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False report, bad judging, real results: Montezuma schools find their footing
Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

False report, bad judging, real results: Montezuma schools find their footing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice For two difficult years, Superintendent Tom Burris and the Montezuma-Cortez board were cast as the problem in a community at odds. Detractors said they buried misconduct. The situation became a tangle of problems—courtroom misconduct, staff discipline, politicized claims and social-media outrage—all amplified by one-sided reporting that drained time, money and focus. The photo that never should have existed A courtroom image of Superintendent Burris ran the next morning on the front page of The Journal. No photographs are permitted inside a Colorado courtroom—a violation later cited in the judge’s ethics case. “No photographs are permitted inside a Colorado courtroom,” attorney David Illingworth recalled. “The next day it was front-page...
Modern-Day “Bonnie and Clyde” Busted with Cat After Violent Colorado Liquor Store Theft
Outkick, Approved, Local

Modern-Day “Bonnie and Clyde” Busted with Cat After Violent Colorado Liquor Store Theft

By: Sean Joseph | OutKick Shoplifting, pepper spray, biting, and a cat. Colorado’s liquor store chaos has it all. There's a certain amount of perseverance required to get caught shoplifting from a liquor store and refuse to go down without a fight. I'm not saying it's a form of determination that should be admired. I'm simply pointing out that there is more than one path from shoplifting to being arrested, and these two chose the path that includes pepper spray and biting while brawling with employees. A man and woman in Colorado had, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, shoplifted several items from a liquor store and tried to leave. Two employees of the fine establishment followed them out into the parking lot and attempted to sto...
Free speech tested: Fort Lewis TPUSA students persevere with faith, composure—and resolve
Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Free speech tested: Fort Lewis TPUSA students persevere with faith, composure—and resolve

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The first Turning Point USA event, “Debate a Conservative,” took place Oct. 16 in the Fort Lewis College Student Union, where police stood at the doors as a steadying presence. Jonah Flynn, a senior studying philosophy and Spanish, along with Charlie Parke and Isabella Trevino, who were working to start a TPUSA chapter on campus, had braced for hostility but insisted on dialogue. “People with opposite views asked hard questions, but we all talked,” said Zen Moreno, a first-semester transfer in environmental conservation and management who joined the chapter after attending the event. She said she felt compelled to step in, hoping to turn hostility into conversation and connection. Flynn recalled how tension turned to civility. “People came...
Anatomy of a Coloradan Addicted to Making Political Donations
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Anatomy of a Coloradan Addicted to Making Political Donations

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice America may be the land of the free but it is also the land of addictions. The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that 28.2 million Americans have a “drug use disorder” and the National Council on Problem Gambling reports that approximately 2.5 million Americans have “severe problems” gambling and an additional 5 to 8 million have mild or moderate issues. The dangers of addictions to drugs and/or gambling are well known, highly publicized, and well studied, but the dangers of being addicted to making political donations aren’t. At least until now. Addictions generally seem to be a bigger problem for the young than the old. The American Psychiatric Association reports that people over the age of 60 are...
The Real “Trick or Treat” in D38
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

The Real “Trick or Treat” in D38

By Amy Stephens | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In Lewis-Palmer District 38, voters are being asked to choose between transparency and trickery — between a school board candidate who respects parents and one who shuts them out if they dare disagree. That’s not hyperbole. It’s the documented history of union-backed activist Jackie Burhans. Burhans markets herself as a champion of “parental rights.” But look closer and a pattern emerges: she defends rights only when parents share her ideology. When they don’t, she dehumanizes them — mocking, marginalizing, and labeling them, often accusing them of the very tactics she uses to silence dissent. We saw this in the now-infamous images from La Burla Bee, a downtown nightclub in Colorado Springs. There stands Burhans — holding ra...
Safety, Discipline, and Learning at Heart of Denver School Board Races
CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Safety, Discipline, and Learning at Heart of Denver School Board Races

