Colorado
Dust barely settled from Colorado’s 2025 legislative session, already talk of special session
Colorado’s legislative session is over, now the fallout begins.
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.
“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.
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.”
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.
Colorado
Kids escape unscathed after van slips off Colorado mountain road and down Blue River embankment
A van carrying campers from a hike near Blue River rolled down an embankment Thursday afternoon, but everyone inside escaped without major injuries. According to the Keystone Science School, the 15-passenger van was transporting 13 campers and two adults back from Mohawk Lakes when it slid off a wet road and rolled over.
Emergency crews responded to Spruce Creek Road after receiving reports of a single-vehicle rollover.
“We’re fortunate that it was low speed, and there was no intrusion into the passenger cabin,” Matt Benedict, division chief of wildfire and community preparedness for Red, White and Blue Fire said.
Investigators believe muddy conditions created by recent rainfall contributed to the crash. The van rolled down a steep embankment before coming to rest against a tree. Two people suffered minor injuries, but neither required transportation to a hospital, according to fire officials.
Keystone Science School confirmed emergency responders arrived quickly and that no major injuries were reported.
“The safety and well-being of our campers and staff is our highest priority,” Executive Director Eric Rightor said in a statement. “We are grateful that there were no major injuries, and we are committed to fully supporting all those involved and their families.”
Fire officials also credited seatbelt use for helping protect those inside the vehicle. “We always encourage everyone to wear their seatbelts… and they did. And everybody left,” Benedict said.
The Keystone Science School is located in Summit County.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Two weeks have passed since officials closed four blocks of Uintah Street to repair damage under a bridge over Shooks Run Creek, and we’re now learning specifics about the response.
Officials said that the city was the lead entity in the repair response, with Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) providing a supporting role.
The closure began late in the afternoon of June 10 for what officials described as emergency bridge and utility repairs between Prospect and Institute streets, east of the Colorado College campus.
Officials said that on the previous day, a routine bridge inspection by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) discovered a large “void,” or sinkhole, under the bridge that compromised a utility line.
But officials didn’t explain how the void developed or how they repaired it until earlier this week, when Richard Mulledy, the city’s public works director, elaborated on the situation.
“It was about a six-foot by eight-foot void,” he explained. “That void was really caused by an abandoned storm sewer line and then a leaking manhole. It’s something that we see from time to time, but really doesn’t happen often.”
Crews approached the problem from under and above the bridge, with workers excavating into the street to access the utility lines.
“The utility line being compromised was an active storm sewer line,” Mulledy said. “It was sort of hanging out in the open and was unsecured. The old storm sewer line had been abandoned for decades and was starting to fail.”
Crews removed the old stormwater pipe, repaired the manhole, and backfilled the void with a material called “flow.”
“Flow fills almost like a kind of liquid concrete,” Mulledy detailed. “And that’s a really great structural solution. So, we filled that entire thing up, made sure the void is closed, and made sure it’s structurally sound.”
He added that the bridge is around a century old, the same age as most bridges across the creek.
“This was identified and got fixed in 48 hours, rather than let something structural fail, and then we’d be in a big, giant construction project,” Mulledy said. “The structure itself, I don’t think, was ever really threatened.”
The closure ended on Saturday, June 13.
A Colorado man died on Tuesday when a boulder fell on him and crushed him. That’s according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, who identified the man as 59-year-old Paul Frasch.
Frasch is a resident of Silverthorne. The sheriff’s office says he was walking in an area along the Arkansas River in Buena Vista in the middle of the day with his coworker when rocks fell and hit him.
According to investigators, the boulder that landed on Frasch weighed at least 1,000 pounds.
The coworker received injuries to his arms after trying to help Frasch.
When first responders got to the scene, the boulder was still on top of Frasch. He was declared dead at the scene.
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