Scott Franz
Reporter, Capitol CoverageScott 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.
-
Gov. Jared Polis' final State of the State address of his first term was more subdued and somber than his previous speeches to lawmakers. -
After a summer that saw lawmakers from both parties work together to advance a plan to spend hundreds of millions of coronavirus relief dollars on affordable housing and mental health initiatives, it did not take long for the day to devolve into partisan bickering that is common in the Capitol.
-
Retired elementary school teacher Laura Nasiatka didn't have enough time to grab her social security card and other important documents before she fled the Marshall Fire in Louisville.
-
Savanah Wolfson doesn’t mince words as she describes what some people in her small hometown of Oak Creek think of joining a new congressional district stretching all the way to Boulder County. “They are mad as hell. They are mad as hell,” Wolfson says. “Especially the ranchers.”
-
The town of Superior and city of Louisville are still under mandatory evacuation orders Friday morning due to the Marshall Fire near Boulder. Snow is falling on the burn area, and officials do not expect the blaze to grow beyond the current estimate of 6,200 acres.
-
Greeley resident Stacy Suniga says she has always felt like she was living in a poorly drawn congressional district.
-
Bob Beauprez knows more than any Coloradan how much pressure – and opportunity – a new congressional seat can create.
-
The overwhelming consensus of the 16-member group is to spend $300 million on grants to help cities and towns facilitate affordable housing projects, as well as a revolving loan fund that developers could use to build units more quickly.
-
The Colorado Supreme Court has approved new maps of legislative districts that will affect statehouse races for the next decade. The new boundaries appear to give Democrats an edge in next year’s elections to determine which party controls the legislative agenda at the Capitol.
-
Gov. Jared Polis hopes giving out more COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will keep more people out of hospitals, which public health officials fear could run out of beds by the end of December.
