Rocky Mountain Voice

Commentary

McCombie: Initiative 82 revives push to restrict hunting, override expert conservation
Approved, Commentary, NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum, State

McCombie: Initiative 82 revives push to restrict hunting, override expert conservation

By Brian McCombie | Commentary, NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum Colorado anti-hunters are making yet another push to wrest control of that state’s wildlife from wildlife professionals. This time, it is the recently proposed Ballot Initiative 82, the “Colorado Wildlife & Biodiversity Protection Act.” At its core, Initiative 82 would create an independent commission parallel to the current Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. This independent commission would then draw up legal protections for unnamed “keystone species” and assess financial penalties for any violations of these protections. If approved by voters in the state’s 2026 election, $2.5 million in taxpayer dollars will fund this commission. It then will decide what exactly are the “keystone species,” though observers ...
Hunter: Dear Common Sense on using your voice without becoming part of the chaos
Approved, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Hunter: Dear Common Sense on using your voice without becoming part of the chaos

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, NE CO Newsroom, Rocky Mountain Voice “Dear Common Sense” is a no-nonsense advice column for those who still believe truth matters, leadership is earned, and common sense isn’t so common anymore. Each issue tackles real questions from real people, offering grounded wisdom for speaking up, leading well, and living with integrity in a noisy world. No shouting. No spin. Just clarity with character.  Let’s lean into our first entry. Shall we? Dear Common Sense, I care about this country, probably more than I let on. And I’m not one to sit on my hands when something needs to be said. But these days, it feels like speaking up just adds to the noise. I don’t want to keep my mouth shut, but I don’t want to add to the shouting match either. ...
Enos: Colorado’s war on parental rights isn’t over—it’s escalating
Approved, Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Commentary, State

Enos: Colorado’s war on parental rights isn’t over—it’s escalating

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado Colorado is on a roll. Violating religious liberty and compelling free speech are two issues that Colorado Courts have already been reprimanded for. Our Courts lost two civil rights lawsuits – Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission and 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis – in addition to being overturned by the United States Supreme Court in the decision that was supposed to throw Donald Trump off the 2024 Colorado Presidential Election ballot. Now, we are doing it all over again. On Friday, May 16th, Governor Polis quietly signed HB25-1312, Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, into law. There was no ceremony or statement from the Governor, just an administrative signature. When...
Garbo: A Christian conservative’s honest, loving perspective on LGBTQIA+ and sin
Approved, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Garbo: A Christian conservative’s honest, loving perspective on LGBTQIA+ and sin

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I’m a Christian. I’m a Conservative. I believe the Bible is the Word of God, not a suggestion, not a cultural relic, but the truth. And, though it is admittedly very difficult to do at times, I also believe deeply in loving my neighbor - all of them - unconditionally. That includes the LGBTQIA+ community. Let’s be honest: Pride Month brings up tension, especially for those of us who don't support the ideology or the prurient displays often celebrated in public forums. But disagreement is not hate. Conviction is not fear. And rejecting a behavior doesn’t mean rejecting a person. If I’m going to be consistent with my faith, then I have to love people - really love them - even when I believe they're sinning. I’m called to lo...
COvid Chronicles May 24–31, 2020: When ‘peaceful protests’ overruled pandemic policy—and unleashed chaos
Approved, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

COvid Chronicles May 24–31, 2020: When ‘peaceful protests’ overruled pandemic policy—and unleashed chaos

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board The sixth installment of RMV’s COvid Chronicles covers the week Colorado dropped the mask—just not in the way you’d hope. Restrictions vanished for rioters, but stayed in place for students and small businesses. It wasn’t science guiding policy. It was politics. No, it’s not short. Neither was the fallout. The sixth installment of RMV’s COvid Chronicles covers the week Colorado dropped the mask—just not in the way you’d hope. Restrictions vanished for rioters, but stayed in place for students and small businesses. It wasn’t science guiding policy. It was politics. No, it’s not short. Neither was the fallout. Looking back five years later, it’s hard not to feel for everyday, taxpaying Coloradans. As May 2020 ended, COVID cases dropped, testin...
Kalam: Colorado’s Woke Zealotry Ushers Islamist Terror into Boulder
Approved, Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Kalam: Colorado’s Woke Zealotry Ushers Islamist Terror into Boulder

