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One more river to cross • Colorado Newsline

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One more river to cross • Colorado Newsline


A version of this commentary originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector.

My family and I stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings in Georgia a few weekends ago after watching one of our kids take part in a marching band competition. Surrounding us in restaurant were wall-mounted televisions. Most showed sports, repeatedly punctuated by political ads.

At least half of them attacked transgender people. And I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything more rancid on a TV broadcast.

One image after another of smiling human beings, framed as a monstrous threat.

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A person’s existence is never a debatable point. But these ads weren’t even gesturing toward persuasion. They were harangues, treating transgender people as nothing but targets and receptacles for hatred. Certainly not people worthy of the most basic respect.

The spots reminded me of an equally rancid ad from Alabama’s past. Faced with an extinction-level political event in Alabama’s 1970 gubernatorial campaign, George Wallace circulated a flyer showing a white girl sitting with seven Black children. The text read “Wake Up Alabama! Is This The Image You Want? Blacks Vow To Take Over Alabama.”

Brute. Crude. Demeaning.

It’s the old shriek of privilege, directed at white men like me. You matter. They don’t. If they matter, you won’t.

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It incites us to mad attempts at shoving the great shining rainbow of our nation back through the prism. Thinking we can make everything we see white.

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That hateful struggle has warped our country. It’s ruined lives and communities. And all too often it means living in a cynical simulacrum of freedom. Democracy at its heart is an act of inclusion, of gathering voices to come to a consensus. In America, we have a disturbing tendency to elevate people obsessed with excluding men and women from the discussion because of one identifier or another. All too often, they use violence to shrink the circle. Alabama has logged more decades as an apartheid state than as anything like a responsive government.

And yet, we know that people pushed back. We know of countless Americans who faced tyranny and violence with a cool and clear demand to be treated as Americans.

I’m thinking here of Jackson Giles, a Black man from Montgomery who lived through an age of segregation and lynchings. Someone who had seen his rights yanked away by a small clique of elites. Hopelessness would be a natural reaction.

But Giles fought. He challenged Alabama’s 1901 Constitution, enacted through fraud to steal the vote from Black Alabamians and, later, poor whites.

Backed by the Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington, he took the state to the U.S. Supreme Court, where, in 1903, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ruled against him in a manner that was both illogical and cowardly.

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You could understand if Giles gave up there. He didn’t.

Black leaders from around the state gathered in Montgomery after the court’s ruling to continue the fight. Giles, a deacon in a local church, began the meeting with a hymn.

Jackson Giles, seen here in an undated photo published in a magazine in 1903, brought a lawsuit over Alabama’s racist 1901 Constitution, taking his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Via archive.org)

“One more river,” he said. “There’s one more river to cross.”

Giles did not win that battle. The 1901 Alabama Constitution is still our governing document. Its authoritarian provisions controlled the state until 1966, when the first elections under the Voting Rights Act took place. Giles lived a long life, but not long enough to see that day. It’s unlikely anyone who heard him sing in 1903 did, either.

But other Alabamians picked up the melody. Amelia Boynton Robinson. Arthur Madison. Jo Ann Robinson. E.D. Nixon. Rosa Parks. They marched through Alabama’s hopeless landscape in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, at considerable personal risk, trying to make freedom and rule of law something more than luxuries enjoyed by white elites.

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They’re not unique. Look at any marginalized group in American history. You’ll see people who will not be silent, who will not be intimidated and who demand to be treated not as the powerful choose, but as the Constitution demands.

Their lives depend on us living our ideals. Not muttering them under our breath, but working to make our country the democracy it should be. Because when we decide that some people aren’t worthy of that, democracy dies.

It lives when people targeted for exclusion say no. When other people join them. And when the boundaries of belonging expand.

Progress is not ordained. Giles saw it go backwards. It could do so again. But it will not be complete until the day we accept that all of us are Americans, each with a right to representation and respect. Until we acknowledge our freedom is tied to the freedom of everyone else.

