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Davidson: Capitalism trusts you to choose. Socialism does not.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Davidson: Capitalism trusts you to choose. Socialism does not.

By Jay Davidson | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Only one economic system accounts for human nature. Economics is the study of human nature. It seeks to explain how individuals interact in the exchange of a medium of value: money, barter, services, etc. Psychology, social science, even philosophy also study human nature. Whereas these studies can affect us at different times, the economy constantly affects us. An economy is a massive interchange of one product for another. It is more complex than weather prediction. Yet one economic system excels at recognizing human nature to its fullest. And that system relies on the one thing the left tells us is wrong: self-interest. Human nature requires self-interest in order to perpetuate, survive, and thrive. If pursued by a...
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The Discretion Weapon: Hey Diddle Diddle (When the Church Goes Helter-Skelter)
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Discretion Weapon: Hey Diddle Diddle (When the Church Goes Helter-Skelter)

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughedTo see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. As children, we probably never stopped to consider just how helter-skelter that little nursery rhyme really is. The cat is playing a fiddle. The cow is flying over the moon. The dog is laughing, and apparently the dish and spoon have decided they have had enough of the kitchen and are running away together. You see… everything is moving, but nothing is functioning as it should. Reflecting on it, Hey Diddle Diddle might mirror our world today—and, sadly, it can also represent the condition of the Christian individual, marriage, family, church, business, and government. I...
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A change order, not an amendment: How Denver moved $18 million past City Council
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

A change order, not an amendment: How Denver moved $18 million past City Council

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A contractor digging up 16th Street hit a brick sewer the city hadn't mapped. The cost of Denver's signature downtown project jumped by $18 million, the finish line slid back nearly a year, and City Council found out after the deal was done. That sequence sits at the heart of a new audit from Denver Auditor Timothy O'Brien, released Aug. 20. The report walks through how the 16th Street Improvement Project grew from a $149 million council approval in 2021 to a final cost of about $175.6 million, and how the single biggest change along the way never came to a council vote. How $18 million skipped the council The Department of Transportation & Infrastructure (DOTI) hired PCL Construction Services to rebuild the roa...
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Colorado funded ads telling kids they can get therapy without parental consent
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado funded ads telling kids they can get therapy without parental consent

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A child in Colorado can sign up for state-funded therapy at age 12 without a parent knowing. That is not a loophole. It is how the program is built. The program is called I Matter.  It offers up to six free counseling sessions to any young person 18 or under, or up to 21 for those receiving special-education services, and is delivered mostly by telehealth.  According to a report released this month by the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, the state funded a youth-targeted advertising push built around one message. Youth 12 and older don't need a parent to sign off. A consent waiver written into law Do No Harm reviewed 279 files obtained through the Colorado Open Records Act. Its report covers severa...
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Three laws, one result: A federal suit says Colorado and Denver leave some visitors no way to carry
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Three laws, one result: A federal suit says Colorado and Denver leave some visitors no way to carry

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice He says he passed a background check stricter than Colorado's. He holds a carry permit that is good in more than 30 states. He owns a second home in Weld County. And when Greg Howeth applied for a Colorado permit this spring, a Weld County employee called to tell him no — because he does not have a Colorado ID. That denial, delivered by email on May 28, is now Exhibit 2 in a federal lawsuit against the City and County of Denver, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, and five other officials.  Howeth, a South Carolina man named Zackary Dougherty, and the National Rifle Association filed the case in U.S. District Court in Denver on Aug. 12. Their claim is not that any single Colorado law is unconstitutional. It ...
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This metro district charges 115 mills and is still behind on its bonds. A state audit found it isn’t alone.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

This metro district charges 115 mills and is still behind on its bonds. A state audit found it isn’t alone.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Homeowners inside the Riverdale Peaks II Metropolitan District pay one of the highest tax rates of any special district in Colorado. Their metro district levied 115.019 mills in 2024, good for fifth place on a list of eleven districts statewide charging 100 mills or more. That levy pulled in $428,566 in property taxes for the year. Riverdale Peaks II is one of 19 districts that told the state, in their own financial filings, that they have been or will be unable to make principal or interest payments on their debt as those payments come due.  It taxes its residents at more than 100 mills and still reports to the state that it can't keep up with the full payments on its bonds. That combination is the core finding o...
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Cherry Creek, Poudre among Colorado districts flagged for draining reserves
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Cherry Creek, Poudre among Colorado districts flagged for draining reserves

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice For years, the story of a Colorado school district in fiscal trouble has looked the same. Small. Rural. A few hundred students on the plains or up a mountain valley, squeezed by declining enrollment and a thin local tax base. This year the Office of the State Auditor put three very different names on that list: Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs 11, and Poudre. Three of the largest, most visible districts in the state, each newly flagged after missing two benchmarks tied to operating margins and a shrinking fund balance. The report, dated July 30, tracks the financial health of all 178 Colorado school districts across the three years ending June 30, 2025. It runs six ratios against each district. Miss two or more and you l...
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The Discernment Weapon: Three Blind Mice
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Discernment Weapon: Three Blind Mice

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Three blind mice! Three blind mice! See how they run! See how they run! I don't know about three blind mice, but I do know one thing: if three mice ever came running through our house, Sherrie might suddenly experience a miraculous recovery. I've never met anyone more afraid of mice than my wife. And I mean afraid. Sherrie has been confined to bed since last November, and these days it takes quite a bit of help to get her up and moving. But I'm fairly convinced that if a mouse scampered across the foot of her bed, she'd leap out, run downstairs, and leave me behind to deal with the mouse. I'm not recommending this as a therapeutic technique, mind you. But it does make me smile when I think about those three blind mice!  ...
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Federal vaccine rules just changed. Colorado’s school requirements didn’t.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories, Uncategorized

Federal vaccine rules just changed. Colorado’s school requirements didn’t.

By RMV Staff | Rocky Mountain Voice When President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a new federal "Gold Standard" childhood vaccine schedule this week, it marked a major shift in federal vaccine recommendations. The administration's new framework reduces the number of diseases for which vaccines are routinely recommended for all children, moves several vaccines into high-risk or shared clinical decision-making categories, and encourages greater parental involvement in vaccination decisions. But for Colorado families, the announcement raised an immediate question: If the federal government has changed its recommendations, why haven't Colorado's school vaccine requirements changed? The answer lies in Senate Bill 26-032, legislation passed earlier this year ...
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Kids run the booths at two Front Range markets this month
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Kids run the booths at two Front Range markets this month

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Pricing a product. Pitching a stranger. Making change and counting the take at the end of the night. It is the kind of thing that rattles plenty of adults, and this month Colorado kids will line up to do it on purpose. Two Front Range markets give them the chance. The first runs Friday, Aug. 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Piney Creek Hollow Park on South Tower Road in Centennial. A second follows Saturday, Aug. 22, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock, set up next to the Castle Rock Farmers Market. Both are open to young vendors ages 5 to 17. They are run by Kids Markets, the program formerly known as the Children's Entrepreneur Market. The pitch is simple. Kids build a real business and ...
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