Author: The Lovel

Nearly 50 years ago, leaders from several Northern Colorado communities recognized that this area was on steady track toward growth. At that time, the newly built Interstate 25 north of Denver had no trouble bearing all of the north Front Range traffic on its four lanes of concrete. Community edges were easy to see because…

Class of 2017, do you remember what the world was like when you started first grade? We didn’t think so. Your parents might not remember, either. It was like this. In 2005: ? The average cost of a gallon of gas was $2.27. (As of this week, it’s $2.37.) ? Cars didn’t drive themselves, and…

Millennials – the generation of young adults born between 1977 and 1994 – have been getting a lot of abuse lately. Australia’s version of “60 Minutes” recently aired a piece wherein one of that country’s millionaires said if young people would stop buying $19 avocado toast and $4 coffees they could afford to buy houses.…

In some criminal activity, especially the illicit drug trade, the economics at one time proved to be too attractive. While the risk of arrest and incarceration was always just around the corner, criminals could amass enough money and other assets like cash, cars and even houses to provide for them when they got out of…

No matter where one stands on the legality of marijuana, or whether marijuana businesses should operate in your community, the safety of those businesses and the people who operate them is important. Without access to banking services, due to the fact that federal law still criminalizes the drug, dispensaries deal almost entirely in cash. Automatic…

The writers of the Colorado Constitution were smart in a way that even the Founding Fathers weren’t. They knew that if any work was going to get done in the Capitol, the legislative session would have to have a hard cap on the number of days it convenes. Unlike in Congress, the conclusion of the…

High-occupancy buildings are filled with people who spend almost the entirety of each day in those buildings, usually going outdoors to get into their cars and head home. Schools aren’t like that. Students spend significant portions of their days on the playgrounds and fields around schools – for P.E. and recess, and for athletic practices.…

Through my quarter century working in the sheriff’s office, I don’t recall witnessing a more polarizing issue than the current debate on the role of sheriffs as it relates to enforcement of immigration law. Multiple times a week, I’m asked why we are cooperating with federal immigration officials or why we are not. Throughout the…

The problem with many feuds is that over time, the cause of their existence is forgotten. For the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate, the feud over the use of the filibuster in connection with appointments of the judiciary goes back further than almost any of the members serving there. Opinions as to “who…

Congress has voted to do away with a measure meant to protect our internet privacy, and the president is expected to sign it. Privacy regulations written by the Federal Communications Commission last year were meant to protect our web browsing histories, location information, health data, the content of our emails and other personal information, even…