The Lost Creek Guide - March 15, 2023

“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”

MCC Foundation 24th Annual Gala Results

by Ariella Gonzales-Vondy, Director of Communications, Morgan Community College

Pictures

by Jessica Edington, Manager of Marketing, Morgan Community College

Fort Morgan, CO 3/9/2023. The Morgan Community College (MCC) Foundation hosted its annual Gala on February 24, 2023. It was the best-attended Gala in the event’s twenty-four-year history, with 528 tickets sold. The Gala raised over $176,000 through raffle ticket sales; sponsorships; silent, live, and paddle auctions; other Gala activities; and in-kind donations. The net proceeds, estimated at over $129,000, will be used to support MCC students by funding scholarships, programs, and new and innovative technology.

“I was thrilled with the number of sponsors, attendees, donors, buyers, volunteers, and the committee members who supported the Gala,” stated Susan Clough, Interim Director of Development. “This event generated the most amount of gross and net proceeds in all twenty-four Galas and will benefit MCC students through financial aid and program support.”

Hosted by Morgan County REA for the second year, the venue was elegantly decorated in navy and gold with photos of MCC students on display. Hometown vendors, Blue Ribbon BBQ & Smoke, The Beet Box – Brush High School, Edwards Right Price Market, Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center, El Jacal Mexican Grill, Mosqueda Delicacies Ice Cream and More, Victor’s Sushi and Zazzy Café catered the event, providing locally prepared foods for the “Taste of Morgan County” buffet.

Highlights of the evening included the Distinguished Donor award, presented to Bill and Sammy Gramlich in honor of their many years of supporting MCC and their ongoing funding of scholarships for nursing students. The winner of this year’s FMS Bank-sponsored reverse raffle grand prize of $5,000 was Dianna Pfeifer. MCC Alumni in attendance were recognized and each received a gift, compliments of Furniture Mart.

The MCC Foundation thanks the numerous sponsors who made the Gala possible. The 2023 Premier Sponsors were FMS Bank, Colorado Cold Connect, and Evans Early Childhood Center, LLC. Gold Sponsors included Cargill, Centura St. Elizabeth Hospital, Furniture Mart, Morgan County REA, Viaero Wireless, After Hours Cocktail Bar, AnywhereCam, Bank of Colorado, Building By Design, CHFA, Double R Embroidery, Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center, Golden Belt Bank, Health Essentials, Keith Bath Farms, Kinnon, Kit Carson County, McDonald Automotive, Smirks, State Farm – Gregg Mullen, and Village Liquor.

The 2023 Silver Sponsors were Allo Communications; Best Western Plus Overland Inn; Bob Staley’s Plumbing-Heating-Air; CannonDesign; Cornerstone Brokers, LLC; East Morgan County Hospital/Banner Health; Edward Jones Investments -Tim Guggenmos, CFP; Farmer State Bank of Brush – Brush/Akron; Impressions by Bird, LLC; Lost Creek Guide; LPL Financial – Marci Wickham; Morgan Lanes; Platte River Realty; Premier Farm Credit; Taylor Insurance Agency; The Better Sleep Store; and Zazzy Café/Make It So Catering.

The 2023 Bronze Sponsors were 21st Century Equipment; Brush Meat Processors; Coates Realty Group, LLC; Colorado Land Company; Equitable Savings and Loan –Brush; Hampton Inn Fort Morgan; HarmoniHealing Massage, Reiki, & Yoga; High Plains Bank – Wiggins; Ingmire – Phillips Insurance; KC’s Graphics; Kristen Lindsey – Realtor; Lebsock 7 Farms; Leprino Foods; Media Logic Radio (KFTM); Mosqueda Delicacies Ice Cream & More; Northeast Colorado Broadcasting, LLC – KSIR/B106/ KNAB; Platte Valley Hearing Center; Star Athletic Club; Tempel Grain; and Western Sugar Cooperative.

Many volunteers also contributed to the success of the event, including committee members Susan Clough, Carrie Mobley, Kelly Rasmussen, Kim Maxwell, Bob Sachs, Adrianna Nickell, Jessica Edington, Ariella Gonzales-Vondy, Suzanna Spears, Mary Zorn, Marlene Funk, Holly Haman-Marcum, Robbin Schincke, Mindy Centa, Ali Stone, Robert Ingersoll, Maria Cardenas, Andrew Stieb, Jessica Trusty, Tracy Schneider and Jacqueline Cole. Also volunteering were auctioneer Bryson Miller of Auctioneer Miller & Associates; emcee hosts Wayne Johnson and Lindsey Bruntz of Media Logic Radio; VIP Servers: Matt Gordon, Carol Johnson, Patti Lewis, Kim Maxwell and Andrew Stieb; the MCC Foundation Board members; MCC Health, Science and Technology Students; Automotive Service Technology Students; Collision Repair Students; Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society Students; Impressions by Bird; Pioneer Press; Commercial Printers; the MCC physical plant staff; Brad Parker; Tim Grauberger; Betty McKie; Troy McKie; Conner Gerken; Denny Engle and Sandy Schneider-Engle; Derek and Elise Gerken; John and Amy Prouty; Shelly Columbia; Wendy Danielson; Julie Glenn; Karen Rebol; Leah Thomas; Lexi Ewertz; Madalyn Babcock; Michael Cole; Sally Shawcroft; Chloe Hirschfeld; Julie Beydler; Greg Gotto; Cherelle DeVries; Evans Early Childhood Center; and School District RE3.

For more information about giving to the Morgan Community College Foundation, contact Susan Clough, Interim Director of Development at (970) 542-3133 or Susan. Clough@MorganCC.edu, or visit the MCC Foundation website at www.morgancc. edu/giving.

Thomas Jefferson

MCC Foundation 24th Annual Gala Pictures continued on page 8...

To view more photos visit ourtowncolorado.com I-76: Fort Morgan, Brush, Wiggins, or Hillrose news/events

Gala Coordinator, Susan Clough and Richard Clough

Kris Bird, Alex Keenan and Missy Keith-Bird

Diana Pfeifer, winner of the $5000 Reverse Raffle, with Mary Zorn

Distinguished Donor Award recipients, Bill and Sammy Gramlich

MCC student members of Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) and HOSA Advisor Kiley David, volunteered to support the evening activities

Way of the World

by Bob Grand, Lost Creek Guide

Is Spring coming? I am ready. Meanwhile the world continues to spin.

The Silicon Valley Bank, about the 18th largest bank in the country, failure is big news this week. It is the second largest bank failure in the history of the United States. The issue is fairly straight forward in that there was a run at the bank. A run being defined as depositors wanting their money back as they were concerned about its security. The acute problem with Silicon Valley Bank was the nature of its depositors. Silicon Valley Bank specialized in doing business with the high-tech industry and the venture capital firms that financed them. The problem that generated the problem was the bank had too much money deposited in it. Proceeds from stock offerings left these developing companies with way more initial capital then they needed in the short term to operate their companies so they put it in the bank, a lot of it. Banks make money by investing their depositors’ money at a higher rate. In the case of Silicon Valley Bank, they invested in government bonds. These bonds however, paid low interest rates coming out of the Covid-19 period. Enter the Federal Reserve who decides to fight inflation by raising interest rates at a very fast pace. The effect of this was that the bonds that Silicon Valley Bank had bought lost value because the new interest rates were higher. In itself a pretty normal process. However, when Silicon Valley Bank customers began withdrawing their money the bank got caught in a liquidity squeeze. It had the overall asset base but balancing between short term cash needs and long term investments the bank was running out of cash and needed to raise cash so it had to sell some of its bond holdings. The problem was that selling the bonds it owned resulted in a large loss, as the current value of the bonds was less because of the low interest rates the bonds had been issued at.

In today’s world of accounting a bank can hold assets in one of two ways. One of which is classifying an asset it owns as what is called a hold to maturity (HTM). This means the value of the asset never changes as it is not intended to be sold earlier than maturity. From an accounting basis it never loses value as it will be sold at maturity, no matter what the variations in value are during the ownership period.

Reading the Silicon Valley Bank Fourth Quarter report one would certainly believe that the bank was well positioned. Jim Cramer of CNBC show Mad Money show touted the stock as a good investment even at the $300 price valuation in February, 2023. Then the bottom fell out. The FDIC took control of the bank on Friday March 10th. At that time there was no talk about a bailout and depositors were only federally insured for $250,000 per account. Many of Silicon Valley Bank depositors had significantly more money on deposit. At that point Washington said that no consideration was being given to bailing out the depositors with greater losses. That was Friday, March 10th. By Sunday, March 12th, the tune had changed. On Sunday evening the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in a joint statement announced that all depositors monies will be available for withdrawal at no cost to the American taxpayers. This occurred on the same day that a third bank, Signature Bank, was ordered closed by the New York State Banking Authority. Washington realized that the banking system is predicated on fundamental trust. No bank can successfully stand a run on its deposits. It just does not have the cash on hand in a disorderly market withdrawal process, better known as a run. This situation can be aggravated by hedge funds shorting several of the banks (there are about 5 in particular) that have a similar situation to Silicon Valley but at a much lower level of exposure. There are always unintended consequences but people in office who are supposed to protect us should be aware of what is going on. A bailout of the depositors of Silicon Valley Bank is required. The implications to the banking system and our country could have been disastrous. The stockholders of the Company will probably have nothing left but that is the price you pay for having a company not managed well. Now was there any insider trading? That needs to be reviewed by the appropriate mechanism.

