Government Accountability - Rocky Mountain Voice

Know your judges: New Mesa County appointment highlights Colorado’s selection process

16Jun

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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Know your judges: New Mesa County appointment highlights Colorado’s selection process

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Know your judges I got another old story that got bumped as I got busy, but I didn’t want to let it go due to its importance. Per the article linked first below, Gov. Polis back in early May appointed a new judge in the Mesa County Judicial District. Quoting with link intact: “Effective on July 1, 2026, Courtney L. Dinnel will serve as a Mesa County Court Judge. The appointment was made to fill a new judgeship created by SB25-024, which increased the number of judges in certain county courts, including Mesa County’s, by one.” Interestingly, this judge moved all the way from Adams County to Mesa County. Given the way judges are appointed in this state and given Polis’/Democrats’ hold on judicial appointm...

An open letter to the 10th Circuit on free speech and the First Amendment

15Jun

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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

An open letter to the 10th Circuit on free speech and the First Amendment

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The 10th Circuit of Court of Appeals got it wrong on free speech -- an open letter Similar to what Lincoln said of himself — I’m a slow walker but I don’t walk backwards — I often get busy with life and have to shelve writing projects without letting them go. I wrote back in early May about a decision rendered by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on legislative immunity. That newsletter is linked first below. The second link is to the judge’s decision. At the time, I wrote the clerk of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and asked how it was that one could send in feedback to the judges on their decision. The clerk said that you can either email them to [email protected], or mail them to the ...

Whoever holds power, Colorado records should remain public

11Jun

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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Whoever holds power, Colorado records should remain public

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project CFOIC updates their CORA/Open Meetings guide CFOIC has been a great help to me in learning how to do public records requests (and they continue to be as I encounter issues with getting records, etc.). They recently updated their excellent guide on open records requests and open meetings law based on recent changes. It’s linked at bottom. If you are doing requests or thinking about it, bookmark it. In the spirit of paying forward the help I received, I am happy to help you in what ways I can if you are thinking of doing some records requests and/or if you have a topic you want to investigate but don’t know where to start. Message me or email through my newsletter. https://coloradofoic.org/op...

Rand Paul Releases Records Alleging Years of NIH Biosafety Failures

10Jun

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Just The News, Approved, National

Rand Paul Releases Records Alleging Years of NIH Biosafety Failures

By Amanda Head | Just The News New documents released by Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., reveal that two National Institutes of Health scientists were charged with conspiring to smuggle monkeypox virus samples into the United States after returning from the Congo. The documents released by Congress revealed a decade of warnings and workarounds in the handling of dangerous pathogens. In January, NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratories virologists Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport from the Republic of the Congo, where a monkeypox outbreak was active. On arrival, they declared that a large black case contained only “diagnostics and testing equipment.” Federal investigators later ...

House Report Alleges Walz Administration Ignored Billions in Fraud Losses

9Jun

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Just The News, Approved, National

House Report Alleges Walz Administration Ignored Billions in Fraud Losses

By John Solomon | Just the News Vance announced criminal referral in a social media post in which he raised concerns that Walz's administration tried to retaliate against whistleblowers. Vice President JD Vance has referred evidence gathered by Congress that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison failed to act against mass welfare fraud in their state to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigate. Vance announced the criminal referral in a social media post late Monday in which he raised concerns that Walz's administration also tried to retaliate against state workers who blew the whistle on the welfare fraud scams in Minnesota, estimated by the House Oversight Committee to have cost taxpayers more than $9 billion. "...

DOJ Says Anti-Weaponization Fund Will Not Move Forward

3Jun

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The Daily Signal, Approved, National

DOJ Says Anti-Weaponization Fund Will Not Move Forward

By Fred Lucas | The Daily Signal Amid skepticism from lawmakers—including some Republicans—acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House panel Tuesday that the Justice Department has scrapped its planned Anti-Weaponization Fund. The $1.776 billion fund stemmed from a settlement between President Donald Trump and the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax information. Blanche testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, days after a federal judge temporarily blocked the fund. Instead, Blanche said it will never move forward. Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, asked: “We know that the department has agreed to pause this effort until at least June 12. I wan...

