Welcome back to the Capitol, where Colorado lawmakers will pass the midpoint of the 2026 session later this week.

That threshold — the 60-day mark — will hit Saturday, when lawmakers will (likely … hopefully) be home for the weekend. Before that happens, legislators in the House will vote on several bills that have been tabbed as priority measures by the Democratic lawmakers who have near-supermajority control of the statehouse.

Today, the House is set to vote on and send it to the Senate. The bill would repeal a unique provision of Colorado’s labor law, which requires that newly formed unions pass a second vote before they can begin negotiating the collection of union dues.

Colorado lawmakers aim to ‘assert state authority’ amid federal gaps on vaccines, worker safety and other issues

The bill is almost certain to pass the House today and the Senate later this session. It's a priority for the unions that form a significant part of the Democratic base, and a similar version of the bill passed last year.

From there, though, HB-1005 is likely to run into the same end that met its 2025 version: a veto at the hands of Gov. Jared Polis.

Elsewhere today, the House Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on three Democratic measures that would limit several business-friendly tax incentives. The state would direct the savings from the bills toward a new tax credit, which would go to lower-income families with children, mirroring another credit that's run into trouble. The measures are House Bills , and .

Here's what else to expect this week, with schedules subject to change.

AI task force recs

For the radar this week: Polis' latest artificial intelligence task force, which has been tasked with rewriting Colorado's artificial intelligence regulations, is finally nearing its last hours. The task force is expected to vote at some point soon on a framework that can then be sent to the legislature for consideration for a new AI bill.

Tuesday

The House's Judiciary Committee will vote on , which seeks to expedite how quickly social media sites and other tech companies respond to search warrants. That bill has already cleared the Senate.

Wednesday

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on , which would decriminalize prostitution across the state.

The Senate Education Committee will also weigh whether to provide initial approval for , which would institute state-level protections against disability discrimination in Colorado schools.

Thursday

The House Business Affairs and Labor Committee will debate , another Democratic priority bill. The measure would prohibit companies from using data they've picked up through digital surveillance to customize either the prices they charge or the wages they pay to workers like Uber drivers.

But first, the Senate is set to have the first floor debate and vote today on . The measure is the first of Democrats’ trident of immigration bills, and it would allow Coloradans to file lawsuits against federal agents if residents are injured by those agents during immigration enforcement operations.

The bill was one of the first measures introduced this session, and it cleared its first committee earlier this month on a party-line vote. It’s likely to pass the full Senate, too, and today’s vote is the first of two it’ll need before it can move to the House.

After SB-5, the Senate is also scheduled to debate initial approval for , which would automatically seal most minors’ name-changing records. That bill was significantly amended in committee amid opposition from Gov. Jared Polis’ office. The governor has also made noise about killing SB-18 entirely and replacing it with a new bill, but the bill’s supporters told us they have no intention of playing along.

Elsewhere today, the House Finance Committee is set to debate a pair of housing-related measures. First is , which would set up incentive programs for communities to build up their ancillary public transit infrastructure, like signs and lighting. The bill would also create additional financial support to build affordable housing.

The committee will also debate , which would give tax breaks for land that’s been purchased for the purpose of later development into housing.

Later in the week, the full House will chat about which would prohibit local governments from establishing minimum lot sizes of more than 2,000 square feet. Basically, that would allow for more density, though it would do so by tipping into the land-use debate, where local governments have opposed state intervention at length.

On the Big Data front: Lawmakers of both parties have proposed legislation that would take various steps to limit law enforcement access to personal data.

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up and . The former would generally block government agencies from accessing license plate reader databases without a warrant. The latter is more expansive and would put restrictions on accessing technology like facial recognition software and traffic and drone cameras.

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will weigh a similar proposal, . That bill would generally prohibit private companies from selling your data to law enforcement agencies.

Here’s what else is afoot this week, with schedules subject to change.

Tuesday

House Judiciary will debate , a tenant-protection bill.

Wednesday

The House Ethics Committee will vote on a complaint against Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg. The legislature’s Audit Committee will receive a report on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s DNA evidence testing program, after last year’s intense focus on the agency’s testing backlog for sexual assault kits.

Both hearings are scheduled for first thing Wednesday morning.

Thursday

The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee will debate , which would undo lawmakers’ decision last year to maintain state income taxes on overtime.