Our President has submitted his budget. Is there no common sense left at all? All of us and our families are going to be experiencing a very disappointing future unless we get our elected officials in Washington to focus on America and its core issues. Not politics as usual, but the generation of an approach to working on solving some of our core problem issues. Is it possible? I have my doubts. Both our major parties have been focusing on their hard core base groups, which in both cases represent a smaller and smaller percentage of the people. We need to wake up not be woke up!

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

Armstrong: Government Right to Restrict Squatting in Public Spaces

By Ari Armstrong, Complete Colorado

What uses of public property do government properly allow and restrict? That’s a question of general importance and one brought to the fore in the Denver mayoral race. Specifically, should government allow use of public sidewalks, greenways, and other spaces for unauthorized “camping,” known in the olden days as squatting, or does government have a responsibility to preserve those public areas for public use?

You might guess, given how I’ve set up the issue, that I think squatting often interferes with public use and so government should restrict it. That’s right, but the issue is more complicated than that. How government restricts squatting matters a great deal. No decent person thinks government should lock nonviolent homeless people in cages or steal their stuff. Moreover, how “public” property gets used is an inherently thorny issue, so any seemingly simple answer probably is wrong.

I’ll open with an anecdote. I have not been to the Arvada Library in many months because, last time I went, a homeless gathering led up to the front door. One of the rough-looking men there—they were all men—seemed to be playing a funny game of “keep away” as he held a young child away from the parents. Hilarious!

I resolved at that point not to return to that library with my child, even though Jefferson County forces my family to help finance the facility. I was not at all surprised to hear that the library shut down in late January because of the “presence of methamphetamine residue.” Some people suggested online that there was no connection between the methamphetamine inside the library and the homeless gatherings immediately outside it. Sure.

As the media release reporting the closure points out, “health risks from casual secondary exposure to meth residue (surfaces/smoke) in public places is very low.” And some commentators have mocked people online for worrying about this. But my concern is not that my kid will get methamphetamine poising in the library. My concern is that my kid will walk into the restroom while a drug addict, possibly one with other mental health issues, is consuming methamphetamine there. Libraries are supposed to be family-friendly, and the Arvada Library plainly is not.

Public spaces have rules

Government sets all kinds of rules for public spaces. In the library, you can’t smoke meth (or anything else) in the restroom. You can’t reserve a study room for an orgy. You have to wear clothes. You can’t walk through the library shouting.

We all accept the necessity for such rules. I can’t put up a storage shed in the public street. I can’t build a log cabin in the city open space in my neighborhood, even though the views would be amazing. We all know what would happen if I tried to build that cabin. Government agents would tell me to stop. If I didn’t stop, eventually armed agents would physically remove me and the cabin. If I forcibly resisted, they would arrest me and charge me with a crime. This is not news to anyone.

Yet some people would have us believe that a homeless person has an absolute right to set up camp in any public space, regardless of how that affects public use and public safety. If I go to a state park to camp, I have to reserve and pay for a space in advance. But if I go to the streets of Denver or some other city and want to pitch a tent along a sidewalk or in front of a library or other public building, no one should stop me, some claim.

What are Denver mayoral candidates saying? Lisa Calderón Tweeted, “You can’t be for the camping ban and against sweeps. The sweeps are the enforcement mechanism for the ban—anything less than opposing both will harm unhoused people. We can’t incarcerate people for the simple act of being poor!”

Kyle Clark Tweeted, “Denver mayoral candidate [Leslie Herod] says she believes 90% of the city’s unsheltered homeless will accept offers of shelter but, unlike some others in the race, Herod says she will not arrest those who refuse.”

Meanwhile, “Kelly Brough and four other candidates for Denver mayor are vowing to involuntarily commit or arrest people living on the streets if they won’t go to a sanctioned location or treatment center,” Axios reports.

The presumption on “both” sides is that the city is setting up some sort of authorized place to stay. That’s reasonable. If a person literally has nowhere else to go, forcing them out of one public area just means pushing them into another. That is both pointless and mean. So the question is, given someone has a place to go that is about as good or better then their current spot—such as another, more suitable, authorized public space—is it reasonable to ask them to move out of a public space in order to preserve public use of that space, and to force them to move if necessary? The uncomfortable but correct answer is yes.

The problems of “public” properties are well-known to libertarian types. These spaces are at once owned by everyone and no one. Government controls them, which means that politicians and bureaucrats control them, which means that, indirectly, voters control them. Arguably various public spaces should be sold to private parties. But we need not resolve the thorny philosophic problems with public (governmentowned) property to recognize, at least, that the people who pay to maintain that property should be able to use it in reasonable ways.

No homeless exception to trespass

Homeless encampments that interfere with people’s normal use of sidewalks, parks, libraries, and other public spaces violate the rights of those people and constitute a form of trespass. Similarly, if I tried to camp in a state park without paying or build a log cabin in city open space, that would be a sort of trespass.

discretion. Opinions expressed in letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Lost Creek Guide or staff.

I trust that, in other contexts, Calderón, Herod, and others recognize the legitimacy of government acting against trespass. I doubt either would allow a random stranger to take up residence in their living rooms. I suspect that, if a random stranger tried to do that, both Calderón and Herod would call the police to have the intruder forcibly removed. The context shifts when we’re talking about a public sidewalk or park, but still it seems obvious that certain individual uses harm many others’ ability to use that space and so constitute a form of trespass.

This does not mean we should tolerate cops terrorizing homeless people. Forcible removal should be the last resort, not the default. The aim should be to help get people back on their feet, not to keep knocking them down. There’s no point in incarcerating people who pose no substantial threat to themselves or others. The standard approach should involve offering people a better and safer place to stay, putting them in contact

Armstrong: Government Right To Restrict Squatting In Public Spaces

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Where Are We?

by Gabe Evans

Crime is rising, the cost of living is skyrocketing, and oil, gas, and agriculture are under attack. Since the state legislature is about halfway through the annual 120 day session (which runs from January to May), this is a perfect time to ask, “What are your elected lawmakers doing?” Keep in mind the legislature is historically imbalanced. Democrats control 69 seats and Republicans have 31. The ruling party is aggressively pursuing several key policy priorities. First, they are adding regulation to Colorado’s already hurting housing market. Bills like HB23-1190, HB23-1171, HB23-1192, and HB23-1115 have nice-sounding titles, but they increase the size of government, add regulation and liability to landlords, and attack contractors. This will hurt availability and ultimately drive landlords and housing units off the market.

Second is the anti-gun agenda. HB23-1230, HB23-1219, SB23-168, SB23-169, and SB23-170 add numerous restrictions to gun ownership. Included are essentially an outright ban on semi-automatic rifles and pistols, mandatory waiting periods to purchase a firearm, authorization for a mental health provider to petition for “Red Flag” firearm removal (behind a gun owner’s back), increasing the minimum age to buy a gun to 21, and attacking firearm manufacturers. In over 10 years in law enforcement, I’ve never seen criminals obey the law. These bills penalize law abiding gun owners and waste taxpayer resources attacking the 2nd Amendment, all while ignoring actual solutions to the violent crime tsunami gripping our state.

Finally, regulations across all sectors of industry and economy are increasing. Public safety, oil and gas, and agriculture are under attack. This includes bills like HB231161 (which regulates 75 household appliances and discriminates against propane and natural gas), HB23-1169 (which prevents law enforcement from making arrests for certain crimes), and SB23-038 (which negatively impacts equine ownership).

Here’s what I’m fighting for. My bills include HB23-1102, which restores funding to an existing but neglected program to conduct high visibility drunk and drugged driving enforcement. SB23-034 holds violent criminals accountable for physical attacks with weapons. HB23-1045 closes loopholes by which National Guard members can be forced to take their own personal vacation time when activated to battle wildfires, floods, riots, etc. HB23-1148 would have reduced job-killing regulations by preventing activist bureaucrat regulators from changing rules and “moving the goalposts” whenever they want. This would have helped protect our agriculture and energy producers (and other economic sectors); unfortunately, this bill was killed in committee on a party line vote.

I’ve had some success in forcing amendments on bad bills. I was able to amend HB23-1134 to remove some language vilifying oil and gas. I added two amendments to HB23-1187 which slightly improve public safety. Despite amending and battling against these bills, they were ultimately rammed through by the supermajority.

As a first term legislator, I’m reminded of an apocryphal story in which a fight broke out on the floor of the State House. The sergeant at arms ran up to the Speaker and said “Mr. Speaker, why aren’t you breaking up the fight?” The Speaker, a good conservative, replied “If they’re fighting, they aren’t voting. If they aren’t voting, nothing gets passed. And if nothing gets passed, no one really gets hurt.”

