PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION RACE Because they are the people who can make life miserable for charter schools and force outrageous lessons on our little kids about sex work and drag queens. This race matters so much. Here is an article that asks all the candidates about parental rights and any of the candidates who downplay the efforts of school districts to insert themselves between parents and students should be immediately disqualified in my opinion. I've got Kristi Burton Brown at 12:30 to discuss the races and why you should vote for her. Find our more about Kristi's campaign here.
THE FIRST GENTLEMAN WANTS MORE WOLF LAWS And he's advocating for more laws to protect the apex predators before his husband leaves office. How do we know? Because he has a state employee email for some reason. That is honestly the only part of this story that I have questions about, as he doesn't work for the State of Colorado in any capacity that I see so I'd like to know why he has a state email address. Marlon Reis is a die hard animal rights activist and always has been so him advocating for more protections for cow eating wolves is a non-story to me, but using an email address that would suggest he has more authority than he already does raises a question mark for me. He is absolutely free to make the case, but when he lends himself an air of authority with a state email address attached the Governor's office I have questions. Questions about why he has that email address in first place that apparently 9News, who broke the story, did not.
GET TO KNOW WHAT'S ON THE BALLOT And holy cow there is a LOT of stuff on our ballots and this is just statewide stuff. Denver has a crap load more. Start looking these over and I'm working on my voter guide now. It will be out next Monday. Or maybe a bit later, not sure, there are a LOT of these things.
CDOT ISN'T EVEN PRETENDING TO CARE ABOUT ROADS ANYMORE As they move forward with grandiose plans for mass transit no one will ride while not improving or expanding the roads we actually want to drive on. They just passed a new set of objectives, which the CPR outlined here:
The first is safety.
In 2023, 716 people were killed on Colorado roads. CDOT’s new goal is for traffic fatalities and serious injuries to fall by half before 2037. The department also wants to cut by half the number of fatalities and serious injuries to pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
The second is maintenance.
CDOT says no more than 1 percent of interstate pavement should be in poor condition and 80 percent of state highways should have high or moderate “drivability life” — a CDOT measurement for pavement quality.
The third is climate-friendly transportation.
CDOT wants to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2037, compared to 2005 levels. Transit service offered by CDOT and local agencies will increase by 66.7 million miles by 2037, an increase of about 83 percent of 2023 levels. And the department will reduce vehicle miles traveled by 1 percent per capita every year.
What's missing there is building roads big enough for all the people who want to drive to drive on. They also talk about things like road narrowing and lowering speed limits to make driving more miserable. This is what you get when you elect Democrats who appoint politically well connected activists to lead really important departments. If I were the head of the Republican party I'd be making all kinds of hay about this but we all know how that is going.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES ON HOMELESSNESS I've been talking about being able to see a social experiment in real time when it comes to managing homelessness in cities. This article does a great job comparing the spending and overall strategies of Denver, where they are pouring another $155 MILLION into housing homeless people versus Aurora where they are looking at spending $5.9 million instead. The approaches are very different and I'm very interested in seeing where the real results come from. This is going to be a really important "experiment" and I hope we get some good knowledge on how to deal with this intractable problem.
THIS AS EVEN SAN FRANCISCO HAS HAD ENOUGH And embattled mayor London Breed is aggressively moving people out of the encampments that had taken over the city. They have dramatically increased the numbers of temporary shelter, as Denver has, but what will they do with those people on a more permanent basis? I'm just glad this beautiful city is getting its act together as I'd love to visit there again someday.
ISRAEL IS SURGICALLY TAKING OUT HEZBOLLAH LEADERSHIP With airstrikes after disabling their entire communications networks last week. Israel is not playing with Hezbollah and many believe that a ground invasion into Lebanon is imminent. Israel says this is just a "new phase" in their ongoing war against Islamist extremist groups backed by Iran. Iran has to be very nervous at this point. Israel has been warning civilians to leave the areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons in the south and eastern border of Lebanon because Israel will be destroying them. I'd believe them if I were Lebanese. Some say Israel is going to create a "death zone" where no one and nothing will be left standing in order to prevent Hezbollah from using short range munitions like rockets on Israelis living in the north. Israel does seem pretty set on taking care of this issue once and for all.
