Free Republic

President Obama and Mitt Romney are running neck-and-neck in three key battlegrounds -- Colorado, Iowa and Nevada -- according to a new slate of NBC News/Marist polls of registered voters. A majority of voters in each state feel optimistic about the state of the economy, and say the worst of the storm is in the rearview mirror...

Not too long ago pundits were arguing that Mitt Romney’s path to 270 electoral votes was “narrow.” We didn’t buy it. Lo and behold, conventional wisdom has now changed. The Associated Press writes: “Warning signs for Obama on tight path to 270.” The AP explains: Obama’s new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he’s to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November. Iowa, which kicked off the campaign in January, is now expected to be tight to the...

UP FOR GRABS (85): Colorado (9) — Long a reliable GOP state, but Colorado's conservative profile is changing. Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing. Female voters in Denver's suburbs could play a big role. Florida (29) — Florida is the prime target for both campaigns. Obama won in 2008, but the housing crisis, high unemployment and gas prices are dogging him. Romney won the primary in January and has picked up the endorsement of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Obama's organization has a large advantage. Iowa (6)...

Zoey Ripple (the drunk home invader) Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion (the owners of the home) The Boulder County District Attorney's Office announced Friday it will file felony trespassing charges against the 21-year-old University of Colorado graduate who was shot after police say she drunkenly wandered into a couple's Boulder home early Wednesday.Yet defense attorney Colette Cribari said the incident was "out of character" for Ripple, who graduated from CU two weeks ago. "She didn't enter the house with any intent of committing a crime or harming anyone," Cribari said Friday. "We're thankful she was not killed or more...

What do you think of Pizza Patron’s free pizza promotion? It’s great. I’ll speak Spanish to get a free pizza. It’s inappropriate. This is the U.S. Speak English.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - At a fundraiser for his re-election campaign in Denver tonight, President Obama set out to upend conventional Republican wisdom that his administration has been defined by excessive government spending. "I'm running to pay down our debt in a way that's balanced and responsible. After inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion of spending cuts into law," he told a crowd of donors at the Hyatt Regency. "My opponent won't admit it, but it's starting to appear in places, like real liberal outlets, like the Wall Street Journal: Since I've been president, federal spending has...

Russia and the United States will begin their controversial first joint anti-terror military exercises on American soil shortly at Ft. Carson in Colorado. A special unit of Russian paratroopers departed for the United States over the weekend and will be working alongside American land forces as part of the war games. The Russian and U.S. special units will engage in joint gun practice as well as mountain training, parachute exercises, and demolition techniques training. About 20 Russian soldiers will be participating, with most of the sessions taking place on the Ft. Carson Army base and at a mountain training area...

Pandering to Hispanics will be a serious mistake for the presumptive Republican nominee. A new Public Policy Poll (PPP) – a self acknowledged Democrat surveying firm – of a large number of Hispanic Florida Colorado and New Mexico respondents, spoken to in both English and Spanish, provides a clear warning for “What’s His Name” not to pick a Vice Presidential candidate merely based on ethnicity. The poll results make it very clear that Hispanics should be appealed to on the same grounds as everyone else who realizes we are in danger of losing our country. It found the economy is...

<p>DENVER, Colorado (KUSA) - Police are investigating a vicious beating at a McDonald's drive-thru in Denver.</p> <p>Shannon, who asked us not to use her last name, was the victim of an attack on May 9 just before noon.</p> <p>She called our sister station KUSA 9News, and asked for help finding her attackers.</p>

DENVER -- A US Postal Service letter carrier was attacked by two dogs in a Denver neighborhood Monday afternoon. Denver police said the postal worker was delivering mail at West 34th Avenue and Utica Street when she was bit. The female employee suffered extensive injuries and was transported to the hospital to be treated, said David Rupert, a spokesman for the US Postal Service. A neighbor saw what was happening and came to the letter carrier's rescue, but was injured as well, Rupert said. The two dogs were eventually corralled and taken away. The dogs were described as a Malumute...

