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Colorado’s homelessness and housing funds recorded $153 million in phantom federal money, audit finds
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s homelessness and housing funds recorded $153 million in phantom federal money, audit finds

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado wanted more control over its share of federal pandemic aid before the money hit its federal spending deadlines. So in 2024, the state moved it. It pulled hundreds of millions in American Rescue Plan money back out of four state programs, three of them tied to housing and homelessness, and replaced it with state general funds, so it could spend the federal dollars elsewhere before the deadlines ran out. Then the Department of Local Affairs set those funds up in the state's accounting system as if they were still federal. Every time the department spent a state dollar out of the four programs, the system automatically booked a federal reimbursement that was never coming. By the end of the fiscal year the departm...
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Twenty-five years after 9/11, I still miss the America we were in the days after
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Twenty-five years after 9/11, I still miss the America we were in the days after

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I was on my knees scrubbing stains out of the carpet as I watched it all unfold. This was the fall of 2001. I was 21, three months out of college, working temp jobs while I looked for something permanent. My fiancé and I had been in our rental for a short time. The people before us had left stains ground into the carpet, and I was still working on getting them up.  My usual routine was to eat something, then clean. Just an ordinary Tuesday, and I was in the South, nowhere near New York. I turned the TV on. Breaking news was already running when I sat down.  A plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers. I picked up the phone and called my mom. I asked her if she was seeing what I was seeing. I don't re...
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A year after Charlie Kirk’s death, have we forgotten what came next?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

A year after Charlie Kirk’s death, have we forgotten what came next?

By Tori Stork (Ganahl) | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice One year ago today, Charlie Kirk was killed. It still feels strange to write those words. I’ve spent a lot of today thinking about Charlie—not just the person the world knew, but the 21-year-old who called me out of nowhere when I was a college student at the University of Oregon. The guy who flew to Eugene, spent months helping our little group of students (mostly in disguise so no one would recognize him), strategized with us in my Jeep, drilled us on messaging and quoted Scripture from memory. Charlie believed in people before most of the world knew their names. He believed in me before I really believed in myself. Years later, after Turning Point had become a national force and millions of people competed f...
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‘I’m not running for me’: The everyman challenging Boesenecker in HD53
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

‘I’m not running for me’: The everyman challenging Boesenecker in HD53

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Daniel Frick did not like politics growing up. He thought it was drama and theater, the same way, he figures, most people do. Then his stepdaughter was hit by a car and left permanently disabled, and the family found itself in what he calls the dark corners of the state, where her case sat forgotten. Now he is a Republican running for Colorado House District 53, a Democratic-held Fort Collins seat. By Frick's telling, the district has been blue since 1986. "I'm not running for me. I'm running for Carissa," Frick said. "I'm fighting for Carissa. That's what this whole campaign is about, getting justice, holding people accountable and changing our state's political system so that other people don't end up like Carissa an...
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If they control your ammunition, they control your rifle
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

If they control your ammunition, they control your rifle

By Sean M. Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice If you hunt, own a gun, raise livestock or care about the Second Amendment, you need to pay attention to what is happening at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. The people coming after hunting have found an easier path than convincing Colorado voters. They can take a so-called citizen petition to an appointed commission and ask that commission to regulate hunters out of the field. They do not have to ban your rifle if they ban the ammunition it fires. That is exactly what one petition now before the Commission is designed to do. The proposal seeks a statewide ban on traditional lead ammunition while taking wildlife. It was filed by 18 organizations and presented by attorneys for Animal Wellness Action and ...
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Xcel’s large load tariff fight: Who will pay for Colorado’s data centers?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Xcel’s large load tariff fight: Who will pay for Colorado’s data centers?

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice One of the biggest open questions about who pays for Colorado's data center boom is being decided this fall at the Public Utilities Commission, and the answer testimony that frames the fight is already filed. By Aug. 19, intervenors had filed a stack of answer testimony in Proceeding No. 26AL-0137E, Xcel Energy's proposed Large Load Tariff. The case has drawn a crowd. Google is in it. So is Walmart. So is the City and County of Denver, the City of Boulder, the electric cooperative United Power, the state's own energy office, and the commission's trial staff. The evidentiary hearing is set for 5 days across late October, Oct. 21, 22, 26, 27 and 28. A second public comment hearing is set for Oct. 20. The hearing wraps 6...
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Adams County’s election-worker shortage needs a plan, not more fear
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Adams County’s election-worker shortage needs a plan, not more fear

By Karen Hoopes | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Let's start with the basic fact: Adams County is reportedly about 200 workers short. That is a serious problem. But it is a management problem, and management problems require facts, urgency and a plan. Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum says fear is keeping experienced workers from returning. Fear may be one factor. But before that becomes the explanation, voters deserve to see the evidence. How many former workers were contacted? How many actually said fear was the reason? When did recruiting begin? What did they say about pay, schedules, training or the hiring process? Those questions matter because the diagnosis determines the solution. If workers are concerned about safety, give them clear information and re...
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Douglas County Is Working. Why Redesign a Government That Has Served It So Well?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Douglas County Is Working. Why Redesign a Government That Has Served It So Well?

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Douglas County voters will soon be asked to make a consequential decision about the structure of their county government. A citizen-initiated ballot measure proposes expanding the Board of County Commissioners from three members to five, with the expanded board composed either of five commissioners elected by district or three elected by district and two elected at large. The current commissioners have referred a separate measure that would allow voters, if they approve expansion, to preserve countywide elections for all five commissioners. Supporters of the expansion have framed their argument around representation, accountability, and population growth. Douglas County has unquestionably grown, and it is reasonable to perio...
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Denver ICE walkout turns violent, and the journalists filming it say they were attacked 
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Denver ICE walkout turns violent, and the journalists filming it say they were attacked 

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The flyer set the time at noon, Friday, September 4, at La Alma-Lincoln Park. No work. No school. No shopping. ICE out. There was a DJ. There were food trucks. Kids danced. Then the water bottles started flying, and by the time the crowd cleared, three people had gone to the hospital and at least one woman had been beaten until one eye was swollen nearly shut. Denver police counted five assaults or altercations in a little over an hour at the park at 1200 N. Osage St. Three people who came with cameras told RMV they were chased, hit, robbed, and in one case kicked on the ground while curled in a ball. Their footage, and photographs published by a mainstream Denver paper, show a good deal of what they say happened. W...
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The Sensitivity Weapon: Little Miss Muffet
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Sensitivity Weapon: Little Miss Muffet

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; Along came a spider, who sat down beside her, And frightened Miss Muffet away. Last week, we dove into Jesus' command to "Ask, Seek, and Knock," highlighting the vital role of resourcefulness—what I like to call source management! Remember Poor Little Bo-Peep? Instead of seeking her lost sheep, she just hoped they would find their way home. This week, we journey with poor Little Miss Muffet as Jesus guides us to persistently ask, seek, and knock until we uncover the truths waiting for us. Once we step through that truth door and embrace it, what's our next move? Jesus encourages us with a wonderful next step: "Therefore, whatever you want people to do for you, ...
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