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Colorado News Miner 142
Tina Peters, legislature, housing, media, prostitution, Silas Soule, Republicans, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2026
Polis Commutes Peters's Sentence: Tina Peters was guilty as hell and deserved her criminal conviction. But Polis is probably right: Her nine-year sentence probably was overly harsh. An appeals court agreed and called for resentencing. The main question, then, is why didn't Polis just wait for that legal process to play out rather than commute her sentence, leading to her expected release on parole on June 1? All he had to do was nothing, and he probably would have gotten a result close to what he wanted. (I suggested that Peters serve out her full sentence but under in-home detention rather than prison.) Mike Littwin indicates some of the anger directed at Polis by his fellow Democrats. See also CBS. One problem with Polis's decision is that it looks remarkably as though he capitulated to Trump's threats and pressure. Mike Lindell, of course, is gleeful. In sum, I think Polis made a mistake in commuting Peters's sentence, but I don't think it was as horrible a mistake as many of his critics make out. In the end, it's wrong to overpunish someone over political optics.
Bartels: Our thoughts are with Lynn Bartels.
Legislative Updates: The legislature considers far too many bills in a year for any one person to closely follow, including me. For reviews see Newsline and CPR. Jake Fogleman of the Independence Institute summarizes, "The Democrat-dominated legislature largely doubled down on the same governing philosophy that has increasingly defined the Capitol in recent years—more fees, more special interest tax benefits at the expense of other taxpayers, and more attempts to carve revenue streams out from under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights."
YIMBY: The HOME Act, bill 1001, allowing nonprofits and schools to more-easily build housing, passed. Unfortunately HB26-1114, to allow people to build houses on smaller lots (preempting local governments), failed. Initially it looked like HB26-1308 making it easier to split lots, was passing, but it failed too. The war on property rights and affordable housing continues.
There Is No 'Right' to Repair: Here's a flagrantly biased headline from CPR: "State lawmakers stand up for Colorado's landmark Right to Repair consumer protections." Here's a somewhat better headline from the Colorado Sun: "Exemptions to Colorado's right-to-repair laws shot down in House committee." The Sun's subhead begins to reveal what's actually at stake: "The bill would have allowed manufacturers to withhold repair tools from IT equipment intended for use in critical infrastructure." The so-called "right to repair" is not an actual right; it is the fabricated "right" to compel business to provide people with goods and services. To call such use of force a "right" makes a mockery of actual rights. And journalists are wrong to play along with that abuse of language.
There Is No 'Right' to Hunt and Fish: Putting a "right" to hunt and fish in the Colorado Constitution is a horrible idea. In the modern context, preserving viable herds and fishing stock requires substantial management. It's just not the case that the wild animals that people like to hunt and fish are purely natural resources, unlimited in supply. We can speculate what a purely privatized system of wildlife management might look like.
Sue the Feds: Seth Klamann: "Colorado lawmakers kill ‘No Kings Act’ that would have allowed people to sue federal officials." That's too bad. However, "Bill permitting lawsuits against ICE agents reaches Gov. Jared Polis' desk." The bills are SB-176 and SB-005.
Moves Toward Accountability: Allison Sherry: "Border agent charged with assault after Durango scuffle."
AI Law: Vanessa Rutledge: "Colorado legislature takes up rewrite of poorly crafted AI law."
Criminal Competency: John Frank: The legislature tried to fix the badly broken system that lets obviously dangerous people deemed incompetent to stand trial walk the streets. That's SB-149.
Conversion Therapy Suits: A bill makes such suits easier.
Tax Decoupling: Rather than continue to tie Colorado income-tax rules to federal rules, thereby maintaining relative (!) simplicity in the tax code, Colorado legislators "decoupled" Colorado rules from federal rules in order to raise net taxes on busnesses without a vote of the people. Mark Hillman has details. This is not the way to create a business-friendly climate! This is on net good: "Polis helps axe bills rolling back business tax breaks."
Paper Boy Bill: Corey Hutchins discusses "legislation that would allow Colorado newspaper companies to classify those who deliver their papers as independent contractors instead of full-time employees." The bill was heavily amended and then defeated. My view is that government should be involved in labor contracts only in narrow circumstances. Beyond that, people can use unions and public pressure to promote better working conditions.
Government Notices: Corey Hutchins: "A House committee shelved a half-baked bill dealing with county newspaper public notices and their ability to exist online following testimony from Colorado Press Association CEO Tim Regan-Porter. 'I think we can come up with something that meets his goals and makes sense from a policy perspective without negatively impacting any legal newspapers,' he said in an email." Here's the summary of HB26-1095: "Current law requires a county or municipality to publish legal notices in a physical print newspaper. The bill gives a county or municipality discretion to publish legal notices online on the newspaper's website instead. Legal notices published online must be free to access and cannot be kept behind a paywall or subscription." My take: Whether or not these sorts of rules ever made sense, now, in the internet age, it's perfectly reasonable for governments just to post notices online on their own web sites. Government entities should not be in the business of granting formal status to any outside publication. Then if newspapers want to run information about government announcements, great.
Tax Credits for Media? Hutchins: Democratic State Senator Marc Snyder longed for "a wonderful tax credit program that's really supporting journalists and small newspapers." Reducing a business's tax burden (if that's what he's saying) certainly is better than offering subsidies. Still, in the end, inequitable taxes are unfair. Of course, I think we should eliminate all business taxes anyway.
Tax Credits for Education: Jason Gonzales: "Colorado lawmakers won’t pursue bill to place state limits on Trump-backed education tax credit program."
