Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Commentary

Colorado needs an all‑of‑the‑above energy strategy
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado needs an all‑of‑the‑above energy strategy

By Rep. Ryan Gonzalez | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As we all know, energy is vital in policy making. If we have no secure energy sector, uncertainty will ensue. While there are different views on energy policy, we must not rule out any single source of energy (like fossil fuels) for a clean environment that also secures our demand to provide for our consumers.  Energy affects virtually everything from the cost of raw materials to the finished goods or services you see in the market. More rigorous energy policy that isn’t cost effective, only raises prices and may create scarcity of resources available. In the Colorado legislature, as a first term state Representative, I have seen these concerns unfold in real time as they push a very ambitious 2040 zero emissions ...
Read More
Joy Reid discovers the Y in XY stands for “Yikes!” when she envisions locker-room reality
No Comments
American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

Joy Reid discovers the Y in XY stands for “Yikes!” when she envisions locker-room reality

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Joy Reid, the fired MSNBC commentator who swung from defining women as ‘a social construct’ and invoking Nazi Germany when anyone challenged transgender orthodoxy, now says she would “freak out” if she found a man in a women’s locker room. https://twitter.com/TheFive/status/1991506817138999298?s=20 A belated moment of honesty, it seems, yet it only underscores how privileged it is to hold ideological positions until they actually affect you. That’s the essence of one of the left’s modern pastimes – virtue signaling. Nothing reveals the hollowness of progressive politics faster than the moment when theory collides with biology. In a clip shared widely on X/Twitter, Reid admitted that yes, if she walked into the ...
Read More
Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Update-a-palooza on legislative livestreams and campaign finance complaints I wanted to update some stories I’ve been following before they get too stale (as you can see in today’s third post, I’ll be taking the rest of the week off). First, and simplest, is an update to whether or not the state legislature will continue what was a pilot program to livestream legislative committee hearings (video and audio instead of just audio). The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition story linked first below offers more details, but the upshot is that the legislature is a decided “maybe” on whether or not to continue it. The livestreams, at least according to the article, are pretty popular but it seems the sticking point ...
Read More
Colorado Does Not Need More Candidates. Colorado Needs a Future.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado Does Not Need More Candidates. Colorado Needs a Future.

By Sean M. Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is at a crossroads, and everyone living here can feel it. The cost of living has exploded. Families are working harder than ever yet falling further behind. Housing has slipped out of reach. Power bills climb. Groceries drain budgets. Fuel prices punish long commutes. Child care costs rival mortgages. Communities wonder how long they can stay in the state they love. All the while, the people in charge talk about saving the world while ignoring the people who actually live here, in Colorado.  We hear speeches about climate and national image. We hear big promises about transformation. We hear talking points that sound polished but solve nothing. What we do not hear is practical leadership. What we do...
Read More
Phil Weiser’s Failed Experiment in Criminal Justice
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Phil Weiser’s Failed Experiment in Criminal Justice

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  It has become a common theme in many states and cities that the authorities who are responsible for the long-term safety and security of their residents, nevertheless subscribe to the popular fallacy that locking up criminals does little to deter future offenses and is less effective in the long run that social programs or rehabilitation efforts, however those might be defined.  The theory here is that criminals aren’t responsible for their actions, Society is primarily to blame.  The policies of Colorado’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, and the Democrat dominated Colorado legislature prove how foolish and misguided this theory is.  In 2019, the Colorado legislature eliminated the option of cash bail for...
Read More
Thanksgiving prices fall in Colorado but families still pay more than most Americans
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Thanksgiving prices fall in Colorado but families still pay more than most Americans

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice This Thanksgiving, the cost of celebrating for Colorado families is at its lowest since the peak in 2022. The American Farm Bureau Federation reports that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for ten now costs $55.18 - a five percent decline from last year. Colorado continues to sit above the national average. According to KKTV, the same meal costs $61.63 in the state, which is about $6.45 more than what the typical American pays but still roughly $13 cheaper than the year before.  The West once again tops the chart as the most expensive region for Thanksgiving, with a $61.75 average that closely matches Colorado’s $61.63 estimate. That’s not a fluke; analyses of grocery spending show Western states, including Colorado, consisten...
Read More
Stop Financing the Second Job
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Stop Financing the Second Job

By Christian Horstmann | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When child care rivals your mortgage payment and eats the “extra” paycheck, having a stay-at-home parent is the wiser investment.  We’ve been told for years that homeschooling is impossible because “you can’t make it on one income.” But when families pencil out the math, a different picture appears: the second paycheck often pays for the costs created by the second job: child care first, then commuting, meals out, and the “time savers” that keep the overbooked household afloat. On paper, it looks like gain. In reality, it’s a trade.  Consider just one budget line that eats the pay raise: full-time child care. Across Colorado, the average monthly price is over $1,000; but in nine of our ten most populous count...
Read More
Preparing for Battle — The Full Armor of God
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

Preparing for Battle — The Full Armor of God

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Elevation Life Church “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” ~ 1 Peter 5:8 ~ When Peter wrote these words, he wasn’t describing a paranoid state of mind—he was describing a prepared one. Being alert and sober-minded means living fully awake—alert in God’s love and clear-minded in Christ’s truth. I learned that lesson the hard way after my time in the Air Force. When I retired after two decades of service, I thought I was good to go. I’d been trained to stay sharp, follow procedures, stay mission-focused, and even trust in God. But mentally and spiritually, I let my guard down. I believed I was living for Christ, but in truth, I was livi...
Read More
Colorado chose Medicaid expansion and now the bill is past due
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado chose Medicaid expansion and now the bill is past due

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Our state is Medicaid (and government) poor Do you have a friend or relative that’s house poor? Truck poor? They live in (or own) something that’s beyond their means, and this financial decision makes their lives more difficult than it has to be? I read the Sun article linked first below recently and it struck me that our state is Medicaid poor. As a result of our state’s poor financial decisions, we have some fancy stuff, but we’re financially struggling right now. The thrust of the Sun’s piece is that our state’s budget gaps (the unhappy kind where we are short of money) are recurring and likely to continue to recur. Why? Medicaid’s a big reason, but there’s more to that picture. A couple of non-contiguous q...
Read More
Colorado’s “Reform Paradox”: Falling Recidivism, Rising Violence, and the Real-World Cost of Dangerous Releases
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s “Reform Paradox”: Falling Recidivism, Rising Violence, and the Real-World Cost of Dangerous Releases

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The Common Sense Institute’s October report shows Colorado’s three-year recidivism rate falling from about 52 percent in 2019 to near 31 percent in 2022. On paper that looks like improvement. In practice, the number tells only a small piece of the story.  CSI makes it clear that the number drops mostly because fewer people are going to prison at all. The state’s incarcerated population has shrunk, felony filings are down, and more defendants are getting funneled into diversion programs or handed PR bonds under Colorado’s evolving bail practices. When the state isn’t locking people up, fewer people return to prison later. That’s not a public-safety miracle. It’s just the math. Ask people who actually live here whether things...
Read More