Mike's Blog Roundup

Are 52 gas stations enough for Lakewood’s 156,000 residents? It’s a question that leaders in Colorado’s fifth-largest city are seriously asking, with the City Council teeing up a proposed ordinance that would severely restrict how many new gas stations could prime their pumps in this western suburb. It’s heading for a final vote early next year. The measure would also throttle the number of new car washes, which a city memo cites for excessive water use and pollution. The proposal passed on an initial vote Dec.

The future of one of the hotel shelters that form the backbone of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s All In Mile High homelessness initiative is at risk on Monday as city officials pivot to win approval for a lease extension. City Council members will consider a shorter-term lease extension than originally proposed for the former Comfort Inn property at 4685 Quebec St.

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) faced backlash from Laura Loomer, an insider close to President-elect Donald Trump, after he endorsed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Arthel Neville noted that Comer was a "member of the AOC fan club." "What leadership qualities would make Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an effective oversight ranking member?" Neville asked. "So the Democrats have nowhere to go but up," Comer argued.

Two weeks after the election, I met Dianela Rosario in Huntington Park, California—an almost entirely Latino city that swung hard to the right this year. A 51-year-old Dominican American shopkeeper, Rosario told me that before this year she had never voted for a Republican presidential candidate. But, in 2024, inflation and the prices of groceries were front of mind.

Amid the frenzied coverage of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson‘s assassination and the public’s troubling reaction to it were references to various polls, including one conducted in 2016 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, whose results suggested that Americans were content with their private health plans. Similar stats had crept into the debate over Medicare for All—a proposed national health insurance program to cover all Americans, and with which private insurers would have to compete.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the FBI issued a report last week that detailed at least 26 FBI Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) were in D. C. on January 6, 2021.