State Preferred Advertising: Corey Hutchins: "Colorado lawmakers want local news outlets to get priority in state advertising spending." My reaction is that the state shouldn't be spending any money on advertising to begin with. Anyway, isn't the point of a lot of this advertising to get people from outside the state to come here? Is the money supposed to buy advertising or offer subsidies? I'm increasingly nervous about the apparent willingness of some local journalists to cozy up with the state officials and agencies they're supposed to be critically covering.
Questions for Kafer: Krista Kafer argues that government may not require employers to use a transgender employee's preferred name and pronouns. I presume that Kafer thinks that government may prohibit employers from creating a hostile work environment, say, by calling a black employee "boy" or the "n-word"; the employer instead would have to use the employee's actual name or some acceptable variant. How is that different? Let's say an employer thought that marriage is a corrupt institution and refused to call a married employee by her chosen married name. Would Kafer also back that employer? I wrote more about some of the complexities of these matters last year.
Kafer and Prostitution: I argued for aspects of a Colorado bill (quickly defeated) calling for the decriminalization of prostitution, while pointing out the bill's complete usurpation of local control was unrealistic. Kafer writes, "A study of laws in 150 countries found that legalized prostitution increases human trafficking." Kafer appears to be citing a 2013 paper by Seo-Young Cho et al. (thanks to ChatGPT for helping me find this). But the paper refers to "reported human trafficking inflows." The problem is that reported trafficking may more or less closely track actual trafficking. (Also, trafficking in the larger category that includes sex trafficking.) It's possible that Country A could have higher reported trafficking than Country B but lower actual trafficking. Anyway, the obvious solution is for government to crack down on trafficking while respecting people's rights to control their own bodies. Compare: Conservatives do not argue that government should ban guns because some people commit crimes with guns.
Soule: Kevin Simpson has an outstanding review of the actions of Silas Soule, who refused to attack native peoples at Sand Creek and then helped expose the atrocities committed there.
Colorado History: Newsline published a series of articles by Chase Woodruff on Colorado History.
Trump Turns on Boebert: Complaining that Lauren Boebert campaigned for Tom Massie, Donald Trump called Boebert a carpetbagger and called for someone to run against her.
Anti-Vax Dating App: A real thing. So stupid.
Title Board Rejects Transparency: Sherrie Peif: "The Colorado Title Board . . . voted 2-1 at an April 24 re-hearing that a proposed constitutional amendment, put together by a large stakeholder group from across the political spectrum, did not meet Colorado's 'single-subject' requirement." Obviously the idea that a political board will consistently objectively determine what is a "single subject" is ridiculous. The requirement is arbitrary, and there are better ways to tighten up the ballot.
Car Thefts Down: CPR: "Auto thefts in Colorado have fallen more than 55 percent since 2021."
Denver 'Assault' Guns: AP: "Trump administration sues Denver over its 1989 assault weapons ban." I'm against the Denver ban, but shouldn't this go through the normal judicial channels?
Government in Media: A free media is incompatible with government interference. Hutchins writes, "Republican President Donald Trump’s FCC has given the green light for more TV news consolidation in Colorado." The federal government should play no role in mergers or other business decisions, and any such role necessarily is politicized. That Republicans have gotten in on the game of trying to strongarm Nextar does not make it right
Stream Rights: The problem of how to determine property rights in the case of a stream, which runs through someone's property but which long has been used by boaters and rafters, is difficult. Greg Walcher discusses some of the details. See also the Common Sense Institute's first, second, and third article. I'd caution against framing the matter as one "balancing" property rights and "public access"; rather, I'd want to show that any right-to-float is a right because of first-in-time use.
Off-Cycle Elections: Goldwater: "Off-Cycle Elections Cost Arizona Billions and Empower Special Interests." Guess who else has off-cycle elections!
Wyoming School Choice: Clair McFarland: "In 2024 and 2025, the Wyoming Legislature crafted and funded the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship program, which sought to give $7,000 per family in public money to state-contractor held accounts, which then would transfer the money to approved private and homeschool programs for qualifying families." The program has been the subject of legal wrangling. Generally I'm nervous about two aspects of such programs: first, they're by design partly redistributive, and, second, they involve substantial government control over expenditures. I like my idea a lot more: States should just let families who homeschool or use private schools keep their education-directed tax funds for the year, to spend however they see fit.
Nuclear: NPR: The feds have licensed a nuclear reactor in Wyoming.
Satanist Pee Breaks: A Colorado student had to sue on grounds of her Satantic religious beliefs to get easier hall-pass rules. Maybe kids should be able to use the bathroom when they need to? The hyper-regimentation of public schools is one reason I don't use them.
"Justice-Engaged": I was initially mystified by this euphemism in the Aurora Sentinel; the story is about "a school designed to help students get back on track after being involved with the criminal legal system."
Derailing Criminal Prosecutions: Allison Sherry: "ICE officers have deported dozens of people [facing criminal charges] in Colorado before they could face consequences for alleged crimes."
GOP Sigh: Stay classy DougCo GOP: "Republicans Turn Shooting in DC Into an Attack on Douglas County Teachers." Sheesh.
GOP Gasp: CBS: "Chair of Weld County Republicans among men arrested in connection with Northern Colorado child predator operation."
GOP Primary: Sun: "Federal judge rejects Colorado GOP's effort to block unaffiliated voters from participating in party's 2026 primaries." This is due to timing. Again: Government ought not be financing party primaries at all!
Victor Marx: Let's just say I'm skeptical of many of Marx's claims. See Sean Biddle and Mandy Connell.
Sun Glitch: Hutchins: "The Sun identify numerous stories and columns with incorrect bylines because of a WordPress problem." Oopsie!