Ferrandino weighs taking on payday loan industry in Colorado

The payday loan industry gouges Coloradans like it does Americans across the country, targeting mostly low-income single women, including military spouses. Denver Democratic state Rep. Mark Ferrandino tried and failed to introduce legislation in 2008 that would have curbed the worst of the abuses, where desperate borrowers take loans at hundreds of percent interest and enter a debt cycle they rarely are able to exit. Ferrandino may try it again this year.

Sen. Kopp relishes FASTER’s slow start in funding crumbling bridge repair

In an e-Alert Thursday from coloradosenatenews.com — a blast from the Republican state Senate minority — Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, gushed about the lack of progress on fixing 125 bridges around the state deemed structurally deficient by the Colorado…

Denver council attempts to rein in proliferating pot clinics

What seemed an interminable Denver City Council meeting last night ended as expected: the council established new rules regulating marijuana clinics. Since the fall, when the Obama Justice Department declared it would not seek to prosecute participants in legal marijuana…

Dem signs on to FASTER reform as CDOT confirms collections lagging

Looks like state Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, will have some bipartisan support in his bid to modify late fees for vehicle registrations this session– a bit of a local Tea Party issue for state Republicans enraged by what they…

Curry to float bill aimed at ending rafter-landowner rights disputes

The stories have reached almost rural-myth status in Colorado’s high country: rocks being thrown at paddlers, wires strung across rivers at head height, even occasional shots fired. The problem? Some private landowners really don’t like it when rafters or kayakers float through their property.

White snuffs bill aimed at granting state control over marijuana growth and distribution

State Sen. Al White (R-Hayden) has scrapped plans for a bill this session that would have set up a state medical marijuana growing and distribution monopoly to keep drug cartels out of Colorado. It also would have required prescriptions…

White plans to tweak FASTER bill this session

Easily one of the most divisive and hotly debated bills passed by the state legislature last session was SB 108, aka FASTER (Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery).

It was a hike in vehicle registration fees meant to raise $250 million a year to fix the 125 bridges around the state deemed structurally deficient, and it has become a rallying cry for Republicans around the state bent on recapturing seats in both the House and Senate next fall.

White wants state of Colorado to go into the weed business

State Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, Friday promised to end the high times in the high country, serving up a big dose of GOP buzz kill in a release outlining legislation he’ll introduce next session to snuff out the current “free-for-all”…

Real Republican leaders emerge in budget battle

Faced with unprecedented budget shortfalls that could tank higher education in the state, forcing campus closings and steep tuition hikes, Colorado lawmakers are leaning on pragmatists Al White, R-Hayden, and Don Marostica, R-Loveland — both of whom labor on the Colorado Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, which has got to be one of the most difficult and thankless jobs in government.

Tempers flare over budget impasse; Marostica to Penry: ‘Go jump in a lake’

The Colorado Senate finally gave an initial OK to an $18 billion state budget late Thursday night after approving a plan over vehement GOP objections to lift $500 million from a state worker’s compensation fund to avoid massive cuts in higher education funding. But not before things got mighty testy.