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1/5/2009
Moral obligation to fund higher ed - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11368262
Really, there could be almost no worse time to dramatically increase the price of a college education.
This generation of young people, who face unprecedented global job competition and almost certainly will end up shouldering a steep national debt, must have access to an affordable college education.
Unfortunately, as national and state economic conditions have grown dimmer, higher education funding is taking a hit across the country.
In the latest chapter here in Colorado, several presidents of higher-education institutions have voiced support for a proposal to free them of tuition increase constraints. They want the ability to raise in-state tuition without approval from the governor or state legislators.
Fund us or free us, they've said.
We have no shortage of sympathy for the dilemma facing higher education, but what do they have in mind? This year, tuition at the University of Colorado went up 9.3 percent.
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Daunting challenges face 2009 legislature - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11351364
This year's session of the Colorado General Assembly has all the marks of being a somber gathering.
State lawmakers have the daunting task of figuring out which important government functions to ax to make up for falling revenues.
Higher education? Health care? Transportation? It's not as though there are a lot of options.
The state's budget constraints inevitably will shape the four-month convening of Colorado's 65 state representatives and 35 senators.
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David Sirota - New Deal prolonged the Great Depression? - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11346152
FDR Prolonged the Depression? Really? If you're like me, you sometimes find yourself speechless when confronted with abject insanity.
If you're like me, for instance, you were dumbfounded when "Forrest Gump" beat out "Pulp Fiction" for best picture; when HBO's "Sopranos" received more accolades than "The Wire"; and when George W. Bush insisted Iraqi airplanes were about to drop WMDs on American cities.
So if you're like me, you probably understand why I was momentarily tongue-tied last week after running face-first into conservatives' newest (and most ridiculous) talking point — the one designed to stop Congress from passing an economic stimulus package.
During a Christmas Eve appearance on Fox News, I pointed out that most mainstream economists believe the government must boost the economy with deficit spending.
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Dwight D. Jones - Michael Bennet is an advocate for change - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11368263
As Colorado commissioner of education, I often speak on behalf of the department staff. At other times, I carry messages from my employers, the State Board of Education. Today I speak in no official capacity, but as somebody who cares deeply about the education and welfare of Colorado students.
With the announcement that Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet has been selected to fill the remaining term of U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, my message is straightforward: It's a great day for Colorado.
Given his experience with DPS, Bennet will be a strong and credible advocate for education reform.
Bennet has been a voice for healthy change. He has successfully managed one of the most innovative teacher pay plans in the country, ProComp, which links student achievement to compensation. Recently, teachers overwhelmingly approved a significant shift in how the ProComp money is distributed among their ranks.
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Legislature must still invest in future | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090104/OPINION01/901040331/1014/OPINION
With a Colorado state budget shortfall estimated by the legislative staff at $604 million, there is a clear challenge for the incoming state Legislature leadership: deal with the economy. And deal with it within the confines of constitutional spending mandates.
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Incoming House Speaker Terrance Carroll told the Coloradoan editorial board that his goal is to make sure all legislative decisions are thoughtful and prudent. And he noted that partisan wrangling will not lead this state to effective legislation.
He is correct. While the Democratic Party will control the state House and state Senate as well as the governor's office, solutions to issues such as transportation funding (which is barely represented in the governor's proposed budget), higher education funding and access to health care will have to come from a bipartisan approach.
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Lawmakers face tough decisions | GreeleyTribune.com
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090104/TRIBEDIT/901039934/1029/NONE
A huge concern of ours is that higher education again will take a major hit. It happened in the recession in the early part of this decade, and students and parents are still paying the price with massive tuition hikes that have occurred in this decade.
Unfortunately, because of budget mandates that are required in the Colorado Constitution, and other requirements to fund basic state government services such as prisons, higher ed is one of the few discretionary items in the state budget.
But we also consider it one of the keys to a growing economy and a strong state. It’s our hope that northern Colorado legislators and the governor will find a way to protect higher ed from taking a bigger chunk of the budget axe and find a way to keep tuition rates reasonable for middle-income families.
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A problem-solver for the U.S. Senate : Editorials : The Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/03/problem-solver-us-senate/
State Senate President Peter Groff put his finger on the nature of Gov. Bill Ritter's surprising - even stunning - selection of Michael Bennet as Colorado's next U.S. senator. "It's a pick that goes with the changing times in Washington," Groff told us Friday just after hearing the news.
We'll say. Bennet is many things - smart, focused, articulate, tough, relatively young - but a traditional politician he is not. In fact, until his name surfaced as a possible candidate to replace Sen. Ken Salazar when he resigns to become Interior secretary, we'd never thought of the Denver schools superintendent as a politician at all.