By Ahnaf Kalam | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Just over a week ago, I warned that the shooting of two young Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C., by a far-left zealot chanting “Free Palestine” was not an isolated act but a harbinger.  In progressive strongholds, where criminal fanatics like Luigi Mangione are lionized, such violence would not merely persist—it would metastasize. And so it has. In Boulder, Colorado, barely an hour from my home, the grim prophecy has been fulfilled. Last Tuesday, I was in Washington, D.C., attending a policy conference under heavy security. That morning, I spoke with a friend and colleague, an IDF reserve major in the Homefront Command, about the gnawing vulnerability we felt in a city like D.C.Stripped of the Sig Sauers we c...
Montrose Commissioner Pond: Why I’m Drawing the Line and Standing Against Federal Land Grabs
Approved, Commentary, Local, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Montrose Commissioner Pond: Why I’m Drawing the Line and Standing Against Federal Land Grabs

By Sean Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The views expressed here are my own and do not represent an official action or position of the Montrose Board of County Commissioners. I was appointed to represent the people of District 3 in Montrose County, and I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. That includes defending our land, our rights, and our way of life here in Western Colorado. In recent months, there’s been a coordinated push to place more of Colorado under federal control. We already fought back against the proposed Dolores National Monument, a 500,000-acre land grab, and we won.  Then came a 68,000 acre National Conservation Area proposal in Mesa and Montrose Counties. We stood our ground again and stopped it.  But now we’re facing two more ...
Ganahl: Congress must back DOGE to cut waste and energize GOP voters for 2026
Approved, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Ganahl: Congress must back DOGE to cut waste and energize GOP voters for 2026

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—led by Elon Musk—is lighting a fire under Republican voters ready to rip out Washington’s waste at the roots. Launched in February 2025 via Executive Order 14158, DOGE has identified $175 billion in savings through asset sales, contract cancellations, and fraud crackdowns, including more than 12 million supposed Social Security recipients listed as over 120 years old—zombie accounts draining taxpayer dollars.  DOGE’s mission to eliminate waste has the people behind it—73% of Americans, including 89% of Republicans, support the effort. That kind of backing makes it a political powerhouse. Yet, as of now, Congress has not voted on codifying DOGE’s p...
O’Donnell: One in 20 workers is a state employee—who’s footing the bill?
Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

O’Donnell: One in 20 workers is a state employee—who’s footing the bill?

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Communism, socialism, Marxism, Maoism, post-Mao Chinese-ism, and fascism may wear different uniforms, but they all march to the same beat—state control. One-party rule, diminished freedoms, political prosecutions, judicial overreach, hostility to markets, and the slow suffocation of private enterprise under the weight of public bureaucracy. Over the past decade, Colorado’s ruling class has embraced a philosophy that echoes these themes—what academics have dubbed “Radical Markets.” Promoted by groups like RadicalxChange, the idea is that centralized systems and enforced redistribution can solve economic inequality and displace what they see as the instability of free markets.  Whether Coloradans voted for this or not, ...
Turley: Rubio Declares War on Foreign Censors Targeting U.S. Speech
Approved, Commentary, JONATHANTURLEY.ORG, National

Turley: Rubio Declares War on Foreign Censors Targeting U.S. Speech

By Jonathan Turley | Commentary, jonathanturley.org Winston Churchill once warned that “appeasement is feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last.” When it comes to the crocodile of censorship, history is strewn with defenders who later became digestives. Censorship produces an insatiable appetite for greater and greater speech limits, and today’s censorship supporters often become tomorrow’s censored subjects. This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stopped feeding the crocodile. On May 28, 2025, Rubio shocked many of our allies by issuing a new visa restriction policy that bars foreign nationals deemed “responsible for censorship of protected expression” in the U.S. The new policy follows a major address by Vice President J.D. Vanc...