Colorado Lawmakers Considering a 60 Percent Tax Increase on Distilleries and Breweries

As if the times haven’t been hard enough on a consolidating industry in a state also confronted with a serious tourism dip, Colorado lawmakers are considering a 60 percent tax increase on the state’s local breweries, wineries, cideries, and distilleries,

Tax Hike Bill HB26-1271 otherwise known as the Alcohol Impact & Recovery Enterprises act, would seek to raise funds during a state budget crisis, by taxing the beer, wine, and spirits that consumers — many also facing financial challenges — may be using to drown their fears.

“Increasing taxes on breweries in Colorado would be like Maine lawmakers going after lobster fishermen or Georgia with peach farmers. You simply don’t pass job-killing tax increases on a sector that has put you on the map, especially in a way that would go around the will of Colorado voters.”

The proposed bill comes at a time when the Colorado Brewers Guild says their industry is facing the most challenging business conditions in generations, with record closures and down sales. If such a bill were to pass, it would jeopardize 131,000 Colorado brewery, winery, and distillery-related jobs and would greatly increase costs on consumers.

Those businesses include several here in the Arkansas River Valley. “Tourists from around the world come to Colorado to taste what we’re making,” said Lee Wood, president of the Colorado Distillers Guild and owner of Wood’s High Mountain Distillery.

“But,” adds Wood, “with the highest cost increases in generations and unprecedented challenges, this massive tax increase will only make it harder for us to invest in and create jobs for our local communities, let alone survive another season.”

https://arkvalleyvoice.com/colorado-lawmakers-considering-a-60-percent-tax-increase-on-distilleries-and-breweries/

It's sad what is happening with the HVAC world.

I've spent a couple of days talking with the only major group in North Montana about a commercial system that none of the local people have the skill to work on. We've come to the conclusion that from the millennial generation forward America is screwed 👎👎👎

Secondly the equipment that the millennial generation is now building is all junk! We're getting equipment with 2-3 factory leaks just about every other unit. I've installed a roof top and a freezer within the last year that lost its charge before the first month.

It's no different with everyone else... I had a conversation with a district manager and the regional manager from the biggest refrigeration contractor in the Western US and they are getting the same junk just on a bigger scale. The regional manager is traveling around just trying to hire technicians with basic competency. He said that it's pretty much useless to hire anyone under 35 because they don't have basic reading comprehension and they complain non stop about everything.

There's exceptions of course. I know a handful of young men who I would put to work in a heartbeat. But I can count them on one hand.

If you have an old system that is rebuild able I suggest that you find an older man who can do that. But what are we going to do once all of us older men are retired????

This issue alone will end America as we know it. The future is not bright. Put those sunglasses away 👎

So instead of a throw-away product that you have to replace every few years (as opposed to decades in the past) you now have to replace them in under a year or even months. Seems like a great business model for the manufacturers. This is something Mike Rowe has been talking about for years. It is a critical issue and goes right to the heart of a national security crisis. I guess robots will take over and we can just sit back and collect our checks.

I wish every Colorado elected politician would do two things:

Watch the great documentary from the Mises Institute: Playing with Fire: Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve https://youtu.be/qeXxU8SDyAo

And read "How to Think about the Economy: A Primer" by Per Bylund: https://store.mises.org/How-to-Think-about-the-Economy-A-Primer-P11241.aspx

A retired US Air Force general was reported missing in New Mexico, with authorities warning that medical concerns have heightened fears for his safety.

Retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen around 11 a.m. Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said.

Officials said they do not know what McCasland was wearing or in which direction he may have traveled. The sheriff’s office has issued a Silver Alert.

“Due to his medical issues, law enforcement is concerned for his safety,” the sheriff’s office said.

McCasland was a longtime leader at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and previously commanded Kirtland’s Phillips Research Site and Air Force Research Laboratory.

https://nypost.com/2026/03/02/us-news/retired-general-william-mccasland-goes-missing-in-new-mexico

UFO expert privy to 'most sensitive secrets' goes missing in New Mexico: 'Grave national security crisis'

The mysterious disappearance of a retired Air Force major general with deep expertise about UFOs who went missing without a trace Feb. 28 constitutes a “grave national security crisis,” according to an investigative journalist.

Local law enforcement said William Neil McCasland, 68, disappeared after leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on foot, leaving his phone behind in a missing persons investigation that has since been joined by the FBI.

