It turns out that Kevin Kreeger, Broomfield mayoral candidate and current councilman, had a very good reason for voting against background checks for public officials during a recent meeting.

Intrigued by Kreeger’s opposition, Colorado Business Daily did a little digging and discovered Kreeger has a Chicago arrest record from the 1990s for assaulting a police officer, plus that other time he was caught in flagrante delicto with a prostitute.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with voters.

Kreeger’s mayoral candidate platform boasts transparency. “The public deserves complete transparency,” his campaign website says. Kreeger also promises on his website to serve the city with “the utmost integrity.”

Some are suggesting, others are calling for Kreeger to withdraw from the race, although ballots are already being returned by voters.

PeakNation™ will recall Kreeger came under fire in 2017 for some of his email communications with fractivist Andrew O’Connor, after O’Connor’s infamous letter to the editor calling for gas and oil opponents to “blow up wells and eliminate fracking and workers.”

None of these actions inspire confidence in Kreeger as a councilman, let alone a mayor. 

In addition to Kreeger, Patrick Quinn and Kimberly Groom are running for mayor.

Lots of folks have egg all over our face this week.

When the Denver Post and Colorado Politics reported the group working to recall state Senate President Leroy Garcia said they had enough signatures to file on Friday, we followed suit and blogged their reports.

Somewhere, somehow, something went horribly terribly wrong, because organizer Dave DeCenzo did not turn in anywhere near the 13,506 signatures required.

DeCenzo and one other man rolled into Denver on Friday afternoon with two Budweiser boxes that DeCenzo said contained no more than 120 signatures.

Later on Friday, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said that the petitioners had in fact handed in just four signatures.

We went back to the Colorado Politics story, but it’s been updated and it no longer contains the organizer’s claims.

We found the original Denver Post story, and the lede clearly stated:

The people working to recall the president of the Colorado Senate say they have the signatures to put the question to his constituents.

The report went on to state:

DeCenzo said he thinks the signature count to qualify for a recall election will be close, as it was back in 2013 when conservatives successfully recalled Democrat Angela Giron from the same Senate seat.

Dude, do us all a favor and take a math class. 

We took down our original blog, because it was flat wrong and no amount of correcting could have saved it.

Step aside, John Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner has taken your throne at the Beer Institute and been named as their beer champion for encouraging free trade and tax relief for brewers.

The king is dead, long live the king!

“Colorado’s beer industry provides 73,000 jobs, $3.8 billion in wages, and $13.6 billion in economic output to our state’s economy and is part of our state’s identity and culture,” said Senator Gardner. “It’s important that Washington doesn’t stand in the way of its continued success. I’m proud to fight for policies to help brewers grow, create jobs, and boost communities across the four corners of Colorado and throughout our country.”

Colorado is home to 523 breweries, and the beer industry has created 73,000 jobs in the state. 

As if these tremendous economic accomplishments weren’t enough, it’s beer!

“America’s brewers and importers are pleased to honor Senator Gardner. His tireless effort to build support for policies enable our nation’s breweries and beer importers to continue to innovate, hire more employees and contribute $328 billion to our nation’s economy,” said Jim McGreevy, President and CEO of the Beer Institute. 

Beer, it does America good.

To no one’s surprise, a study commissioned by Gov. Polis to find out if fracking gave him a nosebleed that one time has ciphered that drilling operations might elevate the risk of a nosebleed.

That’s mostly according to a scary headline in the Denver Post over a story written by none other than devoted fractivist Bruce Finley, who we seriously hoped thought had been scarified at the layoff alter of Alden Global Capital.

So we turned to The Colorado Sun in hopes of a more accurate reading of this study that has everyone scared, just in time for Halloween.

Nothing there about nosebleeds, but they do report the governor had an action plan already in place to address exactly whatever it was the study found, and they will immediately, if not sooner, regulate the industry to a snail’s pace of production.

Funny how that all came together so quick, no?

So here’s the breakdown.

The adverse impacts outlined in the $600,000 study, conducted by ICF, a consultant hired by the state, represent the worst-case scenario for a one-hour-long exposure to benzene. Benzene is a known human carcinogen, according to the EPA. The report did not find a significant risk for longer term health effects, and exposure to cancer-causing chemicals was within the acceptable range.