Republican strategist Karl Rove said Friday he believes North Carolina and Indiana are “gone” for President Barack Obama in November and that Wisconsin has become a “battleground” state. “I think North Carolina is gone just like Indiana is gone. Obama has no chance to win them,” Rove told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. “I think Ohio and Florida are leaning today towards Romney. I think places like Iowa and Colorado are in danger of floating into the Republican column. And states like Nevada and Pennsylvania are moving from lean Democrat into toss-up category. And on June 5th, mark my words,...

Back in October, a lesbian couple in Colorado called the police after they allegedly found the words “Kill the Gay” scrawled in red across their garage, and a noose hanging from their front door. When asked, the couple told officers they believed that the hateful acts were retaliation from their neighbors and the homeowner’s association, who were allegedly upset that the couple did not pick up after their dogs. ~snip~ Perhaps the women didn’t anticipate how seriously the issue would be treated, because nearly eight months later, with the full force of the FBI involved, authorities are saying the women...

Aviation authorities are scratching their heads over a mysterious flying object in the skies above Colorado that almost caused a mid-air crash. The object was sighted by a commercial jet pilot, who claimed to air traffic controllers that some kind of flying craft got too close for comfort on Monday. In a transmission that appeared on LiveATC.net, the operator of the Cessna Citation 525 CJ1 says: 'A remote controlled aircraft, or what? ... 9News reported the Citation was about 8,000 feet above sea level, or about 2,800 feet above the ground, at the time the pilot reported the seeing the...

The U.S. oil boom has created a glut of crude in Cushing, Okla., a major oil storage hub. This sign dubs the city the "Pipeline Crossroads of the World." For years, Cushing, Okla., has been on the receiving end of a 500-mile pipeline funneling oil from the Gulf of Mexico to the American heartland.Starting this weekend, that pipeline will start moving crude in the other direction. That flow reversal could soon have implications at gas pumps around the country."For 40 years, crude oil flowed north," says Philip Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Today, oil...

A lesbian couple who claimed they were victims of a hate crime have been arrested after police determined they staged the incidents. On Oct. 28, Aimee Whitchurch, 37, and Christel Conklin, 29, called police and reported the words “Kill the Gay” were scrawled in red spray paint on the garage door of their Parker, Colo., home. The next day, the couple told deputies they found a noose hanging on the handle of their front door. The women told officers they believed the incidents were retaliation from their neighbors and homeowner’s association, who had complained the couple did not pick up...

The Obama administration has launched a new battle over water rights that threatens not only the the economies of arid Western states, which largely voted against him in the 2008 election, but their very existence. WND reported last month that the federal government was creating obstacles for Tombstone, Ariz., to restore its water supplies following last year’s forest fire and monsoon-triggered floods in the nearby mountains. The federal government said crews could not use machinery to rebuild pipelines and spring-water collection systems. Now, a letter contradicting longstanding federal practice asserts a claim to water in arid Western states, such as...

A Democratic congressman is trying to give the federal government the power to regulate pizza in public school lunches, following a failed attempt last year. The legislation proposed by Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., would end pizza being counted as a vegetable in school lunches and allow the government to set nutritional standards.

DENVER — A bill that would have allowed civil unions for same-sex couples in Colorado was defeated on Monday night during a special legislative session called by Gov. John W. Hickenlooper to debate the issue. The legislation was voted down by Republican lawmakers on a 5-to-4 vote along party lines after more than two hours of emotional testimony in the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, where it was assigned Monday by Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. “We saw this bill die even though a majority of members of the Senate and a majority of members of the...

Video at link Rock Springs, Wyo. (BLM Photo) (CNSNews.com) - The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday. The GAO testimony stressed that the federal government was in “a unique position to influence the development of oil shale” because the Green River deposits were mostly beneath federal land. It also noted that developing the oil would pose “socioeconomic challenges,”...

