The Lost Creek Guide January 4,2023

Happiness Is…

Wednesday, 28 December 2022

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice!

I recently re-discovered a book that I had placed on my bookshelf a long time ago. It isn’t a novel, a book of poetry, a biography, fiction, or any other genre. It is simply a wonderful little book by Charles Schulz called: “Happiness is a Warm Puppy”.

In this wonderful little book, written in 1962, there are simple phrases describing what happiness is, with a matching picture to boot, and done in a way that only Charles Schulz could do.

Re-discovering and re-reading this book makes me think back on all the happiness that has come my way over the years, and even gives me a little impetus to discover new ways of happiness in the future!

Happiness in things past, for me, are those days in the sandbox with my dog, Pal; running outside and giving the call of “er-er-it!’ to gather the neighborhood kids together; hanging out with my grandfather; climbing behind the wheel of my new car; playing in my college rock band; coming home from war and having my three boys run to me with hugs, laughter and tears of joy; getting my first check from something I had published; singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” on stage with Peter Yarrow; coming home from a long trip and the hugs my wife gives me. I am sure there are many more in there too!

As for the new ways, well, all I can say is that there are ample opportunities out there, and all I have to do is commit to going out and looking for them, or better yet, creating them myself!

As for the rest of you reading this, I would venture a guess that all you have to do is to “think” about happiness, and your brain will begin smiling all on its own! After that, it should be easy to create and share happiness just by thinking about it! So go ahead! Start sharing some happiness! There is no doubt we all need a little more happiness in our lives! Let’s start a happiness revolution!

Perry Wm. Bell Pastor Emeritus

Soaring Utility Bills Send Huge Waves of People Scrambling for Help Keeping Heat and Lights on in Colorado

More than 100,000 people have called for aid paying gas and electric bills, but the help is available only once per customer.

Annual Fort Lupton Seniors Twilight Dinner Hosted by the Fort Lupton Recreation Staff

By Linda Kudrna, Active Adult/Senior Coordinator

Photos by Kim Thomsen

The Fort Lupton Seniors gathered for their annual Twilight Dinner hosted by the Fort Lupton Recreation staff. The purpose of the dinner is to bring community Seniors together to provide a holiday meal and gather for some holiday cheer. To some folks, it is their only holiday meal and chance to gather and celebrate with dear friends.

We had nearly 120 folks attend and to help ring in the holiday spirit, Craig Nelsen from Loveland provided entertainment for all to enjoy.

Linda Kudrna, Senior Program Coordinator reports “ this event is always a special occasion for the Seniors and brings the spirit of the holidays to many. My favorite part of the evening is seeing and hearing everyone sing Silent Night together. It warmed my heart.

Lee

When Cheryl and Paul Ricks opened the December Xcel Energy bill for their mobile home in Clifton, they were panicked by the $1,080 charge. Lee LeFear’s reaction to his $872 bill, 245 miles away in Denver, was much the same.

“I thought I was keeping up,” LeFear said. “There was no way I could pay that. It’s a hell of a thing to get two weeks before Christmas.”

LeFear, 66, is on Social Security disability and health problems have sidelined the Rickses, both 57, from working. The utility bills were beyond their means to pay, sending them to social service agencies for help.

Soaring Utility Bills Send Huge Waves of People Scrambling for Help Keeping Heat and Lights on in Colorado continued on page 4...

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light” George Washington “If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed” Thomas Jefferson

Our thoughts and prayers are with you both.

by Mark Jaffe and Nancy Lofholm, The Colorado Sun

LeFear lives in a townhome with his wife in Denver. At about 1,100 square feet, though he is on a budget billing plan, his Xcel energy bill ballooned to more than $800. An Air Force veteran, LeFear lives on Social Security disability and cannot afford to pay the bill. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Way of the World

by Bob Grand

On the front page we have a brief note from Pastor Perry Bell on happiness. It was worth sharing as we need to make the quality of life better for everyone, including ourselves. Religion, I believe, is a personal choice, one which many Americans are choosing not to have. It is America and we all have a choice, but I am afraid to say that is not one that is a good one. Children need to have a basic understanding of right and wrong, something they do not learn on twitter or Facebook. In today’s world school is not a place that is being taught as we are so careful not offend anyone. Home should be the start but unfortunately many homes do not provide that as a basic tenet for parents to teach their children. Not a good sign for our future. Speaking of twitter, Elon Musk has been laying it out on the table about what he believes is the improper management of how twitter managed its public good responsibility. Being an extension of the government is not in the best interests of the American people. Hopefully, our elected officials recognize that and do something about it.

The release of Donald Trump’s tax returns has been a big news item this week. The problem is not Don Trump’s taxes it is the entire federal tax system. The federal tax system needs a comprehensive review with the intent of making it vastly simpler. Now there are many groups including federal employees, lawyers and tax accountants who do not this to occur as it will seriously impact their livelihoods. We should be asking our elected officials why this is not this a priority in the interest of fairness and equity for the American people. Oh, I am sorry, did you forget about the American people and what is in their best interest as opposed to the special interest groups?

As an outgoing gift House speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed significant raises for staffers in Washington, to offset the prohibitive cost of living in Washington D,C. We should be looking at reducing the size of Washington D.C. government employees which would reverse the upward pressure on living there. Oh, sorry, I am again thinking of what would be best for the American people not the establish.

The President has a problem with his son Hunter. I understand he lost the good son. I am sorry for that but that should not make him blind to what has gone on. The latest in Hunter Biden’s paternity suit is that the mother of his son is asking to be able to use the Biden name for her child. At this point the entire Biden family has stood by Hunter choosing to ignore the child. Where is equity for the child?

Bill O’Reilly’s article about tribes is all too true. We need to grow a conciliatory effort to work towards reconciling our country top focus on the quality of life for all Americans. I do not believe either the Democrats , with Joe Biden or the Republicans, with Donald Trump can do that. Will either or both be gracious about stepping out of the limelight. I doubt it. People are not stupid. Voters need to focus on supporting candidates who will work towards improving quality of life of all people. Those that do not work towards that goal should not receive the support of voters. Now there is a core group who will support whoever the party nominates, whether they are good or not. The unaffiliated voters are a growing majority of registered voters. Party hacks, in both parties, will learn they will not win elections if they do not recognize the winds of change.

Vladimir Putin continues on his path of self-destruction in Ukraine. His effort against Ukraine is over three hundred days old, having started on February 24th, 2022. Ukrainian war effort under the leadership of President Zelensky has been amazing. His support from the West has also been also amazing. The Russian Army has been dogged with a multitude of issues. It has been forced to go to North Korea for ammunition and to Iran for drones. The effort to conscript 300,000 troops has not been successful. The Russian people are getting very uneasy about the ongoing efforts, particularly as battle deaths for the Russian army has been over 100,000 soldiers lost and how many wounded? Not a pretty picture. Worse if you happen to be a major player in the Russian world as there has been an extraordinary number of important people falling out of second floor windows lately. Vladimir Putin is living in the past and will ultimately pay the price.

As we watch the war effort you are seeing see the dramatic impact of technology. There are several you tube channels that have popped up covering the Ukrainian war on a near real time basis. Great public relations effort, which you have to give the Ukrainian government credit for. Noticed is the cost benefit analysis of watching the Ukrainian’s use of inexpensive tools of war, the drones, against hard Russian Army targets. In defense against these attacks the Russian Army uses expensive missile delivery/protection systems. This is not a net zero situation. This war is becoming expensive for the Russian government and is not sustainable over time.

Noticed is the impact on the Russian naval fleet based out of Sevastopol in the Crimea. Unmanned drone speed boats have scattered the Russian fleet. The Ukrainians used them in mass attacks against ships. This raises a whole spectrum of questions of the use of cheap attack weapons against multimillion- or billion-dollar pieces of naval equipment. It may seriously alter the direction of naval warfare in the future.

Our world is complex and getting more complex. We need leaders who can look to the future, not live in the world of the past. You have to ask if either major party can get over their mental state? I have my doubts.

As usual your thoughts and comments are always appreciated. publisher@lostcreekguide. com

Letter to the Editor:

2023-2024 Educational Vision

First Baptist Church of Keenesburg provides opportunities to worship God, study the Holy Bible, and serve with compassion for others in and around our community. Since 2017, First Baptist Church has also assisted hundreds of people in and around our community through benevolent services for our elderly and handicapped, feeding and housing the homeless, giving food boxes to anyone in need, etc. But next to ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the most significant ministry has been helping our young people by encouraging them through training, individualized tutoring and support, and numerous group activities supplementing the one-on-one support helping them learn valuable life skills that equip them to become more educationfocused in order to improve their ability to live more fulfilling lives.

Our desire is to establish more formal education coupled with spiritual development that encourages love for God, family, community, country, and all humanity all the while encouraging respect for all people, especially our military, law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics, and all who are willing to lay down their lives that we may be free to choose and create a community of citizens who care about and for one another. Furthermore, we believe it is our duty as Christian educators and citizens to assist parents in training your young people in the ways that will best benefit society as a whole. Moses organized and led an entire population of people to develop a distinct society that cared for God, helped each other, and reached out to all societies to succeed for millenniums by teaching each generation the importance of respecting God and all humanity. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children…” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 KJV).

Specifically, our main goal is to explore the start of an independent K-12th grade school for students from homeschoolers to at-risk-youth to meet the educational, psychological, emotional, physiological, and spiritual needs of our young people with individualized curriculum that allows students to accelerate at their own pace and fill in the critical learning gaps unlearned in previous levels/schools (i.e., English, Mathematics, Literature, Bible, etc.). We believe equipping the young people in our community with ethics and morals and will offer the greatest opportunities to achieve success in their own lives and help them become compassionate, respectful, and productive citizens in our community as well as globally. We hope to foster intrinsic motivation in our young people by helping them understand that there is no greater feeling than doing something for others, especially when they succeed in something that no one else thought they could do.

Upgrade to Town of Keenesburg

Wastewater Treatment Facility

By Bob Grand

At the December 19th, 2022, Town Board meeting Brad Simons of MMI Water Engineers, LLC , the Town Water Engineers, provided an update to AgSmart’s/BIO 2 construction contract for upgrades to the Town’s wastewater treatment facility. I had previously asked for an update three times at previous Board meetings as the project is the largest single line item in the towns 2022/2023 budget. The new Town administration must be commended for facilitating getting this discussion to a town Board meeting. That was the good news. The bad news is what I heard. The Town had previously adopted Resolution No. 2021-67 approving a construction contract for upgrades to the Towns wastewater treatment plant. A four million dollar plus project. The Town has granted 2 extensions to the contract, the first from the end of July 2022 to December 31st, 2022. The next revision extended the completion to September 2023, a total of a 14-month extension from the original contractual deliverable date.

The question is what is the cause of the delay? I had asked at previous town meetings if it was a proof-of-concept question from the Colorado Water Quality Control Division? The state has required more information. It would seem that the question of State approval should have been answered before entering into a contract, particularly of this magnitude. Additional Mr. Simons questioned the viability of the project given the anticipated rising costs for electricity and chemicals. With three members on the Board of Trustees and a Public Works Director who were involved in the development and approval of the contract one would think would be able to explain the thought process and analysis that went into the evaluation of the contract and what the specific deliverable was. It is only fair to give the new Board of Trustee members and the new Mayor time to get their arms around this.

The people of Keenesburg deserve to know what occurred and what the plan is for the upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant and what the total cost is projected to be as well as the projected operating costs. There must have been a base plan. Is it a capacity issue or state regulatory issue? Looking forward to finding out as a taxpayer.

Colorado’s Wildfire Risk is so High Some

Last-Resort Coverage.

Some Colorado homeowners are telling state regulators and lawmakers that they can’t secure coverage for their homes because of rising wildfire risk by Jesse Paul and Olivia Prentzel, The Colorado Sun

State lawmakers are preparing to introduce a bill in the legislature that would create a quasi-governmental program offering basic home insurance to the growing number of Colorado homeowners who say they can’t get coverage from private companies because the risk of wildfire is growing.

The Colorado Division of Insurance has fielded dozens of calls and emails, many of them since August, from Coloradans who say they have been turned down by private home insurers. The situation presents the specter of financial calamity for people whose homes are their primary asset and for communities that lean on real estate as an economic engine.

Without home insurance, it’s impossible to secure a mortgage, which dramatically limits who can buy or sell a home. There’s also immense financial risk in owning a property without insurance coverage.

