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Closed meetings at well sites foster distrust
For decades, the state commission that keeps watch over Colorado oil and gas operators was at least as much an industry partner as it was a regulator. The law demanded it — a statute directed the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to “foster” industry operations until the General Assembly in 2019 bolstered the commission’s regulatory […]
The Q-ish swamp in the middle of Colorado
Douglas County has long seemed intent on burnishing its reputation as a hotbed of conservative extremism. COVID misinformation? In abundance. Election lies? No shortage. Critical race theory hysteria? Heaps. But this week’s election firmly established the place as a swamp of political filth. A slate of four anti-mask, anti-equity candidates won election — and will […]
Colorado GOP wants to normalize anti-trans hate
There is no more traditional value than love, but it is the one in which conservatives often seem least interested. When it comes to transgender people, for example, they are quick to sideline love for hate. Eli Bremer, GOP frontrunner in Colorado challenging Sen. Michael Bennet in 2022, has made transphobia the centerpiece of his […]
Lauren Boebert, the audition-tape lawmaker
The first person to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, starting with the district’s inception in the 1914 election, was a Democrat from Pueblo named Edward Keating. He was the son of immigrants. He moved to Colorado from a Kansas farm with his widowed mother, and he left school at 14 to contribute to their livelihood. […]
Get rid of religious exemptions for vaccines
Too often the faithful get the wrong idea about the freedom that the First Amendment accords religion, and they take it to mean that their claim to it supersedes other rights — even the right to life. What’s worse, misguided policies of the state encourage this attitude. That’s what’s happening with the COVID-19 vaccine in […]
Colorado’s top 10 most dangerous election deniers
Detractors of American voting, driven by a cult leader who as president was inimical to democracy and as ex-president is a sworn enemy of it, have gone on the attack in Colorado in the form of proposed voting restrictions, threats against the secretary of state and county election officials, an election-system security breach in the […]
These public servants think the public should stay out of their business
Colorado state agencies have a well-earned reputation for anti-transparent behavior. Throughout state government records are regularly destroyed, and the pandemic has exposed persistent disdain for transparency in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. But an agency within the health department — the Air Pollution Control Division — has refined antipathy to open government to […]
CU trades an insurrection speaker for a Steve Bannon apologist
What will it take for the University of Colorado to learn its lesson? The position of visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at CU Boulder was never a good idea in conception, and it has proved humiliating in practice. It launched in 2013 for the express purpose of injecting right-wing teaching into course offerings. […]
Anger is the only reasonable response to COVID obstructionists
We were willing to debate the efficacy of masks. We agreed there should be balance between lockdown measures and economic interests. We patiently accumulated evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. We kept our cool through every quack remedy and grifter treatment. We offered guidance to the confused and correctives to the misinformed. We […]
The whole system was indicted with charges in McClain case
Finally, the beginning of some justice for Elijah McClain. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Wednesday announced felony grand jury indictments against three Aurora police officers and two paramedics involved in McClain’s death. It was a relief, in a case so marred by abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust, to see public […]
Teams should stop playing Valor Christian
Valor Christian High School, based on statements from school officials and the former Valor coach they forced out for being gay, practices a form of rank bigotry. The school, located in the south metro Denver community of Highlands Ranch, is unabashed in its religiosity, and administrators think they can flash faith as a form of ethical […]
Tina Peters is a symptom. Threats to Colorado democracy go beyond her.
The clerk and recorder of Mesa County, Tina Peters, appears to have engaged in direct, potentially illegal, activities that threatened election integrity in her jurisdiction. The irony of the case is infinite — she is a far-right adherent of the big-lie movement that claims former President Donald Trump won the November election and purports to […]