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The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine…” The many weapons in the Kingdom of God seem weak; some include humility, meekness, joy, and now, generosity. None of these sounds like weapons capable of winning a war, yet Jesus teaches that life's battles are won differently than the world imagines. While the world fights with power, pushing, positioning, and preferences, Christ fights with goodwill and character. His weapons transform hearts, heal relationships, and illuminate the goodness within all reality. Generosity is one of the greatest weapons in Jesus’ arsenal, not the generosity the world offers, which is merely giving something away, but Jesus style, where everyone benefits.  Generosity, when properl...
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Lakewood taxpayers face 30-year shelter obligation after city grant deal
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Lakewood taxpayers face 30-year shelter obligation after city grant deal

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project From a recent edition of the Lakewood Informer (copied here with links intact): “Lakewood purchased 8000 W Colfax Avenue to use as an emergency shelter and Navigation Center using a grant from the state to fund the property purchase and renovation. As a condition to getting the grant, Lakewood committed the property to shelter use for 30 years. No public discussion about this condition occurred when City Council authorized the purchase. At an annual operating cost of $3,000,000, that’s a $90,000,000 commitment that was not disclosed to the public. That makes the Center severely underfunded, with declining neighborhood support, and may be one reason for the proposed city sales tax hike.” This was startling to ...
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Is Experience Optional? Critics Challenge Griswold’s Attorney General Bid
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Commentary, State

Is Experience Optional? Critics Challenge Griswold’s Attorney General Bid

By Eric Sondermann | Commentary, Colorado Politics If you were in a child custody dispute with a former spouse, would you hire an attorney with experience in family law or would you trust your case to an operative with virtually zero mastery? If you were getting ready to sue your employer for unpaid wages or a toxic workplace, would you enlist a lawyer with a background in employment statutes or would you put your fate in the hands of someone who had never really practiced law? If you were a doctor being charged with medical malpractice, would you retain a novice lawyer who had never argued a case? What kind of attorney would you retain to defend your teenager accused of shoplifting? Or to represent you in a complicated real estate transaction? Or to handle a br...
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How SB19-180 opened the tap: The funding stream behind Colorado’s eviction defense network
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How SB19-180 opened the tap: The funding stream behind Colorado’s eviction defense network

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project SB19-180: Eviction Legal Defense Fund gets the money going This will be the first part of a twofer on state grant money going to defend people against eviction. This first part will cover the legal background. The second will cover how a nonprofit got in on the ground floor of an initial trickle of state money and soaked up what would eventually become a firehosing of federal money into our state. In the process of that ballooning, one of their own got into the Colorado statehouse where he sits now and is running for reelection. About a year or so prior to COVID being a thing, in Spring 2019, lawmakers passed and the governor signed SB19-180 (linked first below). The bill created a grant fund which would ...
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Is HB26-1111 a smart ag solution or another TABOR workaround?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Is HB26-1111 a smart ag solution or another TABOR workaround?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project HB26-1111: a beneficial enterprise? At my last check, HB26-1111 (linked below) is awaiting either 30-day passage or the Governor’s signature. This is another enterprise-creation bill. It creates an enterprise which charges a fee on pesticide producers and applicators. The fee will, among other things, be used to create a program where pesticide applicators can dispose of leftover pesticide. Per a conversation I had with my State Senator Byron Pelton, as things stand now, prior to this bill, pesticide applicators must pay a disposal company to take leftover chemical, and that price is growing more and more each year. The enterprise created in that bill steps in with a government-run business to take ...
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“Intentional obstruction”: CHEC argues Colorado lawmakers delayed homeschool changes until final days of session
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

“Intentional obstruction”: CHEC argues Colorado lawmakers delayed homeschool changes until final days of session

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado When tasks are put off to the last minute, we assume that those responsible are procrastinators or that time just got away from them. We don’t typically think that what they did was intentional. Applying this logic to our state’s General Assembly would be wrong. The majority party plans the schedule of when bills will be debated in each chamber, how to introduce them, and enacts a plan of intentional obstruction. This process was taking place during the last three days of the legislative session. Controversial bills were saved for the very last moments. On Monday morning, the State House Appropriations Committee met to discuss the final bills. Committee hearings are a place for the public to offer testimony and make t...
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Colorado’s unaffiliated majority is waiting for someone to lead
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s unaffiliated majority is waiting for someone to lead

By Russ Minary | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice "Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody,"  Franklin P. Adams. Sadly, Colorado politics is ruled largely by ideologues with agendas and pet projects who engage in personal attacks. Statesmanship seems to be a lost art.  So, both Republicans and Democrats are losing influence and votes – and the largest and fastest growing voter bloc in the State is ‘Unaffiliated’. This would indicate that both ‘majority parties’ (D and R) are divided and have lost sight of those things that are important to the average CO voter and taxpayer to whom they are responsible. The data speaks plainly for anyone willing to look at it.  Out of 3,996,931 registe...
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“The Constitution reigns supreme”: A warning about sanctuary states and political power
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Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

“The Constitution reigns supreme”: A warning about sanctuary states and political power

By Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB” | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado and a multitude of other states are disregarding the Constitution and federal law. They disguise these actions with the help of complicit judges. Their objective is to inflate numbers in the census. This maneuver aims to claim more seats in the House of Representatives come 2030. The mechanism is straightforward. The Constitution requires counting the whole number of persons for apportionment. U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cl. 3 and U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 2. Current practice includes noncitizens since no prohibition bars it.  Noncitizens remain ineligible to vote in our elections. Nevertheless, their presence shapes congressional district allocations and Electoral College strength across the nation. S...
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Where did the road money go?: Examining Colorado transportation claims
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State

Where did the road money go?: Examining Colorado transportation claims

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project HB26-1430 (see the first link below for some earlier context) is the Colorado Democrats’ measure to kneecap Initiative 175, the measure that would enforce that road dollars actually go to building roads. The measure passed the legislature with some last-minute fussing, and included some new amendments. The Sum and Substance article linked second below details how things went down in the last days of the legislative session. The purpose of this post is not to look at HB26-1430 in its final form or how that will affect (or not) Initiative 175. There’s more coming in the saga and I’ll hold off on updates til something concrete pops up. No, I wanted to share a couple of quotes from Democrat politicians appearing in the Su...
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