Commentary
Biden should forgive $50,000 per borrower in student debt
On Feb. 4, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer and Rep. Ayanna Pressley led the reintroduction of a bicameral resolution to address student loan debt. In it they called for President Joe Biden to use executive action for the cancellation of up to $50,000 of student loan debt per borrower. They were joined by dozens […]
Lauren Boebert, the audition-tape lawmaker
The first person to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, starting with the district’s inception in the 1914 election, was a Democrat from Pueblo named Edward Keating. He was the son of immigrants. He moved to Colorado from a Kansas farm with his widowed mother, and he left school at 14 to contribute to their livelihood. […]
Protect Colorado’s public lands to help combat climate change
I’ll never forget the first time I hiked Longs Peak. I was 19 and had just finished working for the summer at the YMCA of the Rockies, right in the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park. For months it felt like all anyone ever talked about was when the weather would finally be warm enough […]
Think a mild case of COVID-19 is no big deal? Think again.
More than 44.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. Of them, over 715,000 have died. But what about the millions who lived? Have they fully recovered? According to new research, perhaps not. We often talk about the symptoms of a disease as the immediate impacts such as a […]
Nobel winners made possible predictions of global warming and modern weather forecasting
As a climate scientist myself, I was excited to learn that Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics. I first met Manabe when I was a graduate student in the early 1970s, so I was particularly pleased that the prize recognizes the profound importance of Manabe’s […]
Get rid of religious exemptions for vaccines
Too often the faithful get the wrong idea about the freedom that the First Amendment accords religion, and they take it to mean that their claim to it supersedes other rights — even the right to life. What’s worse, misguided policies of the state encourage this attitude. That’s what’s happening with the COVID-19 vaccine in […]
Marching again for Roe
By Marilyn Lori Thirty years ago, I boarded a bus in Ann Arbor bound for Washington, D.C., to go to a massive protest in favor of a woman’s right to choose the fate of her reproductive life. A group of us drove through the night to march in support of the notion that a woman’s […]
The costs of not spending $3.5 trillion
For weeks there’s been intense debate regarding a proposed $3.5 trillion-dollar budget plan facing the U.S. Senate. Some Democrats say we should spend more. Others say we should spend less. For the most part, Republicans say no to the whole darn thing. Politics are fun, are they not? Surely, dollars matter. Anyone making the case […]
Women’s March energy was about love and strength
I’m writing to share a few thoughts on Saturday’s Oct. 2, 2021, Women’s March held on the west steps of the state Capitol. I’m a 54-year-old white male, Denver resident, husband and father of two. My wife is a physician and I’m a health care business executive. I was near the front and could not […]
It’s time to protect all of Colorado’s Dreamers
When you move past the rhetoric, the debate over immigration reform is complex, and it requires careful nuance that accounts for the myriad of experiences that immigrants have as they come to this country. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is a perfect example. While DACA has given thousands of immigrants the deportation protections […]
10 ways Lauren Boebert has failed Coloradans
If Rep. Lauren Boebert has mastered anything about politics it’s how to get attention. Loaded guns on Zoom? Temper tantrums with House security? Articles to “imeach” President Biden? Yes, yes and yes. It’s easy to focus on her antics. They’re egregious by design. With each provocative tweet and mind-numbing speech she rakes in millions of […]
Drug affordability board must stand with patients, not Big Pharma
As a patient advocate and a father of three, I’ve had the recent opportunity to share my story with Colorado’s elected officials about my struggle to afford prescription drugs at press conferences and legislative hearings. As a result, I’m thrilled that my family and I are celebrating a big win here in Colorado — the […]