Several political cartoonists reacted to the news Tuesday, June 26, that the Supreme Court ruled the President has the authority to ban travelers from certain countries to protect the United States. President Donald Trump faced several challenges while trying to get the travel ban in place.
The Denver Post Editorial Board is making endorsements on state-wide and City of Denver ballot measures ahead of the Nov. 5, 2024 election. The Post is not endorsing candidates this year. Ballots for the election will be mailed to registered voters as early as Friday, Oct. 11, and will begin arriving the following week.
Oct. 28 is the last day to register to vote and still receive a ballot in the mail. Coloradans can also register to vote and vote in person at Voter Service and Polling Centers across the state which open Oct. 21. Check your county for details. Registering to vote and casting a ballot at these locations is available until 7 p.m. on election night.
Vote to retain all three Supreme Court Justices. Coloradans should vote to retain the three Supreme Court justices on the ballot this year and send a message to those wielding her retention as a political cudgel that far-right extremists cannot bully Colorado justices.
Vote yes on Amendment G. This simple fix to the Colorado Constitution will ensure all disabled veterans who are unable to work can get the same break on their property taxes that other veterans are guaranteed.
Vote yes on Amendment H. Colorado’s judicial branch has long needed reform. While this proposal put forward by state lawmakers as a compromise isn’t perfect, it is a huge improvement over the police-themselves policy that led to judicial misconduct getting swept under the rug. Judicial discipline should come from outside the Supreme Court and this will create an external mechanism for oversight.
Vote yes on Amendment J. Colorado has long recognized marriage between same-sex couples and even longer supported civil unions. Remove the language put into the Constitution in 2006 defining marriage as only being between a man and a woman.
Vote yes on Amendment K. Give election officials more time to get the ballots set and sent out, especially to oversees voters.
Vote yes on Amendment 79. Guarantee all Coloradans have access to abortion by voting “yes” to repeal a portion of the Constitution that prohibits Medicaid from covering abortions.
Vote no on Amendment 80. School choice has been excellent for Colorado students and families, and is now under assault from teacher’s unions. However, we worry that placing this vague language in the Colorado Constitution could lead to unintended consequences, including giving taxpayer dollars intended for public schools to families already exercising choice through private schools.
Vote yes on Proposition JJ. Colorado voters approved a 10% tax on casinos for their sports betting profits in 2019 at the same time they legalized the practice. Since that time sports betting has boomed far beyond the three gaming towns. The state should keep the increased revenue to fund water projects — approximately $29 million — instead of returning it to taxpayers or the casinos under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Vote yes on Proposition KK. Help fund services for victims with a tax on guns. Federal funding for victims’ services has declined significantly and this 6.5% excise tax on gun sellers and manufacturers will help fully fund programs for victims of crime and their families.
Vote no on Proposition 127. Allow the hunting and trapping to continue under the careful regulation and scientific control of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The Denver Post editorial board has long supported the wildlife officials at CPW in their pursuit of scientifically managed populations and supporting hunting as both recreation, food sources and a tool for population control.
Vote yes on Proposition 129. Creating a mid-level “master program” for veterinarian professionals is a no-brainer that could help reduce costs without reducing the quality of care.
Vote no on Proposition 131. Colorado isn’t ready yet for ranked-choice voting given the ardent election deniers who don’t even trust the straightforward process used today.
Vote no on Ballot Measure 2R. Denver voters should say no to this sales tax for affordable housing.
Vote yes on Ballot Issue 2Q. This is a much-needed sales-tax increase to help fund Denver Health.
Vote no on Initiated Ordinances 308 and 309. Banning a slaughterhouse and fur sales in Denver is pure folly.
Vote yes on Ballot Issue 4A. Denver Public Schools students and teachers deserve safe, comfortable facilities to learn and work. Support this $1 billion in bond funds.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
Jamallstar.
Turns out it is not just a cool hashtag, but a mindset. This is how it looks on social media: #JAMALLSTAR.
This is how it looks on the court:
24.9 points per game. Career high.
6.8 assists per game. Career high. 44.7 % on 3-pointers. Career high.
Entering Thursday night against Orlando, the Nuggets boasted a 19-6 record, their best mark after 25 games, despite the monthlong absences of starters Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon.
Reasons to believe the Nuggets would unseat the Oklahoma City Thunder this season began with Mr. Nugget, aka Gordon, getting more shots with Michael Porter Jr. in Brooklyn and the deep bench, most notably Jonas Valanciunas.
But the explanation was more obvious. Standing right in front of us.
Jamal Murray.
