Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed into law the scaled-back bill to conduct several studies into implementing a paid-family-and-medical-leave law, launching a six-month process in which business and worker groups will vie to get onto a committee that will make recommendations on the issue and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will oversee three investigations that could determine the future of the long-debated proposal. 

Never before have we seen such a massive convergence of technologies affecting cities as profoundly as we see today. Very few have looked at tech adoption rates as something to monitor. The current retail apocalypse is just the tip of the iceberg as many cities in the U.S. are set to lose more than 50 percent of their current revenue streams throughout the next couple decades. At the heart of the problem is an overly complicated sales tax system, ill equipped to bend, flex or morph with the demands of our emerging culture. But it's far more than just sales tax revenue that's at stake. 

Gov. Jared Polis signed seven bills into law Thursday that overhaul the state's approach to energy regulation and setting ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The main bill, the Climate Action Plan to Reduce Pollution, sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% above 2005 levels statewide by 2030, and at least 90% reduction by 2050. State agencies, primarily the Air Quality Control Commission, is tasked with establishing rules to achieve the emissions reductions. The result, when added with the other laws' impact on emissions, will be cleaner air, healthier people and growth in jobs connected to green energy that can't be outsourced, Polis said.