Elections have consequences. For the next two years we will unfortunately be feeling these consequences in our communities, jobs, and pocketbooks. Having sworn four oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution, three of them payable up to and including my life (US Army, CO National Guard, Arvada Police), I’ll never stop fighting for our values. Reach out and let me know your thoughts. As the State Representative for House District 48 (Brighton to Keenesburg, Kersey to La Salle), I work for you.

Gabe Evans

State Representative

Colorado House District 48

303-243-1791

gabe@evans48.com

www.evans48.com

https://m.facebook.com/Evans-for-CO-48-105340938671825/

Rosen: Progressives Need a Primer in Defense Spending Math

By Mike Rosen, Complete Colorado

War has been a constant of human history rooted in immutable human nature. Our best defense is a superior U.S. military second to none that presents a credible deterrent for would be aggressors. Ronald Reagan termed this “peace through strength.” But force and will are multipliers. If will is zero and perceived as such by our enemies, force is irrelevant as a deterrent.

In the words of Leon Trotsky, a founder of the Soviet Union, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” And to quote Winston Churchill, “The only thing worse than war is losing one.” Permanent universal peace, imagined by utopian wishful thinkers, is achieved only in their mind —and in the grave. If you disagree with these premises, you needn’t read any further, you’re beyond the reach of reason and reality.

As are Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan, co-chairs of something called the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus in the U.S. House. Not surprisingly, both are also members of the Progressive Caucus, the Democrats’ radical left-wing fringe. (Now, with 100 members, almost half of all House Democrats, that radical left-wing “fringe” has become the Party’s core.)

Lee and Pocan have sponsored legislation, the “People Over Pentagon Act,” slashing $100 billion from the defense budget to spend on their preferred agenda. They claim, our “astronomical defense budget” doesn’t make us safer but “guarantees the military-industrial complex will continue to get richer.”

First, let’s put their absurd claim about our defense budget as “astronomical” in historical perspective. When President John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 the world was at relative peace. World War II and the Korean War were behind us. The conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was a political “Cold War,” not a shooting one. And the Vietnam War was yet to happen.

U.S. defense spending in 1960 was $48 billion accounting for 52% of the federal budget and 9% of GDP, the measure of our economy. Fiscal Year 2023 defense spending is projected at $858 billion. Today, that’s just 15% percent of the budget and 3.3% of GDP. Six decades of inflation and a massive expansion of government’s role in our society, creating a womb-to-tomb welfare state, make the numbers difficult but not impossible to grasp. That requires an understanding of the shift in government priorities.

What’s truly “astronomical” is the increase in non-defense spending that is propelling our spiraling national debt and driving us toward fiscal insolvency. 80% of that is what the government calls “Payments for Individuals,” dominated by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, on top of a cornucopia of other means-tested entitlement programs. Using that 1960 benchmark — when our welfare state was in its infancy — payments for individuals were a mere 26% of the budget and only 4% of GDP. Today, that’s 68% of the budget and 16% of GDP.

In dollars, 1960 defense spending was $48 billion. In 2023, it’s $858 billion. By comparison, payments to individuals were $148 billion in 1960. In 2023, they’re budgeted at $4,000 billion. (That’s 4 trillion dollars!) Memo to progressive Democrats: That’s what “astronomical” really looks like.

Defense spending is already too low. These goofy progressives are oblivious to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the depletion of U.S. and NATO weapons and munitions in supporting their resistance; Russian expansionist goals in eastern Europe; China’s imminent invasion of Taiwan and escalating hostility toward the U.S.; North Korea’s nuclear threat to South Korea (and the U.S.); Iran’s nuclear weapons program ambition and ongoing funding of Islamist terrorism in the Middle East.

Biden plans to shrink the U.S. Navy from 298 ships to 280 by 2027, way down from over 500 in the 1980s and 90s. Meanwhile, China is expanding its Navy from 355 ships to 460 by 2030. Our air forces need more planes. And all branches of our military are losing troops with recruitment and retention problems as Biden’s mandate of woke, identity politics indoctrination undermines morale and unit cohesion.

Lastly, compounding their malfeasance, these progressive Democrats have disgracefully drafted General and President Eisenhower in their anti-military cause. Yes, in his 1960 farewell address, Ike did express concern about “unwarranted influence by the industrial-military complex.” And ever since, the pacifist left has wielded that label as a mindless slogan, conveniently ignoring the rest of Ike’s speech in which he noted the reality of modern warfare, asserting that “we can no longer risk improvisations of national defense; we’ve been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.”

Certainly, the military and our defense industry warrant scrutiny. But they’re sure nice to have when we need them. During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt even praised that vital partnership as the “arsenal of democracy.”

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for CompleteColorado.com.

to all of our sponsors, donors, buyers, and attendees who made our 24th annual Gala a huge success! We are able to create more hometown opportunities and bright futures because of you!

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with organizations that can help them, and getting them into mental health treatment if they need and want it. A compassionate approach is compatible with managing public spaces for public use. Government policy properly is compassionate both to people suffering homelessness and to people who fund the maintenance of public spaces.

I again point out that the problem of homelessness is, in part, a problem of government artificially limiting the supply of housing through myriad restrictions. As Aaron Carr points out, “Homelessness is primarily a housing problem.” I have called for a genuinely free market in housing, which would boost supply, lower costs, and help alleviate homelessness. Instead, the so-called “progressives” in the legislature are busy wrapping the housing market in more red tape, which will limit supply and increase costs.

The issue of homelessness is hard. But, whatever is the right approach, it cannot involve forcing people to finance public spaces that they then cannot safely use because those areas have been converted to unauthorized personal encampments. The people paying the bills have rights too.

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.

Morgan County Student Artwork Exhibit, “Best of the Best”

Fort Morgan, CO 2/28/2023. Morgan Community College’s Center for Arts and Community Enrichment (CACE) announces the annual “Best of the Best” student art exhibit featuring artwork by regional middle school, high school, and post-secondary students. The artwork, submitted by local teachers, was selected from student class projects. The exhibit will open March 2 and remain on display through March 23, 2023. A reception for the artists will be held March 16 from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM at the CACE Gallery of Fine Art, located at 300 Main Street in Fort Morgan.

Participating artists have a chance to be recognized with a certificate and award for Best of Show, Best College Artwork, Best High School Artwork, Best Middle School Artwork or The People’s Choice Award. A panel of local recognized artists will judge the exhibit. Winners will be announced on Thursday, March 23 at 5:00 PM at the CACE Gallery of Fine Art. Awards have been provided by an anonymous donor.

MCC CACE invites the public to attend this free exhibit, celebrate local student artists, and vote for The People’s Choice Award.

“This Art Exhibit is one of the most popular CACE events each year,” stated Suzanna Spears, CACE Coordinator. “Visitors are amazed at the talents of our local students and by the dedication of their Art teachers. CACE looks forward to hosting this event and welcoming the public to the CACE Gallery of Fine Art.”

MCC CACE offers many free enrichment opportunities throughout the year. To learn more about the “Best of the Best” exhibit, CACE, or future events, contact Suzanna Spears, CACE Coordinator, at 970-542-3180 or visit www.morgancc.edu/ CACE.

During this presentation, you will receive the tools necessary to successfully transition your business into the next generation of leadership With over 30 years of experience helping small businesses, presenter John Sneed offers real-world examples of what to do (and what not to do) His insights are also drawn from his own experience of being CEO and then passing the reins on to his successor Only 30% of family businesses successfully transition from the Founder to the next generation Only 12% make it to the third generation Whether the next leader of your organization is known, or unknown, start setting your small business up for success after your exit

John Sneed offers his

years of banking experience helping businesses succeed John is the former CEO and current Chair of FMS Bank Additionally, he served as President/Chair of Independent Community Bankers of Colorado and Morgan County Economic Development Corporation, as well as several non-profit organizations

WIGGINS SCHOOL DISTRICT 50J MARCH NEWS

GOOD PEOPLE OF TIGER NATION: March 2023

It is finally beginning to feel a little bit like spring: Days are beginning to get longer, spring sports are getting underway, and parent teacher conferences are over. So what comes next in the school season? It is assessment time. State assessments will begin and will be given to students in grades 3rd-11th over the month of April. Students will take part in CMAS, PSAT, and SAT exams.

State CMAS testing will begin on April 11 and end on April 21. Makeup testing for those who are absent will be the week of April 24. Every parent has the right to opt their child out of state testing and understand if you chose to do so. If your child will take the CMAS tests it is important for your child to show up to school on time and prepared to avoid having to make up tests.

Construction: The interior of the preschool addition and the new 3-6 building are on pace for completion in July. As the weather begins to warm-up the exterior of the buildings will be addressed. Both playgrounds will begin to take shape in May with other landscaping taking place at the same time.

E-Rate: The district applied for and will receive $75,000 of updated touch screen Chromebooks for K-2 students. E-Rate funds can only be used for school or library technology programs. This generous gift helps the district fund different broadband or technology needs each year.

