YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO NEED YOUR NETWORK And I've got a guest today on networking effectively when you need to. I am not a good networker, though I try to keep my relationships strong in the industry I'm in. Ivan Misner founded BNI, which is one of the largest networking organizations in the world and he joins me at 1 today on how to dust off your network to make sure it's there when you need it. Find out more about Ivan and networking in general by clicking here.
NEW RULE FOR COLORADO POLITICIANS Can we force all politicians to ONLY ride in the right hand lanes on Colorado roads? the right hand lanes on I-25 down south and up north are truly gawdawful.
HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO The Wine Yogi did a blog just for today including some cool margarita recipes and a bit of history of the margarita. This video is Letty at Numero Uno Beach Club in Puerto Rico making one of their spicy margaritas that is legit and best margarita I've ever had. They squeeze the lime juice fresh everyday and the secret is that last bit of jalapeno lime mix, which is just whole limes and jalapenos blended up and strained through a sieve and OH MY GOODNESS is this good.
How did it become such a big thing here? Cinco de Mayo became a prominent holiday in the United States largely due to its adoption and promotion by Mexican-American communities as a celebration of cultural heritage and identity—especially starting in the 1960s during the Chicano civil rights movement. It actually commemorates the Mexican victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. For Mexican-Americans, the victory at Puebla symbolized resistance to foreign domination, which resonated during the civil rights era, helping the holiday gain cultural and political meaning. In the 1980s and beyond, U.S. beer companies and other marketers heavily promoted Cinco de Mayo as a festive, party-friendly holiday—especially in areas with large Hispanic populations. This commercialization helped spread awareness and participation among non-Mexican Americans. The day became a broader occasion for celebrating Mexican food, music, dance, and art, particularly in places like Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago. There, that's a thing you know now.
THE DOJ SUES COLORADO AND DENVER And we knew this was coming and now here it is. As the Colorado Legislature is trying to pass ANOTHER law codifying our sanctuary state policies into law, the Federal government has officially had enough. The lawsuit alleges that Colorado and Denver are impeding the federal government with their series of laws limiting the amount of cooperation law enforcement agencies can give the feds as they try to track down illegal immigrants. Fox 31 did a good job laying out the specific laws in question here:
- House Bill 19-1124, “Protect Colorado Residents From Federal Government Overreach,” according to the text, allows law enforcement to cooperate or assist federal immigration authorities in the execution of a federal warrant, but prohibits law enforcement from arresting or detaining individuals based solely on a civil immigration detainer
- The measure also stops probation officers from giving someone’s personal information to federal immigration authorities
- The measure also ensures that individuals who are to be interviewed via telephone or video by a federal immigration authority are informed of their rights
- House Bill 23-1100, “Restrict Government Involvement in Immigration Detention,” prevents state or local government agency employees from entering into intergovernmental agreements allowing for law enforcement to rent bed space to ICE
- The measure also terminated two such agreements in the state.
They are also in the midst of trying to pass another bill to provide even MORE protections for illegal immigrants here. What does it do?
- Repealing the requirement for an affidavit stating that an undocumented person has applied for lawful presence or will apply for lawful presence as soon as they are eligible when an undocumented person is applying for in-state student tuition or an identification document
- Prohibiting jail custodians from delaying the release of a defendant for the purpose of an immigration enforcement operation
- Extends the ability to petition a court to vacate a guilty plea to class 3 misdemeanors as classified at the time of plea if the defendant was not adequately advised of the adverse immigration consequences of a guilty plea or if the guilty plea was constitutionally infirm
- Extends the prohibition on local law enforcement from enforcing a civil immigration detainer to also include peace officers
- Prevents probation officers and departments from sharing personal information about a person with pretrial officers or pretrial services employees
- Prevents employees of a detention facility from allowing federal immigration authorities into the non-public portions of a detention facility unless they are investigating a federal crime or as required by a federal warrant to transfer an inmate to or from federal custody
Laughably, Governor Jared Polis released this statement:
“Colorado is not a sanctuary state. The State of Colorado works with local, state and federal law enforcement regularly and we value our partnerships with local, county and federal law enforcement agencies to make Colorado safer. If the courts say that any Colorado law is not valid then we will follow the ruling. We are not going to comment on the merits of the lawsuit.”
Colorado Governor’s Office spokesperson
If it walks like a Sanctuary state and it talks like a sanctuary state it's a sanctuary state, Governor, no matter how many times you stomp your foot and say it isn't. It's the collision we all knew was coming so pop some popcorn and watch our "leadership" set our money on fire.
DEMOCRATS HAVE TAKEN YOUR TABOR MONEY And they are coming for the law itself now. The Common Sense Institute did a study on how Democrats have attacked TABOR and reduced your refund by an average of $736 per filer and I've got one of the study's authors today at 2:30 to talk about it. You might have heard of him, his name is Ross Kaminsky. Read the study here.
THE LABOR BILL MAY BE HEADED TO A VETO And now that two vetoes seem to have withstood the test of an override I would not be surprised to see this bill, pushed by labor unions eager to take the money of people who don't want to give it who have been unable to reach a compromise with businesses who are loathe to make it easier for workers to unionize die via a Jared Polis veto. He's already said he did not like the bill in its current form and yet that is the form that will be brought back into consideration after negotiations between labor and unions stalled. That's fine with me.
