Scott Franz
Scott Franz is a government watchdog reporter and photographer from Steamboat Springs. He spent the last seven years covering politics and government for the Steamboat Pilot & Today, a daily newspaper in northwest Colorado. His reporting in Steamboat stopped a police station from being built in a city park, saved a historic barn from being destroyed and helped a small town pastor quickly find a kidney donor. His favorite workday in Steamboat was Tuesday, when he could spend many of his mornings skiing untracked powder and his evenings covering city council meetings. Scott received his journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an outdoorsman who spends at least 20 nights a year in a tent. He spoke his first word, 'outside', as a toddler in Edmonds, Washington. Scott visits the Great Sand Dunes, his favorite Colorado backpacking destination, twice a year. Scott's reporting is part of Capitol Coverage, a collaborative public policy reporting project, providing news and analysis to communities across Colorado for more than a decade. Fifteen public radio stations participate in Capitol Coverage from throughout Colorado.
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Colorado lawmakers react to Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting end of federal abortion protectioIt is still unclear whether the draft opinion, published Monday night by Politico, will be the court’s final decision. But officials in Colorado swiftly reacted to the leak and vowed to protect the state’s unrestricted access to the procedure. -
The bill signing ceremony in the governor’s mansion Monday evening marked a major turning point for the state. Less than two years ago, Polis was signing what he called the most difficult budget in state history. It included more than $3 billion in cuts, with public schools losing more than $500 million. -
Democrats passed the measure in response to several conservative-led states adopting abortion restrictions. Polis said Colorado also needs the new law because federal protections for the procedure may end soon. -
Lawmakers are advancing a bill to spend an estimated $693,966 each year to cover tuition at public universities and trade schools for all foster youth growing up in the state. If they enroll, the state will pay for it. -
State legislatures are considering election security bills in reaction to false narratives about voter fraud. But local election officials have a different security concern: increased harassment.
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Lori Mitchell said she never thought her job would get this risky. She was a golf pro and a photographer before she became a county clerk in 2014. She said the first six years were rewarding as she helped people get marriage licenses and ran elections with little controversy. Now she thinks the threats against election workers will be a tough issue for lawmakers to solve. -
When state Rep. Janice Rich fires up Colorado’s online checkbook, she gets frustrated. The website was created in 2009 with the goal of letting taxpayers track how the state government was spending billions of dollars. But Rich says her constituents in Grand Junction are not able to follow the money. -
Elizabeth Reiter’s family was not by her side on Mother’s Day in 2020, when she was fighting pneumonia and a blood infection in a Denver hospital. The coronavirus pandemic was just starting to rage, and hospitals were keeping visitors out to limit the spread of the virus. -
Sponsor Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder County, said the restrictions were needed because bobcat deaths were “out of control” in recent years. -
Colorado lawmakers have already introduced more than 160 bills in the first two weeks of their legislative session. And starting next week, they will kick off debates on many proposals that could affect your life.
