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Capitol Dispatch

State lawmakers add and subtract on the state’s premier budget document

Update: as of 8:02 p.m., Republican Rep. Dave Williams of Colorado Springs asked that the budget bill (more than 600 pages) be read at...

Businesses that short their workers no longer protected by “trade secrets” law

Finding out which businesses cheat workers out of their fairly-earned wages - whether making them work off the clock, not paying overtime or not...

Republicans on State Affairs do about-face, pass contraception bill

Up was down and right was left Wednesday at the state Capitol. You might think that if you witnessed the vote Wednesday afternoon in the...

Transportation bill with proposed tax hike clears House, faces tough road in Senate

The House Friday gave its final blessing to a transportation bill that will ask voters in November to okay a hike in the state’s...

Senate passes 2017-18 state budget, but not without fights

*Update: the Senate voted 30-5 Thursday morning to approve the 2017-18 state budget. Four Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs,...

Another year, another effort fails to change law on transgender birth certificates

Efforts by Democrats to allow transgender Coloradans an easier path to change their birth certificates went by the wayside Monday afternoon for the third...

What’s in the proposed 2017-2018 state budget for the average Coloradan

Today, the state Senate began the process of reviewing a $26.8 billion* budget that will cover the operations of state government for the year...

Q&A: Why Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg flipped on the hospital provider fee

Republican state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling set off shock waves at the state Capitol this week when he decided to sponsor a bill,...

Senate’s gun-rights bills shot down by House Democrats

Just one bill to expand gun rights in Colorado is still standing after a state House committee dispatched three pro-gun bills Wednesday. That last remaining...

Bill to ban LGBTQ conversion therapy dies third year in a row

It took Ericka L. Salerno a lot of courage Wednesday to tell the story of years of abuse, suffered at the hands of those...