Rocky Mountain Voice

Blog

A union pipeline DSA built on college campuses
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

A union pipeline DSA built on college campuses

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice DSA's youth section trains students to organize on campus. What happens after graduation is its own story, one its own members describe directly. "YDSA's job is to train socialists on campus and create a pipeline into DSA," Dare Cima, a University of Louisville YDSA member, said at the organization's national conference this spring. "We should be preparing members to enter strategic sectors of the labor movement after college. That means encouraging people to become teachers, nurses, engineers, logistics workers, and preparing them to organize in those fields." More than 400 people attended that conference.  Gerica Noerdinger, cochair of YDSA's Youth Labor Committee, said more than 65 percent of them signed ple...
Study adds evidence that wolves can cost Colorado ranchers beyond livestock losses
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Study adds evidence that wolves can cost Colorado ranchers beyond livestock losses

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The link below was sent in by a reader. It profiles a study out of University of California, Davis which purports to put a price on how much a single wolf in an area can cost a rancher. It’s right there at the top; the image heading this post is the title. I’ll leave it to you to read through the details of the study, note its methods, and come to your own conclusions on the validity of the estimate. For my part, I’m somewhat skeptical of the number itself. I do not at all doubt that wolves put economic costs on ranchers. I do doubt the exact figure and am skeptical in general about estimates.** Rather than looking in depth at the estimate and the method, however, I want to bring something to your attention. This...
Biden Pardon and Fauci Fifth Amendment Fight Headed for the Courts
Just The News, Approved, National

Biden Pardon and Fauci Fifth Amendment Fight Headed for the Courts

By Just the News Contributor | Just the News Whether Fauci was legally entitled to invoke Fifth Amendment may ultimately depend on how courts balance broad immunity conferred in Biden pardon against remaining risk of post-pardon criminal exposure. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped lead the country's COVID pandemic response, invoking the constitutional right against self-incrimination last week during a contentious Senate hearing on the response and the virus's origins has sparked a fierce legal – and political – debate whose origins date back to a late-1800s Supreme Court decision and that will likely be resolved in court.  Sen. Rand Paul, the Senate committee chairman, argues the constitutional privilege no longer applies because the sweeping, preemptive pardon for...
Former Weld County IT Worker Sentenced After Downloading Child Abuse Videos From Police
CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Former Weld County IT Worker Sentenced After Downloading Child Abuse Videos From Police

By: Logan Smith | CBS Colorado A former employee with the City of Greeley's Information Technology Department was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections after he removed hard drives from the Greeley Police Department.  The hard drives contained child sexual abuse material, also known as CSAM, which Jacob Schmidt downloaded to his phone, according to a press release from the Weld County District Attorney's Office. The videos were police department evidence which Schmidt was not authorized to access.  Schmidt was arrested on June 11, 2025, after investigators with the Weld County Sheriff's Office received several tips about Schmidt having CSAM on his phone, according to the DA's press release. Those investigators were able to ...
Montezuma County Sheriff Declines to Enforce Colorado Gun Law Citing Constitution and Costs
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Montezuma County Sheriff Declines to Enforce Colorado Gun Law Citing Constitution and Costs

By: Robert Garrison | Denver7 CORTEZ, Colo. — Montezuma County Sheriff Steven Nowlin announced Monday that his office will not participate in a new Colorado gun law, citing funding, staffing and constitutional concerns. Senate Bill 25-003, which took effect Aug. 1, adds new requirements for purchasing certain semiautomatic firearms, including obtaining a five-year eligibility card from a local sheriff's office and completing an in-person safety course. “As a Colorado Sheriff, and every member of the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office, each of us has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and perform the duties of the Office of Sheriff in Colorado by protecting those rights for all citizens in Montezum...
National Democrats Target Colorado for Legislative Supermajority Control in 2026
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

National Democrats Target Colorado for Legislative Supermajority Control in 2026

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A national organization that works to elect Democrats to state legislatures has its sights on Colorado, unveiling a road map to establish a supermajority in both the House and Senate. Democrats have held a majority in the House since 2013 and the Senate since the 2019 session. There are currently 43 Democrats in the House and 23 in the Senate, meaning the party needs to gain three House seats and one Senate seat in the November election to obtain a supermajority. If that happens, it would be the first time in state history the Democrats would hold a supermajority in both chambers. “Since flipping the Senate, Democrats in Colorado have delivered for the 6 million people in their state,” the Democratic Legislative Campaign ...
Colorado Graduated Income Tax Proposal Heads to Signature Review
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Graduated Income Tax Proposal Heads to Signature Review

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The measure, which eliminates Colorado’s flat tax, is expected to raise $2 billion in new revenue The proposal to amend the Colorado constitution to change the state’s flat rate into a graduated income tax came in under the wire Monday, the deadline for groups to turn in petition signatures for November’s ballot, setting up a high-stakes battle over revenue. Backers of the graduated tax proposal — which would marginally decrease the tax liability for the lower ends of the new bracket, while raising taxes for others — turned in 157,000 signatures with about an hour to go before the 5 p.m. deadline. The proposal, if approved at the ballot box, is expected to generate $2 billion more in tax revenue for the state. Doze...
Democratic Socialism Is Communism With Better Branding
The Washington Times, Approved, Commentary, National

Democratic Socialism Is Communism With Better Branding

By: Cheryl K. Chumley | Commentary, The Washington Times A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found 47% of Americans say they don’t understand what it means to be a democratic socialist. Meanwhile, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll released a few days earlier found 39% of U.S. adults would consider voting for a democratic socialist for president. For the sake of the low-information voter — and by the looks of recent polling, there are quite a few of them — let’s clarify that democratic socialism is one and the same as socialism. Moreover, socialism is one and the same as communism. And since today’s Democrat Party has ceded its political power to the democratic socialist crowd, and the Democratic Socialists of America influences, then it’s clear a vo...
Two measures. Two opposite answers. One Colorado income tax rate.
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Two measures. Two opposite answers. One Colorado income tax rate.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado voters may face a choice in November between two measures that couldn't disagree more about the state income tax. One would replace the flat rate with a graduated system and raise close to $2 billion a year. The other would make it illegal to raise the rate at all. Neither one is a new idea. And the differences between them go deeper than the rate. What each one does Colorado's income tax has been flat since 1987, meaning everyone pays the same percentage regardless of what they earn. The rate is currently 4.40 percent. Initiative 195, backed by a coalition led by the Bell Policy Center, would replace that with six brackets.  The Legislative Council Staff, which produces nonpartisan fiscal analys...
America First promised fewer wars. Iran is testing that promise
American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

America First promised fewer wars. Iran is testing that promise

By Brian Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Five months into the Iran conflict, supporters are asking whether America First still means fewer wars. One of President Donald Trump’s defining campaign themes was refreshingly simple: America should stop fighting endless wars. He repeated that message across three presidential campaigns. Iraq was a mistake. Afghanistan became a twenty-year quagmire. America had spent trillions of dollars, sacrificed thousands of lives, and, too often, had little to show for it beyond instability and nation-building projects that rarely fulfilled their promises. During a 2016 presidential debate, Trump called the Iraq War “a big fat mistake.” Eight years later, while campaigning for a return to the White House, he promi...