Colorado lawmakers introduce bill to expand protections for undocumented immigrants
Colorado lawmakers introduced legislation Friday to expand protections for undocumented immigrants in the state, including by further limiting where federal immigration authorities can operate and how information can be shared with those authorities.
Senate Bill 276‘s Democratic sponsors have been drafting the measure for weeks, and its introduction has been delayed amid negotiations with a leery Gov. Jared Polis.
The measure also lands almost exactly two months after federal raids were launched across metro Denver and amid broader scrutiny of the Trump administration’s immigrant crackdown, which has included the deportation of people — including a soccer player, a makeup artist and at least one person from Colorado — to a prison in El Salvador.
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Lawmakers pass limit on liquor sales at Colorado grocery stores — as industry presses Gov. Polis to veto it
Colorado lawmakers have overwhelmingly passed a bill that would stop any more grocery stores from selling hard liquor in the state. But the fight over the measure may not be over.
The House and Senate, with bipartisan majorities, have both approved Senate Bill 33, and it was sent to Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday. A group backing grocery stores and retailers that would lose out on the licenses has called on Polis to veto the measure over concerns about competition — and didn’t rule out pursuing a new ballot measure if he doesn’t halt the bill.
The bill is the latest turn in the state’s fights over liquor laws. If it becomes law, it would prohibit the state from issuing any more liquor-licensed drugstore licenses. That type of liquor license typically is held by large grocery stores that have pharmacies on their premises.
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Gov. Polis, lawmakers consider plan to accelerate Colorado’s clean energy transition
Colorado lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis’ office are weighing legislation that would require 100% of the state’s energy to come from clean sources by 2040 — 10 years earlier than the current target.
The proposal is still being drafted and has not yet been introduced in the state House; its details were described to The Denver Post by supporters and opponents Thursday. Broadly, the plan would speed up the state’s timeline to shift to renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, and away from traditional, greenhouse gas-emitting power plants that contribute to climate change. Current state planning calls for hitting 100% clean energy by 2050.
Supporters cautioned that the legislation may not be introduced this year, given that the legislative session has roughly five weeks left and a number of significant bills still to debate. But the proposal is backed by Democratic legislators and environmental groups as a way to ratchet up Colorado’s clean energy offerings, particularly in the face of President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash environmental regulations and instill a “drill, baby, drill” mantra.
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Colorado gas stations would have to post climate change warnings under bill passed by House
Gas stations across Colorado would have to post a sticker warning drivers that their fuel use contributes to climate change under legislation that narrowly passed the state House on Wednesday.
House Bill 1277 squeaked out of the chamber with 33 votes, the minimum needed to clear the chamber; 30 representatives voted no, with some Democrats joining Republicans. The measure will now advance to the state Senate.
If passed, it would essentially establish a prominent warning requirement similar to the labels affixed to cigarette packages for decades. By July 1, 2026, gas stations and other fuel retailers would have to display a sticker that states: “Warning: Use of this product releases air pollutants and greenhouse gases, known by the state of Colorado to be linked to significant health impacts and global heating.”
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Colorado bill adding protections for transgender people — including against “deadnaming” — passes first hurdle
Transgender Coloradans — particularly children and supportive parents — would gain increased legal protections against discrimination under new legislation that cleared its first hurdle in the state House early Wednesday morning.
The party-line vote to advance House Bill 1312 came after 10 hours of dueling testimony from backers who decried anti-transgender discrimination and opponents who invoked parents’ rights and other objections.
The bill is formally named the Kelly Loving Act for a transgender woman killed in the 2022 Club Q nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs. Under the proposal, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which includes gender identity as a protected class, would add intentionally misgendering transgender people or referring to them by their “deadname” — meaning the name they used before they transitioned — to the discriminatory acts covered by the law in public accommodations.
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Colorado Democrats call for “a reckoning” on TABOR and taxes, as GOP vows to “fight very hard”
A plan unveiled by a group of Colorado lawmakers aims to fundamentally change state tax policy and eliminate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
The strategy, announced Monday afternoon by Democratic legislators, includes reclassifying chunks of Colorado highway funding so it doesn’t fall under the TABOR spending cap, which would free up money for other things. They also hope to end Colorado’s flat income tax and replace it with a system in which higher-income taxpayers pay higher rates than low-income filers.
And lawmakers introduced a resolution this week that seeks to launch a lawsuit challenging the legality of TABOR, which was passed by Colorado voters in 1992, under the U.S. Constitution.
“The state is coming to a reckoning on whether we can sustain ourselves,” said Sean Camacho, a Denver Democrat. “And all of these measures are critical to figuring that out.”
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Gov. Polis signs bill to let CU, CSU and other colleges pay athletes directly — but with “concerns”
Student-athletes at Colorado colleges can now be paid directly by their schools under a bill signed by Gov. Jared Polis, though the law did not come without some heartburn about public transparency.
Polis signed House Bill 1041 into law Friday to bring Colorado in line with recent court rulings that allow schools to pay their student-athletes directly. But the law also carves out the athletes’ contracts as exempt from the state open records law.
In a signing statement, Polis said he supported the bill’s aims and keeping Colorado collegiate athletics competitive — but he had “concerns” about the exception.
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Colorado House member faced investigation over ignored harassment complaint, aide mistreatment
A Colorado Springs lawmaker has been repeatedly accused of retaliating against and mistreating her legislative aides, including documented allegations that she ignored an aide’s complaint of sexual harassment by a relative of the lawmaker last year, The Denver Post has confirmed.
At the direction of a bipartisan legislative committee, Rep. Regina English was quietly investigated by a third party last year after a former aide accused English, a Democrat, of ignoring the harassment and of pushing her in a Capitol bathroom during an argument on the last day of the session in May. The Post spoke with four people interviewed by investigators; reviewed a copy of the aide’s formal complaint and a January letter House Speaker Julie McCluskie sent to the aide about the investigation; and obtained documents in which two other former aides accused English of mistreatment.
English, who denies the allegations, is at least the second state legislator to be investigated for allegedly mistreating aides in the past year. In February, Sonya Jaquez Lewis resigned her Senate seat amid a legislative investigation into her alleged conduct toward her staff, which was initially reported by The Post a year ago.
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