The problem is especially acute in high country communities, but Coloradans who live on the Front Range, particularly those near where the Marshall fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in December 2021, are also reporting problems securing coverage for their properties.

The Marshall fire: One year later

It has been one year since the Marshall fire destroyed hundreds of houses and businesses in parts of Louisville, Superior and Boulder County. One year of sorting through what was lost. One year of trying to create a new normal. And one year of making a new home.

“We can see the handwriting on the wall that we’re starting to have a problem,” said state Rep. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat who is taking the lead on the prospective legislation, which is expected to be introduced at the Capitol after the legislature reconvenes next month for its 2023 lawmaking term.

Colorado one of a few states that do not have a so-called home insurer of last resort, or “fair plan,” created by the government. Michael Conway, Colorado’s insurance commissioner, said that’s because Colorado hasn’t needed one — until now.

Colorado’s three largest wildfires by acreage all happened in 2020. And before that the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire and 2013 Black Forest fire, both in El Paso County, each destroyed hundreds of homes. Then came the Marshall fire, Colorado’s most destructive in terms of the number of homes destroyed. More than $2 billion in insurance claims are expected to be filed in connection with the Marshall fire.

“We just haven’t had natural disasters of the magnitude of states like the Gulf Coast states in particular,” Conway told The Colorado Sun. “It was probably a year and a half ago that I was in front of one of the insurance committees at the state legislature and they asked if we had (homeowners’ insurance) availability problems in the state that I was worried about, and I honestly could say at that point that no we didn’t. We didn’t have issues.”

But late in the summer his office started to hear complaints from homeowners that they couldn’t get their properties insured. What really sounded the alarm was when independent insurance agents started telling state regulators they couldn’t find coverage for their clients. If they can find coverage, it can sometimes be outrageously expensive.

a fair plan or last-resort legislation this year, let’s make sure we’re basing it on really being a very targeted solution at a targeted problem.”

Walker said that anecdotes alone shouldn’t drive the legislature. “We certainly have to understand what our gaps are and what our problems are,” she said.

And given the high stakes, the debate over a state-run or state-created property insurance program could be one of the most technically complicated and politically heated policy battles at the Colorado Capitol in 2023.

How it works in other states

State-run or state-created insurers of last resort started cropping up in the 1960s in coastal and urban areas where property owners faced high risks — from riots, fires and hurricanes — and couldn’t get traditional coverage from private insurance companies, said Mark Friedlander, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, another insurance industry trade group.

There are such programs in 32 states and the District of Columbia. While each operates differently, they generally fall into two groups: plans subsidized by taxpayers and plans funded by private insurers.

The plans are often costlier and offer less coverage than the average private insurance policy, Friedlander said. “They typically do not include liability coverage, which is a component of a standard home insurance policy,” he said.

The purpose of the plans is simply to ensure that people can get some level of coverage — hence the “insurer of last resort” moniker.

Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is the biggest state-managed property insurance program in the U.S. In August, the nonprofit funded by policyholders surpassed 1 million policies and became the largest property insurer in the state. Nearly 28 million people live in Florida.

Homeowners are only eligible for coverage from the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation if they cannot get coverage from a Florida-authorized insurance company or if the premiums from a Florida-authorized insurance company are more than 20% higher than the premiums for comparable coverage from Citizens.

In California, homeowners can only get insurance under the state’s “FAIR Plan” if they can’t get coverage from a private company after a “diligent search.” And homeowners must repeat that search annually. The policies offered under California’s plan are handled by private insurers who operate in the state, who are required to cover a proportion of FAIR Plan policies equal to their share of normal policies in California.

“For most homeowners, the FAIR Plan is a temporary safety net — here to support them until coverage offered by a traditional carrier becomes available,” the FAIR Plan website says. As of 2020, less than 3% of California residents were covered under the plan.

The private insurance industry often points to the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation as an example of a state-run property insurance program gone wrong because of how many people left the private market to seek coverage from Citizens. Insurance companies use customer premiums to create a pool of money from which they can pay out claims. Fewer customers means a smaller pool.

Florida’s legislature met for a special lawmaking term in December to tweak the program and set aside billions for initiatives aimed at bolstering the private insurance market.

“Google Florida and their plan and it will be what not to do,” Walker said.

Conway said he is starting from the premise that a state-run or created property insurance program in Colorado should not compete with the private insurance market.

“I think it’s kind of a misnomer to call (these programs) an insurer of last resort,” he said. “It puts the idea in people’s head that it’s going to actually be in a true insurance company. And they’re really not. They’re really kind of a safety net for people that are organized by their state governments in order to help them in the situation where they can’t find homeowners insurance coverage.”

That may be cold comfort for Coloradans who are paying exorbitant costs for property insurance.

Jim Noon is the former treasurer of the Buffalo Ridge-Buffalo Village condominium complex homeowners association in Summit County. He thought a tree clearing near the 270-unit complex — called a fire break — that stopped a wildfire in 2018 would prevent the complex’s insurance rates from climbing too high. Earlier this year, the HOA accepted a $200,000 property insurance bid and paid the amount.

“Then, three days into the coverage, they just said nevermind and handed us the check back,” Noon said.

Jim Kinser, an insurance broker in Steamboat Springs, told The Sun about a singlefamily home in Routt County that was previously insured for an annual premium between $3,000 to $4,000. When a new owner bought the property over the summer and planned to remodel the house, no insurance company would write them a homeowner’s policy until the house was renovated with fire-resistant materials and brush cleared from its perimeter. The home was uninsured for months in the meantime.

In Pitkin County, home to Aspen, Kniser said a homeowner’s coverage was not renewed by their insurance company and no other carrier would provide coverage at any price.

“It’s getting to be more and more difficult to find carriers who will say ‘yes, we’ll take it,’” Kinser said. “And people need insurance.”

State Sen.-elect Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat, said difficulty obtaining property insurance is “the No. 1 thing I’m hearing from my constituents.” In the high country, where there’s already a housing crisis, there are fears that homeowners insurance problems and rising costs could further limit the lack of affordable places to live.

Conway says the legislature must act fast to prevent Coloradans from having to go without coverage.

“If the issues that we’re seeing now aren’t remedied by the private insurance market fairly expeditiously, we are going to have to set something up pretty quickly,” he said.

But the private insurance industry is urging caution, saying that if Colorado acts too fast and makes mistakes, insurance companies may pull out of the state altogether.

“The stakes are very high,” said Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, an industry trade group. “It just feels like we’re rushing to the solution without adequately studying it. If there is going to be

“If you pay for this through reassessments or surcharges, those are all costs that are passed on,” she said.

Walker urged Colorado lawmakers to have caps on how much coverage the state property insurance plan would offer to make sure the program is financially sound. New Mexico, for instance, only covers residential properties for up to $250,000 and up to $1 million for commercial properties.

“We want to address problems that we have and not create problems that we don’t have,” she said.

The Colorado legislature convenes for its 2023 lawmaking term Jan. 9.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

Homeowners can’t get Insured. The State may create

One of the homes spared in the Harper Lake neighborhood in Louisville from the Marshall fire is shown in this Jan. 9 photo. Nearly every home in the development was destroyed in the blaze. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Homes and vehicles destroyed by Marshall fire in a neighborhood near Harper Lake in Louisville on Dec. 31, 2021. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

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Soaring Utility Bills Send Huge Waves of People Scrambling for Help Keeping Heat and Lights on in Colorado continued

The two households are part of an unprecedented wave of people scrambling for assistance with utility bills, which have soared with rising natural gas prices and a series of electricity and gas rate increases by Xcel Energy, the state’s main utility provider with more than 1.5 million customers.

The big bills come as inflation is pushing up the cost of living and as sources of aid, such as funds for rental, food and job loss assistance under initiatives such as the federal American Rescue Plan, dry up.

And as bad December bills have been, aid agencies fear January bills, boosted even more by the arctic cold blanketing the Front Range, could be even worse.

“You are talking about people living on the margins, living dollar to dollar,” said Kristen Baluyot, the Salvation Army Metro Denver director of social services. “Any change in expense can dramatically change their housing stability and their need for assistance.”

Ryan Breedlove has such a story. The single parent of three girls, Breedlove, 37, is a gig worker doing merchandising, warehousing and cleaning. A couple of months ago her car needed a new water pump and other repairs totaling $1,400 — a tab she couldn’t afford.

“That has made it difficult to get to jobs and I’ve had to pay extra to get my daughter to and from school,” Breedlove said. Rent on her Arvada townhouse also rose by about $100 a month.

Resources for getting help with utility bills Find the LEAP application online cdhs.colorado.gov/leap or call 1-866-HEAT-HELP (1-866-432-8435)

Energy Outreach Colorado can be reached directly at 303-825-8750 or or infor@energyoutreach.org

To find a local payment assistance agency near you use the Energy Outreach Colorado locator: https://www.energyoutreach.org/find-agency/ Xcel Energy’s Energy Assistance page can be found at: https://co.my.xcelenergy.com/s/billing-payment/energy-assistance

Then came the December Xcel Energy bill of $1,200, reflecting two months usage. Breedlove took her bill to Community Table, an Arvada-based nonprofit aid organization participating in a statewide utility assistance program.

Community Table was able to cover the bill. “I don’t know what I would do without them,” Breedlove said.

Her tale is just one of many this December and the numbers tell the tale.

The two main sources of utility bill relief are the state’s Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, or LEAP, and nonprofit Energy Outreach Colorado, or EOC.

Each offers a one-time payment to help with utility bills.

The federally funded LEAP program began accepting applications Oct. 1, and in the first 12 weeks had 69,000 requests for help with heating bills. To be eligible a household can earn up to 60% of the state median income — $34,560 for an individual and $66,468 for a family of four.

So far, the program has approved 43,000 applications. In the 2021-22 heating season LEAP helped a total of 83,000 households. About 35% of the grants go to households in the Denver metro area.

“This marks the most we have seen in recent years and with increasing energy costs our dollars have less impact,” said Theresa Kullen, LEAP manager. The program is expecting to spend about $65 million for the heating season.

EOC, through a mix of government, corporate and foundation funding, helped 21,700 households with gas and electric bills in 2021. Since October, the organization has fielded 113,000 calls for help.

“What people are telling us is that their utility bills have doubled in many cases,” said Denise Stepto, EOC’s chief communications officer. “They are completely shocked and, in many cases, unable to afford it.”

EOC distributes its aid through local partner social service agencies and groups, such as Community Table and the Salvation Army. “We are spending a lot of EOC money,” Baluyot said.“We are seeing a significant jump, crazy significant.”

By mid-December the Salvation Army had distributed $599,000 in utility aid, almost as much as it did all of last year.

It’s not consumption making bills bigger

The fact is that even if a family’s energy consumption isn’t going up, what Xcel Energy is charging them for gas and electricity has risen.

In the last year the Colorado PUC has approved six Xcel Energy electric and gas rate increases.

A main driver in the soaring bills has been the rise in the price of natural gas — a cost that gets passed directly on to consumers.

This year the spot price for natural gas doubled to as much as $8.81 for a million British thermal units before dropping to $5.45 a million BTUs in November, which

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Colorado Shoppers will be Charged 10 cents per Plastic and Paper Bag Starting Jan. 1

People who are in federal or state food assistance programs don’t pay the fees as long as they can prove that they are enrolled in one of those programs by Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun Colorado businesses are required to charge consumers a 10-cent fee for each plastic and paper bag they carry out of the store starting Jan. 1.

That’s because of a bill passed by the state legislature in 2021 and signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat.

The fee, which isn’t subject to the state’s 2.9% sales tax, may be higher if a town, city or county enacts a higher charge.

People who are in federal or state food assistance programs don’t pay the fees as long as they can prove that they are enrolled in one of those programs.

Businesses are required to send 60% of the bag-fee revenue they collect to the

municipality they operate in. If the business is within an unincorporated part of a county, the money will be sent to the county.

Local governments would be required to spend the money on the following initiatives:

• Bag-fee enforcement costs

• Waste-diversion programs, including outreach and education

The remaining 40% of the bag-fee revenue will be kept by businesses.

Stores that collect less than $20 in bag-fees in a given quarter don’t have to remit the revenue to their municipality or county and can keep the money.

Plastic bags will be banned in Colorado starting in 2024, with some exceptions

The 2021 bill also bans the distribution of all single-use plastic bags in Colorado starting in 2024. But there are asterisks.

Restaurants that prepare or serve food in individual portions for immediate on- or off-premises consumption would be exempt, as would stores that operate solely in Colorado and have three or fewer locations.