That destination is far over the horizon, with many obstacles ahead and nothing we can count on except the path that led us here and each other’s faith in the journey. Take a deep breath and step forward. There’s one more river to cross.

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Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: [email protected]. Follow Alabama Reflector on Facebook and X.

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Colorado weather: Up to 14 inches of snow forecast for mountains

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Colorado weather: Up to 14 inches of snow forecast for mountains


Snow started Monday night in Colorado’s mountains and will continue throughout the week, likely making its way into the Denver area on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Colorado’s mountain roads, including Interstate 70 at the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel and Berthoud Pass, were already snow-covered Tuesday morning, according to the weather service.

“With more snow to come throughout the day, a Winter Weather Advisory was issued for the Front Range Mountains,” forecasters said.

That advisory will be in effect until 8 p.m. Tuesday for parts of Jackson, Larimer, Boulder, Grand, Gilpin, Clear Creek, Summit and Park counties, including Rocky Mountain National Park. Additional snow accumulations between 6 and 14 inches are possible on Tuesday, forecasters said in the alert.

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As of Tuesday, the weather service’s snow forecasts included:

  • 2 inches on I-70’s Vail Pass, with up to 3 inches possible
  • 3 inches in Winter Park, with up to 4 inches possible
  • 4 inches in Eldora and on U.S. 6’s Loveland Pass, with up to 5 inches possible
  • 4 inches on U.S. 40’s Berthoud Pass near Winter Park, with up to 7 inches possible
  • 5 inches at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, with up to 7 inches possible
  • 6 inches on U.S. 34’s Milner Pass in RMNP, with up to 8 inches possible
  • 7 inches on Colorado 14’s Cameron Pass near Fort Collins, with up to 8 inches possible
  • 9 inches on Mount Zirkel, the highest summit of Colorado’s Park Range of the Rocky Mountains, with up to 11 inches possible

“Travel could be very difficult,” weather service forecasters stated in the winter weather advisory. “The hazardous conditions will impact the Tuesday morning and evening commutes.”



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Weiss keeps focus on job as Colorado AHL assistant, not historic promotion | NHL.com

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Weiss keeps focus on job as Colorado AHL assistant, not historic promotion | NHL.com


In NHL.com’s Q&A feature called “Sitting Down with …” we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. This week, we feature Kim Weiss, assistant coach of the Colorado Eagles, the Colorado Avalanche’s American Hockey League affiliate. Weiss was named assistant for the Eagles on Jan. 16, joining Seattle Kraken assistant Jessica Campbell as the only women in the NHL or AHL to be a full-time assistant coach.

Kim Weiss doesn’t think about the history she’s made that often.

The 36-year-old is too busy with her duties that come with being the Colorado Eagles’ assistant coach, including breaking down 5-on-5 video — she was the team’s video coach prior to her promotion — presenting it to the team, pushing pucks and running practice drills.

“When the title change happened and the promotion happened, I left the office of the general manager (Kevin McDonald), and I got back to work,” Weiss told NHL.com. “In the moment you’re not really thinking about that kind of stuff, but obviously it’s an honor.

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“I’m especially grateful just because of my background. I didn’t play on a national team, I didn’t grow up in Minnesota or any kind of a hockey hotbed. So to get at this level and to have this legacy, for lack of a better word, from the place I’m from, a kid from Maryland that played Division III (hockey at Trinity College), it makes me even more proud to show people that you can get somewhere no matter where you start from. Then you add in being a female and all of that, I’m really proud of my journey and I’m proud of all the people who helped me along the way to get here.”

It’s been quite a ride for Weiss with the Eagles, who are second in the AHL Pacific Division. Last week, Weiss talked to NHL.com about her new duties, working with the Avalanche and more women in hockey.

So what was it like the day McDonald called you into the office to give you the news of your promotion?

