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Colorado parents packed the hearing room. Democrats didn’t ask a single question.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado parents packed the hearing room. Democrats didn’t ask a single question.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Twenty Coloradans showed up. Zero came to oppose. The resolution died anyway. By the time the House State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee finished Monday night, HCR 26-1004 was postponed indefinitely after a vote of 8 to 3.  Parents waited hours for their three minutes at the microphone. When it was over, the majority moved on to the next bill. The resolution was constitutionally modest.  It proposed inserting explicit language into the Colorado Constitution recognizing parents' right to direct the upbringing, education and care of their children. Sponsors argued throughout the hearing that the amendment would leave existing child abuse and neglect protections intact — the state would s...
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Stomping out stage 4 brain cancer: A Colorado story of grapes, grace and glioblastoma
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Stomping out stage 4 brain cancer: A Colorado story of grapes, grace and glioblastoma

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Sometimes the greatest miracle isn’t healing—it’s a night off. For families walking the road of stage 4 glioblastoma brain cancer, even a few hours of rest can feel like a return to life. The weight is constant. The uncertainty is relentless. And caregiving, while sacred, can quietly drain every ounce of strength a person has. Recently, my wife Sherrie and I experienced something we hadn’t felt in a long time—margin. Breathing room. A moment to simply be human again. And it came through a story that could only be described as providential. Where the story began What makes this story remarkable is how it started—not through a formal organization or a well-funded campaign, but through a simple blog. When I began writ...
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Before Peters is resentenced, Barrett must decide whether he keeps the case
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Before Peters is resentenced, Barrett must decide whether he keeps the case

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice A Mesa County judge has ordered the state’s attorneys to respond to a motion seeking his removal from the Tina Peters case, setting up a legal fight that will determine who presides over her resentencing—and who decides whether she remains in prison while that process unfolds. In an April 22 order, District Court Judge Matthew Barrett directed the state to file a response “as soon as practicable,” with a deadline of April 27. The order does not resolve the issue. It moves it forward. Now the court must decide whether Barrett can remain on the case—and nothing else in district court moves until that question is answered. 2026-0422 ACTION TAKEN_VERIFIED MOTION TO DISQUALIFY JUDGE MATTHEW BARRETT - People Respond by 4-27Download ...
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A missing email and a federal paper trail: Colorado weighs discipline in Guggenheim case
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A missing email and a federal paper trail: Colorado weighs discipline in Guggenheim case

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Rich Guggenheim says an email exists that would end his case. The Colorado Department of Agriculture says it does not. The dispute centers on a message Guggenheim says was sent to him in early December by Gabriel Leverance, a grant accountant at CDA, instructing him to approve a USDA-funded Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey report—the report he had previously kicked back and now at the center of the discipline the department is weighing against him. Guggenheim says he requested records twice under CORA that he believes should have included the email. At an April 15 disciplinary hearing, he told the department’s deputy commissioner: “I know it exists, because I’m the recipient of that email, and I’m not getting it in a CORA reques...
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Weiser’s record: 27,000 complaints. 17 settlements.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Weiser’s record: 27,000 complaints. 17 settlements.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice When a Coloradan files a consumer complaint with the attorney general's office — a contractor who vanished with a deposit, a lender charging illegal interest, a landlord who pocketed a security deposit without cause — the office receives it, logs it and adds it to a database. The complaint may help build a future case. It informs trend reports. For the person who filed it, that is usually where it ends. Coloradans filed a record 26,993 complaints with Attorney General Phil Weiser's Consumer Protection Section last fiscal year. That's nearly three times the number filed when Weiser took office in 2019. His March 2026 press release describes the growth as "over 200 percent." His office's own annual figures put the actual increa...
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The measles story you haven’t gotten — from either side
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The measles story you haven’t gotten — from either side

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice An unvaccinated traveler touched down at Denver International Airport after eleven hours in the air — measles already working through the bloodstream, picked up in the U.S. before the trip out. One night in a Denver hotel. Back to the airport the next morning and onto a domestic flight home. By the time Colorado public health officials finished tracing what followed, ten state residents had confirmed measles. Nine exposed during that single pass through DIA — on the flight, in the terminal, at a gate. One more from a household contact downstream. Four of the nine secondary cases — including three passengers on the international flight — had received both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine. Measles lingers airborne fo...
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Is Election Integrity Possible in the Digital Age?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Is Election Integrity Possible in the Digital Age?

By Maria Orms | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice It often feels like people in the United States fall into three broad perspectives when it comes to election integrity: Those who believe election tampering is happening Those who suspect there may be issues but are too scared to speak up Those who trust that elections are secure, as presented by mainstream narratives Regardless of where someone stands, there is a growing concern shared across these groups: a sense that individual liberty is eroding, that government accountability is weakening, and that large institutions—both political and corporate—are exerting increasing influence over the direction of the country. When people ask me which of these perspectives I align with, my answer is consistent: I come from a c...
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What records show about Poudre School District’s role in student ICE walkouts
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

What records show about Poudre School District’s role in student ICE walkouts

By RMV Staff Nearly half of Lesher Middle School’s 766 students walked out of class on Feb. 2 to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a wave of student demonstrations that Poudre School District says it neither encouraged nor discouraged. PSD is among the 10 largest school systems in Colorado. Emails and internal records reviewed by RMV suggest the situation may not have been as hands-off as described. What happened during the walkouts Over the following week, other district schools followed Lesher Middle School’s (LMS) lead, as nearly 900 6th–8th graders from over half of the district’s neighborhood middle schools and approximately 1,000 high school students walked out of class to protest ICE.  Students left school property, marched along Fort Colli...
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The Bell Colorado Voters Refuse to Hear
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The Bell Colorado Voters Refuse to Hear

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is not experiencing a surprise budget crisis, it is experiencing the predictable result of a decade of voter signals. As a recent exile, I can speak with new objectivity. Your legislature responds to incentives. Always. If you reward expansion of government, it expands. If you tolerate fiscal opacity, it deepens. If you ignore constitutional guardrails, elected officials learn they can ignore them too. The current 1.2 billion dollar budget shortfall did not appear overnight. It is the logical outcome of a political training program voters themselves created. Yes. Created. When voters repeatedly elect candidates who promise new programs without demanding sustainable funding, the legislature learns something ...
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