Taxpayers on the Hook When Government Programs Cost More Than Promised

3Jun

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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Taxpayers on the Hook When Government Programs Cost More Than Promised

By: Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado’s state budget is structurally unsustainable, which majority Democrats say could be fixed by ending voter consent over new taxation or by increasing taxes on Colorado residents through a progressive income tax. While those suggestions would certainly increase state revenue, they are unlikely to fix Colorado’s ongoing budget deficits. Meanwhile, taxpayers often learn too late that programs are vastly exceeding costs; programs like Cover all Coloradans, Healthy School Meals for All, and the wolf reintroduction scheme were all revealed to be more expensive than initially advertised to voters. Why do programs end up being so much more expensive than advertised?&n...

Court Orders Release of Larimer Autopsy Report in Transparency Dispute

2Jun

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Approved, Commentary, Complete Colorado, Local

Court Orders Release of Larimer Autopsy Report in Transparency Dispute

By: Cory Gaines | Commentary, Complete Colorado Abortion is obviously a polarizing topic. While this column touches on the subject, it’s not the actual focus. Rather, it’s about something I hope we can all agree on: transparency. Government officials should not be hiding information from us based on what they think is good for us to know, or for some ideological reason; a lesson the Larimer County Coroner recently learned the hard way. In February 2025 a young woman died due to complications from a late term abortion. According to reports in various pro-life media outlets (regular progressive Colorado media, of course, have run from this story like the plague), along with the autopsy report that followed, Planned Parenthood in Fort Collins performe...

When government defrauds the citizen, it forfeits its moral claim to tax him

1Jun

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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

When government defrauds the citizen, it forfeits its moral claim to tax him

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice There comes a point at which taxation ceases to be civic contribution and becomes state extraction. That point is reached when citizen taxpayers are defrauded by their own government, when public money is lost, stolen, concealed, misdirected, or protected through official corruption, and when the same government that demands payment from the citizen refuses justice to the citizen. A government that takes from the people under color of law, then shields the corrupt from consequence, has not merely mismanaged funds. It has broken a covenant with the governed. The issue is deeper than waste. Waste is incompetence. Fraud is betrayal. Waste says the government failed. Fraud says the government used the public trust as a pri...

Kentucky moved to rein in executive power: Should Colorado do the same?

19May

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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, National

Kentucky moved to rein in executive power: Should Colorado do the same?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project An intriguing idea out of Kentucky... I usually stick to Colorado issues, but this idea out of the recent Kentucky legislative session struck me as worth sharing. Since I live in Blue Colorado, the idea of Republicans having a supermajority (and will enough) to push their legislative priorities through, including “tearing through” a series of vetoes by the governor caught my eye. Per the article linked first below, this is the case in Kentucky. The Republican-supermajority legislature there recently overrode a whole lot of Governor Beshear’s vetoes. If you’re interested in Kentucky politics, you can read up on the list, but the one that I want to focus on is shown in screenshot 1 from that article. ...

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Tag: Government Accountability

Know your judges: New Mesa County appointment highlights Colorado’s selection process

An open letter to the 10th Circuit on free speech and the First Amendment

Whoever holds power, Colorado records should remain public

Rand Paul Releases Records Alleging Years of NIH Biosafety Failures

House Report Alleges Walz Administration Ignored Billions in Fraud Losses

DOJ Says Anti-Weaponization Fund Will Not Move Forward

Taxpayers on the Hook When Government Programs Cost More Than Promised

Court Orders Release of Larimer Autopsy Report in Transparency Dispute

When government defrauds the citizen, it forfeits its moral claim to tax him

Kentucky moved to rein in executive power: Should Colorado do the same?

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