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Colorado News Miner 137
Republicans, release of violent persons, Evergreen shooting, conversion therapy, bigamy, business, Christians, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2025
"So You're Telling Me There's a Chance": An October 5 Forbes article by Chris Dorsey claims in its headline that "Colorado [is] in play for Republicans." Dorsey writes, "'The strength of Republicans' identification with working-class issues is a warning shot for a party that’s lost ground across the country,' reported the left-leaning Denver Post in a September 16 feature." Wrong. That line comes from a February 2 article by Seth Klamann. Yes, voters hate Democrats. But they hate Republicans even more. Klamann writes, "The poll, conducted by Keating Research, found that 45% of respondents had a favorable view of the Democratic Party, against 51% who viewed the party negatively. Just 37% had a favorable view of the Republican Party, versus 56% who viewed it unfavorably." Dorsey also cites the September 16 editorial from the Post. The Magellan poll cited by the editorial points out that the same fraction of Colorado voters, 68%, view each major party unfavorably. But people favor a generic Democrat for governor to a generic Republican by a margin of 50% to 38%. Dorsey hopes George Brauchler will enter the race, but he already handily lost a statewide race. In promoting newbie Victor Marx for governor, Lauren Boebert assured Republicans Marx could win. But notice that Boebert does not think she herself can win a state-wide race; she couldn't even hold on to the red Western Slope and had to carpetbag her way east.
Release of Violent Persons: During a September 30 interview with Mandy Connell, State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer called for special session to fix the "catch and release" crime bill, HB24-1034, which has put some violent people incompetent to stand trial back on the streets. Kirkmeyer said that she and other Republicans supported the bill to address Constitutional concerns in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling, but the intent was to ensure that "incompetent" violent people end up in mental health facilities. Kirkmeyer said the state needs to add capacity to those facilities. She also said the state needs to tighten up the standards by which someone is declared incompetent to stand trial (but I'm not clear about the details). I agree Jared Polis needs to call a special session, and delayed action on this matter is creating extreme risks that people will end up assaulted or murdered. See also the Common Sense Institute's paper on restoring perpetrators to competency through mental health services. See also Fox31.
Evergreen Shooting Update: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office: "It is true that a tip was sent to the FBI Office in New York in July about a concerning social media post. The tip did not identify the person who posted it. In these cases, law enforcement must obtain warrants to request information from social media platforms. By law, these companies have up to 35 days to respond to each warrant, and typically two or three warrants are needed to determine who made a post and from where. That process was still underway when the shooting occurred. The FBI did not fail to act; this delay is a limitation of the current legal system." Seems like maybe the government should take threats of violence more seriously?
Conversion Therapy: It looks like the Supreme Court will overturn a Colorado law banning conversion therapy. Quentin Young writes, "Imagine a licensed therapist advising a client to follow through on suicidal thoughts. Shouldn't a state be able to prohibit such a thing? Yes, of course." There are several problems with this. First, in certain contexts, suicide is a legitimate option (say, if you have a terminal illness that puts you in severe pain and debility). Second, although "conversion therapy" usually is a pretext to harass and deman gay or transgender children on the basis of religion-inspired bigotry, it's not at all obvious that every case of a child claiming to be gay or transgender represents an accurate self-evaluation. As I've said, if it's possible to be correct in self-identifying as transgender, then it's also possible to be incorrect. So I think a blanket ban is illegitimate. Still, as Christopher Hudson points out, there's something very strange about the Supreme Court overturning state laws banning conversion therapy while leaving in place state laws banning transgender health care for minors.
Separate Party and State: More than half of Colorado voters now are unaffiliated, Axios reports. Coloradans dislike both the Republican and Democratic parties by a margin of 68 to 30 percent, according to a recent Magellan poll. The Republican Party is an ongoing clown show, as Dick Wadhams describes. So why does government continue to give parties special political privileges? Separate party and state! Government should stop tracking party affiliation, stop listing parties on ballots, stop funding party primaries, make ballot-access rules the same for all comers, and either run a general primary or else hold only a general election with approval voting.
GOP Governor Candidates: Colorado Times Recorder: "Asked whether they would call on President Trump to deploy National Guard troops in the state, all expressed some level of concern with federal soldiers conducting domestic law enforcement. . . . All but one [Kirkmeyer] said they would pardon [Tina Peters], who was prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney and found guilty by a jury in a solidly red county."
Bigamy: 9News: "An agent for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has resigned after being cited for bigamy . . . a class 2 misdemeanor in Colorado, by the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office on July 20. He was placed on administrative leave as soon as CBI learned of the charge. . . . Bigamy is committed when a married person marries someone else, enters into a civil union or lives with another person." See also a CBI release. But wait a minute. Surely the statutes don't bar a married person "living with" someone else, as 9News says. They don't. Yes, 18-6-201 bars "cohabitation" with another, but 18-6-203 defines "cohabitation" as "to live together under the representation of being married." But this should not be generally illegal, as lying is not generally illegal, unless fraud is involved. By the way, the Colorado legislature only repealed the adultery law in 2013.
