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Fauci invoked the Fifth. The COvid Chronicles recorded what Colorado lived.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Fauci invoked the Fifth. The COvid Chronicles recorded what Colorado lived.

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board Sen. Bernie Moreno asked former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Wednesday to turn around and look at Americans seated behind him who stood after Moreno asked whether they had been shamed, fired or otherwise harmed during the government response to COVID-19. “All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth,” the Ohio Republican said. “You can’t even look at them?” Fauci did not turn toward the audience. He briefly turned only after his attorney tapped him on the shoulder, spoke with his attorney, then faced forward again. Moreno then asked, “That's a question. Are you able to look at them?” Fauci replied, “On the advice o...
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What DSA teaches college students, and the environment it operates in
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What DSA teaches college students, and the environment it operates in

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice DSA's own internal survey shows something specific: more than 80 percent of members 25 and older who responded hold a bachelor's degree. DSA's youth section has spent the last decade building a structured campus operation, with its own curriculum, its own labor strategy, and in at least one Colorado classroom, a university course built to recruit. That operation runs through Young Democratic Socialists of America, DSA's youth and student section.  Join YDSA and you're automatically a DSA member too. It has grown rapidly over the past decade and is, by its own account, the place where a lot of its future organizers get their start. YDSA has grown from roughly a dozen chapters in 2016 to more than 150 today, s...
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Colorado’s newest coal plant hasn’t run since August 2025. A national report suggests why.
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Colorado’s newest coal plant hasn’t run since August 2025. A national report suggests why.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Xcel Energy's Comanche 3 power plant in Pueblo went offline on August 12, 2025, after elevated vibrations damaged the turbine. Nearly a year later, it still hasn't produced a single watt. According to Xcel's most recent monthly report to state regulators in Proceeding 25V-0480E, filed July 22, the plant's turbine rotor had to be shipped off-site for repair by Mitsubishi. The parts came back this summer. Workers are now in the middle of reassembling the unit. The company's current estimate for return to service is mid-August 2026. That's twelve months offline for Colorado's newest, largest coal plant, a 750-megawatt facility that cost $1.3 billion to build and runs about $34.5 million a year to operate. The outage ha...
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The Thriftiness Weapon: A-Tisket A-Tasket
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The Thriftiness Weapon: A-Tisket A-Tasket

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A-tisket, a-tasket, a green and yellow basket. I wrote a letter to my love, and on the way I dropped it. Like most children, I never gave much thought to those words. I imagined a little girl happily skipping along with her colorful basket until, somewhere along the road, she accidentally dropped it. It wasn't until years later that I realized the basket wasn't really the tragedy. Baskets are replaceable. The real loss was what she was carrying. She dropped the letter to her love. The older I get, the more I realize that's exactly how life works. Most don't lose everything overnight. We lose it one misplaced treasure at a time. Looking back, I wish I had been a little more thrifty with the things that mattered most. I'd gi...
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El Paso County sought election-security funds while the state sued over the conditions
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El Paso County sought election-security funds while the state sued over the conditions

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice While Colorado was preparing to challenge new federal election-security requirements in court, the election office in the state’s most populous county was moving ahead with plans to strengthen its own election security under the same grant program. Six days before Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the Trump administration over election conditions attached to Homeland Security Grant Program funding, El Paso County Clerk Steve Schleiker submitted a $79,850 proposal seeking federal money for an independent review of his office's election security. The proposal isn't for new voting equipment. It would hire an outside firm to examine the county's election operation through cybersecurity testing, penetration testing, physical-security assessmen...
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Colorado sues over Trump election rules tied to homeland security grants
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Colorado sues over Trump election rules tied to homeland security grants

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado joined 24 other states and the District of Columbia on Thursday in suing the Trump administration over new rules that withhold a fifth of the state's counterterrorism grant money unless Colorado shows it meets five federal election requirements. One of the five requirements asks Colorado to plan a change state rules already require. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, where judges ruled against DHS in two similar grant disputes last year. One of those decisions is on appeal.  Colorado sued DHS, FEMA, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Robert J. Fenton, the senior official performing the duties of FEMA administrator. "We're suing again, and we'll win again, because the administrat...
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Colorado cut some kinship payments July 1 and told families to get certified. Some can’t.
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Colorado cut some kinship payments July 1 and told families to get certified. Some can’t.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Jody Fountain testified before the Colorado Senate Appropriations Committee on April 14 with a story about a two-year-old boy. The boy had been placed with his mother's boyfriend. It was a kinship placement, the arrangement the state prefers when a child cannot stay with a parent. The boyfriend could not get certified as a foster parent. Something in his distant past disqualified him. Years later, after Fountain adopted the boy, she read the disclosure file. Two weeks before the child was removed and put into foster care, the grandmother had called. The family had no money for food. "I can't help but think about all the children that are going to be placed in this situation as the support disappears for non-certifie...
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Southwest Colorado needs affordability, accountability and balanced representation
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Southwest Colorado needs affordability, accountability and balanced representation

By Naomi Riess | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice For more than three decades, I have worked with families, farmers, ranchers, property  owners, small businesses and local governments across Southwest Colorado. I have  helped people navigate land-use rules, permitting requirements, water issues and  development approvals. Through that work, I have seen how government decisions  made far from our communities can affect whether a family can build a home, whether a  business can expand and whether a landowner can continue using property responsibly.  That is why I am concerned about the direction Colorado is heading.  Families and seniors are watching the cost of housing, insurance, property taxes,  utilities, food and health care con...
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Federal audit questions nearly $54 million in Colorado Medicaid home-care payments
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Federal audit questions nearly $54 million in Colorado Medicaid home-care payments

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado can’t fully document millions of dollars it billed for Medicaid home care. That’s the finding of a new federal audit. The Office of Inspector General wants Colorado to return $8.07 million in federal money it says the state was not entitled to claim for personal care in a single budget year, the one ending June 30, 2024. Auditors questioned another $45.69 million and told the state to work it out with CMS. The $8.07 million is a recommended refund. The $45.69 million is a different story. It’s still under review, and CMS could recover all of it, some of it or none. Either way, nobody has ordered Colorado to repay the full $53.8 million. In the sample, auditors kept hitting records that didn’t add up. Where the care happened. H...
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