Columnists - The Journal

Rankin: High stakes testing

During the August board meeting of the State Board of Education, the Colorado Department of Education released the Scholastic Aptitude Scores for 2016-17. The SAT is a standardiz...

DATE: Sep 25, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Tipton and Westerman: The truth about forest health

As you read this, tens of thousands of acres are going up in flames across the West. Decades of misguided forest management strategies and decisions are coming home to roost. ...

DATE: Sep 21, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Lopez: Deterioration of playground forced its closure

Fellow community members, and friends of the Ron Kotarski, Jr. Memorial Community Playground: It is with great sadness and regret that we, the Dolores Town Board of Trustees, and staff, had...

DATE: Sep 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

James: TV and Mao’s China

When I was a kid, there was a guy named Mao Zedong who was the “big cheese” in China. He ruled with a pretty hard hand, and demanded that everyone dress, speak and think alike. ...

DATE: Sep 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Green chile season is here, but they aren’t the hottest peppers

There are times during the year when your senses get the best of you: the sight of the first snow, the sound of coyotes while camping or the taste of fruit picked right from the tree. ...

DATE: Sep 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Sheriff Update

Sheek: Libraries change lives and strengthen communities

I am a retired librarian so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of my favorite places in Cortez is our local library. The libraries of today are very different from the ones many of us ...

DATE: Sep 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Inside the walls of time: In Hermosa, Fisher house carries 1890s legacy

In grocery stores today, we can buy fruit from all over the world. A century ago, farm products were local, and a thriving orchard business had begun in the Animas Valley at Hermosa under st...

DATE: Sep 12, 2017 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's travels

Samuelson: ‘Progressives’ get their share of the blame as well

WASHINGTON – What has been missing for the past two or three decades is a serious debate about the role of the federal government. What programs are effective and justified? Who deserves gov...

DATE: Sep 11, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Trump is threatening some kind of war with North Korea

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force “sniffer plane” was collecting air samples off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Sept. 3, 1949, when it gathered evidence of radioactivity, confirming that the ...

DATE: Sep 7, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

James: My reading addiction

Have you ever had any licks to the head? I’m not talking about the ones where you bump your head in a doorway or on the underside of the coffee table. I’m talking abo...

DATE: Sep 4, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Golombek: Building the workforce of tomorrow begins today

In 1887, Colorado became one of the first states to pass a law officially creating Labor Day. The holiday was established to recognize the contributions of workers and the critical role they...

DATE: Sep 4, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

New Afghanistan strategy not designed to win

NEW YORK – There is surely no greater sign of the bankruptcy of American foreign policy than its Afghanistan policy. After 15 years of war and the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troo...

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns