Fort Collins Coloradoan: Over the weekend, reporter Nick Coltrain was recognized as this year’s Society of Professional Journalists First Amendment Award winner, one of the highest honors in the state.

He received the award for his work on an investigation into Colorado State University employee salaries that revealed — among other findings — that those closest to the university president were awarded percentage-based raises outpacing what was received by university rank and file.

CSU continues to study the issue and has recently hosted public meetings on both gender equity and salary equity on its campus.

Coltrain’s work provided the spark for two open records bills at the Colorado Legislature, one in 2016 and one in 2017. The first one failed. The second has made it out of the Senate and is set to be heard in the House next week.

The bill that will be heard in the house on Monday seeks to make records that are available in print also available in digital format.

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