Fractivist settles lawsuit with Colorado town over Facebook posts
LAFAYETTE – A northern Colorado town has settled a lawsuit filed by an anti-fracking activist who says a former mayor violated his First Amendment rights by removing social media comments.
The Longmont Times-Call reports that officials in Lafayette reached an agreement to pay Cliff Willmeng about $5,000 in response to a suit filed in January against Christine Berg for removing his posts and blocking him from her official mayoral page on Facebook.
In March 2017 Willimeng posted comments on the page in support of a fracking ban in Lafayette.
Willmeng’s attorney says the offer amounts to an admission that Berg violated his First Amendment rights.
The city’s attorney says the agreement is a compromise intended to spare taxpayers the cost of a long legal case and not an admission of guilt.
The delicate, ever-changing dance between politics and religion | SONDERMANN
Eric Sondermann for Colorado Politics
eric_sondermann_for_colorado_politics@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 2 days ago
The dance, really a marathon that brings to mind the classic movie “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”, has been going on as long as there have been governments and organized religion. That is to say that this delicate tango has...
Roasts, get yer roasts, here: Capitol M | Week of March 14, 2026
Marianne Goodland
marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 3 days ago
The lighter side of the Capitol, especially in the past week Apparently, the pending and eventual switch to daylight stupid time has put people in some pretty funny moods. And thank goodness! On March 4, the Senate approved the appointments...
Polly Baca elected to DNC | A LOOK BACK
Rachael Wright, Special to Colorado Politics
rachael.wright@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 3 days ago
Forty-Five Years Ago This Week: After her loss to Republican U.S. Rep. Hank Brown the previous year in the race for the 4th Congressional District, state. Sen Polly Baca-Barragan, D-Thortnon, was elected as one of the three vice-chairs of the...
Colorado Politics Calendar Mar. 16-22
Rachael Wright, Special to Colorado Politics
rachael.wright@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 3 days ago
CoPo’s weekly political calendar will help you find political and public-policy events throughout Colorado. It includes candidate and issue campaign events, public policy meetings, court hearings, state and local party conventions, assemblies, debates, rallies, parades, speaking engagements, traveling dignitary appearances,...
Boebert challenger Eileen Laubacher joins lawsuit aimed at blocking her from Democratic assembly
Ernest Luning
ernest.luning@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 9 hours ago
A Denver District Court judge on Thursday permitted Democratic congressional candidate Eileen Laubacher to join a lawsuit filed by one of her primary opponents seeking to prevent Laubacher from participating in the party’s assembly process in a bid to qualify...
House Ethics Committee to begin hearing on Weinberg complaint
Marianne Goodland
marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 15 hours ago
The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday will begin a hearing requested by Rep. Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland, tied to an ethics complaint filed against him by Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Roxborough Park. The ethics committee had found probable cause on two issues...
Iran war enters next phase of destroying entire missile supply chain: Hegseth
Brady Knox, Washington Examiner
brady.knox.washington.examiner@gazetteedit.wpenginepowered.com
Updated 16 hours ago
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the war with Iran was entering a new phase, as the United States was focusing on destroying Tehran’s defense industrial base. At a Friday Pentagon briefing, Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint...
Jeffco Public Schools found in violation of Title IX
Sage Kelley
sage.kelley@denvergazette.com
Updated 11 hours ago
Civil rights office: Male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that the Jeffco Public Schools district violated Title IX by permitting male students to access female bathrooms and compete in...
Colorado plans to slash interim committee work amid budget woes
Marianne Goodland
marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 8 hours ago
In a tight-budget year, the work of interim committees — those off-session groups that look at transportation, agriculture, water, healthcare, wildfires, pensions, and anything else lawmakers want to look at — is on the chopping block. And this year, no...
Xcel Energy: Power shutoff ‘likely’ Saturday in Boulder, Jefferson counties
Dan Boniface
dan.boniface@denvergazette.com
Updated 12 hours ago
Up to 43,000 residents in parts of Boulder and Jefferson counties should be prepared to have their power shut off Saturday afternoon, Xcel Energy said. The power company said it was “planning for a likely Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS)...
PREV
PREVIOUS
Colorado lawmakers start on contentious oil, gas overhaul
Colorado’s Democratic-controlled Legislature is scheduled to take the first step Tuesday toward a major overhaul of state oil and gas regulations, despite objections from Republicans and industry representatives who say the changes are being rushed through. The Senate Transportation and Energy Committee plans to hold the first hearing on a bill that would dramatically shift […]
Colorado Senate committee approves sweeping oil and gas bill
A Colorado Senate committee approved a bill Tuesday that would would tighten oil and gas regulations, prioritize health and safety over business development, and give local governments control of industry permits. Controversy and nearly 12 hours of debate stemmed from Senate Bill 181, which Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, presented to the Committee on […]