Author: Paula Noonan

Paula Noonan In 1847, 116 Baptist ministers from the Boston area signed an anti-slavery manifesto. It was a 5-foot-long handwritten scroll titled “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery” recently rediscovered at the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts archive. Jennifer Cromack, a volunteer historian for the archive, says the long-lost document “offers a glimpse into the…

Paula Noonan The Trump administration is giving us an advanced placement class in United States civics on the fly. We’re learning about the true power and authority of the executive, the limited power and authority of the judiciary except for the Supreme Court, the ignominy of Congress’s failure to stop President Donald Trump’s usurpations, and…

Paula Noonan It’s stirring when an election hustle is crushed in a hailstorm of citizen No votes. Slashing voter ice rocks crashed through Douglas County commissioners’ proposition to turn DougCo into a home rule county. Voters shredded the initiative into tiny bits with a 70% No to 30% Yes result. The collective, democratic vote-spike of…

Paula Noonan Douglas County, with its general political orientation on a slide rule from conservative Democrat to ultra-conservative Republican, continues to juice up core controversies in the state. It’s on the brink of deciding whether to have a local control county government or hold to its current status as a statutory county. It’s also the…

Paula Noonan Has President Donald Trump, like Julius Caesar before him, crossed his Rubicon? Caesar traversed the northern border of the Roman empire with his army in 44 BCE, breaking faith with the Roman Senate, breaking the laws of the empire and instigating a civil war that took down him and the republic. Trump’s actions…

Paula Noonan One wonders how the quartet of ‘smartest people in the room,’ all Democratic office holders, determines who’s the smartest person in the room when they’re in the same room at the same time. Do Gov. Jared Polis, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Attorney General Phil Weiser play One Potato-Two…

Paula Noonan Recently, two district courts have come down on opposite sides on our state’s “sunshine laws.” Our state’s Open Meetings Law requires government policy be debated and decided in public with proper notice to allow for public oversight. The law states policy-making meetings must be properly announced and agendas must accurately describe the subject…

Paula Noonan Scofflawing is becoming a habit in the state. The legislature passes laws and many affected parties ignore them. The legislature passed SB19-181 in 2019 to protect the health and welfare of us and the environment related to oil-and-gas extraction. We’re waiting for its full implementation and industry compliance. Then there’s HB22-1348, an auxiliary…

Paula Noonan The 2025 General Assembly finished in a timely and modest fashion last week. Out of 667 introduced bills, 486 passed and 171 bit the dust. That’s a 73% pass rate, but whether 486 survive Gov. Jared Polis’ veto pen is still an open question. If 2025 will be remembered in the record book,…

Paula Noonan Sometimes, what this country committed to 150 years ago merits continuation. In 2026, Colorado will be 150 years old. When our Centennial State was brought into the union in 1876, the federal government gave us 2.8 million acres of federal land and more than 4 million acres of mineral rights. These lands and…