Denver Seizes Raíces Brewing: Denver Post, paraphrasing a Denver official: "The personal property taxes owed only amounted to $10,765, or about 10% of the business's total outstanding balance. Raíces owed nearly $69,000 in sales tax and about $30,000 for penalties and interest." The brewery accuses the city of "disruption of business operations" and "intimidation or pressure on employees." The brewery is right that the city's "personal property tax" in particular is idiotic and anti-business. Add all this to Denver's crazy-high wage controls and I don't know why anyone would try to start such a business within city limits. HT City Cast Denver. See also Denverite.
Unionized Denver Restaurant Closes: It was Secret Garden in Cheesman Park, via an October 10 City Cast Denver email.
Fort Collins Business: Denver7: "Fort Collins businesses struggle with tariffs, higher property taxes."
Preschool Discrimination: CPR: "Appeals court says religious preschools in Colorado's UPK program can’t discriminate." I think that's the right decision considering, but I also think it was a huge mistake for the state to give "private" preschools tax dollars in the first place.
Anti-Immigration Hurts Schools: CPR: "$100,000 visa fee could stifle Colorado schools' ability to hire international teachers—who were helping fill gaps." These are idiotically anti-American immigration policies.
DPS Enrollment Down: Enrollment has dropped by around 1,200 students, mostly immigrants, from 90,450 last year, reports the Denver Post. Some people will say, "Good, taxpayers shouldn't be funding that anyway." But immigrant parents also pay the taxes that support the public schools. And obviously enrolling the kids in school is highly integrative. (We couldn't possibly talk about moving to a free market in education.)
Youth Treatment: Disability Law Colorado via 9News: "Over the last three years, DLC staff have conducted eight monitoring visits to Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Center. . . . Among concerns we raised were the level of mental health services that the children there receive, staff treatment of children, high numbers of restraint and seclusion, education, and living conditions."
Juvenile Detention: Denver Post: "Colorado juvenile detention staff violated strip-search policy 1,000 times in 9 months, watchdog finds." Seems bad!
Persecution of Christians? Jeff Hunt points to one guy in Aurora screaming at a handful of Christian protesters, and he claims, "Colorado is home to many people like this. It's why Democrats have total control of the state. . . . Colorado is the most hostile state to Christians in America." That is all completely delusional. Democrats have total control of the state because voters here have become increasingly left-leaning; Democratic candidates have been serious, disciplined, and well-funded; and the Republican Party here has completely imploded (except for in the rural Republican strongholds). This notion that Colorado is "hostile" to Christians is nuts. Christians freely practice their faith here. The only time Christians were seriously persecuted in Colorado is when the Protestant KKK targeted Catholics. What Hunt seems to mean is that, because Christians do not have certain special privileges under government, they are somehow persecuted. Okay, there's the conversion therapy ban, now under judicial review. But, hey, the persecution narrative works great for the grifter class. Meanwhile, people such as Hunt want, on the basis of their religious faith, to use the power of government to crack down on women seeking abortions, LGTBQ people, etc.
ACLU Sues: Taylor Dolven: "The American Civil Liberties Union and two Colorado law firms sued federal immigration officials Thursday in an effort to stop what the legal groups call the agency's 'indiscriminate stops and arrests' across the state." There was a time when conservatives claimed to be against a "papers please" sort of society.
Drug Price Controls: Denver Post: "Colorado sets first-in-the-nation price ceiling on a prescription drug." This is not the way to control health costs!
Street Racing: It continues to be a major problem in Jefferson County and elsewhere. Government owns and controls the roads and has the responsibility to keep the roads safe.
Internet's Dark Corners: Parents shouldn't fall into paranoia or ignore the real potential benefits of computer devices and the internet, but they should pay attention to the real risks of kids finding the internet's darkest corners. I also worry that this sort of wall-to-wall media coverage about violence encourages more of it.
Teachers Strike: CPR: "Hundreds of teachers in Colorado Springs School District 11 staged a one-day strike on Wednesday, protesting their loss of a collective bargaining agreement." That'll really convince parents and taxpayers that public schools are a great deal.
Rent Algorithms: CPR: "Real estate giant Greystar and 25 other property management companies have agreed to collectively pay more than $141 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing landlords of driving up housing costs by using rent-setting algorithms offered by the software company RealPage." Insofar as this case involves allegedly "anticompetitive" practices, it is illegitimate. But it seems plausible that the companies sharing "nonpublic information with RealPage" was not authorized by the tenants; I'm not sure. Government has a legitimate interest in protecting people from non-authorized uses of their information.
Krause on Media: Mike Krause, my editor at Complete Colorado (which runs my column), discusses his site and Colorado news media, in an interview with Jon Caldara (who runs the Independence Institute, which publishes Complete).
Family Feud: Rep. Brittany Pettersen endorsed Michael Bennet for governor. But rumor has it Pettersen's husband, Ian Silverii, supports Paul Weiser. My take: Bennet might (or might not) sign fewer stupid bills, but Weiser would fight more effectively against Trump's overreach.
Bennet on Phones in Schools: Michael Bennet wants a statewide ban. But isn't this properly a district-level or even school-level decision? (Or, again, we could talk about markets.)
Troubling Signs: Westword: "Giant Swastika Spotted in Jefferson County." Sheesh.
Chance of a Lifetime: Maná, a major Latin music group asked a Denver street performer to open for them at Red Rocks.