He is no longer treating stardom like an accidental tourist, waiting until late spring before wandering into the spotlight with his passport.
If we are being honest, even if this was foreshadowed in July, we all worried that Murray the Magnificent would be reduced to a memory only in our streams.
At 28, in his 10th season, Murray has abandoned mystery for consistency. It all started with an offseason conversation with co-general manager Jon Wallace. Then others in the organization.
The respect for Murray is real. His jersey will hang from the Ball Arena rafters when he retires. But for another championship banner to accompany it, the Nuggets needed Murray to perform like he was being paid — as a top 15 player.
Wallace challenged Murray to shut up the critics. And David Adelman served the role of part coach, part couch.
“It’s not really the physical side for guys, maybe just the mental. We have seen some of the pressure he has felt, (to) just to become more of a leader with the guys,” Adelman explained. “It is about going through the summer and understanding what working too hard means going into an 82-game season, what feeling fresh means, and be mentally stronger. And I think that stuff does translate. I feel like I am writing a self-help book. But it really is true.”
Murray had led the Nuggets to countless postseason victories, but they needed him to become a rudder over the summer with Nikola Jokic out of the country. He responded by organizing pickup games in Las Vegas, connecting teammates in Denver, showing up for training camp with the entire bag of Doritos on his shoulder.
We have all seen Murray play like this. Just never this early in the season. He recently won player of the week honors for the first time.
“I am happy we are off to a good start. Glad I am off to a good start as well. I am pretty happy with the way things are going right now,” Murray said. “It’s great recognition for the three games I had. I appreciate it.”
Looking back, the reasons for Murray’s slow start last season were there all along. He was hurt, and needed rest rather than to represent Canada in the Olympics. There was the $208.5 million max contract extension that Murray never took ownership of, spending his first press conference after it was signed talking more about his love of UFC than his understanding of accountability.
And there was the urgency to perform in Jokic’s championship window as coach Michael Malone’s message became increasingly stale and ignored. In mid-January, the overall numbers were alarming, his points (19.8) and 3-point percentage (39.2%) were his lowest since 2019.
Eleven months later, Murray has channeled the strain into his game. He has become #JAMALLSTAR.
Now, all we have to do is wait to see if he gets the honor. Wallace mused recently with a smile, “He better.”
This is not bias. These are the facts. Murray should be a lock for the World Team against the United States. He probably won’t be among the top five vote getters required for starters, regardless of position, but should easily be among the top seven reserves. Murray ranks 16th in scoring, 11th in 3-point percentage and assists.
If that isn’t an all-star, what is?
“Just his poise sticks out. The way he is picking and choosing his spots. He and Jokic do an amazing job of playing off and reading off each other,” guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said. “It is been great to witness.”
The improved numbers are rooted in nuance. Murray is creating better angles, finding cleaner paths to the basket, though “No Call Jamal” remains a thing as refs continue to diss him. He is not relying on step-backs. The way he has played off-ball for his teammates has been eye-opening.
And yet, he has not lost his aggressiveness. In Monday’s overtime victory over the Rockets, Murray poured in 35 points. At one point, he backed down Reed Sheppard, drained a jumper and blew a kiss instead of shooting a blue arrow into our hearts.
It was easy to love, nonetheless.
“Open communication sometimes leads to positive things. From what I saw this summer, mentally, physically, all those things were at such a high level, and it’s cool to see it translate into the season,” Adelman said. “Jamal has been a special player forever. I don’t really judge the starts to his season, but obviously this has been one that will stand out. Not just because of the way he has scored, but the efficiency.”
Is this the year that Murray changes the narrative, plays with excellence from tip-to-tip from October to June?
A third of the way into the season, he has provided the answer in the form of a hashtag.
#JAMALLSTAR.
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.
Colorado isn’t ready for major changes to our election system, even if adopting an all-party primary and ranked-choice general election could mean more and perhaps better choices for voters in future years.
Tina Peters’ saga of dragging Colorado’s election system through the mud just came to an end this month when she was sentenced to nine years in jail and prison. And despite humiliating smack-downs in the legal system of other notorious election conspiracy theorists — Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and more — they and others continue to cast doubt on our election systems.
We know that Colorado’s elections are the “gold standard.”
However, enough Colorado voters still question the integrity of our elections that we think implementing a drastic change now could be disastrous.
Proposition 131 would change how the state elects candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and statewide offices for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, state Board of Education and University of Colorado regents. Additionally, it would change how candidates are elected to the Colorado General Assembly — House and Senate. It would not change county, municipal or special district elections.
The first change would be to eliminate primaries — for both the Republican and Democratic parties — and instead create a single primary ballot for candidates from all parties including unaffiliated candidates.