How often has this “worst-case scenario” actually occurred in Colorado or elsewhere?

Meh, health officials say they don’t actually know, but it sounds really scary, right?

But what the study says is someone might get a headache if they’re out there for an hour during the worst-case scenario within 2,000 yards of the site.

But the key here is, exactly what did they study?

Turns out it wasn’t actual, measured air quality data. Instead, their findings were based on modeled calculations.

Interestingly, when the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) reviewed more than 10,000 actual air measurements in 2017, they determined there was no need for a public health response.

By comparison, Polis’s study used outdated data from 2014 to 2016 to do their calculations.

In a statement by the Colorado Petroleum Council, Executive Director Lynn Granger noted that using modeled exposures instead of measured air quality data can introduce “uncertainties and limitations that may result in erroneous estimates of risk for a population.”

“As an industry we rely on data, facts and science and look forward to working with CDPHE and the COGCC on actual air monitoring in the future, which is what should be used when developing policy and regulations.”

If you were planning to dress as a drilling rig for Halloween, you might wanna reconsider and just stick with the grim reaper mask and Greta Thunberg t-shirt.

Colorado Democratic Party Czar Morgan Carroll.

Turns out it’s not just the national Democratic Party who’s in the bag for John Hickenlooper’s direct ascension to the U.S. Senate primary throne.

It looks like Colorado’s Democratic Party chair Morgan Carroll is rigging their Senate primary election by censoring fellow Dems and denying them essential opportunities to even compete with the frontrunner.

We know it’s true, because it’s actually in the Denver Post.

Carroll has created a virtual safe space for Hickenlooper at all campaign forums, refusing to allow actual debate among the candidates, threatening them if they dare criticize the Chosen One. 

The party of transparency has forbidden the candidates, who are mostly unknown to voters, to livestream the event in order to bolster their name recognition, which is the undeniable challenge all of them face in the primary election against Hickenlooper. 

Carroll has single-handily shut down the democratic process, and the other seven candidates who are legitimately in the race alongside Hickenlooper are not happy about it.

“This is the only way we can hold each other accountable on the record to our policy plans, our backgrounds and our histories,” Lorena Garcia said. “It’s time to stop censoring candidates.”

In this fairy tale world Carroll is trying to create, candidates don’t run against each other. 

But faced with the reality of a tough primary and even tougher general election where there are no safe spaces, those same candidates are pushing back against Carroll.

What remains to be seen is if the Democrats will bust through Carroll’s rigged rules at the next event Oct. 20 in Montrose, stand up for themselves and their beliefs, and give Democratic voters a choice in the 2020 election as to which candidate is best suited to represent them, not party cronies. 

We are positively basking in the bright light of hypocrisy that is Greta Thunberg’s climate tour, which burned up coal and natural gas as she made her way to Denver last week to preach what she most certainly is not practicing.

That’s right climate strike fans, your champion is a fraud who sailed to America on a sailboat constructed from petroleum products, aka oil, aka fossil fuels.

And now she’s crisscrossing North America in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Tesla 3 with stops about every 300 miles, so she can refuel the electric car with power derived from coal and natural gas as she climate strikes against, uhm, fossil fuel.

Thunberg’s arrival in Denver coincided with the announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, which climate disaster overlords were certain would go to the young Swedish girl, and the American media had all but proclaimed.

But alas, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was instead awarded the prestige prize for ending a 20-year military stalemate with Eritrea after their border war.

In other words, Ahmed brought peace, not staged puppet shows.

To apologize for skipping the Planet in Peril forum and make up for his entire political career in the middle of Democrat Road, John Hickenlooper finally swerved far left into the arms of party radicals and promised zero net emissions in 30 years.

We knew you had it in you, Hick, we’ve just been waiting for you to admit you had surrendered to the radical liberal cause.

Hickenlooper transmitted his new commitment from the non-disclosed, windowless basement location, where party leaders have him shackled to the smile-and-dial fundraising desk.

Hick’s message was shamelessly published by The Colorado Sun as “opinion,” when it probably should have been labeled as an advertorial or political ad.

