THE WINE YOGI IS BACK! And we are shifting gears just a bit to broaden our segment and now it's Foodie Friday! Kristal and I went on a field trip yesterday to Trompeau Bakery on South Broadway in Englewood and we will have a full report. The Wine Yogi's blog on our field trip can be found here, and we both highly recommend this gem of a bakery! I brought Chuck a cherry cheese danish and he asked where the bakery was from us. When I told him Englewood, he said, "Thank God it's not super close or I'd weigh a billion pounds in a month". Yes, they are that good.
THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE ARE SPENDING ON HOMELESSNESS IS STAGGERING And the Common Sense Institute has put together a very comprehensive look at how much money we are spending across all systems on homelessness. The CSI spent six months gathering up data on services being provided in the Denver, Aurora and Boulder. They found that in the next three years, we are on track to spend $2 BILLION dollars trying to fix this problem. I fully expect political leaders to try to downplay this report, as they do with all of CSI's reports, but they never come out with any reports that show different numbers so I'm not sure how they can cast aspersions without doing the work. From the Denver Gazette:
They then collected financial information from 48 nonprofit organizations, such as the Downtown Denver Partnership, the Denver Rescue Mission, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and Denver Mental Health Initiative, and also looked at line-items in the budgets for Denver, Aurora and Boulder.
The study said Denver’s projected spending for 2021 to 2023 stands at $1.46 billion, Aurora’s at $76 million and Boulder’s at $87 million, translating to a 38% increase for Denver, 60% for Aurora and 63% for Boulder.
The study assumed the 2021 baseline spending figure would not decrease in the following years. For 2022 and 2023, researchers tallied up expenditures not counted in 2021 and then looked at recent allocations at the state and municipal level, ballot initiatives and federal dollars.
If anyone disputes these numbers ask them to provide more accurate ones. They can't and won't. I've got Kristin Strohm from Common Sense on at 1:15 to discuss. Read the full report at this link.
IF YOU'VE GOT BALLOT QUESTIONS I will take them today in the 1:35 segment but only on statewide races and ballot initiatives. If you need my voter guide, find it here.
DON'T MISS GRANT'S PODCAST THIS WEEK! This week's is a great one if you want to learn more about Grant and what he's learned from his incredibly diverse guests as they talk about happiness. Find the latest by clicking here!
PFIZER IS GOUGING US ON COVID VACCINES NOW Pfizer has made BILLIONS of dollars in gross profit in the last few years and has been the recipient of some serious government money at the same time. Now they say that demand for the covid vaccine is waning, so they are going to jack the price up to $110-$130 PER DOSE. I sure hope Joe Biden calls them out for price gouging. JUST KIDDING they donate way too much money to politicians for that.
MUNCHAUSEN BY INTERNET IS A THING NOW This is a fascinating article about how people fake serious illnesses on the internet for sympathy, an identity and sometimes money. I find it odd when someone leads with what's wrong with them. I always have, but I'm a private person so I understand that others may feel more comfortable sharing this stuff than I would. But this is crazy. People on the web are pretending to have awful diseases so they can post about their suffering. Sympathy must be a like a drug to these people, but I'm bringing it up because teenage girls are especially susceptible to nonsense like this. If your teen girl turns up with Tourette's, you may want to limit her TikTok time.
A DENVER RESTAURANT HAS BEEN NAMED A HIDDEN GEM BY TRIPADVISOR And you can read all about the honor bestowed on Corrine's downtown here.
RECENT AD SPENDING SHOWS DEMS STILL OUT OF TOUCH WITH VOTERS Democrats keep trying to make this race about abortion, but it's clearly about the economy. Clearly. And big money being spent by gun grabbers at a time when crime is skyrocketing doesn't seem like a good play either. Axios writes about it here.
LOOKING FOR AN OVERLOOKED NATIONAL PARK TO VISIT? This is a great list and has two of our parks in Colorado on it, neither of which I've been to so now I have a goal. See the list here.
