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Mark Baisley Launches U.S. Senate Bid, Shifts Focus From Statehouse to Washington
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Mark Baisley Launches U.S. Senate Bid, Shifts Focus From Statehouse to Washington

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado State Senator Mark Baisley has entered the race for U.S. Senate, ending his bid for governor and refocusing his campaign on federal policy decisions he says are driving affordability pressures and limiting Colorado’s ability to chart its own course. Baisley described the shift as a move from state-level problem solving to addressing issues he believes now originate in Washington. “I’m moving from being a state senator to a bigger stage in the United States Senate,” he said. He said his earlier campaign sharpened his view of where decisions affecting daily life are increasingly being made — and where he believes Colorado needs stronger representation. Cost of Living and Affordability ...
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Colorado Lawmakers Warn School Meal Taxes Could Return to Ballot Yet Again
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Warn School Meal Taxes Could Return to Ballot Yet Again

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun The $95 million a year voters approved when they passed Proposition MM in November is expected to generate enough to fund the Health School Meals for All program. But it might still go back to the ballot. Just two months after Colorado voted — for the second and third times — to raise taxes for a school meals program, legislative analysts are warning state lawmakers they might have to go back to the ballot for round four. The news reduced Joint Budget Committee Chair Emily Sirota to a three-letter response during a December meeting: “O … M … G …” This time around, the stakes aren’t quite as high. The $95 million a year voters approved when they passed Proposition MM in November is expected to generate enough to pay f...
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If 2025 Had a Playlist, These Songs Would Be on It
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

If 2025 Had a Playlist, These Songs Would Be on It

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice This was a year that kept interrupting whatever you thought you were doing. It arrived unevenly. Some moments swallowed entire news cycles. Others barely registered at first, only making sense months later, once the consequences showed up.  Most of the arguments about 2025 focused on motives or ideology. The consequences were easier to feel than to argue about.  Music, oddly enough, ended up capturing that better than summaries or charts. Not as nostalgia or a clever hook, but as a record. If this year had a playlist, the following songs would be included. We Didn’t Start the Fire — Billy Joel Inflation wasn’t theoretical in 2025. After years of high accumulation, it continued to...
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Federal Judge Rules Parents Must Be Informed on Student Gender Changes
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I Stand for Freedom, Approved, National

Federal Judge Rules Parents Must Be Informed on Student Gender Changes

By Noah Stanton | I Stand for Freedom There’s something uniquely corrosive about a secret kept between a child and an institution, especially when that secret is deliberately hidden from the child’s own parents. It’s the kind of arrangement that should make any reasonable person uncomfortable. And yet, for years, that’s exactly what California’s public schools were doing, though most families had no idea. Under guidance from the California Department of Education, adopted by more than half the state’s school districts, teachers were explicitly prohibited from telling parents if their child began identifying as a different gender at school. A student could change their name, change their pronouns, and undergo what educators called “social transition”—all while mo...
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Douglas County Sees Political Shift in 2025 After Home Rule Vote and School Board Elections
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Douglas County Sees Political Shift in 2025 After Home Rule Vote and School Board Elections

By Noah Festenstein | The Denver Gazette Douglas County this year failed to achieve home rule status, voters elected a progressive-leaning school board and officials completed a land transfer to build a massive regional sports complex. Home rule campaign fails Douglas County commissioners sought to become a home rule county, but voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. The three commissioners argued that home rule status would allow the county to enact its own zoning policies, reorganize county departments or increase the number of commissioners. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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Federal Civil Rights Complaint Accuses Cherry Creek Schools of Race-Based Discipline and Retaliation
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Federal Civil Rights Complaint Accuses Cherry Creek Schools of Race-Based Discipline and Retaliation

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Federal civil-rights complaints over equity policy are no longer confined to a single district in Colorado. Durango Public Schools is facing civil rights complaints, while a separate federal lawsuit challenges the state’s anti-discrimination law under House Bill 25-1312. A federal civil-rights complaint now puts Cherry Creek School District under scrutiny over allegations of race-based discrimination and retaliation. In its press release, America First Legal says Cherry Creek has “branded student misconduct ‘culturally appropriate’ and blocked discipline based on race,” claiming the district has replaced equal treatment with an unlawful double standard. Alleged Double Standard in Student Discipline ...
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From Campus To Classroom How CRT and DEI Mandates Reach K-12 Schools
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The Daily Signal, Approved, Commentary, National

From Campus To Classroom How CRT and DEI Mandates Reach K-12 Schools

By Reagan Dugan and Paul Runko | Commentary, The Daily Signal A recent report from Defending Education has found that more than half of collegiate social work programs appear to embed anti-racism and diversity, equity, and inclusion standards into their core competencies, admissions requirements, and field work evaluations. This is not by accident. The sole accreditor of these schools, the Council on Social Work Education, requires adherence to these standards. This means, in practice, that left-wing ideologies—many of which promote discrimination on the basis of race—are de facto orthodoxy in most of the nation’s social work programs, just so the institution can remain accredited. This accreditation is required for graduates of these program...
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Is Colorado witnessing a modern David versus Goliath moment?
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Correspondence Theory, Approved, Commentary, State

Is Colorado witnessing a modern David versus Goliath moment?

By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Commentary, Correspondence Theory (Editor’s Note: This post is to highlight an important movement happening in Colorado. This could be the watershed moment that will affect Colorado, the USA, and the greater western world. Please read and consider helping.) In a time when political and social power are manipulated and controlled by powerful elites, a group of everyday Colorado citizens are engaged in a battle which has the potential to uphold truth and reaffirm the sovereign power of the individual citizen. Colorado has trapped children and families in a web of egregious laws which supplant individual rights with collective state authority. Colorado kids are forcibly taught gender ideology, compelled to socially transition their classm...
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Teachers Union Pushes Polis To Block Federal Scholarship Option For Families
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Teachers Union Pushes Polis To Block Federal Scholarship Option For Families

By Ari Armstrong | Complete Colorado Will the Colorado teachers’ union be so spiteful toward private education options that they will deny Colorado families money from privately funded scholarships promoted by federal tax credits? We soon will find out. I first learned of the program in question when the Colorado Sun published Jay Stooksberry’s op-ed on the matter on August 19. As Stooksberry explains, buried within the One Big Beautiful Bill was the Education Choice for Children Act, which allows individuals to “make tax-deductible donations up to $1,700 to scholarship organizations.” Before a state’s families can take advantage, Stooksberry adds, the governor must opt in and “approve a list of qualifying scholarship organizations the year before the donations can ...
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