How do you start rebuilding a life after 16 lost years? For starters, in the case of 51-year-old Robert Dwain Dewey, you eat well. “He said he wanted a filet mignon steak, first thing,” Donna Weston, 71, Dewey’s mother, said after a press conference Monday morning at the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department. That cut-of-awesomeness meal will have to be restaurant variety, she said. Donna and her husband, Jim, packed up their RV Friday morning in Ridgecrest, Calif., for a 760-mile ride to Grand Junction, which was three days after getting the phone call of a lifetime. The one they’d prayed...

Airborne troops from Russia and the Untied States would hold joint anti-terror drills in the U.S. state of Colorado between May 24 and 31, spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Col. Alexander Kucherenko said on Thursday. According to the spokesman, it will be the first time that the Russian airborne forces have held exercises with the U.S. airborne forces on the U.S. territory. "According to the exercise scenario, soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including the reconnaissance of imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid," Kucherenko said. "After the operation, a helicopter will evacuate the soldiers,"...

According to reports, the U.S. and Russian military will be engaging in an anti-terrorism exercise that will involve Russian paratroopers using U.S. weapons to “take and hold” the main facilities of the CIA and Denver International Airport in Colorado and the National Security Agency in Utah. (Related: Learn about the hypothetical ‘war games’ the U.S. and China have been playing) The European Union Times has more on the report announcing this exercise from the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation: Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Alexander Kucherenko publically announced this 24-21 May “anti-terror drill” this Friday past noting that this...

DENVER — It may take explosives to dislodge a group of cows that wandered into an old ranger cabin high in the Rocky Mountains, then died and froze solid when they couldn't get out. The carcasses were discovered by two Air Force Academy cadets when they snow-shoed up to the cabin in late March. Rangers believe the animals sought shelter during a snowstorm and got stuck and weren't smart enough to find their way out. The cabin is located near the Conundrum Hot Springs, a nine-mile hike from the Aspen area in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness area. Michael Carroll, a...

The Ron Paul campaign has consistently maintained that it has won far more delegates than is generally reported by the media. The Associated Press projects Romney’s delegate count to be well over 600, more than ten times their projections for Ron Paul. However, Colorado has provided some evidence that the Paul campaign’s demise has been greatly exaggerated. Colorado completed its state convention yesterday. Under the headline, “Romney lost Colo. caucuses, gets most delegates,” Real Clear Politics reported the results this way. “GOP has chosen 13 Romney delegates and six Santorum delegates. The remaining 17 delegates are unpledged, meaning they are...

Democrats in House of Reps. joined J Street in supporting Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions Seventy-four Democrats in the House of Representatives have joined the dovish J Street organization in supporting the Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions to the Palestinian Authority. “In our view, support for a two-state resolution is inseparable from such support for Israel, its special relationship with the United States, and its very survival as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people,” the letter said. Seven Jewish members signed the letter, including Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John...

Full Title: ‘He Enjoyed Booze, Guns, Cars, and Younger Women Until the Day He Died’: Unrepentant Obituary Deemed ‘Best Ever’ ------------------------------------------------------- Michael “Flathead” Blanchard’s obituary, published in the Denver Post on April 12, bears little resemblance to the standard “in memoriam.” Penned by Blanchard before his death, the obituary notes, among other things, that Blanchard was “weary of reading obituaries noting someone’s courageous battle with death.” Rather, he wanted it known that he “died as a result of being stubborn, refusing to follow doctor’s orders and raising hell for more than six decades.” “He enjoyed booze, guns, cars, and younger...

Blanchard, Michael "Flathead" 1944 ~ 2012 A Celebration of the life of Michael "Flathead" Blanchard will be held on April 14th, 3 pm 8160 Rosemary St, Commerce City. Weary of reading obituaries noting someone's courageous battle with death, Mike wanted it known that he died as a result of being stubborn, refusing to follow doctors' orders and raising hell for more than six decades. He enjoyed booze, guns, cars and younger women until the day he died. Mike was born July 1944 in Colorado to Clyde and Ethel Blanchard. A community activist, he is noted for saving the Dr. Justina...

