Citizen initiative could force gay marriage showdown in Colorado

State establishment political progressives, including the staff at gay rights group OneColorado, seem cool on Aurora college student Mark Olmstead’s plan to introduce a 2012 ballot initiative that would overturn the state’s gay marriage ban. There’s a sense that financial and human resources would be better spent pressing lawmakers to pass legislation securing equal rights for LGBT citizens here. Lone actor Olmstead’s initiative, however, might force the issue, drawing on the energy of New York’s big gay-marriage win this month and on the sea change shift among the U.S. population generally on the matter of gay equality.

As New York vote nears, Colorado Christian groups tout new anti-gay marriage poll data

Faced with the prospect that New York lawmakers will make gay marriage the law there this week, Christian organizations are touting new polling data that runs counter to data brought out in waves by major nationally respected firms such as Gallup over the last two years showing fast-expanding support among the U.S. population in favor of extending marriage rights to the millions of gay Americans.

Focus on the Family touts anti-gay marriage efforts in New York

In wake of news that major Republican donors are funding the push to legalize gay marriage in New York, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family is touting efforts to “save traditional marriage” there led by the National Organization for Marriage and the New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation. NOM has reportedly raised a million dollars to spend on its anti-gay marriage campaign and Family Research Foundation leader Reverend Jason McGuire is riding around the state on a “Mayday for Marriage” bus tour rallying supporters. “Where were you when they tried to redefine marriage?” he reportedly asks the people who turn up at tour stops. “What will you say to future generations?”

Denver talk show guests rail against proposed lower Manhattan mosque

Denver talk-radio hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman Tuesday hosted a strident show on the community center and mosque proposed to be built two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center in New York, Ground Zero of the…

State lawmakers seek to bolster consumer protections against collection agencies

DENVER– The House passed legislation Monday meant to tighten guidelines on debt collection agency practices, offering Colorado debtors an added measure of protection from unscrupulous and illegal collection tactics at a time when more Americans are defaulting on credit card debt than ever before.

Marriage defenders celebrate victory in New York, await investigation in Maine

The National Organization for Marriage is pouring salt in the wound after the gay marriage defeat in New York with a celebratory fundraiser release sent out by the organization’s Brian Brown. He writes that the $600,000 the group spent…

A contrast in styles: Protesting energy policies in New York, Colorado

If it seems like it was just a few months ago when Xcel Energy was asking for a nearly $160 million rate increase – and drawing polite protests like the one pictured here in downtown Denver – that’s because…

New York report blasts gas industry as GarCo weighs FRAC Act resolution

Even as the Garfield County commissioners today take up debate on a resolution regarding the FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act, an environmental researcher in New York released a damning report on the natural gas industry in…

Conservatives rework rhetoric after high-profile New York loss

SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. –Slightly before midnight on Tuesday, reality reared its ugly head. Hoffman lost to Democrat Bill Owens, who became the first member of his party to represent this region of New York in Congress since the 1870s. The margin when Hoffman conceded was slightly more than 4,000 votes. Nothing went right. Owens won his base in the northeastern part of the district, and he won or held his own in the parts of the district that Scozzafava–who endorsed Owens after leaving the race–represents in the assembly. Hoffman underperformed in the Syracuse, N.Y., suburbs that neither candidate had political ties to, even though polls had him leading by a 2-1 margin there.

McInnis praises gas-happy Pa. despite increasing chemical contamination

Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, a six-time Republican congressman representing Colorado’s Western Slope, would like to turn the state’s prime mountain playgrounds into something more closely resembling the industrialized environs of Pennsylvania.

At least that’s our interpretation of a