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20 Years Probation For Sexual Assault On a Child
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Jeffco Kids First, Approved, Commentary, Local

20 Years Probation For Sexual Assault On a Child

By Ben Brickweg | Commentary, Jeffco Kids First A Jeffco father and attorney answered our call to help fill the courtroom for the Chloe Castro sentencing (Jeffco Schools social worker who admitted to sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust—her own IEP special needs student). This is what he shared on social media when he returned home. I was in the Jefferson County Courthouse earlier this afternoon, and the world doesn’t make sense anymore. I watched a school social worker admit to sexual assault of a student and get sentenced to probation with zero prison time. I don’t spend time in court. I’m a transaction guy. People hear “lawyer” and assume I live in a courtroom, but that’s not my world. Maybe in another life I would have been good at it, but not this o...
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Outside money floods Lakewood’s zoning fight—but voters aren’t budging
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Outside money floods Lakewood’s zoning fight—but voters aren’t budging

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I wanted to offer some interesting updates on Lakewood’s zoning fight. I would also say that if this issue is near to your heart, and you’ve not yet, you might consider subscribing to the Lakewood Informer--an outlet that’s done incredible work covering this issue. In broad terms, as of the last update, a group of citizens pushing back on Lakewood City Council’s zoning mandates had successfully gotten enough signatures to put zoning on the ballot so residents of Lakewood could have a say on the issue.* Interestingly, per the second link below a blog entry for the Kim Monson radio show, the measure has drawn quite a bit of monied and big-name opposition, including that from out of state! Quoting from that l...
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Colorado Bill Could Undermine TABOR Protections Redirecting Billions Away From Taxpayers
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Bill Could Undermine TABOR Protections Redirecting Billions Away From Taxpayers

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Senate Bill 135, legislation that could permanently end the refund of overcollected tax dollars, as well as radically raise revenue limits under Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment, just received a new fiscal note predicting an even bigger blank check for the legislature than before.  This follows the updated revenue forecast presented to the Joint Budget Committee (JBC).  Let’s see what changed.  Budget hole gets bigger Legislative analysts predict that this year’s “budget shortfall” will be approximately $1.5 billion, based on the March 2026 Economic and Revenue Forecast.   While that means a haircut to General F...
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NEPA’s unintended consequences: How a well-meaning law became a barrier to progress
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, National

NEPA’s unintended consequences: How a well-meaning law became a barrier to progress

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com In 1970 when President Nixon presented to Congress “Reorganization Plan No.3,” no one foresaw the eventual result – some of history’s greatest environmental successes, and a virtual stranglehold on economic progress. America’s air and water are far cleaner today, automobiles emit virtually nothing, and many formerly polluted lands have been cleaned up. But the cumbersome procedures required for federal permitting have also led to delays, higher costs, and often killed projects and jobs permanently. Those impacts were never part of the plan. Nixon signs NEPA into law, January 1, 1970 EPA was created by executive order, bringing under one roof dozens of programs from multiple departments. Simultaneously, Congress passed a...
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Speak up or step back: Why critics say Coloradans must engage with CPW now
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Speak up or step back: Why critics say Coloradans must engage with CPW now

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Depending on where you get your news, you are probably by now aware that the CPW Commissioners, in a meeting that I’ve heard referred to as a “shit-show” by more than one person, voted to accept a petition by a monied, out of state group. If you missed it or want to hit the high spots again, I put a FencePost article on the meeting. That is the first link below.This vote came over the recommendations against the petition by their own director and other CPW employees.Why? From where I stand the reason’s pretty simple: the CPW Commissioners have been (by design from the governor’s office) “captured” by animal rights and environmental groups.This is not just an impression I have pulled out of thin air. Over and over w...
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Denver’s growth dilemma: More housing, less breathing room
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, Top Stories

Denver’s growth dilemma: More housing, less breathing room

Neil Wolkodoff | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In the past, residents enjoyed Denver for a positive lifestyle and outdoor recreational activities. That was the past; is the push to control housing changing that for the worse? Regrettably, the answer is yes. Let’s start with the overzealous and yet misplaced idea that affordable housing, which increases density, is positive. You are correct: large, four-story apartment complexes now occupy nearly every large, vacant lot or former grocery store. The first issue is that adding density to a climate with limited airflow because of being in a basin is bad for health. More people, increased density and personal greenhouse gases, heat and waste increase. Has this made a difference? The health issue is that air quality affec...
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Colorado Medicaid Crunch Leaves The Most Vulnerable Disabled Residents Facing Deep Cuts
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Medicaid Crunch Leaves The Most Vulnerable Disabled Residents Facing Deep Cuts

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Complete Colorado This is a selfish column. The legislature is about to hurt my disabled son. My son, Chance, has Down syndrome and a few years ago would have been labeled “retarded.” Then “developmentally delayed.” Now the hypersensitive prefer “intellectually disabled.” Whatever the term is this week, the reality hasn’t changed. This 21-year-old man cannot consistently count to five, can’t read and can’t write his own name. He needs constant supervision for choking risks. He still needs help toileting. And that’s just the start. Medicaid was designed for people like him, our most vulnerable. And I am grateful for it. In between passing laws barring misgendering and expanding tax credits to buy electric bicycles, the s...
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Critics Question Why States Share Voter Data With Leftist Groups But Not DHS
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The Federalist, Approved, Commentary, National

Critics Question Why States Share Voter Data With Leftist Groups But Not DHS

By: Breccan F. Thies | Commentary, The Federalist ERIC has 25 member states and the District of Columbia — only three are run by Republicans. Each of the Democrat-run states has senators arguing against passing the SAVE America Act. Democrat senators claim it is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy that the SAVE America Act requires states to share voter rolls and requisite identifying information with the federal government in order to check for noncitizens, but many of their states already share the same data with left-wing third party organizations. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., argued against the bill on the Senate floor, stating, “States would be required to report their full voter rolls to Department of Homeland Security and certify that there are no non-citi...
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Colorado Legislative Malpractice
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado Legislative Malpractice

By Michael Hancock | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When Ideology Replaces Stewardship, the Patient Doesn’t Recover — It Declines There is a reason malpractice carries such moral weight in medicine. A physician is entrusted with the care of a patient. When that trust is violated—through negligence, arrogance, or ideological blindness—the consequences are not abstract. They are physical, measurable, and often irreversible. What we are witnessing in Colorado today is a different form of malpractice. Not medical, but legislative. The patient is the state itself—its economy, its infrastructure, its fiscal health, and ultimately, its people. And the pattern is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: policies enacted not in service of long-term stability, but i...
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What’s missing: Questions raised about immigration details in Colorado crime coverage
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

What’s missing: Questions raised about immigration details in Colorado crime coverage

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Free State Colorado: our local media ignores the fact that a sex offender is here illegally In a funny coincidence I noticed a couple of stories, one national and one local, about essentially the same topic. They’re both about how the media has a problem with selective attention.* In particular to the two different stories, it’s how the lefty media ignore the illegal immigrants do in this country. The first link below is to a Fox News op ed about this topic, spurred (though not limited to) the murder of Sheridan Gorman in Chicago by an illegal immigrant. Especially noteworthy was just how little—see the image heading this post—time the big networks devoted to her murder and the man committing it. Closer...
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