Columnists - The Journal

House Bill 1296 ‘a lot of power to put in hands of record keepers’

There’s a new buzzword in Colorado politics: vexatious. If that word wasn’t on your 2024 bingo card, join the club. Yet here we are, so let’s go down the rabbit hole of House Bill 1296, a bi...

DATE: Feb 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Rosa Parks ‘had all the time in the world to talk’

It was 2 p.m. on a recent Sunday in the western Colorado town of Paonia, population 1,500. Not an ideal time to gather a crowd to meet the famous Rosa Parks, the woman who kicked off the mod...

DATE: Feb 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Disinformation, plain old lies take place of facts, data’

In any community, there always have been, and always will be, areas of conflict and disagreement. These disputes have gotten deeper in the last dozen years or so. As we go through rapid chan...

DATE: Feb 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Pain a minor reason patients choose PAS’

Compassion for individuals confronting a terminal illness drove the efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide, or PAS (also known as medical aid in dying), in Colorado in 2016. Compassi...

DATE: Feb 23, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

A look back at the week Feb. 19-25

The following is a recap of local events for this time period throughout history. 40 years ago (1984) Twelve Aztec troops will be among the more than 10,000 Girl Scouts from the Chaparral Gi...

DATE: Feb 16, 2024 | CATEGORY: Living

League of Women Voters ‘help voters wade through noise’

With a national election on the horizon, the fire hose of information has increased, flooding us through our computers, phones, televisions and mailboxes. It is often difficult to separate f...

DATE: Feb 16, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Benefit in bears acting like bears, not raiding ranches’

Is there any habit harder to break than harboring a grudge against an old adversary? Yet burying hatchets is exactly what it might take to conserve our wildlife, in the face of ever-increasi...

DATE: Feb 14, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Airline travel: ‘Other things to be concerned about on a plane’

If you caught my column about the way the airlines are treating us these days, you know that it was not a complimentary view, terming the flying experience an insult to cattle. Well, we now ...

DATE: Feb 9, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

A look back at the week Jan. 8-14

The following is a recap of local events for this time period throughout history. 40 years ago (1984) Aztec Police Chief Bill Smith is reminding area residents of a new law that went into ef...

DATE: Feb 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: Living

‘Jobs and tax revenue. But at what cost?’

Over the last 20 years, magazine articles and research papers have been written on how much of America has become homogenized. Everyplace looks pretty much like any other. The same big box s...

DATE: Feb 4, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

With Alzheimer’s diagnosis, ‘the unknowns are endless’

As part of an ongoing series of columns about what it feels like to have mild cognitive impairment as a result of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, I’m including this about typical progressions. I’v...

DATE: Feb 4, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

In rural West, ‘start treating maternity care with gravity it deserves’

There’s never been enough doctors in rural Wyoming, where I live, but a shortage of obstetricians is increasing the risks for pregnant women across the state – and the nation. In the last de...

DATE: Feb 2, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion