Free Republic

In the wake of a New York grand jury deciding not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, racially diverse protests instantly erupted across the nation. White faces could be seen in swelling crowds from NYC and D.C., to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Denver. Their mouths covered with masking tape with the words "I can't breathe" scrawled over it. The righteousness of racial solidarity burning in their eyes as they joined in chanting, "Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" This is not to say that there were not White allies...

A man who video recorded Denver police repeatedly punching a man in the face, causing his head to bounce off the pavement, before tripping his pregnant wife and causing her to fall on her face – sparking an FBI investigation into the department – was arrested Thursday in what appears to be a case of retaliation. After all, Denver police not only arrested him on what they called a “newly activated traffic warrant” from a nearby county after he had just left the FBI office with whom he is cooperating on the federal investigation, they refused to allow him to...

Jonathan Gruber’s health care forecasting is failing in Colorado as Vermont’s Gov. Peter Shumlin prepares to use the economist’s math for single-payer health care. As Vermonters anxiously await a Gruber-modeled financing plan for Green Mountain Care, modeling done for Colorado’s health exchange by Jonathan Gruber Associates has proven wildly erroneous. In 2011, following Colorado’s decision to set up a state health exchange for Obamacare, the state hired Gruber to forecast enrollment trends from which the state and federal government could estimate costs. According to a presentation delivered to the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange Board on Sept. 16, 2011, and provided...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday dismissed a Senate report on harsh interrogation practices used by the Central Intelligence Agency, saying officials "very carefully” avoided going past the legal threshold for torture. "Torture is what the al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11," Cheney said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "There is no comparison between that and what we did with respect to enhanced interrogation." The CIA’s interrogation techniques following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have come under fire following a Senate report detailing how agency operatives used waterboarding and rectal feeding to try to obtain...

Did you know that there’s been a massive uptick in white thugs setting black folks on fire, yet the media has been virtually silent on this horrendous subject? Sure, we all have heard of Darren Wilson's shooting Michael Brown, but there has been no coverage of the aforementioned. Like in zero… nada… nothing… zilch. What kind of racist “news outlets” would be so heinous to cover up such gross and unspeakable evil? Why haven’t the most powerful people in our government and the entertainment industry spoken out and condemned this obvious xenophobic act of viciousness? How come there has been...

DENVER — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made good Friday on his promise to sue the federal government over its hotly contested move to list the Gunnison sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. The Colorado Attorney General’s office filed a notice of intent to sue with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Fish and Wildlife Service director Daniel M. Ashe, arguing that the agency’s Nov. 12 decision to list the bird as threatened was flawed and failed to appreciate fully the impact of aggressive state and local conservation efforts. “The Service failed to use the best available science in its listing...

The Obama administration will direct attorneys to not prevent Native American tribes on reservations from growing and selling marijuana even in states where pot is illegal, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. Some federal restrictions will still apply. Marijuana can't be sold to minors, grown on public land, fall into the hands of drug cartels, or systemically spread to states where the drug remains illegal. It's unclear how many tribes will take advantage of the opportunity. Many are opposed to marijuana legalization. The federal government will continue enforcing prohibition for those tribes, at their request, even in states where...

A record number of rogue Christian pastors are endorsing candidates from the pulpit this election cycle, using Sunday sermons to defiantly flout tax rules. Their message to the IRS: Sue me. But the tax agency is doing anything but. Although the IRS was sued itself for not enforcing the law and admitted about 100 churches may be breaking the rules, the pastors and their critics alike say the agency is looking the other way. The agency refuses to say if it is acting. At the same time, the number of pastors endorsing candidates in what they call Pulpit Freedom Sunday...

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, no matter how full-throated the endorsements of Common Core by such worthies as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the parents go marching on. “Colorado Springs School District 11 struck a blow against the Common Core by voting to remove the majority of its students from the new, mandatory standardized tests,” Chris Neal wrote in School Reform News this month. “District 11, which has nearly 30, 000 students, announced it plans to randomly test the minimum number of students needed to meet the federal requirement, allowing the rest to opt...

".....Yuma,Colorado, a farming town of 3,500 people near the Kansas border, celebrated last month as homegrown Republican Cory Gardner was elected to the U.S. Senate. Gardner, a high school football player and the son of a farm equipment dealer, defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall to help the GOP gain control of the Senate in the second-most expensive congressional race of all time.Gardner represented Colorado’s 4th Congressional District for four years, an expansive territory that covers the mostly flat and rural eastern third of the state. Farmers there mostly grow corn to feed cattle, and water comes from the quickly...

