The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Provisional applause
Now that the federal government has approved a Colorado reinsurance program, Western Slope residents who purchase insurance on the state health care exchange will get sizable relief from some of the highest premiums in the country.
That’s a considerable achievement. The Colorado Division of Insurance is projecting a 30% drop, or about $9,000 a year, for families on the Western Slope beginning in January. In Mesa County, the figure is slightly lower, about $7,600.
Again, these are savings for people who aren’t on a government-sponsored insurance program or enrolled in employer-based coverage. But the individual market largely determines how many uninsured people there are in the state, which can amplify or mitigate the pernicious effect of “cost-shift.”
Founding documents reconnect us to our shared American roots – and rebelliousness | Vince Bzdek
Vince Bzdek
vince.bzdek@gazette.com
Updated 5 hours ago
When you first lay eyes on the actual founding documents of our country that, for the first time in history, have traveled together from their gilded cages in Washington to visit us out here in the hinterlands, you’re struck not...
Would you hire Jena Griswold to handle your case? | SONDERMANN
By Eric Sondermann
by-eric-sondermann@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 4 days ago
If you were in a child custody dispute with a former spouse, would you hire an attorney with experience in family law or would you trust your case to an operative with virtually zero mastery? If you were getting ready...
Trends to track as Colorado’s in precarious position pre-gubernatorial primaries | Paula Noonan
Paula Noonan
paula-noonan@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 3 days ago
As they say on Colorado Public Radio’s Marketplace, let’s do the numbers. April 2026 voter registrations continued a long-term Colorado trend with a large majority of new or changed voter registrations joining the unaffiliated cohort. Total registrations of Democrats, Republicans...
High-potency hemp products are hurting Colorado kids | GUEST COLUMN
Colorado Politics
colorado-politics@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 2 days ago
By Heidi Lawrence Six years ago, my daughter, by most metrics, was a typical overachieving teenager. She was a straight-A, pre-professional ballet dancer. She loved school and art, had lots of friends, and above all else, she was kind, funny...
Michael Fields reviews Colorado’s 2026 legislative session | The OpEdge Podcast
Tony Olivero
tony.olivero@gazette.com
Updated 3 days ago
Michael Fields, executive director of Advance Colorado, joins OpEdge host and investigative columnist Jimmy Sengenberger to assess the good, the bad and the ugly of the Colorado General Assembly’s 2026 legislative session. Reflecting on the 120 bills passed in 120...
From secret huddles to Zebulon — the high cost of the Dougco BOCC’s shady governance | PODIUM
Colorado Politics
colorado-politics@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 4 days ago
By Bob Marshall, Lora Thomas and Julie Gooden In Douglas County, a new and dangerous standard of governance has taken root: if the public doesn’t like your plan, simply stop letting the public in the room. During the last year,...
Election must be decided on issues of combating public corruption, restoring integrity in government | FEEDBACK
Colorado Politics
colorado-politics@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 3 days ago
There has been considerable press and outrage regarding Gov. Jared Polis’ commutation of former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters’s remaining prison sentence. The outrage is reinforced by President Donald J. Trump’s creation of a $1.776 billion compensation fund...
Is the ‘penumbra of privacy’ going, going, gone in Colorado? | Hal Bidlack
Hal Bidlack
hal-bidlack@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 5 days ago
Once again, there are too many things in Colorado Politics that are newsworthy and should be written about. Unless my kindly editor will allow me to write a book-length column this week? (Ed: not so much…) First up, I’d like...
Quiet at the state Capitol doesn’t mean silence on energy policy | GUEST COLUMN
Colorado Politics
colorado-politics@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 5 days ago
By Carly West By many accounts, Colorado’s 2026 legislative session was unusually quiet on oil-and-natural-gas policy. There was no sweeping new oil-and-natural-gas package. No major new production restrictions. After years of contentious energy debates dominating the Capitol, the relative quiet...
The history, and future, of extinction in Colorado | GUEST COLUMN
Colorado Politics
colorado-politics@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 5 days ago
By Eric Washburn When I was a kid growing up in Aurora in the late 1960s and early 1970s, one of my favorite things to do was to go to the Denver Museum of Natural History and spend countless hours...
PREV
PREVIOUS
The Pueblo Chieftain: A prize that surprised
Forgive us if this sounds a little bit like sour grapes, but maybe losing out on a chance to get the federal Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters wasn’t such a big deal after all. For months, there had been discussions within the federal government about moving the BLM headquarters out of Washington, D.C., to a […]
OPINION | Plummeting number of permits belies Polis' own promises on drilling
Peter Moore Just over three months ago, a coalition of state business leaders wrote to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) about the implementation of a major new oil and natural gas law: Senate Bill 181. Our letter carried a simple message: Back up your words with action and you will have the […]