Businesses that are still allowed to offer plastic bags must collect a fee of at least 10 cents on each bag. The fee may be higher if a city or county enacts a higher charge.

Say goodbye to styrofoam

It’s not just plastic bags that are being done away with. The 2021 bill also bans polystyrene products — also known as styrofoam — across the state starting on Jan. 1, 2024.

The only exception is that restaurants will be able to continue using styrofoam products for takeout after that date until their existing inventory is gone.

MORE: How will Colorado’s new bag fee impact your life? Just look to the cities that already have bag charges.

What if businesses don’t comply?

Municipalities and cities will be able to sue businesses that don’t comply with the new bag-fee and styrofoam rules.

They also may assess the following fines:

• $500 for a second violation

• $1,000 for a third or subsequent violation

The fines can be assessed per violation during a retail sale. In other words, if a business illegally handed out 10 plastic bags during one transaction, they would be considered to have violated the law only once.

The measure also repeals a state prohibition barring local governments from introducing restrictions on plastic materials that are more stringent than the state’s.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

More Money for Water Projects.

Colorado budget analysts project that sports betting tax revenues will be as high as $24 million in the current 2022-23 fiscal year, which began July 1. That’s double what was collected in the prior year.

by Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun Colorado budget analysts expect tax revenue from sports betting to double in the coming year in what would amount to a touchdown, a field goal and a safety for the Colorado water projects.

The Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting and the nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff project that sports betting tax revenues will be as high as $24 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year, which began July 1. Of that money, $22.5 million would go toward the Colorado Water Project, the plan aimed at ensuring Colorado has enough water for its growing population amid climate change-induced drought.

The state collected only about $12.4 million in sports betting taxes in the 2021-22 fiscal year, which ended June 30, about $11.4 million of which will go toward the water plan. Hence, the touchdown ($6 million), field goal ($3 million) and safety ($2 million) analogy.

Bryce Cook, chief economist for OSBP, said the reason for the big forecast increase is that the legislature passed a bill this year limiting the number of free bets that sports betting operators can offer starting Jan.1. (Colorado imposes a 10% tax on casinos’ net sports betting proceeds. A free bet doesn’t generate any proceeds.)

“We’ve also just seen record wagers this year in sports betting,” Cook said.

When voters passed Proposition DD in 2019, allowing sports betting in Colorado, nonpartisan legislative analysts expected Colorado to make about $16 million each year in sports betting tax revenue. The state is authorized to collect up to $29 million in sports betting tax revenue annually under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

The OSPB, in its quarterly economic and tax revenue forecast presented to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Dec. 20, said the agency expects the state to collect $25 million in sports betting tax revenue in the 2023-24 fiscal year and $27 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Legislative Council Staff had similar sports betting tax revenue projections, forecasting $22 million in the current fiscal year, $26.2 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year and $28.9 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

October was the second highest month in terms of total sport betting wagers in Colorado since sports betting began in Colorado in May 2020. About $526 million was wagered, a 17% increase over the prior month and a 7.2% year-over-year increase.

The October wagers netted the state $2.3 million in tax revenue.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

Soaring

Colorado’s Sports Betting Tax Revenue is Expected to Double. That would mean a Lot

Armstrong: Finding Ideological Common Ground in Colorado

by Ari Armstrong, Complete Colorado Page 2

Colorado is a weird state politically. We are the home of partly legal marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms as well as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The Libertarian Party was founded here, and two incoming members of the legislature were endorsed by Democratic Socialists of America. Colorado is home to the religiously conservative Focus on the Family and Colorado Christian University as well as to a vibrant LGBTQ legislative caucus. How can we make sense of all this?

Recently City Cast Denver invited me on to discuss libertarianism in Colorado. Preparing for this podcast got me thinking more about the meaning and motives of different ideological camps in our state.

A useful way to understand political movements is to see what they think is the source of proper order and flourishing and what they see as the source of disorder and injustice. American political movements almost always say they advocate freedom and liberty and that good order entails these values. Obviously freedom and order can be in tension or at least appear to be so. Critics of a political movement often argue that the ideas at hand lead to injustice and oppression rather than to proper order and freedom.

Religious Conservatism

Let’s start with religious conservatives, who now dominate the Republican Party in this state. Recall that the chair of the party, Kristi Burton Brown, first made a name for herself by trying, repeatedly, to ban all abortion in Colorado.

CCU’s Centennial Institute states that it promotes “faith, family, and freedom.” The source of the social good, then, is something like adherence to traditional religious beliefs. The source of disorder and social chaos is “secularism,” with its acceptance of things like gay marriage, transgenderism, and the separation of church and state.

I come from more of a secular libertarian stance, so I scratch my head over CCU’s claims to advocate “freedom.” A lot of religious conservatives are totally fine with government locking people in cages for possessing the “wrong” herb or fungus, aborting even an undeveloped embryo, or having the “wrong” kind of consensual sex. Where a lot of religious conservatives see “freedom,” I see theocratic oppression.

Yet my political stances often overlap with those of religious conservatives. I take freedom of conscience and freedom of religious worship very seriously. I have, for example, defended the political right of business owners not to create products for gay-themed events and the like.

On the economic front, many religious conservatives, still suspicious of Godless Communism, sometimes endorse freedom in the marketplace. Too much government pushes family and church from social life, they believe. So often religious conservatives will join libertarians in calling for lower taxes and fewer regulations. This helps explain why people on the left often think of religious conservatives and libertarians as in the same camp, even though the two groups often clash.

Progressivism

Progressives, coming out of a loosely Marxist tradition, see the main source of oppression as economic dominance in the marketplace. Owners of businesses and property, the “capitalists,” are morally suspect at best, and often the perpetrators of exploitation. The solution, the source of order, justice, and freedom, is “democratic” control of the economy.

To stop the exploitation by business owners, progressives say, we need things like minimum wage laws, paid sick leave, and tight controls on businesses and employment contracts. To stop the exploitation of property owners, we need rent control, tight controls on rental agreements, publicly funded housing, and so on. By contrast, libertarians see the problem in housing as government controls that restrict the development and use of property. Progressives see things like private schools and health insurance as bad and public schools and socialized medicine as good.

However much money government spends on welfare programs, progressives are sure to call for ever more. The selfish bastards exploiting people for their riches don’t deserve that money anyway, and giving that money to poorer people gives them the sort of freedom that matters.

To libertarians, progressives, far from expanding justice and freedom, actually are exploiting people via government controls. “Democratic socialism” is just a euphemism for economic oppression by the mob. To religious conservatives, progressives are displacing church and family with big government. Arguably some welfare programs incentivized out-of-wedlock births, for example.

Libertarianism

“Libertarianism” these days doesn’t have a well-defined meaning. In the last election cycle, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate ran on banning all abortion at the state level and demonizing transgender people. Meanwhile, a Libertarian candidate for Congress ran as a “libertarian socialist,” whatever that means. Many of today’s Libertarians, dragging the good name of economist Ludwig von Mises through the muck, are alt-right racists and Putinist trolls.

But let’s talk about the better strains of libertarianism. Colorado is home to two of the most important libertarian intellectuals in the country, the philosopher Michael Huemer, author of The Problem of Political Authority, and Aaron Ross Powell, producer of the ReImagining Liberty podcast. If you want to “steelman” libertarianism start there.

Libertarians see voluntary consent as the basis of a just society. The proper purpose of government, then, is to protect people’s rights to interact consensually. Far from seeing consensual economic interactions as the source of oppression and exploitation, as progressives do, libertarians see such interactions as a major way in which people pursue their values to flourish as part of a harmonious society.

The problem for libertarians is when private parties (say, the Mafia) or government violates people’s rights to interact consensually. That is the real source of oppression and exploitation in society.

Whereas progressives are suspicious of “market power,” libertarians are suspicious of state power. Whereas progressives think a free market inevitably leads to exploitation of workers and to harmful monopolies, libertarians think that a free market fosters mutually beneficial exchanges and vibrant competition. You’ll notice that Democratic AG Phil Weiser is extremely worried about a grocery store merger, yet to my knowledge he has never said a single critical word about the government’s publicschool near-monopoly, even though it is failing especially minority students.

Libertarians are “fiscally conservative” because they don’t want government interfering in people’s economic lives, and they are “socially liberal” because they don’t want government interfering in people’s personal lives. It’s a very consistent position, even though both conservatives and progressives think it is a bizarre and unstable mix.

Listen to criticism

It is no secret that I lean libertarian in the better sense of the term that I have described. My aim here, though, has been not so much to promote libertarianism as to try to help people in all three camps—conservative, progressive, and libertarian—better understand each other.

There are good people in each group who are doing their best to understand and improve the world. If you look carefully, you can see how the different camps overlap. We each do well to listen carefully to outside criticism, refrain from demonizing our political opponents, and shun tribalism in favor of a search for the truth.

Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.

Central City Opera and its Performers are in a Labor Dispute Alleging Withheld Payments, Body Shaming and Sexual Harassment

by Eden Lane, Colorado Public Radio

One of Colorado’s premiere arts organizations is ending the year amid a labor dispute with the union representing the artists.

Founded in 1932, Central City Opera is one of the oldest opera companies in the United States. Now the company is in a bitter dispute with the labor union representing its performers, The American Guild of Musical Artists, which was founded in 1936. That long relationship is being put to the test with accusations that include charges of withheld artist payments, refusals to bargain in good faith, body shaming, sexual harassment, and other threats. Both entities have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

A key point in the pay dispute is a claim by the Opera company of jurisdiction over performance venue.

Heather Miller, co-chair of the board of directors for the Opera, said the current agreement is limited to performances on the main stage at the Central City Opera House. “I think an important piece of this story that is being lost, or glossed over, [is that] it currently covers all artists and production, people who are members of AGMA when they are on the Central City Opera stage.”

Miller said the agreement doesn’t include performances in the summer season or the festival season — those that take place away from the main stage.

Sam Wheeler, AGMA’s National Executive Director, said he sees it differently.

“We’ve had a collective bargaining agreement with Central City Opera since the 1940s. They were one of AGMA’s founding companies. It’s a relationship that we really value as a labor union. Central City Opera is an important part of the opera industry in the opera community in the United States,” Wheeler said. “Over the course of the summer, we believe that there were several documented violations of our collective bargaining agreement that resulted in a little more than $12,000 that hasn’t been paid to a group of our artists — mostly apprentice artists who were early career solo singers.”

Wheeler said the Central City Opera’s assertion that AGMA and the performers’ agreement with the Opera doesn’t cover this work is without merit and that their collective bargaining agreement is clear. “ We cover all artists employed under our covered … categories employed by Central City Opera,” Wheeler said.

Central City Opera disputes the accusations and says they are investigating.

“We are, again, continuing to negotiate in good faith, and we’re asking that they do the same,” said Miller, the co-chair of the board for the Opera.

The sides are scheduled to meet again in January to try to come to an agreement.

Soaring Utility Bills Send Huge Waves of People Scrambling for Help Keeping Heat and Lights on in Colorado continued from page 4...

still left it 25% higher than the start of the year.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has approved three rate increases this year to cover rising gas prices, the last one in September, just before the heating season began.

In June, the PUC also approved a temporary gas rate increase to cover $500 million in fuel costs during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which briefly spurred prices to as high as $190 a million BTUs.

On top of that, in October the PUC granted Xcel Energy a $64.2 million increase in the base natural gas rates, and last April, the utility commission also approved a $182 million hike in electricity rates.

“This is not sustainable for many people,” Stepto said.

The result is that even a couple, like LeFear and his wife, who are careful about their electricity use, cannot avoid higher bills.

“I can’t figure it out. We haven’t touched the thermostat, I have all new appliances, new furnace, new water heater, everything is efficient,” LeFear said.

The cost of moving to renewable energy adds up

Much of the rate increases are being spurred by the goal of shifting the company to 80% renewable generation by 2030 in Colorado and assuring the reliability of the electric grid and natural gas pipeline system.

“We understand customers are concerned with the rising cost of energy,” Michelle Aguayo, a company spokeswoman, said in an email. “We want them to know we work hard to be good stewards of their money and are prudent in making investments that continue to provide a safe and reliable grid while leading the clean energy transition.”

All the investments, in projects such as wind farms, solar installations, battery storage and a new regional grid, will have “long-lasting benefits for all our customers,” Aguayo said.

Xcel Energy also has bill payment aid plans, financed by a charge on customer bills, including gas and electricity affordability programs where customers who qualify for LEAP can receive a bill credit or partial forgiveness of past-due balances.

