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Colorado’s Political Culture Is Driving Out Its Best Leaders
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s Political Culture Is Driving Out Its Best Leaders

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is experiencing a political decline that follows the core patterns described in political ponerology. The system rewards the wrong traits, punishes integrity, and produces outcomes that push capable people away from public service - fast and hard. You can see this in the culture that governs candidate recruitment, party operations, legislative priorities, and internal accountability.  The signals are not abstract. They are practical warning signs that explain why Colorado has a shrinking supply of competent, serious, and ethical leaders. Political ponerology teaches that a system becomes unhealthy when individuals with destructive traits gain influence. Once inside, they shape expectations, incentives, and norms...
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Colorado needs an all‑of‑the‑above energy strategy
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado needs an all‑of‑the‑above energy strategy

By Rep. Ryan Gonzalez | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As we all know, energy is vital in policy making. If we have no secure energy sector, uncertainty will ensue. While there are different views on energy policy, we must not rule out any single source of energy (like fossil fuels) for a clean environment that also secures our demand to provide for our consumers.  Energy affects virtually everything from the cost of raw materials to the finished goods or services you see in the market. More rigorous energy policy that isn’t cost effective, only raises prices and may create scarcity of resources available. In the Colorado legislature, as a first term state Representative, I have seen these concerns unfold in real time as they push a very ambitious 2040 zero emissions ...
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Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Update-a-palooza on legislative livestreams and campaign finance complaints I wanted to update some stories I’ve been following before they get too stale (as you can see in today’s third post, I’ll be taking the rest of the week off). First, and simplest, is an update to whether or not the state legislature will continue what was a pilot program to livestream legislative committee hearings (video and audio instead of just audio). The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition story linked first below offers more details, but the upshot is that the legislature is a decided “maybe” on whether or not to continue it. The livestreams, at least according to the article, are pretty popular but it seems the sticking point ...
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Colorado Does Not Need More Candidates. Colorado Needs a Future.
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Colorado Does Not Need More Candidates. Colorado Needs a Future.

By Sean M. Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is at a crossroads, and everyone living here can feel it. The cost of living has exploded. Families are working harder than ever yet falling further behind. Housing has slipped out of reach. Power bills climb. Groceries drain budgets. Fuel prices punish long commutes. Child care costs rival mortgages. Communities wonder how long they can stay in the state they love. All the while, the people in charge talk about saving the world while ignoring the people who actually live here, in Colorado.  We hear speeches about climate and national image. We hear big promises about transformation. We hear talking points that sound polished but solve nothing. What we do not hear is practical leadership. What we do...
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Phil Weiser’s Failed Experiment in Criminal Justice
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Phil Weiser’s Failed Experiment in Criminal Justice

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  It has become a common theme in many states and cities that the authorities who are responsible for the long-term safety and security of their residents, nevertheless subscribe to the popular fallacy that locking up criminals does little to deter future offenses and is less effective in the long run that social programs or rehabilitation efforts, however those might be defined.  The theory here is that criminals aren’t responsible for their actions, Society is primarily to blame.  The policies of Colorado’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, and the Democrat dominated Colorado legislature prove how foolish and misguided this theory is.  In 2019, the Colorado legislature eliminated the option of cash bail for...
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Trying to move the needle in Mesa County’s mental health crisis as leaders call the moment “historic”
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Trying to move the needle in Mesa County’s mental health crisis as leaders call the moment “historic”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “This is historic. This is transformational. This is a game changer.” Suicide now claims about 50 lives a year in Mesa County, a rate of roughly 31 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s about one and a half times Colorado’s rate and more than double the national average. At the same time, nearly 13 percent of residents who needed mental-health care last year weren’t able to get it. Those realities form the backdrop for a local effort that has taken shape inside Canyon View Vineyard Church. The program is called BeWell, and it began with a simple question: what a Jesus-centered mental health approach could look like in a county where access is limited. How the idea took shape Sondrol said the idea started forming as he watched Compassion...
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Thanksgiving prices fall in Colorado but families still pay more than most Americans
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Thanksgiving prices fall in Colorado but families still pay more than most Americans

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice This Thanksgiving, the cost of celebrating for Colorado families is at its lowest since the peak in 2022. The American Farm Bureau Federation reports that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for ten now costs $55.18 - a five percent decline from last year. Colorado continues to sit above the national average. According to KKTV, the same meal costs $61.63 in the state, which is about $6.45 more than what the typical American pays but still roughly $13 cheaper than the year before.  The West once again tops the chart as the most expensive region for Thanksgiving, with a $61.75 average that closely matches Colorado’s $61.63 estimate. That’s not a fluke; analyses of grocery spending show Western states, including Colorado, consisten...
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Stop Financing the Second Job
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Stop Financing the Second Job

By Christian Horstmann | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When child care rivals your mortgage payment and eats the “extra” paycheck, having a stay-at-home parent is the wiser investment.  We’ve been told for years that homeschooling is impossible because “you can’t make it on one income.” But when families pencil out the math, a different picture appears: the second paycheck often pays for the costs created by the second job: child care first, then commuting, meals out, and the “time savers” that keep the overbooked household afloat. On paper, it looks like gain. In reality, it’s a trade.  Consider just one budget line that eats the pay raise: full-time child care. Across Colorado, the average monthly price is over $1,000; but in nine of our ten most populous count...
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Preparing for Battle — The Full Armor of God
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

Preparing for Battle — The Full Armor of God

By Pastor Drake Hunter | Commentary, Elevation Life Church “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” ~ 1 Peter 5:8 ~ When Peter wrote these words, he wasn’t describing a paranoid state of mind—he was describing a prepared one. Being alert and sober-minded means living fully awake—alert in God’s love and clear-minded in Christ’s truth. I learned that lesson the hard way after my time in the Air Force. When I retired after two decades of service, I thought I was good to go. I’d been trained to stay sharp, follow procedures, stay mission-focused, and even trust in God. But mentally and spiritually, I let my guard down. I believed I was living for Christ, but in truth, I was livi...
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The numbers didn’t match: El Paso’s canvass exposes a statewide reporting failure the state never explained
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The numbers didn’t match: El Paso’s canvass exposes a statewide reporting failure the state never explained

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado voters expected a routine post–Election Day canvass after the November 4 coordinated election. Instead, El Paso County became ground zero for the latest crisis involving Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office after a canvass board member noticed that the numbers on the state’s website didn’t match the county’s certified reports. The mismatch surfaced publicly after businessman and election analyst Peter Bernegger posted screenshots of the Election Night Reporting (ENR) CSV file on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/PeterBernegger/status/1991610012989329540?s=20 What began as one discrepancy quickly revealed a statewide reporting failure. The ENR CSV file published by the Secretary of State contained contest-level totals that ...
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