Congratulations: 19 of Mrs. Neal’s middle school science students created projects that earned their way to the District Science Fair. Tenleigh Lorenzini, Arath Carrazco, Anna Werner, Ari Yoder and Kynley Yzaguirre, Ainsley Sauer and Monse Delval-Gomez performed well enough at the district level that they will be representing Wiggins Middle School at the state level held at CSU in April. The FFA Parli Pro and Quiz Bowl teams won the District Championship and will compete at the State FFA Convention in June. FFA also held its annual Hired Hand Auction on March 6 with an outstanding turnout. Four Tigers participated in the state wrestling tournament. Jorge Mendez and Michael Pacheco gave strong efforts but came up short. Pepper Rusher won his first state wrestling title, vindicating his third place finish from last season. Laith Ibrahim won his third state wrestling title. Laith is the first 3 timer in Wiggins history!

Financials:

Monthly Expenditures for February

Brush Boys Takes Opening Game of Playoffs Over Liberty Common

by Paul Dineen, Get The Picture Sports LLC

The Brush Beetdiggers defeated the visiting Liberty Common Eagles (Fort Collins), 66-49, on February 17, in the opening round of the playoffs.

Brush was led in scoring by Josh Lancaster with nineteen points and in rebounds by Kaden Castrup and Danny Saucedo with eight each. Owen Rudel led both teams with eight assists.

Hunter Lipsey had seventeen points to pace the Eagles. Carson Ford also broke double-digits with eleven points. Luke Tynan had five steals to lead all players.

March-April Calendar

Enroll Now for Universal Preschool

Apply at http://upk.colorado.gov to determine if your child qualifies for preschool funding support. All 4-year-old children will receive 15 hours of free preschool. Three-year-old children could also receive tuition support. Children must be at least 3 years old, before June 15, to attend preschool. After completing the online application, please contact Miss Lisa at 970-483-7783 to complete the Wiggins Preschool/Child Care application as well. Apply soon-while space is available!

Consumer Sciences Teacher FY 2023-24

Secondary Business Teacher FY 2023-24

Secondary Social Studies Teacher FY 2023-24

New Members Needed for City Planning Commission

Several opportunities for terms on advisory panel

The City of Fort Morgan’s Planning Commission has vacancies coming up soon. The terms of two current members will expire April 1, and applications are being accepted now through March 17. Planning Commission members serve six-year terms and must reside within the city limits of Fort Morgan.

The Planning Commission is active in the process of development in the City of Fort Morgan. The commission has authority to review new developments, subdivisions, special use permits and other matters related to land use and development, and makes recommendations to the City Council.

Anyone interested in the Planning Commission seats or any other city advisory board vacancies can pick up an application at Historic City Hall, 110 Main St., or find the application on the city’s website at: http://www.cityoffortmorgan.com/DocumentCenter/Home/View/112.

For more information contact Deputy City Clerk Jill Westhoff-Curtis at (970) 542-3962 or jill.curtis@cityoffortmorgan.com.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK! www.facebook.com/cityoffortmorgan

Luke Tynan led both teams with five steals.

Photo: OTSPORTSCHEK / Paul Dineen

Josh Lancaster led all scorers with nineteen points.

Photo: OTSPORTSCHEK / Paul Dineen

Carson Ford scored eleven for Liberty Common.

Photo: OTSPORTSCHEK / Paul Dineen

Owen Rudel led all players with eight assists.

Photo: OTSPORTSCHEK / Paul Dineen

Kaden Castrup had eight rebounds for Brush.

Photo: OTSPORTSCHEK / Paul Dineen

Immigration Affects Us All

by Jodi Walker

Immigration is a hot topic everywhere but I think everyone can agree that we need comprehensive immigration reform. We need to protect our borders while giving a path to citizenship for those hard working immigrants who do the work in our economy that many people aren’t interested in.

In my job I am blessed to work with kids from a myriad of countries. Each child has a different story and a different path but the one thing they have in common is that they were all brought here as children, with little choice but to follow the adults in their world. With the introduction of the Dream Act 2023 by

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) there is sure to be lots of discussion surrounding the reality of immigration in the upcoming months, especially when it comes to those young adults who were brought here as children.

Over the course of the next few weeks I want to share some stories of local kids and their journeys, just like the story we shared in the last issue. We will be hearing the lived experiences of immigrant youth from all over the world including South America, Mexico, Russia, Africa and Europe. Our hope is that by being able to relate immigration to real people we will help others better understand why people are immigrating and what they hope to achieve in America. We will give real life examples of how the system has and hasn’t worked for our kids and the challenges faced by those living in our current immigration limbo.

America is a nation of immigrants, and has been since before the revolution. Young immigrants are always shocked when I share the story of how my grandparents came to America, escaping the economic downfall in Denmark to seek a new life in the great west. No one talks about the long sea voyage or the risk of disease or illness. We now look back on this time in history as the way that many of our grandparents and great grandparents established families in America.

The first time I discussed Ellis Island in one of my programs, kids were fascinated. The idea that immigrants who were healthy and willing to work hard had a clear path to citizenship amazed them.

Although many of our kids see Ellis Island as a welcoming station, I must remind them that immigration has always been controversial. Discrimination against Irish and Chinese immigrants was a very real thing as were fears of those who were not homogeneous. I also share with them that during that time, the late 1800’s, America needed able bodied people to build a new county. I happily show them pictures of my great grandparents harvesting sugar beets with horses and plow, ones of them working in the fields and more of wheat harvest. Many of our kids can relate as both they and their parents have worked in the fields, harvesting, weeding and helping our agricultural economy thrive.

My hope is that by sharing these stories it will help everyone understand the importance of immigration, the importance of reforming our laws and how immigrants are a key component to the American Economy, especially in rural America.

Market Update For Today’s Real Estate

by: Jody Malone, Teater Realty

What we are experiencing in the market today is known as Rate-Locked Homeowners. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the average interest rate for current homeowners with mortgages is less than 4%. Today, the typical mortgage rate offered to buyers is over 6%. As a result, many homeowners are opting to stay put in their homes instead of moving to another with a higher borrowing cost. This is a situation known as being rate locked. When so many homeowners are rate locked and reluctant to sell, this adds to the problem of our already low inventory. However, experts project mortgage rates will gradually fall this year, and that could mean more people will be willing to move as that happens.

On the Buying side, there is the “Fear of Not Finding Something to Buy” if a seller does consider to sell their home. Worrying about where they’ll go has left many on the sidelines as they wait for more homes to come to the market. That’s why, if you’re on the fence about selling, it’s important to consider all your options. That includes newly built homes, especially right now when builders are offering concessions like mortgage rate buydowns. Also on existing homes, don’t forget that you can ask for a buyers concession to help buydown these mortgage rates.

These two issues are keeping the supply of homes for sale lower than pre-pandemic levels. But if you want to sell your house, today’s market is a sweet spot that can work to your advantage.

Bottom Line rate-locked homeowners and the fear of not finding something to buy are keeping housing inventory low in our area. If mortgage rates start to come down this year and homeowners explore all their options, we should expect more homes to come to the market.

While this opens up a window of opportunity, remember: you shouldn’t expect rates to drop back down to the record lows like we saw in 2021. Experts agree that’s not the range buyers should bank on. If you’re ready to buy now, holding out for that 3% interest rate may be a mistake.

A bit of advice from your local Realtor: Don’t wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait!

“TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR FROZEN DEAD GUY DAYS FESTIVAL — REBORN IN ESTES PARK FOR 2023!

Quirky Mountain Festival Given New Life In Estes Park, March 17-19, 2023

Courtesy of visitEstesPark.com

ESTES PARK, Colo., Jan. 25, 2023 – Just as Colorado reaches the dead of winter, tickets for Frozen Dead Guy Days (FDGD), one of the state’s most beloved annual events for more than 20 years, are on sale now. FDGD has traditionally been held in nearby Nederland, but for 2023 and beyond, this quirky mountain celebration will be given new life in Estes Park.

Taking place over St. Patrick’s Day weekend on March 17-19, 2023, the reborn Frozen Dead Guy Days will feature live music and entertainment at the Estes Park Events Complex and The Stanley Hotel, with satellite events occurring around town. Favorites like the iconic Blue Ball and competitive Coffin Races will return alongside new additions like the Deadman Fashion Show and the Bands & Bloodys Sunday Brunch.

Buy early and save — these prices aren’t frozen. Tickets that are inclusive of all music performances, activities and events (except the Blue Ball and Coffin Races team registration) are just $29. In February, they will go up to $39. Registration for the Coffin Races has also opened and is $98 per team. Visit Estes Park and The Stanley Hotel have committed to donating all proceeds from ticket sales that surpass operational costs to the area’s recently established workforce housing and childcare funding mechanism.

Not familiar with the Frozen Dead Guy Days saga? To make a long story short, the event celebrates an unusual turn of events that brought the frozen body of a deceased Norwegian man to a Tuff Shed in Nederland, Colorado. Bredo Morstøl, or Grandpa Bredo, as Frozen Dead”

“Guy Days devotees fondly refer to him, passed away in 1989, but his family cryogenically froze his body and shipped it to the U.S. Over the next decade, his legend grew amongst Nederland residents, and a winter festival was born to pay tribute to Grandpa Bredo with quirky events and activities. It caught on in a big way; and by 2022, Frozen Dead Guy Days attracted approximately 20,000 attendees.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news related to the festival - including the soon-to-beannounced musical line-up - by visiting frozendeadguydays.com and sign up for the e-newsletter. For more information on Estes Park, go to visitestespark.com.

