Free Republic

Speaking at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on July 3rd, Colorado Education Association (CEA) President Kerrie Dallman referred to the school district of Jefferson County (JeffCo) – where teachers have staged a “sick-out” and students left classes to protest throughout last week – as one of three in her state in which the teachers’ union was “working against hostile school boards.” “I also want to say thank you to the staff and leaders from the 18 states around the country who were sending in 48 staff under the NEA shared staffing...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – A verdict is reached in the trial of a western Colorado radio host accused of causing more than $1,000 of destruction to a Bureau of Land Management trail. David Justice, also known as Stanley Hugh Anderson, was found guilty on Thursday following a three-day jury trial in Grand Junction. Jeff Dorschner of the U.S. Department of Justice in Denver said David Justice and others tore down barricades on Cushman Creek Trail in Montrose County in July of 2013. The vandalism was in protest of the BLM's decision to limit access to the trail to two-wheel vehicles,...

There’s a big battle brewing in the Jefferson County, Colorado, school system. The manufactured controversy over a proposed curriculum review is generating national New York Times headlines. But the fight is not about what misguided students and biased reporters say it’s about. “Censorship” is a red herring. The real issue is union control. Here’s the deal: Public school teachers in this Denver-area district walked out of their classrooms this week to protest the implementation of performance-based pay. The JeffCo school board approved the new compensation system last week, which rewards the most highly effective teachers with 4.2 percent raises, effective...

Not long ago, it would have been unusual for a Democratic senatorial candidate in Iowa to run a powerful abortion-rights television ad like the one recently broadcast by Representative Bruce Braley. The ad lists in detail the anti-abortion positions taken by Mr. Braley’s Republican opponent, Joni Ernst. In the State Senate, the ad says, she sponsored a “personhood” amendment (declaring a fertilized egg to be a person) that would have the effect of outlawing abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and would also ban many common forms of birth control. Ms. Ernst is even shown saying at a...

Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall is offended by a new campaign ad aired by his opponent, Republican Rep. Cory Gardner, in which Gardner calls him a “very nice guy.” Of course, Gardner goes on to say that despite his likeability, Udall “will never change the Senate” because of the deep roots his family has there. “He is the Senate,” Gardner says. Two of Udall’s cousins are senators (Tom Udall from New Mexico and Mike Lee from Utah) and that Udall’s father, Morris “Mo” Udall, who was a respected longtime congressman, once ran for president. Udall wasted no time calling the...

A marijuana giveaway for veterans attracted about 1,000 people to a Colorado hotel. The “Grow 4 Vets” giveaway in Colorado Springs aimed to bring cannabis-based treatments to veterans with service-related conditions as an alternative to pain medications. […] Not all who received the bags were veterans. A $20 donation from non-veterans was encouraged. …

Scientists say it’s almost certain that massive injections of waste water caused recent quakes in the Raton Basin, including a 5.3 tremor in 2011 FRISCO — A surge in earthquakes in southern Colorado and New Mexico has almost certainly been caused by the injection of fracking wastewater deep into the ground, U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported last week. The study details several lines of evidence directly linking the injection wells to the seismicity. The timing and location of the quakes is clearly linked with the the documented pattern of injected wastewater. Detailed investigations of two seismic sequences (2001 and 2011)...

When a Democratic mayor and former brewpub owner named John W. Hickenlooper was elected governor four years ago, he did it with support from voters like Mark Turner. Mr. Turner is a gun dealer... “Just call me an American,” he says. He liked Mr. Hickenlooper’s wonky centrism and positive campaigning style. But now, as Mr. Hickenlooper slogs through an increasingly tough re-election battle, he is spending lots of time answering criticism from voters like Mr. Turner that he has steered a swing state too far to the left. Mr. Turner especially detested a state law passed over unanimous Republican opposition...