IT'S TIME TO SHINE A LIGHT ON INSIDER TRADING BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS This story is paywalled but I'm going to share it anyway because it's just another example of some animals being more equal than others (see George Orwell's Animal Farm if you don't get that reference). It seems that right BEFORE we rubes in the public knew covid was a really big deal, a BUNCH of government officials JUST HAPPENED to sell a bunch of stocks and mutual funds that tanked right after because of lockdowns and covid. Hmmm, I wonder how they knew? It's a mystery to be sure.
IS BIDEN DESTROYING THE ECONOMY ON PURPOSE? This column says no, but his incompetence could mean the same thing will happen. Our pal Steve Moore lays out the ways Biden's policies have weakened us and when you lay them all out in a list it's very damaging to be sure. Looks a lot like Karl Marx's strategy in action if you ask me.
EARLY VOTING STOPS THE "JIM CROW, 2.0" STUPIDITY IN ITS TRACKS Remember when Georgia passed new voting laws to make their elections more secure and the Democrats said it was the equivalent of Jim Crow? Well that hasn't turned out to be the case, as early voting numbers are UP for the midterms in all states that tightened election laws. I'm sure Atlanta would like the All-Star Game back now. Of course they were wrong, and of course none of them will say sorry.
PEOPLE ARE WORRIED ABOUT HOME HEATING COSTS THIS WINTER And they should be, as both natural gas and heating oil are up by almost 30%. This has some homeowners trying to figure out how to beat the cold without going broke. Another thing for Dems to worry about, as pretty much everyone knows it's their green policies that are preventing us from getting to the oil and gas we have here.
THE FIVE STAGES OF PICKLEBALL And I feel like this is going to be me and ARod soon.
AND NOW, THE BLUES PLAYED ON THE BAGPIPES Don't hate it until you watch it.
THE SCIENCE SAYS DON'T PUNT ON FOURTH DOWN This is really interesting and I'm putting it here in case any of the Broncos coaching staff reads the blog (don't laugh, it could happen). This article explains how the math doesn't support the notion that you need to turn over the ball. This newer column points out that many teams seem to be heeding that advice.
THE NEW TAYLOR SWIFT ALBUM IS A DISAPPOINTMENT TO ME Because it sounds like a million other artists with nothing distinctive about it. A lot of the songs sound EXACTLY the same. I love Taylor, but his album will produce hits for Adult Contemporary radio and will play in the background at stores with little notice. It's just boring. If I wanted a Sade album I'd buy that instead.
KEVIN SPACEY FOUND NOT LIABLE IN A SEX ABUSE LAWSUIT But the actor likely won't be getting back his reputation any time soon. He was accused of gross sexual behavior directed at actor Adrian Rapp, who alleged that when he was 14, Spacey groped him at a party. A jury deliberated for two hours before finding him not liable.
COMMUTERS SAVED 60 MILLION HOURS OF COMMUTING TIME DURING THE PANDEMIC Remote work gave us a lot more free time that we didn't have to spend commuting. What did we do with that time? We slept and we did fun things. This is why I love remote work.
LONG MARRIAGES DO HAVE THEIR DOWNSIDES And being annoyed by the way the other person breathes is one. Click here if it doesn't load.
GETTING OFF THE BUS TO THE CHANTS OF YOUR FANS IS ALWAYS NICE I'm going to admit now that I had no idea what "griddy" was before this. Click here if it doesn't load.
WHAT YOUR HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS DO WHEN YOU AREN'T HOME This made me chuckle. Click here if it doesn't load.
HUMAN EVOLUTION IMAGINED BY AI This is super cool but also creepy.
SHE KNOWS WHO GETS DADDY MONEY this is super cute. Click here if it doesn't load.
AN ANT'S FACE UP CLOSE IS THE STUFF NIGHTMARES AND HORROR MOVIES ARE MADE OF Check out the terrifying magnified image of the humble ant and you'll never look at those little buggers the same again.
TOM BRADY SAYS HE'S NO MID SEASON QUITTER He just quits on his marriage. Did I say that out loud? Read about his laughing reaction to the question here.