Pictures by Jessica Edington, Manager of Marketing, Morgan Community College

Foundation

John Harris presenting Distinguished Donor Award to Bill & Sammy Gramlich

Cupcakes by Eben Ezer

Patti Lewis, Carol Johnson, Karen Rebol

REA hosted the event

Brush High School students catering

Victor’s Sushi catering the VIP social

PTK student servers

Amy and John Prouty

Deb Elrich, Charlene Holzworth and Betty McKie

Auctioneer Bryson Miller

Sandy & Denny Engle and Fred Ruff enjoy the VIP social

PTK students helping serve food

Live Auction items

VIP servers Patti Lewis, Matt Gordon, Andrew Stieb

Randy Wilson playing Heads & Tails

Foundation Board members Donny Edson, Geoff Taylor, John Harris

Emcees Wayne Johnson, Lindsey Bruntz

MCC President Curt Freed

Silent auction items

MCC Foundation 24th Annual Gala Pictures continued from page 8...

Pictures by Jessica Edington, Manager of Marketing, Morgan Community College

A Change to Colorado Transportation Funding Process was Tucked in a Free-transit Bill. Rural Leaders are Livid.

An amendment to a bill about free transit fares is stoking ire over how it would affect transportation funding for parts of Colorado with low population

by Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun

Ashort amendment to a bill adjusting a grant program that supports free bus and train rides is raising hackles among rural Colorado leaders who say it could change how transportation projects are funded.

The amendment to House Bill 1101, approved by the Colorado Senate last month, would reverse a process that began in 1992 in Colorado, with rural and urban communities each at the table discussing how to spend transportation dollars.

“This turns over a process that has worked well for 30 years with one fell swoop, with no public hearings, no public testimony in an overnight change,” said former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, a six-year Routt County commissioner who served as chair of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Northwest Transportation Planning Region. “This will hurt the economy of the Western Slope. It will disenfranchise rural areas across the state. This should not be an amendment. It’s a major overhaul to how we have done things in Colorado for decades.”

How transportation funding works

Transportation funding in the U.S. is a blurry stew of acronyms that makes it challenging to follow the flow of federal funding dollars. We’re going to try anyway.

The federal system got an overhaul with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991. That landmark legislation replaced a federal funding system focused on

urban roads and removed population density as the primary consideration for federal grants. The federal legislation directed states to form regional transportation groups to help raise rural voices in funding discussions.

Rural communities have long argued that transportation funding from gas taxes in Colorado should be distributed based on lane miles — the total distance of all roads — or even vehicle miles traveled, which is the total distance traveled on all roads.

While only about 22% of the state’s population lives in rural areas, 78% of the state’s highways are there and 39% of the miles traveled on Colorado roads are in rural areas. CDOT’s 10-year strategic plan, released in 2019, showed Colorado ranked 47th in the country for the condition of rural roads. The agency plans to spend $800 million to repair 2,600 miles of rural pavement between 2020 and 2030.

There are 15 Travel Planning Regions in Colorado that play a role in how funding for transportation projects is distributed. (Provided by CDOT)

CDOT funding plans start with 15 Transportation Planning Regions guided by commissions made up of locally elected leaders. They call those TPRs. Those TPR commission members make recommendations to the State Transportation Advisory Committee, or STAC.

The STAC is made up of 10 representatives from the TPRs, plus five Front Range Metro Planning Organizations and the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes. The STAC makes recommendations to the 11-member State Transportation Commission, which is the final arbiter of funding.

How the amendment could change that

The amendment to House Bill 1011 says that the transportation commission “shall update its rules governing the statewide transportation process and transportation planning regions to adjust the boundaries of the transportation planning regions … in a manner that ensures that the state’s population is proportionally and equitably represented on the transportation advisory committee.”

A change to Colorado transportation funding process was tucked in a free-transit bill. Rural leaders are livid. continued on page 11...

Should Investors ‘Go It Alone’?

If you’re going to enjoy a comfortable retirement, you should know, among other things, how much money you’ll need. And you may have a much better chance of knowing this if you get some professional help.

Consider these findings from a 2021 study by Dalbar, a financial services market research firm:

• Investors who worked with a financial advisor were three times more likely to estimate what they would have saved at retirement than “do-it-yourself” investors.

• More than two-thirds of investors with a financial advisor were satisfied with the amount they would have saved at retirement, compared to about 27% of the do-it-yourselfers.

How do financial professionals help their clients in these ways?

First, consider the issue of determining how much money will be needed

for retirement. It’s not always easy for individuals to estimate this amount. But financial professionals can help clients like you arrive at this figure by exploring your hopes and goals. How long do you plan to work? What kind of lifestyle do you anticipate enjoying in retirement? Where would you like to live? How much would you like to travel? Are you open to pursuing earned income opportunities, such as consulting or working part time? Next comes the other key question: How much money will be available for retirement? This big question leads to many others: How much do you need to save and invest each year until you retire? About what sort of investment return will you need to reach your retirement income goals? What level of risk are you willing to take to achieve that return? What is the role of other income sources such as Social Security or any pensions you might

have?

Having a financial professional help you gain a clear idea of your retirement income picture can certainly be reassuring. But there may be other reasons why “going it alone” as an investor might not be desirable.

For example, when the financial markets are down, as was the case for much of 2022, some investors make decisions based on short-term volatility, such as selling investments to “cut their losses,” even if these same investments still have solid business fundamentals and good prospects for growth. But if you work with a financial professional, you might decide to stick with these investments, especially if they’re still appropriate for your longterm strategy. Other times, of course, the advice may be different — but it will always be advice based on your goals, needs and time horizon.

Furthermore, if you’re investing on your own, you may always be measuring your results against the major market indexes, such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But in reality, your portfolio should contain a wide range of investments, some of which aren’t contained in these indexes, so you might not be assessing your performance appropriately. A financial professional can help you develop your own, more meaningful benchmarks that can show the progress you’re actually making toward your goals.

In some areas of life, going it alone can be exciting — but when it comes to investing for your future, you may benefit from some company on the journey.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

Edward Jones, Member SIPC

Traffic on Cottonwood Pass Road during the summer of 2021 near Gypsum.

(Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

A Change to Colorado Transportation Funding Process was Tucked in a Free-transit Bill. Rural

Leaders are livid. continued from page 10...

And the STAC shall consider highway corridors, commuting patterns, transitoriented development and “levels of air pollutants” when adjusting the boundaries of the TPRs.

To rural communities in Colorado, the amendment reads like less-populated areas with less pollution will have less of a voice when it comes to accessing federal highway funding.

The amendment was approved by the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee on Feb. 27.

Sen. Faith Winter, a Westminster Democrat and a lead sponsor of the bill, introduced the amendment briefly in the hearing, saying the changes to the geographic makeup of TPRs were “at the request of CDOT.” The bill and amendments passed the committee on a 5-0 vote.

The bill then cleared the Senate on March 3 and was sent back for the House to approve the change.

The House has delayed consideration of the Senate amendments to the bill twice this week.

“This amendment is to reflect the goals of the state of Colorado around transportation and transit and climate,” Winter told The Colorado Sun on Tuesday. “It absolutely does not hurt rural Colorado.”

changes to what he called an “innocuous bill” are “appalling.”

Rogalski said the amendment would shrink rural TPRs and expand metro representation on STAC and “that does not serve the people of this state.”

“They have made this bill into something that changes everything,” he said. “It’s a rearranging that will mess up everything.”

Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue sees her community buried in cars every winter weekend. There’s no way her county budget could address the needed infrastructure improvements required to accommodate the millions of skiers rolling into the county’s four major ski areas via I-70 every season.

The current funding process that funnels through the county’s Intermountain TPR, which includes Eagle, Garfield, Lake and Pitkin counties, “doesn’t get us to a place where we can address what is happening in our county,” she said. The Intermountain TPR accounts for 3.1% of the state’s population with 6.7% of the roads in Colorado and 6.8% of the total miles driven.

“I appreciate the concerns about the process,” she said, noting the last-minute amendment to a bill that addresses funding for free bus rides during high ozone periods. “But it’s time to talk about the overall factors that go into equitable funding of transportation projects across the state. We are long overdue for some changes in this transportation funding space and it’s time to have this conversation.”

CDOT argues the amendment “helps rural Colorado”

Matthew Inzeo, communications director at CDOT, said it is “fundamentally inaccurate that the purpose of this amendment is to take funding away from rural communities.” The amendment, he said, “helps rural Colorado” by requiring the transportation commission “to revisit the balance amongst rural regions.”

The Intermountain TPR, for example, has 169,000 residents in Eagle, Garfield, Lake, Pitkin and Summit counties, while the South Central TPR has fewer than 21,000 residents in Huerfano and Las Animas counties. Boundaries have not been revisited for decades, Inzeo said in an email.

