Ari Armstrong's Web Log (Main) | Archives | Terms of Use
Colorado News Miner 134
Cruel immigration policies, regulatory abuse, tax spending, 'incompetent' criminals, Kirkmeyer, property rights, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2025
Ari's Recent Columns at Complete Colorado and the Colorado Times Recorder:
• Secular and Religious Education in Colorado: Which Should Parents Choose?
• Soak the rich income tax scheme won't help Coloradans
• Politicians have no business influencing 9News sale
Cruelty for the Sake of Cruelty: Taylor Dolven: "Carolina Suarez Estrada . . . had a work permit from the federal government, a steady job at a construction company, a pending asylum case, a Colorado driver’s license and no criminal convictions. She also had a 7-year-old son, Luciano, waiting for her to pick him up from the babysitter's house." Still, ICE kidnapped her and her son and locked them in a cage. This is disgusting. This is cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Regardless of the legality, this is a moral crime.
Assault of the Violinist: Violinist: "John Shin [originally of South Korea], 37, entered the U.S. legally as a child and is married to a U.S. citizen, making him eligible for a green card, according to his attorney Adam Crayk. . . . Shin has a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Utah and has performed with the Utah Symphony and Ballet West." ICE kidnapped him and locked him in a cage for 17 days. This is, again, cruelty for the sake of cruelty.
Abuse of Immigrants: 9News: "Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and worker advocacy groups are sounding the alarm about a new trend of employers threatening to report workers to immigration authorities as retaliation for reporting wage theft or other workplace abuses." That's really terrible behavior on the part of those employers. I would point out that the abusive action is made possible by the federal government's horrible and incoherent immigration policies.
Regulatory Abuse: CBS: "The future of the French bakery Et Voila Bakery was in jeopardy after a complaint was made about two trailers on their property. . . . The property was not zoned to have the trailers. . . . 'Any residential uses are not allowed on a commercial use property, meaning any mobile homes or dwelling units fall outside of the acceptable commercial uses,' said Jefferson County in a statement sent to CBS Colorado." This is just bureaucrats screwing with people for the sake of screwing with them. No sane person cares if they keep residential trailers on the property.
More Regulatory Abuse: Jennifer Brown: "Virginia [Loop] and her husband, Zac . . . researched state and local laws, decided they did not need a permit, took out a home equity loan and built a $60,000 greenhouse on their 4-acre lot not far from Woodland Park. Now they are facing the possibility of losing their home after Teller County officials told the Loops to tear down the greenhouse." Again, why not just, you know . . . leave them alone?
Wage Controls Kill Denver Restaurants: Halina Bennet: "While intended to support workers, Denver’s high minimum wage, especially its low tip credit, has unintentionally undermined the financial viability of full-service, labor-intensive restaurants." If only someone could have warned about such problems.
Polis Cuts: It's clear the legislature for the most part didn't actually cut spending to account for the budget shortfall. Instead, it raised net taxes on business. Polis did cut $103 million, reports Nick Coltrain, but he also raided $146 million from cash accounts and diverted $328 million from the rainy-day fund. Oh, and the legislature enabled companies to pay future tax burdens at a discount now. That is a bullshit way to fund state government.
Releasing 'Incompetent' Criminals: Dillon Thomas: "Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams has issued a warning to the public after releasing former inmate Debisa Ephraim from his custody. . . . According to Weld County Sheriff's Office, Ephraim was involved in at least two violent attacks on Northern Colorado men. . . . His charges included serious crimes such as attempted second-degree murder and assault. . . . Reams said . . . Ephraim [was] deemed incompetent to stand trial. . . . Reams said the law [HB 24-1034] . . . leaves a void that allows those who do not qualify for the mental health program to then be released without further attention." This seems like a grotesque and dangerous oversight! Sometimes such lapses in the criminal justice system have horrific consequences.
Clark on Trump: In a September 2 video, Kyle Clark said that Trump moving Space Command out of Colorado specifically because of Trump's disapproval of Colorado's mail voting and because of Trump's "false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him" constitutes an example of "authoritarianism."
Trans Gun Rights: I was glad to see both Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the NRA opposed the Trump administration's plan (or troll proposal) to strip transgender people of their right to own a gun.
Kirkmeyer: She's running for governor. Her web site says "It's time" to "turn things around" in Colorado, but I think this is also a subtle message that it's time to have a woman governor of the sate. But here's Salzman in 2022: "Kirkmeyer has said she's against all abortion, whatever the circumstances, at whatever stage of pregnancy, even for rape and incest. She's now saying she favors abortion to save the mother's life." So I immediately assume she's going to lose. At the same time, a lot of voters might (probably correctly) think that there's nothing Kirkmeyer could do to weaken abortion rights in Colorado. It would sure be nice having someone willing to veto rather than rubber-stamp most stupid Democratic bills! She's not generally insane or a deranged MAGA tool, so for a Republican these days that's pretty good!