The House’s Business Affairs and Labor Committee will that essentially would create state-level workplace standards, in a bid to step in for lapsing federal standards and oversight. On that same front, the House’s Education Committee will vote on , which would establish state-level protections against discrimination in schools.

All consumers who purchased items from the Google Play Store between August 2016 and September 2023 and “were harmed by Google’s anticompetitive conduct” are eligible for part of the settlement, according to a from Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office.

The settlement was first announced in December 2023, , but is still in the process of being approved.

“This settlement is a win for Coloradans and consumers across the country,” Weiser stated in the release. “We use our mobile devices more than any other form of technology. Google’s anticompetitive practices with the Play Store forced higher prices on consumers.”

Affected Coloradans began receiving notices about the settlement distribution process on Dec. 2. Eligible consumers do not have to submit a claim, and most will not need to take any further action to be paid.

Weiser and a sued Google in 2021, alleging the company unlawfully monopolized the Android app distribution and in-app payment processing market.

Google signed anticompetitive contracts to prevent other app stores from being preloaded on Android devices, bought key app developers who might have launched rival app stores, created technological barriers to deter consumers from directly downloading apps to their devices and imposed monopoly prices on in-app purchases, according to the lawsuit.

The court granted preliminary approval of the $700 million settlement on Nov. 20, triggering the notification process, according to Weiser’s office. A judge will decide whether to approve the final settlement in a hearing on April 30, 2026.

Once the settlement has been approved, consumers will receive an email from PayPal or a text from Venmo notifying them of their incoming payment at the email address or mobile phone number associated with their Google Play account.

If the phone number or email associated with the consumer’s Google Play is associated with a PayPal or Venmo account, then the payment will be made directly to that account. If not, consumers will have the option of creating an account or directing the payment to a different account.

There will be a after automatic payments are made for consumers who:

• Do not have an existing PayPal or Venmo account and do not want to sign up for PayPal or Venmo,
• No longer have access to the email address or mobile phone number associated with their Google Play account,
• Or were expecting to receive a payment but did not.

Google Play customers who do not want to receive payment from the settlement fund and want to bring their own case against Google must submit a request to be by Feb. 19, 2026. Consumers must also file any objections to the settlement by that date.

Whitehorn’s firm had signed on to support state Sen. Julie Gonzales’ impending campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, and the caller — Chris Rork — ran a party campaign fund. He also once for Hickenlooper.

During the call, Whitehorn recalled, Rork told him that it wasn’t too late for Whitehorn’s firm to avoid being blacklisted for working on a campaign that they were “going to lose anyway.” Whitehorn said Rork told him that if Gonzales’ primary campaign didn’t go forward, he could “guarantee” that Whitehorn’s firm would be hired to work for the unified Democratic campaign next year.

Rork also allegedly proposed an “alternative path” for Gonzales, Whitehorn said.

“And that would be the Denver mayor’s office. He implied there would be some version of more support for a race like that than there would be for a Senate race,” Whitehorn said. He added that Rork didn’t provide any other details, including the timing — Mayor Mike Johnston is midway through his first term — or what sort of support could be available.

Whitehorn and Gonzales’ two other consultants described the call as part of a “pattern of pressure,” undertaken since September, to try to dissuade Gonzales from entering the race. It didn’t work: On Monday, the progressive state senator launched her campaign with a video criticizing Hickenlooper for voting to confirm nominees put forward by the Trump administration, part of her broader criticism of establishment Democrats’ approach to governance.

Speaking to The Denver Post about the pressure campaign, Whitehorn said he was taken aback by Rork’s suggestion that Gonzales pursue a future mayoral campaign. He recalled telling Rork that Gonzales wasn’t interested in running for mayor, and the call ended soon after.

Attempts to reach Rork and the Hickenlooper campaign for comment Tuesday were not successful. In a statement, Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Nicla wrote that Rork “believed that his comments were given in a private capacity as a friend. He was not speaking on behalf of the Colorado Democratic Party.”

He added: “We encourage anyone with a spirit of service to run. We are neutral in primaries.”

The call was not the only sign of opposition to Gonzales’ candidacy. In September, several website addresses referencing a Gonzales Senate run were registered by someone unaffiliated with her campaign. Anyone trying to visit the sites has instead been redirected to Hickenlooper’s campaign site. Recent Google searches for Gonzales’ name first returned a Hickenlooper ad, paid for by his campaign.

A former Hickenlooper chief of staff, who now works for an NFL team, also texted Whitehorn, writing that he hoped “Gonzalez” would reconsider “before she takes the focus away from fighting republicans.”

Days after the websites were purchased and rerouted in September, a text message poll was sent to some Colorado voters, according to images reviewed by The Post. The survey sought voters’ opinions on Hickenlooper and Gonzales. It also included a lengthy question touting Hickenlooper’s achievements and asked whether they were convincing reasons to support him.

A little over a week later, Gonzales said, she had lunch with Rork. In her datebook entry for Oct. 2, reviewed by The Post, she wrote that Rork told her, “I can absolutely guarantee you that you will not win this primary.”

Gonzales said she took that to mean, “I’ve seen what these races will do. Don’t do this.”

Rork did not return a voicemail or text message seeking comment Tuesday. Hickenlooper’s campaign did not respond by the early afternoon to an emailed list of questions also sent Tuesday.

Rork is the executive director of the Democratic Senate Campaign Fund, Whitehorn said, which as an “initiative of the Colorado Democratic Party.” The fund is used to raise money for Democratic state Senate candidates.

The state party . The policy applies to elected party officers and prevents them from making endorsements in contests in their jurisdiction, like individual legislative races.

Gonzales’ consultants — Whitehorn, Annie Orloff and Claire Simonson — all said they’d never faced a similar effort to head off a political campaign. The consultants’ firm, MAC Group Consulting, is also representing Melat Kiros, who among candidates running a primary campaign against Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. They said they faced no similar pressure related to that contest.

To be blacklisted, the consultants said, would mean losing the ability to work for more prominent and established Democratic candidates and officials.

“My reaction was (a) hard pass,” Orloff said of Rork’s offer. “We do not want to be part of this culture of consultants and insiders in the establishment who pick who’s going to be in primaries behind the scenes, and then go to Democratic voters and expect them to dutifully and loyally vote for the people who they already picked.”

Gonzales is the best-known of seeking to supplant Hickenlooper, who previously served as Colorado’s governor and Denver’s mayor before winning a Senate seat in 2020. The primary election .

When he was the general manager of the Dodgers from 2004 to 2005, Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers nicknamed the It wasn’t a compliment.

DePodesta, now 52, has learned to take it all in stride, even with a sense of humor.

“I think my labels are probably always a step behind where I am in my life,” the 1995 Harvard graduate said with a chuckle.

Now, as the Rockies’ new president of baseball operations, someone charged with reversing the team’s fortunes and reshaping its culture, he wouldn’t mind being tagged again. “Miracle worker” has a nice ring to it.

After all, DePodesta inherits a team coming off a 119-loss season, three consecutive 100-loss campaigns, and a single (wild-card) playoff win in the past 18 years.

“Today is the first day of our future, and we will not accept anything other than progress,” Walker Monfort, the club’s executive vice president, said when he introduced DePodesta last month.

No pressure or anything.

DePodesta, who spent the past 10 years with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns as their chief strategy officer, has a to-do list stacked a mile high. His new job kicks into high gear starting Monday when baseball’s annual winter meetings begin in Orlando, Fla.

Josh Byrnes, introduced as Colorado’s new general manager Friday, said he left his job as senior vice president of baseball operations with the World Series champion Dodgers in part because he wanted to work with DePodesta.

“It was tough to leave (Los Angeles), but I have known Paul for 30 years. And we have always both embraced challenges,” Byrnes said. “I think there is a lot that we can both bring to this … and create a new future for this franchise.”

Any understanding of DePodesta’s modus operandi must include his days at Harvard, where he played baseball (pitcher, center fielder) and football (wide receiver) while earning a degree at one of the world’s elite universities.

“I loved it there; I really did,” he said. “I had a tremendous experience and wanted to do whatever I could to take advantage of it. And it was incredible to be surrounded by those people for four years. Not just the professors but my classmates as well. It was an extraordinary group of people.”

Michael Hill, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of on-field operations and the former general manager of the Miami Marlins, has known DePodesta for more than 30 years. Hill, who also played baseball and football at Harvard, was two years ahead of DePodesta.

