All Entries in the "State" Category
Colorado unemployment rises to 4.4%, but state of job market murky due to data issues
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t release job numbers for Colorado in March as dramatic revisions have sparked concerns over state data accuracy. Colorado’s unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in December, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, up from 4.3% the month before. The state’s unemployment rate is more than a […]
Attorney General Weiser to award grants to schools to test cell phone policies, supports state bill
Jan. 29, 2025 (DENVER) – Attorney General Phil Weiser today announced grant awards to seven local education providers to develop and test innovative smartphone policies that support student learning and well-being. The initiative builds on the Attorney General’s commitment to reducing classroom distractions and improving youth mental health. Weiser made the announcement at a press […]
Fewer teachers want to leave Colorado schools. But low pay, lack of safety remain issues.
About half of respondents to a Colorado Education Association survey said they are considering no longer teaching. Figuring out how to keep them is the state’s “most vital question,” CEA president said. Fewer Colorado teachers are considering leaving the profession than in recent years, according to a report released Monday morning by the Colorado Education […]
Colorado Parks and Wildlife sponsors 2025 International Sportsmen’s Expo
DENVER – Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is sponsoring and hosting educational booths at this year’s annual International Sportsmen’s Exposition at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver on Jan. 9-12, 2025. A digital coupon for a $3 discount off one adult ticket is available on the CPW website. The International Sportsmen’s Expo is […]
Colorado General Assembly looking to cut funding for wolf reintroduction program to cover shortfall for new budget
The hunt for coins in the couch cushions — the Colorado General Assembly’s budget crafters are scrambling to find hundreds of millions of dollars to cover a shortfall projected for the 2025-26 budget and are eyeing wolf funding as a potential area to cut — is getting pushback from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. And the agency has […]
New Colorado laws for 2025
You still might be getting used to the new laws that went into effect in 2024: the end of the U+2 residential occupancy rule, lane filtering for motorcycles, or the polystyrene and Styrofoam food container ban. Just around the corner, 2025 will bring more changes approved by the Colorado General Assembly. All eggs sold in Colorado must be cage-free […]
Colorado marijuana sales — and tax dollars — are still falling. The rise of intoxicating hemp may be to blame.
Industrialhemp grows on a farm south of Montrose. ( William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun Marijuana sales peaked in Colorado in the 2020-21 budget year, when the state collected $424 million in taxes. That fell to $248 million last year. Forget the pandemic boom in marijuana sales — Colorado now collects fewer marijuana […]
Colorado owes taxpayers a total of 1.7 billion in TABOR refunds
The Colorado state government owes taxpayers a total of $1.7 billion in refunds mandated under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The state collected roughly $1.4 billion more in revenue during the 2024 Fiscal Year than allowed under TABOR, according to a state audit. The state already has roughly $290 million in outstanding TABOR refund liability […]
USDA Crop Production November 1, 20224
CROP PRODUCTION – NOVEMBER 1, 2024 COLORADO HIGHLIGHTS On November 1 conditions, corn production in Colorado is forecast at 138.65 million bushels, according to the November 1 Agricultural Yield Survey conducted by the Mountain Regional Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA. This forecast is down 6 percent from the October 1 forecast […]
Coloradans get TABOR refunds in 2025 though amount is lower than 2024’s
Coloradans are getting a present again in the New Year: TABOR refunds worth $1.7 billion. The money is from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights program, which remits excess dollars paid in state revenue to eligible Colorado residents. This year’s TABOR refund is significantly lower than the prior year’s, which was $3.28 billion. However, Centennial State residents can […]
Managing water and irrigation in Colorado a complicated problem
You’ve heard the news: Farmers and ranchers use roughly 80% of the water in Colorado and much of the American West. So doesn’t it make sense that if growers and producers could just cut a bit of that, say 10%, we could wipe out all our water shortages? We probably couldn’t water our lawns with […]
Colorado Employment Situation for September 2024
Household survey data According to the survey of households, the number of unemployed individuals grew by 2,300 to 130,800 from August to September. However, due to rounding, Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged over the same time period at 4.0 percent. The national unemployment rate decreased one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.1 percent from August to September. […]
Colorado leaders announced a new tool Tuesday that will allow people in need of care from a hospital to search and compare prices across hospitals and insurance plans.
The Colorado Hospital Price Finder is a free online tool created by PatientRightsAdvocate.org, a national nonprofit that advocates health care price transparency, where Coloradans can search for procedure pricing by hospital, city or ZIP code. It uses data generated by a 2022 Colorado law that requires hospitals to disclose procedure pricing and prohibits them from pursuing debt collection if the […]
Colorado Parks and Wildlife honors K-9 officers with a retirement ceremony, a swearing-in ceremony and announcement of a new K-9 program
K-9 Officer Sci and his handler, Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Manager Phil Gurule, were presented with a plaque honoring Sci’s retirement at Cheyenne Mountain State Park on Friday, Oct. 18. Photos by CPW Photographer Wayne Lewis. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — As a formal Colorado Parks and Wildlife honor guard stood at attention, […]
New Laws to Support Rural Health Care, Increase Availability of Telehealth Services recently went into effect
SB24-055, sponsored by Senator Janice Marchman, D-Loveland, and Representative Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, improves access to behavioral health care in rural Colorado by creating a new Agricultural and Rural Community Behavioral Health program that will work to better connect farmers, ranchers, and their families to behavioral health care. The program will partner with the […]
