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George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Dinner one night back in 2018 was seafood and gator sausage, with family around the table. Before long the conversation landed where it usually does in the Markert family—service. George Markert was on official Marine Corps business at the time in Pensacola, Fla. Markert was leading a high-level investigation as a colonel. His uncle got word he was in Pensacola and insisted they get together before he left. The worn Constitution changed hands at the end of a family dinner in Pensacola. When Markert flipped it open, he saw a handwritten note. “The note read, ‘This was your grandfather’s, and he held it sacred,’” Markert said. “He did a tour in Washington, D.C. in the Navy back in the 1950s and used to take my dad and his three sibling...
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When my power went out…
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State, Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

When my power went out…

By Mark Salley | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The inconvenience of a power outage — the loss of electricity to light your dark bedrooms, to power the televisions that distract us, even to losing internet connections to the outside world — is…a gift! I was quickly reminded of the benefit — even the joy — of being without power. It is electricity that connects us to the world at large. What’s going on in Iran? Did the USA win its baseball game in the world baseball classic? What am I missing tonight on my favorite TV show? The electric garage door opener won’t work. There’s no electric light at night to read my book in bed. In fact, there is no nightlight to help me navigate my home in the dark! What’s a man or woman to do? Rejoice. Be glad. When the power is o...
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Colorado Senate advances bill limiting local control over housing projects
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado Senate advances bill limiting local control over housing projects

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado lawmakers spent part of the week hashing out just how much the state should push new housing. The Senate approved House Bill 26-1001—after several amendments. Those amendments were agreed upon by the House the next day. Land that is already owned by institutions or the government is the main focus of the bill. If the measure is eventually passed into law, property owned by school districts, housing authorities, universities, transit agencies, and some nonprofit organizations may be eligible for a simplified approval process. Supporters say some of that property is sitting unused. If approvals were easier, they argue, some of it could be turned into housing. During the bill’s second reading, Senator Tony E...
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House Bill 26-1246: Protecting Colorado’s citizens, landscape, and economy
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

House Bill 26-1246: Protecting Colorado’s citizens, landscape, and economy

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Editor’s update: House Bill 26-1246 was heard in the House Energy & Environment Committee on Thursday, March 12, 2026, and laid over for further consideration. The bill is expected to return to committee within approximately two weeks. Coloradans who want to weigh in before the next hearing can track the bill’s status and find contact information for committee members at leg.colorado.gov/committees/2026A/house/EnergyEnvironment. Colorado is at an energy crossroads. Decisions being made today about how electricity is generated, transmitted, and paid for will shape our state’s economy, landscape, and cost of living for decades to come. House Bill 26-1246 is a response to a simple but increasingly urgent problem: th...
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Colorado eye surgeon sets the record straight on EPA appointment: “I didn’t get my degree out of a Cracker Jack box”
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Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

Colorado eye surgeon sets the record straight on EPA appointment: “I didn’t get my degree out of a Cracker Jack box”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The New York Times ran its verdict last week on Dr. Brian C. Joondeph’s EPA appointment. Just an eye doctor. Kyle Clark said the same thing. Joondeph is a Colorado retina surgeon and political commentator. Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin tapped him for the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee—CASAC. The Times piece, published March 12, went after his qualifications: no air-pollution peer-reviewed research, not a climate scientist, wrong kind of doctor. Clark, a Denver television journalist, flagged the appointment on X. He wrote, “Trump administration appoints Dr. Brian Joondeph, eye doctor and longtime Colorado talk radio regular, to the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.” https://twitter.com/KyleClark...
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Special edition: The Iranian War — the fiery darts of war
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Devotional, Top Stories

Special edition: The Iranian War — the fiery darts of war

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice "Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one."~ Ephesians 6:16 ~ I understand war. Not just as a headline or political talking point, but as someone who spent over twenty years in active duty military service and now lives with a 70% service-connected disability as a vet. During those years, wars came and went — Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, and countless endless conflicts that most Americans eventually stopped paying attention to. But when you serve long enough, you realize something: war is never just about nations. It is about human hearts. Today, the world again witnesses rising tensions between Israel, Iran, and the United States. Missiles are flying. Alliances...
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Federal civil rights office finds Jeffco schools violated Title IX, gives district 10 days to comply
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Federal civil rights office finds Jeffco schools violated Title IX, gives district 10 days to comply

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Girls in Jefferson County Public Schools have been sharing bathrooms, locker rooms, overnight accommodations and sports rosters with male students—and the federal government just said that has to stop. The feds ruled Friday that Jeffco violated Title IX. Colorado’s second-largest school district, serving 74,200 students, has 10 days to comply or face enforcement action—including potential loss of federal funding.  OCR received athletic rosters directly from Jeffco confirming that male students occupy 61 positions on girls' sports teams across the district. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the investigation found the district violated Title IX protections for female students. "Today's findings reveal sweeping ...
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Does affordable housing mean subsidized housing?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State

Does affordable housing mean subsidized housing?

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project The more I read into what the Democrats running this state think affordable housing ought to mean, and how it ought to get done, the more I’m convinced that what they’d like to do is to equate affordable with (in one way or another) publicly-funded housing. The Sun article linked below offers pretty good evidence. It details a couple of proposals by Democrats. Quoting: “Solutions to Colorado’s lack of affordable housing for teachers and other key staff are slowly taking shape, with one new state program designed to offer an estimated 200 low-interest mortgages to rural educators and district staff. Another potential program, part of legislation that Democrat state Sen. Jeff Bridges plans to introduce this week, would all...
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The Capitol flagpole is not a friendship bracelet
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The Capitol flagpole is not a friendship bracelet

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s State Capitol is not a festival stage. It is a civic altar of sorts, the place where law is made, rights are protected, and citizens who disagree about nearly everything are still supposed to recognize one another as equals under the same authority. That is why a flagpole on Capitol grounds is never “just symbolic.” It is government speech, rendered in cloth and wind. Governor Jared Polis’ decision to hoist Canada’s flag over the Colorado State Capitol for the second-annual “Colorado-Canada Friendship Day” was therefore not appropriate, even if Canada is a friendly neighbor and a major trading partner. The problem is not Canada. The problem is the office. In March of last year, the Governor’s office framed t...
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Colorado House committee kills bill requiring abortion providers to offer adoption information
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado House committee kills bill requiring abortion providers to offer adoption information

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A bill that would have required health care providers to inform women about adoption before performing abortions will not move forward this year after a sharply divided hearing at the Colorado Capitol. Lawmakers on the Colorado House of Representatives Health and Human Services Committee voted March 10 to postpone indefinitely Colorado House Bill 26-1105 following testimony from witnesses who framed the proposal in dramatically different ways — from a measure supporters said would expand options to one critics argued would insert the state into private medical decisions. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ava Flanell, Rep. Scott Slaugh and Sen. Lynda Zamora Wilson, would have required health care providers to offer information ab...
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