“This amendment would start a public process to take a fresh look at these boundaries and make sure all residents of rural Colorado are getting fair representation in the transportation planning process and have the opportunity to participate in the conversation,” Inzeo said. “CDOT will have robust outreach should this language pass—just as we have done with other efforts that the legislature has directed.”

Motorists use Interstate 70 during evening holiday travel on Dec. 23, 2021, near Evergreen.

(Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Winter said the amendment is aimed at making sure the state’s transportation planning regions are drawn “in a way that actually represents population and the goals that we’ve set forward in transit legislation.”

When asked if local governments were consulted on the amendment, Winter said there were conversations and that the Colorado Department of Transportation “has been discussing this for awhile.”

Opposition to the change

State Sen. Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat, voted against the bill on Friday, joining 10 Republican senators. He’d heard from TPR members in rural communities who were concerned about redrawing the regions’ boundaries based on population counts, he said.

“The idea of redrawing TPRs is not new and there could be some benefit for smaller communities, but we need to do it as separate bill and have a full stakeholder process to make sure it’s not just based on population,” said Roberts, whose district includes all or portions of Clear Creek, Eagle, Garfield, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt and Summit counties. “While not everybody lives in our area, they certainly come and visit and they have impacts to our roads and environments.”

“This will completely combine all the TPRs into a large rural populace and give us zero voice when it comes to funding for our roads,” said Heather Sloop, a Steamboat Springs councilmember who serves on the STAC as chair of the five-county Northwest Travel Planning Region. The region contains 1.1% of the state’s population and 7.2% of the state’s lane miles.

The STAC met last week with CDOT officials. There was no mention of an amendment that could reorganize the transportation advisory committee, Sloop said.

“They deliberately did not say a thing. I am accusing CDOT of not giving STAC information. Please quote me,” Sloop said. “This smells so dirty and undercutting and gross and unethical.”

Margaret Bowes, director of the 28-member I-70 Coalition, said her group was “surprised by the amendment.”

“We are really trying to get a better understanding of what the changes might mean for I-70 Coalition members,” said Bowes, whose group of 20 rural municipalities, three rural counties, four ski resorts and one mining company, works to improve flow on the busy central mountain corridor of Interstate 70. “Ultimately we want to ensure that any changes to the boundaries of the TPRs do not diminish rural representation at the state level on boards like the STAC and the transportation commission.”

Club 20, a coalition of businesses, tribes and local governments in Colorado’s 22 western counties that formed in 1953 in response to rural transportation funding challenges, sent out an email blast Tuesday afternoon urging members to reach out to legislators to block a “devastating transportation representation bill” that is “being fast tracked” through the statehouse.

“This bill would have devastating impacts to rural Colorado’s representation and, if passed, would silence the voices of western Colorado and rural communities,” the Club 20 email reads.

They deliberately did not say a thing. I am accusing CDOT of not giving STAC information. Please quote me. This smells so dirty and undercutting and gross and unethical.

— Heather Sloop, Steamboat Springs council member and member of the State Transportation Advisory Committee

Vince Rogalski has been chairman of the STAC for 19 years, representing the sixcounty Gunnison Valley TPR, which has about 1.8% of the state’s population and 6.5% of its roads. He just heard about the amendment to House Bill 1101 on Monday night. He fired off a note to House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, telling her the

The House could reject the Senate amendment. Assistant House Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat who is another lead sponsor of the bill, said she plans to closely review the change.

“We need to have a conversation about it,” she said.

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.

The

10 Bills that were Doomed in Colorado’s Democratic Legislature that Republicans Introduced Anyway

One way for the power-limited GOP to make their voices heard at the Capitol is by introducing “statement bills.” Some of the measures are highly controversial.

by Elliott Wenzler, The Colorado Sun

party lines by the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 9 after more than an hour of testimony.

Dissuading enforcement of federal firearms laws

House Bill 1044: From Rep. Ken DeGraaf of Colorado Springs this bill would have created a civil penalty for enforcing federal laws that are deemed to have infringed on the right to bear arms. It was rejected 8-2 along party lines after two hours of testimony Feb. 6 in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

Abortion ban

House Bill 1119: This bill, also brought by Bottoms, would have abolished abortion in Colorado by including any fetus in the definition of “person” as it relates to things like homicide and assault. The House Health and Insurance Committee heard three hours of testimony and then voted 8-3 along party lines to reject it on Feb. 17.

Voting systems wireless connections

House Bill 1055: This bill from Rep. Rod Bockenfeld of Watkins prohibits the use of voting systems that are capable of establishing a wireless connection beginning in 2024. It was rejected 8-3 along party lines by the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 13 after nearly two hours of testimony.

Carbon dioxide as a pollutant

House Bill 1163: Another bill from DeGraaf that would have prohibited state and local governments from classifying carbon dioxide as a pollutant or enforcing regulations on the chemical compound that deem it a pollutant. It was rejected 8-3 along party lines by the House Energy and Environment Committee on Feb. 23 after 45 minutes of testimony.

COVID-19 vaccine requirements for minors

House Bill 1029: A bill that would have prohibited requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for minors, administering vaccinations without guardian consent and discriminating against unvaccinated minors was introduced by Bradley and Sen. Mark Baisley. It was rejected 8-3 along party lines by the House Health and Insurance Committee on Feb. 7 after two and a half hours of testimony.

Banning abortion. Restricting transgender athletes’ participation in school sports. Slashing state revenues by cutting the income tax rate.

A wave of bills Republicans are introducing in the Democrat-controlled Colorado legislature reads like a list of hot-button GOP talking points. And that’s not by mistake, even if they have no chance of becoming law.

House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, said the measures — some of which are highly controversial — are “statement bills” that show Coloradans what Republicans’ priorities are and how they would lead the state if they were in charge.

“I think if we were suddenly to be in the majority, you’d see a whole bunch of really drastic right-wing legislation,” Lynch said. “But I think that’s largely a factor of the fact that we’ve been out of the majority for so long. We’re trying to fix these things that have piled up over the last 10 years.”

The legislation may only be sponsored by a handful of Republicans, but they reflect on the entire caucus. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, urged people not to necessarily lump the entire GOP together.

“The Republican caucus is an intellectually diverse caucus. It brings an array of perspectives,” he said. “One or two people have a strong conviction of this specific nature and there may be other perspectives.”

Immunity for business owners using force

House Bill 1050: Introduced by Rep. Ty Winter of Trinidad, this bill would have expanded immunity of business owners, employees and customers from criminal prosecution and civil liability in a situation in which they use physical force to protect themselves or others against an intruder. It was rejected 8-2 along party lines by the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 6 after about two hours of testimony.

Eliminating caucus and assembly process for primaries

Senate Bill 101: This bill from Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, and Rep. Mary Bradfield, R-Colorado Springs, would have eliminated the ability of candidates to qualify for primary ballots through the assembly process. It was rejected 4-1 by the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee on Feb. 16 after about an hour of testimony.

State fees on retail deliveries

House Bill 1166: This bill would have repealed a 27 cent state fee on retail deliveries and was sponsored by House Assistant Minority Leader Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs and Sen. Perry Will of New Castle. It was rejected 9-4 along party lines by the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee on Feb. 21 after 10 minutes of testimony.

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

Colorado Corn Administrative Committee Announces Rebrand

[Centennial, CO March 7, 2023] Today, the Colorado Corn Administrative Committee (CCAC) announced a major rebranding, including name and logo. Starting today, the organization has officially rebranded to the Colorado Corn Promotion Council (CCPC). This improved branding will better reflect the organization’s mission and its commitment to the Colorado grain corn producers.

“The 2021-2022 year was a big year for our organization. I am excited to announce one of our biggest accomplishments, and that is the rebranding of our organization! We will now be known as the Colorado Corn Promotion Council. This change came from our strategic plan and better reflects the work our organization does day in and day out to promote the corn industry in Colorado,” said Rod Hahn, CCPC President.

Democrats are running into the same political conundrum, including when it comes to a bill that would let local governments enact rent control policies and another that would legalize safe-injection sites, where people could use illicit drugs under medical supervision. The governor, whose signature is vital for any bill to become law, has signaled he’s skeptical about both. Democrats introduced them anyway.

Each legislator is permitted to introduce five bills, and each one must get a hearing. That’s different from in Congress, where leadership can shelve legislation they don’t like.

In other words: Democrats are effectively powerless to stop controversial GOP measures from seeing the light of day.

The day of a committee hearing for several Republican abortion-related bills — including a total ban on the procedure — Democrats said statement bills aren’t new.

“It is important that we take them seriously and that they are heard,” said House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon. “We will still honor this institution by making sure that every piece of legislation is heard in committee in a fair way and then our public has a moment to share their voices and perspectives.”

Here are 10 bills introduced by Republicans in the legislature this year that have been rejected by the Democratic majority — and were always likely to meet that fate.

Restricting school sports participation based on biological sex

House Bill 1098: This bill, sponsored by Reps. Lisa Frizell, Brandi Bradley and Sen. Byron Pelton, would have required that student athletes only participate in sports based on their biological sex at birth. It was rejected 8-3 along party lines by the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 13 after an hour and a half of tes timony.

