WEATHER WEDNESDAY TODAY And we'll find out when this glorious cooldown will be over for that last blast of summer (or maybe not) with Fox 31's meteorologist Dave Fraser at 12:30
THE NOT SO SPECIAL SESSION IS OVER And Democrats, instead of looking at cutting anything, just raised taxes on businesses instead. And I say that because not a single Republican voted to raise taxes on small business, and every bill brought forth by Republicans was killed on the very first day of the session. So what happened? The Denver Gazette has this wrap up:
Five tax bills passed along party-lines in both chambers, offered by the majority Democrats in the House. The measures are designed to raise general fund revenue to cover a portion of the shortfall. The fiscal notes said they could raise as much as $253.2 million. But the rest is now up to Gov. Jared Polis, who will present a spending reduction plan to the Joint Budget Committee on Thursday afternoon that could cover another third of the shortfall. The state's general fund reserve, set at 15% of general fund spending, or $2.33 billion, will cover the last third.
Those dollars, however, will have to be recovered in the 2026-27 budget — and, already, the June 2025 revenue forecast showed that budget would start with about $700 million in the red.
Hmmm, why, if they "fixed" the issues that were "created" by HR 1 would be we starting the next budget year in the red? Could it be that it ISN'T HR1, it is the massive overspending we've seen since 2019 when Democrats took everything over? Member of the Joint Budget Committee Barb Kirkmeyer joins me at 2:30 to talk about it all. Here is a list of the eleven bills, only one of which got any Republican votes, that were passed by Democrats this year.
DEMOCRATS CONDEMNED A PRIVATE CITIZEN And in the process impugned the character of House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese. This all goes back to a childish photo taken of a Democrat lawmaker who chose her outfit poorly for the House. The photo was then shared on a Signal chat among GOP lawmakers who made nasty comments about her appearance in the chat. Someone then leaked the photo to someone on X and it became public and typical internet nastiness ensued. The Representative who started the whole kerfuffle had already announced he was leaving the House in September, so when Ryan Armagost heard he was going to be censured for it, he dipped early. But the Democrats can't miss a chance to be drama queens and act like this is beyond the pale in politics so they decided to have a "resolution" saying what a bad, bad man Armagost is and the Republicans were like what? Then Dem leadership said Rose Pugliese was part of the problem even after she showed evidence that she wasn't. If this reads like a middle school soap opera good, that's what it is. I know Rose as a person, and I'm here to tell you she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. The Dems did her dirty and they know it.
HOW DID DEMS RAISE CORPORATE TAXES? And to be clear, they DID RAISE TAXES without asking the people, so there will be lawsuits against all of this because of TABOR. But the Dems don't care. Read here about how businesses are going to have to pay for Democrat overspending.
DENVER IS DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY THEY THEMSELVES DON'T DO I'm going to bring in Rob Dawson to talk about yesterday's City Council meeting where the vaunted team from Colorado's homeless initiative came to council to talk about all the good they've done. What they didn't bring is ONE dollar sign showing how much money they spent and EXACTLY what the outcomes are. How many homeless people have taken drug and alcohol treatment and are now sober? How much do we spend on case management, and what is the outcome of such management? Details, schmetails. Now the City of Denver says they are going away from the flat fee payment structure they used with the Salvation Army (which was so low the Salvation Army had to come out of pocket to the tune of millions this year) to "performance based" contracts. This is going to go over like a lead balloon. Cole Chandler, who has overseen the bilking of the city while warehousing addicts in old hotels, had this to say:
“We'll be looking at: Have a certain percentage of the beds been filled each night? Have a certain percentage of folks completed their housing assessments? Have they had X number of case management touch points?” he explained. “And these sorts of metrics are what we will be paying out for.”
Y'all, the city can't give any sort of information on what they themselves have accomplished but they are going to hold another agency accountable like this? And who is going to bid on this contract? It's not like we have a slew of providers begging to deal with a hotel full of addicts and mentally ill folks while the city withholds money because beds weren't filled. This is absurd. By the way, this isn't how things are normally done. Read this:
“It's actually a new and emerging model across the country, and so we're partnering on this sort of national pilot, which we're really excited about,” he said.
Again, what is the incentive for a provider here? I can't wait to see how many bids the city gets. Prediction: this is going to be an abject disaster.
COLORADANS LOVE HALLUCINOGENS A new survey shows that young adults are using psychedelics more than any other group. From the Denver Gazette:
Nearly 8% of the adults who reported using at least one psychedelic substance in 2024 while participating in the inaugural National Survey Investigating Hallucinogenic Trends (NSIHT) Data Report were between the ages of 19 and 25, according to the report. The total fraction of adults surveyed who reported using a psychedelic substance in 2024 was 4.5%, a population around 12 million.
Additional major findings in the report included that psilocybin was the most commonly used psychedelic substance, with 2.1% of surveyed adults reporting its use, and most perceived improvements in their mental health after taking the substance.
