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Is every government employee a cop now? Supreme Court case tests federal power
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, National

Is every government employee a cop now? Supreme Court case tests federal power

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com I don’t know anyone else who tracks the number of federal cops, but the watchdog group Open the Books occasionally reports on the burgeoning number of federal agencies with law enforcement divisions. The latest report, “The Militarization of Federal Bureaucracy,” detailed the astonishing scope of federal police power. There are over 200,000 federal officers with guns, badges, and arresting authority, in a whopping 103 different federal agencies. The federal government has more law enforcement officers than America’s 25 largest cities combined. Those 103 federal agencies – half of which are not primarily law enforcement – spent $3.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between 2006 and 2023. The FBI and ICE have always...
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Colorado Officials Say Trump Election Order Oversteps Constitutional Limits
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Officials Say Trump Election Order Oversteps Constitutional Limits

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado leaders criticized President Donald Trump’s new executive order issued Tuesday, arguing that its creation of a national voter‑eligibility list and new limits on mail voting violate states’ constitutional authority to run their own elections. President Donald Trump has frequently criticized mail-in voting, calling it “mail-in cheating.” Through the SAVE Act in Congress, the president has sought to require voters to show an ID before casting a ballot. The measure, approved by the U.S. House, has stalled in the U.S. Senate. “The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s going on,” Trump said a news conference, repeating allegations about the security of mail ballots as he signed the order. “I thi...
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Why I’m Running for United States Senate
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Why I’m Running for United States Senate

By Sean Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is being managed into decline. Not in one dramatic collapse. Not in one headline. In slow motion. Costs go up. Public safety goes down. Energy gets strangled. Rural communities get ignored. And government keeps getting bigger. I am running for United States Senate because I am tired of watching it happen. I am not running to join the club. I am running to reverse the direction this state is headed. I am a fifth generation Coloradan. A Navy veteran. A county commissioner. A business owner who has signed the front of paychecks and felt the weight of bad policy in real time. I have lived under the consequences of decisions made in Denver and...
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How the Income Tax Betrayed the Founding and Broke the Constitution’s Promise of Liberty
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

How the Income Tax Betrayed the Founding and Broke the Constitution’s Promise of Liberty

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The American Founding was a deliberate rejection of concentrated power. The Founders built the United States around one core principle: government must be strong enough to secure liberty, but restrained enough to never become a master. An income tax, as it exists today, directly violates that design. It creates a federal government with a permanent claim on the labor of the citizen.  It funds unlimited expansion. It invites political favoritism. It weaponizes enforcement. It breaks the relationship between the people and the state that the Constitution was written to protect. Start with the historical fact that taxation was the spark of revolution.  The colonies did not revolt because they dislike...
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“I’m not a politician”: Montrose commissioner Sean Pond enters U.S. Senate race
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

“I’m not a politician”: Montrose commissioner Sean Pond enters U.S. Senate race

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “I’m not a politician,” Sean Pond said. “I’m just that guy that stood up and said no to federal overreach.”  Pond said that decision eventually led him beyond local fights. Appointed to the Montrose County Commission in February 2025, Pond said the conversations didn’t stop once he took office. A question sits at the center of Pond’s campaign launch video, released Sunday, and the conversations he said ultimately pushed him into the U.S. Senate race. “What keeps you up at night?” https://youtu.be/mV7iEAuX-fM Pond said the question at the center of his campaign launch video wasn’t new. He said he began asking it months earlier, including on social media, as a way to hear directly from Coloradans about what felt...
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Feds own the dams, but who owns the water?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National

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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Congress uses little-known law to roll back Biden-era BLM public lands lockup
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National

Congress uses little-known law to roll back Biden-era BLM public lands lockup

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com Last week, the Senate passed three Congressional Review Act resolutions overturning BLM resource management plans. What would have been called an earth-shattering precedent not so long ago was this time hardly noticed except by those who closely follow Interior and energy issues. The Biden-era resource management plans were designed to lock up millions of acres of public lands from the “multiple uses” required by law. The Congressional Review Act (CRA) was part of a small business package signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It provided a tool Congress sometimes uses to overturn federal regulatory agency actions. It requires agencies to report any new rules to Congress and provides special procedures under which Congress can...
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Rep. Hurd refuses pay, passes first bill and earns Trump endorsement in decisive week
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Rep. Hurd refuses pay, passes first bill and earns Trump endorsement in decisive week

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice President Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement” of Congressman Jeff Hurd on Saturday capped a remarkable week for the freshman lawmaker from Colorado’s Third District. Trump praised Hurd's “strong Record of SUCCESS,” for “fighting tirelessly to… Advance American Energy DOMINANCE, Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations...” and “HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN.” Hurd has characterized his first term as a test of performance over politics. “If you look at all that we’ve accomplished in the first eight months of this Congress, it’s more than a lot of congresses accomplish in their entire two years,” Hurd told Rocky Mountain Voice before returning to session after the summer recess. “We’ve passed 27 pieces of legislation that have actually gotten...
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Colorado’s “wildlife threat” plan could threaten agriculture instead
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s “wildlife threat” plan could threaten agriculture instead

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I smell a Rosmarino I had a couple readers bring a recent US Forest Service (USFS) draft assessment about the Comanche National Grasslands (SE Colorado) to my attention. I didn’t have time to get to it, but I was happy to see that Rachel Gabel of the FencePost did. The reality is that she did a better job than I could have hoped to. Her lengthy rundown on the issue is linked below and is well worth reading. This is particularly the case if you are worried about efforts at conservation and species restoration spilling over into (or being used intentionally for) a way to stop other uses of public lands. I’ll leave it to you to get the details, but from what I read, this assessment smacks of the kinds of rewilding/co...
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Sen. Lee seeks to reinstate safeguard against domestic propaganda
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The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Sen. Lee seeks to reinstate safeguard against domestic propaganda

By Jacob Adams | The Daily Signal Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is calling on Congress to pass the Charlie Kirk Act, which would restrict the broadcasting of federally funded programming intended for foreign audiences within America’s borders. The Utah senator posted on the social media platform X on Sunday, declaring, “Domestic, political, government-funded propaganda must end now,” and explaining that he would be reintroducing legislation intended to restore the original Smith-Mundt Act, renamed in honor of Charlie Kirk, the conservative leader who was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.  Kirk’s slaying—and legacy—have become the subject of public debate with misleading or outright false claims made about the Turnin...
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