Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Rocky Mountain Voice

Why hatred for capitalism reveals more about you than the system
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Why hatred for capitalism reveals more about you than the system

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Some people claim to hate capitalism. What they often hate is not the system itself, but their perceived place within it. They see business leaders as exploiters. They see profit as theft. They see success as evidence of injustice. This mindset reveals more about the individual than it does about capitalism. Capitalism is not a personality. It is a mechanism. It rewards value creation. It allocates resources based on demand. It exposes weaknesses. It amplifies strengths. If you believe capitalism is oppressive, you are making a specific claim. You are saying that voluntary exchange between individuals produces unfair outcomes. That claim deserves scrutiny. Start with a basic premise. In a free market, no one is forced to buy what you ...
Read More
Trump re-endorses Hurd in CD3: Says Scheppelman will exit race
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Trump re-endorses Hurd in CD3: Says Scheppelman will exit race

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional reporting, including comments from Colorado Republican Party Secretary Russ Andrews and a statement from Hope Scheppelman confirming she has suspended her campaign. President Donald Trump on Friday morning reversed course in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, re-endorsing Rep. Jeff Hurd and announcing that former challenger Hope Scheppelman would step out of the race to join his administration—a move she later confirmed in a campaign statement. In a Truth Social post, Trump said Scheppelman and her husband Steven—both Navy veterans—will leave the campaign trail “to join my Administration, in a capacity to be determined,” calling them “wonderful and patriotic” supporters of the...
Read More
Colorado House panel advances immigration bill after hours of testimony
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado House panel advances immigration bill after hours of testimony

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice After hours of testimony that moved between legal arguments, the House Judiciary committee advanced a sweeping immigration bill Tuesday. House Bill 26-1276 passed the committee on a 6–5 vote. The "Protect Safety of Individuals Who Are Immigrants" bill, sponsored by Reps. Elizabeth Velasco and Lorena García, focuses on how state and local entities interact with federal immigration enforcement through information sharing, task-force reporting, detention oversight and the use of public resources. Velasco told the committee the bill grew out of what sponsors saw as gaps in existing law. "This bill was written in response to issues…as well as growing concerns that we are seeing across Colorado and the nation," she said. That includ...
Read More
Governed by ideology: Colorado’s silent revolution against top-down overreach
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Governed by ideology: Colorado’s silent revolution against top-down overreach

By Laureen Boll | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Since late December 2025, we've all been witness to the Iranian people rising in extraordinary defiance against an oppressive regime. Sparked initially by economic collapse but quickly evolving into broad demands for freedom and an end to clerical rule, these nationwide protests have seen millions take to the streets in what many describe as the most intense challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution. The regime's response has been savage: security forces unleashed massacres, particularly in early January 2026, with credible estimates from human rights groups putting the death toll in the tens of thousands. Iranians have made the ultimate sacrifice in this fight against a religious ideology that no longer aligns with...
Read More
Colorado law allows probation for child sex assault: A third attempt to require prison time
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado law allows probation for child sex assault: A third attempt to require prison time

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Correction: This story originally identified Sen. Marc Snyder by the wrong first name. His name is Marc, not Chris. We regret the error. Editor’s update: The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up SB26-111 today at 1:30 p.m. Coloradans can watch live here. Seventy percent of people convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Colorado walk out of court on probation. Not prison—probation. Current law allows judges to impose probation for some child sexual assault convictions, and in certain cases prison is not required unless there are repeat offenses. SB26-111 would require prison time for anyone convicted. The bill has failed twice. A third attempt this year Reps. Brandi Bradley and Regina English have b...
Read More
The grassroots upset: How 3,320 volunteers pushed three child-focused measures onto Colorado’s ballot
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The grassroots upset: How 3,320 volunteers pushed three child-focused measures onto Colorado’s ballot

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Three citizen-led ballot initiatives—focused on youth medical procedures, girls’ sports and child trafficking penalties—are now officially headed to Colorado’s November 2026 ballot, a result supporters say wasn’t supposed to happen. That final step came this week, when Propositions 109 and 110 were certified, joining Proposition 108 after a campaign that gathered more than 500,000 signatures statewide. For Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, the moment lands as something bigger than a successful petition drive—it’s the end of a campaign many didn’t think would get this far. The campaign they said couldn’t work Asked about the process, Lee called it “the hardest, most impossible thing” she’s ever taken on. She s...
Read More
Framed as education, but tied to TABOR: Measure to keep surplus revenue advances
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Framed as education, but tied to TABOR: Measure to keep surplus revenue advances

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s fight over spending limits is back at the Capitol, and this time it could end up in front of voters. The Senate Finance Committee voted 6–3 on March 12 to advance SB26-135, teeing up a 2026 vote on whether the state can keep revenue above the TABOR cap instead of sending it back as refunds. It comes down to a basic question: should that extra revenue go back to taxpayers, or stay with the state? What follows is less straightforward. How the bill works The proposal does not rewrite TABOR itself. Instead, it puts that decision to voters—whether to allow the state to keep and spend money that would otherwise be refunded. If voters sign off, the state could retain revenue above the cap, up to an amount ...
Read More
From bill to emergency order: The election fight moves beyond Congress
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

From bill to emergency order: The election fight moves beyond Congress

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Senate Republicans opened debate Tuesday on a bill they say will secure American elections. But inside that same fight, a second path is already taking shape—one that doesn’t run through Congress at all. While lawmakers argue over the SAVE America Act and whether it can survive a Senate filibuster, some election-integrity advocates are pushing something far more aggressive: a proposed emergency order that would allow a president to step in and change how federal elections are run. RMV obtained a copy of that proposal—and spoke with one of the men now advocating for it. What’s emerging is not just a policy disagreement. It’s a split in approach. Congress is trying to answer the question through legislation. Others are asking wh...
Read More
Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The case of former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters has become one of the most controversial legal and political episodes in modern Colorado election administration. But stripped of partisan rhetoric and competing narratives, the core issue before the public is far simpler—and far more troubling. Should an election official who believed she was preserving federally required election records spend years in prison for a disputed administrative decision? That question deserves serious reflection from every Coloradan, regardless of political affiliation. Public confidence in elections depends not only on accurate vote counts but on transparency in the systems that produce those results. When officials believ...
Read More
Two visions of Colorado’s energy future collide in committee hearing
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Two visions of Colorado’s energy future collide in committee hearing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Xcel shut off power Saturday afternoon in parts of Boulder and Jefferson counties—roughly 18,000 customers in all. The wind was up, fire danger was high, and outages weren’t limited to the shutoff areas—some hit in the foothills, others farther into the mountains, where crews were still working Sunday. House Bill 26-1246 had come up earlier in the week during a committee hearing. Rep. Ken DeGraaf pointed to those kinds of events as a warning. “Public safety power shutoffs… have become increasingly normalized,” he told lawmakers. What followed wasn’t just a debate over one bill. It was a clash between two different ways of thinking about how Colorado should power its future. At its core, the disagreement comes down to this: should...
Read More

FD863768-0ACF-495E-9D21-2EF784DFFA6B[1]

Join us at RMV's Freedom Festival

Click Here for Tickets!

This will close in 0 seconds