Colorado is failing

All the tax-paying citizens of Colorado are now witnessing the true damage the Democrats have done to our once great state of Colorado. The budget deficit started at a billion dollars, now the honest story is a billion five hundred million dollars in the hole. What is the real number? As of late, fraud and abuse have been discovered in the Colorado Medicaid program (Big Surprise). The fraud has been going on for a long time. The answer the democrats have is to fire the director. Any 8th grader can do the math and see that the Medicaid costs have exploded.

The Democrats running our state and local governments are totally responsible for all the damage. They have over spent taxpayers’ monies for many years.

As far as people being held accountable in our State and local government, it is nonexistent. Polis and his people didn’t see these Medicaid numbers. Sure, they did. The very people who caused all the problems blame the director. Who is responsible for directing the director? The legislators are responsible. They haven’t done their job for many years.

The Gazette reports daily on all the failures self-induced by the people running our State and local governments. As the legislators try to balance the budget, they can’t. They want to keep spending more money on the illegals and free stuff for everyone except the taxpayers. The tax cuts they are proposing are like emptying Lake Dillon with a teacup!

The elected officials have tried blaming Donald Trump for all the budget deficits. Obviously, that hasn’t worked. As the Gazette has reported over and over again, the State doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. There is a quick fix, quit spending taxpayer dollars wastefully and get on track.

Trig Travis

Aurora

Active beetle outbreak

In response to “A perfect storm: Pine beetles thriving following warm, dry winter in Colorado”.

Colorado’s warm and dry weather has the potential to exacerbate the already active beetle outbreak on the Front Range. If you live in Colorado, you’ve probably heard about “beetle kill” in relation to dead trees and wildfires. However, this link between pine beetle outbreaks and increased wildfire risk has been disproved by peer-reviewed studies from CU Boulder, as well as a spatial analysis from the Forest Service itself.

Colorado’s new Ponderosa Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force is not solely focused on homeowner education, but emphasizes a need to mitigate wildfire risk. The duties of the task force include “strengthening wildfire detection, suppression, recovery and innovation” and “implementing relevant federal wildfire recommendations.”

Fire mitigation measures can include heavy “thinning,” a term that means removing trees. The effectiveness of thinning to mitigate beetle outbreaks is uncertain and may actually result in more fallen trees, as it can injure trees or alter soil conditions.

Treatment should be limited to areas around homes or near trails. The task should remain focused on providing enhanced support for homeowners and business owners who need help protecting their homes and properties, rather than on actions that may harm our forests without delivering meaningful benefits.

Kelli Miller

Denver

A sprinkle of love

I’ve spent a lifetime thinking and now writing about love, but last weekend in Denver, I realized I’m currently in the middle of the most complicated love story of my life.

I marched. At first, the air felt heavy, thick with a somber exhaustion. But then, we began to move. In that collective shift, the atmosphere broke open. I found community, a defiant joy, and—dare I say it—a sprinkle of love.

There is a profound, feminist clarity that emerges when you are stripped of superficial comforts. We often talk about “rock bottom” as a lonely chasm, but I’ve come to see it as a sacred space. When the conveniences we cling to are gone, what remains is a fierce, untamed devotion. It is the rawest form of agency: choosing to love when it would be easier to disappear.

A Mature Devotion
In my youth, I thought love was something you stumbled into, like a lucky accident. Now, I know the truth, in the words of Pat Benatar, Love is a battleground. It is a conscious choice to occupy a space and refuse to leave it.

My understanding of love has matured. It is no longer a soft-focus fantasy; it is a complex, muscular commitment that shows up in the quietest corners of my life:

For the next generation: I watch our children with a grace that respects their independence. I am not here to mold them, but to hold the line while they carve paths I may never walk.

For my neighbors: Most of whom are in their 80s and 90s. We share a heart that acknowledges collective resilience. We are each other’s witnesses.

For this country: This is my most radical romance. It is a complicated love—not a blind eye to its imperfections, but a steady, stubborn belief in the potential we can still achieve together.

In a world that feels increasingly burdened, the easiest thing to do is to let pain become a shield. We want to be hard so we can’t be touched. But I’ve learned that the most radical, feminist act I can undertake is to keep my heart soft, even while my spirit stands.

Wendy Silveira Steinway

Denver