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Home Archives for General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Dog Bites Man: “Left-Leaning” Group Attacks GOP Official

The Denver Post reports today:A watchdog group filed a complaint with the state's Independent Ethics Committee against Secretary of State Mike Coffman on Wednesday. The complaint is the first one filed with the committee since voters created it in 2006, said Colorado Ethics Watch director Chantell Taylor. It is also the latest complaint Ethics Watch, generally seen as left-leaning, has lodged with various agencies about Coffman, a Republican. [emphasis added] "Generally seen as left-leaning"? It's more apparent than just "generally seen," as this well qualifies as a partisan, politically-motivated attack. The only thing that's changed is the name of Taylor's group - from Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government to Colorado Ethics … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General Tagged With: Chantel Taylor, Colorado Ethics Watch, Denver Post, Mike Coffman, partisan political attacks

2/7/2026 By Ben 3 Comments

Get Out Your Crystal Balls for Tomorrow’s Iowa Caucuses

M.E. Sprengelmeyer of the Rocky Mountain News "Back Roads to the White House" blog is soliciting your predictions of results for tomorrow's Iowa caucuses:We need you to make your official, time-stamped predictions for the final rankings in the Iowa precinct caucuses -- among Republicans and Democrats. Give us your best guesses. Include delegate percentages, predicted concession speech language, or other arbitrary details for extra credit. And in the opinion of the judge, the person who makes the most accurate, most detailed prediction for the actual result ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PARTISAN DIVIDE will win a very special prize package of back roads collectables -- assembled over the past several months by your weary correspondent. Be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, National Politics, Random and Miscellaneous Tagged With: Back Roads to the White House, Iowa caucuses, predictions

2/7/2026 By Ben 4 Comments

Arvada West Republican Caucus: Romney Territory

From my own little corner of the Colorado caucus: I've just returned from a gathering of six Republican precincts held at Arvada West High School. The turnout of 141 shattered all records from recent memory, though probably was outdone by the Democrats who met on the other half of campus. If our six precincts are anywhere near representative of the state of Colorado, it's a lock for Romney. I confirmed this unofficial vote tally with the district captain: Mitt Romney - 94 (67%) Mike Huckabee - 20 (14%) John McCain - 12 (9%) Ron Paul - 10 (7%) Uncommitted - 5 (4%) In a night across the country that looks to be less than decisive for any candidate in either major party, Colorado should go into the Romney column. We'll wait for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, My Life, National Politics Tagged With: Arvada, Colorado Caucus, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, presidential primary, Ron Paul

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Pitchers, Catchers Report: Here Comes an Amazing Tigers Season

Baseball is right around the corner. This morning, spring training begins for Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers. In all my life, I've never looked forward to a season with such anticipation. After a couple spectacular offseason maneuvers, the Tigers sport an absolutely fearsome lineup and a starting rotation that will be the envy of most of Major League Baseball. Don't believe me? How about ESPN's Jayson Stark?Beware of Tigers: How many runs will the 2008 Tigers score, anyway? A thousand? Two thousand? More than the rest of their division combined? That will be one question we'll explore this spring, now that Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria have pulled into Motown. But there's just enough uncertainty about issues like (A) Joel … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, My Life, Sports and Leisure Tagged With: 2008 season, Detroit Tigers, Major League Baseball

2/7/2026 By Ben 3 Comments

Tancredo’s Romney Endorsement Suggests Future Political Plans

As expected, Rep. Tancredo officially has bowed out of the presidential race, and is endorsing not Fred Thompson but Mitt Romney. Since Romney is favored by many of the state's leading Republicans, this tells me that Tancredo has his eye on running for office again in 2010. Conventional wisdom is that he will plan to take on Senator Ken Salazar. How far Tancredo's endorsement of Romney will go in corralling the necessary support for a Senate campaign remains to be seen. But it certainly cannot hurt. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, National Politics Tagged With: Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo

