alec garnett
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With new state House and Senate maps, let the games begin
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The wait is over. And the scramble has begun. Now that the Colorado Supreme Court has approved new state House and Senate maps, candidates are crafting designs to run for more competitive seats that also appear to shrink the influence of rural communities at the state Capitol. The new maps will reshape Colorado’s political landscape, and,…
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AG Weiser to Colorado law enforcement: Follow the law on red-flag gun bill
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, one day before a state Senate committee is expected to hear the controversial red-flag bill, issued a plea of sorts to sheriffs and other law enforcement officials who oppose the gun measure if it is approved by the General Assembly and the governor. The bill would allow a court to…
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Colorado lawmakers put off bill on safe drug injection sites
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A Colorado bill to allow safe injection sites for drug users isn’t likely in the 2019 session, House and Senate Democrats said on Tuesday. The proposal has been floating around the state Capitol since 2017, when an interim committee approved a measure for a pilot program that would set up a supervised injection site in…
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Polis sets up health-costs office; talks Denver teacher strike
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Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed his second executive order, starting down the path of fulfilling a pledge on health care made in his Jan. 10 State of the State address. The new Office of Saving People Money on Health Care will be headed by Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, a former lawmaker, cancer survivor and…
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Sports betting will be no home run for state budgets
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The race to legalize sports betting is on now that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed it in all 50 states, but will it provide enough extra tax revenue to make much of a difference for schools, roads or pension debt? Don’t bet on it. Just look to the states that capitalized immediately after the…
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SLOAN | Time has come for child-care savings accounts in Colorado
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The cry goes up, as it does periodically, for the government to do something about the issue of child care expenses. More mothers are, of course, in the work force now than at any other time, and fewer households than ever claim a stay-at-home parent; so the problem is certainly acute, though the question is…
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ProgressNow picks winners and losers from the left’s view
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ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s best-known liberal advocacy group, has picked its winners and losers from the four-month legislative session that ended last week. And if you know ProgressNow’s partisan pugilistic tendencies, then it comes as no surprise that Democrats and their agenda looked good, but Republicans got a sock in the election-year kisser. But not entirely.…
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Sports betting in Colo.? It could be a long ways off (9News video)
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Even though the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out federal laws blocking sports betting in most states, don’t expect to be placing bets on the Denver Broncos or another favorite sports team anytime soon in Colorado. That’s because gambling and gaming in Colorado are tightly controlled by a 1992 state constitutional amendment, and any…
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2018 Colo. legislature: Winners and losers from the session
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Winners House Assistant Majority Leader Alec Garnett of Denver and Assistant Minority Leader Cole Wist of Centennial: For the second year in a row, these two lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle took on some of the toughest issues in the session. This year, that included the year’s most controversial bill – the “red flag”…
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With big changes in Colo. beer sales ahead, lawmakers scramble on rules
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Come Jan. 1, you should be able to walk into most Colorado grocery and convenience stores to buy full-strength beer, the result of a measure adopted by the General Assembly in 2016. But that measure failed to include rules for implementation. A bill currently working its way through the legislature in this session’s final days…