“This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head,” journalist Ross Coulthart said in the latest edition of his “Reality Check” podcast, adding that McCasland possesses deep knowledge about what the US government might be hiding regarding extraterrestrials.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office issued a Silver Alert for the missing retiree, seeking help from the public in locating him and noting that law enforcement’s concerns for his well-being are exacerbated due to “medical issues.”

During his Air Force career, McCasland headed up research at Wright Patterson Air Force Base — a role in which he oversaw classified space weapons programs, according to Coulthart.

https://nypost.com/2026/03/08/us-news/william-neil-mccasland-missing-ufo-expert-missing-in-new-mexico

Colorado Sees 13K Property Crimes Monthly, Tops U.S. Despite High Income

1. Colorado’s property crime rate of 2,783 per 100,000 is the highest in the nation, while its per capita income of $77,959 ranks 8th.

2. Colorado leads all seven of its bordering states in both violent and property crime rates, despite also leading them in per capita income, with the widest gap against Utah, where property crime runs 1,155 incidents per 100K lower.

3. Colorado’s High Income, High Crime Index score of 87.12 out of 100 is the highest in America, 42.50 points above last-place Mississippi and 30.76 points above economic twin New Hampshire, which earns just $16.75 less per capita annually.

Colorado residents earn among the highest incomes in the country, yet face more property crime than any other state in America. A resident of New Hampshire, earning virtually the same paycheck, is about one-third as likely to experience property crime and nearly 4.7 times less likely to encounter violent crime.

The study conducted by Simmrin Law Group, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense firm, examined FBI crime data (2021–2025) and U.S. Census Bureau-American Community Survey data across all 50 U.S. states to identify where economic prosperity fails to translate into public safety.

https://www.cuindependent.com/colorado-sees-13k-property-crimes-monthly-tops-u-s-despite-high-income/

542 DAYS

Tina Peters has been in prison with violent offenders, denied bond on appeal because she is "too dangerous" while the very information she preserved continues to be proven RIGHT every day.

Another primary, another set of impossibilities and fake voter records. Those in power continue to tell you that there are no experts. There is no evidence.
"Safe and secure..."

No one believes it, yet Tina Peters still sits in prison and everyone knows why.

Today, listen to one of the actual experts. Walter Daugherity, co-author of Mesa County Report #3, explains some of the latest evidence that Tina Peters was exactly right and why it matters for every single one of us.

6PM ET tonight

https://rumble.com/v77tuqs-tina-still-sits-in-prison-as-the-fraud-continues-mesa-report-expert-walter-.html

Contrast this with the process of wolf reintroduction which was driven by advocacy groups, dismissive of ranchers’ concerns, supported by the barest majority many of whom are rethinking their support, highly partisan, and far from transparent.

The Real Threat From The Iran War Hits Farmers, Not Fuel Pumps

The distinction between fuel and food inflation matters. America’s position in the natural gas market—specifically liquefied natural gas (LNG), the fuel at the center of this conflict—is stronger than it was even a few years ago. The United States is now the world’s largest LNG exporter. Our domestic production runs at over 109 billion cubic feet per day. Our export terminals are running near full capacity. As substantial portions of Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex have been taken offline and the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed to tanker traffic, European gas benchmarks have surged more than 60 percent and Asian spot prices have nearly doubled. The American benchmark, Henry Hub, has barely moved. The Energy Information Administration expects it to average around $3.80 per million BTU for 2026—roughly where it was before the war began. The paradox of being the world’s largest LNG producer is that we cannot easily move our gas to the global market when terminals are already at capacity, which means that global gas scarcity does not drain our domestic supply. On natural gas, the moat holds.
The story on fertilizer is different, and it deserves attention.
Fertilizer is the link between energy and food. Natural gas is not just a fuel; it is the primary feedstock for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers through a process developed over a century ago called the Haber–Bosch method. Natural gas goes in, ammonia comes out, ammonia becomes urea, urea gets spread on cornfields in Iowa and wheat fields in Kansas and rice paddies in Asia. About 80 percent of nitrogen fertilizer production costs are attributable to natural gas. When the Strait of Hormuz is practically shuttered, you do not just block oil tankers and LNG carriers. You block the ships carrying urea and ammonia that the world’s farmers were expecting to receive this spring.
The numbers are sobering. The Persian Gulf region accounts for roughly a third of globally traded urea exports and approximately 25 percent of ammonia trade.


https://www.zerohedge.com/food/real-threat-iran-war-hits-farmers-not-fuel-pumps

This is incredibly good news for the region