Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Top Stories

Reduce Taxes BY Eliminating the Government Middleman
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Reduce Taxes BY Eliminating the Government Middleman

By Russ Minary | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice "The power to tax is the power to destroy." – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819 In this article, I’ll explain and contrast how and why the American free market works differently and better than government (in many cases) using two free market American businesses you know: Amazon and Costco. NOTE: I am a Constitutional conservative and enthusiastic advocate of the free market wherever, whenever and in whatever ways possible. I don’t oppose all government, just that which is redundant, costly, over-regulated, complicated, unnecessary, or too oppressive and costly. Which is most of it. In the past, manufacturers, local retailers and their customers enjoyed friendly relationships. A middleman like a distribu...
Read More
From ACIP to AAP: CDPHE proposes school vaccine rule shift amid 95% MMR goal
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

From ACIP to AAP: CDPHE proposes school vaccine rule shift amid 95% MMR goal

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is proposing a new playbook for school vaccines. The Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) plans to drop reliance on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — a CDC panel — and instead follow the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has rolled out its own schedule and supports only medical exemptions. The shift coincides with CDPHE’s campaign to lift MMR rates from 88 to 95 percent, the herd immunity target, amid national upheaval and rising parental concern. Colorado’s health department is pushing new changes to school vaccine rules, and parents have less than two weeks to weigh in. CDPHE will appear before the State Board of Health on Oct. 15 to request a rulemaking hearing. Public comments...
Read More
Douglas County sheriff defies Freedom From Religion Foundation after it targeted Grandparents4Kids story hour
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Douglas County sheriff defies Freedom From Religion Foundation after it targeted Grandparents4Kids story hour

By Steve McKenna, Grandparents4Kids Board Member | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A funny thing happened on my way to my 60s. Concepts of tolerance my parents, teachers, and others taught me as a child evolved. In the 1960s, tolerance meant accepting others, not persecuting them because they were different from you or your friends. Now, in my 60s, it seems more about persecuting those who fail to tolerate to the satisfaction of a bullying minority of ideologues. Case in point. To celebrate “See You at the Library” on July 16, Grandparents4Kids, a nonpolitical group I am fortunate to be a part of, planned to have Douglas County Deputy Sheriff read Kevin Sorbo’s book “The Test of Lionhood” at a story hour presented at, but not sponsored by, the Highlands Ranch library. The book...
Read More
HGTV Can’t Save Small Town America. Fort Morgan Proves it.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

HGTV Can’t Save Small Town America. Fort Morgan Proves it.

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When HGTV came to Fort Morgan in 2023, we were promised a makeover, a shot at national attention, fresh energy, and maybe even prosperity. The pitch was simple: if a camera crew and a few celebrity designers could just spruce up our Main Street, our town would suddenly be “revived.” For a few weeks, it felt real. The Queen Lounge looked sharp. The Rainbow Bridge sparkled with new signage. Crowds packed into Mosqueda Delicacies for ice cream. Fort Morgan was on national TV, and that was supposed to mean something. But now, two years later, the cameras are gone, and the reality is settling in. The revival was short-lived, and the disappointment is palpable. HGTV didn’t just renovate buildings; they curated a narrative, one that fit the...
Read More
Are you racist? The Durango School Board thinks so.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Are you racist? The Durango School Board thinks so.

By Protect La Plata Kids | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Durango School District 9-R has spent heavily on a quiet plan to bring diversity, equity and inclusion policies into local classrooms. Attached to this commentary are invoices obtained through CORA requests to the district. They show the board paid Make It Plain Consulting more than $209,000 between 2021 and 2025. A combined file of the invoices can be viewed here. What the community didn’t realize is that the board’s long-term goal was to introduce Critical Race Theory under the banner of DEI. School board directors Kristen Smith, Erika Brown and Andrea Parmenter started by pushing a new resolution for the Durango 9-R Board of Education. As of July 2025, three Federal Civil Rights Complaints were filed against D...
Read More
The new golden calves: Progressives bow to political idols
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The new golden calves: Progressives bow to political idols