The top four candidates would then advance to the general election ballot, where voters would be asked to “rank some or all of the candidates for each office in order of preference.” Here’s where ranked-choice voting comes in — if someone’s first choice proves to be unpopular, their vote goes to their second choice, then third choice, until a single candidate gets more than 50% of the vote.
This system requires faith in the election administrator not to monkey around with the totals. The complicated reallocation of votes is done by computer, sometimes in real time, meaning a candidate might be “out” with the first batch of ballots but “back in” with the second batch. We were reassured that hand counts of Colorado’s secure paper ballot system — as required by law in close elections or if a candidate is willing to pay for it — would still be possible. The recounts would be expensive and time-consuming.
Implementing this on a statewide basis will take money and time, including creating a way to perform a risk-limiting audit with independent software to make certain that the original tally is correct.
While the actual ranking process is fairly straightforward, Colorado voters will have to pay close attention to make sure they don’t accidentally spoil their ballot by ranking two first-choice candidates or other easy mistakes. Also, having city and county elections that are not part of the open primary adds to the confusion, especially for unaffiliated voters who will still get both the Republican and Democrat primary ballots but can only participate in one.
Someone like Tina Peters would have a field day casting doubt on election results from this system. Across the nation, we’ve seen that hand counts closely matching machine counts don’t dissuade conspiracy theorists, even when coupled with detailed lists of voters who participated in the election.
For Colorado to transition to such a system will take time and trust. We’d need something closer to a super-majority vote than a mere 50% win this November to convince us Coloradans are ready to fight this election battle.
There is one guaranteed clear advantage of Proposition 131 — a candidate would have to get at least 50% of the vote to win. No longer would third-party candidates serve as only spoilers, but voters would feel liberated to cast a ballot for someone unaffiliated or libertarian without throwing away their vote.
Kent Thiry, the former CEO of DaVita, is financially backing the effort to bring ranked choice voting to Colorado. He says the goal is to create an election system that does three things: 1. Levels the playing field in the primary for all candidates regardless of party, giving Colorado’s huge segment of unaffiliated voters a voice in the nominee selection process. 2. Because most voters don’t participate in the primary, give voters a choice in the general election by having four candidates advance. 3. Require that any candidate get majority support to win.
“The problem right now … there can be no debating that voters lack choice. That they get to cast very few meaningful votes in a general election and that spoilers play a big role,” Thiry said.
These are goals worth of pursuing and voting “no” on Proposition 131 doesn’t mean Colorado won’t eventually tackle the complex process of improving elections.
And Thiry has already helped improve Colorado’s system by opening up primaries to unaffiliated voters. Rather than spending millions of dollars to upend the system completely, the state could work on getting voters engaged with the existing system. If turnout was the same for caucuses and primaries as it was for the general election, Colorado would have more choices and candidates more aligned with the average voter.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
If a crime or tragedy happens in Colorado, the second person a victim talks to after the police is often an advocate from one of the dozens of organizations primarily funded by a dwindling pot of federal money.
These organizations offer a critical service for Coloradans. Whether it’s a domestic violence organization offering shelter to a mother and her two children after police arrive to a dangerous situation involving a gun or a volunteer from the district attorney’s office sitting for hours with a family after someone has committed suicide in a home – victims’ advocates are essential to helping Coloradans recover from the unimaginable.
However, the funding from the federal Victims Crimes Act is not only unreliable but is drying up, leaving these organizations across the state to make tough decisions about how many victims they can serve and the level of service they can offer. Does the mother fleeing her own home get a week’s stay in the shelter and legal aid, or just one night and an ex-parte form to file on her own? Does a family get put in a hotel room while the location of the suicide is processed by detectives, or must they find their own place to stay at 3 a.m. without a credit card or any other personal belongings?
Coloradans have a chance during this election to give these critical services the funding they need.
Proposition KK would levy a state-wide 6.5% excise tax on large gun and ammunition sellers in Colorado.
The hope behind this new tax is not to reduce the number of guns sold in the state, but rather to generate revenue to fund critical services for the victims of crime. Not all crisis services involve a gun, but we do know that if a gun is involved in a crime, domestic violence incident or suicide attempt, the outcome is worse.
Already, the federal government charges an 11% tax on most gun and ammunition sales. Colorado lawmakers decided last year to ask voters to add another 6.5% onto that to fund state-wide victims programs. The fund will raise an estimated $39 million and the first $30 million will go through the existing board to award grants for victim assistance. After that, $8 million will go to the Behavioral and Mental Health Cash Fund ($5 million of which is earmarked for veterans programs) and $1 million to the School Security Cash Fund, both of which are administered by lawmakers in the General Assembly.
