Author: J James
Stage 2 fire bans across Chaffee, Summit, Grand, and Pitkin counties to Cañon City’s scramble to redirect $2 million in pool taxes, this week’s High Country Advocate covers budget battles, housing shortfalls, and community flashpoints across Colorado’s mountain corridor. Full coverage inside. FIRE DANGER Chaffee, Summit, Grand, and Pitkin Counties Declare Stage 2 Fire Restrictions Ahead of July 4th Chaffee, Summit, Grand, and Pitkin counties all escalated to Stage 2 fire restrictions in the final week of June, banning open fires and fireworks sales ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. Chaffee County has a total fireworks ban, Grand County…
The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding is eleven days old and already broken. Iran struck the cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely in the Strait of Hormuz June 28, U.S. Central Command responded, and a second Iranian drone hit the M/T Kiku hours later. The technical talks that were supposed to begin after the June 17 signing have not started. The 60-day clock on Iran’s nuclear status, enrichment stockpiles, and sanctions relief is running with nothing resolved. In Venezuela, twin earthquakes on June 24 killed at least 1,450 people and left nearly 69,000 unaccounted for. U.S. Marines delivered disaster supplies at La…
Colorado’s June 30 primary arrives with four federal lawsuits circling Secretary of State Jena Griswold, $3.5 million in dark money working both party primaries, and New York’s socialist sweep fresh in every campaign manager’s memory. Peter Bernegger’s federal civil rights suit, Bernegger v. Griswold, alleges Griswold’s own deputy presided over a complaint targeting Griswold’s office — and introduced a sworn declaration Bernegger never saw until the ruling issued against him. A court order requires an amended complaint by July 25 or the case is dismissed. The RNC filed a separate suit June 26 alleging Colorado registers voters who have never…
Colorado votes Tuesday, and the Old Man has a message for every unaffiliated voter: pull a Democratic ballot. Not because he’s changed — he’s voted conservative since Reagan — but because stopping the DSA in the primary matters more than party purity for one day. The France piece traces the Muslim Brotherhood’s documented, staged takeover of French neighborhoods — a classified report Macron locked in a drawer until it leaked. At the Elbe River in April 1945, American and Soviet soldiers met for the first time. Part one of a three-part series. And garlic. Allicin, cedar oil, opossums, and Sirach…
From Stage 2 fire bans across Summit, Grand, and Pitkin counties to Cañon City’s scramble to redirect million in pool taxes, this week’s High Country Advocate covers budget battles, housing shortfalls, and community flashpoints across Colorado’s mountain corridor. Full coverage inside Buena Vista School Board, State Mandates, and Data Center Money: Readers Speak Out Did the Buena Vista School Board skip its own rules to push through a Pride Month proclamation? Who is really behind the AI data centers targeting Colorado communities? And who pays when Denver mandates without funding? This week’s readers and contributors have answers — and they’re…
Three federal firefighters died Saturday in a Mesa County burnover on the Snyder Fire — single-digit humidity, 45-mph gusts, and fuel moisture below eight percent grounded air support and cut off their escape. The Snyder Fire now covers 28,000 acres at zero percent containment. On Capitol Hill, House leadership pulled H.R. 9237, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, from the floor June 25. The DAV and VFW rejected cuts to tinnitus and sleep apnea ratings used to fund the Major Richard Star Act — a benefit owed to 54,000 combat-injured veterans. No reschedule date is set. In federal court,…
Vince Phillips continues his Colorado Elections series with four new installments that drill into the structural weaknesses of the state’s mail-heavy voting model. In #25, Phillips documents that Dominion scanners in Chaffee County produced official ballot images with blank ovals removed — a serious finding, since Colorado law determines voter intent from the image, not the paper ballot. He also notes that over 100 write-in ballots for Chaffee County Clerk went uncounted and his request to review the original paper ballots was refused. In #26, Phillips dissects the phrase “no discrepancies were found,” arguing it means only that officials found…
Three community voices and one investigative contributor weigh in on issues drawing fire across the High Country this week. In Buena Vista, the school board’s June 22 Pride Month proclamation has drawn procedural objections from two readers. Brian Edward O’Connell, Commander of Squadron #55, argues Board President Casey Martin bypassed Robert’s Rules of Parliamentary Procedure — a proclamation requires three months of vetting before ratification, not thirty days. A second reader makes the same case, adding that the rushed process ultimately disrespected the very community it claimed to honor by denying it due process. From Colorado Springs, Jeany Rush puts…
The Old Man I have voted in every election since Ronald Reagan, including while overseas. I have been an independent voter most of my life — I voted for Ross Perot because I knew George H.W. Bush had made a catastrophic mistake by not finishing the job in Iraq the first time. I was right, and we are still paying for it. I vote conservative. There was a time when that occasionally meant voting Democrat — when there were still conservative Democrats worth voting for. There aren’t many left. But this Tuesday, June 30th, I am asking every unaffiliated voter…
Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was released June 1 from La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo after serving 20 months of a nine-year sentence. Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence May 15, cutting it to four years and four and a half months, citing an April Colorado Court of Appeals ruling that the original sentencing judge had improperly used Peters’ public statements as an aggravating factor. Her felony convictions stand. She is not exonerated, and her appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court continues. President Trump could not pardon her — his pardon power does not reach state convictions. Instead,…