Author: By RACHAEL WRIGHT Special to Colorado Politics

Twenty Years Ago This Week: Miller Hudson, executive director for the Colorado Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority, said he was forging ahead with plans to develop an overhead monorail to alleviate the congestion on Colorado’s highways and interstates. CIFGA was created in 1998 by the state legislature to explore the possibility of a high-speed transportation system…

Forty Years Ago This Week: “It was dandy,” House Minority Leader Federico Peña, D-Denver, said of the 53rd General Assembly. “It was basically a positive experience,” Peña said. “Things looked dim at the beginning of the session, but so far we’ve been able to set up policy reports, we’ve had better communication, the relationship with…

A weekly dive into the pages of Colorado Politics’ predecessor, The Colorado Statesman, which started in 1898. Twenty Years Ago This Week: “A waste of $150,000,” seethed Gov. Bill Owens after the special session on growth control ended with the state legislature deadlocking on the issue. “Had they told me at the start of the…

Twenty Years Ago This Week: An exasperated Rep. Tim Fritz, R-Loveland, told The Colorado Statesman that the Senate Judiciary Committee had voted to pass his bill to require public schools and libraries to use filtering software on any computers where minors could use the internet — and then, the committee effectively killed it. House Bill…

Forty Years Ago This Week: Democratic Congressman Tim Wirth of the 2nd CD, in a column for The Colorado Statesman, wrote “Few activities of Congress are as emotionally trying as our attempts to persuade the government of the Soviet Union, through our letters and telegrams, to allow its Jewish citizens to emigrate freely.” Wirth and…

Forty Years Ago This Week: Barbara Dean, women’s rights activist and columnist for The Colorado Statesman, expressed her dismay that a bill to create a Commission on Women had failed to pass the Colorado General Assembly for the third year. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Betty Neale, R-Denver, Sen. Ruth Stockton, R-Lakewood, and organization Colorado…

Forty Years Ago This Week: Western Colorado’s Third Congressional District U.S. Rep. Ray Kogovsek was eager to solving some of the federal government’s budget woes by playing collection agent to some of the constituents he was elected to serve back home — perhaps not the most popular move. He told The Colorado Statesman that there was…

Forty Years Ago This Week: Colorado lawmakers joined over 200 state legislators at the White House for meetings with President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George Bush and counsel to the president Edwin Meese III, about proposed federal budget cuts. House Minority Leader Federico Peña, D-Denver, was joined by Senate Majority Leader Ralph Cole, R-Littleton, Speaker…

A weekly dive into the pages of Colorado Politics’ predecessor, The Colorado Statesman, which started in 1898: Forty Years Ago This Week: While U.S. Senate candidate Mary Estill Buchanan’s campaign was suffering significant money woes, more drama played out for the campaign before a scheduled luncheon at Denver’s Wellshire Inn where Republican Kansas U.S. Sen.…