Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Weld County

Rural Colorado Communities Back Iran Strategy Even As Gas Prices Climb
Pikes Peak Courier, Approved, State

Rural Colorado Communities Back Iran Strategy Even As Gas Prices Climb

By Reuters | Pike's Peak Courier WIGGINS, Colo. • Perched behind the cash register at Stubs liquor store, Amy Van Duyn gazed out the window at a red-and-green gasoline price sign, which she said seemed to tick up daily. The price was $4.34 per gallon — about 50% higher than it was in these parts when President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. “I used to fill my tank for $36,” said Van Duyn, 42. “Now $36 gets me half a tank.” Her co-worker Tonyah Bruyette said when it’s time to buy groceries, she’s left wondering where all her money went: “We’re putting it in the tank rather than on our table.” Like most people in and around Wiggins, a farming town of 1,400 people in northeast Colorado, Van Duyn and Bruyette remain ardent supporters of t...
Colorado Republicans Demand Accountability After Weld Chair’s Arrest For Child Prostitution
CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Colorado Republicans Demand Accountability After Weld Chair’s Arrest For Child Prostitution

By Christa Swanson | CBS Colorado Two days after Weld County Republicans Chair Hunter Rivera was arrested in Northern Colorado for allegedly soliciting child prostitution, he resigned from his position. The party condemned Rivera after he was arrested during a Larimer County Sheriff's Office operation targeting child predators. The sheriff's office said dozens of people responded to online listings posing as minors selling sexual acts, and Rivera and Ismaaeel Abdur-Rahmaan were arrested when they arrived at the agreed upon location. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CBS COLORADO
Before he was a congressional candidate, Manny Rutinel was calling animal agriculture “horrific”
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Before he was a congressional candidate, Manny Rutinel was calling animal agriculture “horrific”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Manny Rutinel spent the better part of six years calling animal agriculture a "horrific, exploitive industry." Rutinel entered the legislature through an appointment in 2023 when Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet resigned from the District 32 seat. Less than two years later, he was filing paperwork for Congress. He's the money leader in a Democratic primary that national strategists are watching closely. Federal Election Commission filings put him at $2.5 million raised—almost as much as Republican incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans. Cook Political Report has it as a toss-up. The seat flipped once already—it could flip again, and the House majority may well come down to it. Evans runs cattle on the side. Has for years. Back at the...
Colorado Teen’s Fatal Overdose Leads to Prison Time for Dealers and Boyfriend
CBS News, Approved, State

Colorado Teen’s Fatal Overdose Leads to Prison Time for Dealers and Boyfriend

By Logan Smith | CBS Colorado Three Colorado residents are currently serving prison sentences following a 16-year-old girl's drug overdose.  Kaleb Hale bought six pills from a man and woman in Greeley on July 24, 2021, according to court documents. He brought the pills to a friend's home where he and his girlfriend, identified in the court documents only as "J.H.," crushed one pill and snorted a portion of it.  "Once at that residence," federal prosecutors stated in another court document, "J.H. decided to try what would be her first, and last, dose of fentanyl." Hale, then 20 years old, awoke around noon the next day. He had defecated himself and "J.H." had vomited on him, according to the document. She was unconscious and not breathing. He tried to r...
Greeley Voters to Decide Fate of Sports Arena and Private Housing Development in Feb 24 Election
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Greeley Voters to Decide Fate of Sports Arena and Private Housing Development in Feb 24 Election

By Claire Lavezzorio | Denver7 Ballot question 1A would repeal zoning changes already approved by city council for entertainment district featuring sports arena, water park & hotel. GREELEY, Colo. — Greeley residents will soon cast their votes in a special election over the future of the Catalyst & Cascadia projects. Catalyst, a city-owned project planned for the city's west side off Highway 34, would include a sports arena for the Colorado Eagles, an indoor water park and hotel. A second component, Cascadia, involves private residential development. The Feb. 24 special election will ask voters to decide whether to repeal zoning changes already approved by the city council through Ballot Question 1A. Bill Rigler, spokesperson for the&n...
When policy hits home: The people paying the price for Colorado planning
ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

