Free Republic

Megyn Kelly tonight brought viewers the first part of her contentious showdown with Professor Ward Churchill, best known for his controversial comments about the “little Eichmanns” who were in the World Trade Center when the planes hit on September 11th. ... Churchill stood by the Eichmann comment, saying, “You do not have to be the one who turned on the gas if you’re making it possible for the gas to be there.”

<p>Sen. Mark Udall on Monday apologized for saying that two reporters beheaded by militants in the Middle East would agree that the United States should not "be impulsive" in responding to their deaths.</p> <p>Udall, a Democrat, made the comments in an untelevised debate with challenger Rep. Cory Gardner on Saturday night in the western Colorado town of Grand Junction. Udall has been criticized by Republicans for saying the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which currently controls much of Iraq's heartland, is not an imminent threat to the United States. At the debate, he argued that the two American journalists whose beheadings it filmed and released would agree with him.</p>

The Colorado Senate race remains a nail-biter going into the first debate between the two major candidates.

The president has in recent days taken fire from members of his own party for taking a low-key approach to tackling the problem presented by the Islamic State, particularly as the images of two American journalists kidnapped and beheaded in Syria have flashed across television screens. Even Minnesota senator Al Franken, who since his election in 2008 has gone to great lengths to avoid the media, made headlines when he said he was “troubled” by some of Obama’s statements. Though the president has become a political liability for Democrats this election season, he hasn’t lost all of his allies in...

Secret EPA water maps obtained by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology graphically show the increase reach of the EPA’s regulatory authority over Colorado’s waters under proposed rules supported by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Boulder). The maps were drawn up in October 2013, but were only turned over to the Committee today. There is some dispute as to whether the maps relate to the Agency’s proposed Waters of the US Rules, which would bring intermittent and ephemeral waters under the agency’s control. The maps clearly delineate those waters, and were produced at the insistence of the Committee

Colorado has so far spent $8 million in taxpayer money on nearly 240 compressed natural gas vehicles, with dozens of them stationed in places where there is no compressed natural gas filling stations, Watchdog.org has learned. And the state expects to buy more CNG vehicles, costing $7,000 to $11,000 more than comparable gasoline-fueled vehicles, in the 2015 fiscal year. Many of them are destined for state facilities that also have no current CNG filling station nearby, state records show. Because of the lack of fueling stations, state workers apparently continue to run many of the vehicles on more expensive gasoline,...

In addition to the fueling problem, workers for Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources and Colorado Parks and Wildlife may have difficulties doing their jobs because of Compressed Natural Gas fuel tanks on trucks, ... When state fleet was pushing CPW to buy the vehicles, there were concerns for the employees out in the field. “That is additional cost to the agency and inefficiency,” CPW fleet manager Michelle Arnold wrote in January 2013. “The decreased hauling capacity because of CNG fueling tanks in the back of the bed of the pickups is going to severely limit if not totally preclude the...

High hopes for tax money isn’t as expected as the state’s legal marijuana industry isn’t bringing in as much money as anticipated. In fact, tax revenue is way below expectations. When voters approved recreational marijuana sales the state predicted it would pull in more than $33 million in new taxes in the first six months. The actual revenue came up more than $21 million short. The problem is that buying pot is less expensive on the streets where people don’t have to pay taxes or fees. Medical marijuana is also less expensive than recreational pot, so those with medical cards...

Colorado Ad: "Coward"

There is a new chart-topper in Roll Call’s latest monthly ranking of the 10 most vulnerable senators. Montana’s appointed Sen. John Walsh was by far the most endangered incumbent in the chamber at the time of the previous installment in early August, but his decision last month to not seek a full term opened the top slot to a couple other worthy contenders. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., is still in a perilous political position, but Louisiana Sen. Mary L. Landrieu has leapfrogged him on the list to become the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent. The Democrat is pushing hard to eclipse...

