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Dust barely settled from Colorado’s 2025 legislative session, already talk of special session

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Dust barely settled from Colorado’s 2025 legislative session, already talk of special session


Colorado’s legislative session is over, now the fallout begins. 

Gov. Jared Polis speaks during a press conference with Colorado Democrats following the end of the spring 2025 legislative session Thursday, May 8, 2025.

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Lawmakers sent some 400 bills to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk, and he’s already announced he’s vetoing one of them.

The bill, sponsored by Democrats, would change the state’s Labor Peace Act to make it easier for unions to collect dues from non-union members. The governor said he wouldn’t sign the bill without buy-in from both labor and business.

As Polis decides the fate of hundreds of bills, he’s also warning lawmakers he might call a special session.

“We are watching what Congress does,” Polis said during a press conference Thursday. 

Polis says, if congressional Republicans follow through on proposed spending cuts, he will likely reconvene the legislature to deal with impacts to programs such as Medicaid, which covers about one in five Coloradans.

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“If we come back into a special session, it will clearly be on the Polis administration and the tax-and-spend Democrats in the legislature,” said state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer (Col-R), who sits on the Joint Budget Committee.

Kirkmeyer says Democrats need to prioritize spending. While theTaxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) caps how much the state can spend, Democrats have hinted at a ballot measure to raise the cap after an effort by some members to dismantle TABOR altogether stalled in the Colorado House of Representatives.

“Thirty-one Democrat members of the House, 13 Democrat members of the Senate coming after TABOR, preview of coming attractions,” state Sen. Paul Lundeen (Col-R) said during a press conference. 

Republicans warned Democratic bills expanding protections for undocumented immigrants and transgender individuals could also cost the state federal funding.

The governor worked to amend the bills and has not said if he will sign them. 

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Colorado Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie (Col-D) defended them. 

“I think our response in the legislative session was about protecting people’s civil rights — whether that was a newly arrived individual from another country, or it was a person from our LGBTQ community,” McCluskie said during a press conference. 

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Colorado last week over immigration policies and Colorado Attorney General’s office has filed 18 lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Polis says he will work with the administration where possible. His priorities, Polis says, haven’t changed. The first bill he signed post-session creates regional building codes for manufactured housing.

“Our challenges in Colorado around making housing more affordable, making our communities safer haven’t changed,” Polis said. “And who’s in the White House doesn’t affect the steps we need to take here.”

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In addition to federal spending cuts, some lawmakers are concerned an artificial intelligence law could also prompt a special session.  Polis and the Attorney General asked the legislature to delay implementation of the law, which takes effect in February, but an eleventh-hour effort to do that failed.

In addition to the union bill, the governor has also expressed concerns about a bill regulating rideshare companies. He hasn’t said if he will sign the bill, but Uber has threatened to leave the state if he does.  

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Two-alarm fire damages hotel in Estes Park, 1 person taken to a Colorado hospital

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Two-alarm fire damages hotel in Estes Park, 1 person taken to a Colorado hospital



A two-alarm fire damaged a hotel in Estes Park on Friday night. It happened at Expedition Lodge Estes Park just north of Lake Estes.

The lodge, located at 1701 North Lake Avenue on the east side of the Colorado mountain town, was evacuated after 8:30 p.m. and the fire chief said by 10 p.m. the fire was under control.

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One person was hurt and taken to a hospital.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. So far it’s not clear how much damage it caused.

A total of 25 firefighters fought the blaze.

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Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains

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Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains


Arapahoe Basin Ski Area recorded 8.5 inches of snow through Friday morning.
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area

Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.

Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.

Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.



Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.

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Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:



Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches

Snowmass: 0.5 inches

Copper Mountain: 10 inches

Winter Park: 9 inches

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Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches

Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches

Keystone Resort: 8 inches

Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches

Vail Mountain: 7 inches

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Steamboat Resort: 6 inches

Beaver Creek: 6 inches

Irwin: 4.5 inches

Cooper Mountain: 4 inches

Sunlight: 0.5 inches

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Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.





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Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild

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Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild


The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.

It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.

Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.

“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”

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Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.

The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.

“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.

“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”

Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.

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That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.

Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.

Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.

“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.

“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”

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Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.

Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.



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