In a fit of orchestrated indignation last spring, our legislature banned the use of American Indian-themed mascots by public schools in Colorado. The Democratic majority at the Capitol deemed all such mascots offensive to American Indians. Continue Reading Denver Gazette: When American Indians root for Yuma
To our disappointment, Coloradans turned down three sound policies proposed on the statewide ballot on Tuesday. Continue Reading Denver Gazette: Missed opportunities on statewide ballot
An uprising by parents in key school board races across the state Tuesday has opened the schoolhouse doors to fresh thinking, needed reforms — and new hope for many Colorado kids. Voters in those districts toppled an elected hierarchy that to varying degrees was bureaucratic; out-of-touch; p… Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Parents take back their schools
In Denver, it’s not a matter of if, but when. Right next door in Aurora, by contrast, the time already has come — and not a minute too soon. Continue Reading Denver Gazette: Tuesday's tale of two cities
From critical race theory to mask mandates, school boards were front and center in last night’s elections. For months, parents have been showing up to school board meetings in droves, wondering why their kids were being indoctrinated in politics rather than instructed in math and reading. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Locally and nationally, 'it's education, stupid!'
Mama bears have awakened from their hibernation, and Big Education knows it. Union leaders, puppeteering public education for decades, are worried and they should be. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Trust mama bears to improve public schools
In an era of American civilization chock full of difficulty, here’s some jubilant breaking news: It’s the best kind of weekend to be a kid. Continue Reading Denver Gazette: This Halloween, let's let kids be kids
It should be a given: Local elected leaders — whether in Pueblo or Aurora or Colorado Springs or anyplace else — are in a better position to contain COVID than are officials who are higher up and farther away. That’s even more the case when those distant officials are unelected bureaucrats. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Simon says put your masks back on
The wind blew a branch on the roof and caused a leak. Dad obtained emergency aid to fix it. He easily patched the damage and had a pile of cash left over. So, dad went to the bar. He yelled “drinks on me” and spent the balance on his friends. His wife was miffed, saying the money could have … Continue Reading Denver Gazette: Gazette report shows need for Amendment 78
The latest unsettling news about Denver Public Schools reaffirms the need for a change of elected leadership at Colorado’s largest and most prominent school district. Continue Reading Denver Gazette: City schools need Jones, Villagrana, Fashaw
As green energy supporters urgently advocate renewable energy, reasonable people of all political persuasions should laud Pueblo County’s push for nuclear power. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Nuclear power could save the planet — and Pueblo
A primary race will determine whether the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents gets another CU employee with an intractable conflict of interest. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Self-serving candidates campaign to govern CU
Conflict among Colorado's fringe environmental groups has led to another proposed ballot attack on energy. Radical activists want to outlaw natural gas stoves, water heaters, home heating systems, and anything else that burns the clean, affordable, and efficient gas. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Stop the fringe from prohibiting natural gas
It is hard to miss the controversy about the Toh-Atin Gallery’s “Chief” sign, which seems to have returned with a vengeance like a lot of other symbolic and concrete civil rights issues, such as ...read the full editorial here. Continue Reading Durango Herald: ‘Chief’ had his day
Statues that celebrate questionable heroes from the nation’s past are under attack across America in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: When we idolize people, they tend to disappoint us
Two challengers are seeking the Democratic nomination to become the next Pueblo County commissioner representing District 1, the seat being vacated by Terry Hart, who is term-limited. Continue Reading Pueblo Chieftain: Vote Griego for commissioner
When demonstrations triggered by the death of George Floyd spread to Philadelphia, vandals defaced a statue outside City Hall of an old white man. They spray-painted the words “colonizer” and “murderer” on it. But the statue was of Matthias Baldwin, a 19th-century businessman and abolitionist. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: We don't need a society of vandals
Marking this day in June as an end of slavery has been a long time coming ...read the full editorial here. Continue Reading Durango Herald: Celebrating Juneteenth
One day after presumptive Democratic senatorial nominee John Hickenlooper spent a debate explaining ethics convictions and a racist comment, Sen. Cory Gardner delivered again for Colorado and the rest of the country. His latest in a long succession of victories involved challenging President… Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Gardner passes history's largest conservation bill
Nerves are still frayed from the June 3 Grand Junction City Council meeting that saw 200 people representing minority groups descend on City Hall to protest unfair treatment by police, the school district and other institutions (including the council itself) in the wake of George Floyd’s dea… Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Decorum loses in rift over respect on council
By threatening to veto House Bill 1420, Gov. Jared Polis brought confused Democrats to the table for a lesson in common sense. By Saturday night, as the legislative session drew within days of closure, the governor struck a compromise that dilutes the massive tax increase proposal to something most opponents can live with. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Gov. Polis, veto this tax increase
Let’s for a moment set aside the nasty and inaccurate Pueblo County commissioner campaign being run on Abel Tapia’s behalf as he tries to unseat incumbent Commissioner Garrison Ortiz in the Pueblo County Democratic primary this month. Mail-in voting already has begun. Continue Reading Pueblo Chieftain: Ortiz deserves a second term
Children need to know the truth about the police. Schools are where they should learn it, yet school officials are lining up to eject law enforcement resource officers. It’s a knee-jerk reaction to one enormous tragedy. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Don't boot law enforcement from our children's schools
Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District covers the Western Slope to Wyoming and across the southern part of the state to Pueblo. It is a district that has favored the individual over the party, although Republican Scott Tipton of Cortez has held the seat since 2010. He would like a sixth term. Continue Reading Durango Herald: For a U.S. House seat, GOP voters can choose an incumbent or a firebrand