“Paul always struck me as very sharp, very focused,” said Hill, whose front-office career started at age 24 with Tampa Bay in 1995 as an assistant in scouting and player development. He then joined the Rockies’ front office in 2000 as their director of player development before moving to the Marlins in ’02 as an assistant GM.

“I think it’s awesome to see Paul back in our sport because he’s got a great baseball mind,” Hill continued. “He went to a different industry, in football, with Cleveland, and I think he can bring some of those nuances with him to Colorado.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do for an organization that is near and dear to my heart from my time there.”

DePodesta was not a great player at Harvard in baseball or football, but he had a passion for both sports. An injured shoulder suffered in the spring of his sophomore year hindered his ability to throw, so he decided to focus solely on football. He was a spindly, 5-foot-11, 160-pound wideout.

He played his senior year in 1994 under former Crimson coach Tim Murphy, who had just arrived from the University of Cincinnati.

” ‘Depo’ was not the most talented kid on the team, but he was a smart, tough, high-character guy,”

The highlight of DePodesta’s college football career, at least according to DePodesta, came in Week 2 of his junior season in 1993. The Crimson lost, 45-17, at William and Mary on that September Saturday, but that’s not what stuck with DePodesta all these years later.

He recounts the tale as if it happened yesterday.

“This will probably give you more insight into my personality than you want,” he said, laughing at the memory. “It was a fourth-and-short play around midfield, and we decided to go for it. The ball was on the hashmark closest to our sideline. I was the wideout on the short side of the field.

“Our quarterback audibled to an option, coming my way, tight to the sideline. I knew at that point that my block on the corner would be critical to getting our first down. My heart was beating fast because I knew that at my size, that really wasn’t my strong suit.

“But I went out and dropped the guy, and while I was on the ground, I saw our quarterback running by me, and our whole sideline was going crazy. That embodied more of what I was as a player, instead of spectacular highlight catches or things like that.”

DePodesta earned a degree in economics at Harvard but also took many psychology courses because he’s always been interested in why people make the decisions they do.

According to a , DePodesta consciously shaped his image:

“DePodesta did his best to ensure people were aware of that intelligence, often wearing a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and glasses (rather than his preferred contact lenses) around campus so people did not view him as ‘a dumb jock.’ ”

Today, DePodesta doesn’t dispute that characterization.

“Yeah, to some degree, I was conscious of how I appeared in class,” he said. “I didn’t want to be perceived that way by classmates who were super bright and inspiring. I didn’t want to be thought of as a dumb jock.”

He certainly wasn’t that, even though he’s spent his entire professional career in pro sports.

In 1996, DePodesta got his first professional baseball job, with the Cleveland Indians, where he spent three seasons. During his first spring training, he spent part of his time shuttling around minor league players in a van.

Following the ’96 season, although he was just 24 years old, DePodesta was named Cleveland’s advance scout. Late in the 1998 season, he was appointed special assistant to general manager John Hart.

Then in November 1998, DePodesta was called into Hart¶¶Òőap office and told that the Oakland A’s had called, asking for permission to interview him for the assistant GM position. He was being asked to work under Billy Beane, who believed that DePodesta’s expertise in sabermetrics could help the Athletics win, despite their relatively low team payroll.

DePodesta was just 25, but he took on the challenge. The Beane-DePodesta relationship was famously depicted in Michael Lewis’ book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.” Later actor Jonah Hill played Peter Brand in the movie “Moneyball.” Brand was loosely based on DePodesta, but DePodesta had another label stuck to him.

“When I went into pro baseball, they started calling me ‘the Harvard guy,’ and suddenly, it was a knock when I first went to Cleveland and then Oakland,” he said. “It probably wasn’t until I left to go to Cleveland and the NFL that I was known as a ‘baseball guy.’ And now that I’m coming back to baseball, I’ll probably be known as the ‘football guy.’ ”

Now he’s the Rockies’ guy. The organization is counting on him to turn things around. DePodesta’s skills in baseball analytics and his approach to reshaping a franchise have manager Warren Schaeffer pumped up.

“I think the first thing you notice about Paul is he’s a process-oriented guy,” Schaeffer said. “You know how important the process is to me, and putting legitimate processes into play that push this thing forward and that can create a sustainable winning culture — because that¶¶Òőap the goal, to bring winning baseball back to Denver.”

RTD chief executive and general manager Debra Johnson inspected the system at an electronic “fare validator” panel west of Denver’s Union Station.

