"I’m glad the President, Vice President, and all in attendance are safe. We all have the right to disagree, but never to try and hurt each other."”

Governor Jared Polis

NEDERLAND — From the attempted appeal of a convicted election denier and the failed assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, to the Governor’s fight to comply with ICE and big state bills which could affect Nederland’s goals of providing affordable housing —from the whole nation down to this small mountain town—Colorado has been making an impact lately. 

Veteran Colorado journalist, former Denver Post editor, current public relations executive, and Vice Chair of the Colorado Public Radio Board of Directors Ricardo Baca attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, 2026, where Trump and his wife Melania hid under their assigned table immediately following the sound of the gunshots when 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen fired on secret service agents. 

Though ensuring his wife’s safety was Baca’s first instinct, he stated to CBS Colorado that journalism still ran deep in his veins, and that the urge to report still kicked in despite the terrifying ordeal.

He began filming on his cellphone and posted updates in real time, as did many brave journalists present for what was intended to be a celebration of free speech. 

Allen made no plea when he appeared in court; he was charged with the attempted assassination of the President of the United States, for using a firearm during a crime of violence, and for carrying a firearm with the intent to commit a felony.

One secret service agent was shot in his bulletproof vest during the ordeal and is recovering; at this time it is not known who shot him. The immediate release of Allen’s manifesto revealed his intent to target administration officials, ranked by title and level of power. 

Governor Jared Polis joined his fellow Coloradoan politicians on both sides of the aisle to share thoughts and prayers on social media and condemn political violence. 

“I’m glad the President, Vice President, and all in attendance are safe,” Polis posted on X. “We all have the right to disagree, but never to try and hurt each other.” 

Polis cements his legacy   

With his term as Governor coming to an end after the November election, many of Polis’s initiatives have been facing a difficult time, starting with his contested order to state employees to comply with an ICE subpoena requesting the personal information of 35 sponsors for unaccompanied immigrant children.

The subpoena was originally imposed in April of 2025. Polis directed the then-Director of Division of Labor Standards and Statistics at Colorado’s Department of Labor, Scott Moss, to comply with the subpoena. Moss denied the order and subsequently brought a lawsuit against Polis. 

Due to Polis’ order being in violation of Colorado laws SB21-131 and SB25-276—which prohibits information sharing with ICE without a court order—Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones denied Polis’ order, and later denied Polis’ request to permanently deny the release of the information and end the case. 

On March 13, 2026, ICE submitted a new subpoena requesting the personal information of 13 Colorado citizens as part of a human trafficking investigation. Jones again denied the order, stating his determination that the subpoena’s validity was questionable. 

How Polis will choose to respond to this turn of events, and whether ICE will send another request through a grand jury subpoena, is yet to be known. This setback may not be the norm, however, as Polis’ mission to award felon Tina Peters a lighter prison sentence seems to have taken a step closer to success. 

Peters is the Colorado municipal clerk labeled as either a conspiracy theorist felon or an American hero after she was convicted of stealing election data and selling it to an online pillow salesman in an attempt to prove voter fraud. 

The 73-year-old felon has served barely a year and a half of her nine-year sentence, one which has been called a “death sentence” by Peters supporters due to her age and allegedly declining health. 

Polis has taken to social media several times to tease the prospect of commuting Peters’ sentence. In March of this year, he posted on X that “Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly,” implying that Peters’ sentencing was uneven. 

Despite Polis’ post, Peters’ most recent appeal was denied this month. Though the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld her conviction, denied her request for a different judge to be assigned to her case, and denied her request for a new hearing, they did choose to vacate her sentence.

As a result of the Court of Appeals’ claim that District Judge Matthew Barrett’s comments during the original trial about Peters’ beliefs unfairly influenced her sentencing, Peters’ case will go before a lower court for resentencing.

Bringing it home 

There were two bills and one citizen-led measure that Colorado lawmakers have been pushing that were set to have an impact on the Town of Nederland.

Though HB26-1114—the bill which would have prohibited subject jurisdictions from enforcing minimum lot limits at 2,000 square feet for single-family homes—was killed by a 7 - 0 vote by the Senate Committee, another bill has narrowly passed the House and is moving forward. 

HB26-1308, which passed the House 39-26, permits residents to split their lots into two new ones, given that the newly created lot is not smaller than 1,200 square feet; that the original lot was not already split; and that the original lot is not located within a “common interest community.”  

Nederland officials and the Planning Commission are eying HB26-1308 as a possible solution for the Town’s push towards providing affordable housing, as creative land-use options are more viable as solutions because of Nederland’s lack of available land for housing development. 

And last but not least, two local nonprofit political organizations, Best Democracy and Direct Colorado, are circulating a citizen-led petition to bring Home Rule to Boulder County, a prospect that has come up before in Nederland, particularly in relation to imposing new and creative taxes. 

According to the information being circulated by the involved organizations, Home Rule for Boulder County will bring “flexibility regarding the county government’s management and election supervision, transparency and accountability, human and environmental rights protection.” 

As there are many questions regarding the next steps of the process—including who from the County would be involved in the drafting of a Home Rule charter if the petition were to gain traction with the electorate—answers may be found by attending one of the scheduled public discussions, on May 15, at the Meadows Branch Library in Boulder at 5:30 p.m.; and on May 30 at the Inkberry Bookstore in Niwot.