Between last December and Nov. 30 of this year, Xcel Energy customers donated $700,000 for energy assistance, and through monthly energy assistance charges on bills the utility has provided $16 million to EOC.

an EOC partner. “I got six calls in one day,” said Karen Black, the center’s executive director. “This is really upsetting to people living on a pension or Social Security. They can get behind really quickly.”

Black said that Xcel Energy works with the center and its clients to deal with the bills and keep the lights and heat on, even after they receive shut-off notices. “Xcel people are very kind and respectful,” she said.

There are limits, however. “If the customer is struggling for a long time and has multiple disconnect notices and not working on a payment plan, they lose patience,” said Alex Romberg, the Denver Inner City Parish liaison to EOC.

The senior center will cover LeFear’s December bill and “help him get caught up,” Black said. If there are no surprises, LeFear said he hopes he will be able to stay on top of his bills going forward.

“The problem is the bill just keeps going up and up, but my money does not keep going up,” he said.

Still, the jump in bills has been overwhelming for the Rickses and many others. Paul Ricks, has been mostly unable to work as handyman because of heart problems and a fall earlier this year also kept Cheryl out of work. She has a scar across her forehead and a bad back to show for it.

The couple managed to outfit their 1978 mobile home in Clifton with new appliances last year in the hopes of being more energy-efficient and cutting their bills. “Maybe it’s our poor windows?” Cheryl said.

Cheryl Ricks took her bill to Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, another EOC partner. People have been lining up at the door in the morning with their utility bills, Sister Karen Bland, the center’s director, said.

When Ricks was told that her entire bill could be covered, it left her in tears. “These are tears of joy,” she said. “I didn’t expect to get help with the whole thing.” She left with a smile and a box of donated food.

The kinds of people coming through Grand Valley’s doors this season are different from many of those the center has helped in the past, according to Scott Montgomery, the organization’s financial director.

“Instead of seeing people mired in generational poverty, the agency is now seeing people who are accustomed to paying their bills regularly,” Montgomery said. “They were staying on top of bills by carefully managing fixed incomes, but sudden doubling and tripling of utility bills and big hikes in rent pushed them into needing help. The numbers of disabled and senior citizens we are starting to see is disturbing to us.”

LeFear, 66, is one of those numbers. The Air Force veteran and retired window glass installer has lived in his townhouse in Denver’s Washington Virginia Vale neighborhood for 14 years and has always paid his Xcel Energy bill.

Last March — with a zero balance — LeFear said he moved to budget billing, where Xcel Energy calculates a fixed monthly charge based on a household’s historic usage, seasonal variations and the prevailing rates.

“The bill was $279 a month and I never missed a payment,” LeFear said, adding that he made sure to keep the thermostat low during the colder months and higher during the summer.

A review of LeFear’s bills, however, showed with each month the fixed charge didn’t quite cover the usage, first by a little bit and then growing, until in December his bill tallied $872.

Stunned, LeFear called the Senior Assistance Center, a Denver nonprofit that is also

Xcel

Xcel

While EOC, LEAP and the local social service agencies are helping seniors and families manage their December bills with the one-time payments, they are worrying about what will happen in January.

“What we expect is that the January bill is going to be worse,” EOC’s Stepto said. “If you can’t pay December and then comes January you can get a cascading effect where you can’t afford anything. … It is kind of scary.”

Inflation remains another concern. “The increased costs of everything at this point is what is driving folks,” LEAP’s Kullen said. “While they may have been able to get by in the past, now so many folks are in positions that they are having to ask for help from many avenues.”

Last year, Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, for example, helped 700 people with a range of services, this year it is up to 1,700.

Bland said some of the people coming in for help seem to have been “scared into immobility” by the vastly higher gas and electricity bills they received this month. “They just don’t know what to do.”

Colorado Sun reporters Elliott Wenzler and Tatiana Flowers contributed to this story.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

Residents of Castle Rock’s Metropolitan Districts are on the Hook for Nearly

$1B in Debt

The 37 active metro districts in Castle Rock have a combined debt of $943 million as of 2021 by McKenna Harford

Residents of Castle Rock’s various metropolitan districts are on the hook for almost $1 billion in debt taken on to build public infrastructure.

At Castle Rock’s town council meeting on Tuesday, Pete Manger, assistant director of finance for the town, presented a summary on the 37 active metro districts in Castle Rock, which have a combined debt of $943 million as of 2021.

Metro districts are a special taxing entity that can issue bonds to fund infrastructure, such as roads and water and sewer lines. The districts then tax property owners to pay off the debt.

Manger said the metro districts added around $58 million to their debt between 2020 and 2021. He also noted that 48% of the $943 million debt is accrued interest.

Last year, Castle Rock’s metro districts collected around $32 million in property taxes, compared to the town collecting around $1.4 million in property taxes.

Though the town is not responsible for the metro districts’ debt, Town Manager David Corliss said it does impact the town’s ability to raise property taxes.

“When we get the comment about ‘wouldn’t we like to be able to raise the town’s property tax mill levy,’ when you see what the metro districts impose, that just serves as an artificial buffer on our ability to ask voters for a higher property tax,” Corliss said.

Cheryl Ricks looking over her $1,080 Xcel bill at Grand Valley Catholic Outreach in Grand Junction. She missed a few payments in the summer, but said by October, she owed just $114. The relief agency was able to help. (Nancy Lofholm, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Lee LeFear went on Xcel Energy’s budget billing plan to smooth out the highs and lows of his utility costs. But the $279 per month that was set, gradually stopped covering the cost to heat and light his townhome. His bill was almost $900 in December, so he asked for help. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

is looking for another electric rate increase

Energy has already filed a request for another $312.2 million electric rate increase and is seeking to recover $123 million from customers for coal-delivery shortfalls and high natural gas prices.

Are Universities Doomed?

deemed expendable are white males. Their plunging numbers on campus, especially from the working class, are now much less than their percentages in the general population—regardless of grades or test scores.

At Yale, the class of 2026 is listed as 50 percent white and 55 percent female. Fourteen percent were admitted as “legacies.” In sum, qualified but poor white males without privilege or connections seem mostly excluded.

Stanford’s published 2025 class profile claims a student body of “23 percent white.” Fewer than half of the class is male. Stanford mysteriously does not release the numbers of those successfully admitted without SAT tests—but recently conceded it rejects about 70 percent of those with perfect SAT scores.

In fact, universities are quietly junking test score requirements. Ironically, these time-honored standardized tests were originally designed to offer those from underprivileged backgrounds, or less competitive high schools, a meritocratic pathway into elite schools.

At Cornell, students push for pass/fail courses only and the abolition of all grades. At the New School in New York, students demand that everyone receives “A” grades. Dean’s lists and class and school rankings are equally suspect as counterrevolutionary. Even as courses are watered down, entitled students still assume that their admission must automatically guarantee graduation—or else!

Skeptical American employers, to remain globally competitive, will likely soon administer their own hiring tests. They already suspect that prestigious university degrees are hollow and certify very little.

Traditional colleges will seize the moment and expand by sticking to meritocratic criteria as proof of the competency of their prized graduates.

Private and online venues will also fill a national need to teach Western civilization and humanities courses—by non-woke faculty who do not institutionalize bias.

More students will continue to seek vocational training alternatives. Some will get their degrees online for a fraction of the cost.

Alumni will either curb giving, put further restrictions on their gifting, or disconnect.

In a famous exchange in the The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.”

“Gradually” and “suddenly” applies to higher education’s implosion.

During the 1990s “culture wars” universities were warned that their chronic tuition hikes above the rate of inflation were unsustainable.

Their growing manipulation of blanket federal student loan guarantees, and parttime faculty and graduate teaching assistants always was suicidal.

Left-wing indoctrination, administrative bloat, obsessions with racial preferences, arcane, jargon-filled research, and campus-wide intolerance of diverse thought shortchanged students, further alienated the public—and often enraged alumni.

Over the last 30 years, enrollments in the humanities and history crashed. So did tenure-track faculty positions. Some $1.7 trillion in federally backed student loans have only greenlighted inflated tuition—and masked the contagion of political indoctrination and watered-down courses.

But “gradually” imploding has now become “suddenly.” Zoom courses, a declining pool of students, and soaring costs all prompt the public to question the college experience altogether.

Nationwide undergraduate enrollment has dropped by more than 650,000 students in a single year—or over 4 percent alone from spring 2021 to 2022, and some 14 percent in the last decade. Yet the U.S. population still increases by about 2 million people a year.

Men account for about 71 percent of the current shortfall of students. Women number almost 60 percent of all college students—an all-time high.

Monotonous professors hector students about “toxic masculinity,” as “gender” studies proliferate. If the plan was to drive males off campus, universities have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.

The number of history majors has collapsed by 50 percent in just the last 20 years. Tenured history positions have declined by one-third to half at major state universities.

In the last decade alone, English majors across the nation’s universities have fallen by a third.

At Yale University, administrative positions have soared over 150 percent in the last two decades. But the number of professors increased by just 10 percent. In a new low/high, Stanford recently enrolled 16,937 undergraduate and graduate students, but lists 15,750 administrative staff—in near one-to-one fashion.

In the past, such costly praetorian bloat would have sparked a faculty rebellion. Not now. The new six-figure salaried “diversity, equity, and inclusion” commissars are feared and exempt from criticism.

Since 2020, the old proportionalrepresentation admissions quotas have expanded into weird “reparatory” admissions. Purported “marginalized populations” have often been admitted at levels greater than percentages in the general population.

Consequently, “problematic” standardized tests are damned as biased and antithetical to “diversity.”

To accommodate radical diversity reengineering, the only demographic

Eventually, even elite schools will lose their current veneer of prestige. Their costly cattle brands will be synonymous with equality-of-result, overpriced indoctrination echo chambers, where therapy replaced singular rigor and their tarnished degrees become irrelevant.

How ironic that universities are rushing to erode meritocratic standards—history’s answer to the age-old, pre-civilizational bane of tribal, racial, class, elite, and insider prejudices and bias that eventually ensure poverty and ruin for all.

Happy New Year!

Patrick Nouhailler / flickr Princeton University Also published in American Greatness

Elite university degrees certify very little. And the secret is out. by Victor Davis Hanson

All About Tomatoes

Posted in:Tomatoes, from Burpee.com

Can I Grow Tomatoes?

Fruiting crops, including tomatoes, need full sun most of the day for good production of quality fruit. Good drainage is also important. In high to medium rainfall areas (more than 30 inches per year) work the soil into ridges and plant on the ridge or build raised beds 12 to 18 inches deep. Plan on setting out at least one cherry tomato and 4 to 6 large-fruited varieties depending on the number of fresh tomato lovers in your family. You’ll need stakes or wire tomato cages to support the plants to keep the fruit off the ground where it would rot. To insure even and efficient watering, you will want to put in a drip or soaker hose system for watering. Finally, count on mulch to keep down the weeds.

Tomato Plant History

Tomatoes originated in the South American Andes in a region that now makes up parts of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Eventually tomatoes were planted throughout Central America and into Mexico where Spanish explorers found them growing in Montezuma’s garden in the sixteenth century. The Spanish introduced tomatoes to the world.

In Europe and the American colonies, the tomatoes got mixed reviews. Because of relatives in the deadly nightshade family of plants, many feared the consequences of eating tomatoes. Eventually these fears evaporated and the tomato became widely accepted.

Recently scientists learned the lycopene content of tomatoes was especially good for maintaining a healthy heart. This extremely nutritious vegetable is now considered America’s favorite vegetable.

Should I Plant Tomato Plant Seeds Or Plants?

Tomato plants are almost always set out in the garden as transplants. It takes 6-8 weeks to grow a 4 to 6 inch transplant. Sow the seeds in flats with Burpee Tomato Formula soil mix, covering them with 1/4 inch of mix. Water the flat in carefully (some gardeners soak the flat in a tray of water).

Set the flat in a warm place (Burpee’s heated grow mat works great for providing bottom heat) to speed up germination.

Plant several seeds in each container and thin to one plant per cell. Be sure to place the developing seedlings where they will get plenty of light. Try a sunny, southfacing window or use fluorescent grow lights. If lights are used, keep the plants within six inches of the bulbs. Raise the lights as the plants grow. Incandescent bulbs won’t work because they get much too hot.

If tomato transplants get a bit lanky, they can be planted 4-6 inches deeper in the garden than they grew in the pots. Not all plants tolerate this treatment but tomato stems root readily. If the plants are really leggy lay the stem in a trench and carefully lift the top up. You can’t bend it 90 degrees or it will break. It helps to keep the tomato growing upright if you’ll tie it to a small piece of bamboo stake.