There was certainly little chance that Bennet - who is largely unknown outside metro Denver - would have run for statewide office without a break like the one he just got. Now voters will have two years to get to know him before they are asked to extend his tenure in the Senate.
We've made no secret of our respect for Bennet's decisive, tireless performance as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, a job he's held since mid-2005.
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GJSentinel.com: Sen. Michael Bennet
http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2009/01/03/010409_4A_Senate_edit.html
Ritter’s choice is a bit perplexing, not just to us but to a number of political observers. Bennet has never held elective office. He is not a statewide figure and, except for education, he has little record on the many important issues that face this state and this nation.
What are his thoughts on energy development on federal lands? On the auto-company bailouts? On various foreign problems? What does he think of Colorado rivers and streams that flow westward, not toward population centers on the Front Range?
Lack of political experience isn’t all bad. In fact, someone who hasn’t made winning elections his primary focus for years may have insights to offer that more typical political figures cannot.
Besides, Bennet is clearly a capable individual. In addition to his work with the Denver schools, he has a law degree from Yale. He served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration. He also worked as managing director of Anschutz Investment Co. and served two years as chief of staff for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
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Wrong call on whistleblower - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11351365
Efforts by one Colorado department to silence a whistleblower — and hide $8 million from federal auditors — raise serious questions that ought to be swiftly addressed by Gov. Bill Ritter.
We're baffled by his decision to support the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in its actions. We hope he'll reverse course.
In early December, a ruling by the State Personnel Board found that HCPF accountant Annmarie Maynard was wrongly fired after she blew the whistle on a attempt by the sprawling department to hide as much as $8 million it accidentally over-collected from the federal government, according to reports by 9News reporter Deborah Sherman.
HCPF, with a budget of $3.5 billion, administers taxpayer funds to recipients of Medicaid and low-income children.
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Legislature shouldn’t count on feds | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090105/OPINION01/901050305/1014/OPINION
State lawmakers are correct in targeting the state's beleaguered transportation system because of the possibility of creating construction-related and materials manufacturing jobs.
While such an infusion would be welcome, state lawmakers should both be prepared and be wary about this possibility. State legislators are correct to outline plans to match funding to projects when the Legislature opens Wednesday for its 120-day session. But lawmakers also have to be prepared to face a situation where Colorado won't receive that kind of federal funding if Congress decides to redirect the money to other states.
Colorado, like the rest of the country, is facing major budget shortfalls this year. Relying on money before it is appropriated will only worsen a situation in which the state's transportation base is being eroded.
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Editorial: Restore firearms ban in national parks : Editorials : Boulder Daily Camera
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jan/04/restore-firearms-ban-in-national-parks/
I n addition to making it easier for coal miners to pollute rivers and streams, allowing more mining in lands adjacent to national parks and implementing rules that weaken the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration last month gave the National Rifle Association a parting gift by lifting a decades-long ban on concealed weapons in national parks.
It is painful to witness the administration's cynical use of the federal rule-making process to assault the environment and pander to the NRA during its waning days. These harmful new rules could take years to undo. Make no mistake, though, they must be taken off the books before they can do too much damage.
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Mayor’s team pays it forward - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11358290
The decision by Mayor John Hickenlooper's Cabinet to forgo any pay raise in 2009 makes good sense.
It sends the right message in a down economy to those city employees who may see bonuses tightened or raises reduced from freshly negotiated labor contracts.
Cabinet members won hefty raises in 2008, and they got them just as the economy began its collapse, leading to understandable grumbling among the ranks.
The mayor's top appointees got tens of thousands more, for an average 4.55 percent increase.
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David Gleeson - A fellow atheist shakes his head at atheists - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11356813
I don't believe in the supernatural. This includes God (or gods). In the literal sense of the word, that makes me an a-theist (as well as an a-leprechaunist, a-goblinist, and so on).
Being an unbeliever in a predominantly Christian country can be a bit daunting at times, and I certainly understand the desire of my fellow unbelievers to speak out against hate, injustice, cruelty and prejudice, particularly when wrapped in a cocoon of religious rhetoric and passed off as love.
But the way some atheists go about it just makes me shake my head in wonder.
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OPINION: Change needed in Cuba policy | Gazette.com
http://www.gazette.com/opinion/nation_45713___article.html/trade_one.html
Frederic Bastiat is credited with saying, "If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will." He knew the best way to keep nations on speaking terms with one another was trade. It's difficult for a nation to foment distrust of another nation when the people of both rely on one another to provide products they want and need. It's in everyone's interest to keep trade free, so products can flow from producers to consumers. Trade restrictions stifle that flow, and usually for little benefit to the restricting nation. That's one of the reasons economic sanctions have such a poor record of prompting change in targeted countries.
