As the retired executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, the former state representative from Colorado's House District 2, and the former chair of the Democratic Party of Denver, I have spent much of my life fighting to protect and expand health care for my family, union members that I rep… Continue Reading
As an educator and a school board member, I hold conflicting views on this issue. I am not a fan of masks or the thought of forcing a vaccine that the CDC has yet to affix their stamp of approval. However from a school board member's point of view, we are bound by what the state and local he… Continue Reading
Re: "INSIGHTS | What penance does Colorado pay for the sins of a globe?" June 21. Continue Reading
Does not Senate Bill 293, "Property Tax Classification and Assessment Rate," strike at the very nature of the citizens' right to petition their government? Continue Reading
Colorado Politics columnist Kelly Sloan is part of the problem with self-appointed Republican pundits. So hooked on the false projection of their own bias, they fail to see the forest for the trees. Continue Reading
Re: "'Cocktails to go' helps restaurants keep going," May 28, advocating legislation to permit to-go sales of alcohol by restaurants. Continue Reading
Who will protect us from our governor's effort to violate the protective provisions of the post-WW II Nuremberg Code, which forbade medical experimentation on unwilling or unknowing subjects? Continue Reading
Recently Colorado Politics published an opinion piece titled, “Would MLK have approved of identity politics?” by the Steamboat Institute's Jennifer Schubert-Akin. Continue Reading
You have made it appear that all of Adams County agrees with Eva Henry's opinion ("Building a coalition to take climate action," April 30). I, for one of many, am not in agreement with her statements. Continue Reading
Re: “SENGENBERGER| Democrats prepare power grabs,” April 27. Continue Reading
The consequences of COVID-19 have made it clear that my right to decide my future is still in jeopardy as long as my ability to access reproductive health care is dependent on my finances and zip code. Continue Reading
It seems all too easy these days to find fighting across the political aisle, but the bipartisan appointment of Reps. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont, and Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, as the chair and vice chair of the House Agriculture, Livestock and Water Committee is a great example of putting po… Continue Reading
Are you following the current reparations happenings in the United States of America? Toward the end of March 2021, the city council in Evanston, Illinois, approved reparations expenditures to Black homeowners who can exclusively use the funding for home-related expenses. Last week, a congre… Continue Reading
Re: "Homelessness in Denver is out of control," April 19. Continue Reading
In a classic example of the tragedy of the commons, oil and gas corporations often sell off their no-longer-productive lands with haste, altogether avoiding the responsibility of reclamation. Unsurprisingly, the number of “orphaned,” or unattended, wells continues to multiply on our lands — … Continue Reading
The American people have been looking for relief from high health insurance costs. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and its expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its marketplaces help provide that relief. With the pandemic exposing the need for affordable health insurance, thi… Continue Reading
In their quest to cut health-care costs, Colorado lawmakers must make sure not to silence the voices of patients and caregivers who are most affected by their decisions. Continue Reading
The American Rescue Plan includes much-needed relief for consumers when it comes to health insurance costs, and at the center of this legislation is historic expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its marketplaces across the country, improving accessibility and affordability. Continue Reading
During this year’s Black Maternal Health Week, many organizations across the country are speaking out about the importance of supporting, trusting, and listening to Black women. The existing inequities that Black, indigenous and other people of color face during pregnancy are unconscionable,… Continue Reading
Our enormous daily intake of both misinformation and its more nefarious cousin, disinformation, has sickened our democracy with a kind of heart disease that is threatening to give America a massive coronary. Continue Reading
It is past time to change some of Colorado’s most offensive place names and monuments — including mascots. In her March 9 ColoradoPolitics.com column ("BARTELS | Two bills take aim but totally miss the target"), Lynn Bartels stated that the recently proposed SB21-116, a measure that will pro… Continue Reading
For those of us on a fixed income, one of our worst fears is an emergency that occurs — whether something happens to our health, a major issue in the house, or other unexpected issues. So, you can imagine how reluctant I was to even be transferred to the ER by ambulance somewhat recently whe… Continue Reading
A trade association for organizations that make their living institutionalizing children peddles scare stories about what might happen if they can’t institutionalize quite so many children. That’s the reality behind the rhetoric in a recent column by Becky Miller Updike of the Colorado Assoc… Continue Reading
The Denver City Council is considering a proposed ordinance to allow marijuana smoking and vaping indoors in certain establishments in Denver to people 21 years or older. This proposal seems not only outrageous, but a step backward from all the progress that has been made in terms of protect… Continue Reading
