By Sara Wilson | reporter
“There is far more work than there is funding, so this initiative, should it come before voters and be approved, would be a key source of dollars to reduce wildfire risk,”
- Madelene McDonald, manager of watershed planning for Denver water.
Slash piles from a "hand thinning" wildfire mitigation project along Stillwater Ditch in southern Routt County, in a section of the Routt National Forest, are pictured on Aug. 17, 2026. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
By Chase Woodruff
Colorado voters will decide this November whether to boost funding for conservation and wildfire mitigation projects by exempting tax revenue from sporting goods sales from constitutional limits set by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. The initiative would raise up to $175 million in new revenue. Nearly all of the new funding would be split evenly between Great Outdoors Colorado, a state entity that invests in conservation and outdoor recreation projects, and a constellation of state programs that fund wildfire mitigation efforts.
Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat, speaks on the Colorado Senate floor about a bill to ask voters for more public education funding on April 24, 2026. (Screenshot from Colorado Channel YouTube)
By Sara Wilson
The Colorado secretary of state’s office will investigate whether a video from a libertarian think tank generated with artificial intelligence violates a state law against undisclosed deepfake videos of candidates. Sen. Cathy Kipp filed a complaint with the office against the Independence Institute, a leading opponent of Proposition NN, a tax-related measure placed on this November’s ballot by Kipp and other Democratic lawmakers. In the 45-second video, Kipp is portrayed as a grocery store clerk refusing to give a customer their change. Proposition NN would retain more tax revenue than the state can currently keep and redirect the money to public education.
Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on September 17, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
By Ashley Murray
With just over two months until the November midterms, the U.S. Supreme Court gave way Monday for President Donald Trump to have a hand in regulating mail-in ballots nationwide. In an unsigned emergency docket opinion, the court’s conservative majority wrote the Trump administration is likely to prevail on its argument that 23 Democratic-led states do not have standing to stop his executive order to change how the U.S. Postal Service processes mail-in ballots. The March 31 executive order at the heart of the case in part directs USPS to direct the redesign of mail-in ballot envelopes, including adding a unique barcode. It also asks USPS to collect voters’ names and addresses from state elections officials and directs the U.S. Justice Department to investigate and prosecute state officials who violate the order.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Trump administration plans $100,000 visa fee for high-skill foreign workers | By Ariana Figueroa
Commentary: Taxation with retaliation in Colorado | By Quentin Young
In 1876, Colorado’s first-ever Republican ticket united ‘the old and the new’ | By Chase Woodruff
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