Rocky Mountain Voice

Commentary

Colorado’s weirdest race is safe: Manitou Springs funds the coffin races for 2026
ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, Local

Colorado’s weirdest race is safe: Manitou Springs funds the coffin races for 2026

By Scott K. James | Commentary, ScottKJames.com Manitou Springs found a practical way to protect its coffin races without burying a beloved Colorado tradition. In my rounds as a county commissioner, I get to talk to a lot of people. Different towns. Different politics. Different backgrounds. But I hear the same uneasy sentence in a hundred different forms: Things just ain’t what they used to be. Then, almost immediately, we apologize for saying it. Because somebody is always standing nearby ready to explain that this is called “progress,” and apparently progress means you’re supposed to smile politely while the thing you loved gets turned into luxury apartments and a parking app. Every small town has a big day. In my beloved Johnstown, it’s BBQ Daze. Milliken ha...
The stopwatch has no ideology: Why biology defines women’s sports
Uncategorized, American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

The stopwatch has no ideology: Why biology defines women’s sports

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker On July 16, 1988, Florence Griffith-Joyner sprinted 100 meters in 10.49 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. Nearly four decades later, no woman has run faster. But ... On July 16, 1988, Florence Griffith-Joyner sprinted 100 meters in 10.49 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. Nearly four decades later, no woman has run faster, and her world record still stands. Her 200-meter record, set at the Seoul Olympics later that year, has also stood for almost forty years. Flo-Jo remains the fastest woman who has ever lived. Yet her 100-meter record has repeatedly been surpassed by American high school boys. The current U.S. high school boys’ record is 9.92 secon...
Hillman: Democratic Socialism is about control
Mark Hillman, Approved, Commentary, State, Uncategorized

Hillman: Democratic Socialism is about control

By Mark Hillman | Commentary, Capitol Review Democratic Socialists are cruising through Democratic Party primaries like a hot knife through butter. Entitled young adults, especially, respond to their angst-driven message, frustrated that expensive college degrees landed them entry-level jobs easily attained without a six-figure education. Here in Colorado, Melat Kiros’ decisive win over 30-year incumbent Diana DeGette led a socialist wave in Denver that also saw a first-term centrist legislator ousted by a DSA challenger. U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper did fend off a challenge by state Sen. Julie Gonzales, but the former two-term governor and mayor of Denver, lost to Gonzales in Denver by 13,000 votes. And in Congressional District 8, social-media obsessed state Rep....
Colorado’s THC Experience Offers Congress a Warning on Intoxicating Hemp
The Gazette, Approved, Commentary, National

Colorado’s THC Experience Offers Congress a Warning on Intoxicating Hemp

By The Gazette Editorial Board | Commentary, The Gazette First, it was Colorado’s majority-Democrat legislature that weighed whether to open the floodgates to dangerous, intoxicating hemp-based products. It would have compounded the damage inflicted on our kids by legalized pot. Fortunately, the lawmakers behind that reckless attempt couldn’t muster enough votes as the 2026 legislative session wound down last spring. Now, a move is afoot in the Republican-controlled Congress to stall a much-needed federal crackdown on high-potency hemp that was enacted just last fall. At the behest of the Trump administration, a delay in implementing the crackdown was inserted into a stopgap government funding bill. The move has divided ruling Republicans, some of whom mounted an unsuccessful...
A mass of contradictions: One writer’s read on Phil Weiser’s plan for Colorado
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

A mass of contradictions: One writer’s read on Phil Weiser’s plan for Colorado

By Ari Armstrong | Commentary, Complete Colorado “Democrats lay out plan to win supermajority in Colorado Legislature,” reads a recent headline from the left-leaning Colorado Newsline. So how might Governor Phil Weiser interact with the legislature, whether or not Democrats reach their goals for legislative seats? For that we can turn to his 109-page “blueprint” Unsurprisingly, Weiser wants to be all things to all people. He talks about freedom, prosperity, and a business-friendly environment out of one side of his mouth while promoting tax and spending hikes and tighter regulations out of the other. Housing affordability Unaffordable housing exacerbates various other problems, starting, of course, with homelessness. It makes child care less available and mor...
It’s no longer just Democrats: Republicans join the doubt over Trump’s Iran war
Rasmussen Reports, Approved, Commentary, National

