Tag: columnists

In the 1940s and 50s, cowboys carried a stick to treat cattle infested with screwworms. The stick was used to scrape the flesh-eating maggots from infested wounds — eyes, noses, umbilicus — and then used to smear benzol and pine tar oil on the wound to prevent reinfestation. Most maggots and flies feed only on…

Early last month, President Donald Trump signed three joint resolutions passed by Congress that revoked certain Clean Air Act waivers granted to California by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration. One of those resolutions revoked California’s waiver related to implementation of an Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation that mandated an increasing percentage…

When a city’s major league sports team wins a world championship, celebrations get out of hand. Fans get intoxicated, they vomit and urinate on sidewalks, throw trash everywhere, light stuff on fire, break windows, get into brawls with police and more. In other words, they turn their city into what Denver already looks like. I…

In a commentary published on a local news site this week, elected University of Colorado Regent Wanda James claims her colleagues want to punish her for simply “speaking out against racism.” That’s absurd. Since January, James — a politically connected and renowned pot entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “pothead” who owns Simply Pure dispensary — has waged…

On June 14, three events intersected. It was the birthday of the U.S. Army, but far more than a typical birthday it was the 250th. It was Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of the flag of the United States by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1775. And, coincidentally, it was also the 79th…

There is no greater satisfaction in the progressive imagination than condemning a neighbor for not living up to one’s own fiction. In Denver, this habit has become a sort of civic pastime. In this almost subconscious ritual, Aurora plays the foil to every utopian aspiration the capital city can’t quite manage to fulfill. Aurora, they…

There aren’t too many professions where your best days on the job are someone else’s worst days — but that’s often the case when you’re a firefighter. Tomorrow marks 13 years since the Waldo Canyon fire swept into Colorado Springs. It began four days earlier, smoldering and marching toward the city. The devastation claimed two…

On April 10, Gov. Jared Polis stood at the Colorado State Capitol and read a proclamation recognizing Religious Liberty Day. Standing beside him was Attorney General Phil Weiser, who remarked on the importance of safeguarding this foundational American freedom. Both men rightly acknowledged that religious liberty is a core component of the constitutional heritage. However,…

I’ve watched America fight Middle East wars for almost my entire life. I was barely 11 on Sept. 11, 2001, when a new reality shaped my generation — explaining why Millennials bristle at overseas conflicts. When news broke that the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, many Americans recoiled at another potential Mideast…