Americans for Prosperity has reserved nearly $850,000 in airtime for TV ads that will begin Monday. A source tracking media buys told POLITICO that about $500,000 in time has been reserved in Denver and $340,000 has been reserved in Colorado Springs. The money is spread over three weeks. Continue Reading The Koch brothers-backed group is making the buy in the wake of Republican Rep. Cory Gardner’s decision to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Udall. This is the first outside group to make a major play in the Rocky Mountain State. ... more

--snip-- Some eager, inexperienced consumers have overindulged on the pot-infused food and then shown up in emergency rooms sweating and paranoid. Edibles were linked to the death of a Wyoming college student in Denver. "There's been anecdotal evidence that some of the new consumers in the legalized market were not very well informed in terms of how to safely take that product," said Lewis Koski, Colorado's marijuana enforcement director.

Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall’s (Colo.) wife called for a carbon tax while appearing in a new anti-oil video produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. “People are ready for conversation,” says Maggie Fox, Udall’s wife and former president of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, in the Green World Rising video, entitled, “Carbon.” “They’re ready to understand that carbon pollution is causing this challenge and that there is a simple solution: put a price on carbon pollution,” she says. DiCaprio is releasing a series of environmentalist videos on climate change, the first focusing on gathering support for a cap and trade system. A...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Police filled a downtown Grand Junction neighborhood Monday afternoon after an officer-involved shooting occurred. "A ton of sirens came flying down our streets, about multiple police were down each street," eyewitness Ben Arellano said. Arellano witnessed the whole incident from his house saying he heard allegedly 12 gunshots near 17th and Grand Avenue. "Almost all of Grand Junction police, I felt like, was here at this house, guns drawn. Sadly, someone was on the ground," Arellano said. According to the Grand Junction Police Department, authorities were called to remove a person outside a home. They contacted...

Audio obtained by Complete Colorado has raised significant new issues regarding Governor John Hickenlooper’s stance on the death penalty. In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper suggested that if he does not win reelection, he could use his executive powers to overhaul Colorado’s death row with clemency. In particular, the Governor suggested these remedies were conditional – if his opponent turned the death penalty, or the Dunlap case in particular, into a “political football.” In the audio, the unidentified CNN interviewer asks, “But it (the death penalty) is an issue. And, you know, some of...

More than 2,000 more Coloradans had their health insurance plans cancelled as a result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a letter from the state regulatory agency to state Senate Republicans.Following a dust-up earlier this year between Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall and the Division of Insurance, Republicans have requested regular updates on policies that are cancelled because they don’t conform to Obamacare or because companies are getting out of the individual insurance market.Udall disputed the original number of nearly a quarter million cancellations in the immediate wake of Obamacare’s rollout in late 2013, arguing that almost all of...

Nascent cannabis industry splits between wealthy with clean criminal records and those who turn to less than legal methods

More than a half-million acres of land across nine Western states is being proposed for designation as critical habitat for the yellow-billed cuckoo. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 546,335 acres of critical habitat is up for listing in 80 separate units in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. The bird is a neotropical migrant that winters in South America and nests along rivers and streams in western North America. ... The Service is seeking information concerning the western yellow-billed cuckoo’s biology and habitat, threats to the species and current efforts to protect...

CORTEZ, Colo. — The Colorado mountain town of Montezuma is suing its 61 registered voters in an effort to sort out the results of an April election that the lawsuit says was filled with errors. -snip- Twelve people ran for mayor and Lesley Davis won by three votes. There are claims that second-home owners participated, and Davis says 13 voters and at least two candidates were not residents of the town. She says the lawsuit is the only option to determine how to move forward.

Two ads this week take aim at Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) for his support of Obamacare and a third, a Spanish-language ad, highlights his vote against the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Americans for Prosperity's newest ad, released Wednesday in a $500,000 broadcast buy airing for the next two weeks, accuses Udall of "covering up for ObamaCare." "The Affordable Care Act has become unaffordable. Our healthcare costs are still going up and 335,000 Coloradans received a cancellation notice," the 30-second ad notes. The group released a similar ad in April. That's on the heels of a 30-second ad released Monday by...