The Mountain Minute: 7/23/2025

🎧 Mountain Minute – July 23, 2025
Trailblazers are rising—and Colorado’s conservative base isn’t backing down. This week’s episode highlights the real leaders shaping change from the ground up.

Colorado News:
🔹 Trailblazer Awards spotlight grassroots heroes – From election watchdogs to viral satirists, RMV’s Mountain Majesty Gala honored the everyday Coloradans leading the conservative revival.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/23/trailblazers-among-us-meet-the-rmv-award-winners-changing-colorado-from-the-ground-up/

🔹 Unelected boards seize power in rural Colorado – Cory Gaines exposes how regulatory boards—not lawmakers—are driving decisions that hurt small towns and local industries.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/gaines-colorados-unelected-boards-hold-the-real-power-and-its-hurting-rural-counties/

🔹 Colorado drops into bottom 10 for school safety – Despite heavy education spending, state rankings reveal a failure to protect kids, enforce policies, or hold school boards accountable.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/colorado-falls-to-bottom-ten-in-school-safety-despite-high-spending/

🔹 Sheriff revives mounted patrol with community help – One rural sheriff turns to locals to rebuild trust and presence through an old-school solution: horses.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/colorado-sheriff-turns-to-community-to-revive-mounted-patrol/

🔹 $1 billion road funding gap heads to 2026 ballot – Lawmakers warn that key infrastructure projects may stall without new revenue—but will voters approve more taxes?
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/colorados-1-billion-road-gap-pushes-funding-fight-to-the-ballot/

🔹 Wolf program costs surge past $8 million – Ranchers are left behind as state-funded wolf management soars—raising questions of who really benefits.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/wolf-program-hits-8-million-as-critics-ask-who-really-benefits/

National News:
🔹 Trump unseals MLK assassination files – A new batch of long-classified documents reignites public interest in the truth behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s death.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/trump-administration-unseals-massive-trove-of-mlk-assassination-files/

🔹 Trump halts deportation of Afghan allies – Emergency visa review ordered after revelations that key U.S. partners in Afghanistan were being sent back to Taliban-controlled regions.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/trump-intervenes-to-stop-afghan-refugee-allies-deportation-to-taliban-launches-emergency-visa-review/

🔹 DEI backlash hits $30M NIH grant pool – AFL files petitions to cancel taxpayer-funded research it calls “junk science,” targeting identity politics in health funding.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/dei-grants-under-fire-afl-targets-nih-funded-junk-science-in-30m-purge/

🔹 Teen sexting epidemic grows – RMV breaks down the legal, moral, and parental implications of rising sexting cases—and what every parent needs to know now.
Read more: https://rockymountainvoice.com/2025/07/22/digirolamo-teen-sexting-what-every-parent-needs-to-know/

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And as always—stay sharp, stay bold, and stay in the fight.