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Colorado lawmakers say new insurance fees lower costs: Critics say families pay the bill
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado lawmakers say new insurance fees lower costs: Critics say families pay the bill

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Rising homeowners insurance rates have been a hot topic at the capitol this legislative session. I wrote about a couple bills to do so in late April. That newsletter is linked first below. It wasn’t too long after writing about this laser focus on homeowners insurance affordability by our legislature that I finally had a free minute to comparison shop on mine. The picture heading this post is from one of the quotes I got. While the legislators talk a great game about affordability, right there on the quote are two brand spanking new fees they imposed. Let’s look at what they are. The first is a $5.75 (yearly) fee assessed on my insurance: a Colorado FAIR Plan Recoupment Fee. This program — FAIR standin...
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When the people vote, the majority should not pre-load a workaround
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

When the people vote, the majority should not pre-load a workaround

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is supposed to be a representative government, not a manager class that “handles” voters the way an accountant handles a problem line item. Yet that is exactly what HB26-1430 represents: a legislature preparing a conditional “counterpunch” that activates only if voters approve Initiative 175 this November. Reasonable people can disagree about Initiative 175. That is not the point. The point is this: the majority is building an escape hatch before the people have even spoken. That posture is a warning sign in any republic, because it reveals what leadership thinks about consent. What HB26-1430 is, in plain English Initiative 175 would amend the Colorado Constitution to redirect certain transportation-rela...
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Brauchler Warns Colorado’s Legion Of Doom Is Reshaping Justice
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Brauchler Warns Colorado’s Legion Of Doom Is Reshaping Justice

By George Brauchler | Commentary, The Denver Gazette As a kid growing up in Colorado, I loved watching the animated series The Super Friends, who fought against evil and for good as a part of the Justice League. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and more. They were opposed by the Legion of Doom and its cast of villains, always fighting for wrong over right.   Colorado has its own Legion of Doom under our Gold Dome in Denver, and you need look no further than how they have wielded their legislative superpowers to know who leads them. In the DC universe, it is Lex Luther and Sinestro. In the General Assembly, it is Democratic state Sens. Mike Weissman and Julie Gonzales.  No single individual in Colorado ...
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Would Be Trump Assassin Allegedly Driven By Anti America And Anti Trump Fury
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I Stand for Freedom, Approved, Commentary, National

Would Be Trump Assassin Allegedly Driven By Anti America And Anti Trump Fury

By Noah Stanton | Commentary, I Stand for Freedom The distance between a talking point and a trigger pull is shorter than most Americans want to believe. It’s a gap measured not in miles but in repetition — the slow, steady drumbeat of rhetoric that tells an unstable mind the president is a monster, that democracy is dying, that someone has to do something. On April 25th, someone did. Cole Tomas Allen traveled cross-country to the Washington Hilton, checked into a tenth-floor room, and descended to the lobby outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner ballroom carrying a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, and multiple knives. Minutes earlier, he’d sent a pre-scheduled email to family and friends — a thousand-word manifesto in which he called himself the “Friend...
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Colorado Democrats Face Backlash Over Reduced Sentences for Violent Crimes
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TownHall.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Democrats Face Backlash Over Reduced Sentences for Violent Crimes

By Amy Curtis | Commentary, Townhall Earlier, we told you that four Colorado Democrats killed a bill that would have barred probation for some child sex crimes, and now it turns out the Democrats just passed legislation that downgraded sentencing for murders under certain circumstances. This means that the possibility of a life sentence for murdering one person is no longer an option. https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2051779051790962919?s=20 Insane. https://twitter.com/tadgh_dc/status/2051982051885105452?s=20 That'll solve the problem. https://twitter.com/AmericanBear76/status/2051858794162872381?s=20 READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TOWNHALL Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are thos...
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You’ve been praying all along — you just didn’t know it
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

You’ve been praying all along — you just didn’t know it

By Drake Hunter | Rocky Mountain Voice From Billy Graham’s Capitol steps to Ronald Reagan’s national call, the National Day of Prayer reminds us: prayer isn’t just something we do—it’s who we become. Prayer sometimes gets a bad reputation for being formal. Folded hands, bowed heads, the right words in the right order. But walk into any coffee shop on any morning and listen carefully — and you'll hear it everywhere. And once a year, a whole nation does exactly that — together. There's something so inspiring about a nation coming together to pause, even just for a moment, to reflect beyond ourselves. Back in 1952, a young evangelist named Billy Graham stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with thousands of people, calling a nation to seek God during uncertain times, m...
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Transparency for All, Not Just Some
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Transparency for All, Not Just Some

By Dusty Johnson | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Editor's update: SB26-147 is scheduled for third reading and final passage in the House today, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. The legislative day began at 11 a.m. Coloradans may listen live at sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00327/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20260506/74/18834#info_  Coloradans deserve a government that operates in the open. They deserve to know who is influencing their laws, how those decisions are being shaped, and how taxpayer dollars are being used in that process. That is exactly why I am proud to sponsor SB26-147.  At its core, this bill is simple. It applies the same transparency standards to everyone involved in lobbying, including those working inside government.  Right now, private ...
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Is every government employee a cop now? Supreme Court case tests federal power
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, National

Is every government employee a cop now? Supreme Court case tests federal power

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com I don’t know anyone else who tracks the number of federal cops, but the watchdog group Open the Books occasionally reports on the burgeoning number of federal agencies with law enforcement divisions. The latest report, “The Militarization of Federal Bureaucracy,” detailed the astonishing scope of federal police power. There are over 200,000 federal officers with guns, badges, and arresting authority, in a whopping 103 different federal agencies. The federal government has more law enforcement officers than America’s 25 largest cities combined. Those 103 federal agencies – half of which are not primarily law enforcement – spent $3.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between 2006 and 2023. The FBI and ICE have always...
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SB 135 Education Tax Plan Lacks Accountability For Teacher Pay Raises
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

SB 135 Education Tax Plan Lacks Accountability For Teacher Pay Raises

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado According to the sponsors of Senate Bill 135, Colorado teachers will remain severely underpaid unless voters approve massive spending increases and a permanent change to how the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) revenue cap is calculated.  In reality, even if it were true that Colorado’s teachers are underpaid, the SB-135 tax hike does not guarantee that things like teacher pay will increase or that teacher retention will improve.  Let’s examine why.  False advertising  The stated purpose of SB-135 is to direct new education funding to any of four categories, as best determined by school districts: increasing teacher pay, improving teacher retention, lowering class size...
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Citizenship requires more than showing up angry
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Undercurrent, Approved, Commentary, National

Citizenship requires more than showing up angry

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack There is a strange contradiction in American life. We have never had more access to political information, yet we seem to understand government less. We have never had more ways to speak, yet we seem less capable of persuasion. We invoke rights constantly, yet we speak less often of duties. We demand accountability from every institution except, perhaps, ourselves. This is the condition of modern citizenship: loud, aggrieved, suspicious, emotional — and often poorly formed. The usual diagnosis is apathy. Americans do not vote enough. They do not attend local meetings. They cannot name their representatives. They do not understand the difference between a city council and a county commission, a school board and a state legislat...
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