Riders can pay for their trips using credit cards or mobile wallets scanned into panels adjacent to drivers on 952 RTD buses and at 235 train and bus stations across the district’s 2,342-square-mile metro Denver service area, which spans eight counties.

First-time and occasional riders, perhaps visitors in Denver for Broncos football games, will find RTD with this “Tap-N-Ride” payment system more convenient, Johnson said.

“You can use whatever is in your wallet,” she said. “The flexibility and the ease of payment will entice those who might have trepidation about using our system.”

The number of riders on RTD buses and trains is lagging. This year, agency records showed a decline, with about 40 million fewer riders per year compared with six years ago. RTD executives’ newly proposed $1.3 billion budget for 2026 does not include funds for boosting bus and train frequency — widely seen as crucial for ridership.

This week’s rollout of credit card tap payment puts RTD on par with other major public transit agencies that offer that option in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon.

RTD board chairman Julien Bouquet anticipated the new system would not only increase ridership but also help the agency raise revenues. Bus and train fares cover about 4.9% of RTD’s operating expenses.

Over the past year, RTD transit police and contract security agents have stepped up enforcement to make sure riders pay. Police making checks — they made more than 460,000 last month — can use a handheld validator device to check a rider’s card or device and verify whether the rider paid as required.

“Our main drive as a board is increasing ridership,” and the tap payment option will make the system more accessible, Bouquet said.

“People want a more welcoming transit environment. That’s what the directors want. It’s going to be an easier experience for you to pay for that ticket. If we can generate more revenue, that’s a plus. We’re in a pretty tight financial situation coming into 2026.”

Riders can still use cash or pre-loaded funds available via RTD’s “MyRide” accounts to pay for their transit. Those choosing the new tap payment system can skip buying tickets at vending machines and rely on a quick, secure and convenient transaction using Visa or Mastercard credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards or mobile wallet cards such as those provided through Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

Agency officials said they’ll add American Express and Discover card Tap-n-Ride options in 2026.

RTD police officer Leon Duran said riders who board without paying and are caught may be asked to leave trains and buses. Transit police can issue tickets with a penalty of $86 for nonpayment. The handheld devices that let police quickly check whether a rider paid may, in the future, also be used to collect funds.

“It gives a less confrontational way of having somebody pay their fare without embarrassing someone,” Johnson said.

The agency’s elected directors included funds for setting up the credit care system in the RTD’s record-high $1.2 billion budget for 2025. The RTD is funded mostly by residents of the eight metro Denver counties who pay sales and use taxes.

They threw support behind Mayor Mike Johnston’s “Vibrant Denver” plan. They supported a slate of union-backed school board candidates. They joined much of the rest of the state in directing tens of millions of dollars more per year toward free school lunches, and they overwhelmingly stood behind a City Council-approved ordinance to ban the sale of flavored tobacco.

Colorado election results

Oh, and they agreed to rename the city's Department of Excise and Licenses.

The 2025 off-year election featured lower turnout, with the 1.73 million returned ballots reported by the state amounting to 37.9% of registered voters, though that was still inching up. And it was mostly a local affair, with the state's capital city dominating headlines -- while other local races and measures promised to make their own impact.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday night's election results in metro Denver.

Bond win gives Johnston affirmation at key time

A year ago, Denver voters narrowly rejected their new mayor's proposal to significantly expand city funding for affordable housing. But on Tuesday night, Johnston appeared to have successfully wiped the taste of that defeat from the city's mouth.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the Johnston-backed, five-pronged "Vibrant Denver" bond package. All five ballot measures were comfortably ahead after polls closed at 7 p.m., and as of Wednesday morning, all were above 60% support.

Denver election results

After recent financial struggles and municipal layoffs, Johnston took the win as a stamp of approval for his agenda and his administration. It comes at a pivotal time: Not only does it follow on the heels of last year's stumble, it arrives at just past the midway point of his term -- the first of what the mayor hopes will be a multi-term tenure.

"Our belief has always been people want us to move with the urgency the city deserves, and that's what we've done," he said in an interview from the campaign's watch party in Capitol Hill.

The $950 million bond package will pay for roughly 60 capital projects in Denver over the next six years.

Yes to slaughterhouses, no to vape shops?