SCHOOL DISTRICTS NEED TO HAVE A CELL PHONE POLICY And you guys know I am all for banning phones in schools (and I'm the mother of teenager in public high school) so I'm hoping a new law will force the kind of conversations we need to have about phones in schools. We know have data from LOTS of other districts that have banned phones and so far, so good, none of them have allowed phones back in. Read more here about the new law that requires districts to have clearly defined policies.
REMOVED, NOT BANNED BOOKS RETURNED TO SHELVES Can we stop saying "banned" books when talking about removing some books from school libraries? No one is talking about burning copies on the street, just taking books with graphic scenes of sex and sexual violence off of school shelves. Chalkbeat Colorado did a story about Elizabeth reshelving books that they removed pending the disposition of a lawsuit about it and in doing say, said this:
The return of the books, which include titles like “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, came after months of resistance from district officials, who were originally ordered to return the books to school libraries by March 25.
...
The saga of the banned books, which are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both, began last summer when the district in conservative-leaning Elbert County decided to pull 19 books from library shelves because of content school board members deemed “disgusting” or otherwise inappropriate.
Not one of the three books they listed is about LGBTQ people. They all contain graphic descriptions of sexual violence including incest and rape, which is why they were removed but please paint Elizabeth as homophobic, Chalkbeat. And I know what is in those books because I've READ those books. Perhaps Chalkbeat's reporter should too. Thankfully elementary school children can read all about it now.
RTD LEANS IN ON TRANSPARENCY This is such a welcome change from all the efforts recently to make our government more opaque. RTD is now adding an extra free hour to records requests to make it EASIER for people to access them. Imagine that.
THIS SEEMS NOT SCARY AT ALL Watch below or click here.
BOTH PARTIES ARE CRAPPING ON VOTERS Dick Wadhams nails it here when he talks about both political parties trying to use the courts to limit the will of the voters. The Democrats on TABOR and the Republicans on Proposition 108. Read it here.
WARREN BUFFET ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT And it was a shocker, even to the man long believed to be his obvious successor. At 94 he is stepping down as the head of Berkshire Hathaway, after growing the company 5,500,000% since taking over. Not a bad run.
RUDE. That's what Senate Democrat Julie Gonzales is. Read more here.
HOW YOUR MOUTH COULD BE KILLING YOUR HEART Guys, I've been talking about this for YEARS in my Running Creek Dental spots. Take care of your mouth because not doing so can damage your heart and even lead to organ failure!
THE HOSTAGES OR ISRAEL TAKES GAZA This is a sharp escalation from Israel that may work in getting Hamas to release the hostages. Israel now says that Hamas must release ALL the hostages or Israel will keep the parts of Gaza they have taken. Read about it here.
ANTARCTIC ICE...CHECKS NOTES...GREW THIS YEAR For the first time in many years the Antarctic ice sheets grew since 2021. And not only did it grow, it is being called "record breaking" growth, which is kind of comical because really how many records do we really have on this but whatever. This as CO2 has continued to increase in the atmosphere. It's almost like there is no connection between the two.
TIME TO DOCK FISH IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS This dude has it figured out. Watch below or click here.
TIME TO GET JEFFING I had no idea what I have tried to start doing has a name and it's jeffing. What is jeffing? It's when you alternate running with walking as a training mechanism. It was invented by Olympic training coach Jeff Galloway (hence the name) as a better way of training athletes for distance. I'm doing it now to see if I can actually run without hurting myself. I'll report back later.
YELLOWSTONE HAS A CORK IN IT And by IT I mean the massive volcano responsible for the geysers that make Yellowstone so cool. Scientists have discovered a magma "cork" that is keeping the volcano from erupting about two miles below the surface of the volcano. This seems important.
THIS IS WEIRD Watch below or click here.
A GORILLA EXPERT WEIGHS IN ON THE 100 MEN VS GORILLA QUESTION Watch below or click here.
AROD'S REVIEW OF THUNDERBOLTS No spoilers here.
THANK GOD SHE'S NOT PRESIDENT Considering her entire campaign was fear based this is rich. Watch below or click here.
JEFF SPERBECK'S DEATH IS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT And the sheriff says there is no indication of any criminal activity from the accident which tragically claimed the life of John Elway's best friend and longtime agent.
PRESIDENT STEPHEN A SMITH? Let be the first to say no.
MORE SCUTTLEBUTT ON SHEDEUR'S SLIDE As more people are commenting on why he slid so dramatically during the NFL draft we now hear that the Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders treated the draft like he was being recruited rather than interviewed. Clearly not a successful strategy.
CHINA'S THREE GORGES DAM IS SLOWING THE EARTH'S ROTATION But I'm sure this will be fine.
WEIRD HOW COURTING INFLUENCERS IS BAD NOW Because when Biden did it, it was AMAZING! When Trump does it, BAD. Watch below or click here.
Obama did it here too. Nice try, HuffPo. They are just mad Trump does it better.