How Do I Cultivate Tomatoes?

Tomatoes should be set 30 to 48 inches apart in the row with the rows spaced 48 inches apart. It’s very tempting to put them closer at planting time, but if you get them too close you’ll only increase the chance of disease. Wrap the stems with a piece of cardboard or wax paper that extends an inch above and below the soil to protect them from cutworms. A regular office stapler can be used to secure the material in a circle. After the stems toughen up in 3-4 weeks cutworm damage will no longer be a concern and the paper will have rotted away.

Use 1/3-strength tomato food dissolved in water as a starter solution when transplanting (one pint per plant). Then use the recommended application of the granules periodically throughout the growing season. Tomatoes demand lots of fertility once the fruit sets, but too much early in the season will grow a large plant but with fewer tomatoes. Using slow-release fertilizer pellets at planting time is also a popular technique. To reduce transplant shock, use Wall O’ Water plant protectors at planting. These devices will protect the plants from late frosts and the drying effects of the wind. Fiber row cover wrapped around tomato cages after the plants grow too large for the Wall O’ Water protectors will continue to protect plants from wind damage and it also helps to keep early insect invaders like aphids away.

Tomatoes need even watering to prevent blossom end-rot. Water thoroughly but not too often (twice per week should suffice at first) and try to water early in the day so that plants will dry off before evening. This helps to reduce disease problems. Using drip or soaker hose irrigation is the best idea. Water is used more efficiently this way and the leaves don’t get wet.

Mulching can help to insure an even supply of moisture is available to the plant. Try putting down a layer of newspaper 5-10 sheets thick between the rows (soak the papers in water first, so they won’t blow away) and then cover the newspapers with dry grass clippings, bark mulch, etc. Some weeds will eventually get through, but the tomatoes will be about finished by that time anyway. Also the paper will have decayed by fall so it can be tilled in to create more organic matter. Something new this year in mulches is Burpee’s Red Mulch. It’s a reflective material that works like black plastic to warm the soil early in the season, and it increases production of top quality early tomatoes.

Tomato Plant Growing Tips

To sucker or not to sucker. Whether to remove the side shoots that grow out of the leaf axiles or not depends on the support system used. Gardeners using stakes usually snap off these side shoots. They typically get earlier and larger tomatoes but overall production is smaller. If tomatoes are grown in cages the suckers are generally left on, although it’s a good idea to pinch the tip out of them when they are 6-8 inches long. Regardless you may want to remove all growth from the bottom 6-10 inches of the plant. This helps to improve air circulation and reduce the spread of diseases like early blight. Wait until the plants are knee-high and, in the morning when the plants are nice and turgid, snap off the lower growth. Any plants that look sick with distorted foliage or have a mosaic pattern to the leaves should be removed as they may have a virus that can be spread to other plants. It’s best to do this early in the season.

Staking & Caging Tomatoes, Tomato Plant Insects & Diseases

Early blight fungus is a major tomato disease. It begins as a few yellow spots on the lower leaves followed by the leaves turning completely yellow. The disease progresses up the plant and the leaves begin to turn brown. By this time it’s too late to do much. Removing some of the bottom leaves will improve air circulation and reduce the spread of this disease. If you plan to use fungicides, start early and be sure to spray the underside of the leaves where the disease gets its start Spider mites begin to multiply rapidly as summer temperatures rise (especially in a dry season). Try high-pressure water sprays directed to the underside of the leaf and or spray with low toxicity, wettable sulfur.

Stinkbugs come along later in the season just as you’re starting to ‘lick your chops’ in anticipation of the first ripe tomatoes. They puncture the fruit and suck out the juices leaving a corky, white layer underneath. Not, exactly what you were salivating over. Organic gardeners hand pick them or spray/dust with sabadilla. The few chemical pesticides left in the homeowner’s arsenal can help to control them too, but you will need to check with your local Extension Agent for current recommendations. Persistent spraying is the key since stinkbugs seem to fly in from another weed patch just after you’ve sprayed to kill them.

Tomato Plant Harvesting Tips

Tomatoes can be harvested when they begin to show color, as they will continue to ripen. However, the closer you can get to vine-ripened the better the flavor will be. Bird damage usually becomes a concern at this stage. Birds love to peck holes in the fruit. Some gardeners say they’re after water, so place some pans of water in the garden. Others claim red Christmas tree ornaments will fake the birds out and they will go away. Putting fake owls in the garden (move them around every few days), covering the plants with bird netting (just before harvest time) and wrapping clusters with fiber row cover are other techniques to try.

Tomato Plant Recipes & Storage

Entire cookbooks have been written about tomato recipes, but it’s hard to beat a BLT. Crisp bacon on toasted whole wheat bread with mayonnaise and a crisp leaf of lettuce is just begging for a couple of scrumptious slices of tomato. Or make a batch of Willie’s Salsa. Chop up 3-4 fresh, vine-ripened, juicy red tomatoes and sprinkle them with the juice of one lime. Add in 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro (chopped), 1-2 level teaspoons of seasoned salt, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of coarse black pepper, 1 or 2 finely chopped jalapenos (‘False Alarm’ hybrid for ‘twinkies’ or ‘Biker Billy’ hybrid for macho types), 1 finely chopped onion and 1 minced garlic clove. Stir and let the flavors blend for an hour or so in the refrigerator and then break out the nacho chips. Real tomatophiles like them sliced 1/4 inch thick and spread out on the plate with a little salt and pepper and perhaps a splash of extra-virgin olive oil.

When to Plant Tomatoes to Maximize Your Harvest

Posted in: Advice by Class: Vegetables / Tomatoes / Harvesting by Lisa Meyers McClintick, from Burpee.com

With a rainbow of colors and explosive flavors cherished for fresh eating and sauces, tomatoes rank among gardeners’ favorite produce to grow. The trick to a successful and lengthy harvest is knowing when to plant tomatoes.

Tomatoes thrive in summer’s warmth and shrivel from frost, so they’re one of the last and most tender plants or seeds you’ll put in your garden. That also can mean a short season for growing.

To stretch your harvest season, start your seeds indoors or buy garden-ready plants. You can also target varieties that ripen earlier than others. This can speed your progress to just-picked tomatoes on your dinner plate.

Here’s a look at when to plant tomato seeds or seedlings.

Starting Tomato Seeds Indoors

The best bet for most gardeners dreaming of a bumper crop and wide variety of tomatoes is to get a head start by starting seeds indoors. Choosing seeds gives you the widest range of choices, especially if you like to try new varieties each season and blend a rainbow of colors.

Most seeds can be started about six weeks before your last frost. To calculate the best date for when to plant tomato seeds, read your seed packet. It will tell you how long until seeds germinate and offer general guidelines for when tomatoes can safely be planted outdoors depending on your growing region. You can also find your growing zone on the United States Department of Agriculture’s website and research your zone to find your last frost date.

Before you plant your seedlings outdoors, you need to harden them off for about a week. This is a way to incrementally accustom tender tomato seedlings to bright sun and breezes after leaving the climate-controlled indoors. Set seedlings into a shaded, sheltered area for the first day or two, gradually increasing the exposure to light and breezes each day, making sure they’re watered as needed.

You can plant them once your garden or container soil is well drained and has warmed for a few weeks after the last frost. That can be mid- to late May in most parts of the country.

When to Plant Tomatoes to Maximize Your Harvest

When to Plant Tomatoes to Maximize Your Harvest continued from page 8...

Purchasing Garden-Ready Plants

If you’re new to gardening (or you missed the timeframe to start seeds indoors), you can still fast-track your tomato harvest by ordering garden-ready tomato plants. These plants are professionally started in greenhouses, which have ideal light and temperatures for producing healthy, sturdy seedlings. Burpee’s garden-ready plants can be preordered and are shipped to arrive as soon as it’s safe to plant in your growing zone, based on your ZIP code.

If you’re planting in containers rather than in a garden, choose compact bush varieties for your tomatoes, such as ‘Veranda Red Hybrid’ and ‘Sweetheart of the Patio Hybrid.’ If you’re growing heftier tomatoes, such as heirlooms and beefsteaks, invest in tomato cages and other supports you can use in your garden every summer. Tomato cages and supports hold up the plant as heavy fruits ripen and weigh down the stems. If plants tip and ripening tomatoes touch the soil, they’re vulnerable to rot or pests.

Water new seedlings thoroughly with at least an inch of water a week. Gently water near the base of the plant to keep leaves dry and minimize the spread of soilborne disease. Mulch around your seedlings to help regulate soil temperature, retain moisture and prevent weeds.

About Estes Park

A Legacy of Hospitality in the Mountain West from Estes Park Tourism Situated about 90 miles northwest of Denver, at 7,522 feet above sea level, Estes Park sits in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Majestic views span in every direction along with the majestic scenes you expect from a Colorado mountain town: gold-medal fishing rivers, iconic peaks, fertile valleys dotted with wildlife plus one unexpected treasure - a national park. Rocky Mountain National Park, home to 300 miles of hiking trails within 415 square miles of protected mountain wilds, borders Estes Park at its eastern entrance.

Since the late 1860s when Griff Evans established a dude ranch here, Estes Park has been welcoming guests with spectacular scenery and hospitality to match. Nearly 50 years later, F.O. Stanley of steam car fame further perpetuated the town’s reputation as a resort destination when he opened his sophisticated namesake hotel. And on goes the rich history and notable legacy of offering guests an experience like no other.

Not surprisingly, mountain exploration remains a mainstay. Outdoor adventures run the gamut from hiking to snowshoeing to rock climbing. Scenic drives show off the area, with Trail Ridge Road rising through the national park to more than 12,000 feet and several others wending through the valley, past historic landmarks and parallel to the fish-filled picturesque rivers.

In the town and along its edges, merchants, restaurants and accommodations acknowledge their Colorado surroundings by selling locally made products, serving regional fare and decorating in ranch, Western or lodge styles. Affordable, accessible and open year-round, downtown exudes a casual feel in which jeans and cowboy boots are as common as sundresses and flip-flops. That said, some restaurants also cater to travelers seeking an upscale night out. Even in the shops and galleries, variety spins from high-end, one-of-a-kind items to whimsical trinkets.

Wildlife is so plentiful that elk often wander downtown streets. Visitors spy them and other animals while walking the path around Lake Estes, driving toward the Historic Fall River Hydroplant or touring Estes Park’s last remaining working cattle ranch, MacGregor Ranch. Sometimes, it seems, the region’s furry creatures outnumber the humans!

With all its adventures and amenities, including the bench-lined Riverwalk and charming sculpture garden, it’s no wonder that Estes Park repeatedly earns recognition as a top destination. It has earned awards from TripAdvisor, Colorado Parent, the Weather Channel and many Colorado newspapers. After all, it boasts a strong history-and present-of hosting visitors with an authentic easiness that’s congruent with a dream getaway to Rocky Mountain paradise.

Consider Early Ripening Tomatoes

Most tomatoes need two to four months to produce fruit. Large slicing tomatoes such as beefsteaks and colorful heirlooms tend to take the longest to reach full ripeness. Northern gardeners or those at higher elevations might have only two or three weeks for larger tomatoes to ripen before fall’s first frost may wipe out their plants.

If you’re in northern areas of the country, it can help to choose shorter-season varieties such as grape and cherry tomatoes that ripen more quickly. Look for varieties such as ‘Napa Grape Hybrid,’ ‘Sunchocola Hybrid,’ golden orange ‘Honeycomb Hybrid’ or pinkish ‘Maglia Rosa.’

For larger tomatoes, choose seeds or garden-ready plants for early varieties such as ‘Summer Girl Hybrid’ or ‘Bush Early Girl Hybrid.’ These should produce their first harvestable fruit about two months after plants start growing in the garden.

When it comes to planting tomatoes, timing is important. Now that you know when to plant tomatoes, you can rest assured that you’ll have a summer crop before the fall frost hits.

For a full rainbow of tomatoes, from heirlooms to cutting-edge hybrids and novelties, check out Burpee’s garden-ready plants.

Growing Strawberries in Hanging Containers:

The Ultimate Guide

by Kelly Reilly, www.kelly-reilly.com

Posted in: Advice by Class: Fruits Container and Small Space Gardening Strawberries

Runners seek soil to put down roots to grow new plants, and it’s a long journey from your hanging basket to the ground. Plus, without them, your plants can focus on developing more berries. (Note: Alpine strawberries do not produce runners.)