Members of Occupy Boulder are planning a protest over the University of Colorado's efforts to shut down the annual 4/20 celebration. At a general assembly Saturday on Pearl Street, members of the group said the measures being taken by CU -- including shutting down the campus to visitors and closing Norlin Quad -- were turning the university into a "police state." "We need to address the police lockdown at CU, which is a response to a peaceful protest that has gone on for 20 years," said Daniel Schwartz. "These are draconian measures that are suppressing our First Amendment rights." CU...

DENVER, COLORADO –Republican Party of Colorado Chairman Ryan Call announces delegates and alternate delegates for the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL: “I am pleased to announce Colorado’s delegates and alternate delegates for the Republican National Convention this August. Colorado Republicans are grateful for the dedication and enthusiasm to Colorado and the Party, and for their tireless efforts to make Barack Obama a one-term president,” said Colorado GOP Chairman Ryan Call.

SNIPPET: "Discussion: I first observed discussion of binary explosives on the al-Firdaws forum in January of 2007. In light of recent events I will post here my archive:" SNIPPET: "Implementation: On Christmas Day, 2009, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab boards a flight in Amsterdam, bound for Detroit, and on final descent he attempts to set off what was most likely a binary explosive. Thank goodness he either screwed up or had bad instructions, because the chemicals he was working with were evidently quite good."

JEFFERSON COUNTY — Families driven from their homes by a fast-moving wall of fire Monday evening said they stayed longer than was safe because authorities told them that the smoke they were smelling was from a controlled burn that was being monitored. "I thought we weren't going to make it," said Kim Olson, who barely escaped the fire that killed her neighbors, Samuel, 77, and Linda "Moaneti" Lucas, 76. "I thought we were going to die right there."

DENVER — The college student accused of "glitter bombing" Mitt Romney after the Colorado caucuses has been fired from his unpaid internship with state Senate Democrats.

On Tuesday night, a student at University of Colorado Denver was arrested by Secret Service for trying to throw glitter at Mitt Romney. Now sources are telling Colorado Peak Politics that the "glitter bomber" worked for the Colorado state Senate Democrats. This session. Glitter bombing has become a tool of liberal gay rights activists who somehow in their deluded minds think that throwing glitter at politicians will change their views on gay marriage.

There have been two plane crashes in Longmont, according to police scanner traffic. One of those crashes has happened south of the intersection of County Line Road and Colo. Highway 119, near the Walmart Supercenter. Another has been reported at Vance Brand Airport. According to scanner traffic and Longmont dispatch, an airplane struck power lines near the city's service center just south of the airport. A reporter on the scene at the airport said wreckage is visible from Airport Road. The Times-Call has reporters and photographers at both scenes. Watch timescall.com for more information.

The Peyton Manning sweepstakes came to an end Monday when the free agent quarterback informed the NFL teams pursuing him that he intended to sign with the Denver Broncos. The resolution of where Manning, one of the most high-profile free agents in pro football history, will play next immediately rippled through the ranks of NFL quarterbacks. The Broncos seem intent on trading quarterback Tim Tebow and speculation immediately focused on the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars. A trade to either team would send Tebow back to the state where he won a Heisman Trophy and two collegiate national championships at...

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – Valuable parts have been stolen from restrooms across the Denver metro area and then cashed in for money. Now investigators say they know who is responsible. Donald Allen Citron, 48, faces 18 charges, including burglary and theft. He’s accused of stealing toilet parts from several locations, including Southwest Plaza Mall, University of Denver, and Craig Hospital. Most of the crimes happened in just a few minutes, but police Citron is a plumber and all he needed was a wrench and a screw driver to steal pipes and the plumbing in toilets. The items he’s accused...

This is based on a genealogy table I made. Had a bit more trouble than I should have tracking down the first round results, wth.

A retinal scan to verify that the person filling the prescription is the same person it was prescribed to, patient data sent over encrypted communications to check for drug interactions and preventing doctor shopping--all of this information, plus some, in a statewide database. This could be the future of medicine access control. Colorado lawmakers want to make medication dispensing more secure by establishing a new medical database and requiring biometric verification when patients fill prescriptions, but critics of the plan worry that with the amount of data lawmakers want to collect, information breaches could be more damaging to patients than...

