Commentary
Public money supports university center tied to white nationalism and election denial
The Benson Center has attracted national attention due to its association with John Eastman, the lawyer at the center of former President Donald Trump’s attempt to stage a coup after he lost the 2020 election. But other notable aspects of the center’s story remain obscured or have so far gone unreported, including its founder’s ties […]
Our national pathology over guns is no longer insane. It’s inhuman.
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Want to know what rage feels like? It’s waking on a Wednesday morning on a school day as the cable news talking heads sift through the latest on the shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 people dead, most of them children, and looking at […]
Climate change is wreaking havoc on our mental health
From apocalyptic disasters like the Marshall Fire, which destroyed over 1,000 homes, to soaring temperatures and high ozone levels making comfortable summer days a distant memory, to Colorado’s rapidly deteriorating air quality leaving us wondering whether it’s safe to be outside, it is clear that the effects of climate change are a threat to our […]
Americans across the country still feel pain of unanticipated medical bills
It was July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I felt a sharp pain cut across the inside of my head. Given that we were already three months into lockdown, I didn’t think much of the occasional migraine; after all, I’ve had them my whole life, and they tended to get worse […]
An attorney’s perspective on the leaked Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade
The leaked Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (drafted by Justice Alito in case 19-1392) looks to overturn the 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade. Dobbs is a case following a Mississippi law that bans almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. What exactly does this decision mean? Note that the leaked […]
When will our ‘pro-life’ leaders do something about gun deaths?
This commentary originally appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Aaron Salter Jr., 55, was on duty at the security job that supplemented his retirement income. Ruth Whitfield, 86, was buying groceries. Celestine Chaney, 65, stopped in for strawberries for the shortcake she and her sister were eager to enjoy. But their plans went awry Saturday […]
What will come of these hot, dry winds licking at winter’s back door?
This commentary originally appeared in Big Pivots. Ponds on a ranch in northwestern Colorado earlier this month were full, a rare treat in recent years for horses that have gathered like at a spa. It was a good winter there, cold and snowy. Now, a ranch owner had begun planning for a fiery summer. “It’s […]
Dear DC pundit bros: Coloradans are the experts on abortion messaging. You’re not.
If there’s a thing happening in D.C., like say a vote on an abortion rights bill in the Senate, you can rest assured that the D.C. pundit bros will assume they are eminently qualified to speak on it and must share their opinion. Politico was shocked — shocked I tell you — to discover a […]
How corporate Colorado held public schools hostage
One of the biggest stories out of the Colorado General Assembly this year emerged late in the session as a group of corporate executives threw its weight around. They wanted to keep more of their money, and who can blame them for that. But the episode revealed that policy makers are in thrall to a […]
The Supreme Court shouldn’t be shrouded in secrecy
This commentary originally appeared in the Minnesota Reformer. The firestorm arising out of the recent leak of a draft of the Supreme Court opinion — purporting to eliminate constitutional abortion rights established 49 years ago in Roe v. Wade — has generated fury for different reasons from various quarters. But the consternation ought to serve […]
Pandora’s Box: Overturning Roe is only the beginning of the threats to women
This commentary originally appeared in the Missouri Independent. When I was raped in 2016, one of my attackers reached inside me and pulled out my NuvaRring, an internal birth control device, and asked me what it was. When I told him, he cast it aside where it was lost until police retrieved it a couple […]
If Roe is overturned, there’s no guarantee that people can get abortions in liberal states
This commentary originally appeared in The Conversation. Liberal policymakers are quickly positioning their states as abortion havens after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion indicating that the court could overturn Roe v. Wade was made public on the evening of May 2, 2022. Less than an hour after the leak was made […]