The New Hampshire Republican Party amended its platform this weekend with stricter abortion provisions, including support for "personhood," which defines life as beginning at conception.Personhood has become a hot-button issue in Senate races across the country this year, such as Colorado, where Democrats have successfully attacked Rep. Cory Gardner for having supported such a measure in the past.Now, the issue could spread to New Hampshire, following the state party's decision at its convention.The platform now states: "Support the pre-born child's fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment, and implement all Constitutional and legal protections."It added: "Support a...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Legal marijuana is luring pot tourists and business entrepreneurs to Colorado, and it’s also attracting another demographic: the homeless, some of whom trek to the state in hopes of landing a job in the industry. “There’s an enormous migration, even a homeless movement, so to speak,” David Spencer, a homeless man from Tennessee, said. “I figured this would be a good place to start over.” While shelters across the metro area are willing to open their doors, they’re quickly running out of room. “We were averaging 190 (homeless) last year. We’re now averaging 345 a night,” Murray Flagg of the...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Health officials are investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis in Colorado children and whether the culprit might be a virus causing severe respiratory illness across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday sent doctors an alert about the polio-like cases and said the germ - enterovirus 68 - was detected in four out of eight of the sick children who had a certain medical test. The status of the ninth case is unclear. The virus can cause paralysis but other germs can, too. Health officials don't know whether the virus...

Colorado Democrats are fretting that Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-Colo.) “War on Women” battle cry against Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) is starting to sound like a broken record. After a series of polls this past month have shown the race statistically tied or even with Gardner up, some Democrats are urging Udall to find a new refrain against Gardner lest Republicans claim the seat in November. ADVERTISEMENT “Gardner gave him a lot to work with on that subject, but a lot people think he may have overdone it,” said one well-connected Democratic operative in the state. Starting essentially from Gardner’s entry...

The battle for Senate control has been close all year, but also remarkably consistent. Way back in March, we described Republicans as slight favorites to pick up the chamber. And since FiveThirtyEight officially launched its forecast model this month, Republicans have had between a 53 and a 65 percent chance of winning the Senate. Our most recent update, as of Thursday evening, is close to the middle of that range, putting Republicans’ takeover chances at about 58 percent. There’s no guarantee things will remain this way. At just about this time two years ago, Democrats broke open what had been...

There's a big battle brewing in the Jefferson County, Colorado, school system. The manufactured controversy over a proposed curriculum review is generating national headlines. But the fight is not about what misguided students and biased reporters say it's about. "Censorship" is a red herring. The real issue is union control. Here's the deal: Public school teachers in this Denver-area district walked out of their classrooms this week to protest the implementation of performance-based pay. The JeffCo school board approved the new compensation system last week, which rewards the most highly effective teachers with 4.2 percent raises, effective teachers with 2.4...

DENVER — Republican Senate candidate Cory Gardner leads incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall by a 47-45 percent margin in a survey released Thursday by Public Policy Polling, a firm that generally tends to favor left-leaning candidates. Eight percent of respondents remain undecided with 40 days remaining until Election Day and just a couple of weeks until ballots are mailed out. Interestingly, PPP asked respondents a number of issue-related questions.

Apparently the only jobs college accreditation reviewers are interested in are their own, not those of recent college graduates. “Accreditation has become a roadblock to reform,” Hank Brown, the former president of the University of Colorado, said at the Heritage Foundation yesterday, “a system that leads to majors that go nowhere.” I asked him whether college accreditation boards even considered the post-graduation employment of graduates as an afterthought in their reviews. “I’ve seen very few accreditation ratings that focus on that,” he said. “I think that would be of great value.” Brown is also the former president of the University...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - A 20-year-old Mesa County woman is being held on $100,000 cash bond while she is at the center of an investigation involving the death of a small child who was in her care. The Grand Junction Police Department says Angel Place, who was 11 months old, died at the hands of her foster parent, Sydney White, on September 17.

Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday. They staged the civil disobedience in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority.

At the Main Event Bar and Grill in Yuma, Colorado, on Tuesday morning, locals took their usual tables to eat breakfast and talk, as country music played over the speakers. The crowd was a mix of farmers, ranchers and retirees, many of whom have spent their whole lives in the tiny town (population 3,500) on the plains in the eastern part of the state. "Either just let them wipe themselves out or drop a bomb on them and have it all over with," says a man in a Marine Corps hat upon entering the restaurant. "Just nuke 'em. Get it...

D.C. journalists called the latest Quinnipiac University poll results in Colorado's tight gubernatorial race a "shocker." But it's a surprise only if you've been hopelessly trapped in a Beltway echo chamber. Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper is down 10 points against former GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez among all likely voters. The Q poll also shows him behind Beauprez by 13 points among independents. A survey conducted last week by Suffolk University for USA Today shows the beleaguered incumbent in a statistical dead heat with Beauprez. Any way you slice it, Hickenlooper has lost the trust and confidence of voters of all...