Reduction of state income tax rate

House Bill 1063: Introduced by Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs, this bill would have reduced the state income tax to 3.5% from 4.4% beginning in the 2024 tax year — slashing the state’s general fund by billions of dollars. It was rejected 8-3 along

Established and led by farmers, the CCPC is a state checkoff agency created in 1987, with passionate volunteer producer-leaders and talented administrative staff, focused on creating larger markets for corn produced in Colorado. The organization manages demand-building programs and research projects on behalf of Colorado grain corn and a one-penny per bushel assessment. For more than 30 years checkoff assessments have proven to promote utilization of grain corn and advance the use of the most innovative technology. The rebranding reflects the way the organization has grown, and better represents what they do.

The new brand identity is rooted in the work done through the strategic plan and better embodies the mission of our organization’s heritage. “The CCAC has always had a focus on improving the corn industry in Colorado,” said Nicholas Colglazier, Executive Director of Colorado Corn Promotion Council, “our new brand now truly reflects our mission, being the trusted, tireless promoters of corn.” The rebrand marks a milestone as the organization continues to promote Colorado grain corn with a new name and logo that will all work with its new mission, vision, and priorities.

The CCPC engages local communities in ways that showcase the long-term environmental services and important economic impact delivered by Colorado corn producers to communities across the state, and around the world. Domestic and international demand for corn and corn by-products, biofuels, and animal-based products like meat, eggs and milk is built through the work of the CCPC and their partners.

State Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, in front center, and other republicans answer questions to the media during the first day of the 2023 legislative session, Jan. 9, 2023, in the Colorado State Capitol in Denver

(Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen delivers opening day remarks at the Capitol, Jan. 9, 2023, in Denver. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Caldara: Polis has the Political Pull to Rein in Legislature

by Jon Caldara, Complete Colorado

Our governor is mega-wealthy in terms of personal cash, able to buy himself a term on the State Board of Education for a cool million when no previous candidate spent more than $10,000. Then he bought five terms as a U.S. congressman and two terms as Colorado’s top executive.

But Polis doesn’t just have monetary capital. He’s also swimming in political capital. I mean he is like Saudi prince-kinda-rich. But unlike financial capital, this wealth is very fleeting.

If Polis doesn’t use it, and fast, he will lose it.

Here’s a couple of examples of use and misuse of political capital.

After the first Gulf War, read-my-lips-no-new-taxes George H. Bush reached an approval rating of 93%. Like putting a man on the moon, running a four-minute-mile or a gay Jewish man becoming governor of Colorado, this was considered a scientific impossibility.

Bush sat on that rating, that political capital, like it was a La-Z-Boy he could nap on through retirement.

Bush’s re-election was so certain no “A” level presidential candidates emerged early to challenge him. Some backwater southern yahoo ran just to boost his “Bill Clinton” name recognition.

Bush’s La-Z-Boy turned out to be a pool floaty chair with a huge hole in it. He didn’t use his political wealth before the air went out.

Bush ended up caving to congress from the Americans with Disabilities Act to tax hikes (doesn’t matter what you think of these policies, Bush didn’t want them). History remembers him as a weak, caretaker one-term president.

When Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1979 her political capital was low. Inflation hit 18%, the Soviet Union rolled into Afghanistan, much of her country was on the welfare dole, with an escalating sense of entitlement and victimhood. Her approval rating skidded to 23%, a certain one-termer.

(Funny how those social ills sound familiar.)

Then Argentina invaded the Falk-land Islands, a British territory. Her decisive leadership in the war gave her political capital that Bush would experience years later. But unlike Bush, Thatcher wouldn’t squander it.

She quickly used that connection with the people to direct their attention and pressure to the out-of-touch lawmakers to stop their madness and instead unleash pro-people reforms which saved the U.K.

Using that capital, she sold off government-owned industries and privatized railways and bus systems. In what progressives would cheer today, she closed unprofitable government owned coal mines. She took on big labor and the welfare state. She passed the Environmental Protection Act and created the International Panel on Climate Change. She was key in ending the cold war and became the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century.

Back to Gov. Polis, who was swept back into office with a massive 18-point victory. He has the luxury of being term-limited, or next stop White House if he likes. Point being: he doesn’t have to please the wingnuts in the legislature. He can please middle-voters in Iowa or nobody if he chooses.

The polling I’ve seen has him off the-charts with Colorado voters. He’s seen the same. It’s not 93%, but many different polls have him riding enormously, colossally high. And no Jared, it won’t last. Never does.

Yes, he’ll veto some easy stuff and the media will fall over itself to award him “profiles in courage.” It ain’t. When Gavin Newsom vetoes a “safe injection site” bill, it makes vetoes like that mandatory, not brave.

The polls also show Coloradans want their taxes cut, they don’t like the legislature — and they care for Biden even less.

So now he has all the political capital he needs to publicly and loudly call out the legislature on why he’ll veto any of their plans to raise fees and taxes, why he’ll not open Pandora’s Box of rent control, why he won’t de facto unionize private-sector workers, why he won’t raise energy costs, etc.

He no longer needs to “work behind the scenes” to make monstrously awful bills just slightly less monstrously awful. He can publicly take on such bad ideas, kill the bills and gather MORE political capital.

In fact, now is the time for him to, Thatcher-style, seize his moment and drag his legislature to pass HIS agenda, not their anti-people one. Polis wants to bring the income tax closer to zero. He has the capital to make that happen, now.

Is he a wimp like Bush, or a man like Thatcher?

We’ll find out by the end of the session.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

Weld County CattleWomen Scholarship

The Weld County CattleWomen are offering a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded to a college junior, senior or a student studying for an advanced degree in the fall of 2023. The student needs to be a Weld County, Colorado resident, or have parents/ grandparents that are Weld County residents, and be attending college with a minimum GPA of 2.5. The student must be planning to attend a school full time for the 2023-2024 school year, in a bachelors or graduate level program.

To apply the applicant must submit:

1. Cover Sheet with name, address, and email. If address listed is not in Weld County describe how you qualify (parents address, etc)

2. A 1 page essay on “How I plan to positively influence the beef industry with my chosen major”.

3. A brief statement/resume including the following: work history, community involvement, college activities, future goals.

4. Two letters of reference

5. Copy of college transcript.

Send completed application to Sallie Miller, 48335 CR 83, Briggsdale, CO 80611 or smiller@wigginstel.com.

Applications are due by May 1, 2023. Winners will be announced by May 15, 2023.

- ObituaryLeta Hawks

Leta Glyn Hawks, passed peacefully on February 20, 2023 at home in Keenesburg, Colorado with loving family at her side. Leta was born in Hereford, Texas on July 24, 1929.

More commonly known as GG or Babe, she lived a long and wonderful life, bringing joy and fun to her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and all friends that knew her.

As part of the celebration of Leta’s life her family would like to invite attendees to participate by sharing their memories and stories verbally or in writing which will be collected.

Leta is survived by her family which includes her sons Jim (Cherie), Bob (Moira), Chuck (Cari), and Steven. Daughters Juanda and Susan (Art). Many Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, nieces and nephews and many other relatives. Preceded in death by Glenn and Lannie Rutter (Parents), Aldon C. Hawks Jr. (Loving husband), Ronnie Hawks (son).

The family is most appreciative and grateful for all the love and support that was given during the last year of Leta’s life. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions be made to: Izzy Leet Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Carla Leet, 29265 Highway 52, Keenesburg CO, 80643 or Bristol Hospice – NOCO, 3770 Puritan Way, Unit E, Fredrick CO, 80626.

Colorado Attorney General Seeks Internal TikTok Messages in Probe of Platform’s Effect on Kids’ Health

“We know young people are suffering. A part of that is social media,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said Monday in an update to the nationwide probe into the popular video platform.

by Olivia Prentzel, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is asking a Tennessee judge to order TikTok to release internal communications as part of a nationwide investigation into the popular video platform and its possible harmful effects on young people and their mental health.

During a news conference Monday, Weiser, who is helping lead the investigation alongside Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, said TikTok is not sharing internal messaging that could reveal whether its employees are aware of the harmful effects the social media platform is having on young people.

Reviewing messages sent through an internal platform, where employees discuss and analyze issues with their product, will help determine whether TikTok broke any laws in promoting its platform to young people, Weiser said.

State attorneys general from 46 states have “good reason to believe that TikTok’s unfair and deceptive conduct has fueled an ongoing crisis in the mental health crisis of children and teens,” according to court documents filed Monday. Some documents provided by TikTok reinforce the states’ concern that TikTok “is well aware of the harm it is causing to our youth,” the plaintiffs said, but the documents were not included in the filing due to confidentiality agreements.

Heavy use of social media is driving the youth mental health crisis, the states argued, and addictive features, like “infinite scrolling,” on the app heighten the risk of habitual use that could affect how young people’s brains mature.

“We want to make sure social media platforms are operating as they should. We need the information from these companies to do that,” Weiser said.

Since the start of the investigation, TikTok continues to allow its employees to send auto-deleting messages to each other and have provided messages to the states in a format that is “difficult to use and navigate,” the attorney general’s office said.

Government officials and child-safety advocates have said that TikTok’s algorithms that push video content to its users can promote eating disorders and even self-harm and suicide to young views.

