Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Commentary

Commissioner Daniel: It’s Time for Fiscal Common Sense in Colorado
No Comments
The Business Times, Approved, Commentary, Local

Commissioner Daniel: It’s Time for Fiscal Common Sense in Colorado

By Bobbie Daniel | Commentary, The Business Times In the business world, there’s one principle that separates success from failure: You can’t spend what you don’t have. If a company tried to launch a dozen new initiatives without funding them, investors would walk, creditors would call, and the board would be out by morning. Yet somehow, that’s exactly how the State of Colorado has been operating. Each year, new laws are passed that sound good on paper but come with no money to make them work. Those costs get quietly pushed down to local governments — and ultimately to taxpayers. We call them unfunded mandates, and they’re the public-sector version of bad business. Here in Mesa County, we’ve been tracking these costs for two years, and the numbers tell the story. This year alon...
Read More
How a CPR survey of 400 Coloradans on illegal immigration became “statewide opinion”
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How a CPR survey of 400 Coloradans on illegal immigration became “statewide opinion”

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project CPR’s media malpractice To say that CPR’s coverage leans left is to say that the sky is blue. The CPR article linked first below didn’t just lean left, however. It was so noteworthy for getting some basics so wrong that it merits the title media malpractice. There was a recent article by CPR which questioned (I think you could probably go as far as to use the verb “downplayed”) claims by ICE that their agents are facing more and more assaults and threats. That article is linked second below for your perusal. This more recent article, the one linked first below and by a different reporter, follows that earlier effort thematically by focusing largely on what they (the reporters and those interviewed) see as e...
Read More
When Democrats steal political yard signs, are they “protecting our democracy”?
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

When Democrats steal political yard signs, are they “protecting our democracy”?

By Russ Andrews | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Two local, moderate women are running for the Roaring Fork School District Board with their campaigns focused on the three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic). Their opponents are running their campaigns based on DEI (division, entitlement, and illiteracy). The three R candidates have experienced heavy theft of their yard signs. One of them decided to AirTag some of her signs, and sure enough, last Thursday, she tracked an AirTag to the Basalt Middle School Staff Parking Lot. The alleged thief is a school teacher at the middle school, and was formerly in top leadership of the local teachers’ union.  https://twitter.com/happymama6262/status/1984982772759576965?s=10 The three R candidates followed this teacher...
Read More
Last-minute voter? Your refund might be on the menu
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Last-minute voter? Your refund might be on the menu

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board Still sitting on your ballot? You’re not alone—Colorado’s full of last-minute voters trying to make sense of Propositions LL and MM before the drop box closes. Both deal with “Healthy School Meals for All,” a free lunch program with a not-so-free price tag. And depending how you vote, your refund might just end up on the menu. How we got here Back in 2022, voters approved Proposition FF, the “Healthy School Meals for All” program that promised every K–12 student a free lunch. It sounded simple until someone had to pay for it. The money came from a new tax on Coloradans earning $300,000 or more—along with wage hikes for cafeteria workers and a nudge to use more local ingredients. Fast-forward to 2025, and the legislature realized there’s e...
Read More
Why Colorado’s Elections No Longer Belong to Its Voters
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Why Colorado’s Elections No Longer Belong to Its Voters

By: Vince Bzdek | Commentary, The Denver Gazette Why is Michael Bloomberg, the former presidential candidate, three-term New York mayor and founder of the financial info firm that bears his name, spending millions on Colorado elections? The short answer: because he can. The liberal New Yorker has donated $2.7 million to support Denver’s flavored tobacco ban, Referendum 301, to be decided on Tuesday. Two of his donations to that campaign were the largest individual contributions in Denver history, according to an Axios analysis. Bloomberg is also the largest donor in the 2026 governor’s race, giving $500,000 to a super-PAC supporting U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s campaign. “This is a very large donation for a statewide race,” Seth Masket, professor of political sc...
Read More
The hardest place to practice peace is where it’s needed most
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The hardest place to practice peace is where it’s needed most

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” ~ Matthew 5:9 ~ Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored how planes and trains remind us to rise above and stay on track, and now, with automobiles, we see that peace isn’t meant to stay parked—it’s meant to move and spread wherever we go. During a trip to Florida, Sherrie and I experienced just how true this is. We reserved a car through a lesser-known rental company that promises convenience and low rates but often hides headaches in fine print. From the moment we arrived, it was a nightmare. We had planned to rent an SUV to make travel easier for Sherrie, who, as many know, is battling Stage 4 brain cancer and finds it hard to move around. But when...
Read More
Anatomy of a Coloradan Addicted to Making Political Donations
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Anatomy of a Coloradan Addicted to Making Political Donations

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice America may be the land of the free but it is also the land of addictions. The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that 28.2 million Americans have a “drug use disorder” and the National Council on Problem Gambling reports that approximately 2.5 million Americans have “severe problems” gambling and an additional 5 to 8 million have mild or moderate issues. The dangers of addictions to drugs and/or gambling are well known, highly publicized, and well studied, but the dangers of being addicted to making political donations aren’t. At least until now. Addictions generally seem to be a bigger problem for the young than the old. The American Psychiatric Association reports that people over the age of 60 are...
Read More
The Real “Trick or Treat” in D38
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

The Real “Trick or Treat” in D38

By Amy Stephens | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In Lewis-Palmer District 38, voters are being asked to choose between transparency and trickery — between a school board candidate who respects parents and one who shuts them out if they dare disagree. That’s not hyperbole. It’s the documented history of union-backed activist Jackie Burhans. Burhans markets herself as a champion of “parental rights.” But look closer and a pattern emerges: she defends rights only when parents share her ideology. When they don’t, she dehumanizes them — mocking, marginalizing, and labeling them, often accusing them of the very tactics she uses to silence dissent. We saw this in the now-infamous images from La Burla Bee, a downtown nightclub in Colorado Springs. There stands Burhans — holding ra...
Read More
Durango’s School Board Debacle: Radical Rot, Predator Blind Spots, and a Herald Hug
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Durango’s School Board Debacle: Radical Rot, Predator Blind Spots, and a Herald Hug

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Durango used to be the kind of place where families felt good about sending their kids to school. But things shifted over the years —and not in a good way. With a critical school board election just days away, parents are speaking out. And what they’re saying is hard to ignore. What I learned from the families who helped shape the Durango Dirty Dozen series was both heartbreaking and hopeful. They painted a clear picture of a district losing touch with its mission—and of a community ready to fight back.  They told me about confusing bathroom rules, lavish DEI spending, and a media outlet more interested in enabling coverups than accountability. Their message was clear: kids are being left behind. Let’s start with bathrooms...
Read More