For a good example we need look no farther than 90 miles south of Key West, Fla. The United States banned trade and travel with Cuba shortly after Fidel Cstro took over in 1959. The sanctions have been a stunning success, with Castro buckling under to U.S. demands in short order, right? We all know better.
After nearly five decades of U.S. attempts to economically isolate the island nation, Castro is still firmly in power, though these days his policies are carried out by younger brother Raul. It's fair to say the embargo has failed. Keeping itin place only punishes the Cuban people and deprives consumers in each nation of goods produced by the other.
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Caught in the act : Editorials : The Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/05/caught-in-the-act/
A state employee - accountant Annmarie Maynard at the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing - secretly tapes a meeting in which employees discuss covering up $8 million owed to the federal government. Maynard hands the tape of the April 24 meeting over to 9News and subsequently is fired. She challenges the firing at the State Personnel Board and wins.
An open-and-shut case that affirms sweeping protections for whistle-blowers, right? Not so fast.
The HCPF is now taking heat for drawing up "revised standard operating procedures" that forbid secret taping of conversations and meetings. This raised concerns that future whistle-blowers would be discouraged from capturing the evidence to back up their allegations of wrongdoing.
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Disability 101: That Handicapped Parking Spot Thing | SummitDaily.com
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090104/COLUMNS/901049983/1001/NONE
First of all, we aren't using the "H" word anymore. The term is now accessible parking. So let's talk about the accessible parking spot thing, in particular, the issue of people using accessible spots without the appropriate placard.
I know, you'll "just be a minute". But I want you to know what that might mean to a person with a disability who now can't get into that accessible parking spot. Let me tell you about an incident that happened to me a few years ago.
My MS was brand new. My symptoms of massive fatigue, spasms, pain and difficulty walking were overwhelming. I had lost my career because of it. I was struggling with my replacement desk job because of it. And I was a single parent.
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Susan Greene - Cops need eyesight examined - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_11359693
The best I can say about the case of De De Davis is that Denver police didn't engage in racial profiling.
But officers' colorblindness in picking up a black woman on a white woman's warrant reflects the department's recklessness as a sixth victim of mistaken identity comes forward to tell her story.
Davis' problems began one day in June 2007 walking home from picking up milk at a gas station. She was 100 feet from her east Denver apartment when, she says, "swarms of police" surrounded her and four of her kids.
Her 3-year-old had his hands up. Her 10-year-old was being frisked. And her 1-year-old was screaming, she says, as one cop yelled something about one of the kids having a gun before another mentioned, mistakenly, that Jefferson County had a warrant for Davis' arrest.
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12/19/2008
ROBINSON and DEMPSEY: Alarm law not an onerous mandate : Speakout : The Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/19/robinson-and-dempsey-alarm-law-not-an-onerous/
Parker, Caroline, Owen and Sophie Lofgren were amazing members of our community and we will never recover from their loss, victims of carbon monoxide poisoning while staying at a home in Aspen. As evidenced by the multitude of news stories (local and national) and the reaction of citizens and legislators, their story has touched many lives.
The frightening thing about carbon monoxide is that not only is it a "silent killer" - because one cannot smell, see or taste it - but also that so many people are either misinformed or completely uninformed about it. If any good can come from this tragedy, it is this information getting out there and that it might have an influence on a wider adoption of alarms in homes and apartments. That is why we support the passage of legislation to be introduced in the new year requiring carbon monoxide detectors in all new homes and certain other residences.
We would like to correct several statements in the Rocky Mountain News editorial on this topic, "Safety has a price" (Dec. 18). First, the Rocky references that the average cost of detectors meeting [the proposed bill's] specifications is $55. That is incorrect. That $55 is the high-end retail cost.
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The Pueblo Chieftain :: The next senator
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/12/19/editorial/doc494b28317b9fc525032242.txt
From a regional perspective, we need a continuation of Sen. Salazar's dedicated work on behalf of cleaning up the Fountain Creek, making the long-awaited Arkansas Valley Conduit a reality, protecting the people affected by the Army's plans for expanding the Pinon Canyon military maneuver site, fully funding the Pueblo Chemical Depot and a host of other things, both large and small.
According to news media accounts, the governor may be considering the senator's brother, U.S. Rep. John Salazar or any of the following Denver-area Democrats: U.S. Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Diana DeGette, Mayor John Hickenlooper and outgoing Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.
Each member of that "short list" has pluses and minuses both statewide and from a Southern Colorado perspective.
