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Colorado News Miner 141
Guns, trafficking, legislature, harassment, GOP, schools, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2026
Kimbal Musk: Denver Post: "Kimbal Musk dated woman who was likely sexually abused, trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein."
Privatize RTD: Denver Post: "RTD ridership is down 40%, its budget has holes, and lawmakers are fed up."
Red Flag Expansion: Dave Kopel: The proposal has many problems. In related news, We the Second raises important concerns about the 3D gun-printing bill, which outlaws even the keeping of "wrong" computer files.
Shrinking Workforce: See the Post.
Human Trafficking: However you slice the numbers human trafficking remains a serious problem in Colorado. However, we can't necessarily take the statistics compiled by the Common Sense Institute as perfectly reflective of the underlying reality. Reported trafficking cases depend not only on the underlying level of criminal activity but also on how aggressively law enforcement investigates and prosecutes such crimes. There could be (and likely are) regional differences in how well law enforcement investigates cases. Let's take two hypothetical states of comparable populations, State A and State B. State A has 500 actual cases of trafficking in a given year, while State B has 400. But enforcement in State A catches 250 perpetrators of trafficking, while enforcement in State B catches 300. Obviously you can't just look at the raw reported numbers and conclude that State B has a worse trafficking problem. In this case, State A has the worse problem but also does a worse job addressing it, so the reality of the problem is not reflected in the crime stats. So the CSI numbers are good places to start, but they may not tell us very much about the severity if the underlying problem in Colorado versus other states. A Congressional report from last year discusses some of the severe limitations of the data.
Genrich Case: It sounds to me as though the case against James Genrich, involving pipe-bomb murders, rested on pretty thin circumstantial evidence, aside from overstated toolmark analysis. See CPR.
No Forced Sterilization: Fox21: Bill 1040 cleans up language about forced sterilization, requiring informed consent except in highly prescribed circumstances (with amendment). Offhand this seems good; obviously in the past women have been sterilized against their will, which is horrific.
Pig Farm Harassment: Allison Sherry: "An Eastern Plains pig farm has agreed to pay $334,500 after multiple female employees reported routine sexual comments, propositions for sex and were intruded on while showering, frequently touched and grabbed without permission."
Erie Cop Fired: Savana Kascak: "An Erie police officer is out of a job after posting an anti-ICE comment condoning violence on social media."
Data Center Regs: Sarah Montalbano worries HB26-1030 would push data center projects out of Colorado. The bill "creates a new bureaucracy, imposes burdensome labor and workforce requirements, and requires data centers to use 100% clean energy."
Price Controls for Captives: Of course the very terminology of a "captive consumer" is total bullshit; no one is holding anyone by force or forcing anyone to buy anything. Savana Kascak reports on the stupid new legislative effort to impose yet more price controls.
Pesticide Regs: The legislature is considering limits on "seeds coated with neonicotinoids" (per the Sun). ChatGPT offered a pretty good first pass CBA analysis. There does seem to be a real problem of marginal personal gains to the farmer and substantial external harms in terms of harming wildlife. I don't know if that justifies the regulatory regime in question though. One problem is that a "prescription" system is prone to bias and favoritism. Another problem, as Chat notes, is that in some cases farmers may substitute more-harmful pesticide applications. But I'm hardly an expert in these matters (as the legislators who will be voting on the bill are mostly not experts).
Alcohol Taxes: KUNC: "Democratic lawmakers are reviving a proposal to raise money for addiction prevention, treatment and recovery programs by imposing new fees on alcoholic beverages." Here's another case of calling a tax a "fee" to evade TABOR restrictions. This is a bad idea because only a minority of alcohol consumers have substance-abuse issues. The bill punishes responsible drinkers to fund the problems of a few.
Conspiracy GOP: In normal times Barbara Kirkmeyer would be a strong candidate for governor. The problem is her Republican Party is a shitstorm of conspiracy mongering and bigotry. Suzie Glassman: "A sitting state legislator [Scott Bottoms] predict[ed] sedition indictments against the secretary of state and attorney general, and a podcaster [Joe Oltmann] claim[ed] Elon Musk [should send] a 'strike team' to stop Serbia from stuffing American ballot boxes."
More Bottoms: Sean Beedle: Bottoms recently told people at a campaign stop, "Pedophilia runs through our House, our Senate, and our governor's office." Kirkmeyer called him out on his bullshit: "Either he's made this story up or he's been sitting on his hands for three years while the little kids are being trafficked and raped, apparently."
Holtorf Out: In other party news, Richard Holtorf resigned as vice-chair of the state GOP, complaining he found it "impossible to work with" chair Brita Horn.
Lundbert's Bigotry: Kevin Lundberg, former legislature and conservative leader, referred in his newsletter to "the transgender plague."
Financial Non-Disclosure: According to Logan Davis, 27% of legislators are "failing to file their annual personal financial disclosures (PFDs) as mandated by the law."
Jaquez Lewis: Sun: Senator "Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Boulder County Democrat, was convicted by a Denver jury of attempting to influence a public servant and forgery."
Catholic Leadership Shifts Left: I say good. Maybe this will result in less culture-war conservatism.
Vacancy Tax: Joshua Sharf did not like HB26-1036 to increase taxes on high-vacancy properties. I agree this was not the way. The bill went down February 9. I also don't like the idea of government building rental housing for teachers. We need a free housing market, not more central planning. In related news, Denver vacancies are up but people still need more housing.
YIMBY Denver: Activists want to upzone, making it easier for people to build denser housing on their properties.
Cherry Creek Schools: Denver Post: "The president of Cherry Creek Schools' Board of Education acknowledged Monday that the district's freeze on employee travel and contracts is related to the 'decisions and actions' of former Superintendent Christopher and his wife, Brenda Smith, the district's chief human resources officer." Huh. See also the Post. But wait, there's more.
Public Christian School Building Closes: Ann Schimke: "It's unclear if the closure of Riverstone's building . . . will spell the end of the school or if its leaders will seek to move it elsewhere or switch to an online format."
Peña on Denver Schools: He wants to merge "our school system with city government." That sounds like an absolutely terrible idea, and at any rate one that will not happen. He's right that Denver schools generally do poorly.
Colorado Bill of Rights: Natelson offers a nice historical review.
Trump Vs. Colorado: NPR: "Colorado's Democratic leaders say President Trump is on a political retribution campaign against their state and the fallout will be rural communities on everything from water to planning for disasters." There's been some judicial pushback on some of Trump's cuts.
Crank: Dems think they have a shot at the Fifth Congressional.
Ag Overtime: Rachel Gabel on 2021 legislation: Because agriculture is seasonal, "a small window of time . . . requires more hours and more labor than the majority of the year." Evidence suggests ag overtime laws reduce the incomes of the people they're supposed to "help."