“Honestly, it’s an affirmation of the work you put in. That’s what the GM said to me. Last season I had a different head coach (Aaron Schneekloth) and we had a different assistant (Dan Hinote) that both moved onto the NHL, and they both spoke highly of me to our GM in the summer and to our new head coach (Mark Letestu). Getting to know Mark this year and working for him, everything that he had heard of me got confirmed through the first few months of the year.

“I don’t exactly know how the process went about to change the title, but I think he went to Kevin, and I know Kevin said this to me, this line of, ‘You’re doing all the work that the assistant does, so why aren’t we calling you one?’ I’m already on the ice with the team and I run skill skates and scratch skates and present (video). I’m doing everything the assistant coach does; I just had a different title. So I really appreciate them just giving me the opportunity to kind of advance my career and keep doing what I love to do, which is coach hockey.”

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Letestu also had you run one of the practices earlier in the season. How did that come about?

“Every assistant got (that chance). The big thing coming in was, he had been an assistant coach before and he wanted to make sure we all had a voice and a say, and we weren’t just coming onto the ice for practice like, ‘Oh, here we go. Push some pucks. Put my track suit on for 20 minutes, push some pucks and jump off.’ He wanted to make sure we had the platform in front of the players.

“It started with our longest-tenured assistant coach, Tim Branham. It was nothing new or scary for any of us, but just a different dynamic. Not every staff allows their assistants to take full responsibility of a full practice. Then Derek (Army) took it and then the next week I took one.”



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How the Colorado Rockies Are Actually Building Its Opening Day Roster

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How the Colorado Rockies Are Actually Building Its Opening Day Roster


The Colorado Rockies are seeking the right balance and experimenting under their first full-year manager, Warren Schaeffer.

It’s a different Rockies roster compared to last season. There are new faces on the active roster for the start of the 2026 season. Having a team with youth and a mix of veterans can be a successful formula for the Rockies.

Knowing how the elevation affects things in Colorado, the Rockies will see which pitcher can thrive playing in Coors Field. Anything can happen this season.

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The Rockies Must Have A Roster That Can Stay Durable 

Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
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A Rotation of Veterans

Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta added several arms over 34, including Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana, and Tomoyuki Sugano.

The fifth starter will be a competitive battle. The Rockies have options in who will win that fifth and final spot. Here is the prediction of the Rockies’ starting rotation:

  • Kyle Freeland
  • Michael Lorenzen
  • Ryan Feltner
  • Jose Quintana
  • Chase Dollander

Ryan Feltner has battled injuries. The 29-year-old suffered back spasms and shoulder injuries, preventing him from performing in 2025. He’s determined to have a breakout season. 

He had a lot of momentum in his final 15 starts of the 2024 season. Feltner posted a 2.75 ERA and finished with a career-high 162 1/3 innings. Feltner has been building his weight-room capacity and getting himself ready for the new season. Hopefully, he can stay healthy and produce.

Flexibility on the Infield

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The Rockies’ acquisition of Willi Castro was a smart move. We know the Rockies’ future at shortstop is Ezequel Tovar. However, the Rockies organization is being cautious. They want to make sure they have an extra body on hand in case something goes south. Castro is a former All-Star and a versatile defender. 

Eduoard Julien is known for playing second base, but he can also play first base if the Rockies need him there. It all depends on many situations and circumstances. Julien is one of the players on the Rockies roster who must prove his worth.

In terms of first base, TJ Rumfield is a front-office option to serve that position. He has the size, length, and youth to play the position. Rumfield is having an impressive start to the spring so far. 

Current Roster and Opening Day Prediction Lineup

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Ezequiel Tovar, SS 
Tyler Freeman, 2B 
Mickey Moniak, DH 
Hunter Goodman, C 
Kyle Karros, 3B
Jordan Beck, RF 
Brenton Doyle, CF
Jake McCarthy, LF
TJ Rumfield, 1B

The lineup can change overnight, and especially in the next few weeks. If, for some reason, Freeman can’t okay second base to start the season, then Castro is the leading man to take the spot. 



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