Peter Marcus

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper likes to brag about Colorado’s bipartisan approach to politics, often saying, “Unlike Washington, D.C., we have shown the rest of the country that Colorado is a place where things get done.”

Environmental and conservation groups in Colorado have much to cheer about as Earth Day approaches on April 22, celebrating an appreciation of the earth’s natural environment and resources that has played out at the Legislature and across state and local governments.

A who’s who of education leaders spanning the political, advocacy and business worlds in Colorado lined up on Monday for a discussion of education and how it relates to jobs and the economy.

In a remarkable display of bipartisanship following a legislative session filled with bickering over how to fund the state budget, the House on Thursday backed a $7.5 billion general fund spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year by a vote of 64-1.

In one of the most unusual decisions by the Legislature this session, senators from both sides of the aisle on Monday declined to move for final Senate floor debate on a measure seeking to create a reduced tuition rate for undocumented immigrants, despite the bill being one of the most controversial and talked about bills of the year.

A crucial bill to conservative Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s elections reform agenda has been “hijacked” by Democrats, according to Republican critics, all in the name of voters who become inactive simply because they did not vote in the previous even-year general election. Democrats say those voters should be given the opportunity to return a mail ballot, and so they have amended a bill originally pushed by Gessler in a game of “political chess” that has Republicans seeing red.

Democrats will be facing a game of musical chairs next year at the Capitol. Four Democratic lawmakers in the House are up against term limits, and another four are term-limited in the Senate. Others will be leaving the House to pursue runs for the Senate, while some were either squeezed out by reapportionment, or are simply throwing in the towel.

The Grand Old Party in Colorado is becoming the Grand “New” Party with an expected changing of the guard next year in both the House and Senate. Term limits and reapportionment have affected Republicans in far-reaching ways.

State lawmakers on Tuesday praised themselves for what they consider to be a bipartisan legislative session filled with compromise, while still bracing for what is expected to be bitter fights in the next month over providing discounted tuition rates to undocumented students and recognizing civil unions between same-sex couples.

A measure that would offer prosecutors a tool in charging suspects with the same violent crimes against both a pregnant mother and her unborn child is still alive, albeit on life support.