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Why Iran Matters to Every Single American
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Why Iran Matters to Every Single American

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice There are Americans right now screaming, “Why are we in Iran? This isn’t our fight.” Let’s slow that down. What’s unfolding in the Middle East isn’t a foreign skirmish on a map most people can’t read. It’s a defining moment for American security, American prosperity, and American credibility — and it affects every one of us, whether we’re paying attention or not. This Didn’t Start in Tehran Before Operation Epic Fury, the Trump administration removed Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela — not with a strongly worded letter or another round of sanctions, but with decisive action and the kind of political will Washington hadn’t shown in decades. Maduro had turned Venezuela into a narco-state actively poiso...
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Rural Colorado Rancher Warns Wolf Conflicts Are Hitting Close To Home
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The Fence Post, Approved, Commentary, State

Rural Colorado Rancher Warns Wolf Conflicts Are Hitting Close To Home

By: Wade Allnutt | Commentary, The Fence Post I write this letter as a taxpayer, livestock producer and, most importantly, as a father of two young children. I am not writing to point fingers, but to give a first-hand account of what was voted on and what we in rural western Colorado are now living with as a consequence. The recent confirmed wolf depredation of a dog in Jackson County on Feb. 7, 2026, hits close to home for me. However, it is no more important than the depredations and mounting stress others have faced across western Colorado since this process began as a result of Proposition 114. This was also not the first depredation event for this ranch; they have had five other confirmed depredations of cattle in the last two years. Colorado is not an untouched w...
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The Friendship Test: What Happens When They Learn You’re Conservative
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Friendship Test: What Happens When They Learn You’re Conservative

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I don’t have to reach back into old stories to explain why I believe the Left has become unmoored. I can simply look at the present, at what happens in ordinary human moments, and watch the evidence unfold in real time. For years, the popular narrative has been that conservatives are the ones driven by fear and hostility. That we are the ones who are “other” people. That we cannot live alongside disagreement without turning it into a moral indictment. I used to take those claims seriously, partly because I wanted to be fair, partly because I assumed good faith is the default in grown-up relationships. But something has changed. Not in headlines. Not in party platforms. In people. And the change is easiest t...
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Colorado Joins Other Blue States On California’s Risky Fiscal Road
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New York Post, Approved, Commentary, National

Colorado Joins Other Blue States On California’s Risky Fiscal Road

By John Mac Ghlionn | Commentary, New York Post Colorado used to be the West’s answer to California — all the mountains, none of the madness. Pro-growth, lightly regulated, and magnetically attractive to the kind of ambitious people California was slowly driving out. That equilibrium is gone. The strivers arrived from the Golden State, shifted the politics leftward, and brought the policy preferences that made them leave in the first place. The results are arriving on schedule. Population growth has slowed. The labor force has contracted. Denver now trails Midwestern peers in economic momentum. Housing costs have climbed to coastal absurdity, with typical homes demanding more than six times median income. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NEW YORK POST...
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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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