One of the benefits of planting strawberries in hanging pots is that you can move them around as needed. Whether it’s an unexpected deep freeze, a sweltering heat wave or a midsummer hailstorm, you can protect your plants by moving them indoors or under cover.

How to Harvest

The best time to harvest strawberries is when they’re fully red and have just a bit of give but aren’t soft or mushy. Resist the urge to grab the fruit right off the stem — you could harm both the berry and the stem left behind. Instead, use clean gardening shears to cut away the fruit and a small portion of the stem.

FAQs About Growing Strawberries in Containers

What should you do with hanging strawberry runners?

Remove them using pruning shears or scissors.

How do you protect strawberries in hanging baskets from birds?

Elevation protects hanging strawberries from many slugs, bugs and soil-borne diseases but makes them an easy target for hungry birds. Deter feathered friends by growing a nonred variety (such as ‘Alpine Yellow’ or ‘Alpine White Soul’), or cover your basket with bird netting.

What do I do with strawberry plants in pots at the end of the growing season?

Some types of strawberries are intended to be grown as annuals. Compost those at the end of the season. For other types, you can move them into the garage or basement for the winter and water them when the soil dries out, then bring them back outside the following spring. Or, you can plant them in the ground in the fall to overwinter and grow again next year.

Learn more about growing strawberries on the Burpee blog.

Joint Statement from Secretary Vilsack and Ambassador Tai after Meeting with Mexican Government Officials

WASHINGTON, December 16, 2022 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai released the following statement after Secretary Vilsack and Ambassador Tai met with a delegation of senior Mexican Government officials in Washington, D.C. today:

“Today, we welcomed a number of senior Mexican Government officials to a meeting at the United States Department of Agriculture.

If you want to grow strawberries but are short on space or simply not ready to commit to a full bed (we totally understand!), growing strawberries in hanging containers is the perfect solution. With a few simple steps and a little knowledge, you’ll be ready to pot a hanging basket that’s equal parts beautiful and functional. Here’s everything you need to know to grow a luscious, productive strawberry harvest in a compact space.

Best Strawberries for Hanging Baskets

Those big, juicy berries you’re used to seeing at the grocery store need plenty of space to stretch, so growing strawberries in hanging containers requires thinking outside the plastic produce box. Luckily, many smaller, highly productive strawberry varieties perform well in baskets.

The key is to look for varieties that grow few runners, and instead opt for those that put more of the plant’s energy into fruit production. In general, avoid long-reaching Junebearing strawberries, and search instead for Alpine or day-neutral varieties.

Top basket-worthy strawberry plants to shop include:

• ‘Alpine Alexandria’: These high producers provide a steady stream of berries from a single pot.

• ‘Alpine Yellow Wonder’: Its sunny hue makes it less susceptible to becoming bird food.

• ‘Alpine White Soul’: Like ‘Yellow Wonder,’ birds leave ‘White Soul’ alone.

• ‘Mignonette’: This variety doesn’t have runners, which means less pruning.

• ‘Montana’: Extra-large white flowers make for an even prettier pot.

• ‘Ruby Ann’: ‘Ruby Ann’ strawberries are prized for extra dark-red fruits and flowers.

• ‘Summer Breeze Deep Rose’: Rose-colored blooms set this pick apart.

• ‘Tristan’: This versatile, attractive and productive variety checks all the boxes.

Supplies for Planting Strawberries in Hanging Pots

No surprises here: In addition to strawberry plants, you need a hanging basket and soil. Opt for a pot with drainage holes — strawberry plants don’t like to sit in wet soil. Plastic pots are a smart choice, as terra cotta drys out faster and may break if the pot falls. You can also use a self-watering hanging basket to keep you from reaching overhead for water quite as often.

Ensure you use soil designed specifically for containers with the right balance of ingredients to support drainage. Burpee Organic Potting Mix contains perlite, which helps drainage even further. Using everyday garden soil in pots can lead to soggy (and unhappy) plants and potential bacteria and fungi.

When to Plant Strawberries in Hanging Baskets

Plant garden-ready strawberry plants or crowns in early to mid-spring. Because strawberries start producing in late spring to early summer, you’ll be behind schedule if you wait until after your average last frost date. Don’t worry — they’ll handle chilly spring nights just fine.

Where to Place Baskets

Growing strawberries in hanging containers requires a spot that receives a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight daily. Some Alpine varieties can tolerate a bit more shade, but be sure to check your specific plants’ tags for more details. Your front porch, back deck or anywhere you want to hang an S-hook or install a hanging basket stand are all great options. Get creative!

And, at the risk of stating the obvious, make sure it’s somewhere you can reach to water and harvest. You may also want to invest in an extended sprayer wand so you can water more efficiently and accurately.

Care Tips

Generally, the same strawberry growing instructions for in-ground plants apply to growing strawberries in hanging containers. However, you should remove all runners (aka stolons or vines that extend from the original plant) from varieties that produce them.

“There was candid conversation about our deep concerns around the restrictions of the importation of biotech corn and other biotechnology products stemming from President López Obrador’s 2020 decree. The Mexican delegation presented some potential amendments to the decree in an effort to address our concerns. We agreed to review their proposal closely and follow up with questions or concerns in short order. There is a joint recognition that time is of the essence and we must determine a path forward soon.”

Attending the meeting was H.E. Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; H.E. Víctor Manuel Villalobos Arámbula, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development; H.E. Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, Secretary of Economy; H.E. María Luisa Albores González, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources; H.E. Esteban Moctezuma, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States, and Mr. Alejandro Ernesto Svarch Pérez, Federal Commissioner.

Aims Community College Recognized for Marketing and Communication Excellence

GREELEY, CO – December 15, 2022 – Aims Community College recently won several awards recognizing excellence in branding, website design, social media and more on a regional and international level. The Aims Marketing and Communications (MarCom) team works to provide information about happenings at the college and highlight the valuable education Aims offers students.

“Kudos to the entire MarCom team,” said Dr. Leah L. Bornstein, Aims Community College CEO and president. “A lot of time, effort and energy from many people went into these beautiful, creative pieces. It’s another example of Aims employees striving for excellence.”

“I am thrilled with the marketing Aims Community College is doing,” said Aims Board of Trustees Chair Lyle Achziger. “Every time I go out of my vehicle, I see something about Aims. When I meet with people, I often hear about marketing, from the monument signs to the billboards and everything in between. When you see all that I’ve seen and that goes into international competition, all I can say to all those other institutions is ‘it’s a eat your heart out; we have the Aims Marketing team.’”

Below is more information on the awards that Aims won from the MarCom Awards, NCMPR Medallion Awards, and w3 Awards. Partnering with Aims on several of these projects were idfive Agency for branding, Aten Design Group for the aims.edu website, and Proper Films for video.

MarCom Awards

The MarCom Awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievements by marketing and communication professionals. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, public relations firms, design shops, production companies, and freelancers. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceed a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were over 6,000 entries throughout the United States, Canada, and over 43 other countries in the 2022 competition. Aims was awarded in multiple categories:

• Platinum | Print Media Publications, Educational Institution | Annual Report to the Community

• Gold | Print Media Publications, Brochure | Aims Viewbook

• Gold | Digital Media Web Video, Marketing | Program Highlight Video - Welding

• Gold | Strategic Communications Marketing/PromotionCampaign | “All in” Brand Refresh

• Gold | Digital Media, Social Media/Content |First-Generation Student Stories

Social Media Campaign

NCMPR Medallion Awards

The National Council for Marketing & Public Relations (NCMPR) Medallion Awards recognize outstanding achievement in design and communication at community and technical colleges in each of NCMPR’s seven districts. The regional competition is exclusive to two-year colleges’ marketing and public relations professionals. Aims

won:

• Gold | Website - District 4 | aims.edu

w3 Awards

The w3 Awards celebrates digital excellence by honoring outstanding websites, marketing, video, mobile sites/apps, social media and podcasts created by some of the best interactive agencies, designers, and creators worldwide. Aims was awarded:

• Silver | General Websites-School University | aims.edu Get updates on Aims news and awards at aims.edu/news.

A New Law Prohibiting the Sale of Non-CageFree Eggs in Colorado will go into Effect in January

By Paolo Zialcita, Colorado Public Radio

Eggs that aren’t laid in a cage-free facility will soon begin disappearing from Colorado grocery store shelves, thanks to a law passed in 2020 that takes effect in 2023.

HB20-1343 requires businesses to stop selling eggs produced by hens in cramped spaces. Instead, farmers must ensure each chicken has one square foot of floor space by 2025.

Mark Gallegos, the inspections director at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said three main companies need to meet the new requirements.

“That represents more than 90 percent of the egg production in Colorado just from those three farms,” Gallegos said. “Those three farms have multiple facilities throughout the state.”

Farms that own less than 3,000 egg-laying hens are exempt from the new law. Farms that own chickens that are used for meat and other purposes are also exempt.

Grocery stores within Colorado will soon begin phasing out non-compliant eggs. Non-cage-free eggs are usually among the cheapest options on shelves. Gallegos said it isn’t clear how prices will be affected once the new law goes into effect.

“There (are) a lot of factors,” he said. “You might see some changes in pricing as the different factors kind of play out that contribute to the supply of eggs.”

One of the variables at play is the persistent presence of avian flu. The outbreak of the highly pathogenic virus is deadly amongst commercial chicken flocks — entire facilities have to be put down if one case is discovered because of its near-perfect fatality rate, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

The Colorado Democratic Party Outspent the Colorado GOP this Year, Highlighting a Broader Fundraising Gap

The Colorado Democratic Party reported spending more at both state and federal levels than its GOP counterpart by Sandra Fish, The Colorado Sun

Light filters through the dome of the Colorado State Capitol as the 2022 legislative session opened Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The Colorado Democratic Party outspent the Colorado GOP threefold in the 2022 election following three previous election cycles in which the two parties were more evenly matched in campaign cash.

The two parties have both state and federal campaign accounts from which they raise and spend money to help their candidates, sometimes through direct contributions and other times through voter persuasion efforts, like mailers and text messages. The money also pays the salaries of party officials.

The Colorado Democratic Party’s federal campaign committee spent $9.4 million in the 2022 election cycle, compared with the $3.3 million spent by its Republican counterpart. By comparison, the Democrats’ federal campaign committee spent $8.4 million in 2014 while the GOP committee spent $8.2 million that year.

While the state party money is eclipsed by the dollars raised and spent by candidates and other political groups, like super PACs, it can have a sizable effect. In 2022, Democrats secured more sustained power in Colorado than they’ve ever had before. In 2014, Republicans won a U.S. Senate seat and reclaimed control of the state Senate.

The spending discrepancy this year also highlights a broader problem for Republicans: their candidates were outraised by Democrats in nearly every major race, from statewide contests to battles over individual legislative districts. Democrat U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, for instance, raised more than double the $10 million brought in by his Republican opponent, Denver construction company owner Joe O’Dea.

“The money differential is big and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” said Alan Philp, a Republican consultant who worked on state and federal campaigns in 2022. “It’s not just in Colorado. (Democrats are) the party of big money.”

Zack Roday, who managed O’Dea’s campaign, said Colorado Republicans have work to do on the fundraising front if they want to challenge Democrats.

“If Republicans want to be successful in Colorado, donors are going to have to step up in a bigger way,” he said. “The GOP in Colorado, they need to look in the mirror and raise more money.”

The Colorado Republican Party defended its spending, though GOP officials acknowledged they were outraised by Democrats.

Karin Asensio, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, said the differences in the two party’s fundraising numbers reflect a unified Democratic Party and a divided GOP.

“Democrats ran better candidates, better campaigns and, as a result, were able to attract more financial, volunteer and voter support,” she told The Sun. “We were united. We brought people together. We worked together. If you can’t build coalitions within the party, you cannot win.”

Democratic candidates got more help from their party

The Democratic federal campaign committee spent nearly $1.6 million to directly aid several congressional candidates in the general election. Much of the money paid for mailers.

The Republican federal committee, meanwhile, reported spending $125,000 on mailers supporting O’Dea but no direct spending in other congressional contests.

The Colorado Democratic Party spent $557,000 on the U.S. Senate race, mostly on mailers supporting Bennet or opposing O’Dea. The party also spent $255,000 on mailers opposing O’Dea’s GOP primary opponent, state Rep. Ron Hanks.

Another $400,000 from the Democratic Party went to mailers in the 7th Congressional District, where Democratic state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, of Lakewood, defeated Republican Erik Aadland.

