Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Approved

Colorado’s largest TdA gang bust exposes murder-for-hire and international drug pipeline
No Comments
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Colorado’s largest TdA gang bust exposes murder-for-hire and international drug pipeline

By Joe Vaccarelli, Landon Haaf | Denver7 The massive investigation included roughly 40 undercover operations over 10 months and also unearthed a "barbaric" murder-for-hire plot. DENVER — What was described as “the biggest investigation” of the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua in the country unfolded in Colorado over the past 10 months, federal officials announced on Monday, netting 30 indictments of people allegedly involved in drug and weapons trafficking and a “barbaric” murder-for-hire plot. U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly said Monday that investigators estimated three TdA leaders, five alleged members and “numerous” associates of the gang were charged in the operation. The investigation started in October of 2024 when the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office started looking i...
Read More
Mail-in ballots on notice: President Trump moves to restore election integrity
No Comments
Substack, Approved, Commentary, National

Mail-in ballots on notice: President Trump moves to restore election integrity

By Capt. Seth Keshel | Substack Everything you need to know about a move that, if successful, would transform all we’ve come to learn about American elections in the modern era. Monday morning started off with a bang, as President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to tell us how he really feels about mail-in voting, and what he wants to do about it: Here are the most important segments of his long message: · Looking to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines (presumably the entire electronic elections infrastructure) · Wanting to install a sophisticated paper balloting system that must be hand counted · Demands timely election results · Mail-in voting enables fraud and lengthy delays used to manipulate results · Executive Order coming soon – intended to c...
Read More
Search-and-rescue costs soar as state weighs new fee increase
No Comments
The Aspen Times, Approved, State

Search-and-rescue costs soar as state weighs new fee increase

By Ali Longwell | The Aspen Times While Colorado’s backcountry search-and-rescue missions have increased significantly in the past few decades, statewide funding for the volunteer-staffed programs across the state has struggled to keep up with the growth.  A proposed fee increase before the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission next week aims to rectify this. As contemplated, it would increase a $0.25 surcharge — applied to most Parks and Wildlife licenses and registrations, including hunting and fishing licenses, as well as boat and off-highway vehicle permits — to $1.25 to bring it in line with inflation and the program’s needs today.  The growth of Colorado’s backcountry search-and-rescue programs   Colorado’s first formal mountain rescue team was c...
Read More
Salvation Army exit highlights strain of Denver’s homelessness experiment
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Salvation Army exit highlights strain of Denver’s homelessness experiment

By Deborah Smith | Colorado Politics The Salvation Army will cease managing operations at three of Denver’s hotel-turned-homeless shelters after fulfilling its current contracts with the city, according to a statement from the group on Thursday. Those contracts run through 2025. Citing the need to ensure “financial stability,” officials from the organization said the decision affects The Aspen and Stone Creek shelters, both located on Quebec Avenue in northeast Denver, and the Tamarac Family Shelter just off Hampden Avenue and I-25. The Salvation Army has been a pivotal part of Mayor Mike Johnston’s efforts to end homelessness in the city, Johnston spokesperson Jon Ewing told The Denver Gazette, adding that the organization stepped up to help solve one of the city’s biggest cha...
Read More
Study warns that short-term rentals are pricing out local residents
No Comments
The Aspen Times, Approved, State

Study warns that short-term rentals are pricing out local residents

By Robert Tann | The Aspen Times Home prices in Colorado’s mountain resort communities have skyrocketed over the past 13 years, with a new report further detailing the erosion of affordability for working residents.  A study released on Wednesday by the Colorado-based think tank Common Sense Institute shows home prices in seven Western Slope counties — Eagle, Garfield, Grand, Pitkin, Routt, San Miguel and Summit — have more than doubled or, in some cases, tripled since 2012.  The Common Sense Institute researches and promotes free-enterprise economic policy and bills itself as “nonpartisan.” Several of its board members, however, have ties to the Republican Party, and the organization has accepted funds from the conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado. The study bases...
Read More
Trump says America must fix voting system before 2026
No Comments
Newsweek, Approved, National

Trump says America must fix voting system before 2026

By Shane Croucher | Newsweek President Donald Trump said he will issue an executive order to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a move that would spark legal challenges by states. Trump, who has long argued that mail-in ballots and voting machines are vulnerable to election fraud, though evidence of it happening in practice in the U.S. is scant, made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday morning. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Senior Spokesperson Marcus W. Robinson told Newsweek that Trump's promise is "legally baseless" and said it "threatens the voting rights of millions of Americans, including military families and voters abroad." Democrats support mail-in balloting because it wid...
Read More
Griswold rallies Indivisible activists with anti-Trump speech while overseeing Colorado elections
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

Griswold rallies Indivisible activists with anti-Trump speech while overseeing Colorado elections

By Jen Schumann and Shaina Cole | Rocky Mountain Voice When Larimer County resident Phoebe McWilliams tuned into an Indivisible Colorado Zoom call on August 6, she expected to hear an update on election policy. Instead, she heard Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold accuse President Donald Trump of “abusing our legal system and undermining the Constitution almost every single day” and rally activists to “stop Trump in the courts, mobilize and beat MAGA.” “She should be neutral,” McWilliams said after listening to the call. “Because all people hear is her so-called professional opinion. She’s not neutral, and that should be a neutral position.” Griswold’s partisan rally cry Speaking to more than 400 attendees, Griswold accused Trump of pardoning January 6 defendants, disman...
Read More
Polis Rejects DOJ Label as Sanctuary State and Defends Local Law
No Comments
State, Approved, CBS Colorado

Polis Rejects DOJ Label as Sanctuary State and Defends Local Law

By Jennifer McRae | CBS News Colorado The Justice Department put 11 other states on its list besides Colorado — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia. It also included Baltimore County, Maryland; Cook County, Illinois; San Diego County, California; and San Francisco County, California, along with 18 cities from Seattle to Philadelphia. The letter states that a response to the letter must be submitted by Aug. 19 that "confirms your commitment to complying with federal law and identifies the immediate incentives you are taking to eliminate laws, policies, and practices that impede federal immigration enforcement." Gov. Polis' Office said in a statement to CBS Co...
Read More
Colorado governor pressures local leaders to ease rules and build more homes
No Comments
The Center Square, Approved, State

Colorado governor pressures local leaders to ease rules and build more homes

By Elyse Apel | The Center Square (The Center Square) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis updated an executive action to push more affordable housing for Colorado. This comes just months after he first issued the initial executive order. “We are building more housing now and breaking down government barriers to new homes. It is more important than ever to lower the cost of living,” Polis, a Democrat, said. “This action will lead to more housing that people can afford.” The amended executive order directed state agencies to prioritize grant funding to local communities that are “leading on the effort to create more housing that Coloradans can afford.”(The Center Square) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis updated an executive action to push more affordable housing for Colora...
Read More
Media fig leaves and selective lawsuits: the Colorado story you’re not hearing
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Media fig leaves and selective lawsuits: the Colorado story you’re not hearing

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Journalistic fig leaves and defunding public media. It is common in news reports on defunding public media to have the reporter say some version or another of "conservatives accuse public media of political bias". You're welcome to your own thoughts on the matter, but I personally believe these accusations are grounded in reality. I present you a CPR article (linked at bottom) to show you why. It's an article about how some Colorado House Democrats went on a tour of the ICE facility in Aurora and their concerns/accusations. You'll see plenty of Democrats talking about their perspective on what they saw, on ICE, etc. To give you a sense of the gravity of some of the accusations, I provide you the following qu...
Read More