There's no probable cause that organizers of a failed effort to recall Fort Collins City Council member Lisa Poppaw violated municipal campaign laws, a special prosecutor said this week. Colorado Ethics Watch, a Denver-based watchdog group, filed a complaint in June that said the recall organizers, Stacy Lynne and Rudy Zitti, may have failed to properly register as an issue committee before raising and spending money.

Attorney General John Suthers is not writing the new rules that will govern the payday loan industry in Colorado. That’s why he is playing down the $10,000 in campaign donations he has received from the industry and saying the cash won’t influence the final contours of the new state regulations. The person writing the rules, Laura Udis, has worked in the attorney general’s department of consumer protection for more than two decades. She told the Colorado

An attempt by lawmakers to ease the grip of payday lending on Colorado families has turned into a swirl of controversy in the attorney general's race.

Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett, a Democrat trying to unseat Republican incumbent John Suthers, has raised questions about $10,350 in contributions from 12 payday lenders to Suthers' campaign — which came precisely at the time Suthers' office was writing rules to implement the state's new, more restrictive payday lending law.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett called on the state's attorney general, John Suthers, on Monday to return more than $10,000 in campaign contributions he received from the payday lending industry.

Garnett, a Democrat, questioned the judgment of his Republican opponent in the attorney general's race after Suthers accepted $10,350 from payday lending employees and political action committees at the same time his office was working on implementing a new state law that clamps down on the industry.

Colorado Ethics Watch is calling on Attorney General John Suthers to return the more than $10,000 in campaign contributions he has received recently from the payday loan industry. Ethics Watch Executive Director Luis Toro believes the spike in industry donations to Suthers, coming at a time when he is drafting payday loan regulations, fits a pattern of industry attempts to affect policy. Toro said the Suthers campaign should return the money to “avoid the appearance of impropriety.”

Secretary of State Bernie Buescher turned down a request filed on the behalf of Clear the Bench Colorado last week to write a new rule categorizing the group as an issue committee. Clear the Bench is presently registered as an issue committee but a complaint filed by government watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch argued that the group is actually a political committee because it is advocating not for any single issue but rather against retaining

Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint last month asserting that GOP candidate for governor and Colorado licensed attorney Scott McInnis violated professional ethics rules when he plagiarized articles for which he was paid

DENVER — The Colorado Secretary of State’s office on Thursday declined to conduct an emergency rulemaking session requested by Clear The Bench Colorado, a group that urges voters not to retain three Colorado Supreme Court justices in the November retention election.

DENVER — Colorado Ethics Watch on Monday filed a supplemental complaint in its months-long litigation against judicial-ouster campaign Clear The Bench Colorado, which urges voters not to retain all three Colorado Supreme Court justices seeking retention.

Meanwhile, Clear The Bench awaits word from the Secretary of State’s office about whether it will hold emergency rule-making that would render Ethics Watch’s complaint moot.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis has until Sept. 3 to respond to a request for an investigation in an attorney-discipline case filed against him that could affect his license to practice law.

Denver attorney Luis Toro, executive director of the progressive group Colorado Ethics Watch, filed the request with the state’s Attorney Regulation Counsel against McInnis soon after the former congressman admitted last month to plagiarizing material in articles about water for which a Pueblo foundation paid him $300,000.

A man challenging Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario in the Republican primary is questioning Vallario’s goal of getting 100 employees to contribute $100 apiece to his campaign.

Doug Winters says he has no problem with employees supporting an incumbent sheriff, but he thinks Vallario’s request puts them in an uncomfortable and unfair situation.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Amid mounting calls from his critics for Scott McInnis to abandon the governor's race in light of plagiarism charges against him, local political leaders see the matter differently.

One longtime local Republican, Don Vanderhoof, maintained that “I don't know much about it, except what I've read in the newspapers,” and suggested that newspaper reports fueling the controversy might be part of a dirty tricks campaign.

Things couldn’t look worse for Scott McInnis’ campaign for governor. Few headlines are breaking his way. Perhaps the most damaging have been inspired by statements from Rolly Fischer, the 82-year-old researcher who is adamant his work was plagiarized by the former congressman.

Asked by 7News if McInnis is lying about Fischer’s participation in the scandal, Fischer says “yes:” He was under the impression that his research on water, which included previously

Leading Colorado Republicans on Wednesday began maneuvering for the possibility of Scott McInnis dropping out of the governor's race.

McInnis, who continued to explain the plagiarism in his written series on water, said through his spokesman that he was staying in.

Updated: A Denver Post report that a Hogan Lovells partner running as a Republican for Colorado governor apparently plagiarized some material years ago has put Scott McInnis on the hot seat.

Former congressman Scott McInnis has no intention of withdrawing from the race for Colorado governor, his campaign said Wednesday.

But while Democrats, Front Range newspapers and conservative radio talk show hosts were calling for him to withdraw a day after McInnis admitted to plagiarism, no one in the Republican Party was doing so publicly, including his rival for the party’s nomination.

DENVER - Republicans and Democrats are debating Scott McInnis' political survival in the wake of a second allegation of plagiarism Wednesday, the filing of a formal ethics complaint and continued calls for the GOP candidate to drop out of Colorado's governor's race.

Colorado Ethics Watch Wednesday asked the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation to open an investigation into the Denver Post report on Monday that former Congressman Scott McInnis, a Republican candidate for governor, plagiarized articles on water issues that were written by now Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs.

For the formal letter requesting the investigation, go to www.coloradoforethics.org. Here’s the Ethics Watch release on the request:

DENVER -- One candidate’s run for governor in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado has hit rocky ground after reports surfaced alleging he is a repeat plagiarist.

DENVER -- Colorado Ethics Watch has filed a complaint against Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis, saying that state attorney regulators should determine if McInnis violated the rules banning dishonesty and fraud for attorneys, CALL7 Investigators have learned.

McInnis conceded that portions of articles he submitted to the Hasan Family Foundation, as part of a $300,000 fellowship, were copied from a 1984 article by now-Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs. He said a researcher made a mistake in copying the work.