Colorado Democrats also spent nearly $305,000 in the 8th Congressional District race, where Democratic state Rep. Yadira Caraveo narrowly beat Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer. The Colorado Democratic Party federal committee even dropped $297,000 in support of U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Centennial Democrat who easily won reelection — as expected — in the 6th Congressional District.

While the Colorado GOP’s federal spending committee didn’t report activity in those races, national Republican Party groups did.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, for example, spent nearly $3.5 million to oppose Caraveo. The NRCC also spent $103,000 to cosponsor TV advertising Kirkmeyer.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $95,000 to help Caraveo’s campaign pay for TV ads.

The race between O’Dea and Bennet drew limited national party interest. The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent $150,000 to cosponsor TV ads with O’Dea, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent about $88,000 to cosponsor ads with Bennet.

No committees affiliated with the state or national Democratic or Republican parties reported investing directly in the 3rd Congressional District race between incumbent GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and Democrat Adam Frisch, which turned out to be the closest congressional contest in Colorado. Big candidate spending in the 3rd District made up for the lack of party participation.

The Colorado GOP federal committee did report spending $180,000 on marketing before the general election. It also spent nearly $94,000 on direct mail and $61,000 on field staff in the two months leading up to the Nov. 8 election. Those expenses likely supported the party’s slate of candidates.

The Democratic Party spent nearly $1.3 million on canvassing from late September through Election Day.

The Colorado Republican Party defended its spending this year.

“The Colorado GOP spent millions of dollars this cycle — much of it indirect or uncoordinated spending — in both state and federal races because of antiquated spending limits,” said Joe Jackson, executive director of the Colorado GOP. “Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown promised when she ran for chair that significant money and focus would be spent on GOP turnout. In 2022, GOP turnout ended up

being higher than Democrat or Unaffiliated turnout.”

Although Republican turnout was higher percentage-wise than that of unaffiliated or Democratic voters, Republicans make up only 25% of the state’s active voters, compared with 46% who are unaffiliated and 28% who are registered Democrats.

The Colorado Democratic Party also spent more on candidates at the state level

Democratic candidates toured the state this fall in a bus with the slogan Moving Colorado Forward. They reported spending more than $16,000 on the bus. Sandra Fish, Special to The Colorado Sun

Another key difference in the way the Colorado Democratic Party and Colorado GOP spent their money in 2022 was how much of it went directly toward helping candidates for statewide or legislative offices.

In state-level races, Democratic candidates reported receiving $595,000 in contributions or in-kind assistance from the Colorado Democratic Party. That’s more than three times the $164,000 GOP candidates reported receiving from the Colorado GOP and the GOP reported in direct assistance.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent, didn’t report getting any help from the party. Colorado contribution limits allow the political parties to give up to $679,025 to gubernatorial candidates.

Attorney general candidate John Kellner, secretary of state candidate Pam Anderson and treasurer candidate Lang Sias each received a $5,000 donation from the Colorado GOP. Sias also received $700 from the Colorado Republican Leadership Fund, the Colorado GOP’s state-level campaign committee. The state party also reported spending $5,000 for campaign consulting for both Sias and Anderson. The maximum the party was allowed to give those candidates was $135,775.

All those Republican statewide candidates lost to Democratic incumbents.

The Colorado GOP did spend on mailers, radio ads and more on specific state House and Senate candidates, with more than $90,000 targeting specific state Senate contests. That compared with $121,000 spent by the Democratic Party. But Democrats widened their margins in both the state House and Senate.

The Colorado GOP’s state-level super PAC, the Colorado Republican Committee Independent Expenditure Committee, was dormant in 2022, spending only $34,000 on legal, compliance and banking fees. That super PAC can’t coordinate with the official state party or its candidates, however.

Four years ago, that committee spent nearly $3.7 million supporting candidates for statewide and legislative offices.

Also in 2018, a federal joint fundraising committee that split money between GOP gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton and the Colorado Republican Party raised $3.1 million. There wasn’t a similar fundraising committee for Ganahl and the GOP this year, though the party did have joint fundraising committees with O’Dea, Kirkmeyer and Aadland.

The Democratic Party had joint fundraising committees with Bennet, Caraveo and Pettersen.

National party committees are big donors to state parties

While national committees like the NRCC and DCCC spent money directly helping their parties’ congressional candidates, such committees also donated to the Colorado Democratic Party and Colorado GOP’s federal campaign committees.

The Colorado Democratic Party’s federal spending committee received nearly $2 million from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as $910,000 from the Democratic National Committee and $832,000 from the DCCC.

Those donations accounted for 41% of the Colorado Democratic Party federal committee’s nearly $9 million in 2022 donations.

Crow’s campaign also donated nearly $435,000 to the Colorado Democratic Party, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s campaign gave $95,000.

Other Colorado campaign donations included:

• Nearly $46,000 from Secretary of State Jena Griswold

• $42,500 from outgoing U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Arvada

• $29,000 from Frisch’s campaign

• $26,000 from U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper

• $25,000 from U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver

• $24,000 from U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Lafayette

• $11,650 from Attorney General Phil Weiser

• $5,000 from Gov. Jared Polis

• $5,350 from Pettersen

• $5,000 from Caraveo

• $500 from Bennet

In some instances, such as for Caraveo, Pettersen, Griswold and Weiser, those donations were reimbursements for advertising, research or voter files. But many of the payments were simply direct donations to the Colorado Democratic Party from candidates.

The Colorado Republican Party received nearly $510,000 from the NRSC, while the NRCC gave $330,000 and the Republican National Committee gave $345,000. That’s about 36% of the $3.3 million spent by the state GOP’s federal spending committee during the 2022 cycle.

Only four Republican congressional candidates in Colorado this year donated to the Colorado GOP. Kirkmeyer’s campaign paid $6,450 to rent a campaign office in Thornton. Boebert’s campaign gave $3,000, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, of Colorado Springs, gave $1,500, and Aadland gave $750 through personal and campaign donations.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

Coloradans Could Vote on a $70 Million ‘Attainable Housing’ Fee in 2023

by Andrew Kenney, Colorado Public Radio

Premium Highland Cattle to Cross Auction Block at 34th Annual American Highland Cattle Association National Show & Sale

DENVER, December 12, 2022 – The American Highland Cattle Association (AHCA) will hold its 34th Annual National Show & Sale in Denver, January 19-21, 2023. Held in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show, the sale is the premier venue for buying and selling Highland cattle in the United States. Bidders can sign up online at highlandcattleusa.org/press.

“The AHCA National Sale is the top place to acquire high quality, pedigreed Highlands,” says Heather Bailey, AHCA National Sale Co-Chair. “We only accept registered animals in the auction, so bidders have the peace of mind knowing that they’re purchasing show-quality, halter-trained cattle with generations of fullblood lineage records.”

A rare and unique breed that boasts an attractive physique and high quality beef, Highland cattle continue to gain in popularity in the United States. AHCA is the National Breed Registry and only American herdbook with 75 years of cattle registrations with direct herdbook connections to other leading Highland cattle organizations in the world.

Slated for 10 a.m. MST on Saturday, Jan. 21, the AHCA sale will consist of 45 registered Highland lots from across the country, including five bulls, 20 females and over 20 embryo and semen packages. The auction will be held in the Beef Palace Auction Arena at the National Western Complex, 4655 Humboldt Street, in Denver with online bidding as well.

Colorado’s statewide elections aren’t usually exciting in odd-numbered years, since there aren’t any statehouse, Congressional or statewide elections and the constitution limits what kind of topics can appear on the ballot.

But in November 2023, Colorado voters may have their second chance in two years to increase the state’s involvement in the housing market.

An anonymous group is pushing a proposal, which is still in its early stages, to charge a “transfer fee” on the sale of most real estate.

Whenever a property is sold, the purchaser would have to pay a fee worth 0.1 percent of the sales price. The first $200,000 of the value, however, would be exempted from the fee. So for example, selling a $500,000 home would result in a $300 fee.

The money — totaling an estimated $70 million per year — would be spent on increasing the supply of “attainable housing,” targeting people who generally make too much money for subsidized “affordable” housing but still struggle with high prices.

There’s still a long way to go before the measure can go before voters.

Signature gathering could begin soon (or not.)

On Wednesday, the state’s title board approved the language for the proposal. That means its backers may soon be able to start gathering signatures from voters. They would have need bout 124,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

So far, the initiative’s backers have not revealed themselves. Instead, they’ve been represented by attorneys with the law firm Butler Snow, who declined to identify their client or detail further plans.

“We are not prepared to answer those questions at this time. Once things change we will be in touch,” wrote attorney Dalton Kelley in an email.

The ballot measure also could be challenged in court, which would delay signature gathering.

Scott Wasserman, president of the progressive Bell Policy Center, said the title board’s approval sent a signal. Progressive groups like Wasserman’s have considered running similar proposals in the past.

If the current initiative is allowed to proceed, it could point to real-estate fees as another avenue for state funding. And those fees can also be created by the legislature, not just by voters.

“The title board isn’t just a vehicle for getting something on the ballot, it’s also a vehicle for exploring legislative ideas,” said Wasserman, who said that he’s not involved with the current proposal.

Who would it serve?

As it’s currently proposed, the fee would begin in 2024.

The new funding would serve people making between 80 percent and 120 percent of an area’s median income. For example, in Arapahoe County, a household of four people with an income between $89,400 and $134,100 would be eligible to benefit.

If approved, the money would mostly go to the state’s Division of Housing in the Department of Local Affairs.

It could be spent on building, maintaining or rehabbing “attainable housing” for rent or sale. It also could be used to provide grants and loans to individuals, nonprofits and governments for housing. Local governments also would be allowed to keep about 5 percent of the money to cover the costs of collecting the fee.

Voters just approved a housing measure.

Getting a ballot title approved does not mean that anyone will actually gather signatures or start a campaign. Running a statewide campaign can cost millions of dollars, and parties will sometimes test the waters by getting ballot language approved, but ultimately back away.

Voters recently approved Colorado’s first statewide housing measure, Prop. 123, which says the state must spend about $300 million of existing tax revenues on affordable housing. That measure didn’t raise taxes, but did reduce the amount Coloradans will receive from TABOR refunds and could cut into the money available for other state priorities. It passed with 52 percent approval.

Mike Johnston, a key backer of that earlier measure, said he wasn’t involved in this measure. “Coloradans just made a historic commitment (to affordable housing)” he said. “Obviously, the voters in the state will decide. We feel strongly that Prop. 123 puts us in a really good position to meet some of those needs.”

AHCA’s sale will be called by Sheridan Auction Service, which has a strong background in selling cattle. In addition to participating in person, interested bidders can live stream the auction and bid online. Visit the AHCA website at highlandcattleusa.org/press for details. Live bids can also be placed by phone, and absentee bids can be placed in advance of the sale. The catalog will be published in late December, and photos/videos of cattle can be viewed online. Several trucking options are available; buyers can contact AHCA for assistance.

The auction will come on the heels of the AHCA National Show, which begins in Denver’s National Western Stadium Arena on Thursday, Jan. 19 and runs through the following day. More than 30 Highland classes are judged, and a show for junior breeders is also held.

“This is my 26th year as an AHCA member, and speaking from the perspective of a Highland enthusiast, the National Show & Sale is a wonderful event to attend whether you’re a longtime Highland breeder or just starting out,” Bailey notes. “You get to meet so many different exhibitors from across the country, making it an excellent opportunity to network. And since it’s held during the National Western Stock Show, you can’t ask for a better atmosphere.”

Admission to the 34th Annual AHCA National Show & Sale is included in the price of your National Western Stock Show grounds admission ticket. The weekend culminates with an AHCA reception and banquet starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21 at the Renaissance Denver Hotel. To purchase banquet tickets, visit highlandcattleusa.org/ press or call the AHCA office at 303-659-2399.

Visit the AHCA website to learn more about the event. Contact AHCA National Show & Sale Co-Chair Heather Bailey at 970-666-1982 or heathervalley11@gmail.com with questions.

What to Know About Respiratory Illness Season While We Celebrate the Holidays

By Dr. Steven Griffin, Pediatrician,

Holy Rosary Healthcare

‘Tis the Season for holidays, family gatherings and great meals. Unfortunately, it is also the season for respiratory illnesses. With the recent news about a more severe respiratory illness season this year, many families have asked questions, especially about the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV can infect young children’s lower airways and lungs and sometimes cause them to be hospitalized. While we cannot predict who will become sick enough to be hospitalized, children under two years old, immunocompromised children, asthmatics, and children born prematurely requiring a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay, are at the highest risk.

