BASEBALL AT 1 BUT I'LL MAKE THIS SHOW COUNT ANYWAY Because I'm going to give you lots to read and do if you don't like baseball.
TINA PETERS CASE GETS A LOOK BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT Though I'm not sure what they can actually do, as this was a state case, not a federal one. The disgraced former Clerk of Court, who broke multiple laws while trying to show voter fraud with Dominion Voting machines, is now going to be getting her case reviewed by the Justice Department. In a brief filed this week, the Justice Department had this to say:
the Department of Justice is reviewing cases across the nation for abuses of the criminal justice process. See Attorney General Memorandum, Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of The Department of Justice (February 5, 2025). This review will include an evaluation of the State of Colorado’s prosecution of Ms. Peters and, in particular, whether the case was “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.” Executive Order 14147, Ending the Weaponization of The Federal Government (Jan. 20, 2025).
They also have questions about her being locked up pending appeal, how long her sentence was for a first offense, and whether there are First Amendment concerns related to the case. Again, this was a STATE case, not a federal one, so I'm not sure what the outcome here may be. Stay tuned.
TRUMP PAUSES MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE This is a big deal, even as the Ukrainians try to downplay the immediate impact. Trump says when Zelensky is ready to talk about peace we can restart our support. This is maximalist pressure on Ukraine, who tried to exert maximalist pressure on Trump in the White House Friday. As you can see, we've got the cards Zelensky doesn't. Michael Shellenberger wrote a great column here that I agree with completely. I love Europe, love traveling there, love the people there but I'm a realist. The only time Europeans don't look down their noses at Americans is when they want our money to protect them. From the column:
Maybe that was something that Europe wants to do that. Great. Go. Europe should go protect Ukraine. We have no NATO agreement with Ukraine. And this thing where Zelensky then goes and quotes all these other European leaders. They're with me, not with the United States. Great. Go, go, go work together.
We have 100,000 Americans being killed by the Chinese and Mexican fentanyl and methamphetamine mafias every year. Our kids are not learning to read. We have thousands of veterans with PTSD and are hurting. We have been at war in the Middle East for a quarter century. It's been 80 years since we bailed out Europe. You have your own militaries. You have your own nuclear weapons. I've been trying to be really indirect about this for years.
You go Europe, you go. How long this will last as Germany faces a weakened economy because of their shift to "green" energy, and the UK struggles to pay the generous benefits it provides its citizens, how long before this endless war bankrupts everyone?
Zelensky seems to be paying attention as he just sent out this post on X.
TRUMP IS SPEAKING TONIGHT And he's expected to lay out the entire vision he has for America. On the same day tariffs on Canada and Mexico and China go into effect, he's going to explain how he thinks those things will work. We will air the address live on KOA tonight at 7pm. Democrats are planning to disrupt the speech somehow.
LET THE PROTESTS OUTSIDE DPS START NOW Because if people are protesting the loss of an unknown number of jobs in Colorado outside NOAA, then surely folks will show up to protest the loss of 38 jobs IN Denver from DPS layoffs. Surely. JK, they won't.
I BET THEY DIDN'T BUY THE GUNS LEGALLY A seventeen year old boy who was shot by a police officer in Denver was wanted for attempted murder in another shooting. Another boy in the same incident was found with a firearm that had been modified to be fully automatic. One guess on whether or not these two teens bought their weapons legally.
BUT THE LEGISLATURE IS GOING AFTER LEGAL GUN OWNERS...AGAIN And this column about it by my pal Leland Conway is a must read.
MAYOR JOHNSTON FEELS GOOD ABOUT HIS TESTIMONY But I'm wondering how it's actually going to play out when he sits before the House Oversight Committee while fielding questions from Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Gave Evans, who will both be on the committee for this hearing. You can watch this tomorrow starting at 8am our time here.
A GREAT EXPLAINER ON THE TIP WAGE CREDIT By Joshua Sharf at CompleteColorado.com. The usual suspects are lining up against it, but I'd love the chance to ask them how much minimum wage at a restaurant that shuts down nets servers?
WHY CAN'T COLORADO'S DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE GET ITS WORK DONE? I got this email from a listener today:
Hi Mandy,
As a tax accountant, I’m not able to listen to your show during my busy work days but I do read your blog in the evening on most days. On your 2-26-2025 blog, you stated that the state has added 7,000 new employees and 17 new state offices since Governor Polis took office. In spite of hiring all those new employees, the CO DOR is still not ready for corporations and partnerships to file their 2024 tax returns with the deadline only 13 days away (March 17). As an accountant for small business owners, who is also a small business owner, this is greatly impacting these small business owners in a negative manner. I emailed by state senator (Tom Sullivan) and my state representative (Eliza Hamrick) and they both parroted the CO DOR’s line about having so many programming changes due to state law changes. Never mind those were passed in the 2024 legislative session which ended in May 2024, giving the CO DOR over seven months to make the changes. Once again, Governor Polis and his fellow Democrats are not focusing on the nuts and bolts of running our state government while they try to micromanage ever other facet of our lives Thought you might want to know and maybe by publicizing this the governor will get the CO DOR to get their act in gear.
