Author: Morgan Smith
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Allen Dines hasn’t slowed down a bit
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SMITH: REMEMBERING OUR PAST Allen DinesColorado House of Representatives 1956-1966Colorado Senate 1966-1974 “I’m up to my eyeballs in education,” former state Senator Allen Dines says to me. It has been almost forty years since we served together. Although he is now 90, he hasn’t slowed down a bit. In fact, he has the same…
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Our drug habit is killing Central America
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“He’s a born again revolutionary,” Carlos, a prominent Nicaraguan businessman says of his country’s President, Daniel Ortega. We’re in Managua, the capital, with a group of six potential donors. The goal is to raise money for several non-profits, especially Empowerment International, an educational program started by Kathy Adams from Lyons, Colorado that has changed the…
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We had a friend in Ted Strickland
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When my first legislative session began in 1973, Ted Strickland was the senior member of our Adams County delegation as well as the only Republican. My House District overlapped with his Senate one and we quickly got to know each other. The link initially was Jean Dubofsky who then represented Colorado Rural Legal Services and…
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Straight talker Medill Barnes dies
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“Morgan, I have some bad news.” It was former District Judge Susie Barnes on the phone. I knew immediately what she was going to say. Her husband, Medill Barnes, my friend of some 60 years had died.We met in the early ‘50s when his family moved to the Aspen area. His father, Courtland Barnes was…
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On the road with Mark Udall
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“Does Jim Rizzuto still smoke his pipe?” U.S. Senator Mark Udall asks. It’s Friday, the 13th of January, we’re in La Junta and, yes, Jim Rizzuto, former Joint Budget Committee member and now the president of Otero Junior College, still smokes his pipe. This is a day on the road with Mark Udall, a day…
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Remembering Freddy Anderson
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SMITH: ANDERSON WAS A WONDERFUL PUBLIC SERVANT Editor’s Note: Former state Senate President Fred Anderson of Loveland died of a heart attack on Dec. 23 at the age of 83. He was elected to the state senate in 1966 and served until 1982 when he retired. He was president of the senate for eight years.…
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Former New Mexico governor announces for president
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SANTA FE — It’s 10 AM, Wednesday, Dec. 28 and Gary Johnson, two time Governor of New Mexico strides to the podium to begin his press conference. He looks good in a dark suit and white shirt and is obviously fit. He has climbed Mt. Everest, Elbrus in Russia and more recently Mt. Kilimanjaro. His…
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Jerry Kopel, the Legislator’s Legislator
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Bam! The committee room slams open and a man in a black tuxedo jacket appears. He pushes a little cart slowly into the room. We go silent, we raucous and punch drunk members of the House Democratic Caucus. It is our second or third day of debating the 1976 Long Bill and exhaustion has set…
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Murder and poor mental health in the most dangerous city of the world
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Our society is crying out,” El Pastor says. It’s Thursday, February 23 and we’re in his battered little red car driving south from Juárez, Mexico to what he calls the asilo (asylum) or manicomio (mad house or insane asylum). José Luis Galván is El Pastor. A big man of 60 with curly greying hair, he…