staging.rockymountainvoice.com

Menu

The Colorado Sun

Small town near Vail ends long legal battle with win over developer in $48M settlement
No Comments
Local, The Colorado Sun

Small town near Vail ends long legal battle with win over developer in $48M settlement

By Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun Minturn, a village of about 1,100 people along a defunct railroad near Vail, has bested a $25 billion real estate company, securing a transformative $48 million settlement that ends a long legal battle.  “I don’t think they ever thought that a small town like Minturn would be strong enough to stand up to them. But we did,” said Lynn Feiger, a Minturn councilwoman and nationally acclaimed lawyer who helped the former railroad town win the settlement from real estate giant Lubert Adler. “I always thought Minturn could win if we stayed the course.” It’s been a long course for Minturn, where a Florida golf resort developer named Bobby Ginn dreamed big on the slopes of Battle Mountain above the town. With visions of a private ski hill, golf cour...
Read More
13 candidates running for Colorado legislative seats this year don’t have a major-party opponent
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

13 candidates running for Colorado legislative seats this year don’t have a major-party opponent

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Thirteen candidates vying for state legislative seats this year are running without a major-party opponent, according to a Colorado Sun analysis of the 2024 ballot. There are 10 candidates — seven Democrats and three Republicans — running unopposed in state House districts, and three Democrats running opposed in state Senate districts. The Sun defines a candidate as running unopposed if they don’t have any general election opponent or if their only opponent is a third-party candidate, since it is exceedingly rare in Colorado for such candidates to mount a competitive state legislative campaign. The 13 races will determine the makeup of 13% of the legislature.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Colorado GOP leadership battle is scheduled to go to trial in October
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado GOP leadership battle is scheduled to go to trial in October

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun There may be an answer before Election Day as to who is the real chairman of the Colorado GOP.  A judge in El Paso County this week set a two-and-a-half day trial starting Oct. 14 in the lawsuit filed by Eli Bremer seeking to dislodge Dave Williams from the party’s top post and force him to relinquish the party’s resources. Both Bremer and Williams claim to currently be chairman of the Colorado GOP.  The date of the trial won’t leave much time for the outcome to have an effect on the Nov. 5 election. Ballots start being mailed to voters Oct. 11. Most television ad air time and mailers will have been planned and booked by then.  Still, the outcome of the legal drama will chart the future direction of the state Republican Party.  READ THE...
Read More
Does Denver have too many gas stations? City Council pushes new limits to save space for affordable housing.
No Comments
Local, The Colorado Sun

Does Denver have too many gas stations? City Council pushes new limits to save space for affordable housing.

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Paul Kashmann says he’s not trying to shut off the gas pumps in Denver altogether. In fact, the service-minded Denver City Council member is still driving a gas car himself, and he doesn’t like high prices or long drives to stations any more than the next person.  But he is part of a City Council movement that sees construction of new affordable housing as more important for Denver right now than an additional place to gas up and grab a bag of chips. Kashmann and some colleagues are bringing a proposed ordinance for a 2024 committee green-light that would build buffers between proposed new gas stations, mass transit stops and residential housing.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Colorado avoided big funding cuts for schools. But relief for districts could be short-lived.
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado avoided big funding cuts for schools. But relief for districts could be short-lived.

By Erica Breunlin | Colorado Sun Colorado lawmakers averted the potential for serious funding cuts for schools after passing a set of modest property tax cuts during the special legislative session in August. But the relief for school districts could be short-lived. A tight state budget forecast and competing funding priorities are stoking fears that Colorado elected leaders could drop their pledge to begin ramping up funding for schools next year. A new funding formula — signed into law in May after three decades of little change to the way Colorado distributes money to schools — was celebrated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers as a landmark accomplishment of the 2024 legislative session. The new approach added to momentum for school finance after Gov. Jared Polis and legislator...
Read More
Xcel drained its $94M energy efficiency budget after marijuana growers took notice — and wants $34M more
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Xcel drained its $94M energy efficiency budget after marijuana growers took notice — and wants $34M more

By Mark Jaffe | Colorado Sun “Unexpectedly high customer interest” led Xcel to pull the plug on a program helping businesses green their operations — for now. After shooting through most of its energy efficiency budget for this year, Xcel Energy has suspended all its programs for businesses and asked state regulators for an additional $34 million above the $93.6 million already agreed on. In a filing to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Xcel Energy’s Colorado subsidiary — Public Service Company of Colorado — said that there was “unexpectedly high customer interest and participation in the company’s electric energy efficiency offerings this year.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Can one guy run 15,500 businesses from out of state? Attorney general sues on fraudulent filings
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Can one guy run 15,500 businesses from out of state? Attorney general sues on fraudulent filings

By Tamara Chuang | Colorado Sun The number of new companies created in Colorado in the past two years may not have set all-time records after all, after officials discovered more than 15,500 fraudulent business filings last year by a man who used a stranger’s home address. The Colorado Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday filed a consent judgment in Denver District Court to settle allegations against defendant Marcio Garcia Andrade for violating the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. Andrade, who doesn’t live in Colorado, was accused of filing the new business formations between February 2022 and August 2023 that were linked to a Northglenn townhome address “without the knowledge or consent of the homeowner and resident,” according to the AG’s lawsuit. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE ...
Read More
‘We only work for the people’: Dems at capitol cry foul on ballot-measure leverage act
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

‘We only work for the people’: Dems at capitol cry foul on ballot-measure leverage act

By Jesse Paul and Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Want to get state lawmakers’ attention? All you need is a few million dollars and an idea big enough to shake up Colorado’s policy landscape.  The special legislative session on property taxes that ended Thursday was the product of two wealthy groups that shelled out large sums to collect enough voter signatures to get a pair of measures on the statewide ballot. Initiative 108 would have cut property taxes by an estimated $2.4 billion starting in the 2025 tax year, while Initiative 50 would have amended the state constitution to impose a 4% cap on future property tax revenue. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Grasshopper infestation in Colorado is among worst in recent history. What are people doing about it?
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Grasshopper infestation in Colorado is among worst in recent history. What are people doing about it?

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun It was as if Doug Bay’s wish had come true, the day the doves landed. Bay, who grows alfalfa and a bit of corn and sorghum in Otero County, had been eyeing the 3 acres of fresh green shoots for days, worrying they were about to be destroyed by the swarms of crop-munching grasshoppers that were bouncing all over his farm.  He was holding out hope that he wouldn’t have to spray pesticide to save his alfalfa crop from the destructive insects, which are vexing farmers and gardeners from Denver to the plains this summer. Bay almost called the local crop duster, but he put it off. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Colorado short-term rental owners, advocates rally against “heavy-handed regulation” from lawmakers
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado short-term rental owners, advocates rally against “heavy-handed regulation” from lawmakers

By Jason Blevins | Colorado Sun After several years of work to combat state legislation that would increase regulations and taxation on short-term rentals, owners are actively lobbying policymakers. Colorado is the birthplace of short-term rentals. And the state is ground-zero for local regulation of the booming industry. After several years of reactive, defensive responses to increased regulation and taxation legislation, the state’s short-term rental owners and managers are organizing with an educational campaign and lawmaker lobbying plans. Colorado House Speaker Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Democrat from Dillon, earlier this month warned that short-term rental legislation “is highly likely” in either the special session or next year’s session.  READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO SU...
Read More