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Tag: Government overreach

Teller County woman’s $150K greenhouse caught in zoning battle over local agriculture
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KOAA News, Approved, Local

Teller County woman’s $150K greenhouse caught in zoning battle over local agriculture

By Tony Keith | KOAA News5 DIVIDE, Colo. (KOAA) — A Colorado woman was told she needs to take her nearly 3,000 square-foot greenhouse down, but she plans to fight to keep it up. The woman goes by the name Virginia Loop and her home is along Moss Rock Court on the northwest side of Divide. In June of 2024, Loop explained she was excavating her property for a greenhouse kit when a new code enforcement officer paid her a visit. Loop said she had a conversation with that code enforcement officer and explained she didn't need a permit because of a building code section exempting agricultural structures. Loop sent the code enforcement officer an email, which Loop shared with News5, and reads as follows: "As discussed on the phone, here is the section of code for exemptions of permitting...
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Gazette editorial board: AG Weiser defends censure-shamed CU regent over public health warning
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Local, Approved, gazette.com

Gazette editorial board: AG Weiser defends censure-shamed CU regent over public health warning

By The Gazette Editorial Board | Commentary, The Gazette For a politician with his eyes on a higher prize, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sure seemed shortsighted the other day when he took to social media in defense of the indefensible — a University of Colorado regent rightly rebuked by her peers for her abuse of office. Readers might recall the CU Board of Regents recently voted 7-1 to censure first-term board member Wanda James, a Democrat who represents Denver’s 1st Congressional District. James, arguably the state’s most politically ambitious pot dealer, has behaved at times as if she represents the marijuana industry rather than her district — and it finally backfired on her. The owner of a Denver marijuana retail outlet, James unconscionably attempted this year to s...
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Sengenberger: Weiser’s CU intervention reveals his true priorities
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denvergazette.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Sengenberger: Weiser’s CU intervention reveals his true priorities

By Jimmy Sengenberger | Commentary, Denver Gazette On Sunday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser picked a fight he shouldn’t have. In a thread on X, Weiser — a Democrat running for governor — defended CU Regent Wanda James by blasting her colleagues for recently censuring and sanctioning her in a bipartisan vote. The board had censured James, who is a pot shop proprietor, after she tried to discredit and defund the university’s award-winning “Tea on THC” awareness campaign. It educates the public on the risks of marijuana use for kids, including during pregnancy. James, a Democrat who boasts of being the nation’s first Black owner of a legal retail marijuana business, had demanded earlier this year that the campaign’s website be “taken down immediately” over “racist” illustr...
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The COvid Chronicles June 16-23, 2020: Social justice got a platform—police got massive reform
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The COvid Chronicles June 16-23, 2020: Social justice got a platform—police got massive reform

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board In this ninth chapter of The COvid Chronicles, summer arrived—but sanity didn’t. Looking back at our COVID-19 history is painful. But as Spanish-American philosopher put it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Approaching the summer solstice, Colorado entered a new phase—shaped not just by COVID-19, but by weeks of racial unrest.  Early tremors signaled what was coming. Inflation began to stir.  Ever-libertarian Gov. Jared Polis sermonized about how Coloradans needed the right “responsibility, behavior and will” to earn their freedoms back. CU Boulder, shrine of elite enlightenment, spoke solemnly of COVID safety out of one side of its mouth and pledged allegiance to the state’s racial reckoning out ...
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O’Donnell: The Strategic Plan that turned patriots into suspects remains unresolved
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National, Top Stories

O’Donnell: The Strategic Plan that turned patriots into suspects remains unresolved

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In April of this year, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified a June 2021 plan by the previous Biden administration to counter domestic terrorism. During his four-year term, President Biden repeatedly stated that “Domestic terrorism from white supremacists is the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland.” Variations on this catchphrase were parroted by other senior politicians in the Biden circle—although never with any corroborating evidence. The declassified 15-page document, titled the Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism, was intended to confront this supposedly lethal threat. This came even as the administration simultaneously opened the gates at the southern ...
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Mullen: This Independence Day, you’re not as free as you think
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Miami Herald, Approved, National

