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Colorado ignored the warning: Now the aspens are disappearing
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado ignored the warning: Now the aspens are disappearing

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that “Truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” Twenty-eight years ago, in the summer of 1998, the Club 20 Research Foundation published a report called “Decline of the Aspen: A Special Report on the Health of National Forests in Colorado.” It attracted substantial media coverage, widespread opposition to its recommendations, and even ridicule from some environmental industry groups that considered themselves superior experts on forest management. The Report suggested a growing crisis in Western Colorado’s aspen forests. Then-State Forester James Hubbard was quoted saying, “If the U.S. Forest Service po...
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Who’s guiding Colorado’s Medicaid Commission? A closer look at the panel shaping future policy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Who’s guiding Colorado’s Medicaid Commission? A closer look at the panel shaping future policy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Meet the Medicaid Commission and their newly-hired advisor. Medicaid is a big line item in the state’s budget. It’s gotten so big, and eaten up so much of our state’s money, that our legislature has gathered up a commission. SB26-187 (linked first below) creates a (quoting from the bill summary): “… commission on Medicaid (commission) to develop recommendations regarding implementation of new federal Medicaid policy changes that go into effect in 2026, 2027, and 2028 and to support Coloradans impacted by those policy changes.” This commission will meet a few times and prepare a report to be used by the legislature in the 2027 session. Quoting from the bill’s fiscal note: “Between May 13, 2026, and December...
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Supreme Court Has Spoken But Constitutional Debate is Far From Over on Birthright Citizenship
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Approved, Commentary, National, The Federalist

Supreme Court Has Spoken But Constitutional Debate is Far From Over on Birthright Citizenship

By: John C. Eastman | Commentary. The Federalist Lincoln believed self-government requires citizens and their representatives to continue reasoning together about the meaning of the Constitution, even after courts have spoken. The Supreme Court has spoken. Now what? That question has confronted the nation before. In 1857, the Supreme Court believed it had settled one of the most consequential constitutional controversies in American history. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that persons of African descent could never become citizens of the United States and that Congress lacked authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. Many believed the court had spoken the final constitutional word. Abraham Lincoln disagreed. His admi...
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The award wasn’t the greatest gift of the weekend
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Don't Eat Toast Naked, Approved, Commentary, State

The award wasn’t the greatest gift of the weekend

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Don't Eat Toast Naked Drake Hunter reflects on receiving Rocky Mountain Voice's Trailblazer Award during RMV Freedom Fest and why the weekend's greatest lesson came after the applause ended. Some weeks are so full you don’t know where to begin. This was one of those weeks. For more than two years, I’ve had the privilege of serving alongside the incredible team at Rocky Mountain Voice. What began as writing a weekly devotional has grown into friendships, opportunities, and experiences I never could have imagined. Over the past several months, that journey has taken me to places I never expected—including attending Turning Point USA in Phoenix with Heidi Ganahl, flying on a private jet for the first time, and helpi...
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Colorado’s dirty voter roll: Getting on is the easy part
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: Getting on is the easy part

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I’ve spent the last few months digging deeply into the Colorado voter roll from all sorts of different angles and although politicians of a certain party and their supporters are quick to parrot that Colorado exemplifies the “gold standard” of election integrity, that very definitely does NOT appear to be the case after a close examination of Colorado’s voter roll, the rightful starting point for any such assessment of the quality of election integrity in this or any other state. A closing line from the Eagles' 1976 hit song ‘Hotel California’ seems to be the most appropriate way to summarize the apparent philosophy behind the approach taken by Colorado’s legislature and the current Secretary of State when it comes to the...
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Who will shape Colorado’s 2030 census? Nonprofit funding raises questions
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Who will shape Colorado’s 2030 census? Nonprofit funding raises questions

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project And a nonprofit shall lead them.... The Sky Hi article linked first below details how the State of Colorado plans to get out there ahead of the 2030 census to make sure we get all the “hard to count” residents we can. The census is critically important to our state. So many things from political representation to federal money to state programs run off the data the census produces. It’s probably not a surprise, then, that the state wants to get out there and make sure we count as many people as possible. And as you can see by checking a nearby calendar, we’re starting early. These counting efforts are not new. I wrote a newsletter back in 2025 (see the second link below if you want the context), covering h...
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Pride changed. I didn’t.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Pride changed. I didn’t.

By Valdamar Archuleta | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As the world wraps up another June, filled with rainbows and unicorns, I, as a gay Republican, reflect on 30 days of what always ends up being unproductive conflict. And once again, I prepare to face the inevitable question: “How can you be a gay Republican?” Well, it’s pretty easy. Donald Trump was the first American President to take office supporting same-sex marriage. He was also the first President to wave a rainbow on the campaign trail before being elected. Which, he did right here in Colorado. Sure, this can just be tossed up as political lip service, but Trump went further. In 2019, President Donald Trump introduced the “Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America” initiative. At the same time, his adminis...
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An open letter to Elon Musk
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

An open letter to Elon Musk

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Dear Elon, You do not know me. I am one of millions of Americans who will likely never meet you, never stand on a launch pad, never design a rocket engine, never build a global company, and never appear in the history books. Yet I owe you a debt of gratitude. Not because of your wealth. Not because of your fame. Not because I agree with every decision you have ever made. I owe you gratitude because your success serves as evidence. Evidence that reality still rewards excellence. Evidence that competence still matters. Evidence that discipline, sacrifice, intelligence, and relentless effort can still bend the world toward something better. That evidence has become increasingly valuable. Everywhere I loo...
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Weiser talks about his Trump lawsuits. Here’s what he doesn’t talk about.
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Weiser talks about his Trump lawsuits. Here’s what he doesn’t talk about.

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Phil Weiser likes to talk about his Trump suits, but only some things. The article (lament?) linked first below covers territory I know all too well, having trod it more than once. Our Attorney General loves to tout his fighting style, bragging about his Trump-lawsuit spree, but he doesn’t want to share all the details. As his office has done in the past, when you go looking for records, they throw up roadblocks and jack up the price to drive those pesky questions away. Some non-contiguous quotes from the article flesh this out: “Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed dozens of lawsuits against the federal government, priding himself on his ability to fight and win cases against the Trump Admi...
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Are Colorado DOR employees letting personal gun control views shape official messaging?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Are Colorado DOR employees letting personal gun control views shape official messaging?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I hesitate to be too strong in my contention, and I hesitate to use the phrase “deep state,” but I am beginning to get an intuition that employees at the Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) are letting their values on gun control mix in with their jobs. Even this scaled-down wording is a pretty big accusation, so let me defend why I’m starting to feel this way. The first and most obvious is their list of weapons you’ll need a government permission slip to buy under SB25-003 (something I’ve covered multiple times in the past, but if you’d like to see a recent discussion between Jon Caldara and Ray Elliott of the Colorado State Shooting Association on the topic, see “Related” below). The second part goes all th...
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