It’s no longer just Democrats: Republicans join the doubt over Trump’s Iran war

By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D. | Commentary, Rasmussen Reports A recent Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 54% of likely U.S. voters believe that, in hindsight, President Donald Trump’s decision to enter the war in Iran was the wrong one, while only 35% believe it was the right one. The partisan divide is predictable, with Republicans largely supportive and Democrats overwhelmingly opposed. More interesting is the broader political question: why has an issue that once played so strongly to Trump’s advantage become a source of growing public skepticism? One of President Donald Trump’s defining campaign themes was refreshingly simple: America should stop fighting endless wars. He repeated that message across three presidential campaigns. Iraq was a mistake. Afghanistan...
A four-year-old is worth more than a fifth grader to Colorado schools
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State, Uncategorized

A four-year-old is worth more than a fifth grader to Colorado schools

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The incentive structure hiding in Colorado’s UPK I recently shared a video that went into (among other important things to know about school finance) how Colorado’s public school enrollment is dropping. That video is linked below if you missed it before; it’s great and cheap education on school enrollment and funding. Not too long after I put up the newsletter with that video, I had a reader send me something I thought interesting enough to share. There is a marked disparity between how much money someone gets from our Universal Pre K program for a child vs. how much they get for educating a child in K - 12. The second link below is to the state’s UPK rate sheet. It lists the 2026-27 rate the UPK progra...
Tina Peters Calls for Federal Action to Preserve Fulton County Election Machines
TinaPeters.us, Approved, Commentary, National

Tina Peters Calls for Federal Action to Preserve Fulton County Election Machines

By Tina Peters | Commentary, TinaPeters.us Fulton County, Pennsylvania hard-drive evidence is under pressure. The Speckin forensic report is public. Call the people who can still secure it. America still has a chance to secure the evidence. In Fulton County, Pennsylvania, forensic imaging of election equipment hard drives produced findings the public can still read for itself. That record is not a rumor thread. It is a dated forensic report. And right now, the danger is simple and urgent: If the machines are wiped, replaced, or destroyed under vendor pressure and seven-figure legal threat, the physical evidence goes with them. Tina’s ask is not complicated: Tell the DOJ to seize these machines now — before they are destroyed Call the pe...
Foreign money surrounds the firm behind the DNC’s voter-data platform
DataRepublican, Approved, Commentary, National

Foreign money surrounds the firm behind the DNC’s voter-data platform

By DataRepublican | Commentary, DataRepublican’s Substack Apax Partners, Neville Roy Singham, and the sovereign investors surrounding the DNC’s most important political database Virtually every major Democratic campaign — presidential, Senate, House, state — accesses its voter data through one platform. NGP VAN has been the de facto sole vendor of the DNC voter file since 2004. Thirty-eight million donors and volunteers in the system. $10 billion in campaign contributions tracked in the 2022 cycle alone. 1.4 billion voter contact attempts. If you’ve ever knocked on a door for a Democrat, your data went into this system. No competing vendor holds a parallel DNC voter file contract. The company that owns all of it is a London private equ...
Colorado teacher home loan program puts school fund money at risk in foreclosures
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado teacher home loan program puts school fund money at risk in foreclosures

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I wrote earlier in the week about Impact Development and taxpayer-subsidized mortgages. That newsletter is linked first below if you’re interested.I have an update of sorts to share. It’s not so much the program I outlined earlier, more a related program run out of Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).The program is called the Schools to Home Program. The CHFA website for this program is linked second below. I’ll run through the details and a quick example here, but as I do, I do not want you to lose track of something.Hidden in all of the graphics and words are the following: public money is given out on loan to the people who are in the program, and they get generous terms on their loans that others woul...