Rocky Mountain Voice

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“Parents Last”: Senate Democrats Advance HB25-1312 Despite Mass Opposition, Custody Concerns
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“Parents Last”: Senate Democrats Advance HB25-1312 Despite Mass Opposition, Custody Concerns

By Tori Ganahl | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s controversial “Kelly Loving Act” is one step away from becoming law, after the state Senate advanced HB25-1312 in a party-line vote Monday night. The bill passed 23-12 following hours of floor debate—nearing an end to a legislative saga that’s drawn over 700 would-be testifiers, more than 17,000 emails from concerned constituents, and ongoing warnings from legal experts, parents, and educators. The bill started as an expansion of the Colorado Anti-discrimination Act (CADA), aiming to add gender identity and expression as protected categories in schools, courts, and beyond. Even after key changes, Republicans say it still threatens parental rights and opens the door to new legal trouble for those who disagree with progressive gender pol...
Enos: If parents can’t challenge books or protect embryos, who will?
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Enos: If parents can’t challenge books or protect embryos, who will?

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado The majority in the Colorado General Assembly seems to have caught the attention of the Trump Administration. The U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman Julie Hartman told the Daily Signal that “Children do not belong to the government. They belong to parents.”  Then, on March 28th of this year, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a letter to educators that included the following statement: “Under President Trump’s leadership, my Department will no longer passively accept school officials’ hostility to parental involvement. The Department stands with parents in exercising their rights to the full extent of the law.” This may be news to Colorado’s General Assembly. On April 21st, the Colorado House S...
114 laid off from federal energy lab in Golden as Biden-era programs face scrutiny
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114 laid off from federal energy lab in Golden as Biden-era programs face scrutiny

By Heather Willard | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — On Monday, 114 employees of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory were “involuntarily separated” from the agency. The mass layoff was confirmed in an email from an NREL spokesperson, who said NREL is dealing with “a complex financial and operational landscape shaped by the issuance of stop work orders from federal agencies, new federal directives, and budgetary shifts.” “As a result, NREL has experienced workforce impacts affecting 114 employees across the laboratory, including staff from both research and operations, who were involuntarily separated today,” the statement read. “We appreciate their meaningful contributions to the laboratory. NREL’s mission continues to be critical to achieve an affordable and secure energy future. We a...
Trump to meet Carney for first time since Canadian’s election win
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Trump to meet Carney for first time since Canadian’s election win

By Simon Kent | Breitbart U.S. President Donald Trump will sit down with newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney in Washington, DC, on Tuesday for the first meeting between the two since the Canadian’s election win. They’ll have a lot to talk about. The 60-year-old Liberal Party leader and former central bank governor pledged during the Canadian election campaign Trump would “never break” Canada, vowing Ottawa would look to forge new trading alliances with its southern neighbor even as he added the “special relationship” with the U.S. is “over.” READ THE FULL STORY AT BREITBART
Harvard gets more bad news from Trump Admin amid funding fight
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Harvard gets more bad news from Trump Admin amid funding fight

By  Leif Le Mahieu | Daily Wire Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Harvard University in a letter on Monday that it would no longer be eligible for new federal grants, saying that it has systematically violated federal law. McMahon’s letter to Harvard President Alan Garber comes after the Trump administration has frozen more than $2 billion in federal dollars to the university over DEI and its handling of anti-Israel protests. President Donald Trump last week said that Harvard would lose its tax-exempt status. “Harvard University has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus,” McMahon wrote. “In every way, Harvard has failed to ...
Northeast Colorado judge resigns after allegations of undisclosed ties to former client
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Northeast Colorado judge resigns after allegations of undisclosed ties to former client

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A judge from northeastern Colorado resigned at the end of Wednesday, and, in doing so, admitted to allegations that he used his position to aid a friend in her court case and did not disclose his personal connection in other cases involving that friend. District Court Judge Justin B. Haenlein presided in the 13th Judicial District of Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma and Kit Carson counties. He had been off the bench since the Colorado Supreme Court suspended him in November, pending a disciplinary investigation. In an April 29 letter addressed to Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez, he announced his resignation effective on April 30. Also on April 29, Haenlein's attorney submitted a filing to the three-member...
Members left in the dark: LPEA board spends big while margins shrink and bills climb
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Members left in the dark: LPEA board spends big while margins shrink and bills climb

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice When La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) members open their May power bills, most will see the effects of a 7.72% rate increase that quietly took effect April 1. While LPEA’s board says the hike is needed to cover infrastructure and supply costs, many members are beginning to ask harder questions – not just about what they’re paying, but about how their cooperative is being run. From 2019 to 2023, La Plata Electric Association’s revenue barely grew, just $3 million over five years. But its expenses went up by more than $10 million, causing profits to drop sharply.  In 2019, LPEA made $10.3 million in net income.  By 2023, that had fallen to just $3.8 million, a 63% decline. That means the co-op now keeps only 3 cents of every do...
Caldara: Nothing’s more expensive than “free” school lunch
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Caldara: Nothing’s more expensive than “free” school lunch

By Jon Caldera | Commentary, Denver Gazette A key part of the planned march toward socialism is, of course, endless propaganda. It’s not enough just to rely on the politics of envy. We need to take away those dangerous little opportunities where young people might accidentally experience the benefit of the free market in their fledgling lives. So how can we teach children to participate in class warfare, punish the productive by taking their stuff and that property rights and free exchange don’t exist? Enter Colorado’s oversubscribed, already broke (as all redistribution schemes become) “free” school lunch program. Who could have guessed a $50 million take-from-thy-neighbor scheme would quickly cost $150 million? The free lunch program taxes Coloradans who make “too much money”...
Trump Administration offers $1,000 to illegal aliens who self-deport
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Trump Administration offers $1,000 to illegal aliens who self-deport

By James Lynch | National Review The Trump administration announced Monday that it will provide $1,000 of financial aid to illegal immigrants who self-deport from the U.S. and take advantage of travel assistance. The Department of Homeland Security said it will give $1000 to illegal immigrants who use the CBP Home app to self deport and confirm their return home through the app. “If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE NATIONAL REVIEW
NIH closes experimentation labs accused of brutally killing thousands of beagles for 40+ years
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NIH closes experimentation labs accused of brutally killing thousands of beagles for 40+ years

By Alexandra Koch  | Fox News National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jay Bhattacharya recently announced on Fox News the agency closed its last in-house beagle laboratory on the NIH campus. The announcement comes just days after Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk posted on X that he would investigate funding beagle experiments. A report from the White Coat Waste (WCW) project detailed the lab's history of allegedly pumping pneumonia-causing bacteria into more than 2,000 beagles’ lungs, bleeding them out, and forcing them into septic shock for deadly experiments. READ THE FULL STORY AT FOX NEWS