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Some food for thought on conservatism, common sense and political identity
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Some food for thought on conservatism, common sense and political identity

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Some food for thought... One pattern I see in math and physics is how fruitful it can be to test and inquire into basic assumptions we all have. A look at what it means to count things alongside a look at infinity leads one to the intriguing idea that there is more than one kind of infinity, for example. The Rocky Mountain Voice piece linked below was also intriguing to me, and for that same reason. I’ll leave it to you to read it, but some interesting (if not entirely new) themes are there. Is common sense common? Is a self-evident truth self-evident to us all? What does it mean to be conservative? Is that changing? I wrote in the past about being liberty minded though not a party adherent (see the sec...
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Trump Task Force Uncovers Nationwide Web Of Welfare And Immigration Fraud
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Just The News, Approved, National

Trump Task Force Uncovers Nationwide Web Of Welfare And Immigration Fraud

By Steven Richards | Just the News The cost to taxpayers identified by Vice President JD Vance's task for targeting government benefit programs is mounting, and no plausible explanations are forthcoming. The Trump administration’s work to pare back waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government has reportedly exposed a vast network of taxpayer-fleecing scams, abuses of immigration, and of the citizenship process across all corners of the United States.  The story involves resettled refugees soaking up federal paychecks to run home healthcare and childcare businesses, transnational criminal organizations exploiting food benefit programs, and scammers using fake student profiles to make off with millions in federal student loans. It also involves non-monetary f...
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When the people vote, the majority should not pre-load a workaround
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

When the people vote, the majority should not pre-load a workaround

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is supposed to be a representative government, not a manager class that “handles” voters the way an accountant handles a problem line item. Yet that is exactly what HB26-1430 represents: a legislature preparing a conditional “counterpunch” that activates only if voters approve Initiative 175 this November. Reasonable people can disagree about Initiative 175. That is not the point. The point is this: the majority is building an escape hatch before the people have even spoken. That posture is a warning sign in any republic, because it reveals what leadership thinks about consent. What HB26-1430 is, in plain English Initiative 175 would amend the Colorado Constitution to redirect certain transportation-rela...
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Senate Panel Blocks Bill Expanding Lawsuits Against Government Officials
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Senate Panel Blocks Bill Expanding Lawsuits Against Government Officials

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A panel of Colorado legislators on Tuesday rejected legislation that would have allowed residents to sue federal and local officials in state court for alleged constitutional violations. Senate Bill 176 would have allowed individuals who have been subjected to a “deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities” afforded in the U.S. Constitution to sue for civil damages within two years of the alleged violation. The bill — sponsored by Sens. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver — included exceptions for federal officials with absolute or qualified immunity. Both forms of immunity come with exceptions. The measure, dubbed the “No Kings Act” by supporters, piggybacked off another measure sponsored ...
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From insider to critic: Ex-White House official questions public health orthodoxy
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All Better, Approved, Commentary, National

From insider to critic: Ex-White House official questions public health orthodoxy

By Katy Talento | AllBetter Substack I kept Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of the West Wing. Now I owe him an apology. It was 2017. We had hauled the CEOs of a bunch of pharmaceutical companies into the Oval Office so that President Trump could berate them about their drug prices. (Always a good time.) Somehow, the word “vaccine” came up in the conversation. When that happens in the president’s presence, then, now, last month, and probably next week, like clockwork, he always starts telling the same story. A woman who worked for him at the Trump Organization back in the day. Her two-year-old son, who was “perfect, beautiful, magnificent, flawless.” Then he got a shot and he was “just gone. Gone. Never the same. Beautiful boy. Then, just gone.” The CEOs all shrank back and tu...
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Weiser’s record: A system falling behind
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Weiser’s record: A system falling behind

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Every time a convicted felon in Colorado decides to fight their case on appeal, the state has to answer. Homicide. Sexual assault. White collar crime. Death row. It doesn't matter — the Attorney General's Criminal Appeals Section picks up every one. Thirty-four attorneys. Every felony appeal in the state. And for three straight years, they haven't been able to keep up. The cost of that starts before a single case is decided. The state tracks response briefs through mandatory SMART Act performance filings. One metric counts how many are overdue — cases where the office has not filed within the deadline set by the Colorado Appellate Rules.  The Attorney General's office sets its own annual target for how ma...
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Lawmakers Move To Level Playing Field Between Lobbyists And State Agencies
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Lawmakers Move To Level Playing Field Between Lobbyists And State Agencies

By Rae Solomon | Colorado Public Radio Governor Jared Polis is strongly pushing back against a proposal that would treat legislative staff in his administration like any other lobbyist.  The primary job of those workers, called legislative liaisons, is to try to sway lawmakers and change legislation. They’re essentially lobbyists for the state government and the Polis administration, but they aren’t required to follow the same disclosure rules that govern most lobbyists.  A bipartisan bill moving through the statehouse would change that, a measure that appeared to ruffle feathers within Governor Jared Polis’s administration. “Staff members in the Governor’s office are not registered lobbyists, and it would be absurd to have them treated the same way,” ...
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Bongino Fears Retaliation After Uncovering Sensitive Crossfire Hurricane File
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Just The News, Approved, National

Bongino Fears Retaliation After Uncovering Sensitive Crossfire Hurricane File

By Misty Severi | Just the News Bongino, who left the bureau in January after roughly 10 months in the job, said he found the document in a burn bag that was related to the FBI probe into allegations of Russian collusion in President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino confessed in an interview Tuesday that he lives in constant fear that he’ll face retaliation after he shed light on corruption in the bureau and because of a document he found related to Crossfire Hurricane. Bongino, who left the bureau in January after roughly 10 months in the job, said he found the document in a burn bag that was related to the FBI probe into allegations of Russia collusion in President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. The former deputy director c...
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PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project A reader messaged me recently about concerns they had in their own local district. The concern centers around who was getting hired (well, re-hired) at their local school district. For a number of reasons, it’s not feasible to go and check out the reader’s district, but I hung on to the story because it felt like a good learning opportunity to share something I learned about, and it might be a concern you share. As best as I can tell (there may have been laws that refined or changed the original program), a 2017 law which I link to first below created a program in PERA, the Public Employees Retirement Association, to help get teachers into rural schools. In order to understand how this works, I have to bac...
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Federal Indictment Fuels New Questions Over Federal Handling Of COVID Origins And Vaccine Risks
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Just The News, Approved, National

Federal Indictment Fuels New Questions Over Federal Handling Of COVID Origins And Vaccine Risks

By Greg Piper | Just the News Indictment alleges quid pro quo between EcoHealth Alliance, Fauci senior advisor started with an "upper-mid tier" wine delivery. Sen. Johnson says FDA knew government database "masked" vaccine injuries, rejected transparency update. David Morens, senior advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci for 16 years, spent much of his career studying the threat of viral outbreaks posed by birds, especially when infections jump from wild fowl to poultry. Now he's facing the possibility of prison. The chickens have come home to roost for Morens, two years after congressional subpoenas exposed his avowed practice of circumventing the Freedom of Information Act to hide conversations ...
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