The social media platform, which has an estimated 1 billion monthly users, is especially popular with teens and younger children.

The investigation coincides with several security concerns with the app. The U.S. government has mandated that all federal employees delete TikTok from their work phones, citing privacy concerns, and Sen. Michael Bennet has urged Apple and Google to ban the platform from their app stores.

A spokesperson for TikTok did not reply to a request for comment.

Weiser said his office is committed to holding any company accountable in harming its consumers, particularly young people.

“We know young people are suffering. A part of that is social media,” Weiser said. “Too many algorithms on too many platforms are pushing people down dangerous dark holes.”

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

Mike’s Column From Disappointment to Triumph

This year, the Weld Central High School Men’s Basketball team felt as if it suffered a huge loss. A few months back, we lost our former coaches, meaning that the pain and sorrow we felt going home that night we heard the news seemed unbearable. We tried blaming everybody for the problem that we couldn’t explain ourselves. Some on the team seemed to lose all willpower and integrity to even fight through the rest of the season. We also blamed that on the loss of the coaches. However, some veteran coaches decided to step up and help guide us through the rest of our season. We felt as if we couldn’t play our best without the previous mentors there. Sooner than later, we started losing some of our games. Things finally picked up in Valley with a good win for the Varsity and hard-fought games for the JV and D teams. The entire team that went on fought hard to finish the season on a high note. We started to realize that our new coaches could help us triumph through the rest of our season as the Varsity went to state with honor!

Mike

Fort Morgan Senior Reaches 1,000 Career Points

by Paul Dineen, Get The Picture Sports LLC

Wesley Carnes, senior basketball player for the Fort Morgan Mustangs, needed twenty-one points in the final game of his high school career on February 16, 2023 to reach the 1,000 point mark. The Mustangs won the game over the Skyline Falcons, 85-68, but Carnes didn’t score twenty-one points. He scored fifty-five. That gave him a career total of 1,034 points. As reported by Scott Roberts, Sports Director at 1400 AM KFTM in Fort Morgan, Carnes joins Trey McBride, Eric Kembel, Tate Kembel and Scott Blachley as the only Mustangs to score 1,000 points in their careers.

The Next Colorado GOP Chair will Either be an Election Denier or an Election Skeptic some Republicans See the Prospect of Voting Conspiracies being at the Highest Echelons of the Party as Disastrous

by Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun

HUDSON — Of the six candidates running to be chair of the Colorado GOP, three believe that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, another says he’s not sure if Trump or President Joe Biden was victorious and a fifth won’t directly answer the question.

Only one of the candidates, Erik Aadland, concedes that Biden was elected president, but said he doesn’t know if it was “by hook or by crook.”

“Whether fraud (had) a role in the outcome of 2020, sadly we’ll never know, folks,” Aadland said at a debate Saturday at a pizza restaurant in Hudson moderated by The Colorado Sun and Colorado Politics.

That means that whoever is elected March 11 to lead the Colorado GOP for the next two years will either be a full-blown election denier or, at the very least, an election skeptic. Some Republicans see the prospect of voting conspiracies being at the highest echelons of the party as disastrous as the GOP looks to rebuild after three election cycles of defeat in an increasingly Democratic-leaning state.

“Every one of these six candidates would drive the party into deeper oblivion with their conspiratorial, exclusionary and politically naïve agendas that are already repelling a rapidly changing Colorado electorate,” Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado GOP chair, wrote in a recent opinion column.

It’s possible that a candidate could announce a bid to be Colorado GOP chair on March 11, when the party’s central committee meets to pick a new leader. But with less than two weeks to go before the election, that seems highly unlikely.

The Colorado GOP chair race isn’t unique. The Associated Press reports similar state party leader contests across the nation feature election-denying candidates, many of whom ran for office in 2022 but lost.

Biden won the 2020 presidential election and there has been no proof of fraud or malfeasance that would have overturned the results. Various lawsuits challenging the outcome have been tossed, and now people responsible for spreading conspiracies about the race are facing legal action themselves.

Still, former state Rep. Dave Williams, Tina Peters, the indicted former Mesa County clerk, and Aaron Wood, a conservative activist and Douglas County businessman, all said Saturday at the event hosted by the Republican Women of Weld that they believe Trump won in 2020.

Wood said Republicans “need to not be afraid of people calling us” election deniers or subscribers to the “big lie.”

“Trump won,” he said.

Peters ran for secretary of state last year and lost in the primary. Williams ran for a congressional seat but also lost in a primary. Wood is making his first real foray into politics.

Former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg was the candidate who said he wasn’t sure who was the true 2020 winner. “I think that Biden didn’t legitimately win, but I don’t know,” Lundberg said.

Casper Stockham, who ran for state party chair in 2021 after three failed congressional bids, sidestepped the question by saying Biden is in the White House and the 2020 election is in the past. Stockham “wants transparency in the election process, and until that unequivocally is guaranteed to happen, he will question the process,” his spokeswoman said.

When Stockham ran for state party chair in 2021, he said “I don’t know that the election was stolen, but I feel it was.”

Aadland, who ran unsuccessfully last year to represent the 7th Congressional District, said Saturday that he, too, thinks “this rehashing 2020 is not serving Republicans.” But during his 2022 congressional campaign, Aadland called the 2020 election rigged and said the government was illegitimate.

The candidates are all pushing for election-process changes, too

In addition to rejecting, or at least questioning, the 2020 presidential election results, the six candidates running to lead the Colorado GOP are pushing for changes to the state’s election processes.

All six would like to block unaffiliated voters from participating in Republican primaries by reversing Proposition 108, a voter-approved 2016 ballot measure letting unaffiliated voters, who make up 47% of the state’s electorate, weigh in on partisan primaries.

The Colorado GOP recently began raising money for a lawsuit the GOP and Democratic primaries. A similar legal action filed in federal court in 2022 failed.

“If you want to choose the Republican nominee, you should be a Republican,” Williams said.

He was the only one of the slate who said they think the Colorado GOP should take a vote to opt out of the primary process, which is allowed under Proposition 108. To be successful, 75% of the state party’s central committee would have to support the move.

In 2021, the Colorado GOP’s central committee overwhelmingly voted down an effort led by Williams and others to bypass the 2022 primaries and select general election candidates only through the caucus and assembly process.

Williams said he still thinks the GOP should opt out.

Lundberg, Aadland and Stockham explicitly said they don’t think the Colorado GOP should take a similar vote in the future — Aadland said it would be “disastrous” to opt out — while Wood and Peters didn’t answer the question.

All six candidates said they also oppose Colorado’s system of mailing ballots to every active, registered voter.

• “I don’t believe in mail-in ballots,” said Peters, who added that people should have to vote in person on Election Day.

• “I do not support them,” Wood said of mail-in ballots.

• “I do not support mail-in ballots,” Stockham said.

• “In-person, same-day voting is the ideal, but that’s not what we have in Colorado,”

Aadland said.

• “Universal mail-in ballots is a terrible idea,” Lundberg said.

• “I don’t support mail-in balloting,” Williams said. “We have it as our system and we need to work with it. If we can ever go back to same-day voting at a polling center with ID laws then we should.”

Other things to know about the candidates

The candidates on Saturday each shared their thoughts on why the GOP fared so poorly last year.

“We lost in 2022 because we put unprincipled, weak candidates forward in top, key positions,” Wood said. “And we’re losing trust with the party. We’re losing trust with real conservative voices throughout our state.”

Williams said Republicans lost because they “failed to provide a true contrast” with Democrats. Lundberg said he agreed with Williams and Wood and that the GOP needed to have a clear vision for what it stands for.

Peters said Republicans lost badly in 2022 “because … of the machines,” saying the GOP’s misfortune is the fault of election irregularities, of which there is no evidence. Aadland said Republicans had a messaging problem. “We have the best candidates and we have the right way forward,” he said. “But we’ve got to articulate our message in a way that Coloradans believe in, understand and want to get behind.”

Stockham said the Colorado GOP needs to boost its numbers to win in the future. Right now, registered Republicans make up 24% of active, registered voters. Democrats make up 27%.

Here are some other key moments from the debate:

• Wood alleged that affordable housing projects are being used as a way to turn Republican areas blue. “You look at the affordable housing projects and the multifamily housing that’s been popping up in Douglas County — I’m sure the same is true in Jefferson County and Weld County, all across our state — it’s to pack people in,” he said. “And if you pack in people in affordable housing, guess what you’re going to get? Democrat control in your counties.”

• Peters didn’t directly answer a question about how she would balance preparing for her upcoming felony trial on charges that she orchestrated a breach of Mesa County’s election system and the duties of serving as GOP chair. She also didn’t answer a question about whether she would step down if convicted and incarcerated. Instead, Peters read a Psalm and said she welcomed the trial because she wants to “expose these machines,” presumably meaning electronic ballot tabulators.

• “You want to know why we don’t win? It’s because we don’t tell the truth,” Williams said. “If we got out there and we boldly articulated what we believed in, we would win.”

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

Transfer degrees from MCC to a Colorado university means a higher chance of success and less debt.