News Miner 83
SJW Denver schools, Republican theocrats, housing, child-care prosecution, contracts, Boebert, Trump suits, police, moon ice, and more.
Denver Schools: Basically you have to parrot hard-left “social-justice” lingo to get a job in Denver Public Schools. See the reports from the National Opportunity Project and Complete Colorado. But don’t call these schools indoctrination camps! (Reminder: I write a column for Complete.)
Theocrats: Kyle Clark: “2022 Colorado gubernatorial candidate [Heidi Ganahl] (R) says Christians ‘have the power to singlehandedly return our state to the beautiful place it was.’ The Truth & Liberty Conference mixed anti-LGBTQ rhetoric with calls for Christian dominance of government. Ganahl spoke Friday at the Truth & Liberty Conference in Woodland Park, led by evangelist and faith healer Andrew Wommack who opened the event likening LGBTQ people to murderers and saying Christians should assume control because ‘they don’t even know which bathroom to go into.’” The GOP’s turn to theocracy is absolutely shameful. I agree with Scott Wasserman: “Christian Majoritarians are explicitly seeking to establish illiberal enclaves in our state. Illiberal enclaves don’t remain ‘enclaves’ for long. They spread out and threaten the Liberal republic most of us treasure and thrive in.”
Woodland Park: Check out Logan Davis’s latest piece. He summarizes, “Even if one were to strip away every controversial policy decision the [school] board has made—the adoption of the American Birthright social studies standards, the canceling of the teachers’ union contracts, the hiring of a bombastic and unqualified superintendent—their legacy would be one of chaos, mismanagement, and bad behavior.”
Boulder Housing: Shay Castle: Boulder “city council has knocked out two major items: reforming occupancy limits and loosening the rules on accessory dwelling units. In the few remaining weeks of their term, they’ll tackle Boulder’s zoning rules and affordable housing program, representing one of the most significant shifts to the city’s housing approach in recent years.” I’m excited about the parts that loosen restrictions.
Arapahoe County Housing: Accessory Dwelling Units were approved.
Denver Demographics: The Colorado Poling Institute asked 414 “likely general election voters” about their ideology. 57 (13.8%) said conservative, 99 (23.8%) said moderate, 168 (40.6%) said liberal, 38 (9.3%) said socialist, and 18 (4.3%) said libertarian.
Child-Care Prosecution: Jennifer Brown: “Chaffee County prosecutors . . . filed a motion to drop the charge against Roberta Rodriguez, former director of The Schoolhouse in Poncha Springs. Rodriguez had been charged with failure to report child abuse after a 5-year-old boy at the day care center was accused of pulling down a classmate’s pants and diaper while the teacher stepped out of the room to start a load of laundry. The community, and especially The Schoolhouse families, had rallied around Rodriguez, a single mom with six children. They started a fund to pay her rent.” Finally common sense prevails!
Preschool: Colorado’s tax-funded preschool program has some people worried about quality. (I’ll have more to say about this later.)
Contracts: Democratic Socialist Rep. Javier Mabrey writes, “Colorado shouldn’t be a state where your employer doesn’t need a reason to fire you and where your landlord doesn’t need a reason to evict you. We can do better.” I reply: Colorado should not be a state where politicians and bureaucrats make such decisions. Also, has Mabrey never heard of employment and rental contracts?
Boebert: Jesse Paul: “U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and a man were escorted from a performance of the musical ‘Beetlejuice’ at the Buell Theater in Denver on Sunday, according to surveillance camera footage and the Garfield County Republican’s reelection campaign. . . . Brian Kitts, director of marketing and communications for Denver Arts and Venues, said the patrons were talking loudly, vaping and using cameras during the performance.” Republicans are fools if they do not replace Boebert in the primary. Even Jenna Ellis is put off by Boebert’s nonsense. Megan Schrader says the incident shows Boebert’s “astounding sense of entitlement.”
Trump Suits: People in more states are suing to keep Trump off the ballot. Jason Van Tatenhove interviewed Donald K. Sherman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) about the Colorado suit.
Legislative Session: Amazingly, I agree with Elisabeth Epps about something, specifically that a year-round legislature is a bad idea. “We need less bills, not more political theatre,” she writes. (Actually I agree with her on quite a few issues even as I strongly disagree with her on others.)
Prop. HH: The Wall Street Journal rightly calls it a “back-door tax hike.”
Felony Murder: The Colorado ACLU “filed an amicus brief calling for an end to mandatory life without parole sentences for people convicted of felony murder.” What is that, you might ask? The brief explains, “If a person committed a specified felony resulting in a death, prosecutors could choose, at their discretion, to seek a conviction condemning that person to die in prison, even if they never meant to kill anyone.”
Anti-Gun Propaganda: If only someone had warned that the “Office of Gun Violence Prevention” would be used to fund anti-gun propaganda.
Bea Romer: She passed away.
Sports: CPR: “Athletic programs at Colorado universities spend more than they make, according to state auditor report.” Maybe colleges could focus on teaching people stuff?
Police: CPR: “Las Animas County Sheriff’s . . . Deputy Mikhail Noel and Lt. Henry Trujillo together tased Kenneth Espinoza at least three times—including once in the lower lip—as he was handcuffed and attempting to comply with conflicting orders from both deputies. The two then lied about their use of force on official reports. . . .” Police will keep assaulting people until prosecutors hold them criminally accountable for doing so.
Space: Students at School of Mines, working with the Arvada company Lunar Outpost, are developing an ice-digging robot for potential use on the moon, CPR reports. This is part of NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.
Guns in New Mexico: A federal court blocked the governor’s “emergency” ban on open and concealed carry. The AG and a sheriff were not happy with the governor. The group of Colorado’s Dudley Brown sued.
Antitrust: Bureaucrats are forcing Kroger and Albertsons to sell off hundreds of stores as a condition of merging. This is a politically micromanaged market, not a free one.
RV Parks: Sam Tabachnik: The legislature passed the Mobile Home Park Act, which interferes with freedom of contract regarding mobile homes. The AG declared the law also applies to RV parks. Now the matter is in litigation. Yet again, politicians just will not allow free markets.
Homelessness: Robert Davis: “People who have a prior history of incarceration are 10 times more likely than the general public to experience homelessness. . . . Colorado is looking to close that pipeline by participating in a new public policy incubator by the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab and develop a way to connect incarcerated folks with housing pre-release.”