Last month, young people took to the streets, demanding that our nation and world confront the climate crisis head on.

And they’re right: climate change is the biggest threat of our time, but we can also make it the greatest opportunity.

Translation: The end of the world is near and human extinction is on the horizon, but let’s turn that frown upside down!

To get there, we must reinstate the Obama-era restrictions on methane, vehicle emissions and drilling on public lands.

But wait, there’s more.

Our approach to climate change must be international. That includes rejoining and going beyond the Paris Climate Accord, accelerating the implementation of the Kigali Agreement to phase out dangerous hydrofluorocarbons, and enforcing stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards in U.S. trade policy.

So there you have it folks. If there was any doubt before about Hickenlooper’s political leanings, he has now shown us the true way of his radical path.

Tay Anderson, a candidate for an at-large seat on the Denver School Board, has been seen campaigning with some very questionable company.

And by “seen,” we mean it’s on Twitter.

Hey @AmieBacaOehlert – does the CEA stand by its endorsement of a Denver school board candidate who campaigns with disgraced politicians charged with crimes and an advisor convicted of weapons charges?

Is that the type of judgement you want to see on school boards?#COpolitics https://t.co/F8CNdO2foE

— Tyler Sandberg (@wtylersandberg) October 14, 2019

PeakNation™ will recall Rochelle Galindo resigned as a state representative from Greeley in the midst of a police investigation into sexual misconduct allegations, and a recall campaign.

Then there’s this:

This isn’t the only case of extremely bad judgement for @TayAnderson2019.

He’s also been campaigning with Hashim Coates, who in late 2017 plead guilty in a weapons and prostitution case.#COpolitics #edcolo pic.twitter.com/blwAsHXkuU

— Tyler Sandberg (@wtylersandberg) October 14, 2019

Anderson gained notoriety by becoming the youngest person to run for the school board just two years ago, when he was 18 years old.

He came in third place with 25% of the vote.

But he’s raised a lot of money this time around, got involved in the Denver teacher’s strike, and isn’t afraid to sound like he’s running for class president instead of an education leader.

For instance, he said one his first priorities would be to advocate for every Denver middle and high school to have a gender-neutral bathroom. He said he’d also work to end “period poverty” by stocking all school bathrooms with free tampons and pads.

Anderson went on to say in the Chalkbeat story that he couldn’t afford to go to college, and that is tragic.

He says his goal is to one day become a teacher, and principal of Manual High School, his alma mater.

We would suggest he focus first on achieving those goals of learning, educating, and leading, before jumping to the head of the class thinking he’s already qualified to run the entire school district.

Perhaps it’s the company he keeps that leads him to believe so.

From the 9News report.

The voting guide for a tax increase in Jefferson County almost played voters for a fool, until a 9News report uncovered the argument listed against the tax was actually written by the same person leading the fight to increase the tax.

Talk about rigging the vote. 

The comments on Prop 1A in the official election notice suggests that if you oppose the tax hike, then vital services like public safety and transportation will be cut. And of course, voters won’t support that.

Such a trade off was never suggested, and is nothing but inflammatory language, as one tax opponent said, to sabotage the anti-tax effort against Prop 1A. 

Kudos to 9News for this report. This is a must watch, because it’s not the first time such slimy language has made its way into what the public has always assumed were trust-worthy voting guides.

The next time Planned Parenthood goes crying to the media about how desperate they are for taxpayer money, can someone please remind the press about this story?

Planned Parenthood targets Colorado, Cory Gardner in $45M abortion-rights push

That’s right, Planned Parenthood can raise $45 million to run political ads, but they acted like the world was going to end if they didn’t get $564 million in 2017.

And anyone who doesn’t support Planned Parenthood or using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions will feel the wrath of the millions of dollars the group apparently didn’t need for women’s health care. 

Just a reminder, because Planned Parenthood is so blinded by their hatred for Republicans they forget to actually check where they stand on certain issues — Gardner is the one who’s been leading the charge to untangle regulations and allow for over-the-counter sales of birth control pills. 

In addition to blowing huge wads of money in Colorado, the abortion rights group will spend those millions on political campaigns in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Colorado Politics reports.