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McWilliams: Social-emotional learning teaches empathy—but through whose lens?
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McWilliams: Social-emotional learning teaches empathy—but through whose lens?

By Jennifer McWilliams | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Social-emotional learning (SEL) is championed as a way to instill empathy, emotional strength, and relationship building skills in students. Sounds perfect for K-12, doesn’t it? Think again. SEL is designed to push a leftist agenda on students and transform their attitudes, values, beliefs and worldview towards “leftist radical ideology.” It promotes specific emotional behaviors that force kids into lockstep conformity, crushing their individuality and critical thinking, all while hiding behind the facade of “mental health.” An ongoing challenge to stopping this is that parents are deceived into thinking SEL is teaching their children life skills in a way they approve. They hear “Social Emotional Learning’s flowery la...
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Hancock: The future of Colorado hangs between boom and blackout
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Hancock: The future of Colorado hangs between boom and blackout

By Michael A. Hancock | Commentary, Substack There's a difference between dreaming big and hallucinating. Colorado's progressive legislators have yet to figure that out. Once a beacon of frontier grit and entrepreneurial promise, Colorado is drifting into a twilight of self-imposed stagnation. This isn't the result of some unforeseeable external shock. No. The decline is being engineered — brick by legislative brick — by a political class more interested in social signaling than in fostering economic vitality. The question isn't whether Colorado faces a reckoning. The question is whether we will admit the cause before we hit the wall. Let's start with energy, the lifeblood of any serious economy. Colorado holds a wealth of natural resources—oil, gas, coal, and uranium— all of ...
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Caldara: Time to see if Polis will choose his socialist friends or Colorado’s future
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Caldara: Time to see if Polis will choose his socialist friends or Colorado’s future

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Denver Gazette There are only three jobs worth having in Colorado. The first is fortunately mine. Any person who can make a living by indulging his passion is beyond blessed. I somehow have provided for my family by fighting for personal and economic freedom in Colorado. Running Independence Institute, Colorado’s machine to promote liberty principles over party, politicians and special interests, is a dream come true. The next coolest job in Colorado is quarterback for the Denver Broncos, which, by the way, I would be totally awesome at. The only other job I’d want here would be governor, the most influential and powerful gig for changing policy and shaping the state’s future. And to be Jared Polis, a near billionaire to boot, would be a rip. I m...
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Notarfrancesco: Pueblo D70 Schools handed kids’ emotional data to political NGOs without parental consent
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Notarfrancesco: Pueblo D70 Schools handed kids’ emotional data to political NGOs without parental consent

By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  It is said there is no such thing as a free lunch.  One small school district in Pueblo, Colorado, recently learned that a free lunch can be served with a side of community outrage. When the Pueblo D70 Board of Education unanimously voted in March of 2024 to “accept” a significant in-kind gift of $700,000 from the organization TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students), did they realize what they were implementing in district classrooms?  D70 accepted a “gift” of controversial psychosocial educational content, financed and promoted by multi-million-dollar non-governmental organizations dedicated to transforming the world through social change.    The...
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The Good, the Bad, and the Alarming: What You Need to Know from Colorado’s 2025 Legislative Session
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The Good, the Bad, and the Alarming: What You Need to Know from Colorado’s 2025 Legislative Session

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board The 2025 legislative session officially adjourned Wednesday evening after 120 days, leaving behind a flood of new laws, deep partisan divides, and a public increasingly skeptical of the pace and priorities of progressive lawmakers. From sweeping gender identity mandates to gun control and TABOR attacks, the Democrat supermajority pushed through one of the most ideologically driven sessions in recent memory. Here’s a full breakdown of what passed, what failed—and what it all means for Colorado: 🔺 The Most Controversial Bills of Session SB25-003 – Gun Permit-to-Purchase Law (BECAME LAW): What began as a sweeping semi-auto ban was revised—under pressure from Gov. Polis—into a permit-to-purchase system. Starting in 2026, Coloradans must take ...
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Davidson: Why Pope Leo XIV will probably not be Francis 2.0
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Davidson: Why Pope Leo XIV will probably not be Francis 2.0

By John Daniel Davidson | The Federalist It didn’t take long after Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, emerged onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday as the new leader of the Catholic Church for social media commentators on the right to begin decrying him as “Francis 2.0.” This snap judgment was based largely on his social media history of reposting criticisms of President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance on immigration policy, as well as a few reposts of left-wing claptrap on climate change and race relations.  So does this mean the 69-year-old Chicago-born Pope Leo is going to be the next Pope Francis? The short answer is: probably not. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE FEDERALIST
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Devotional: The Breastplate of Righteousness – Character that Covers the Heart
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Devotional: The Breastplate of Righteousness – Character that Covers the Heart

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Elevating Life Church In our previous devotional, we explored righteousness as God’s unwavering standard for building just and right “equable” relationships—between us and God, and with all creation. Righteousness, in simple terms, is doing what is right in God's eyes. This time, we turn our attention to one of the most powerful symbols of protection in the believer’s life: the Breastplate of Righteousness (Ephesians 6:14). Why a breastplate? Because righteousness must not only be rooted in our hearts; it must also be worn. The breastplate protects our core—our heart, where our values, principles, and motivations reside. The armor we wear to shield that heart is character. However, it’s not just any character, it’s divine.  The Breastp...
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GOP Chair Horn: President Trump delivered in 100 days – now Colorado Conservatives must lead the charge
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GOP Chair Horn: President Trump delivered in 100 days – now Colorado Conservatives must lead the charge

By Brita Horn | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country,” President Trump said at an Aurora, Colorado, rally on October 12, 2024. That promise was central to his push for a second term. Now, just over 100 days in, he’s delivering – tightening the border and reversing years of neglect. The previous administration under President Joe Biden left a legacy of border chaos. Millions of illegal immigrants crossed into the United States, overwhelming not only border communities but also cities and states far from the frontier. Colorado has become a hotspot in the fight against organized crime and trafficking.  In Aurora, Tren de Aragua gang members were arrested after violent apartment takeovers. I...
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Gimelshteyn: CPAN files federal complaint over D70’s deceptive TRAILS program violating rights
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Gimelshteyn: CPAN files federal complaint over D70’s deceptive TRAILS program violating rights

By Lori Gimelshteyn | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice On April 25th, the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN) filed a formal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), urging an investigation into Pueblo County School District 70 (D70) and its use of the “Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students Social Emotional Learning” (TRAILS) program.  Our complaint is a direct response to the district’s reckless decision to embed this program into classrooms without parental consent, without transparency, and in direct violation of federal law. TRAILS, which was deceptively marketed as a “gift” to the district, is directly connected to the Tides Foundation, a radical political nonprofit. Under TRAILS,...
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Green: Report card for Colorado’s collapse under one-party rule—straight F’s across the board
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Green: Report card for Colorado’s collapse under one-party rule—straight F’s across the board

By Stephen Green | PJ Media Colorado's economic report card is in, and my beloved home state — formerly a solid A and B student — just flunked every subject.  Once upon a time, Colorado was a devilishly weird purple state — home to moderate-to-conservative Republicans like Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Tom Tancredo, idiosyncratic Democrats like Gary Hart and Richard Lamm, and (outside the Denver-Boulder Axis) a healthy libertarian streak. It was such a swirl that one of those famous Republicans, Campbell, was originally a Democrat. That all began to change around 2008 when my purple state went deep blue for Barack Obama. By 2018, the hope'n'change was locked in. The last Republican to win statewide office was in 2016, when Heidi Ganahl was elected to the University of Colora...
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