Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Government transparency

Weighted, primed and paid: A walkthrough of the survey behind Colorado’s furbearer vote
No Comments
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Weighted, primed and paid: A walkthrough of the survey behind Colorado’s furbearer vote

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Dr. Niemiec's Deeply Flawed Research At a recent Colorado Parks and Wildlife meeting, newly-appointed CPW commissioner Dr. Niemiec produced an incredibly flawed study to help back up her motion regarding furbearer bag limits, a change in policy that was not on the agenda and for which there was no opportunity for comment by the public. If you would like to read up on the meeting itself and a potential lawsuit, see an earlier newsletter linked first below.Not too long after writing the earlier newsletter, a reader shared the Club 20 article (linked second below) providing some context and background on the work. In addition to encouraging you to read the piece, it provides a great excuse to follow up on the ...
Read More
Judge Orders Griswold to Turn Over Records Tied to Taxpayer-Funded Consulting
No Comments
CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Judge Orders Griswold to Turn Over Records Tied to Taxpayer-Funded Consulting

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado A Denver District Court judge has given Secretary of State Jena Griswold until Thursday to comply with an open records request, or she could be held in contempt. The records involve consulting work, paid for with public funds. Griswold's office says it doesn't have the documents and it refuses to ask the consultant for them, claiming that would impose an undue "burden." Instead, the Secretary of State's office sent four employees and the Attorney General's Office sent three attorneys to court. The consultant was brought in two years after Griswold became Secretary of State. The office had become a revolving door. Griswold was on her second deputy secretary, third chief legal counsel and fourth chief of staff. An invoice in the court record ...
Read More
Newly Released Messages Reignite Questions About Fauci And COVID Origins
No Comments
The Federalist, Approved, National

Newly Released Messages Reignite Questions About Fauci And COVID Origins

By: Hans Mahncke | The Federalist The greatest threat to public trust comes when powerful people and institutions use their authority to suppress the truth. The latest revelations from Sen. Rand Paul’s investigation into the origin of COVID expose what may be one of the most consequential scientific deceptions in history. The 1,123 pages of private Slack messages exchanged among the authors of the highly influential “Proximal Origin” paper reveal that the scientists who publicly declared that a laboratory origin of Covid was not plausible privately held a very different view. They repeatedly acknowledged that a laboratory origin remained possible, discussed flaws in their own arguments, and struggled to defend the natural origin theory. In ...
Read More
How government fueled a nation of conspiracy theorists
No Comments
American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

How government fueled a nation of conspiracy theorists

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker They didn’t just lose the narrative. They lost the country. Five years ago, suggesting that COVID-19 may have originated in a laboratory rather than a wet market could earn someone the label “conspiracy theorist.”  Discussing vaccine injuries could result in a post being removed from social media. Questioning prolonged school closures, forced masking, or vaccine mandates often led to accusations of being “anti-science.” Today, many of those once-forbidden discussions have become part of public debate. That doesn’t mean every alternative theory is correct. But it raises an important question. What happens when institutions repeatedly assure the public that they are unquestionably right, only to revise, retreat,...
Read More
Cherry Creek Schools Spent $114K On Outside Counsel During Superintendent Scandal
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Cherry Creek Schools Spent $114K On Outside Counsel During Superintendent Scandal

By: Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette The Cherry Creek School District paid $114,000 to hire outside counsel to provide the Board of Education with legal advice as it navigated the allegations that were swirling around the former superintendent. Fisher Phillips invoices obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request show the district paid $114,191.50 from March through June. Roughly a third of the cost — or $40,000 — was paid to Steve Welchert. Welchert is a Democratic political consultant who specializes in strategic planning, political lobbying and crisis management. Following the Jan. 27 executive session to discuss former Superintendent Chris Smith’s mid-year evaluation in which he abruptly resigned, the board hired Jane Waterman-Joyc...
Read More
Cherry Creek School District Withholds Itemized Legal Invoices After $65K Investigation
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Cherry Creek School District Withholds Itemized Legal Invoices After $65K Investigation

By: Nico Brambila | Colorado Politics After previously refusing to disclose the cost associated with the investigation into the former superintendent and his wife, the former human resources chief, Cherry Creek School District officials partially released records showing the cost to taxpayers: $65,054.85. The Denver Gazette obtained “invoice cover sheets” through a June 12 Colorado Open Records Act request seeking — among other things — invoices, billing records or payment records related to the investigation. Caitlin Holzfaster, the district’s records custodian,denied a similar request on May 15, claiming that descriptions could reveal attorney-client privileged information, legal advice or litigation strategy. Abbe Smith, a district spokesperson...
Read More
Polis Fires Two Clemency Board Members After Tina Peters Vote Becomes Public
No Comments
Just The News, Approved, State

Polis Fires Two Clemency Board Members After Tina Peters Vote Becomes Public

By Kevin Killough | Just the News Peters, a former clerk of Mesa County, was sentenced to nine years in prison after she was convicted in 2024 of tampering with voting machines in an attempt to show that the 2020 presidential election was gamed to favor Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis fired two members of the state's clemency board after they disclosed the board's recommendation to the governor against commuting the prison sentence of Tina Peters.  Peters, a former clerk of Mesa County, was sentenced to nine years in prison after she was convicted in 2024 of tampering with voting machines in an attempt to show that the 2020 presidential election was gamed to favor Democratic candidate Joe Biden.  Clemency board members Hanna...
Read More
Weiser talks about his Trump lawsuits. Here’s what he doesn’t talk about.
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Weiser talks about his Trump lawsuits. Here’s what he doesn’t talk about.

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Phil Weiser likes to talk about his Trump suits, but only some things. The article (lament?) linked first below covers territory I know all too well, having trod it more than once. Our Attorney General loves to tout his fighting style, bragging about his Trump-lawsuit spree, but he doesn’t want to share all the details. As his office has done in the past, when you go looking for records, they throw up roadblocks and jack up the price to drive those pesky questions away. Some non-contiguous quotes from the article flesh this out: “Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed dozens of lawsuits against the federal government, priding himself on his ability to fight and win cases against the Trump Admi...
Read More
Coloradans Encouraged To Weigh In On Proposed Xcel Gas Hike
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Coloradans Encouraged To Weigh In On Proposed Xcel Gas Hike

By: Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is inviting public input on a range of matters, including a remote hearing on Xcel Energy’s natural gas rate increase proposal, as part of its monthly engagement efforts. The commission on Tuesday announced opportunities for July that include a 9-1-1 Services Enterprise Board meeting, its regular monthly public comment session and the second remote public comment hearing for Xcel Energy’s gas rate case, Proceeding No. 25AL-0538G. Xcel Energy filed its proposal on Dec. 29, 2025. If approved as filed, it would increase average residential gas bills about 11.4%, or $7.59 per month, and small business gas bills about 13%, or $36.47 per month, starting in October, according to the company an...
Read More