Udall bill would let Americans keep insurance two more years

16Staff Report | November 14, 2013 @ 5:04 am

Citing the concerns of Colorado families recently notified of their insurance companies' decisions to cancel health plans, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall introduced legislation Wednesday that would allow Americans in the individual insurance market to retain their current health insurance. The bill, according ...

Green groups say SkiCo-supported bill is bad for rivers

11Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Journalism | November 14, 2013 @ 4:31 am

A congressional bill supported by Aspen Skiing Co. designed to protect water owned by ski areas could potentially end up hurting rivers across the country, according to American Rivers, a national river-protection organization, and a growing list of other environmental organizations. “While House ...

Education proponents to start over after Amendment 66 defeat

12Tessa Cheek/The Colorado Independent | November 7, 2013 @ 4:48 am

DENVER — Frustrating, heartbreaking, disappointing, even devastating — words heard all over the hotel ballroom here where supporters of Amendment 66 gathered to watch the votes come in. What no one said aloud, but what was smuggled into the phrase “we came up short,” was the question ...

Mike Littwin: We don't need no outsiders, except our outsiders

5Mike Littwin/The Colorado Independent | October 29, 2013 @ 10:27 am

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — the antigun, anti-big-gulp, billionaire nanny stater — is back, now trying to force the good people of Colorado to give up our God-given right to underfund K-12 education. Why won’t he just leave us alone? Wasn’t it enough when Bloomberg got ...

Udall cousins: Quarter of utility energy should be renewable

9Staff Report | October 29, 2013 @ 10:14 am

U.S. Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo.,, who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced legislation Tuesday to require utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2025. The bill, which mirrors ...

CSU: Amend. 66 would produce 'neutral' economic outcome

8Staff Report | October 25, 2013 @ 10:23 am

FORT COLLINS — Amendment 66 could have a neutral economic impact on the state of Colorado, according to an analysis by the Department of Economics at Colorado State University. The Nov. 5 ballot measure would increase state income taxes to raise $950 million a year for P-12 education. Colorado's current personal income tax rate is 4.63 percent. Amendment 66 would ...

Ex-Defense secretary: Shutdown damages U.S. national security

4Troy Hooper | October 18, 2013 @ 11:47 am

DENVER — President Obama's recently departed secretary of defense says the United States has met its enemy and the enemy is us. Leon Panetta, who has served various critical roles under multiple presidents, told a capacity crowd at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Thursday night that shutting ...

Congress averts fiscal disaster, ends government shutdown

5Troy Hooper | October 17, 2013 @ 7:29 am

With the country on the brink of defaulting on its debts, a bitterly divided Congress united in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening to end the federal government shutdown. The Senate reached a deal first, approving it 81-18, followed by the House, which signed off on it by a vote of 285-144. President ...

Littwin: Republicans (and everyone else) know they've lost

2Mike Littwin/The Colorado Independent | October 11, 2013 @ 8:39 am

You didn’t have to be in the room to know what happened at the big White House shutdown confab Thursday. All you had to do was hop over to the nearest computer and read the latest NBC/WSJ poll. The House Republicans lost in what is being routinely called “jaw-dropping” fashion. That’s ...

Consensus is that marijuana tax will pass in Colorado election

2Shelby Kinney-Lang/The Colorado Independent | October 8, 2013 @ 8:05 am

BOULDER — It’s not just about forcing marijuana customers to pay more, it’s also about setting precedent for legalization around the country, say advocates opposed to the steep consumption tax voters are being asked to approve next month. “Yes we want to end prohibition — ...

Udall takes to CNN to discuss how shutdown hurts Colorado

2Staff Report | October 4, 2013 @ 9:30 am

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall discussed on CNN Thursday how the federal government shutdown is hurting Colorado. Udall, who is chairman of the U.S. Senate National Parks Subcommittee, highlighted how the shutdown is affecting everything from flood recovery efforts to job creation in communities surrounding our shuttered ...

Littwin: Government shutdown boils down to nothingness

2Mike Littwin/The Colorado Independent | October 1, 2013 @ 12:44 am

The strangest thing about the government shutdown/debt ceiling fights — which are really the same fight, separated only by dates on the calendar — is that they are about nothing. Seriously. Nothing. There is no point to these fights except to have them. That’s why Ted Cruz’s ...

Littwin: Gutted by gun deaths, wrecked with resignation

2Mike Littwin/The Colorado Independent | September 27, 2013 @ 8:51 am

In his latest post-massacre speech, Barack Obama asked the most haunting question on gun violence I think I’ve ever heard from a president. The question, he said Sunday at the Navy Yard, was not “whether as Americans we care in moments of tragedy. Clearly we care. Our hearts are broken again.

Littwin on Navy Yard tragedy: Not shocked, beyond shocked

2Mike Littwin/The Colorado Independent | September 17, 2013 @ 8:53 am

It is too soon to know why it happened or exactly how it happened. But we know this: A man walked into the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. Monday morning and killed at least 12 people and was himself killed. We know this, too: It has been widely reported that one of the three guns lying beside Aaron Alexis, ...

Feds award $10M to improve Eisenhower, Johnson tunnels

2Staff Report | September 3, 2013 @ 6:50 am

U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet and Congressman Jared Polis welcomed the news over the weekend that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded Colorado a $10 million competitive grant to install a fire-suppression system in the Eisenhower and Johnson Memorial Tunnels. The upgrades are ...