 55 yes votes and 10 no — a noticeable uptick in support from when the bill was first introduced.

House Bill 25-1192 requires that all Colorado high school students complete a personal finance literacy course at some point in their four years in order to graduate.

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Cole: The hidden risks of gender-affirming care demand Colorado’s restraint

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Colorado has embraced gender-affirming care for minors, covering treatments like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and, in rare cases, surgeries through Medicaid and other state programs. 

While intended to address gender dysphoria, these interventions pose significant long-term dangers to children, potentially causing irreversible harm, with limited evidence of sustained mental health benefits. The rise in gender identity issues among minors may be fueled by social media influence, mental health challenges, and parental dynamics, raising concerns about premature medical decisions.

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CPW tracks four suspected wolf dens, ranchers brace for more uncertainty

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For wolves, the beginning of May signals the end of denning season. 

While Colorado Parks and Wildlife is tracking up to four pairs of wolves that could be denning, none have been confirmed, according to Eric Odell, the agency’s wolf conservation program manager.

“We are monitoring one to three to four pairs of animals that could be denning,” Odell said at the May 7 meeting for the agency’s commission. 

The agency is “sussing out” these potential dens using data from the GPS collars that the majority of Colorado’s wolves are wearing.

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“YIGBY” bill to let churches build housing on their land fails without Senate support

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The campaign known as “YIGBY” – “Yes in God’s Backyard” – to allow churches, school districts, colleges, and universities to build affordable housing on their land failed in the waning days of the Colorado legislative session. 

House Bill 1169 would have required local governments to allow residential development on land owned by those institutions.

The bill has sat in the state Senate, awaiting debate, since it cleared the Senate’s Local Government and Housing Committee on March 27.

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ICE, FBI, DEA take down fentanyl ring in Colorado tied to Honduran nationals

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DENVER (KDVR) — Five people were indicted by a Colorado grand jury on charges of possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.

The indictment for the case cites five incidents between June 24, 2024, and April 15, 2025, wherein officials alleged that the defendants had either 400 grams or 40 grams or more of fentanyl and were intending to sell it.

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“Burn it to the ground”: Rep. Keltie’s political metaphor for a Phoenix to rise from Capitol corruption

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As the legislative session comes down to its final days, one freshman Republican has harsh words for her Democratic colleagues. State Rep. Rebecca Keltie (R-Colorado Springs) in a Sunday evening interview on a libertarian podcast called her fellow legislators evil, soulless, and corrupt, before saying she thinks Colorado needs to be burned to the ground so Republicans can rise from the ashes.

“I’ve never seen a group of people that are so … for lack of a better term, evil. I feel it when I come in there. I pray as soon as I enter the building. As soon as I enter that room, I pray. While I’m in there, I’m praying. I’ve never prayed so much in my life. … I went in there with an open mind of respect,” said Keltie.

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Sturm: Wisdom gained after debating a Pronoun Policy as a theater company board member

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What would you do if the state called you an unfit parent — not for hurting your child, but for refusing to pretend your daughter is your son?

That’s the reality Colorado families could soon face under a bill advancing in the state legislature. And in Maryland, the Supreme Court is now weighing whether parents have any say at all over LGBTQ content taught in elementary school.

Policies once dismissed as fringe are ubiquitous. Silence shouldn’t become complicity.

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Walcher: The “sky is falling” water narrative doesn’t hold water

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Every year for the past 25, at least, negotiating teams for the seven states on the Colorado River have worked to overcome a new crisis, invariably driven by two entities: the State of California and the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR).

For a quarter-century, those teams have responded to federal pressure based on the dubious theory that an ongoing drought, and a resulting decline in the river’s flow, somehow changed the law and gave BOR authority to ignore the Interstate Compact.

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Boebert presses FBI, joins Trump and allies rallying to free ‘political prisoner’ Tina Peters

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A 69-year-old grandmother with no prior record is serving nearly a decade in prison. Now, Donald Trump and Lauren Boebert are calling her what they believe she is: a political prisoner.

Rep. Lauren Boebert is demanding federal action on behalf of Tina Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk sentenced to nine years in prison over her efforts to preserve election records following the 2020 election. In a March 21 letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Boebert called the case a “staggeringly harsh” example of political prosecution and urged the bureau to investigate potential violations of Peters’ civil rights.

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Backlash ignored: Senate approves HB25-1312 without parental rights protections

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Proponents hail the bill as a civil rights milestone for transgender youth. But Republicans say it strips parental rights, embeds compelled speech into law and threatens custody in future court cases. After weeks of public backlash, failed compromise efforts, and a marathon Senate floor debate, Colorado lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to HB25-1312 – a bill that critics say severs parents from decisions about their children’s identities in school.

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