Our message to the governor is to pick wisely because the next U.S. senator must enter the office with a statewide perspective and the ability to represent all of Colorado. We deserve and expect no less.
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David Sirota - We are all Las Vegans now - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11266221
There is something especially unsettling about visiting Las Vegas these days — and it is not the town's lascivious culture. A voyage to Sin City in this moment of ecological and economic crisis is a journey to a giant concave mirror reflecting back the magnified — and ugly — truths about this epoch of cataclysmic consumption and hubristic hedonism.
Like most flights into Vegas, mine last week soared over a shrinking Lake Mead. Visually, the white strip around the manmade reservoir is beautiful, the bright chalk line separating the blue water from the red-brown desert evokes memories of a Bob Ross pastel painting minus "happy trees." But it is a menacing harbinger of depletion. This water source for 22 million people is at its lowest level since the 1960s. Strained by the Southwest's population explosion and by drought-accelerating climate change, the lake now stands a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021, according to scientists.
As one of the country's quickest growing locales, Las Vegas has become a massive blob suffocating a fragile ecosystem. Sans urban planning in the libertarian West, that unbridled growth encourages more roads, cars and smog.
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Changing health care will be hard - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_11265887
When Tom Daschle, the incoming president's choice to tackle health care reform, spoke in Denver recently he painted a compelling picture of a broken system.
He detailed high costs, low quality, poor access and the nation's seeming acceptance of the country's dismal world ranking in health care.
"How long would this country stand for being 31st in the Olympics?" Daschle asked.
It's a great line and a valid point. And this page has long advocated an overhaul that makes health care more affordable and available to the uninsured. But it's also clear the nation's economic woes and the enormous debt the country is incurring in bailouts very well may delay full implementation of the Obama administration's ambitious health care reform plans.
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NOREEN: Wake up, heroin isn’t just inner-city scourge | Gazette.com
http://www.gazette.com/articles/heroin_45080___article.html/suthers_city.html
Heroin, right here in River City.
Sure, kids have access to drugs at school and that's hardly a surprise. Meth, pot and ecstasy are everywhere, so of course the stuff is available in high schools.
But heroin? It's hardly been common in Colorado Springs. There aren't heroin busts right and left here, as there are with other drugs. Heroin doesn't lead to harder stuff. It is the harder stuff, and people will beg, borrow, steal and kill to get it.
"You don't hear much about heroin in Colorado Springs," said Jeff Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Denver office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. But he said "the Denver area continues to be a significant hub around the country for heroin."
Sweetin said it was a bit surprising to hear about a rash of heroin use at Cheyenne Mountain High School, when there hasn't been a big trend of heroin use across the city.
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GJSentinel.com: The old college try
http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2008/12/18/121908_6A_colleges.html
Funding public colleges and universities is difficult enough in good economic times. It’s extra tough in the current crisis. So it’s not surprising that officials are looking in new directions for funding.
One group of university leaders wants a federal government bailout, to the tune of $45 billion. On the other side of the spectrum is a Colorado lawmaker who wants to see this state’s top four universities become private.
Frankly, we’re opposed to both ideas. We don’t think they do much for taxpayers or people seeking a college education.
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William Porter - A generous helping in LoDo - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_11266965
Sheila Lucero scurried around the kitchen at Jax Fish House in LoDo, assembling the sort of dish that put the popular restaurant on the map: a sweet-potato hash spiked with chorizo sausage, poblanos and baby spinach.
It was Thursday afternoon, snow was falling, and she was two hours away from showtime. But the diners would not be the usual top-shelf martini crowd. Instead, she was cooking for residents at the Barth Hotel, an assisted-living facility right across the street.
"I think they're really gonna like this," Lucero said.
Joining her would be chefs bearing holiday dishes from eight other LoDo restaurants. They are part of an annual program sponsored by LoDo Cares, a confederation of downtown businesses that, among other efforts, has taken the Barth under its wing.
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Board right in dividing CSU top post | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20081219/OPINION01/812190334/1014/OPINION
While it's still too early to determine what direction it will formally take, the CSU Board of Governors on Tuesday correctly leaned toward creating separate positions of president and chancellor for the university.
The board of governors is the policy decision-making body for the Colorado State University System. Tuesday, the nine-member group came to a consensus that splitting what is one position of president and chancellor into two jobs appears to make sense.
Discussion revolves around what appears to be disparate roles. Generally, the president might oversee campus activities and hold deeper insight into university operations. Meantime, a chancellor might be more visible as an advocate for funding, research and other support, particularly in regard to communicating needs to the state Legislature.
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