Both Parties Suck: Magellan: Coloradans hate both the Republican and Democratic parties by a margin of 68% to 30%. The numbers are about the same for rating the economy. Half of people said they'd vote for the Democrat for governor, another bad sign for Kirkmeyer. Voters show pretty strong support for TABOR.
Land Trust: The Colorado West Land Trust enters agreements with land holders in Western Colorado to preserve agricultural land. I'm okay with this. However, the tax meddling makes me nervous. Rob Bleiberg, executive director of the trust, told CPR, "Colorado is the national leader in private land conservation because we have perhaps the most powerful tool. It's a transferable tax credit and that sounds very wonky and dry and it is. And at the same time, next time you have your sip of wine that's grown on a protected farm vineyard or you eat that peach, there's a direct through line between that and the state tax credit." Generally I think taxes should be low, the same for everyone, and non-distortive in terms of incentives.
Palisade Insectary: KUNC: That's the state agency that researches and distributes "natural pest combatants" to control the pests that attack peaches. I think this is a great idea but I don't see why the state needs to be involved.
Protecting Ag: Marianne Goodland from May: "Gov. Jared Polis signed into law Senate Bill 25-128, which repeals a portion of a 2021 law that allowed anyone, including union organizers, to enter the private property of farmers and ranchers without permission." Sen. Byron Pelton was among those who praised the move.
Buc-ee's: A proposed Buc-ee's travel stop near Palmer lake is tied up in politics. Here's an idea: Government could just, you know, respect and protect people's property rights.
Wicked Property Rights: Quite the story from the Pacific Legal Foundation: "In 2021, Taralyn [Romero] and her fiancé bought a home on .68 acres in Kittredge, Colorado. What was meant to be a mountain sanctuary quickly turned sour when she discovered that her backyard with a creek running through it—private property she legally owned—was treated as a public park. Although she allowed access at first, visitors abused her generosity, often leaving trash or harming the vegetation. When she ultimately had to put up signs asking visitors to be more considerate, she was verbally accosted and smeared as the town's 'Wicked Witch of the West.' Worse still, the County joined the chorus against her, suing to seize her land in order to appease her small-town neighbors who believed she should be forced to share. Refusing to surrender, Taralyn took her story to TikTok. . . . Eventually, she reached a settlement with the County." But this isn't a slam-dunk case. PLF previously reported that the county "argued that because the past owners had allowed the public on their land for so long, it should be open to public use, something Taralyn was never made aware of when she bought the property." So at root this is about ambiguously defined property rights.
Tax Hike Proposals: Ballot measures LL and MM would pay for school meals and nutrition assistance. I remind you that the legislature continues to fund corporate welfare, clear proof that we don't need any tax hikes.
Measles in Grand Junction: If only there were some way to prevent this.
9News Sale: Change dot org wants the FCC to stop it, of course.
Hearsay Searches: The Institute for Justice has picked up a "case that aims to overturn a controversial 1960 Supreme Court precedent allowing home searches based on hearsay," reports Jacob Sullum (from June).
Suicide: The rates are substantially higher for older Coloradans than for teenagers.
Anne Evans's Novel: Anne is married to Gabe, the member of Congress. Logan Davis read her novel so you don't have to.
Eco-Anxiety: CPR: "Recognized by the American Psychological Association, the term is most simply defined as the chronic fear of environmental doom." Sigh. I'm a little skeptical that the school activities designed to counter this will help.
Lefties Debate School Choice: The 74 has a long account.
Crypto Jesus: Hannah Metzger: "A Denver pastor accused of conning his followers out of millions of dollars with a bogus cryptocurrency is now facing criminal charges, in addition to an ongoing state civil case." Maybe they didn't pray hard enough?
Durango Schools DEI: Rocky Mountain Voice publishes some absolute garbage, but they bring the receipts in discussing the Durango school board's attempts to infuse the district with DEI policies.
Overtime End-Run: Here is the allegation, via Sam Tabachnik: A woman worked fifteen-hour days for a fancy Telluride hotel, but the hotel used a subcontractor to pay around half her salary, thereby dodging the overtime pay rules. Definitely shady! But I will point out that, if she'd worked two jobs, one at a different hotel, this wouldn't be an issue. It's easy to say "this woman should be payed overtime for all the extra hours," but the real-life choice might be not working those extra hours at all. At some point, I think government should let people make their own choices. My labor, my choice, right?
Covid Vaccine: You can get it in Colorado.
Ski Resort Liability: A Jury awarded a woman paralyzed by a fall from a Crested Butte ski lift $21 million. Based on Shelly Bradbury's description, assigning liability in this case seems fair.
Need to Poop in the Mountains? Consider a wag bag.
Arizona Voucher Fraud: Caitlin Sievers: "Two Coloradans who forged documents to fraudulently enroll more than 40 real and fictitious children in Arizona’s school voucher program have both pleaded guilty to felony charges."