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Colorado News Miner 140
English, power outages, Denver crime, trans care, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2026
Recent Columns in Complete Colorado:
• Obviously Colorado should opt-in to tax credits for scholarships
• How Coloradans celebrated Christmas before there was a Colorado
• The 'soft bigotry of low expectations' at MSU Denver
• Proposed initiative wrong way to address a horrible crime
Racist English: I wrote an article about Metro State's writing center's ridiculous advice for writing. Rob Natelson and Jimmy Sengenberger also addressed the matter.
Land for Natives? Rick Williams thinks it's a good idea. I'd be willing to consider transferring some government lands back to Native tribes. But how would the land be managed? Putting some recognized tribal leadership in charge inherently leaves out the interests of dissenters.
Power Outages: Plenty of people, including Jared Polis and Phil Weiser, are pissed about Xcel's power outages during the recent wind storm. But, as I've said repeatedly, we can have tort waivers or we can have blackouts. Xcel paid out $640 million for the Marshall Fire. Of course buried power lines also would dramatically reduce risks, but I don't know how costly that would be. (My area already has buried power lines; I'm not sure what portion of the state does.)
Denver Crime Down: Homicide is down. Auto thefts are down. I'll hold my breath waiting for Colorado conservatives to celebrate the news.
People Moving Out: Aldo Svaldi: Colorado "now ranks fifth in the country for its share of outbound moves. . . . [H]ousing costs have greatly outstripped incomes."
Transgender Care: John Ingold: "Children’s Hospital Colorado has suspended gender-affirming care for transgender youth amid a new federal investigation." See also S. Baum. Update from Meg Wingerter: "Judge moves to throw out DOJ subpoena for transgender patients' records at Children’s Hospital Colorado."
Therapy Shortage: Seth Klamann: "More than 160 of them [people in prison for sexual assault] are past their parole dates but remain incarcerated because of a yearslong shortage of therapists." If government is going to commit itself to this system, and make punishment contingent on it, it needs to operate it competently.
Funding Cuts as Punishment: Jesse Paul: "Amid Tina Peters fight, Trump is withholding funding from parts of Colorado that overwhelmingly voted for him." CPR: "An OMB official confirmed that the Administration has frozen funding as of Monday for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Social Services Block Grant program to Colorado and four other Democratic-led states."
Sex-Assault Lawsuit: Allison Sherry: "Hinge and Tinder ignored Denver women's complaints about serial rapist, lawsuit alleges."
Tax-Funded Recycling: Colorado is rolling out a robust recycling program funded by industry taxes. I'm skeptical that recycling is on net better for the environment (as opposed to landfilling the waste), except for aluminum. This feels more like government-forced virtue-signaling than any actual redress of an externalities problem.
Methane: At least methane controls for landfills have some plausible benefit, although I worry the cost of that program exceeds its benefits. A better approach would just be to impose a tax or fee on methane emissions. Regulations on methane leaks from oil and gas production seem to have a big effect.
Nationalizing Energy Policy: Meanwhile, Gabe Evans wants more national control of regional energy policy. This seems like an effort to use the federal government to interfere with Colorado's energy policies. One can dislike the Colorado policies and also the federal interference.
Politicized Libraries: Mesa County edition. (It's so weird how putting politicians in charge of libraries makes them political.)
Health Lab Woes: CPR: The state lab that's supposed to test water and food in the state has been beset by extraordinary problems, including outright "manipulated test results."
Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce: Denverite: The organization has suffered extraordinary staff turnover. Some allege the harsh management style of J. J. Ament is at fault.
Cost of Tariffs: Colorado Sun: Tariffs cost one Colorado interior design company some $42 million.
Cost of Regs: Deborah Grigsby: Regional regulatory burdens harm small businesses.
Zebra Mussels: KUNC: Farmers are worried they'll damage water infrastructure.