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Colorado News Miner 110
GOP boots reporter, eclipse, wind, charter schools, property sales, anti-trans Dems, revolving Klan, 303 case, accountability journalism, and more.
Copyright © 2024 by Ari Armstrong
April 9, 2024
GOP Boots Fish: The Colorado Republican Party ejected Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish from its assembly. Stupid and wrong. See also articles by Ernest Luning, Jennifer Brown, and Anna Lynn Winfrey. Here's video. Meanwhile, Republican leadership also asked Norma Anderson and Krista Kafer to leave the party for daring to sue over Trump's ballot access. This is not a party that acts like it ever wants to achieve political power in Colorado again.
Beedle on the GOP: Ironically, while Republicans ejected Fish, a widely respected reporter at a top news outlet, they let in Heidi Beedle, an overtly partisan (and generally good) writer for the left-progressive Times Recorder. She aptly summarized the themes: "The 2024 Colorado Republican State Assembly in Pueblo this weekend showcased the priorities of the party heading into the November election—banning gender-affirming care for trans people, continuing to deny the validity of the 2020 election, downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection, antagonism toward migrants and immigration, and full-throated support for former President Donald Trump."
No Eclipse for You: Jenny Brundin: "The St. Vrain Valley School District . . . sent a letter to families in March announcing that there would be no classroom activities where students could observe Colorado's partial eclipse outdoors, even while wearing solar glasses, due to safety risks." So stupid! Reminder: Most Colorado students fail to meet expectations in science, according to results from Colorado Measures of Academic Success.
Power Cut: Some people are shocked, shocked they will tell you!, that Xcel Energy cut some people's power in the middle of a huge windstorm, when Xcel is still being sued for contributing to the horrific Marshall Fire, which was caused mainly by a wind storm. You can have liability for damages or you can have consistent power: Pick one.
Charter Interference Bill: Bill 24-1363 is a garbage bill to punish charter schools because the teachers' unions hate them. But it is titled "Charter Schools Accountability." Rather than do their jobs, some "journalists" publish such biased headlines as "Polis opposes charter school accountability bill," completely buying in to the propaganda of the bill's sponsors. Anyway, good for Polis for bucking it.
Property Sale Reg Bill: Ed Sealover: "House Bill 1175 . . . would permit counties and cities to get the first shot at buying certain multifamily properties that go up for sale." Again, the fundamental problem is that politicians have outlawed much development and use of housing, thereby driving up prices. The solution is for politicians to remove those barriers. This bill adds yet more intrusive regulations. Although Rep. Scott Bottoms is an anti-science bigot, in this case he happens to be right: "Bottoms . . . led the opposition, saying that the bill undermines the fundamental principle that property owners can choose to sell what they own to whoever they want rather than having to clear such transactions with a government." Progressive statists to the left of me, theocrats to the right.
Murib Condemns Anti-Trans Dems: Shad Murib, chair of the state Dems, posted, "I call on viciously anti-trans org 'Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender' to immediately cease use of the Party name in CO. We echo [the president] in saying to trans and nonbinary members of our community: You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You belong." I quickly checked out the group in question and basically it opposes gender-affirming medical care.
Klan-Go-Round: You will be hard pressed to come up with a more disturbing picture of Colorado history than one in which Klan members ride a ferris wheel in 1926. See also Robert Alan Goldberg's book on the Colorado Klan.
303 Case Update: Via Eugene Volokh: The courts have "ordered that the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause prohibits Colorado from enforcing the Accommodation Clause of Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act ('CADA'), Colo. Rev. Stat. ยง 24-34-601(2)(a)), to compel plaintiffs to create custom websites celebrating or depicting same-sex weddings or otherwise create or depict original, expressive, graphic or website designs inconsistent with her beliefs regarding same-sex marriage."
Clark on Journalism: Kyle Clark (March 26): "Every journalist . . . has to choose whether to practice access journalism or accountability journalism. Broadly speaking, access journalism seeks to win the favor of powerful elites in the hopes that they'll provide inside information or access. Accountability journalism seeks to provide the public with information on what those powerful elites are doing, to hold them accountable." A great clip.
Brown Running for Board of Education: Kristi Burton Brown (of "personhood" fame): "As a constitutional attorney, I know how to empower parents to exercise their rights against the teachers' union and against the woke, liberal agenda." You can watch her acceptance speech for the nomination if you wish; she claims "the left . . . is indoctrinating our children every day." She wants an entirely different set of people doing the indoctrination! Again, I wish we had choices other than state-worshipping "progressives" and theocrats.