liquor

Selling alcohol to drunk driver not enough to hold liquor store liable for deaths, court says

Mar 17, 2023

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Michael Karlik

Businesses are not liable for injuries caused by a drunk driver if they sold alcohol to the already-intoxicated motorist, but the person did not consume it before causing an accident, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last month. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals answered a question never addressed before: Whether the state’s Dram Shop…
Colorado’s much-unloved 3.2 beer still the default brew despite 2016 legislation

May 24, 2017

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DAN NJEGOMIR Colorado Politics

Colorado’s General Assembly might as well have set out to revise the U.S. tax code – and then seek a lasting Mideast peace – and it still wouldn’t have been as complicated as trying to untie the Gordian Knot constricting retail liquor sales in the state. Compromise legislation passed by the legislature over a year ago was supposed to usher in historic regime…
Liquor store expansion effort draws dramatic wrangling from all sides

May 3, 2017

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Peter Marcus

The continuing saga over expanding liquor sales in Colorado took more bizarre twists and turns Wednesday as lawmakers narrowly advanced legislation. The House Finance Committee advanced a measure on a 7-6 vote that would build on last year’s historic overhaul of liquor laws that allowed for the gradual sale of full-strength alcohol in grocery stores…
Insights: Dear Colorado liquor lobby: You’re drunk – go home!

Mar 10, 2017

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Peter Marcus

There are way better drinking games than debating prohibition-era liquor laws. Yet for some reason most of the lobbyists and lawmakers working on a booze “cleanup” bill have opted for legislative war instead of beer pong. The discussion over the last few weeks has resembled a nonsensical drunk stumbling home from the bar, muttering, “No,…
Failure of alcohol ‘cleanup’ bill opens up the possibility of a ballot drive

Mar 6, 2017

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Peter Marcus

In killing a grocery store alcohol sales “cleanup” bill on Monday, some in the Capitol argue the Senate dismantled a “historic” compromise reached last year and renewed talks of a ballot drive. On an 18-17 vote that split the parties, the Senate killed a bill to extend liquor licenses to stores such as Walmart and Target that…
Colorado alcohol debate still bubbling despite new law

Mar 1, 2017

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Kristen Wyatt

Colorado isn’t done arguing about where alcohol should be sold. A bill moving through the state Senate would allow more Walmarts and other big-box stores to sell liquor, not just beer and wine. It’s a spirited debate less than a year after Colorado made its biggest alcohol change since the end of Prohibition by allowing…
Building off of buzz from last year, efforts underway to expand Colorado alcohol laws

Feb 14, 2017

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Peter Marcus

Less than a year after lawmakers passed a grand compromise gradually allowing the sale of full-strength alcohol in grocery stores, a buzz has again hit the Capitol to expand efforts. The legislation last year represented the biggest change to state liquor laws since Prohibition. It marked progress after decades of failures trying to reform outdated…
The great alcohol war compromise of 2016 passes Legislature, but is it enough?

May 12, 2016

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Jared Wright

After its last-minute passage on the final day of Colorado’s legislative session, a compromise plan to put full-strength beer in Colorado grocery stores and drugstores by 2037 is on its way to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk. The complicated bill, Senate Bill 197, sponsored by Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, and Reps. Dan Nordberg, R-Colorado Springs, and Angela Williams,…