Mullen: This Independence Day, you’re not as free as you think

By Paul Mullen | Miami Herald There's a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, as we mark the 249th anniversary of our national divorce from Great Britain and the abuses of King George III. Yet under the flags and fireworks, the hotdogs and hamburgers, and the checkered tablecloths camouflaged in red, white, and blue, lies an uncomfortable, ironic truth: You're not as free as you think. This may sound absurd, inappropriate, even unpatriotic. How could this be, in "the land of the free"? The fact is each of us is shackled by invisible economic, regulatory, and civil chains. Hidden in plain sight is a tangled, ever-expanding web of federal, state, and local taxes, programs, regulations, spending, and debt-the overwhelming majority of which unjustly constrain and violate our Go...
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Colorado’s New Gun Dealer Law Slaps Small Business With Big Government Red Tape
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State, Approved, kdvr.com

Colorado’s New Gun Dealer Law Slaps Small Business With Big Government Red Tape

By Gabby Easterwood | KDVR Fox31 LONGMONT, Colo. (KDVR) — A portion of House Bill 24-1353 has gone into effect as of July 1, and firearm dealers say it’s just another burden for their businesses. The portion taking effect requires firearm dealers to have a state permit. Lawmakers have said the goal of the bill is to crack down on illegal firearm sales. Part of the law went into effect in 2024, and the final part went into effect starting in July, requiring that firearm dealers have a state firearms dealer permit, where they must hold a federal firearms license and other requirements. But firearm dealers like Rod Brandenburg, owner of Grandpa’s Pawn and Gun, say it’s just another unnecessary hoop they have to jump through. “They’re putting a huge burden on us and they can enforc...
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Gaines: Activists are using CPW to sneak in what the public rejected
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Gaines: Activists are using CPW to sneak in what the public rejected

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project By a 15% margin Denver voters last November soundly rejected an initiative to ban any new fur sales (among other things like display or trades) in the city.If you thought that this would be enough to convince animal rights activists to rethink their strategy, you're right.They did rethink it. According to the Complete Colorado article linked first below, a citizen petition for rulemaking (which is linked second below) has recently been filed with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to effectively do what voters in Denver clearly and obviously rejected.The difference? This petition, if it goes through, would be statewide and would be decided upon by the 12 CPW commissioners that Polis appointed.Let me run that past you again. 12 unelec...
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Property Rights Violated? GJ Business Says City Crossed the Line
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Local, The Business Times

Property Rights Violated? GJ Business Says City Crossed the Line

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times This article is a follow-up to “CDOT Sells Used Car Dealer a Lemon,” published June 4 in The Business Times. In that story, we reported about CDOT acquiring the GJ Auto Sales property through the threat of eminent domain for a planned mobility hub. This expanded report traces the project’s timeline, revealing a process — jointly coordinated by CDOT, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County’s Regional Transportation Planning Office — that began before the property owners ever found out and ended only after the property owners accepted a final offer just before condemnation proceedings could begin. For 22 years, Mike and Amber Martinez had operated GJ Auto Sales from a downtown Grand Junction corner, building up their small family business ...
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Sixth wolf death of 2025 confirmed—CPW says ‘wolf population will continue to grow’
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Approved, DENVER7, State

Sixth wolf death of 2025 confirmed—CPW says ‘wolf population will continue to grow’

By Stephanie Butzer | Denver7 Another gray wolf that was brought to Colorado as part of the state's reintroduction program has died, Colorado and federal officials said on Monday afternoon. In a press release on Monday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said they received a mortality alert for a male wolf in northwest Colorado on May 31. The wolf had been brought to Colorado from Canada as part of the January 2025 reintroduction, CPW confirmed to Denver7. It is the fifth wolf from the original 15 released that month that has died. As with any wolf death in Colorado, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating because gray wolves are a federally listed species under the Endangered Species Act. The USFWS will determine its cause of death. That investigation is ongoing. ...
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