By Michael A. Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack How the Left Turns Leaders Into Gods and Politics Into Religion Idolatry is as old as humanity itself. Ancient Israel bowed before golden calves. Rome worshiped its emperors. Today, American progressives practice their own brand of idolatry—transforming politicians, activists, movements, and bureaucracies into secular saints. These idols are exalted as saviors of society, placed beyond criticism, and treated as the ultimate sources of justice and truth. The only thing they never deliver is actual redemption. The Priesthood of Experts The story begins with intellectuals. W.E.B. Du Bois envisioned the “Talented Tenth,” a vanguard of Black elites who would uplift the race through education and cultural refinement. His idea ...
Read More
Uncompensated care meets 340B: Colorado’s numbers force a reckoning
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

Uncompensated care meets 340B: Colorado’s numbers force a reckoning

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado now requires hospitals to open their books, but the reports still don’t show how 340B savings are used or how much uncompensated care is migrant-related. That gap has turned Colorado into a proving ground for reforms that define the patient, disclose the spread and require hospitals to prove the savings reach care. Colorado’s uncompensated care surge UCHealth says it is drowning under the weight of migrant care, reporting $17 million in uncompensated costs in just three months last year. Denver Health added another $10 million in the same surge, and a Common Sense Institute analysis put the metro total for emergency care at $48 million by late 2024, averaging $2,931 per encounter.  Colorado’s own ledger underscores the scale....
Read More
Show up and earn: First jobs, buying power and Colorado’s July numbers
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

Show up and earn: First jobs, buying power and Colorado’s July numbers

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Labor Day isn’t just policy and parades. It’s first alarms, first shifts and the pride of a small raise. The numbers say buying power ticked up this year and Colorado stays competitive. The stories say the first rung is where grit takes shape. The first paycheck isn’t just money. It’s alarms, bus schedules and showing up when friends don’t. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Secretary of Labor, tells it plainly. “My parents insisted that I get a job… I wanted to be a cheerleader in high school and I couldn’t afford the uniform… I was working 12-hour days… I raised the money that I needed to buy that uniform.”  Doug Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, remembers a mop and waxed aisles. “I went to a local grocery store called Big Star… I got to clean...
Read More
The Shield of Faith: The Final Move – Who Do You Want to Be?
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Shield of Faith: The Final Move – Who Do You Want to Be?

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “Who do you want to be today… who do you want to be?” – Devo If you knew me back in the 80s, or if you’ve read my devotions or heard me preach, you know I wasn’t grooving to synth-pop or rocking parachute pants. I was a hard rocker through and through. Zeppelin, Dio, Ozzy… those were my peeps. My soul leaned into guitar solos, not synthesizers. But recently, I caught myself humming a Devo tune—yeah, that Devo—the 1984 track “Who Do You Want to Be Today?” And it struck me: that quirky little lyric actually echoes something Jesus asked long before the ‘80s ever got weird. Jesus said it better, and with eternal weight: “Follow Me.” Devo asked a fun question; however, Jesus asked a life-altering one. “Who do you want to be today?” ...
Read More
When Violence Targets Conservatives, the Media Looks Away
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National, Top Stories

When Violence Targets Conservatives, the Media Looks Away

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The nation is reeling after the tragic shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school. Two children are dead, more than a dozen are injured, and the community is shattered. Investigators have identified the shooter as Robin M. Westman, and disturbing evidence has already surfaced: weapons scrawled with political messages, including “Kill Donald Trump.” This fact should dominate headlines. Yet it will not. The corporate press will bury it, sanitize it, or frame it around mental illness and gun control. What they will not do is admit what the evidence shows: a politically motivated act of violence targeting conservatives. Why? Because the media knows the truth - that the Left has incubated more political violence than the Righ...
Read More