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Mullen: This Independence Day, you’re not as free as you think
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Miami Herald, Approved, National

Mullen: This Independence Day, you’re not as free as you think

By Paul Mullen | Miami Herald There's a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, as we mark the 249th anniversary of our national divorce from Great Britain and the abuses of King George III. Yet under the flags and fireworks, the hotdogs and hamburgers, and the checkered tablecloths camouflaged in red, white, and blue, lies an uncomfortable, ironic truth: You're not as free as you think. This may sound absurd, inappropriate, even unpatriotic. How could this be, in "the land of the free"? The fact is each of us is shackled by invisible economic, regulatory, and civil chains. Hidden in plain sight is a tangled, ever-expanding web of federal, state, and local taxes, programs, regulations, spending, and debt-the overwhelming majority of which unjustly constrain and violate our Go...
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Bailey: Violent crime up 30% in Colorado, 28% in the Springs—why?
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denvergazette.com, Approved, State

Bailey: Violent crime up 30% in Colorado, 28% in the Springs—why?

By Tatiana Bailey | Commentary, Denver Gazette There’s been a lot of attention in the media regarding rising crime within Colorado Springs. As someone who works closely with public data, I always try to avoid sensationalism and instead ask: What’s driving this, and how do we compare to the U.S. and other cities? When you look at U.S. trends overall and specific comparison cities, there are, indeed, some alarming trends. Crime rates in the U.S. between 2018 and 2024 are virtually identical. However, the state of Colorado and the city of Colorado Springs have both seen double-digit increases in the rate of violent crimes per 100,000 population. Both our state and region’s violent crime rate have increased by roughly 30% while the U.S. rate is relatively steady increasing 2...
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Devotional: When the truth calls you back into formation
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

Devotional: When the truth calls you back into formation

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Elevating Life Church I remember the day truth found me, normative truth that is, and it wasn’t in a church pew or quiet devotional moment. It was on a drill pad, surrounded by hundreds of Airmen at Lackland Air Force Base, standing at attention in full formation. I was in Basic Military Training, still full of fight, pride, and the need to prove myself.  When the Training Instructors (TIs) clocked out for the day, I’d go looking for a different kind of training, one that involved fists, not formation. I would stir up fights in the dorms, trying to dominate the other guys in our squadron.  In other words, I thought I was all that and a bag of Doritos with a Mountain Dew on the side, so much so–that I thought I was getting away with...
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Citizen sues Colorado Springs for ‘end run’ around TABOR in $40 million bond ordinance
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Fox21, Approved, Local

Citizen sues Colorado Springs for ‘end run’ around TABOR in $40 million bond ordinance

By Norishka Pachot | Fox21 (COLORADO SPRINGS) — A lawsuit has been filed in El Paso County District Court against the City of Colorado Springs and Mayor Yemi Mobolade over alleged TABOR and constitutional violations. The lawsuit by Preserve Pine Creek Village, LLC, alleges that the City violated multiple provisions of the Colorado Constitution, including the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), which requires voter approval before creating multi-year government debt. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a $40 million Private Activity Bond (PAB) issuance approved by the City Council on May 27. Tim Lewan, who lives in the Pine Creek Village area, says he donated to the legal fund because he’s been against the development of these apartments from the start. “We have been try...
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Devastation in Texas Hill Country: 24 dead, dozens missing in sudden river surge
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The Guardian, Approved, National

Devastation in Texas Hill Country: 24 dead, dozens missing in sudden river surge

By Jane Clinton and Christy Cooney | The Guardian At least 24 people have died amid torrential rain and dozens of children from Camp Mystic are among those still missing What we know so far It’s 5am in Texas and the search for survivors is ongoing. Here is what we know so far: • At least 24 people have died and up to 25 people are missing after torrential rain caused flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday. • Rescue teams are searching for the people who were attending the Christian all-girls Camp Mystic summer camp just outside the town of Kerrville 104km (64 miles) north-west of San Antonio. • As of Friday night, emergency personnel had rescued or evacuated 237 people, including 167 by helicopter, Reuters reports. • The Texas Division of ...
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Independence Day victory: Trump signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’—slashes taxes and boosts oil, gas and defense
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THE HILL, Approved, National

