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Who is Rob Andrews? Questions grow around leadership, accountability and public trust
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Who is Rob Andrews? Questions grow around leadership, accountability and public trust

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack Every election season, voters are introduced to a carefully curated version of the candidates seeking their trust. Titles are polished. Résumés are condensed. Claims are simplified into slogans. And too often, no one pauses to ask whether the story being told actually matches the public record. Think George Santos, the former New York Republican who was expelled from Congress for fabricating his background and misusing funds. Rob Andrews’ campaign narrative is a case in point. At a recent town hall, Andrews positioned himself as a metrics-driven CEO—a leader who builds organizations, measures outcomes, and delivers results. He emphasized his experience creating “several successful businesses,” presenti...
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How PSPS coverage steers public blame
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How PSPS coverage steers public blame

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project How the media will drive coverage of PSPS I wrote a bit back about how the media polarize coverage of ICE and efforts to enforce immigration law. As part of that I pointed to being aware of media narratives, of the paradigms they have which guide their coverage and, in a feedback loop, how their readers see their reality. That newsletter is linked first below if you're wanting the context.I thought of that dynamic when I read a recent CPR article on businesses impacted by Xcel's Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). That article is second below, but the pertinent bit for me is the following quote (copied here with links intact):"Xcel’s “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” may become more common, as Colorado co...
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Greenland Defense Ties Put Colorado at the Center of Arctic Security
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, Local

Greenland Defense Ties Put Colorado at the Center of Arctic Security

By Vince Bzdek | Commentary, Colorado Politics The conclusion to the dizzying odyssey over Greenland this week reminded me a little of the ending of the “Wizard of Oz.” If you recall, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man finish a great and frightful quest only to discover they already had what they sought on the quest all along: brains, courage, heart, and the means to get back to Kansas. Similarly, President Trump has concluded that he can get what he wants out of Greenland through the security arrangements that already exist rather than buying or taking over the country. That’s because the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark (which includes Greenland as an autonomous territory) already share joint responsibility for the defense of the area. Th...
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“Look at me, not the facts”: How outrage culture drowns out truth
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

“Look at me, not the facts”: How outrage culture drowns out truth

By Mike Hancock | Guest Commentary, Undercurrent Chants are designed to sound simple, righteous, and urgent. They compress emotion into rhythm and repetition. They feel communal. They feel moral. They feel inevitable. When shouted in unison, they create the illusion of truth through volume alone. But chants are rarely the message. They are the cover. Beneath them—almost always—lies something far more dangerous. Today’s chants may vary in wording, but they all orbit the same gravitational center: Look at me. Listen to me. Ignore the facts. That is the lie beneath the chants. And it is not accidental. On the surface, chanting projects moral urgency. It insists that something is so unjust, so unbearable, that ordinary rules must be suspended. Proces...
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A closet, a camera and a setup: Tina Peters assaulted in prison then thrown into solitary
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

A closet, a camera and a setup: Tina Peters assaulted in prison then thrown into solitary

By A.L. Goodwin | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice On the evening of January 18, just after 9:00 p.m., Tina Peters was assaulted inside the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado—not in a yard or a common area, but in a narrow janitor’s closet, out of view of surveillance cameras. Peters had been filling a portable swamp cooler, a task other inmates routinely refuse to do, even as the prison overheats in the dead of winter due to a failing HVAC system. To access the water tank, she pulled the unit into the cramped closet, positioning her head and upper body between the door and the cooler—leaving her physically pinned in a space barely wider than the machine itself. As Peters maneuvered the unit, another inmate approached in an agitated state. The wom...
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The Age of Gaslighting Is Ending
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Age of Gaslighting Is Ending

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice You don’t get to do this again. You don’t get another George Floyd. You don’t get another COVID. You don’t get another “mostly peaceful” summer of chaos. You don’t get another shutdown. You don’t get another censorship campaign. You don’t get another government-media narrative that collapses the moment questions start getting answered. You don’t get another election season soaked in fear, confusion, and rule changes. You don’t get to burn trust to the ground and demand we clap for it. You don’t get to excuse violence when it benefits you, then act righteous when it doesn’t. We’ve watched fraud scandals, institutional coverups, and politically convenient “trut...
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When “affordable housing” means government-funded housing in Colorado
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

When “affordable housing” means government-funded housing in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Volker Housing, Part 1 During one of my public notice crawls for Logan County/Sterling, there was a notice about a developer applying for a grant from the state to turn an empty parcel of land into an affordable housing development. That notice in full can be found in the first link below, but the pertinent bit is quoted here: “Volker Housing Partners, LLC will submit an application to the Colorado Division of Housing (DOH). The purpose of this application is to request up to $2,000,000 in funding to develop 54 rental homes at 777 N 4th Street in Sterling, CO. “ A reader sent me an email and suggested that I look in on this company a little, and I agreed. If they’re pulling down $2 million, wha...
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There Is No Constitutional Right to “Protest”
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

There Is No Constitutional Right to “Protest”

By Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB” | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The “Right” is to “…Peacefully Assemble and to petition the Government…” In the heated discourse surrounding civil unrest and public demonstrations, a common phrase echoes through media and activism: the right to “peacefully protest.” Contrary to popular opinion, this term appears nowhere in the United States Constitution. The document does not grant a specific right to protest at all. Instead, the First Amendment protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  This precise language underscores a limited safeguard, one focused on orderly gatherings rather than disruptive actions often labeled as protests. The Consti...
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How the Income Tax Betrayed the Founding and Broke the Constitution’s Promise of Liberty
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

How the Income Tax Betrayed the Founding and Broke the Constitution’s Promise of Liberty

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The American Founding was a deliberate rejection of concentrated power. The Founders built the United States around one core principle: government must be strong enough to secure liberty, but restrained enough to never become a master. An income tax, as it exists today, directly violates that design. It creates a federal government with a permanent claim on the labor of the citizen.  It funds unlimited expansion. It invites political favoritism. It weaponizes enforcement. It breaks the relationship between the people and the state that the Constitution was written to protect. Start with the historical fact that taxation was the spark of revolution.  The colonies did not revolt because they dislike...
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Parents Are Losing Authority and Washington Must Act
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Daily Citizen, Approved, Commentary, National

Parents Are Losing Authority and Washington Must Act

By Emily Washburn | Commentary, Daily Citizen Erin Friday champions parental rights at the highest levels of government. The attorney and mother spent last week on Capitol Hill, rallying to keep boys out of girls sports and urging members of congress to protect parents who do not affirm their children’s sexual identity confusion. Earlier this month, Friday met with the White House Domestic Policy Council to propose an executive order she’d written to prevent family courts and child placement organizations from discriminating against parents who affirm their children’s sex. Friday’s passionate defense of parents began in 2020, when her 13-year-old daughter declared herself “transgender.” “Her school secretly socially transitioned her wh...
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