2/7/2026 By Ben 6 Comments

South Carolina Predictions

If Michael (picking McCain) and Steven (picking Huckabee) can do it, let me venture a stab-in-the-dark prediction at today's South Carolina Republican primary results. Because, with Rasmussen seeing an extraordinary amount of uncertainty and the unusual weather apparently driving down turnout, this one is up in the air. So without further ado, here is my prognostication: Huckabee ... 28 Thompson ... 24 McCain ... 22 Romney ... 13 Paul ... 7 Giuliani ... 6 Such a finish would knock McCain down a couple notches and give Thompson the boost he needs heading into Super Tuesday as a viable competitor with Huckabee in the Southern states and with Giuliani & Romney in some of the other states (provided Rudy can win Florida, of course … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, National Politics Tagged With: Fred Thompson, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, predictions, presidential primary, South Carolina

2/7/2026 By Ben 1 Comment

Radio Show Review

Thanks for those who tuned in to News Talk 1310 KFKA this morning to hear my inaugural guest host appearance on the Amy Oliver Show. For those who want more information on the guests and some of the topics discussed: Alan Gottlieb of the Public Education and Business Coalition edits the HeadFirst Colorado blog, which covers a range of education reform issues. Today we talked about the latest on the Bruce Randolph autonomy proposal, including union officials' latest delaying tactic, which Alan also posted on today. There's also a great story from yesterday on the topic at Face the State. I posted on the news of the rapidly growing estimates of revenue from the Governor's property tax hike at the Colorado Taxpayers blog. Other stories … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Education, General, Labor, My Life Tagged With: 1310 KFKA, Amy Oliver Show, Bruce Randolph, Collective Bargaining, education reform, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Gov. Bill Ritter, Property Tax Increase

2/7/2026 By Ben 2 Comments

Roe v Wade at 35

Tomorrow is the annual Blogs for Life conference at Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, DC, a somber commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the terrible and infamous Roe v Wade decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. A provocative NewsMax essay today from Joseph Sobran summarizes three and a half decades of the debate:Note the strange progress of the advocates of abortion. A generation ago, just before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that virtually all legal restrictions on abortion violated the U.S. Constitution, these people agreed that killing the unborn was evil; but they held that its evil might be minimized by legalizing and regulating it. Then they shifted to what might be called an agnostic position: that nobody … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christianity and Faith, Commemorative, General, National Politics Tagged With: 35th anniversary, abortion, pro-life, Roe v Wade

2/7/2026 By Ben 4 Comments

26 Days ‘Til Caucus

Update, 2:41 PM: Information on Douglas County Republican caucuses is included in the comment section. Thanks, Steve! ... Denver County, too, compliments of el presidente. The Denver Post has a full-length story this morning on the building interest & excitement surrounding Colorado's caucus process this year. As the story notes, it overwhelmingly has to do with a highly competitive primary in a presidential election year:Republican Mort Marks, 83, plans to hold a caucus at his house. He said he has received calls from a lot of people he hasn't heard from before, and he has noticed larger turnout at recent Republican events. "There is a hell of a lot more interest than I've seen in many, many years," said Marks, who hasn't decided … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, My Life Tagged With: Colorado Caucus, Jefferson County Republican Party, presidential primary

2/7/2026 By Ben 1 Comment

Teacher Union Prepared to Thwart Autonomy Reform, Its Own Members?

Today is the day of truth (again) for the union that represents Denver public school teachers. As the editors of the Rocky Mountain News highlight today, observers want to know whether they will vote Yes and grant the request for freedom from district bureaucracy and union work rules, or vote No and stand squarely in the way of educational progress for a high-poverty school: We're heartened by this spontaneous uprising. It has been led as much by unionized teachers as by school management; two-thirds of Bruce Randolph's DCTA members backed autonomy, and at Manual the vote was unanimous. The DPS board unanimously approved Bruce Randolph's request last month, so the district is open to giving some schools more control. But the union brass … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, General, Labor Tagged With: Bruce Randolph, Denver Classroom Teachers Association, Denver Public Schools, Rocky Mountain News

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About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

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