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Colorado News Miner 144
Medicaid fraud, GOP debate, antisemitism, Polis vetoes and signatures, conversion therapy, JeffCo schools, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2026
Medicaid Fraud: David Migoya: "A four-month Denver Gazette investigation into the inner workings of the program found an exploitive system, in which homeless people were encouraged to recruit others they knew to join them, an enticement that was sweetened with promises of payments of up to $500 for each successful referral." Read the rest; hard to summarize. Wow, wow, wow. HT Mandy Connell.
GOP Debate: Rae Solomon and Bente Birkeland: "The false claims and attacks became so unhinged at times that moments could have been mistaken for a Saturday Night Live cold open, or a spoof reality show like Jury Duty." The reporters say that Bottoms told an "antisemitic joke"; regardless, he certainly openly tolerated Joe Oltmann's antisemitism, which is far worse. This CPR piece does not read like a usual straight news story, but this was anything but a normal debate.
Democratic Debate: Mandy Connell wasn't impressed. I don't see the need to watch this one; I doubt there would be much difference in electing one over the other.
Business Climate: Michael Bennet recognized the need for a "growing economy" and warned about being "on the front page of the Wall Street Journal twice in three weeks as being the place that's repelling business from our state. That won't work." Maybe Bennet would be slightly less enthusiastic about taxing and regulating Coloradans?
Marx on Daily Show: Desi Lydic features the previous reporting of Kyle Clark. Congratulations to the Republican Party of Colorado for turning Colorado into a laughing stock. Also: Mandy Connell links to Dean Singleton's discussion with Peter Boyles about Marx (no, Singleton did not endorse Marx).
Caldwell Reprimands Bradley: Marianne Goodland: "House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell has reprimanded Rep. Brandi Bradley after a confrontation in which she allegedly cursed at and intimidated the House chief clerk." Sigh.
Nutcase: The new GOP chair, Craig Steiner, called Trump a "nutcase." So that's a good sign.
Antisemitism in Boulder: Olivia Doak: "CU Regents publicly denounce antisemitic statements justifying Pearl Street attack"; this concerns "online student statements." David Flomberg: "The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at CU Boulder—currently unrecognized by the University—has chosen to exploit this horrifically tragic story [the terror attack in Boulder] for their own myopic political tantrum and anti-Jewish hate campaign."
Polis Vetoes: Polis vetoed a bill prohibiting credit-card interchange fees on sales taxes. I agree "it's unfair that [business are] being charged a fee to collect and deliver tax revenue on behalf of the government," as Jesse Paul and Taylor Dolven summarize, but the answer is just to eliminate sales taxes, not impose more restrictions on credit-card companies. Note that the legislature also could have just let businesses deduct the amount paid in fees on sales taxes from the amount owed to government. Polis also vetoed bills regulating price setting and restaurant distribution of utensils and condiments. Mike Krause: Polis also rejected the unreasonable union bill. Polis rejected a bill authorizing lawsuits against immigration authorities on grounds that it's too narrow. Oh, and Polis also vetoed a bill regulating social media companies.
Tamale Act: The bill makes it easier for Coloradans to sell homemade foods.
Sports Gambling: The legislature passed new restrictions, such as prohibiting credit-card use. I'm okay with torts but I don't like these nanny-state regulations.
Conversion Therapy Suits: Erin Reed says the bill expanding lawsuits over conversion therapy "defies" the Supreme Court ruling. That's not quite right. The ruling explicitly recognizes the possibility of "traditional tort malpractice claims." I'm not sure what are the proper boundaries around litigation. Certainly legitimate lawsuits at a minimum involve a) an identifiable victim, b) objective evidence of substantial harm, and c) objective evidence of substantial culpability. The aim of the legislature should be to allow legitimate claims to go through while blocking frivolous claims. Easier said than done, I know. By way of comparison, consider how Democrats would have reacted had Republicans run exactly the same bill except targeting gender-affirming health care.
CMAS Scores Out: Jason Gonzales reports. For math and literacy in grades 4 and 8, most students still do not meet or exceed expectations.
School Travel: Jessica Seaman: "Colorado's five largest school districts spent more than $121,000 in taxpayer money over the past two years to send their superintendents to conferences across the U.S. and as far away as Finland and China." As long as this is actually for professional development this seems okay to me.