RSV is a seasonal virus that generally impacts the United States during winter. Most kids are exposed to and get it at least once in their lifetime. Many young children have not been exposed to as many viruses as they typically would have been as infants and toddlers due to COVID health and safety protocols in recent years. With COVID, influenza and RSV present in our communities this year, children may get quite sick during the respiratory season, which usually lasts from October-April.

RSV can cause a respiratory syndrome called bronchiolitis, where a child (generally under two years old) has excess mucus in their airways, causing them to collapse and be unable to take full breaths. Symptoms can show up as retractions (the pulling in below or between the ribs when breathing), low oxygen saturations, or poor feeding in infants that need to breathe through their nose when feeding. Older children may also get RSV but may not be as sick as younger kids. There is no direct treatment or vaccine for RSV. If a child is hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis, we keep them hydrated and support their breathing as their body fights off the infection.

The best way to protect against RSV is to avoid getting it and by being a good neighbor. If your child is sick, keep them at home; don’t send them to school or daycare. If you were planning a big gathering and your child becomes ill, it would be best to change your plans, especially if there will be young children or elderly family and friends present at the event. Practicing the good handwashing and hygiene habits we learned during the height of the COVID pandemic is also essential.

Most importantly, if your child is having trouble breathing, please take them to the nearest emergency department. If your child is sick, we are always happy to see them at the Holy Rosary Healthcare pediatric clinic or the emergency department if symptoms are severe.

I wish you a happy, healthy and safe holiday.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News Residential and commercial development along Colfax Avenue in Aurora, near the UCHealth Anschutz Medical Campus, Nov. 3, 2022.

Highland cattle from across North America will converge on Denver, January 19-21, 2023.

The longest running Highland sale in North America will be held January 21, 2023, with in-person and online bidding.

Republicans Must Review the 2022 Failures

After the disappointing, for some of us shocking, 2022 election results, there must be a Republican effort to rethink what happened. by Newt Gingrich

After the disappointing, for some of us shocking, 2022 election results, there must be a Republican effort to rethink what happened.

The danger is, with all the distractions and trivia of Washington, the effort could be the usual, surface-level review. Too often, hard problems and facts that challenge the institutional culture of Republican professionals are avoided. The bias against dealing with them is great because they seem impossible to solve.

That scenario would be a disaster for Republicans in 2023.

What we need is a profoundly deep, challenging examination of the party – and a thorough study of where American politics and government truly are.

Too often, Republicans try to understand the world through limited models of government and politics which simply don’t reflect reality. This failure to think through and master the real world of contemporary power is tragic, and it weakens America’s future.

Consider how big the gap between potential and reality currently is.

There is a huge cultural majority that disapproves of Big Government Socialism and favors Free Market Capitalism (18 percent to 82 percent). Most Americans also reject woke lectures on race and believe that a person’s character is more important than his or her skin color (91 percent are with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on this point). A cultural majority also deeply disapproves of brainwashing young children with radical ideas about sex and gender (72 percent oppose teaching school children they can change their gender).

These people should all be Republican voters, but they aren’t.

Republicans must learn why this massive cultural majority is not translating into a political majority. This will require sober self-reflection and serious analysis. It’s not a fluke that we can’t attract these people. We are simply failing to. In the politics of campaigning – and the act of governing – Republicans have not mastered the systems, principles, and patterns needed. Until we do that, we can’t win a landslide election and then govern effectively.

A deep review of the Republican failure would look at things most post-election projects ignore – or facts from which they hide. Republicans must look at the real world, not the ideal world they imagine.

Real Fact-Finding

Republicans must gather the facts. Virtually everyone’s initial analysis of the election results mistook individual races for voter behavior and extrapolated based on the misconceptions. The fact is: Republicans won substantially more U.S. House votes than Democrats. Currently 50.7 percent of House races went for Republicans versus 47.7 percent that went for Democrats. This was a six-point turnaround from Democrats’ 50.8 percent to Republicans’ 47.7 percent margin in 2020.

As Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report put it: “Democrats fell off a cliff in Florida and New York, where their House candidates underperformed Biden’s 2020 margins on average by 13 points. GOP mini waves also hit California and Oregon where Democrats underperformed by 7.6 points each.”

None of these facts fit the initial analysis. So, fact-finding means reviewing all the major polls and comparing them with what really happened with different groups in different states.

Close the Resource Gap

Republicans must account for the real resource imbalance. Analysts too often simply match Republican fundraising dollars up against Democrat fundraising dollars. This is a mistake we’ve repeated for decades. It profoundly understates of the scale of the challenge in reaching voters. The truth is Democrats’ resources are legion and can’t neatly be listed on a spreadsheet.

If Saturday Night Live savages Herschel Walker three days before the runoff, what is that worth? If Mark Zuckerberg pours $419 million into turnout efforts in Democrat precincts, how do you record or counter that? If the FBI and Twitter block the New York Post from reaching millions with its story about Hunter Biden’s laptop just weeks before the election, are they helping Democrats get elected? If Twitter kicks the incumbent president off its platform, is that an in-kind gift to the Biden campaign? If Google routinely blocks Republican fundraising appeals the last four days of the month, how much money are we losing? When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development organizes voter drives on the President’s order, are they serving Republican and Democrat voters equally? If famously liberal universities that actively punish conservative speech run voter registration operations, who do you think that helps? None of these efforts show up on traditional Federal Election Commission reports. Republicans must figure out how to codify and overcome them.

Compete in Modern Elections

The election calendar has changed, but Republicans don’t seem to understand the new requirements for effective competition. Voting starts in mid-September. Hoarding advertising

money to mid-October doesn’t work anymore. Early voting is a fact. Republicans must learn to maximize it (and focus on non-voters more intensely). Shifting resources from late TV buys to early voting efforts may hurt consultants’ wallets, but it may win more elections. Republican nominees who come out of tough primaries with no money and stay off the air for six or seven weeks – while their Democrat opponents and the news media define them – become irrevocably damaged (see Mehmet Oz’s campaign in Pennsylvania). Republicans focus on campaigns. Democrats focus on elections. The difference is profound. Republicans must change.

Stop Hitting Yourself

Attacking our own candidates is harmful. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Super PAC spent $4 million against the GOP nominee in New Hampshire. It hurt. The McConnell Super PAC also publicly pulled out of Blake Masters’ race in Arizona in mid-October. That jarred the campaign and cost it momentum. While Republicans criticized our own candidates’ quality, the Democrats nominated a stroke victim who could barely talk in Pennsylvania and a radical who ultimately lost in Wisconsin. There is a grave danger that Trump vs. anti-Trump cannibalism in 2024 will lead to a 1964 Barry Goldwater vs. Nelson Rockefeller-style disaster. (We dropped to 140 seats in the House and 32 seats in the Senate). Republicans should all be interested in avoiding that.

Learn from Success

We need to study the clear, major GOP victories. The resounding victories in Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Iowa should become the basis for a usable model. The House Republicans gained seats for the second election in a row (while the Senate Republicans were losing seats for the third election in a row). What can Republicans learn from our own successes?

Get with the Times

The impact of university and college election efforts must be studied. The scale of the GOP defeat among the younger generation is a warning sign that we need profoundly new approaches if we are going to survive. If TikTok is legal, Republicans must learn to compete on it. The depth of younger Americans’ commitment to the environment and global warming requires a conservative climate solution. Debating whether the climate is an issue is a losing proposition. A modular nuclear power-hydrogen production system would be a conservative answer to carbon loading that would produce energy, jobs, a stronger economy, and virtually no carbon emissions. We need a fight over the best way to solve environmental problems rather than a pro-environment vs. anti-environment model. We know which side younger and college educated voters will pick.

See You in Court

Lawfare is a system Democrats understand and employ 365 days a year. Democrats routinely use the legal system to attack and delegitimize their opponents. They understand that the constant, subtle application of legal challenges can change the election environment – even if they don’t ultimately pass muster in court. Bombarding state legislatures and election officials with legal threats scare them into agreeing to radical election models that favor Democrats. This has become a niche legal industry for Democrats. In fact, there is a clear effort to drive Republican lawyers out of politics and leave the GOP defenseless against activist attacks.

Breaking ID Politics

We are now experiencing pure identity politics. Performance simply does not matter. How else do we explain New York re-electing the Democrat governor despite crime, inflation, and the decay of New York City? How else do you explain the staunch Democrat control of Chicago – no matter how bad the city government performs? Breaking through on identity politics and figuring out what messages would get people to shift their votes would be a huge step toward turning the massive cultural majority into a political majority.

Learn Some Damn Empathy

The Democrats use symbols, fear, victimhood, and emotions while Republicans tend to use facts, logic, reason, and rationality. The entire Democrat campaign on abortion was based on fear and potential victimization. For over half a century, the racial politics of the left have emphasized fear and emotion. The recent consolidation of the sexual politics vote has been based on fear of repression, elimination of the rights, and job discrimination.

Erik Erickson warned about the emotional counterattack Democrats may make over Hunter Biden:

“Tens of millions of Americans are dealing with the effects of addiction on their families and those of friends and other loved ones. What is the GOP response going to be when the media casts Biden as a sympathetic dad trying to help his son overcome his battles with addiction? They are absolutely going to do that.”

Republicans don’t need to make cheap emotional appeals – but they need to be ready for them. Countering symbols and emotion with logic makes you look cold and heartless. Instead, answer with a higher ideal. Answering Erikson’s example, Republicans should have a strategy that is bigger than Hunter Biden that emphasizes unfair special treatment or national security more than personal failings.

These are the kinds of fundamental problems Republicans need to research, think through, debate, and solve to have a serious, realistic, plan for 2024 and beyond.

South East Weld Chamber of Commerce 2022 Highlights

2022 saw many activities that the SE Weld Chamber of Commerce participated in and held. The main stay was the monthly Lunch & Learn meetings at Ben’s Pizzeria where entities in the community update chamber members on specific issues that affect the communities overall. The Lunch & Learn Meetings are scheduled on the last Wednesday of the month from 11:30am to 1:00 pm and the group is pretty good about holding to the time frames. The Lunch & Learn also allows all attendees to share the latest news in their businesses, kind of a monthly update for attendees. Presenting participants this past year included , AIMS Community College, Weld RE3j School District, the towns of Lochbuie, Hudson,& Keenesburg, Union Colony Civic Center, High Plains Bank, the Lost Creek Guide, our local police organizations, Platte Valley Hospital, local political candidates, and local mayor updates. A general information sharing format that is not generally available elsewhere. The SE Weld Chamber also participated in several local events including a Bingo event at the American Legion Post 180 in Keenesburg as well as sponsoring an active Corn Hole Tournament program that ran over the winter through the summer.

The Chamber also supported the SE Weld Jr. Fair & Rodeo by running the registration booth for the parade as well as being responsible for the parade judging along with the Lost Creek Guide. The Chamber also sponsored the toasting marshmallow event at the Christmas Tree in Keenesburg as it has done for the last for years. The SE Weld Chamber is committed to supporting our local business communities. If you do not belong and would like to consider joining please contact us. We believe that you will see the value it brings to your business.

Contact us at: editor@lostcreekguide.com or call 303-732-4080 (leave a message).

The SE Weld Chamber Annual Banquet will be held on February 25th, 2023 at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. This event is well attended and a lot of fun. For tickets contact: publisher@lostcreekguide.com or call 303-732-4080 (leave a message).

Market Street Mart Annual Customer Appreciation Day

by Briana Skildum

We are proud and happy to have such a valued role in the community as one of the businesses that have been in town for a long time. Growing with the town and the core community is our main goal as we navigate the challenges of the past and upcoming

Maggie Munoz, Aron Lam, Keenesburg Mayor, and his wife Colleen and their new addition to the family

Jaime Campbell, President of the Platte Valley Medical Center, with Perry Bell & Maggi Munoz

RE3J at another Lunch & Learn session

Gabe Evans, our local Colorado State House Representative with Eric Gardner & Perry Bell

Summer Cornhole tournament runs late.

Brian Blehm and the United Power Corn Hole players

Eric Gardner, B&G Financial talks about Taxes

Chamber Members serving at an American Legion Bingo event

Brian Engle with grandson at Cornhole event

RE3J & Lochbuie representative attending a lunch & learn

Perry Bell with Union Colony Representatives

Eric Gardner and his daughter (Cornhole Partner)

Cornhole Tournament Players

Cornhole Tournament Attendees

Chris Cross, Town Administrator of Fort Lupton, Aron Lam, Mayor Elect, Keenesburg, Greg Mills, Mayor of Brighton and Perry Bell