The bond package wasn't the only statement from Denver voters Tuesday. Referendum 310, which asked whether to retain the council's flavored tobacco ban, moonwalked to victory: As of 10 p.m., it had an eye-popping nearly 45-point cushion over the repeal-the-ban campaign, a margin that shrank only slightly, to 41 percentage points, by late Wednesday afternoon.

The pro-ban faction was helped along by $5 million from billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg was the single-largest donor for a Denver municipal race in history, .

But so comfortable was the margin of victory that it's unclear if Bloomberg's largesse was even necessary.

The referendum's opponents had warned that the ban would harm locally owned small businesses. That's similar to an argument against a ballot measure from last year, which sought to ban slaughterhouses in the city. Voters sided with business last year. Not so much this time around.

There are, of course, key differences: The slaughterhouse ban would've essentially applied to the one such facility operating in the city, the defenders of which put employees front and center in their campaign.

Shops that sell tobacco products, even of the vaporous kind, appeared less able to marshal local support. That may come down to the general unpopularity of the product. showed that 91% of respondents thought vaping products were very or somewhat harmful.

DPS's union-backed candidates regain ground

In four Denver Public Schools board races, the teachers union-backed candidates comfortably led challengers, some of whom were backed by school reform-minded groups. Only one race was close Tuesday night, but the union-backed candidate, DJ Torres, saw his lead grow to 9 percentage points by late Wednesday afternoon.

The likely wins would be a reinvigoration for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, which lost ground two years against candidates backed by a charter school-aligned group.

“Our candidates ran authentic campaigns, remained committed to their values, and it¶¶Òőap encouraging to see that their authentic selves are resonating with voters,” Rob Gould, the union's president, said after early results were released Tuesday.

It's also a loss for those reformers, who had hoped to build upon their 2024 gains and fully flip the board. Johnston had also weighed in on their side and endorsed their slates of candidates. Instead, they find themselves farther back.

The victory for the union-backed faction comes at a pivotal time for the school district. Falling enrollment and financial struggles remain challenges for the new board to tackle.

Denver's at-large council elections set for change

In another strong statement, Denver voters appeared set to change how they elect their two at-large City Council members. Referred Question 2G, which will required the winners of those seats to be elected in separates elections, is steaming toward victory, with more than 54% of voters behind it.

Voters' support for 2G, which in part by a dark-money group, may change the dynamics of the at-large elections in the 2027 cycle. Currently, the at-large seats are filled in one race, with the top two vote-getters earning the seats as voters each cast up to two votes.

Supporters of the proposal argued that the at-large members should be elected just like the rest of the council's members, who represent geographic districts. But opponents argued it would require candidates to choose one at-large seat or another, allowing for gamesmanship.

Others wondered if the proposal was an effort to unseat the two council members who now occupy those seats -- and who are among the most progressive members of the city's governing board.

Aurora progressives find new life

To the east, Aurora voters embraced progressive City Council candidates while seemingly directing two conservative incumbents toward the exit.

That could include Danielle Jurinsky, a prominent conservative who spoke at a Donald Trump rally last year and was a prominent voice in the Venezuelan gang controversy last year. As of late Wednesday afternoon, Jurinsky was still in third place in the city's at-large race, from which two candidates will join the council. The two candidates leading in that contest, Rob Andrews and Alli Jackson, are decidedly to Jurinsky's left.

Colorado election results by county

Another conservative incumbent, Steve Sundberg, was also trailing to progressive opponent Amy Wiles by nearly 8 points.

Should the results hold, the progressive gains would reverse Aurora council losses for that faction in recent years and give left-leaning members a slight majority on the council.

The city has found itself repeatedly in the national spotlight of late: Allegations of a gang takeover in parts of the city became a national political talking point -- and local debacle -- last year, and the city was subsequently the site of some of the earliest immigration raids of President Trump's return to office this year.

Elsewhere on the municipal front, Littleton's quest to blunt denser multifamily housing developments seemed destined for victory. The city joins a growing list of municipalities where pro-density housing reforms embraced by local leaders were then rejected by residents.

Staff writer Elliott Wenzler contributed to this story.

After a year of building, Gretchen TeBockhorst and Kelly Stoker launched the Denver startup this month, seeking to better link small business owners with photographers, videographers and social media creators.

“For years we’ve worked with businesses on social media
 and they all just need quality content,” TeBockhorst said.

