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Looming Colorado Budget Cuts, AirBNB Sues CO after Boulder Case Jack Armstrong
Headlines Friday Sept 19, 2025
Old Boulder cold case is brought back
In April, a Colorado man saw his murder conviction overturned due to faulty DNA evidence. On Thursday, the district attorney announced that Michael Clark would face a new trial.
Clark was convicted in 2012 for the killing of Marty Grisham, a Boulder city employee. He served 12 years of a life prison sentence. Although he has always maintained his innocence, Clark was a prime suspect due to DNA found in a lip balm.
That evidence was disregarded last year due to a statewide scandal involving Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods. Woods was charged for deleting, manipulating, and omitting DNA data.
Woods’ scandal left Clark’s release under bond. The trial is set for May 2026 and both parties expect it to last around 9 days.
Colorado prison population management plan put in place from overcrowding
Repeated setbacks in the Colorado Department of Corrections population control has forced the state to trigger its Prison Population management measures. The policy framework was established back in 2018, but this is the first time it has ever gone into effect.
The policy instructs the governor to implement protocol to keep state prison vacancy rates consistently under 3% for 30 consecutive days.
The protocol comes at a time where state lawmakers have made reforms to curb the state budget deficit. Colorado lawmakers approved the decision to eliminate 300 beds from state correctional facilities in an effort to cut costs.
As part of the Prison Population management measures, the state department of corrections will be opening eligibility for certain inmates to leave early from their sentence. The department of corrections is still looking to curb the mounting pressures of the growing inmate population, seeking to add additional beds after requested Joint Budget Committee meeting on September 22 with state lawmakers.
Search efforts for 2 Elk hunters continues
Rescue teams are going through the Rio Grande National Forest, hoping to find two elk hunters that were reported missing last Friday.
One of the hunters, Andrew Porter, had been sending his fiance updates every couple of hours with the last one pinging near the Rio de Los Pinos trailhead. That’s where the other hunter’s car was parked.
According to a press release from the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office, more than 50 search teams were in the area Wednesday. The teams were composed of professionally trained search and rescue personnel and volunteers. Some volunteers come from other states and the family is offering a significant reward to whoever finds the two men.
Boulder 2026 Proposed Budget
In budget news, the city of Boulder is cutting funding from its 2026 budget, something that hasn’t happened since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While nowhere near the level of Denver’s QUOTE ‘to the bone’ cuts, the city of Boulder plans to spend 521 million budget for 2026.
The operating budget is still larger than last year, but cuts city programs like homeless street outreach, the city’s recently created crisis response team, 16 vacant jobs, reduced open space lands and shuttles to Chautauqua, and less funding for repairs to mobile homes.
The reductions come with more economic uncertainty for the city’s revenue. The city’s sales tax revenue is plateauing and more than 50 million dollars in federal funds are still yet to be dispersed.
To tighten the effects of the cuts, Boulder’s city manager plans to consider proposals for city to bring in more cash. These proposals include: fees for property owners to cover city transportation services, replacing smaller homes with larger units, increases to city parking spot rates, higher water rates, higher permitting and licensure rates, and higher fees for city recreation areas.
All of this information comes from the Boulder Reporting Lab. The city plans to hold a public hearing on the 2026 city budget management on October 9th.
Congressman Jeff Hurd held a telephone hall
On Wednesday evening, Congressman Jeff Hurd, a Republican representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, held a telephone town hall.
Listeners from across the district called in with questions ranging from Hurd’s vote in support of the One Big Beautiful Bill to his views on energy development in the Rocky Mountain West.
When it comes to cuts to Medicaid outlined in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Representative Hurd said the program should be preserved and protected for the most vulnerable.
“I’m talking about pregnant women, children, the disabled, senior citizens who are dual eligible. Medicaid, Medicare, and the reforms that we talked about doing in Congress — strengthen Medicaid for those core populations,” Hurd said. “For those that need it the most. We did institute some very common sense, in my view, working requirements for able bodied adults, who don’t have children under the age of 14, I believe it was, and basically it says, if you wanna receive Medicaid, you need to continue working about a little less than 20 hours a week. Or you need to be a student for a little less than 20 hours a week, or you need to volunteer for 20 hours a week If you do those, any of those things. Even if you volunteer for 20 hours a week, you get to keep Medicaid. It seems to me like that’s a pretty common sense reform that we’re talking about.”
An analysis by KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization, shows that most adults under 65 who are on Medicaid are already working or face barriers to work. KFF cites a Congressional Budget Office finding that a Medicaid work requirement would not have any meaningful impact on the number of Medicaid enrollees working.
