Colorado lawmakers target another $5 million for Denver Health amid fears of hospital’s “death spiral”

A bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers is again moving to direct a special $5 million infusion to Denver Health amid rising concerns about the hospital’s financial security and fears of a potential descent into a “death spiral.”

Members of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, which gave initial approval to the allocation Wednesday night, acknowledged that $5 million isn’t enough to solve Denver Health’s long-term challenges, which include a growing amount of uncompensated health care and a patient base that’s increasingly dominated by lower-paying, government-based insurance coverage.
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Step aside, wolves: The next Colorado wildlife reintroduction could be the elusive wolverine

Colorado could return another native carnivore to its mountains if state lawmakers pass a bill allowing for the reintroduction of wolverines.

The bipartisan bill — if passed — would allow Colorado Parks and Wildlife to accomplish a decades-old goal to restore the elusive and wide-roaming weasel to the state.

“Colorado is the right state to take on this work,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis said in a news release. “The North American wolverine requires a high-elevation habitat with persistent, deep snowpack, and Colorado has some of the best remaining unoccupied wolverine habitat in the lower 48 states.”
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Colorado Republicans, facing power gap, will try to impeach — or recall — Jena Griswold over Trump ballot case

Colorado’s super-minority House Republicans are set to launch a largely symbolic impeachment attempt against Secretary of State Jena Griswold in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary ballot.

The bid, announced Thursday, came just days after the state GOP’s leader and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert threatened to pursue a recall campaign against the Democratic official. Griswold had urged the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling by Colorado’s high court finding Trump ineligible to run under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.
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Rotting bodies, fake ashes and sold body parts push Colorado to patch lax funeral home rules

After nearly 200 bodies were found stacked and rotting in a Colorado funeral home, lawmakers have proposed bills to overhaul the state’s threadbare funeral home regulations, which failed to prevent a string of gruesome cases — from sold body parts to fake ashes.

The cases have shattered hundreds of families. Many learned that their loved ones’ remains weren’t in the ashes they ceremonially spread or held tight for years but were instead decaying in a building or, in one case, the back of hearse.
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Colorado Senate passes bill exempting lawmakers from part of open-meetings law

The Colorado Senate passed a bill Monday that exempts legislators from some parts of the state’s open-meetings law, essentially allowing what had been longstanding practices in the Capitol before they were challenged in court last year.

The bill, SB24-157, would allow lawmakers to meet and communicate in groups small enough that they don’t constitute a voting majority of a committee or chamber. It would also tweak state law to make clear that digital communications between legislators don’t constitute a meeting.
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How a friend’s death turned Colorado teens into anti-overdose activists

Gavinn McKinney loved Nike shoes, fireworks and sushi. He was studying Potawatomi, one of the languages of his Native American heritage. He loved holding his niece and smelling her baby smell. On his 15th birthday, the Durango teen spent a cold December afternoon chopping wood to help neighbors who couldn’t afford to heat their homes.

McKinney almost made it to his 16th birthday. He died of fentanyl poisoning at a friend’s house in December 2021. His friends say it was the first time he tried hard drugs. The memorial service was so packed people had to stand outside the funeral home.

Now, his peers are trying to cement their friend’s legacy in state law.
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Colorado lawmakers weigh rules to spur more building without stripping homeowner protections

The studs of Jennifer Miller’s Erie dream home carry in them her family’s hopes for the future, with messages literally inked with permanent marker onto the bedroom beams while the two-story house was under construction in 2019.

But the dream home turned into a money pit for the family of four as they tapped savings and equity from their down payment to fix problems she said were caused by rushed construction. The soil under the foundation wasn’t properly prepared, Miller said, causing the house to twist and stretch as the dirt settled under its weight. Drywall and floor tiles cracked. Doors stopped shutting all the way. The basement heaved and strained against itself. All after the warranty had expired, she said.

Three years and some $45,000 later, Miller now finds herself taking sides in the latest legislative fight over an otherwise esoteric area of law: construction defects, and how to find the balance between encouraging new builds and protecting people who’ve poured their savings into what’s often the biggest asset people will own.
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Colorado lawmakers target HOAs with more restrictions to protect homeowners from foreclosure

Homeowners associations’ foreclosure filings on thousands of Coloradans’ houses over unpaid fines and fees have spurred fresh attempts by lawmakers to better regulate HOAs and metropolitan districts with the hope of preventing more people from losing their homes.

Lawmakers have introduced several reform bills that would restrict foreclosures from delinquent fees and require HOAs and metro districts to adopt written policies, enhance notifications to homeowners and add licensing requirements for professional managers. The legislation would also set regulations on how much homeowners can be charged. HOAs would be required to work with homeowners before beginning any foreclosure proceedings.
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Construction defects, development near transit and other housing measures considered by Colorado legislature this week

Every week is housing week in the Colorado legislature, with so many bills — addressing so many facets of the crisis — winding through the Capitol. This week is no different.

Both chambers have extensive and eye-catching housing work slated for votes in the coming days.
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