TeBockhorst founded the local public relations firm Prim + Co in 2015. Stoker has been working for the agency since 2017 and is vice president of digital marketing.

“A lot of folks are not interested in or have the budget for full-service social media management,” TeBockhorst said. “We’ve done photographer and videographer referrals with people we trust who we’ve worked with for years. So we thought why not create a way for businesses to connect with content creators and give them the ability to work with each other to find out what a project looks like.”

Currently, the founders said, the piecemeal approach that people use is very subjective. It often falls on the whims of SEO optimization and who pops up when a hotel owner searches “best interior photographer in Denver” on Google.

Restaurants, consumer packaged goods companies and other firms can sign up for Frameflow’s website at no cost and gain access to a suite of specialists. They can search through the website’s stable of photographers, videographers and the like by specialty. Just because one is good with headshots doesn’t mean they’ll know how to make a plate of nachos look enticing, Stoker said.

Having high-quality pictures or videos helps build trust with consumers, she added, mainly because so many seek out brands and businesses on social media before spending money with them.

“A lot of times photo is very subjective — what your friend likes might not be what you like,” TeBockhorst said. “This way, you can view the work side by side, filter the results and then see a selection of all of them next to each other with style and price point. That¶¶Òőap the big differentiator.”

Frameflow allows businesses to filter artists by specialty, something other marketplaces don’t typically offer. (Courtesy Frameflow)

Pricing is set by the artist and ranges from $200 hour-long shoots to $10,000 all-day packages with models, site designers and the whole shebang. Frameflow takes a 15% commission, and the idea is that all communication and payment takes place through the site.

Stoker and TeBockhorst said most other creative marketplaces charge photographers and videographers for leads. But with Frameflow, “we only make money if the creator makes money,” Stoker said.

The site is currently live in Denver with about 45 creatives. Most of those are freelancers who the pair have worked with at Prim + Co.

“We’ve seen businesses choose terrible photographers, videographers, content creators that lead them to believe they can produce something that they can’t,” Stoker said. “But that¶¶Òőap where Frameflow comes in. It gives them the ability to search for vetted people.”

When someone applies to be listed on Frameflow, the team reviews their portfolio, website and social media channels to vet their legitimacy. TeBockhorst said they also look at Google, Yelp and Better Business Bureau reviews to gauge how clients have responded to their work over time.

So far, Frameflow has facilitated 12 projects in total, Stoker and TeBockhorst said. Next year, they plan on rolling the site out to Dallas and Phoenix, where they are currently building up a stable of freelancers. The hope is to be in 20 markets by the end of 2028.

The pair put $110,000 into the company themselves to get it launched. TeBockhorst said they are having conversations with outside investors in hopes to raise a $500,000 round by the end of the year. With that money, they’ll likely focus on marketing efforts and improving the site. Both are keeping their day jobs with Prim + Co.

“90% of small businesses use social media marketing and there are hundreds of millions of small businesses in the country,” TeBockhorst said. “If we even have a small percentage of that, we’ll do very well.”

Read more from our partner, .

Those that don’t comply with the major laws, which include requiring cities to allow accessory dwellings and to encourage density in transit-rich areas, will be at risk of losing out on tens of millions of dollars in state grant funding, Gov. Jared Polis’ office has said.

The new report details varying levels of compliance with — or rejection of — a package of land-use laws passed in recent years that, supporters say, will help blunt the state’s housing crisis. The report shows a mixed bag in terms of full alignment with the laws, though most cities were characterized at least as progressing toward compliance.

Two Denver suburbs take different paths as residents face housing crunch: ‘We can manage it, but just barely’

But it's less clear how cities have complied with some of the other laws passed by the legislature, since those didn't come with reporting requirements. The new report indicates that the state's legal and political standoff with several prominent holdouts is likely to escalate.

Those primarily suburban opponents of the state-imposed reforms have sued to block some of the laws. Meanwhile, Polis, who's championed the measures as a key platform of his second term, signed executive orders earlier this summer directing state agencies to weigh a city's compliance with the laws -- or progress toward compliance -- when evaluating how to allocate $280 million in state grants.

That new evaluation process took effect Monday.

The bills, passed by legislative Democrats, broadly require cities to implement various zoning changes and undertake detailed planning to ease and incentivize housing development. Several of the laws, which apply mostly to towns and cities along the Front Range, have fully kicked in, though others will continue to roll out in the coming years.