Proposition KK is a smart way to assess a tax directly on objects that play a role in making crime worse. The tax will only be levied on gun dealers and manufacturers who sell more than $20,000 worth of new guns and ammunition every year, meaning the tax won’t hit small gun sellers or used gun dealers. Sales to police officers or members of the military are exempted because we do need a well-regulated militia or, in this case, a police force.
Additionally, we are thrilled that the bill does not create a new program for administering grants to victims’ advocates; instead, it relies on the existing Crime Victim Services Advisory Board to make recommendations to the Department and the Division of Criminal Justice.
We would ask that future gun owners in Colorado view this tax not as a punishment but as an investment in services should their gun ever fall into the wrong hands or be used in a tragedy or crime. These services are essential.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
Updated Oct. 22, 2024 at 6:17 p.m. Due to an editor’s error this editorial had the wrong amount the tax would raise in the first year. The estimate is $39 million.
Angry messages started rolling into the Colorado Supreme Court in December after a majority of judges ruled that President Donald Trump was not eligible to appear on the Colorado primary ballot because he had “engaged in” insurrection. Soon the FBI was investigating threats of violence because some Trump supporters had taken their legal disagreement with the court too far.
Now, Colorado’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez is being targeted again, this time by groups urging Colorado voters not to retain her on the bench in November’s election. Márquez, who grew up in Grand Junction and was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter to the Supreme Court in 2010, is the only Supreme Court judge on the ballot this fall who joined the majority opinion in Anderson v. Griswold.
Coloradans should vote to retain Márquez and send a message to those wielding her retention as a political cudgel that far-right extremists cannot bully Colorado justices.
The four justices were sound in their finding last year that Trump had orchestrated a vast insurrection attempt that culminated with the violent Jan. 6 attempt to prevent Congress from seating Joe Biden as president.
“We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” wrote the four-justice majority late last year. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
In other words, the justices stood strong against threats and angry messages flooding into the courts. The majority applied the clear language of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a guarantee that Americans not be governed by someone who had betrayed the cornerstone of American democracy by treason or insurrection. The facts of the case had been litigated in a lower court that also found Trump had engaged in insurrection.
A national social issue non-profit called the Article III Project launched a campaign not to retain Márquez.
“Monica Márquez attempted to disenfranchise over 550,000 Colorado Trump primary voters,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the nonprofit group, told The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel earlier this month. “She doesn’t respect democracy and the rule of law. So it’s time for Colorado voters to fire Monica Márquez in this November 5th election.”
This is utter nonsense.
The U.S. Supreme Court did strike down their decision with a unanimous ruling that states could not enforce the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on their own. But, this ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court was based entirely on their interpretation of Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, giving Congress the power to enforce the post-Civil War amendment. The justices lamented the “chaos” that would come if states were able to enforce the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment without a federal process spelled out in legislation for doing so. Perhaps, if the U.S. Supreme Court had more courage, they would have been less worried about “chaos” and more worried with enforcing the U.S. Constitution faithfully.
In other words, Colorado’s justices did what the nation’s top justices were too afraid to do – stand up for the amendment as written, no matter the difficulty that could ensue if enforced by a state-court.
We would ignore this fringe movement to punish a Colorado justice for her part in a sound legal ruling if it weren’t for a compounding threat to her retention. The Colorado Springs Gazette recommended this week that none of the three justices up for consideration be retained for office.
Their logic is far more sound — the Colorado Supreme Court recently weathered a tremendous scandal under now-retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Coats. Combined the two efforts may have the unintended consequences of ejecting a very fine justice from Colorado’s Supreme Court.
We too have expressed discontent with Coats’ involvement in the scandal, and frustration with the lack of transparency into the investigation afforded by his replacement Justice Brian Boatright who is also up for retention this year. But Coats is long gone from the court and there is no evidence that Boatright or any of the other justices were aware of the hush-money contract awarded to a former judicial employee.
We hope voters retain Márquez, Boatright and Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
It’s been a big week for President Donald Trump.
Last Tuesday he delivered a State of the Union address that included a Presidential Medal of Freedom for Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi ripping up a ceremonial copy of the speech.
The next day he was acquitted of impeachment charges by a GOP-controlled Senate and he subsequently removed a number of employees who testified as part of the House investigation from the White House.
And then this week his longtime ally, Roger Stone, caught a break when DOJ officials decided to step in and reduce their recommended sentence, prompting all four trial attorneys to resign or withdraw from the case.