There is some misunderstanding about the proposed Traveling Animal Protection Act, SB21-135, which is aimed at ending wild animal performances in traveling circuses, county fairs and similar venues. Continue Reading
I was surprised to learn my friend was undecided on the abortion ban ballot measure in November. I assumed she knew the devastating impact of Proposition 115. Continue Reading
Was the recent Texas "deep freeze" unique? Continue Reading
Colorado working families need relief and the expansion of the earned income tax credit is it. As a working single parent tax season has always come a little too late. It is the time I can get caught up on bills, a time I didn’t have to drastically budget my groceries, a time I could conside… Continue Reading
There were so many lies in Douglas Groothuis’ recent commentary on abortion I’m not quite sure where to start ("THE PODIUM | Abortion isn't health care — not even close," Feb. 10). It’s insulting to doctors and patients alike. Continue Reading
Regarding Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg's commentary, "COVID curbs on high school sports defy logic," Feb. 9: Continue Reading
We’ll make this brief. We know the challenges facing us today aren’t simple, but our message to lawmakers is. Continue Reading
Regarding the "'Public banks' would pose risks, play politics," piece Feb. 2: Continue Reading
Colorado Politics reporter Marianne Goodland’s Feb. 1 piece on Democratic gun-control proposals (“Safe gun storage campaign launches ahead of legislation from General Assembly”) makes a sham of journalism. Continue Reading
It’s Ground Hog Day and I’m reading another lopsided story about gun control in Colorado Politics (“Safe gun storage campaign launches ahead of legislation from General Assembly,” Feb. 1). Continue Reading
Now that the Second Annual Trump Impeachment Circus is underway, should we not ask: How much will it cost the taxpayers? Continue Reading
In a recent Podium, Colorado’s agriculture commissioner Kate Greenberg claimed that I had suggested that farmers were a "threat" to the state’s water supplies ("Big money eyeing Colorado's water," Jan. 13). Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue Reading
I predicted this. Continue Reading
Our country is in crisis — needing solutions to establishing an economic recovery and eliminating COVID. Trump's lies about a stolen election are not supporting that focus — instead they are a huge distraction. I fell into the trap of trying to influence my legislative representative, an ex… Continue Reading
Hal Bidlack nailed it ("Safeguard future of our flora and fauna," Dec. 15) in one simple sentence: "Even if you cannot think of a 'practical' value for a species, there is still intrinsic value in their mere existence." Continue Reading
Is there a way to contain or rectify the obvious election frauds which have plagued the six or seven states which were flipped from Trump to Biden by 100,000-plus vote dumps mysteriously occurring post-Election Day? Continue Reading
In light of another electoral drubbing in Colorado, can the GOP begin to consider what it would take to become a sensible, centrist-governing party? Continue Reading
Time is running out on a new COVID-19 relief bill and local communities. As a local elected official, my job is to work with all sides to improve the lives of our constituents in Adams County. That means keeping my head down and working across the political divide to get stuff done. Unfor… Continue Reading
I’m urging Coloradans to please vote with compassion this election and vote no on Proposition 115. If passed, Prop 115 would put a ban on abortions later in pregnancy, with zero exceptions for a lethal fetal diagnosis or if a woman’s health is at risk. Abortion later in pregnancy only accoun… Continue Reading
If we want presidential candidates to value our Colorado voices, it’s important we vote "no" on Proposition 113. Prop 113 would give Colorado’s presidential electoral votes to whomever gets the most votes in the country, not based on whom we vote for in Colorado. To some, that may sound appe… Continue Reading
Recently we read that Proposition 114 to restore wolves to Colorado is "ballot box biology." Instead, it is direct democracy. Using direct democracy to demand restoration of the wolf is an audacious and yet eminently practical approach for establishing a self-sustaining population of the spe… Continue Reading
Education Moms, it is you who will determine the results of the November election throughout America. Is there a clear measure against which we can know the suitability of the Democratic Party or the Republican Party to receive our vote? Continue Reading
The implementation of SB 19-181 has shifted the mission of the state’s Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC)'s from promoting fossil fuel activity to a more reasonable goal of regulating this activity. Continue Reading
I can understand why some people view GOP senators as flip-flopping on the Supreme Court confirmation this year vs. 2016, but it’s important to explain why that’s not the case —why these two cases are different and why in both situations GOP senators, including Cory Gardner, are being consis… Continue Reading
On Tuesday the nation was told the verdict of the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor. Breonna was an EMT, on her way to becoming a nurse, asleep in her bed, when she was murdered by police officers in Louisville Kentucky, in March during a botched raid on her apartment. A grand jury… Continue Reading
If I hear one more public service announcement telling me, “To help us recover from this pandemic, please social distance, wear a mask and wash your hands often,” I will throw up. Continue Reading
