Rocky Mountain News Stories: Opinion Columns & Blogs

WILL: A lot of heat, too little light

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:01:00 -0000

Few phenomena generate as much heat as disputes about current orthodoxies concerning global warming.

KRAUTHAMMER: Down the slippery slope

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:01:00 -0000

Not a great speech, but extremely consequential. If Barack Obama succeeds, his joint address to Congress will be seen as historic — indeed as the foundational document of Obamaism. As it stands, it constitutes the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president.

KOPEL: We'll lose more than a paper

kopeld@RockyMountainNews.com (Dave Kopel) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

Farewell, my Rocky. You've been part of my life ever since I was 8 years old, when I started reading you to follow the 1968 presidential election and campaign of my hero Robert Kennedy.

BLAKE: RTD union loves arbitration

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

Binding arbitration beats walking off the job every time.

CARROLL: Coyotes strike a little too close to home

carrollv@rockymountainnews.com (Vincent Carroll) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

Now, I've never been one to worry about the coyotes that apparently infest my southeast Denver neighborhood, perhaps because I've never actually seen one. We've had the odd fox or two in our backyard and, two months ago, a large deer who somehow got over the 6-foot fence and managed to chew off half of the shoots on our bushes before I slipped down to a gate and released him (on the advice of a police officer, by the way).

CAMPOS: The never-ending nonstory

paul.campos@colorado.edu (Paul Campos) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

The latest outburst of what Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" in American politics is the absurd controversy over President Barack Obama's birth certificate. For months, a bizarre story has been circulating that the documentation of Obama's Hawaiian birth is incomplete or forged or otherwise defective, and that he was really born in Kenya.

KRAUTHAMMER: Off to a shaky start

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:01:00 -0000

Obama’s challenges have come in smaller bites. Some are deliberate threats to U.S. interests, others mere probes to ascertain whether the new president has any spine. Preliminary X-rays are not very encouraging.

WILL: Feingold at it again

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:01:00 -0000

A simple apology would have sufficed. Instead, Sen. Russ Feingold has decided to follow his McCain-Feingold evisceration of the First Amendment with Feingold-McCain, more vandalism against the Constitution.

KOPEL: La Voz best of the bunch

kopeld@RockyMountainNews.com (Dave Kopel) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

Since you read the editorial pages, you probably think it's important that newspapers help the public be well-informed. But what about our fellow Coloradans who are Spanish-speaking? The Denver area has many weekly newspapers in Spanish, with large readerships. Are these papers doing a good job informing the public?

ROSEN: Educrats vs. common sense

mikerosen@850koa.com (Mike Rosen) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

The recent gun "crisis" at Cherokee Trail High School is a textbook case in mindless bureaucracy trampling common sense. Marie Morrow - a well-behaved, self-motivated, responsible, morally upright, model student - was instantly suspended for 10 days and threatened with expulsion for a misunderstanding that could and should have been resolved by reasonable administrators (pardon the oxymoron) in 10 minutes.

CARROLL: Holder's hot air

carrollv@rockymountainnews.com (Vincent Carroll) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

Was Eric Holder in seclusion in 2008? Did the attorney general miss the historic year just gone by in which the role of race in America was dissected, debated and deconstructed at greater length than at any time since the 1960s?

BLAKE: Meter set to run on taxi co-op

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

A new taxi company is about to launch in Denver, having overcome most of the roadblocks thrown up by the existing industry through procedures made available by the Public Utilities Commission.

CARROLL: Peddling pedaling

carrollv@rockymountainnews.com (Vincent Carroll) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

When Denver officials recently announced they would launch a bike-sharing program this summer, they cited the Parisian experience as an example of what we could expect if the startup succeeded.

CAMPOS: Is sports drug war worth it?

paul.campos@colorado.edu (Paul Campos) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

The news that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroid use in 2003 should come as no surprise to anyone who knows something about elite-level athletics. (Rodriguez has since admitted to using steroids between 2001 and 2003. He claims not to have used them since.)

CARROLL: Ethics violation?

carrollv@rockymountainnews.com (Vincent Carroll) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0000

Gov. Bill Ritter's new "climate change coordinator" seems to have quite a sense of entitlement. As The Denver Post revealed Sunday, former House Majority Leader Alice Madden of Boulder took a trip at state expense last summer to a conference in New Orleans after her work in the legislature was finished. She was term limited and wasn't running for re-election.

KRAUTHAMMER: A Middle East miracle

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:02:00 -0000

Preoccupied as it was poring through Tom Daschle’s tax returns, Washington hardly noticed a near-miracle abroad. Iraq held provincial elections. There was no election day violence.

WILL: Global warming in retreat

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:01:00 -0000

Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently told the Los Angeles Times that global warming might melt 90 percent of California’s snowpack, which stores much of the water needed for agriculture. This, Chu said, would mean “no more agriculture in California,” the nation’s leading food producer. Chu added: “I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going.” No more lettuce for Los Angeles?