Secretary of state alleges violations The Colorado Secretary of State's Office alleges that Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall "violated state law in several ways" during the processing of ballots and the tallying of votes cast in the 2014 general election. Hall declined Friday to give a point-by-point response to those allegations, which included: •"She systematically discriminated against Republican election judges, by excluding people nominated by the Republican Party, and even appointing people not registered to vote." •"She prevented watchers from having a meaningful opportunity to observe and verify the signature review process, created an artificially cramped area for them to...

If you sign up for Denver college professor Charles Angeletti's American Civilization class, be forewarned that you're going to have to recite his invective-filled 'New Pledge' -- and according to some of his students, also be ready to swallow a big helping of his politics. Angeletti, who teaches at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has students learn an anti-American spoof of the Pledge of Allegiance that denounces the U.S. as a Republican-controlled bastion of injustice, all while spewing his own far-left brand of politics, according to current and former students.

The Ferguson protests will make a huge, positive impact…for the Republican Party. Surprised? Don’t be. Whether using peaceful dissent, raised hands by professional athletes, or outright violence, these protestors boost public approval for those they most despise. And who do they despise? Cops? Too limited. White people? Too broad. Look closely at who is protesting. Not all are black, and one black group is conspicuously absent—black Conservatives. The sole commonality among these protesters isn’t race, but ideology, for they are all Liberal. And that means they oppose Conservatives—or to be politically exact, Republicans. Virtually all these protesters, either in St....

On December 3, supporters who marched in Denver for Michael Brown cheered when a car struck four Denver police officers doing crowd control on bicycles.

Craig — Monday is the deadline to submit comments to the Environmental Protection Agency concerning the proposed Clean Energy Plan that aims to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The next step is for the federal government to review submitted statements made during the past several months in order to make a final ruling on the plan by June. Originally, the deadline was Oct. 15, but it was extended to Monday after the EPA received nearly 750,000 comments before the first deadline, according to the EPA. Northwest Colorado houses two coal-fired power plants, Craig Station in Moffat County and...

… The data coming out of Colorado is exhibit A on why voters should reject legalization efforts. Even the Democratic governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, said that legalizing marijuana in Colorado was “reckless.” As I have written at Heritage, pot-positive traffic fatalities have gone up 100 percent since voters legalized pot in Colorado. This is true despite the fact that overall traffic fatalities in Colorado have gone down since 2007. A report by a federal grant-funded agency in Colorado found seven specific negative side effects that pot legalization has caused in Colorado: the majority of DUI drug arrests involve marijuana;youth...

For shoppers of age in Colorado and Washington state, the most novel deal this Black Friday isn’t a gadget like the iPhone 6. If what they’re looking for is relaxation, they’re in luck: For their first Black Friday ever, recreational marijuana dispensaries in those states are offering some great deals on weed. “This is one of the first times in the nation that we’re going to be able to do such crazy discounts and specials on marijuana products, and have people 21 years or older be able to come in and join the festivities,” says John Satterfield, a distribution worker...

More women in El Paso County are getting their concealed carry permits than ever before. According to the sheriff’s office, in 2005, 917 women in El Paso received permits. In 2013, records reveal 8,193 women had permits. That’s a jump of 793 percent. Local NRA instructor Germaine Adams says the surge in numbers doesn’t surprise her.

GOP Rep. Cory Gardner won election to the Senate in the midterms in a state where 14 percent of voters are Hispanic. His GOP colleague, Rep. Mike Coffman, won re-election in a district where 14 percent of residents were born in foreign countries. Both opposed last year's failed bipartisan effort in the Senate to overhaul the nation's immigration system, a top priority of immigrant-rights groups, especially its centerpiece: a pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Both also spoke warmly of the contributions made by immigrants and shifted to the center on...

For the third time since 2012, a majority of the Boulder County Canvass Board has voted not to certify the all-mail results of Nov. 4, citing, among other allegations, Colorado's "bogus" signature verification process, which some board members say presents potentially unreliable data. ... The Canvass Board is tasked with ensuring the total number of ballots counted on Election Day does not exceed the total number of ballots cast. It is also responsible for certifying the official abstract of votes, which, in this case, is due to Secretary of State Scott Gessler on Monday. Its recommendation came on a 4-3...