WHAT THE HECK, GRAND LAKE? I love Grand Lake, Colorado. It's gorgeous, plus they have a super cool celebration of the Constitution every year. But dang, it seems like they are beset by the issues that beset many small towns, and that is it's run badly. So much so that a new City Manager, just hired in the last six months, has resigned in frustration over the inaction and dysfunctional way the place is run. Read his letter here.
WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH COPS IN DENVER And hiring new ones is proving to be a challenge. This article shines a light on the finger pointing going on about why it's taking so long to get up to full authorized strength (a number that is still below where we actually need to be because of growth) for the DPD. Cops have put up with a lot of crap these last few years in Denver and it's not surprising to me that the job isn't as appealing as it used to be. Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas blames the civil service board for the delays, but they say the candidates are just not meeting standards. Here's hoping they can get it together soon.
A COLLEGE CHANCELLOR SUES TO BE ABLE TO KEEP MAKING PORN Hooboy, this is a weird one. A tenured college professor at the University of Wisconsin was fired after it became known that he and his wife were producing porn to put on the web. Now he's suing, saying the school is violating his First Amendment rights, and he may have a case. I can't think of anything creepier than trying to learn from a dude that everyone has seen having sex, and you know those students have seen those videos.
SEX PARTIES FOR ME, ARREST FOR THEE In another "do as I say not as I do" Covid event, we know now that the New York City Covid Czar, who had people arrested for not wearing masks, had wild sex parties where he was taking ecstasy with a bunch of other people DURING COVID lockdowns he ordered. His excuse? Watch this nonsense.
Hotair.com did a huge story reminding you of everything New York City did to its residents while this guy was high on molly and having sex parties. Oh, and now The Atlantic is running cover with stories telling us why this is all okay. Of course they are.
SPEAKING OF FREE SPEECH VIOLATIONS A school in New Hampshire called the cops on parents wearing wristbands with XX written on them in a silent protest over a boy playing on the girls soccer team of a visiting school. After first asking if the boy who says he's a girl could be benched for the match only to be told no, the parents organized a silent protest with the wristbands. That's it, nothing else, no angry yelling or carrying on, just the wristbands. The school leadership called the cops and had them removed from the game. Do they even know what Live Free or Die even means?
This guy gets it. Watch below or click here.
THE MANY ACCENTS OF KAMALA HARRIS
DID SHE MEAN IT THEN OR DOES SHE MEAN IT NOW? Kamala just told Oprah that she owns a gun and if someone comes in her house they are "getting shot" to prove she loves guns, amiright? But does she? This doesn't sound like it.
HOW TO WINTERIZE THE OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOME And these are great tips but if you have Gutter Helmet like I do you never have to clean your gutters again. Just saying. Watch below or click here.
THINGS PARENTS HATE DOING WITH THEIR KIDS And I'm board for some of these but some of these parents need to lighten the blank up. Find them all here.
BO NIX FINALLY JOGS OFF A WINNER And he had a lot to be proud of yesterday. Take a jog, Bo.
WHAT FOODS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE AND OVERRATED? I feel like I could have guessed many of these because I feel the same, especially about the stupid burgers with fifteen toppings that you can't possibly fit in your mouth.
TRUMP ON GUTFELD DREW MASSIVE RATINGS The biggest the show has ever had, beating prime time shows that same night. Good for Gutfeld. If you haven't watched it, here are the highlights.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ASPENS I just thought this was an interesting article about aspen trees.
FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, YOUNG MEN OUTNUMBER YOUNG WOMEN AT CHURCH This is a very interesting development, one that I think shows young men are searching for meaning in an increasingly hostile to them world. At the same time young women are turning away from the church and increasingly centering government in their lives. This is yet another schism driving people who should be coming together apart. Read it here.
A TRIAL FOR NEWSMAX'S FUTURE STARTS SOON This is the lawsuit from Smartmatic, the company that has made way more suing news outlets than it ever made selling voting systems, about Newsmax hosts saying Smartmatic machines lead to Donald Trump losing the 2016 election. If Smartmatic wins, this could end Newsmax. They don't have the kind of cash sitting around that Fox News did when they settled.
MOST AMERICANS DON'T BELIEVE THE ELECTIONS WILL BE FAIR AND HONEST And this isn't just Republicans. Read it here. What would have to happen for you to have faith in our elections again? I've got ideas.