Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Top Stories

They never saw it coming: Kerrville flood sparks call for weather readiness
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

They never saw it coming: Kerrville flood sparks call for weather readiness

By RMV Staff At least 82 people lost their lives in Kerrville when floodwaters tore through the area in the middle of the night. Families had no warning. Rain poured harder and faster than forecasted. In Kerrville, the flood was already doing damage before most people knew it was coming. Surging rapidly in the darkness, the Guadalupe River caught sleeping Texans off guard. A Western Colorado weather aficionado contacted RMV following the tragedy to urge more people to take advantage of advanced mobile tools. “As a weather enthusiast with 55 years of experience, I’ve seen major advances in the past decade, including apps that let you track storm signatures and receive early warning alerts,” he said. “Radar Omega puts that in the palm of your hands.” He described receiving an Eme...
Read More
Baker: Freedom still rings loud in Brush
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Baker: Freedom still rings loud in Brush

By Harvey Baker | Guest Commentary, NE CO Newsroom, Rocky Mountain Voice In Northeast Colorado, where faith, family, and freedom still shape daily life, over 1,200 residents lined the streets under clear skies to celebrate the 70th Annual Brush Fourth of July Parade. This wasn’t just another parade—it was a full-hearted tribute to the traditions and people who keep the American spirit alive. This year’s celebration carried special meaning as the community came together to honor Chester McCoy posthumously as Grand Marshal—a man known for his quiet service, steady integrity, and deep loyalty to both neighbors and country. Alongside his memory, the Brush VFW Color Guard led the way, the American flag held high, reminding everyone that freedom has a price—and every generation must ch...
Read More
Hearing lays groundwork for GOP-led reform after 3-year immigration surge, 500K visa overstays
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

Hearing lays groundwork for GOP-led reform after 3-year immigration surge, 500K visa overstays

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing June 25 on visa security and legal immigration pathways, revisiting the Trump administration’s policies and examining how current enforcement gaps could be putting national security at risk. Republican lawmakers and expert witnesses repeatedly pointed to vulnerabilities in the visa system and criticized relaxed vetting protocols. “The purpose of today’s hearing is to determine to what extent our legal immigration system has been exploited, abused, and defrauded,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., “and to recommend measures to assure that legal immigration to the United States is legitimate, honest, fully vetted, and above board.” Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigrati...
Read More
The COvid Chronicles June 8–15, 2020: Can’t visit grandma—but defund-the-police protests are doctor-approved
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The COvid Chronicles June 8–15, 2020: Can’t visit grandma—but defund-the-police protests are doctor-approved

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board In this eighth chapter of The COvid Chronicles, the absurd became policy. You could chant in a crowd but not hold your father’s hand in the hospital. Visiting grandma was dangerous. Rioting, doctor-approved. The week was long. So is the memory of what they let unravel. By mid-June, Colorado’s citizens, corporations and governing bodies had been cowered into full complicity. The angry activists who long despised democracy finally found their authoritarian moment—and seized it with glee. It was pure bliss for the non-peaceful “progressive” puritans now in power. While COVID numbers steadily improved, health providers across the state lobbied to keep patients isolated and suffering—all while marching in lockstep to cure what they claimed was...
Read More
Devotional: When the truth calls you back into formation
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

Devotional: When the truth calls you back into formation

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Elevating Life Church I remember the day truth found me, normative truth that is, and it wasn’t in a church pew or quiet devotional moment. It was on a drill pad, surrounded by hundreds of Airmen at Lackland Air Force Base, standing at attention in full formation. I was in Basic Military Training, still full of fight, pride, and the need to prove myself.  When the Training Instructors (TIs) clocked out for the day, I’d go looking for a different kind of training, one that involved fists, not formation. I would stir up fights in the dorms, trying to dominate the other guys in our squadron.  In other words, I thought I was all that and a bag of Doritos with a Mountain Dew on the side, so much so–that I thought I was getting away with...
Read More
Hancock: July 4 is a call to fulfill, not destroy
No Comments
Top Stories, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice

