WE HAVE A READING CRISIS IN OUR COUNTRY And we are graduating young people from high school who can't read. I'm talking today with the CEO of Ignite Reading, an organization that has developed a program that has shown great success in helping kids master the fundamentals of reading, no matter how far behind they may be. Jessica Sliwerski joins me at 1 to talk about it, find out more here.
HAVE YOUR CAR INSURANCE COSTS GONE UP? If not, consider yourself lucky as they have skyrocketed for most people. It doesn't matter if you're a good and safe driver who has never made a claim, you are paying for the lax laws passed by Democrats that made car theft a misdemeanor (something they finally remedied) and lead Colorado to top the NATION in car thefts. But that's not all, as medical costs have gone up, so have payouts for injured people in auto accidents, raising costs again. From Marketwatch:
Data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows that Colorado had the country’s highest auto theft rate in 2022, at 731 car thefts per 100,000 residents. This was a 10.6% increase over Colorado’s rate in 2021, which was also the highest in the U.S.
The Pueblo region had the highest rate of car thefts in the country, with 1,086 thefts per 100,000 residents. Denver followed closely in 3rd place, with 1,062 car thefts per 100,000. Greeley cracked the top 10 across the U.S. too, with a rate of 589 thefts per 100,000 residents, good for 9th place.
In total, Colorado was home to 42,706 auto thefts in 2022. Wisconsin, which has almost the same population as the Centennial State, only had 11,709 car thefts. Colorado’s concerning number of auto thefts has likely led car insurers to charge drivers more due to heightened risks.
We already know that car thefts have begun dropping, but will they drop enough to stop a similar increase in 2024? We'll see.
A CHURCH IS SUING CASTLE ROCK OVER THEIR PARKING LOT And the question isn't about whether or not parishioners can park there, but whether or not they can allow to RV campers to be used to house homeless people. The Rock church in Castle Rock has three parked campers that they use for temporary shelter for homeless people. They are on their private parking lot but the town of Castle Rock says campers aren't allowed in parking lots. This is an interesting private property case if you ask me. I'm not sure if neighbors complained or how this whole thing got started, but I know where this church is and there isn't anything in the immediate vicinity. I'm interested to see how this turns out and would love to talk to the pastor of The Rock if anyone knows him. In my mind this is exactly what churches should do for their neighbors.
TAY ANDERSON IS OUT OF HIS HOUSE RACE He's dropped out because he says he wants to ensure that the seat will "maintain the legacy of Black leadership" for the seat. There are a bunch of white people running as well as Sharron Pettiford, a black woman with community activist street cred, so I'm guessing he's dropping out to unify the vote AND to launch his new grift non-profit about black education in Denver. You can read about it here, but I'm sure he will get fawning coverage for this and no accountability.
I NEED TO HEAR YOUR STRUGGLE STORIES We all have them, but Gen Z is under the illusion that we had it super easy when we were in our 20s so I think it might be fun to let them hear how we all got to where we are today. What she's missing here is that she needs to better herself so she can make money to do more than "get by". Let's go! I asked the question on Twitter and people are sharing theirs.
THE MAYOR WANTS TO BRING JOY BACK DOWNTOWN And in this article about how to revitalize downtown he's taking a bit of a premature victory lap when he says this:
That's why the administration hunkered down to get more than 1,000 homeless people off of the city's streets, adding that, "for the first time in what many of us can remember, there are no tents in downtown Denver."
If he only followed the Do Better Denver account on Twitter he'd see this.
Well maybe he's not talking about in front of the Embassy Suites shelter on Hampden, where there is this.
This guy brought his own kind of joy to Target on the 16th Street Mall
I joined a Facebook group of neighbors who are documenting all the issues around the new Embassy Suites low barrier (meaning nothing is required of the residents like sobriety) shelter and a liquor store has already been robbed BY CHILDREN and trash is already piling up along with the new encampment. Until treatment is forced, this is just squeezing the toothpaste tube and hoping for a miracle. Someone also exposed that the long term plans for the Embassy Suites is to change it into Permanent Supportive Housing. Watch this.
THE MAYOR IS ALSO MAKING CLAIMS ABOUT CONSERVATIVE CEOS WANTING TO HIRE ILLEGALS In his pursuit of more federal dollars instead of a real solution he went on Fox News and made the claim that "conservative" CEOs are calling him EVERY DAY to ask why they can't hire this latest flood of illegal immigrants. I want names, not because I don't believe CEOs would want to hire someone on the cheap, but because I want to question any CEO who doesn't understand why asylum claims take so long.
