Colorado Congressman Jason Crow (D) recently returned from Kyiv where he and a congressional delegation spent nearly four hours meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top advisors.
State Issues
Addressing Past Injustices: How is CO doing?
The country is struggling with how to address past injustices: The Sand Creek Massacre, Indian Boarding Schools, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Amache Internment Camp. How is Colorado doing?
New Legislative Session Poses Big Financial Issues for Lawmakers
Colorado lawmakers will have billions of extra dollars to spend during the 2022 legislative session—and after that most of it will be gone.
…NE News Updates
This month: 1) Central 70 Project—Steadily proceeding toward a park over the highway and 2) What will Colorado get from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act?
State Budget and School Funding Recover Quickly from Pandemic
The Colorado Legislature, usually in session from January until May, started late and may run until June 12, the last day it can be in session this year. The Front Porch will have a wrap-up of bills passed this year in the July issue.
Stopping Youth Gun Violence
Just three weeks after a mass shooting at a Boulder King Soopers store left 10 people dead, Governor Jared Polis signed two bills into law designed to reduce gun violence: one mandates the safe storage of weapons, the other requires owners to report lost or stolen guns.
Legislature’s Second Pandemic Session Shaping Up To Be Hectic
Legislative leaders tried to tamp down expectations for the session, given the continuing pandemic. But the volume and variety of bills introduced after lawmakers returned indicate this will be a full and contentious session ranging over many issues.
Police Training: “Stress Inoculation”
Law enforcement may well be the only profession where you can be called upon to change a tire, address neighbors’ disputes over barking dogs, intervene on behalf of someone who has been physically battered by a spouse, and talk down a gunman. All in one day. “Regardless of the purpose of the call,” says Capt. Sylvia Sich, the 38-year Denver Police Department veteran now in charge of the Police Academy, “that is the most important thing happening in that person’s life right now…And you respond to it that way.”
Will Voters Repeal Colorado’s National Popular Vote Law?
Long before he was a rapping, swaggering Broadway sensation, Alexander Hamilton was an unapologetic elitist. To be fair, Hamilton was not alone among the Founding Fathers in this regard. They created the Electoral College, with its electors as a buffer between the people and the president.
Why Reparations? Paying for Our Nation’s “Original Sin”
Harold Fields says of reparations: “We have pipes that are deep underneath these buildings and underneath our streets. The pipes are decaying, they’re old. They’re leaking, and they are only distributing resources to certain places. You’ve got to be able to dig up those pipes and re-do the system. It’s not a matter of changing the washers on faucets or putting in a new shower head, but changing the system.”
Gallagher impacts funding for schools, fire departments, libraries and other public services…
Voters will decide whether to repeal this amendment.
Back to (Home) School
If you were listening carefully on July 17, you could almost hear the city-wide moan as DPS announced its decision to postpone in-person learning until at least after Labor Day.