So here I am publicizing this! Get ready for a big mess if they can't get it together in the next 13 days.
DEMOCRATS HATE LOCAL CONTROL Unless it's local governments making it harder to buy a gun. If local governments want to make actual CRIME harder, the Colorado Democrats will NOT stand for that. Read about it here.
POLIS GREEN DREAMS WILL COST US A FORTUNE And Krista Kafer writes about the real cost of unreliable green energy here. From the column:
Thanks to so-called clean energy mandates set by Gov. Jared Polis and the General Assembly, it’s only going to get worse. A new report by the nonpartisan Common Sense Institute projects that within five years under the new law, the average household will spend as much as $500 more a year on the home power bill.
Think inflation is bad? The report’s projections make inflation look gentle by comparison. The price of electricity will grow at more than three times the rate of inflation.
Just for fun, I grabbed the latest data I could find on what our energy costs per Kilowatt Hour (kWh) and then I grabbed a graph that shows kWh prices for two nations in Europe that have gone all in on renewables. In December of 2024, we paid 15.16 ¢/kWh for our power, which was an almost 7% increase over last year. In Europe, where Spain and Germany have shifted a large percentage of their production to "renewables" the costs are WAY, WAY higher. Spain sits at .241 Euros per kWh ($.25), and they are considered to have the most successful green energy grid in Europe and maybe the world. Germany, which doesn't have the benefit of Spain's sunshine and coastline of wind, is paying a whopping .367 Euros ($.38) per kWh! The Governor has said he wants to make the transition without falling into the same pitfalls as others have, but as far as I know he doesn't have a bunch of super geniuses working on this so I'm not sure how he thinks this will be accomplished. Does he even care? He won't be in office here when the bills come due.
THE BAD GOVERNMENT SNITCH LINE IS OPEN If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'd love for you guys to let me know about government shenanigans so just send me an email to mandyconnell@iheartmedia.com with the subject: Snitch Line. I got a tip about some stuff in Dillon that seems to be another situation where council members seem to be a little too developer friendly for the taste of some residents, who are pushing a recall. I'm going to reach out to the players and see if we can find out what's going on.
DOLLY PARTON'S HUSBAND CARL DEAN DIED The reclusive husband was rarely seen as Dolly lived life in the spotlight. They were married for sixty years. RIP, Carl.
DEMS ARE READY WITH PREPARED SCRIPTS This is kind of funny that they don't know the internet is going to do stuff like this.
BUT REP. DEGETTE WON'T BE THERE TONIGHT she's taking her marbles and staying home.
OH LOOK, EGYPT HAS A PLAN FOR GAZA This is very much a direct response to comments by Trump that he was going to take over Gaza and make it beautiful, you better believe that. From CNN:
A plan for Gaza formulated by Egypt would exclude Hamas from governance of the enclave once the war ends, a draft of the plan obtained by CNN shows.
The plan is being discussed by Arab leaders meeting in Cairo in an emergency summit on Tuesday, with Egypt’s president proposing a Palestinian committee to temporarily govern Gaza – taking over from Hamas and eventually handing power to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
“With the help of its Palestinian brothers, Egypt has worked to create a Palestinian administrative committee of independent professionals and technocrats, who will be tasked with governing Gaza with the expertise of its members,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said at the summit.
This is as it should be. Much like the Europeans need to take care of Ukraine, the Middle East needs to figure out what to do with Gaza. Trump just forced them to do it. Hamas is NOT on board with this plan, however, but really, who cares what they think? They had this to say:
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group rejects any attempt to impose projects or any form of non-Palestinian administration, or the presence of any foreign forces on Gaza Strip territory.
"We are keen for the success of the summit, and we hope that there will be a call to reject the displacement and to protect the right of our people in resisting the occupation and govern itself away from any custodianship and intervention," he added.
They had their chance and they blew it on tunnels and hostages and war crimes.
REMEMBER WHEN BIDEN BLAMED BORDER CROSSINGS ON A FAILED BORDER BILL? Well ZERO bills have been passed and look at these numbers:
It's almost like they were lying. Or something.
NO CEASEFIRE, NO AID IN ISRAEL The original ceasefire has expired and Israel says they are done sending aid to Gaza and will be shutting down the border with Gaza until Hamas agrees to release more hostages. They also say that the US is aware of and supportive of this plan. Hamas needs to recognize there is a new America to be dealt with on this issue.
HOW EUROPE HAS REGULATED ITSELF TO DEATH And John Stossel lays it out, and the parallels between what Europe has done and what Colorado is doing is stunning.
SOUTHERN WOMEN DON'T PLAY
THE CHALLENGE OF BEING WOKE AND A CRIME VICTIM