LORA THOMAS IS RUNNING AGAINST BOB MARSHALL And I hope she wins, though her two fellow commissioners hate her so much that they have vowed to make sure she "never wins another race again". I know that to be true because Abe Laydon said it directly to me in an off air comment. Bob Marshall is like a gnat who flits around annoying everyone and I'd love to see him defeated. Read more here and don't believe all the crap about Lora, go to a campaign event and meet her for yourself. I promise you will be surprised.
WE WON'T HAVE SPIRIT AIRLINES TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE As the low cost carrier has exited the Denver market, effective today. We've still got Frontier for those of you who want super cheap tickets and commensurate service.
TINA PETERS LATEST GAMBIT FAILS As a federal judge said no thank you to her pleas that her trial be stopped because she was the victim of malicious prosecution. Her trial on election tampering and more starts February 7th.
DENVER OVERDOSED HIT A NEW RECORD In the 100 years of record keeping we've never had more overdose deaths than we did last year, and that number should increase as toxicology reports continue to come in. This sad state of affairs doesn't show any signs of getting better any time soon.
IF YOU DRIVE THE GAP GET READY TO PAY FOR EXPRESS LANES I'm talking about the gap between Castle Rock and Monument where they just took forever to widen I-25 by adding an express lane in each direction. The tolls start January 17th but if you have Express Toll they aren't that much, really.
TRUMP IS NAMED IN THE EPSTEIN DOCUMENT DUMP And if you believe a woman who later retracted her statements to a reporter from then the New York Post he had sex with a bunch of young women via Jeffrey Epstein and there are tapes to prove it. That "retracted her statements" later bit is being pointed to by the men accused by Sarah Ransome of sleeping with her friends at the behest of Epstein. You can read the details here, and I must say they are pretty detailed for someone who later claimed to be lying. Just saying.
THIS AS EPSTEIN'S BROTHER QUESTIONS THE SUICIDE NARRATIVE And you know I love the "Epstein did not kill himself" entire catalog of memes, but the accusations made here are pretty damning and should be investigated but we all know they won't be. See the story above for more on why it won't be.
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON'S NEW SPENDING DEAL Is a good one according to this editorial from the Wall Street Journal and I have to agree with them. It keeps spending essentially flat, while making sure we have money for defense. Read it here, but I'm going to see if I can get Steve Moore on to talk about it.
HATS OFF TO THE MEN'S JUNIOR HOCKEY TEAM FOR SINGING...BUT... A lot of people are heaping praise on the Men's Junior Hockey team for proudly singing the National Anthem after their victory. Take a look.
BUT, here is the Women's Hockey Team from last year doing the same. Hockey players just love this country.
PEDRO PASCAL BACKSTABBED HIS WAY ONTO GAME OF THRONES And this seems appropriate for the industry. Read the story here.
CANADA GOES ALL IN ON GESTAPO TACTICS Watch this, it's truly incredible.
HOW DIFFERENT ACTORS TRIP This is really funny and spot on.
THESE KIDS PARENTS HAVE FAILED THEM Although I wonder if The Q could name them by sight even if she knows their music. This teacher asked her students to name the musicians in the We Are the World video. To be fair, if there were a video of today's pop stars I'd mostly be clueless. Watch below or click here.
THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO CATCH PEDOPHILES There is a guy in Northern Colorado who entraps people he says are soliciting sex from kids online. I phrase it like that because he hasn't provided the evidence necessary to actually CHARGE these people he's outing on the internet for clicks. They may actually BE pedophiles but he isn't helping put them away. Now he's been deplatformed by YouTube and is complaining, but he needs to go to this website to see how this is actually done. SOSA has actually helped put people in jail.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU CHANGE YOUR SHOWER TOWEL? I'm once weekly and I will change nothing. Watch below or click here for more.
BUTT WIPE TIPS FOR NEW PARENTS And this is a good one, but the Costco wipes don't come out in clumps so just buy those. Watch below or click here.
IT'S AN AMAZING TIME TO BE ALIVE SO BE GRATEFUL I've been mentioning this very concept on the show lately so imagine my delight when I saw this column about keeping perspective about the times we live in and just how good we really have it.
YES, THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE PARTY OF THE ELITES NOW And this is a great column about the great party switch that has taken place in the last few decades. From the article:
Consider that, in 2016, the median home price of a Hillary Clinton voter was $640,000, while that of a Trump voter was $474,000. In 2018, Democrats took control of the 10 wealthiest congressional districts in the country—all of them on the coasts, mostly in New York and California. Of the top 50, they held 41.