The federal government is holding the first of several public meetings on plans for oil shale development on public lands that would keep activity off thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive areas in three Western states. Under the proposal, new leases initially would be issued strictly for research on how to commercially produce oil from oil shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.The first meeting is being held Monday in Silt to discuss the environmental impact and the different options that have been announced.The George W. Bush administration made almost 2 million acres available for potential oil shale development and 431,000...

<p>The Denver Broncos' Tim Tebow came to Tampa, Fla., Friday to appear at a fundraiser and meet with a wounded Afghanistan veteran, My Fox Tampa Bay reports.</p> <p>Mar. 9, 2012: U.S. Army Ranger Romy Camargo got a surprise visit from Tim Tebow in Florida.</p>

There’s no escaping Solyndra Syndrome. Here in my home state of Colorado, citizen journalists have uncovered our own gaping government-green-loan sinkhole. The stench of Chicago-on-the-Potomac is fouling the fresh Rocky Mountain air. Meet Loveland-based Abound Solar, the lucky winner of a $400 million federal loan guarantee from the Obama administration. Earlier this month, the thin-film cadmium-telluride solar-module maker announced layoffs of nearly 300 employees (70 percent of its work force). In addition, the firm froze plans to build a new factory in Indiana. Abound says it will ride out bad market conditions and “hopefully” survive until the market recovers. But...

Do you think college students should be allowed to carry guns on campus? yes no

The Colorado Supreme Court today ruled that University of Colorado students and employees with concealed carry permits are able to carry their weapons on campus. Colorado's highest court sided with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a gun-rights group that sued CU and argued that a 1994 university policy banning concealed weapons from its campuses violates state gun laws. "It's a great victory for gun rights, and civil rights in general," said James Manley, the attorney with Mountain States Legal Foundation who represented the gun-rights group. "CU will now have to fall in line and follow the state law." In...

Now this… Kyle Lawrence, a Colorado Springs Occupier, remains in a Denver Hospital burn unit with second degree burns that he received when he was caught on fire during the arson that leveled the Historic Green Mountain Falls Town Hall.

A Colorado high school student says he quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire. James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper said, he quit. "I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for...

The Colorado news anchor bitten by a rescued dog live on air posted on her Facebook page that she received 70 stitches on her face and is unable to speak because her mouth is stitched shut. Kyle Dyer, a veteran morning news anchor for NBC News’ Denver affiliate KUSA, was reporting on an uplifting story of a dog rescued from a frozen reservoir when the dog bit her on the lip Feb. 8.

Fox News segment. A Colorado student who refused to sing a song praising Allah quit the choir this week. This morning FOX and Friends reported that James Harper quit school in Grand Junction after receiving death threats. Harper received the death threats after the story broke this week. The school defended its decision to sing the song to Allah. Hat tip to Gateway Pundit

A Colorado high school student quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no other truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire. James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper quit. "I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a...

"Reizei's [Princeton U.] Blog from America"(My Translation/Summary): "There were three reasons for the stunning Rick Santorum three-state victory which shook the GOP establishment and dented the crown of the presumed frontrunner Mr. Mitt Romney....(snip)........(The) Third explanation is bound up in a very interesting religious development as we speak. At the end of January, the Obama Administration made the following mandate: "Catholic related schools, institutions, and hospitals must be forced to provide birth control (pill), etc. under the health plan of the United States, even to those who are not Catholic believers, otherwise they are in violation."The Obama Administration was...

(YBH) – As the final Colorado vote counts were coming in late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, confirming that Rick Santorum scored a hat trick against his Republican competitors, it was becoming clear that a sea change is occurring within the GOP race. More than before, it’s now arguable that the inevitability of Mitt Romney’s candidacy is a fallacy. This opinion has been long espoused by Republican grassroots activists across the country. Now there are numbers to back it up. Santorum has now won four out of the eight contests. He has victories in four contests compared to three for Romney....