The Colorado Switchblade

In today’s Weekend Rant Editorial, I discuss the Colorado Open Records Act that I used to obtain the Separation Agreement Between the Estes Park School District and former Superintendent Sheldon Rosenkrance. While this is a vital tool in our toolbox for accountability and transparency, there is a lot of room for improvement not only in Estes Park but in Colorado. I break things down and suggest so...

I usually never post two podcasts in a day, but I felt that these breaking stories needed to be shared with the community, especially the School Board-related items. I have obtained two new items of information related to the Estes Park School District Board of Directors. The First is the financial settlement regarding the Separation Agreement between the School District and now former Superintend...

In today’s Episode of the Colorado Switchblade, we have some updates on the extreme fire dangers we find ourselves in. This includes burning restrictions issued by the Estes Valley Fire Protection District. Here is the email sent out: Subject: Open Burning RESTRICTION (Stage 1) All affected agencies David Wolf, Fire Chief Estes Valley Fire Protection District April 22, 2022 Due to continued dry co...

The Estes Park School District Board of Education held a Special Meeting on Tuesday. After the usual opening of the meeting and approval of the agenda, the board went into a closed Executive Session for a personnel matter regarding Superintendent Sheldon Rosenkrance. The Executive Session concluded after approximately an hour and the next item of business was the approval of a Separation Agreement...

In this special breaking news podcast, I break down the happenings within the Estes Park School District’s Board of Education with tonight’s special board meeting with an executive session to possibly oust the Estes Park School District Superintendent Sheldon Rosenkrance. I will be attending tonight’s special meeting which was announced at the last possible minute to be legal yesterday evening. (I...

Local historian and scientist John Meissner comes back on the podcast to talk about the Hospital Board Election happening in Estes Park. John is once again running for office in this election and he gives us his thoughts on the state of our local hospital and the upcoming elections. He also speaks on his recent experience being a jury member here in Colorado. Happy Easter everyone! This is a publi...

In today’s episode, we have a conversation with 970 Comedy’s Jacob Erdman about how the Northern Colorado comedy scene is responding to complaints of a sexual predator who was within its midsts. Jacob reached out to me to give another perspective in response to the interview I did with comedian Kevin Dumont on April 4th. An interview with 970 Comedy's Jacob Erdman responding to our interview with...

In today’s episode, we have two quick interviews. The first is with Laurie Dale Marshall (LDM), executive director of the EVICS Family Resource Center about the lack of housing here in Estes Park. You will remember that LDM was the lone dissenting voice speaking up in favor of the Short Term Rental fee imposed by the town trustees during the last town board meeting. We had a great conversation abo...

I had a chance to sit down and have a conversation with the Town of Estes Park Town Administrator Travis Machalek about what steps the town currently takes to reduce fire hazards with our town’s power supply. Fire Season is already here. Now is the time to start thinking and talking about what steps we can take to reduce the risk of wildfires in our Estes Valley Community. This is a public episode...

a group of students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts is in town for seven weeks to study the effects of the wildfires on local communities. The students reached out to me for an interview as a resident of the Estes Valley Community. This episode includes the interview, which spans several topics surrounding living with wildfires in the mountain communities of Colorado. We also...

In today’s episode, I sit down with Kevin Dumont, a local comedian who is queer and a person of color, to talk about what they feel is wrong with the Fort Collins Comedy scene and why they have been blacklisted. Did you know you can listen to the Colorado Switchblade on Apple Podcasts and Spotify? Just search for the Colorado Switchblade on their apps. This is a public episode. If you'd like to di...

In today’s Weekend Rant we are discussing in an editorial opinion piece that covers this last Tuesday’s Estes Park’s Town Council vote of Short Term Rentals and then goes over what I feel are the best candidates running in our current election and ballot questions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.coloradoswit...

Today we have Estes Park Town Administrator Travis Machalek and Town Clerk Jackie Willamson giving us an accurate breakdown of the ballot resolutions. Then I give an impassioned opinion on why I think we should not keep the posting of public records in the local newspaper of record. The below Resolutions were approved during January 11, 2022, Town Board Meeting and have been placed on the April 5,...