By Olivia Young | CBS Colorado Voters will elect four members of the Denver School Board next week. That will determine a majority on the seven member board and the future direction of the district, including the tenure of Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero. DPS parents who are stressing the importance of casting ballots talked with CBS News Colorado. Chanele Simmons is a business owner and mom to three DPS students attending schools in far northeast Denver. She says her children's well-being is on her mind every day they're in classes. "That they're good and safe, that they're learning and that they're emotionally great," she said. Simmons would like to see the next Denver Board of Education focus on bringing down class size. She fears with the current class sizes are making i...
Durango’s School Board Debacle: Radical Rot, Predator Blind Spots, and a Herald Hug
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Durango’s School Board Debacle: Radical Rot, Predator Blind Spots, and a Herald Hug

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Durango used to be the kind of place where families felt good about sending their kids to school. But things shifted over the years —and not in a good way. With a critical school board election just days away, parents are speaking out. And what they’re saying is hard to ignore. What I learned from the families who helped shape the Durango Dirty Dozen series was both heartbreaking and hopeful. They painted a clear picture of a district losing touch with its mission—and of a community ready to fight back.  They told me about confusing bathroom rules, lavish DEI spending, and a media outlet more interested in enabling coverups than accountability. Their message was clear: kids are being left behind. Let’s start with bathrooms...
Beloved ‘Dog Heaven’ in Colorado Springs Closed Over Water Concerns
The Gazette, Approved, Local

Beloved ‘Dog Heaven’ in Colorado Springs Closed Over Water Concerns

By Seth Boster | The Gazette One recent afternoon near his Colorado Springs home, Sean Paige was hiking with Nellie the golden retriever en route to a favorite spot in Stratton Open Space: South Suburban Reservoir.  “She’s still anxious to get there, because she thinks it’s gonna be full of water,” Paige said.  But Colorado Springs Utilities announced the draining of South Suburban Reservoir in April 2024 for repairs to the dam. Nellie has been among dogs splashing in the water over the years — the place Paige has called “dog heaven” under the gaze of Cheyenne Mountain — but not the past couple of summers during the closure.  And not for summers to come, following an announcement by Utilities.  “Now it’s off-limits,” Paige lamented. “Try explaining that t...
DPS Board Hopefuls Outline Competing Visions for District’s Future
DENVER7, Approved, Local

DPS Board Hopefuls Outline Competing Visions for District’s Future

By: Colette Bordelon , Shannon Ogden | Denver7 Denver7 invited all 11 candidates to give a final, two-minute pitch to voters before Election Day on Nov. 4. DENVER — With less than a week until election day, Denver7 asked all of the candidates for the Denver Public Schools Board of Education to give a final pitch to voters. We gave each candidate two minutes to say anything they would like voters to hear before filling out their ballots. Here's what they said. At-large Amy Klein Molk “I'm Amy Klein Molk, and I am running for the Denver School Board At-large seat. My opponents are spreading lies about my record, and it is fueled by millions of dollars. Denver voters deserve the truth. The truth is I am the only candidate in this race that is endorsed by the Denver Cla...
CU Boulder TPUSA Leader Attacked After Antifa “Hit List” Circulates Online
JONATHANTURLEY.ORG, Approved, Local

CU Boulder TPUSA Leader Attacked After Antifa “Hit List” Circulates Online

By Jonathan Turley | JonathanTurley.org As Democratic leaders like Rep. Dan Goldman (D, N.Y.) insist that Antifa does not exist as a group, two Antifa groups — Front Range Antifa and Colorado Springs Antifa — put out a hit list poster on a University of Colorado sophomore and leader in Turning Point USA. He was promptly attacked by a person in the signature Antifa black outfit on roller blades who used a hockey stick to mete out the punishment. According to a press release, Boulder Police are looking for a suspect accused of attacking a 19-year-old Turning Point USA student leader near the University of Colorado, Boulder on Thursday evening. The attacker is suspected to be an Antifa member and to have followed the victim in the premeditate...

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