The state has a housing shortage of more than 106,000 homes, according to the State Demography Office. Supporters of the land-use reforms have argued that increasing supply will lower rents and ease pressures across the housing spectrum.

“It¶¶Òőap clear that communities across the state are removing obstacles and regulations that prevent housing from being built and expanding housing options," Polis said in a statement. "I applaud these local leaders and look forward to this continued work to make housing more affordable in our state."

The report paints an optimistic, if complicated, picture of local governments' acceptance of the new laws.

Most affected local governments, for instance, aren't in full compliance with requiring cities and towns to allow for accessory dwelling units to be built in residential areas, which went into effect three months ago. Backyard cottages and garage apartments are examples of ADUs.

Just 9% of cities have fully implemented the law's requirements, while 73% are "in progress" of becoming compliant. The latter designation applies to cities and includes places like Colorado Springs and Denver, which last year moved to allow ADUs citywide but didn't fully align with the law's requirements.

Sixty percent of covered cities have successfully submitted required reporting showing they've complied with that seeks to bolster denser housing development in areas with frequent transit service. Every city and county that's subject to , which requires local housing planning by the end of next year, are also either compliant or are in the process of becoming compliant, according to the report.

Maria De Cambra, the executive director of , said state officials were pleased that most municipalities had reached some level of compliance with the laws. She said the state was focusing on working with cities and giving them time to meet the laws' requirements.

"Every case is different, and we really have tried at DOLA to be good partners and work closely with local governments," she said.

Still, a dozen cities and towns are not at all compliant with the ADU law. Many of those jurisdictions also did not submit the early reports required by the density law. Two more towns -- Black Hawk and Northglenn -- are listed as out of compliance with yet another recent land-use law, which forbids setting housing occupancy limits.

In all, 16 cities and towns were listed as not complying with at least one of the laws, putting them in jeopardy of losing out on grant funding. They are:

• Aurora
• Arvada
• Black Hawk
• Castle Pines
• Centennial
• Cherry Hills Village
• Firestone
• Glendale
• Greenwood Village
• Lafayette
• Lone Tree
• Northglenn
• Palmer Lake
• Parker
• Thornton
• Westminster

For several of those places, their opposition isn't new. In May, six -- Arvada, Aurora, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Lafayette and Westminster -- sued, arguing that the laws and Polis' executive order overstepped the state's authority.

That lawsuit is still in its early stages. Lawyers for the state asked a judge to dismiss some of the cities' allegations but said they planned to defend the state's ability to impose the zoning changes on local governments.

In a statement Tuesday, Kevin Bommer, the executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, criticized the executive orders and encouraged the legislature to intervene to ensure grant funding is distributed as it has been in the past -- meaning without an eye toward how local governments are complying with state law.

"I honestly never thought I would see the day that all the great work (the Department of Local Affairs) does helping all local governments would be overshadowed by referring to partners as 'subject jurisdictions' and weaponizing the department against home rule authority and local decision-making," he wrote.

Denver residents can expect to start seeing Waymo cars on the street this week as the company deploys about a dozen self-driving test vehicles, said Sandy Karp, a spokesperson for the company.

“We won’t be serving riders right away. We’re beginning with an exploratory phase to understand Denver’s unique driving environment, while engaging with local officials and community partners,” Karp said Tuesday.

Waymo already has vehicles in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta and Phoenix, operating like the ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft (and sometimes in partnership with them) once it’s established in a city. The vehicles use sensors and cameras to operate.

The vehicles, in testing for years, have been a source of controversy in some of those cities, especially after to some of the cars. Others have complained that the cars are a nuisance for other drivers and can get stuck. Police have also to investigate crimes.

Waymo, however, , with the self-driving vehicles far less likely to hit pedestrians or bicyclists than human drivers. The company also says its newest system incorporates engineering geared toward operating in harsher winter climates.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis both supported the local arrival of the new technology Tuesday.

“Whether they need a ride to work, school, the farmer’s market, or they’re heading out for a night on the town, Waymo is a great way for Denverites to get where they’re going safely,” Johnston said, according to a statement. “Waymo’s innovative, climate-friendly technology will make our streets safer and cleaner, and I can’t wait for my first ride.”

Google’s parent company Alphabet owns the California-based company.