john kefalas
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Colorado Open Records Act digital update bounds over last legislative hurdles
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The Colorado Open Records Act this year will receive a long-overdue digital-era update after Senate Bill 40 on Wednesday ended its switchback journey over the entire course of the 120-day legislative session Wednesday, finishing in the Senate with an against-all-odds unanimous vote of support. “No one would have guessed it would receive all 35 votes…
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State Senate declares May motorcycle safety month with personal, cautionary two-wheel tales
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State Sen. John Kafalas, the diminutive Democrat from Fort Collins, drew a word-picture of himself climbing onto a Harley Davidson. “I know it’s hard t believe, but I’ve ridden Harleys, and as long as they’re low riders, I can touch the ground and hold the bike up,” he said, drawing howls from the chamber. “Back…
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Electronic records bill gets Colorado House hearing
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A bill to modernize Colorado’s Open Records Act gets its first hearing in the Democrat-led House Monday, with Democrats pushing for a measure that presumes the public is entitled to access government records in ways that can be analyzed by computer. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Dan Pabon and Sen. John Kefalas, would require government…
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New Era Colorado backs proposal to lower minimum age for state lawmakers from 25 to 21
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New Era Colorado, an organization devoted to boosting political participation by young people, is endorsing a proposal to lower the minimum age requirement to serve in the General Assembly from 25 to 21, its executive director told The Colorado Statesman. “New Era believes that young people deserve a seat at the table — and that…
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Lawmakers propose asking voters to lower minimum age for Colorado legislators from 25 to 21
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A bipartisan group of legislators wants to ask voters whether to lower the minimum age to serve in Colorado’s General Assembly from 25 to 21. A decade after voters shot down an identical proposal at the polls, lawmakers are back with legislation to refer a constitutional amendment to the 2018 ballot, and they say the arguments…
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Kefalas on open records bill: An ‘interesting journey’
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Opening the hood of Colorado’s Open Records Act to change out even a few parts is a massive undertaking – too many of the components in this aging machine are moving. Aiming to make some long-overdue digital-era updates to CORA, state Sen. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, started that process months ago and has been wrestling…
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Colorado’s closely watched digital database open records bill advances
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A long-coming update to the Colorado Open Records Act that aims to make government digital datasets more readily accessible to and manageable for the public advanced with bipartisan support in the State Senate Tuesday night. Senate Bill 40, sponsored by Fort Collins Democrat John Kefalas, is the latest version of a proposal that has been…
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Drama-laden open records bill survives another hearing
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A bill aimed at modernizing Colorado’s Open Records Act has survived its first Senate hearing – but with an amendment that could mean trouble down the road. The GOP-led Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 4-1 Wednesday to send Senate Bill 40 by Democratic Sen. John Kefalas to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill would, in…
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Kefalas confident privacy issues can be resolved in bill to modernize public records access
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State Sen. John Kefalas says he hopes that an amendment he plans to introduce in committee Wednesday will take care of the bulk of the privacy concerns raised over legislation he’s sponsoring that would require government agencies to produce public records in searchable digital formats. “I happen to be a person of faith,” the Fort…