Today in the Colorado Switchblade’s fourth of the Town Trustee candidate forum podcast, I had a chance to sit down and talk with Estes Park Town Trustee Candidate John Meissner. It’s an engaging interview that gives you a chance to get to know John as a human being. While John does not intend to win this election, preferring to use the election as a public forum to get out there and have his voice...

Today in the Colorado Switchblade’s third of the Town Trustee Candidate forum podcast, I had a chance to sit down and talk with Estes Park Town Trustee Candidate Kirby Nelson-Hazelton. It’s an engaging interview that gives you a chance to get to know Kirby as a human being and she even turns the table on me and asks for my perspective on local issues. You can see her Candidate Biography here . I h...

I officially dub this week Estes Park School House Rock Week! During which we will learn about local politics here in Estes Park, Colorado. In our first episode, we speak with Travis Machalek Town Administrator for Estes Park, where we break down the basics of how town government is set up, what is a Town Trustee and how local laws get passed. The Town of Estes Park just announced that ballots wil...

I first met Corey Hutchins when we wound up in the same Substack writers’ group that met weekly for a month to learn new ways to better our respective substack outlets. Corey is the interim director of Colorado College’s  Journalism Institute , the Colorado-based contributor for Columbia Journalism Review’s   United States Project , a member of The Washington Post’s Talent Network, and a journalis...

Sometimes journalists just get lucky. That was the case for me when in the summer of 2020, back when the world was unsure if Trump might be reelected, I had just started writing for the local newspaper, and I saw a last-minute pop-up show in Aspen, Colorado, at the Gonzo Gallery. The show included the visual artwork of giants of the beat writers, Allen Ginsberg, Willam Burroughs, and giant of Amer...

As journalists, we tend to wind up working with PIOs, otherwise known as Public Information Officers. Who have received formal training in journalism, communications, public relations, and public affairs to ensure that public announcements are made in the most appropriate fashion and through the most appropriate channels to maximize the impact of clear messages and minimize the impact of negative...

Today I had the chance to sit down with three women from Ukraine to talk about what is happening there with the Russian military invasion. In this episode, Iryna Irkliienko, Iryna Lekhno, and Natalia Pleshkova tell us about their homes, their families, and what is really going on in Ukraine. They all live in Estes Park, Colorado, with family living back in Ukraine. Please help share this story bef...

Today’s heavy news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seemed to set a precedence for today’s local news cycle. In that, the stories would not be of the positive variety. On today’s podcast, we take an in-depth look at the town’s independent, third-party expert findings and review of the Estes Park Police Department to determine whether there was any knowledge within the department of the domestic vio...

In today’s podcast, we have a conversation with a woman living in Colorado who transitioned. ‘B’ is a successful business owner in the Denver area, who I met four years ago and has since become a close friend. I thought her story was one of our generations’ communal stories and needed to be told. In this interview, we talk about the transition process here in Colorado and some of the trials and tr...

Nate Brandon was a comic book colorist before the pandemic hit. Then after getting laid off he jumped into professional video game tournament competition and game streaming on Twitch. In this interview, Nate tells us how he got into things and streaming and breaks down the ins and outs of the industry. You can see more of what he is doing by clicking here. This is a public episode. If you'd like t...

For those of you that caught my last weekend’s rant on the news of the CDC rollback of its 2016 opioid prescribing recommendations, I mentioned that we would be releasing this interview. Today as a special feature editorial, we have an interview with a medical doctor out of Montana who has been fighting back against these mandates since 2016. Dr. Mark Ibsen has almost lost everything in his fight...

While the world is often trying to get up to Estes Park. Those that live here are often trying to get out of town and ‘down the valley’ for some rest and recreation and Denver can be great for doing just that. I have written about the Meow Wolf Denver experience before including an exclusive interview with Chadney Everett the Senior Creative Director of Meow Wolf just before they opened their door...