Amendment 51: Funding for Developmental Disability Services

When Coloradans decide on the myriad issues appearing on this fall’s ballot, families of residents with developmental disabilities are hoping the idea of helping those who can’t help themselves trumps voters’ aversion to approving a tax increase.
Amendment 51 asks voters to increase state sales tax by two cents on every $10 purchase over two years in order to raise $186 million annually to fund services for Colorado’s developmentally disabled residents.

Lowry Range project partners with NREL, still has environmental questions to address

Lend Lease, a Denver-based chapter of the global Australian real estate company of the same name, this week announced it is partnering with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to incorporate environmentally friendly energy, water and waste features that will produce a “net zero” effect on the more than 4,000 acres of land it plans to develop in Colorado, according to the Denver Business Journal.

But Lend Lease has spent the last few years skirting answers about environmental concerns when it comes to its largest Colorado project.

A greenprint for the next administration?

The path to rebuilding the nation’s economy, including Colorado’s job market, is going green in a big way, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

A “Green Recovery” proposal from NRDC Sept. 9 details how a $100 billion program could use tax credits, loans and public-private partnerships to jumpstart environmentally friendly businesses that would create two million jobs – including 32,000 in Colorado – in the next two years.

Local Western government suffers more than other regions

The coffers of local Western municipalities have suffered more during the recent economic downturn than those of cities in the Midwest, South or Northeast, according to a Sept. 15 report by the Washington D.C.-based National League of Cities.

Plenty of dark horses running for president in Colorado

Coloradans will face a jam-packed ballot this fall, but even the seemingly simple choice of a presidential candidates will include 14 options, according to The Denver Post.

GLBT rights rally planned for Denver’s Civic Center Park

Members of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community and their straight supporters plan to gather in Denver’s Civic Center Park Sunday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in a show of solidarity for gay rights.

It’s the lipstick, stupid!

While the mainstream media subjects Americans to a sound bite loop about cosmetics on a variety of four-legged animals, you have to wonder if this election is really still largely about the country’s struggling economy.

S.S. CEO sails against national labor act, union backers say

In a satirical video mocking non-union shops’ http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/yournewjob hand-sanitizer-as-health-care plans, CEOs’ private yachts, and employee bonus packages of generic soda, advocates for The Employee Free Choice Act are trying to drive home the importance of unions in American workplaces.

Ikea sets up house in metro Denver

Ikea, the Swedish home furnishing chain, today plans to announce the opening of a new store in Centennial, according to the Denver Post.

The company’s functional and stylish furniture is popular among college students and young professionals looking to outfit their new abodes, but Ikea may win some additional fans in the metro area by attracting shoppers from all corners of the state, thus boasting sales tax revenue – a crucial component to filling Colorado cities’ coffers.

Schools asking for stop-gap funds, not improvements

Colorado voters will be asked to approve almost $2.5 billion in school bonds and mill levies this fall to shore up crumbling infrastructure, address safety issues posed by aging school buildings and cover the increasing costs of educating the state’s more than 800,000 students.