Independence Day victory: Trump signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’—slashes taxes and boosts oil, gas and defense

By Brett Samuels | The Hill President Trump on Friday signed a massive reconciliation package that will extend tax cuts and phase-in cuts to Medicaid, finalizing a significant legislative victory for his administration after months of difficult negotiations with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump signed the one big, beautiful bill into law at a military family picnic at the White House for the Fourth of July. Trump and his aides had long pegged Independence Day as a deadline for when they hoped to see the legislation on his desk, a timeline that appeared in peril just days ago. “We made promises, and it’s really promises made, promises kept, and we’ve kept them,” Trump said from the balcony overlooking the South Lawn of the White House. “This is a triumph of democracy on the birth...
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Wright: My old CIA boss John Brennan used intelligence to sabotage a president, imprison him
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Fox News, Approved, Commentary, National

Wright: My old CIA boss John Brennan used intelligence to sabotage a president, imprison him

By Bryan Dean Wright | Commentary, Fox News Five key details emerge about how intelligence was allegedly manipulated to undermine Trump's presidency Former CIA Director John Brennan was once my boss. Given what we just learned in a shocking new report about his role in the Trump Russia hysteria, he should be in prison. Here’s why. The CIA released fresh details yesterday about the creation nearly 10 years ago of the agency’s Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) of Russia's influence campaign in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It found that Russian President Vladimir Putin "aspired" to help then-candidate Donald Trump win the election. That assessment – ordered by then-President Barack Obama and executed by Brennan – ignited the Trump-Russia hoax...
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Intel chair demands release of secret report on 2016 Russia hoax
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Just The News, Approved, National

Intel chair demands release of secret report on 2016 Russia hoax

By Jerry Dunleavy | Just the News The GOP House Intelligence Committee Chairman is critiquing the Trump CIA director's review of the Intelligence Community's assessment on Russian meddling in the 2016 election. And the CIA is pushing back. The Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) has sent a letter directly to President Donald Trump telling him that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s recent memo – which offered some critiques of the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russian meddling in the 2016 election – was a “whitewash” that “protects the deep state,” Just the News learned Thursday. Ratcliffe on Wednesday morning released a “lessons learned” review of the December 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA)...
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147,000 jobs added in June as employers push through uncertainty
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Fox Business, Approved, National

147,000 jobs added in June as employers push through uncertainty

By Eric Revell | Fox Business Department of Labor releases closely watched June jobs report The U.S. economy added jobs in June at a faster pace than in recent months, despite economic uncertainty stemming from trade, tax and monetary policy. The Labor Department on Thursday reported that employers added 147,000 jobs in June. That figure was above the estimate of economists polled by LSEG, who projected 110,000 jobs would be added. The unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.1%, which was lower than economists' expectations of 4.3%. Job gains in the prior two months were both revised, with job creation in April revised up by 11,000 from a gain of 147,000 to 158,000; and May job gains were revised up by 5,000 from a gain of 139,000 to 144,000. Taken ...
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Hancock: July 4 is a call to fulfill, not destroy
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Top Stories, Approved, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice

Hancock: July 4 is a call to fulfill, not destroy

By Michael A. Hancock | Commentary, Substack Rediscovering Frederick Douglass’s Real Message Every year around this time, we dust off the words of Frederick Douglass’s famous 1852 speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", and parade them around like fireworks—bright, dramatic, and quickly forgotten. In recent years, Douglass has been appropriated into the modern progressive narrative, a voice supposedly echoing today’s claims that America was founded as a white supremacist project, rooted not in liberty but in racial hierarchy. That’s the popular takeaway. But that’s not Douglass’s message. Not even close. Douglass’s words, when read in full, don’t damn the Constitution or the founding ideals—they uphold them. He doesn't condemn the Declaration of Independence as a fr...
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