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Why two House bills on medical transition procedures produced different votes
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Why two House bills on medical transition procedures produced different votes

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The U.S. House passed two bills this month aimed at restricting federal involvement in medical transition procedures for minors. They used different enforcement tools. And they produced different voting coalitions. One bill passed without a single Republican voting against it and drew limited Democratic support. The vote on the second bill was closer, with some crossover support and a number of members listed as not voting. Republican Rep. Gabe Evans (CD-8) backed the funding restriction but rejected the felony approach. The difference lies in how each bill was written to be enforced. Two bills, two approaches H.R. 498, the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, is a funding bill tied to how Medicaid dollars are used. It bars M...
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Bonded in Battle — The Prayer That Holds Us Together
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Bonded in Battle — The Prayer That Holds Us Together

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”  ~ Ephesians 6:18 ~ As I write this, Sherrie and I are celebrating 38 years of marriage, and my thoughts turn not to the easy moments, but to the battles we’ve fought—and the quiet strength that has carried us through every one of them. As many of you know, we are in the middle of one of our toughest battles. The hospital lights hum above us, machines click and beep with precision after two major brain surgeries, now weeks spent surrounded by hospital walls with great uncertainty. Still…it was our honest, Spirit-led prayer that carried us through the uncertainty of Glioblastoma Stage IV Brain Cancer. Holding Sherrie’s hand, pra...
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The warning before SPEED: How an ongoing Colorado wolf dispute shaped the permitting debate
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The warning before SPEED: How an ongoing Colorado wolf dispute shaped the permitting debate

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Before Congress voted to overhaul the nation’s permitting process, a Colorado lawmaker had already issued a formal warning that federal law was being set aside in the rush to move forward. On December 13, 2024, Rep. Lauren Boebert sent a detailed letter to then–Interior Secretary Deb Haaland arguing that Colorado’s wolf reintroduction plan triggered federal jurisdiction and could not legally proceed without updated federal Resource Management Plans and a proper National Environmental Policy Act review. She asked the Department of the Interior to press pause on any additional wolf imports until those federal duties were met. More than a year later, the House passed the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic De...
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“This is the team”: Michael Knowles at TPUSA AmFest on holding a coalition together
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“This is the team”: Michael Knowles at TPUSA AmFest on holding a coalition together

By RMV Editorial Board The opening night of AmericaFest did not unfold as a unified rally. Disagreements among speakers played out in real time, reflecting a broader conservative fracture now visible nationally and within state parties, including in Colorado. Michael Knowles articulated what the evening had already revealed. “In the absence of our generation’s political peacemaker,” he said, “we find ourselves in the latest right-wing civil war.” https://www.youtube.com/live/hcBd0whz8ec?si=osLqunNpf8BDHrdl Knowles did not frame that civil war as scandal or betrayal. He treated it as a structural failure. Conservatives, he observed, are independent-minded by nature. They argue. They splinter into factions. That part is not new. What is new is the absence...
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Protect Kids Colorado Pushes to Fund Signature Drive as Ballot Timeline Tightens
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Protect Kids Colorado Pushes to Fund Signature Drive as Ballot Timeline Tightens

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Ballot deadlines are closing in, and organizers with Protect Kids Colorado have begun pushing harder on fundraising and volunteer outreach connected to three citizen-led ballot initiatives slated for the 2026 election. The proposals deal with medical interventions for minors, girls’ sports and sex-based spaces, and penalties for child sex trafficking — areas campaign leaders say have evolved over time through legislation, court decisions, and regulatory guidance rather than direct statewide votes. The three proposals are being circulated separately — so voters would weigh in on each one individually if they make the ballot. Organizers have acknowledged that legal and political challenges are likely, particularl...
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COVID and the Collapse of Wisdom: How Fear, Certainty, and Coercion Broke Human Coexistence
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COVID and the Collapse of Wisdom: How Fear, Certainty, and Coercion Broke Human Coexistence

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A recent CNN report says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is planning to place a “black box” warning on COVID-19 vaccines, the agency’s most serious safety label for medicines. This warning is meant to highlight life-threatening risks that doctors and patients must consider. The report says this move is unusual because such warnings are rare for vaccines and could change how people see COVID-19 immunizations. The plan is not finalized and may change, but it represents a major shift from how vaccines were framed earlier in the pandemic. This recent development affirms the doubts many people had from the beginning about how information was shared, how risk was communicated, and how baseless the certainty experts and o...
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Feds own the dams, but who owns the water?
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Feds own the dams, but who owns the water?

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com A couple years ago, I criticized the Bureau of Reclamation for draining Blue Mesa Reservoir without bothering to tell the people in Gunnison whose livelihood is affected. I got a little push-back for saying that while the Bureau owned the dam, it did not own the water. A close friend and water lawyer told me to be careful, that the Bureau does in fact own some water rights in the Gunnison River. I admit the legal nuance but still insist it is a debatable point. That’s because Congress never funded such water projects for the purpose of the federal government owning and controlling the West’s water. The Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956 led to construction of Glen Canyon, Flaming Gorge, and Navajo Dams, as well as ...
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Good News or Fake News: Joy — Real News Worth Celebrating
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Good News or Fake News: Joy — Real News Worth Celebrating

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice If hope helps us wait and peace helps us stand, then joy helps us move forward. Joy can sometimes be misunderstood. People often mix it up with happiness, think it’s just an emotion, or even brush it off as silly. But joy has its own special meaning! At its core, true joy isn’t shallow or fragile; it's strong and active. It shows up in our lives when things are real, and it deserves to be celebrated. As we reflect during this Advent season, let’s continue to think about this important question: “What’s shaping who you are—the Good News or the fake news?” The source you trust can really influence your peace and your joy in life. We understand that fake news promotes self-sufficiency, cynicism, and entitlement. Conversel...
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Delay as policy: A double standard Colorado must answer
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Delay as policy: A double standard Colorado must answer

By RMV Editorial Board Colorado is asking a court to decide whether doing nothing can amount to doing too much. In its lawsuit over frozen federal funding, the state argues that agencies crossed the line when they allowed congressionally approved programs to stall through delay and inaction. At some point, Colorado contends, refusing to decide becomes a veto Congress never granted. That argument deserves to be taken seriously—and it raises an unavoidable question closer to home. If delay is unlawful at the federal level, why has it become routine at the state level? The standard Colorado is asking courts to enforce In its lawsuit over frozen electric vehicle infrastructure funding, Colorado argues that process cannot be used to achieve outcomes lawmakers ...
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Colorado’s Budget Is Bigger Than Ever. Health Care Is Why.
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Colorado’s Budget Is Bigger Than Ever. Health Care Is Why.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s state budget is larger than it used to be. That much isn’t disputed. What has changed over the last twenty years is where that growth landed. The Common Sense Institute’s “Colorado Budget: Then and Now” (December 2025) Colorado’s state budget has grown faster than population and inflation since the mid-2000s. The shift wasn’t sudden. It accumulated, year by year, across multiple budgets and multiple administrations. The increase shows up clearly in the numbers. In the mid-2000s, state spending worked out to a little under $5,600 per person once population and inflation were accounted for. It didn’t stay there. Year by year, the number crept higher. It now sits above $7,300. The increase...
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