Requests for help to a Colorado fund that pays for abortions and associated travel expenses have climbed to an estimated $2.5 million this year, up from $212,000 before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion.  The Cobalt Abortion Fund has already spent more than twice as much in the first three months of this year than it did in the entirety of 2021, the year before the landmark ruling that allowed states to decide abortion laws.  About 60% of the people that received help paying for abortions so far this year were not from Colorado, according to dat ..read more

The Colorado legislature debated more than 700 bills in the lawmaking term that ended Wednesday.  The Colorado Sun pored through the measures to highlight the ones that passed — and some that failed — that you need to know about. Gov. Jared Polis has a June 7 deadline to sign or veto bills, or let them become law without his signature. Topics: Housing | Guns | Transportation | Taxes | Health care | Criminal justice | Environment | Business | Education | Other bills that passed | Notable bills that failed Housing A sprawling neighborhood in Colorado Springs in 2022. (Thomas Peipert, AP ..read more

A Denver nonprofit building a four-story youth homeless shelter will have to dip into its furniture, equipment and staffing budget after losing a wage dispute that added an estimated $2 million in costs ahead of its projected July opening.  Urban Peak paid its construction crews for the $40 million building at residential rates instead of business rates, an issue flagged by Denver Labor as potential wage theft. The nonprofit appealed the decision to a hearing officer appointed by the city auditor, who sided with Denver Labor.   The determination that Urban Peak’s 136-bed shelte ..read more

Making changes to Colorado’s land-use policies to increase residential density and promote transit was a chief focus for Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats in the legislature this year as they look to drive down the cost of housing.  They were able to pass many of their priorities in 2024 — albeit in bite-size pieces and after stripping out provisions in exchange for political support to get them across the finish line. That’s an improvement over last year, when the governor’s sweeping land-use measure failed in the final hours of the 2023 lawmaking term. Some of the new bills focus on metr ..read more

Colorado lawmakers Wednesday evening sent Gov. Jared Polis a last-minute, bipartisan property tax relief bill as the state’s 2024 legislative session came to a close.  Senate Bill 233, introduced Monday after months of negotiations, was one of the final bills passed before the General Assembly gaveled out for the year. The legislature hopes the bill will persuade voters not to back property tax measures on the November ballot that would ravage state and local government budgets. The measure, which would likely save the average homeowner several hundred dollars annually, calls for holdin ..read more

A complex bargain between trial lawyers, business interests and the insurance industry will raise award caps in Colorado personal injury and medical malpractice cases to as high as $2.1 million, in exchange for lawyers giving up a ballot effort to eliminate the caps altogether.  Colorado’s decades-old strict caps on noneconomic damages and wrongful death cases have frustrated trial attorneys and the families they represent. The lawyers say the current $300,000 cap on medical malpractice injuries, for example, strongly discourages families from bringing legitimate cases when lawyers are ..read more

Lauren Smiley cut back on big-name concerts after bots gobbled up her presale tickets to both Brandi Carlile and Caamp. Jonathan Kahn stopped building out his Red Rocks season ahead of time because AXS, the primary ticket seller for Red Rocks, changed their resale platform, making it harder for him to recoup costs if he couldn’t attend a concert. Johnny Joy, a former concert promoter, has all but ditched Denver concerts for his own home venue, outfitted with four screens and two surround sound systems. Whether it’s getting elbowed out by bots, surfing scammy websites or getting slapped with ..read more

A Colorado bill that would have banned the purchase, sale and transfer of a broad swath of semiautomatic firearms, defined in the measure as assault weapons, will be shelved at the request of one of its main sponsors. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat and one of the lead sponsors of House Bill 1292, announced Monday that she would ask for the measure to be killed Tuesday in the Senate State, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. “After thoughtful conversations with my Senate colleagues, I decided that more conversations need to take place outside of the pressure cooker of the Capitol ..read more

Colorado’s property tax code would be reimagined — with long-term rate cuts for homeowners and businesses and a local revenue cap — under a fiercely negotiated, last-minute bipartisan bill introduced in the legislature Monday that aims to provide tax relief while protecting funding for K-12 schools.  The measure, Senate Bill 233, comes with just three days left in Colorado’s 2024 legislative session — the minimum amount of time needed to pass a bill. And it was the product of negotiations with Colorado Concern, a nonprofit representing CEOs in the state that was working on a plan t ..read more

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone whisper in your ear the right words to say at the exact moment you need them?  That’s the business of Kelly Kinnebrew, a psychologist in Boulder. She’s a conversation coach who helps executives find the right words under pressure. She helps leaders build trust with their audience, remember to listen and, when needed, wrap it up. But Kinnebrew doesn’t always listen in anymore. She uses artificial intelligence technology to generate texts that pop up as the conversation progresses. “I’d tried a low-tech solution and it worked really well using an earpiec ..read more