When policy hits home: The people paying the price for Colorado planning

By Scott K. James | Commentary, ScottKJames.com What all these laws, rules, “roadmaps,” and captured processes are doing to the people who actually live here. We’ve spent four chapters documenting the system: Part 1: How Colorado got quietly rewired. Part 2: The rule that choked our roads. Part 3: The advocacy-industrial complex behind it. Part 4: How “public comment” became a choreographed performance. Today, we end where this story always should have begun. Not in the Capitol.Not in a CDOT Zoom room.Not in Boulder conference halls.Not in 200-page policy PDFs. But in the real lives of the people who live with the consequences. Because none of this – none of it – is theoretical. These aren’t abstract “policy disagreements.”These are i...
Inside the structure of Colorado’s Democrat-advocacy complex
ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Inside the structure of Colorado’s Democrat-advocacy complex

By Scott K. James | Commentary, Scott’s Sheet How a Small Circle of Nonprofits, Appointees & Climate Advocates Took the Reins Friday, we broke down the rule that choked our highways. Today, we lift the curtain on the people and organizations pulling the levers. This isn’t conspiracy theory. It’s process. It’s not “secret cabal.” It’s perfectly public what they do — just rarely examined. 1. Meet the Architects Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) – Executive Director Elise S. Jones. Based in Boulder. Works in six-state region promoting decarbonization, clean transportation, smart land use. (SWEEP) Colorado Energy Office (CEO) – Executive Director Will Toor. Oversees state’s energy & transportation-electrification ag...
How climate policy became the steering wheel of Colorado government
ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

How climate policy became the steering wheel of Colorado government

By Scott James | Commentary, Scott K. James In part 1 of my five-part series, I reveal how climate mandates quietly reshaped Colorado’s laws, roads, and local control – without a vote from the people. Yesterday, I told you the truth about where I am – not as an elected official, not as a partisan, not as a policy wonk, but as a human being who loves this state enough to lose sleep over it. If you missed it, you can read that emotional prologue here. That was the heart.Today begins the head. Today marks the first installment of the five-part series I promised – not ranting, not rumor, not political theater, but the receipts. The real sequence of events, the policies, the bills, the rules, the decisions, and the machinery that fundamentally reshap...
Colorado’s quiet transformation leaves working communities behind
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s quiet transformation leaves working communities behind

By Scott James | Commentary, Scott K. James I am sounding the alarm on the quiet erosion of Colorado’s values, warning of a top-down agenda that’s silencing everyday citizens. Not the Colorado of glossy tourism ads and climate conferences. The real Colorado. The one where: Kids worked ranches and feedlots, not “sustainability internships.” You and I went to Northeastern Junior College, Aims, CSU, UNC, CU – not Cornell, Yale, or Harvard – and that was good, solid, honest. We measured a person by whether they showed up and worked, not by what panel they spoke on. A neighbor expanding his cow–calf operation was a reason to crack a beer, not a reason to clutch pearls about “emissions.” Colorado used to be: Free. Pragmatic. Op...
Ranchers Warn of Coordinated Cattle Thefts in Weld County
kdvr.com, Approved, Local

Ranchers Warn of Coordinated Cattle Thefts in Weld County

By Alliyah Sims | KDVR FOX31 WELD COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Something strange is happening in Weld County: 14 Black Angus cattle have vanished from multiple ranches, and now deputies believe the animals were stolen, not lost. Since the beginning of October, ranchers in Weld County have been discovering missing cattle, but there’s no broken fences, no tracks, nothing left behind. Deputies say the pattern points to deliberate theft, not wandering animals. Chad Sanger, owner of Turnkey Cattle Company, says he checked every fence and gate, even the automated ranch entrance. The Weld County Sheriff’s Office confirms 14 missing Black Angus cattle across multiple herds. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT KDVR FOX31