Hancock: July 4 is a call to fulfill, not destroy

By Michael A. Hancock | Commentary, Substack Rediscovering Frederick Douglass’s Real Message Every year around this time, we dust off the words of Frederick Douglass’s famous 1852 speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", and parade them around like fireworks—bright, dramatic, and quickly forgotten. In recent years, Douglass has been appropriated into the modern progressive narrative, a voice supposedly echoing today’s claims that America was founded as a white supremacist project, rooted not in liberty but in racial hierarchy. That’s the popular takeaway. But that’s not Douglass’s message. Not even close. Douglass’s words, when read in full, don’t damn the Constitution or the founding ideals—they uphold them. He doesn't condemn the Declaration of Independence as a fr...
Read More
Beezley: July 4, 1776 was one perfect moment—for liberty and for mankind
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Beezley: July 4, 1776 was one perfect moment—for liberty and for mankind

By Don Beezley | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice After thousands of years of struggle through oppression and tyranny, there was one perfect moment in human history on a hot, summer day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: July 4, 1776. On that date the Second American Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of the thirteen United States of America–the American Declaration of Independence.  The crowning achievement of the Enlightenment in a one-page document. The Declaration of Independence represents the one moment in history when we got it right. One perfect moment derived from a morally perfect vision. The words on that parchment may fade with time, but its immortal ideas amplify and reverberate through the annals of time: We hold these truths to be sel...
Read More
Garbo: America’s $16.4 billion wake-up call—the largest healthcare fraud in U.S. history
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Garbo: America’s $16.4 billion wake-up call—the largest healthcare fraud in U.S. history

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The United States has just witnessed the largest healthcare fraud takedown in its history. Over 324 individuals - including 96 licensed medical professionals - stand accused of orchestrating and profiting from a sprawling $16.4 billion scheme that defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and the American taxpayer.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxp69sQDnlk This is not a bureaucratic misstep or clerical oversight. It is ideological rot - a moral collapse within a system trusted to care for the sick, the elderly, and the most vulnerable. Let’s begin with what is encouraging: this takedown required skill, intelligence, courage, and the mobilization of federal and state law enforcement at scale. Agents, prosecutors, analysts, an...
Read More
Released, rearrested and now accused again: Roybal-Smith case ignites parole reform debate
No Comments
Top Stories, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Released, rearrested and now accused again: Roybal-Smith case ignites parole reform debate

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Denver Police arrested 38-year-old Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith early Monday morning, July 1, following the death of his cellmate at the Downtown Denver Detention Center. The alleged homicide came just hours after Roybal-Smith was jailed on unrelated charges—less than a day after two Aurora stabbings. Roybal-Smith’s criminal history spans nearly two decades and includes convictions for assault, felony menacing, DUI-related vehicular assault, and obtaining controlled substances by fraud. He’s also faced repeated parole violations and multiple arrests involving weapons. Despite this record, he was granted early release in 2023. Denver Police said deputies found an unresponsive man in a shared jail cell around 2:15 a.m. Monday. Off...
Read More
Garbo: The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is an all-or-nothing bet on reshaping America
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Political Analysis, Top Stories

Garbo: The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is an all-or-nothing bet on reshaping America

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Political Analysis, Rocky Mountain Voice The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” introduced in the House as HR 1, represents one of the most sweeping legislative proposals in recent political history. Spanning hundreds of pages and touching nearly every corner of federal governance, it combines tax reform, healthcare restructuring, social policy shifts, and regulatory rollback into a single omnibus package. This article provides a nonpartisan, objective analysis of the bill's major provisions and potential consequences. The intent is not to promote or condemn HR 1, but to inform readers - citizens, policymakers, and professionals - about its complex and far-reaching components. CORE THEMES OF THE BILL HR 1 aims to reshape the federal government's fiscal, regula...
Read More