Dorland Resigns in JeffCo: Amanda Kesting (May 8): "The superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools [Tracy Dorland] announced . . . that she will be stepping down. . . . She faced scrutiny last year after the Jefferson County Education Association sent a four-page letter to the school board in May 2025 announcing a vote of no confidence. The letter outlined multiple issues with Dorland's leadership, including allegedly making decisions behind closed doors, not listening to community voices and a failure to address student safety issues." Erin Brantley sees the resignation as a good sign and attributes it partly to parental involvement. Rob Stein is the interim superintendent.
DOE Threatens JeffCo: Jenny Brundin: "Federal officials said a March 2026 investigation found the district violated Title IX by allowing transgender students assigned male at birth to use girls' bathrooms and locker rooms, share overnight accommodations with female students, and to participate in girls' sports, which allegedly cost some female students spots on teams." This should not be a matter of federal policy. Then there's this line: "Federal money makes up about 8% of Jeffco schools' budget, or roughly $98 million." How about we get the federal government out of education?
School Restraint: Here's an eye-popping story from Melanie Asmar about an 11-year-old autistic student at Austin Centers for Exceptional Students in Westminster: "[He] experienced multiple restraints, including one that the 11-year-old called 'the crucifixion,' [his father] said. The boy described being pinned to the floor on his back with staff members holding his arms and legs, a situation that his father said only made the boy struggle harder."
Childcare: To me, the most interesting thing about this Stina Sieg piece is its account of one family's approach to handling childcare: "Moreno invited her friend and fellow mom, Elizabeth Keely, to live with the family. . . . She cooks, cleans, grocery shops and, crucially, she looks after the kids." I'd still want to look harder at regulatory burdens limiting childcare. Also, to state the obvious: Looser immigration rules would allow in a lot more people willing to watch kids for modest fees. Of course CPR promotes tax-funded (government-run) childcare.
Property Tax Relief: Ann Schimke: Adams and Douglas Counties will offer property tax rebates specifically for childcare providers. Why not property tax relief for everyone? I think ultimately we should dump property taxes.
Denver Water Narcs: You can have markets, or you can have rationing and water narcs.
Data Centers: The deeper problem is not that some Colorado localities do not want data centers; it is that data centers may not want to do business in Colorado do to the state's energy policies.
Renewable Energy Farce: Sure, you can achieve 100% renewable energy when the weather outside doesn't require much home heating or cooling. Sheesh. Obviously this doesn't include gasoline for transportation. Still (CPR via CoPIRG): "In 2025, solar, wind and geothermal produced the equivalent of 44% of the power consumed in the state, up from just 19% in 2016."
National Center for Atmospheric Research: Sun: "Federal judge blocks breakup of NCAR in Boulder while blasting Trump for enacting political revenge on Colorado."
McClain Update: Olivia Prentzel: "The Colorado Court of Appeals . . . reversed the homicide convictions of two former Aurora paramedics charged in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain and ordered new trials. . . . [The court] ruled that the trial judge gave jurors incorrect instructions about the legal standard they should use when considering the criminally negligent homicide charge."
Freedom Fest Nonsense: Jamie O'Rourke previews the speakers. Much of the conservative movement in Colorado is deranged.
Drug Price Controls: John Ingold: "A pharmaceutical company is trying to block Colorado’s first-in-the-nation drug price cap in court." I hope the company wins. Price controls are immoral and economically damaging.
Skiing Drop: Jason Blevins: Colorado resorts saw 24% fewer visitors. Yes the snow sucked. Also I don't make skiing a priority because it's so absurdly expensive.
Space Force: CPR: "New $250 million Space Force operations facility coming to Colorado Springs."
Passenger Rail: Randal O'Toole is not impressed.
IT Office: Tamara Chuang: "The Governor's Office of Information Technology . . . is laying off 173 employees, or about 15% of its 1,150-person workforce."
Religious School: Ann Schimke: Riverstone Academy opened as a "public Christian school" specifically to create a legal case. But after "Colorado lawmakers put limits on how and where public education co-ops can run schools," the school dropped its "religious discrimination lawsuit." Then the school closed. This is the same set of restrictions that cut out a lot of homeschool enrichment programs authorized by a particular multi-district collaborative.
A Terrifying Case: Allegedly: A 17-year-old girl ran away from home and was hanging out under the Palisade bridge. A man threatened to shoot her, kidnapped her, and sexually assaulted her. Scary!
Connell on Health: Thanks to Mandy Connell for mentioning my article on Polis's health order.