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Editorial: Asking EV owners to pay for electricity at taxpayer-funded stations is right call
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Editorial: Asking EV owners to pay for electricity at taxpayer-funded stations is right call

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board The issue: Some local governments are moving to user fees for electric vehicle charging stations. We say: This is the correct call. Taxpayers may appropriately invest in the infrastructure, but should not bear the burden of supplying free electricity to the minority of motorists. The free ride on the backs of the taxpayer is over in one Western Slope community. Grand Junction city officials correctly decided last week to end free access to electric vehicle charging at city-owned stations, and rather to implement a fee structure. It is worth commending City Manager Greg Caton for bringing this matter to a head. “There shouldn’t be an expectation of free charging provided by your local government,” he told the City Council. The cit...
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The Supremes didn’t buy it. Griswold faces crushing defeat to ban Trump from ballot
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Approved, coloradopeakpolitics.com, Commentary, State

The Supremes didn’t buy it. Griswold faces crushing defeat to ban Trump from ballot

By Colorado Peak Politics Poor Jena Griswold. Despite the secretary of state’s best efforts to ban Donald Trump from the Colorado ballot, the U.S. Supreme Court just wasn’t buying it during Thursday’s arguments. Even the liberal justices were skeptical and sound unlikely to uphold the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision allowing the states to determine who can be president. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan basically told Colorado to get over itself. “Why should a single state have the ability to make this determination, not only for their own citizens but for the rest of the nation?” We concur! Fellow liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson got straight to the point. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was never intended to determine who is eligible to hold the office of t...
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Gaines: A Colorado for all, as long as you agree with Democrats
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Approved, Commentary, completecolorado.com, State

Gaines: A Colorado for all, as long as you agree with Democrats

By Cory Gaines | Complete Colorado Is Colorado, as Governor Polis has said he wants, a Colorado for all, or is it just a Colorado for those that agree with Democrat policy?  That’s not a rhetorical question, but rather one I recently sent to all the Democrats in the House of Representatives, and our esteemed governor, after reading about how they recently voted to limit debate on the House floor.  Again. You see, as they did last legislative session, and as they did during the special session on property taxes, the House Democrats voted on the Feb. 2 to allow special rules (normally reserved until the last 3 days of the session) to start as early as 10 days prior to the end of the session.  It makes a few other rule changes that, in essence and like the ...
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Revitalizing Colorado’s economy with clean energy falls short, yet again
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Revitalizing Colorado’s economy with clean energy falls short, yet again

A second attempt at defining nuclear energy as a clean energy source died in the Colorado State Legislature last week, despite a robust turnout of supportive citizens across the political spectrum that outnumbered opponents two to one.  Senate Bill 24-039, titled “Nuclear as a Clean Energy Resource” and introduced by Sen. Larry Liston, would have classified nuclear as a clean energy source, allowing it to be considered for local clean energy project financing and added to the list of energy sources that count toward meeting the state’s 2050 climate targets. As a Colorado native concerned about protecting my beautiful home state, I testified in favor of the fact that nuclear energy is clean, acknowledging that it offers carbon-free energy.  As an accountant by trade, I al...
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Democrat turns tail on proposed pet tax after voter backlash
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Approved, coloradopeakpolitics.com, Commentary, State

Democrat turns tail on proposed pet tax after voter backlash

By Colorado Peak Politics A lawmaker who ruffled the fur of Colorado pet lovers with her bill mandating state registration of our four-legged children plus a mandated pet tax has turned tail and now plans to withdraw her measure. State Rep. Reginal English, a tax-and-spend Democrat from El Paso County, quickly came under fire on social media for her bill. It imposed fees of $8.50 on every pet with a designated caregiver, $25 for pets without designated caregivers, and $16 for pets that were permitted to breed. Channel 7 first reported English’s “decision to pull the bill was not because she felt pressured by the backlash.” Yet reported a few sentences later: English said the decision to pull the bill was not because she felt pressured by the backlash, but came ...
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Wildlife officials sued for skipping NEPA regs to release wolves in Colorado
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Approved, coloradopeakpolitics.com, Commentary, State

Wildlife officials sued for skipping NEPA regs to release wolves in Colorado

By Colorado Peak Politics Radical big city environmentalists have been using federal red tape against westerners for decades to kick us off the public lands in our backyard and deprive us of every livelihood it provides, from natural resources to recreation. It’s past time for some payback. So thank you Colorado Conservation Alliance for filing a lawsuit against the state and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to follow those same rules and regulations in their zealous pursuit of turning loose apex predators loose in the high country. The Fence Post reports from the lawsuit: The defendants did not conduct the environmental review process under NEPA for the action of taking an apex predator (the gray wolf) from a population hundreds of miles away and introducing...
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The fear and reward of ‘Standing in the Gap’
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Approved, Commentary, Local

The fear and reward of ‘Standing in the Gap’

By Bradley Beck | Special Contributor The almost empty Town Hall meeting room was soon to be filled with an angry mob. I was, to say the least, anxious. I arrived early so I could sign up to speak first, and get it over with. Just prior to me addressing the Town Council, a representative from Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED) asked if I would present the 300-plus signed petitions of my neighbors who were opposed to an upcoming fracking moratorium proposal in my town.  This Town of Erie meeting 10 years ago was to consider banning new oil and gas development in our community. I could not sit on the sideline. Too much was at stake. The Town Trustees were under intense pressure from anti-energy development activists. It was an issue I was ready and willing to ...
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In a different time, ‘The Great Communicator’ unified America
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Approved, Commentary, Mark Hillman

In a different time, ‘The Great Communicator’ unified America

By Mark Hillman | MarkHillman.com Forty-four years ago this month, Ronald Reagan won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, vaulting him on a path to the 1980 nomination and a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter. The last presidential candidate to largely unite the country, Reagan defeated Carter 489-49 in the Electoral College and 51%-41% in the popular vote.  Four years later, he won 49 states and 59% of the popular vote. Reagan “rose from the ashes” of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign thanks to his “A Time for Choosing” speech, writes Peggy Noonan in her Reagan biography, When Character Was King.  Goldwater could define what conservatism was against, but “Reagan could define it by what it was for: for greater individual auth...
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Caldara: Talk radio’s not dead, but is showing its age
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Approved, Commentary, completecolorado.com, National

Caldara: Talk radio’s not dead, but is showing its age

By Jon Caldara | Complete Colorado (You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.) I must have hit that age. Nostalgia keeps overtaking me. I remember a Colorado that had thriving, competitive newspapers in every city, along with equally thriving local radio to keep them in check. There was a time when local radio was big. Colorado, and the Front Range in particular, had some of the most competitive radio wars in the country due to more stations than similarly sized metro areas. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated radio frequencies very miserly, so one station’s broadcast wouldn’t bleed into another’s. And since the Front Range market was so far away from other big urban markets, we had more radio real estate available. Hard to have lo...
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It’s Almost Morning in America
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Approved, Commentary, National, Real Clear Politics

It’s Almost Morning in America

By Lynn Friess | SOURCE: REAL CLEAR POLITICS It might not seem like it right now, but it’s almost morning in America again. Americans of all sides are waking up. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans are uniting around shared concerns. Big city mothers aiming to rescue their children from failing schools and suburban moms losing their kids to woke educators are both waking up to the broken education system, where administrators get bigger and bigger salaries while kids suffer. Meanwhile, both “granola” foodies and conservative farmers are becoming aware of the broken food system, where small farmers struggle, and it’s impossible to ban chemicals we know harm our kids. Despite citizens trying to effect change, their efforts are in vain against the flood of lobbying dolla...
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