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Why we started Mesa County Compass
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Why we started Mesa County Compass

By Ruth Kinnett and Lisa Fry | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In June 2023, we were sitting at a kitchen table watching headlines move faster than facts. A recall effort was underway against District 51 School Board member Andrea Haitz, and something didn’t sit right. We kept hearing fragments — social media posts, clipped quotes, secondhand outrage — but we couldn’t find the full conversation. So we decided to start one. Mesa County Compass began on June 10, 2023, during that recall effort. At the time, we believed the full truth had not been properly revealed and that Haitz was being unfairly accused of something she had not done. What started as a response to that moment grew into something larger — a platform dedicated to conversation, clarity, and giving p...
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The Rorschach republic: The MLK test for a divided nation
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National, Think Again USA

The Rorschach republic: The MLK test for a divided nation

By Melanie Sturm | Commentary, Think Again USA Substack From ICE to Epstein to gender medicine, we keep seeing what we want in the ink blots. See if you pass the MLK Test. Same ink blot. Different realities. Do you pass the MLK Test? We are living through a Rorschach moment. We look at the same ink blots — the border, Epstein, gender medicine — and swear we’re seeing opposite realities. I was reminded of that recently when I found myself seated next to a gentleman at a luncheon. We discovered easy common ground: he grew up in Indiana, I grew up in Nebraska. We traded a few jokes about Hoosiers and Huskers swapping basketball and football fortunes. Then the conversation turned to Indiana’s former fiery basketball coach Bobby Knight, whom he idolized growin...
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“The market can’t fix childcare”: Who is shaping Colorado’s narrative
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

“The market can’t fix childcare”: Who is shaping Colorado’s narrative

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Gary Community Ventures, The Colorado Sun and setting common sense The Colorado Sun recently launched a series, “Out of Reach”, describing what they term “Colorado’s crumbling child care system”. The series caught my eye due to a statement appearing in the first installment. William Browning, president and CEO of Clayton Early Learning in Denver, said (among other things, and I quote here from the first link below): “The market can’t fix child care.” This brought to mind something a friend had told me a while back. Depending on the individual the blame may lay anywhere on the spectrum from intent to a variety of unrelated factors lining up, but the thinking is the same. If the childcare ...
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Why I’m Running for United States Senate
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Why I’m Running for United States Senate

By Sean Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is being managed into decline. Not in one dramatic collapse. Not in one headline. In slow motion. Costs go up. Public safety goes down. Energy gets strangled. Rural communities get ignored. And government keeps getting bigger. I am running for United States Senate because I am tired of watching it happen. I am not running to join the club. I am running to reverse the direction this state is headed. I am a fifth generation Coloradan. A Navy veteran. A county commissioner. A business owner who has signed the front of paychecks and felt the weight of bad policy in real time. I have lived under the consequences of decisions made in Denver and...
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Colorado’s Political and Regulatory Climate Faces Questions as Major Firms Relocate
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Political and Regulatory Climate Faces Questions as Major Firms Relocate

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, The Denver Gazette At this point, if you hear beeping downtown, it’s not a construction crew. It’s a company backing out. And look, I get it. Businesses relocate for all sorts of reasons: taxes, regulations, labor costs, office space, crime, commute times, the haunting feeling your chief executive is one City Council meeting away from being declared a single-use plastic. But Colorado’s political class has been turning “headquarters” into an endangered species. Take TIAA, the financial services giant whose name has for decades been glowing atop a downtown Denver skyscraper like a Bat-Signal for retirement funds. They’re relocating to Frisco, Texas. Texas? Of course, Texas. If Colorado is the place where we hold hearings on the carbon ...
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Texas Democrat says President Trump’s State of the Union changed her vote
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USA Today, Approved, Commentary, National

Texas Democrat says President Trump’s State of the Union changed her vote

By Joni Werner | Commentary, USA TODAY I believe Trump has only the best interests of the U.S. at the core of all his decisions. I do believe the changes he has made are working. Democrats should offer him more support. I watched President Donald Trump's entire 2026 State of the Union speech. And I loved it! Watching it made me more likely to vote in the midterm elections. This was the first time I wasn't bored and actually agreed with everything he had to say. I appreciate his businessman's approach to the economy and tariffs. I loved that he celebrated the people directly affected by his policy changes and celebrated the economy wins by putting America first. I am disappointed in all the elected leaders who refused to celebrate th...
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You can’t afford your government: The cost of Colorado’s “affordability” agenda
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

You can’t afford your government: The cost of Colorado’s “affordability” agenda

By Dave Kerber | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Here we go again. Another crisis has materialized demanding our immediate attention and action. In the 2024 elections, Democrats took to lamenting the unaffordability of stuff in America to sweep to victory. Absent in those campaigns were any suggestions as to exactly how to make things “affordable” nor was there any mention that it was the Democrats with their massive post-COVID, Inflation Reduction Act spending that crammed money into the economy causing the rapid increase in inflation and economic unhappiness. Trump initially responded that affordability was a hoax, that the price of gas was down, and that little girls only needed two dolls not thirty-four. After being mocked by those who caused the crisis, he ...
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President Trump’s Historic Year of Achievements for Colorado
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

President Trump’s Historic Year of Achievements for Colorado

By Christy Fidura | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When Joe Biden left office, he left a legacy of weakness, wokeness, and worry among the American people about our nation's future. In just over one year, President Trump has turned America around to ensure that the state of our Union is strong, and the future is bright. Despite inheriting an economy on the verge of collapse, President Trump stopped the bleeding and is getting America, and Colorado, back on the right path. True wages for workers increased more than $1,100 last year and Americans are reaping the rewards of tax refunds up 15% this year thanks to President Trump and Republicans passing the largest tax cut in history. The Working Class Families Tax Cut fulfilled several of President Trump's c...
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The Right champions citizens first. The Left fumes at the idea.
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The Federalist, Approved, Commentary, National

The Right champions citizens first. The Left fumes at the idea.

By Elle Purnell | Commentary, The Federalist At Tuesday’s State of the Union, Democrats set themselves up as angry foils to basic civics and feel-good American patriotism. In the most made-for-TV of many made-for-TV moments in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump urged every member of Congress to “stand up and show your support” for the statement: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Cameras panned to show nearly the entire left-hand side of the chamber awkwardly remaining in their seats. After two minutes of Republican cheering and Democrat scowling, Trump suggested that Democrats should “be ashamed of yourselves,” and the cameras showed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Mogadishu, shouting an...
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