Colorado News Miner: February 5, 2025

Natelson on Right to Work: Rob Natelson offers useful background on union and right to work laws. He cites my article arguing that employers and employees should be able to associate freely. Natelson argues that, given federal laws forcing businesses to negotiate with unions, and given that Colorado Democrats seem determined to let unions force unwilling people to join, Colorado needs a right to work law.

BABES Act: Years ago, when my wife was pumping breast milk for our infant, TSA agents hassled her for bringing the milk through the airport. Science communicator Emily Calandrelli had a similar experience. Now Rep. Brittany Pettersen, herself with a newborn, is working with other legislators "to make it easier for parents to safely travel with breast milk." I hope the bill does some good. I for one am beyond tired of "security theater" at the airport.

Housing on Church Land: Generally I think it's a great idea to recognize the rights of religious groups to develop their land for housing, and a bill will address that. See Newsline and the Gazette. Here's the problem: Recognizing specifically religious people's rights, but not secular people's rights in the same context, violates the First and Fourteenth amendments. The bill should treat all comparable groups (say, nonprofits) equally, not single out religious groups.

Montrose Homeless Camp Conflict: The Montrose United Methodist Church is allowing a homeless encampment on its property near the town's Main Street. The city is demanding that the church stop allowing that. The city claims that the encampment is trashy and that some people there harass others in the town. See the CPR report. My take: There is nothing inherently wrong with allowing encampments on one's property. But if trash, odors, or human waste become a problem to people outside that property, local government rightly intervenes. And of course government rightly intervenes to preserve public order and prevent crimes, but it should not punish the innocent.

House Insurance Regulations: According to a CBS report, Rep. Kyle Brown wants to subsidize hail-resistant roofs paid "from fees paid by insurers," require insurance companies to account (to state specifications) efforts to mitigate damages, and subsidize insurance companies in the case of a catastrophe. This is all bad. Insurance companies and their clients should be free to negotiate mutually agreeable terms. The people who work for insurance companies are not idiots, and they do not need the help of legislators (who often are idiots) to figure out how to make risk assessments or appropriately price policies. The main thing the state can and should do to mitigate fire risks and keep insurance prices lower is properly manage state-owned lands. Otherwise the state should make sure it is not raising costs or driving out firms through poorly conceived regulations.

Abortion Shield: The legislature is expected to hear a couple of bills strengthening Colorado's abortion "shield" laws. See Axios and the Colorado Times Recorder.

Drug War on the Ballot: The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition reports (via February 4 email), "Advance Colorado, led by political strategist Michael Fields . . . has already filed two ballot initiatives (1 and 2) to enshrine SB25-044's principles into law in 2025." That bill makes possession of the drug a felony without exceptions.

Immigration Raids: Federal agents raided Aurora apartment complexes.

Anti-Immigrant: "Douglas County Commissioner George Teal wants to allow agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to grab kids from schools in Douglas County," Jason Salzman reports. Repugnant.

School Troubles: Allegedly two boys in a Douglas County school told a girl that "Black is ugly." Here's a Denver Post headline: "Former Jeffco paraprofessional gets 4 years in prison for sexual assault on disabled student." And another: "Fort Collins high school teacher charged with sexually assaulting student."

Flight Program: But it's not all bad news! Here's something positive: "Homeschool enrichment program [focusing on aviation] takes flight in Douglas County."

Two Sexes: The Woodland Park School Board passed a resolution declaring "that there are only two biological sexes, male and female, determined by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome." Besides the fact that in rare cases genitalia does not match chromosomes, gender is fundamentally a psychological phenomenon, usually but not always correlated with genitalia and sex chromosomes. This resolution has to do with tribal signaling, not with any serious effort to establish sensible policies.

Elizabeth Law Suit: Nicky Quinby reports, "Former Elizabeth Middle School Dean of Students LeEllen Condry has filed a civil rights complaint accusing the Elizabeth School District of discrimination. Condy, a Haitian American, claimed in the Jan. 29 filing that she had been discriminated against based on her race and gender and had been retaliated against for speaking out against the district's Library Sensitive Topic Protocol and Book Lists."

Yes, Elizabeth Banned Book: Colorado Community Media published a letter on January 14 by Crisy Howell claiming that the policy of the Elizabeth School District constituted "parental choice, not a ban," and that it was "about empowering parents to make informed choices for their children’s education." That is just total bullshit, and, frankly, I'm surprised that a newspaper would publish a letter that is easily verified to be false. As CPR summarizes, the district "banned 19 books from school libraries in August." In my October op-ed, I linked to the district document that lists 19 "temporarily suspended books." Yes, this is a book ban. The ACLU has sued.

Bradley Spits on the First Amendment: Republican Rep. Brandi Bradley said that two 9News reporters "should be arrested" for their reporting. This is absolutely shameful behavior, and every Republican elected official should publicly condemn Bradley.

Don't Choose Violence! Also Democrats should condemn the El Paso vice-chair Democrat who posted "choose violence" on Facebook.

Critics of Woke: CU philosophy professor Michael Huemer joined Bryan Caplan to discuss Huemer's book Progressive Myths, which argues against "wokism." See also my brief review of the book for Complete Colorado. "Woke" can be an ambiguous term; what Huemer opposes, he writes, is the the view that "sees contemporary America as a deeply unjust society, filled with prejudice and systematically designed to harm and oppress."