I think this explains why people aren't drinking anymore.
DENVER DOESN'T KNOW HOW MANY ILLEGALS IT WELCOMED This story says that the state added another 40,000 illegal immigrants to our already large population of about 160,000 illegal immigrants living in the state. We all know how Mayor Mike Johnston rolled out the red carpet for illegal immigrants, but here's the kicker: they have no idea if any of them are still here. Read this:
While city officials recorded the number of people who sought services — primarily temporary shelter and transportation — they did not track who stayed. Bus, plane and train tickets for immigrant to travel elsewhere suggest that about half stayed. That's roughly 20,000 immigrants — or adding a city the size of Golden in less than 18 months.
“I think that the number today would be different,” Ewing said, noting that any population count is a point-in-time estimate. “It’d be lower.”
So we have no clue what happened the people we "welcomed". This doesn't seem like a good strategy, especially because we know at least some of them were dangerous gang members. Oh my bad, those were just figments of Danielle Jurinsky's imagination.
THIS IS NOT A FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT Aurora City Council is looking at boards and commissions and asking if they really need to be. One such commission is the "Human Relations Commission" and according to the city website, it's job is to "promote a mutual understanding and respect among people" and "disseminate information and educational materials to eliminate prejudice, promote human relations and investigate complaints of this nature." Y'all, this is NOT a function of government. It's squishy and has no definable or measurable goals. I don't care that it's being alleged that it has been politicized, it never should have been a thing in the first place. Cut it just for that reason alone.
WHY ARE THE LEAVES ALREADY CHANGING? Our hot dry summer means that leaves in the high country and elsewhere around the state are already beginning to change. Read more here.
I HAVE BEEN LAUGHING ABOUT THIS FOR TWO DAYS And though you might find it funny too. Your volume must be up to appreciate this.
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RALPHIE VI IS RUNNING INTO RETIREMENT As I believe Ember, as she's actually called, has saved up enough in her 401k and will now spend the rest of her life on a ranch eating grass and stuff. Her replacement is already being trained. Games will be Ralphie-less until Ralphie VII is trained up properly.
UNCLE HERSHEL IS BACK ON THE LOGO After a week of withering criticism Cracker Barrel announced they would be bringing the old logo BACK. What a PR disaster this has been.
COVID IS "SKY HIGH" IN OUR WASTEWATER AND I DON'T CARE Covid is circulating RIGHT NOW in the metro area! Can you feel the terror!?!?! Oddly, our hospitals are not filling up with Covid patients. No, not oddly, this is what viruses do, they mutate to become less serious and more contagious and that is exactly what has happened to Covid which is why this story about questions about who is paying for Covid vaccines seems unnecessary. It's now an annoying cold.
CHRISTIANITY IS MAKING A COMEBACK...WITH TECH BROS? This is super interesting to me. The very same people who are trying to create "godlike" AI are the ones filling the pews in godless San Francisco. Of course the only person of "faith" interviewed is a "humanist chaplain" who doesn't believe in God. Regardless, I find this comforting somehow.
BURNING MAN'S ORGY DOME DESTROYED BY MOTHER NATURE You guys, I think this is hilarious.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE STARVING GAZAN CHILDREN And The Free Press did what other news organizations did, they investigated the claims made by Hamas and of course found that things aren't always as they seem. Read it here. You know what is super ironic about all of these cases? Had Hamas not attacked on October 7th they may have been able to be treated in Israeli hospitals capable of finding or helping the conditions they are suffering from. It used to happen all the time, my nephew's wife is a pediatrician who may have seen them if only. If only.
SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT YOUTH SUICIDE And this is REALLY good news. Youth suicide rates are the lowest they've been since 2007. Still more work to do, but this is very, very good.
NO, WE DON'T NEED GAY BATMAN This story is insane. When people talk about "the gay agenda" it is unnecessary stuff like this that they are talking about.
SOME PEOPLE ARE HAPPY WITH TRUMP'S DC TAKEOVER And one of them is a reporter who thanked Donald Trump for fixing crime in DC.
DEMOCRATS ARE OBSESSED WITH CHILD MUTILATION And this Democrat wanted to make sure that kids know how to lop off their parts if they decide they are another gender.
KPOP DEMON HUNTERS IS THE TOPS AT NETFLIX
THE WHITE HOUSE HAS A USE FOR THE OLD/NEW CRACKER BARREL LOGO This is just funny.
I AGREE WITH TEDDY ROOSEVELT When it comes to Americans.
EMBER'S FIRST AND LAST CU RUNS Thanks to Connor Shreve for tracking down her first and last runs.
HOLY PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN! The ride at Shanghai Disney is OFF THE HOOK! Watch below or click here.
WHO WILL RESTORE HOPE? This is a great piece on why the youngs are burned out and it makes a very good point. Watch below or click here.
YOUR BRAIN IS A LIAR And more life advice that is really good. Watch below or click here.