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If more education spending works, why not require proof?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

If more education spending works, why not require proof?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project This coming November voters will be deciding on Proposition NN and possibly Initiative 195, the former being a referred measure by our state legislature and the latter a ballot initiative which as of this writing was out for signatures with no definitive answer on whether it will be on the ballot yet. Both measures are of the type I like to label with “won’t someone think of the children?!” That is, both of them are geared emotionally to tap into the completely natural desire to help children. The thing is, there are some problems with the reasoning in both. To demonstrate, I will lean heavily on the well-written op ed about education funding from one of the interns at the Independence Institute (as well a...
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Colorado coded the gun stores. Congress may reverse course
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado coded the gun stores. Congress may reverse course

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The Feds might put a stop to Colorado's merchant code gun law SB24-006 passed out of the Colorado legislature in 2024 and was quickly signed by Jared Polis. Piercing through the confusing jargon in the bill's fiscal note, it essentially requires credit card companies to tag purchases related to firearms in their systems, in theory to make it easy to spot someone planning a mass shooting. To my knowledge, that has yet to happen. The only outcome thus far that I'm aware of is that the government has leaned on private industry to help them keep track of of constitutionally-protected activity. Per the We the Second post linked second below, a law recently made it out of the Federal House of Representatives ...
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What democracy is: An open letter to Jay Tutchton
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

What democracy is: An open letter to Jay Tutchton

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I wrote recently (see the first link below) about how a political agenda has hijacked the CPW Commission and they're really not bothering to hide the ball anymore. I mentioned to someone in the comments on that post that I'd heard Commissioner Jay Tutchton had remarked about the nature of the commission's votes and democracy. The second link below is to a Yahoo reprint of a 9News article which has the quote I couldn't find for the commenter. Quoting from that piece: "Yesterday was 6-5, today was 6-5. I'm happy with democracy working," said James Tutchton, the commission's chair." Said another way, Mr. Tutchton, somewhat resignedly, commented that the vote going the way he wanted on the day prior vs. the da...
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Does Aurora police provide equal protection to protesters and workers alike?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Does Aurora police provide equal protection to protesters and workers alike?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Does Aurora PD offer equal protection to all? Let me start with the top-line story before I get to an easily-missed detail. The first link below is to a CPR article which details how an employee of the ICE detention facility in Aurora allegedly shot a protestor.** A quote gives some detail: “Police reported that Booth [the alleged shooter and employee of the facility] and his colleagues had been unable to get into the facility for their work shifts due to the protest. The two women reportedly took pictures of the employees’ cars and got into a verbal altercation with the employees before walking away. Booth then took out his personal firearm and fired one shot in the direction of the women, hitting ...
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Aurora’s debt proposal is why taxpayers need to speak up
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Aurora’s debt proposal is why taxpayers need to speak up

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Speak up for fiscal responsibility and join likeminded people The image heading this post is a flyer about a particular ballot issue put on the November ballot by city council. If you live in Aurora or know someone who does, give that image a share. The idea of, and push for, fiscal responsibility is not limited to Aurora, however. Spending someone else’s money is seemingly tempting for politicians of all parties. That’s why you need to engage and be active in forcing fiscal responsibility and restraint no matter where you live in Colorado. If you’ve been wanting to but find it easier to be a part of something instead of striking out on your own, I’ve got a group for you. The flyer comes from a group...
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Colorado’s Medicaid debate: Should lawmakers fix spending before seeking more federal dollars?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Medicaid debate: Should lawmakers fix spending before seeking more federal dollars?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Drawing down more Federal money as the solution to Colorado’s Medicaid problem? Have you ever heard the saying, “the first step is admitting you have a problem”? Nash Herman’s piece on the Colorado Medicaid Commission (linked first below) made me think of that. The reason being that, per what he writes about their first meeting, the commission seems to largely be focused on wringing more money out of the Feds than dealing with the bloat that Colorado lawmakers have heaped upon the program since 2014 and Obamacare. Quoting from the piece with embedded links left intact: “The most recent Commission meeting raised questions about the government’s priorities in addressing Medicaid and the state budget. A re...
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Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Seeing an “affordable housing” project from the inside. I wrote about a project to build so-called affordable housing on a weird little quadrangle of land up near Golden, the Golden Range project. The newsletter from March of this year is linked first below if you’d like to go review. After talking to their media person, I set a reminder to follow up later in this year to see about any new developments. The project was just in its infancy when I wrote about it before. If it was in its infancy in March, it’s now in its toddlerhood. We are still a long ways from the end, but I have some updates to share. As the title of this post suggests, this will be one of multiple updates on this project; its a great...
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Colorado’s renewable milestone deserves a reality check
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s renewable milestone deserves a reality check

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Sarah Montalbano, the author of the Complete Colorado piece below makes a great point in her article about renewables. In response to a recent article by fellow energy writer Allen Best, see the second link below, about Colorado hitting an energy milestone of “More than half the state’s electricity came from wind, solar and hydro during the first months of 2026”, Montalbano notes that perhaps it’s not time for celebrating yet. Quoting from her Complete piece, “The trouble is that this jubilant announcement of a ‘majority’ renewables power grid owes more to a stark drop in coal-fired generation than the wind and solar that was added. Percentages rely on both the numerator — how much wind, solar, and hydropower...
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How a youth trap shooting story became a debate over gun policy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How a youth trap shooting story became a debate over gun policy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The Colorado Sun article linked first below is nominally about high school kids, trap shooting, and teaching young ones how to be responsible around guns. The subhead illustrates pretty well: “Schools in mostly rural counties are building high school shooting teams that teach kids discipline, focus, camaraderie — and most important, how to handle a gun safely.” Perfectly fine topic. I like the topic, and I like that the Sun is looking outside the metro area to bring interesting stories back to that region, something that they do regularly if I’m going to be fair to them. If the Sun reporter stayed with the topic of the subhead, if she had focused on what is an unusual sport and how it’s helping youngsters...
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