As the coronavirus spread around the world, few institutions distinguished themselves as badly as the World Health Organization. When the public needs reliable medical information, the WHO has failed again and again. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: The World Health Organization displays deadly incompetence
The Colorado County Clerks Association wants the state’s voters to know how secure the voting system is. ...read the full editorial here. Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Check the facts: Mail-in ballots near bulletproof
Never has one simple fact been so clear. Businesses fund everything. When shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19, the state government went from a nearly $1 billion revenue surplus to a $3 billion shortfall. Shuttered businesses don’t collect sales taxes, and their out-of-work employees do… Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Legislature plans to bury us in taxes
Saturday afternoon, Jack Turner and Charly Minkler were collecting signatures (in the La Plata County Commission race) in the parking lot in front of Durango High School. Their supporters were on the curb waving signboards as if there was a going-out-of-business sale. Continue Reading Durango Herald: Sign this
Social media critics of cops say De’Von Bailey would live today if the Colorado Legislature had long ago passed Senate Bill 217, titled the Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity act. The Colorado Senate passed the bill by a 32-1 vote Tuesday, with only one Republican voting against it. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Law enforcement bill won't harm good cops
If lawmakers in the state Senate get their way, Colorado voters will decide this fall if it’s time to eliminate the Gallagher Amendment from the state’s Constitution....read the full editorial here. Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Out-of-whack taxes
The Gazette wrote “if” when addressing former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s ethics charges. We've long known Hickenlooper and did not want it to be true. “if” he did it, we wrote — placing an expressed emphasis on “if” – we would find troubling his possible election to the United States Senate. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: With convictions, Hickenlooper should not serve in the Senate
On Friday, May 29, as cities burned, and with all the drama fit for a time just before midnight in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Supreme Court took the unusual step of batting down an emergency petition that claimed Gov. Gavin Newsom had violated Californians’ First Amendment rights and discrim… Continue Reading Durango Herald: A win at the Court
Before we “defund” or “abolish” the police, let’s consider George Floyd. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: We will abolish the police at our peril
The Grand Junction City Council just got a wake-up call. Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Protesters disabuse notions of harmony
Black lives matter. They matter more than social distancing. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: George Floyd's death restores our priorities
You hear it all the time these days, in articles, news reports and public service announcements: If you have COVID-like symptoms and you want to get a test, call your doctor – or your family doctor, or your primary care physician; problem solved. And lately we feel like yelling at the newspa… Continue Reading Durango Herald: Call which doctor?
Cops are under siege across the country by criminals with bricks, rocks, guns, and more. It cannot continue, but Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney Gen. Phil Weiser might try to tie the hands of President Donald Trump. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Local officials should not tolerate violence
With the Colorado General Assembly trying to figure out how to shave $3 billion from next year’s budget due to projected revenue losses stemming from the COVID-19 response, every government program is under intense scrutiny, including the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media. Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Is it curtains for state's film industry?
U.S. Senate primary candidate John Hickenlooper could be innocent. Yet, the former governor could not do more to appear guilty. A fair process will judge him, but he is running from that process. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Hickenlooper fights subpoena to testify
One measure of how things could turn further for the worse amid a pandemic came with the waves of civil unrest that consumed city after American city last weekend. Not only were thoughts of social distancing at public gatherings suddenly moot as big-box stores and police stations were destro… Continue Reading Durango Herald: We are ashamed
The killing of George Floyd should unite this country, not divide it with day-and-night riots, looting, arson, rubber bullets, and tear gas. This should be a time to seek peace, not more violence. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Violent criminal protests can't cure racial injustice
Grand Junction Police Chief Doug Shoemaker didn’t have to publicly condemn the events in Minneapolis that led to the death of George Floyd. Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Chief brings the heat
Colorado’s housing shortage will get much worse if legislative Democrats get their way. They want a new law that will harm low-wage earners who struggle to find homes. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Colorado Democrats may reduce low-income housing
Durango’s restaurant owners are creative. Not only are there a lot of them, but they provide a variety of menus, service style, prices and inside décor. Give the downtown locations some additional space in which to operate – outside – and that variety and richness will continue to flow. Continue Reading Durango Herald: Let's do this mall
Colorado’s one-size-fits-all rules for reopening restaurants cannot work. Gov. Jared Polis should immediately revise or rescind them. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: New reopening guidelines could kill good restaurants
So much trouble in the future could be avoided if we could only learn from the past and heed the dicta: Pay the troops – and pay their bonuses. ...read full editorial here. Continue Reading Durango Herald: Always pay the soldiers
Confused or frustrated by the news/data on COVID-19? If you follow the daily news on the coronavirus that has stopped the world in its tracks, you are probably inundated with contradictions. Back in mid-March when the pandemic label was proclaimed, we were told millions could die and we shou… Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: When the coronavirus experts can’t agree, we have a problem. We can help.
When Betsy DeVos, the secretary of Education, visited Colorado Springs in late June for a pro-school-choice luncheon, she was greeted by children and adults “yelling obscenities and making nasty gestures,” The Gazette in Colorado Springs reported. Continue Reading The Cortez Journal: Bad marks
Colorado taxpayers have a long history of wanting to control their own destiny. Continue Reading Colorado Springs Gazette: Colorado voters should stop all those mandatory 'fees'
Manned space exploration used to be the exclusive domain of national governments. Only Russia, the U.S. and China have sent astronauts into space. ...read full editorial here. Continue Reading Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: A new era of space exploration
