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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When Colorado residents go to the state Capitol this month to lobby for the bills they care most about, many will never know their bill might face a hidden obstacle. -
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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Bill Bruton is noticing some surprising changes in his mountain town nine months after the state’s second largest wildfire ripped through it, destroying more than 300 homes. -
Gov. Jared Polis signed a $5.4 billion transportation package on Thursday , one he said will benefit the very stretch of road the outdoor signing ceremony took place under -
Colorado lawmakers ended a tumultuous, impactful session Tuesday night after passing dozens of new laws that are poised to change everything from how the state pays for roads to who can purchase guns. -
The visible signs of a deadly pandemic are fading quickly inside the state Capitol. Staff have removed the yellow caution tape that blocked the basement cafeteria for many months. Swarms of lobbyists and tourists are back. And people like Brett Frizzell are even taking off their masks deep inside the poorly ventilated building that historians once labeled a “disease breeding ground.” -
Together, the measures would temporarily prevent people convicted of some violent misdemeanors from purchasing guns, create a new state office focused on preventing gun violence and allow cities to adopt stricter gun laws than the state. -
A gun-owning Democrat who leads horseback adventure in San Miguel County is torn over the idea of an assault weapons ban. A former corrections officer living in Cortez says lawmakers should focus on strengthening laws already on the books. -
Monday’s mass shooting was personal for many of Colorado’s elected officials, including Gov. Jared Polis, a longtime resident of the city. Polis said he… -
Descendants of the massacre see the steps of the Capitol as an ideal spot for the Sand Creek memorial because historians say it was where soldiers displayed victims’ bodies during a victory parade through Denver in 1864.
