Author: Dean Toda
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Obama says his health plan will help those already insured. Video
CLIFTON • President Obama brought his health care reform message to the Western Slope on Saturday, telling a polite and mostly supportive town hall crowd in this Grand Junction suburb that his proposals will help insured Americans, not just the 46 million who don’t have health insurance. Trying to reverse declining public support for his…
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Redford joins Democrats in extolling West’s ‘realignment’
DENVER • Not long ago, the Mountain West was as rock-ribbed Republican as anywhere in the country. Now comes a bunch of elected officials who have turned red states blue. As Robert Redford once asked: “Who are those guys?” The answer, according to a conference that began Thursday at the Colorado History Museum, is that…
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PERA meeting outlines problems, solutions
Colorado’s public employee pension plan is in trouble, and about 500 folks who are or will be its beneficiaries turned out in the Springs on Wednesday evening to take stock of the damage. Like everyone with money in the stock market, the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association had a bad year in 2008, losing 26…
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Health care reform battle heats up ahead of Obama visit
After more than a year preparing to host her party’s national convention and helping its candidates win the White House and boost their majority in Congress, Pat Waak wanted August to be what it usually is — a quiet time when the political static recedes. “It certainly has not been like that at all so…
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Camping, boating would be pricier if new state fees OK’d
Colorado’s state parks division is proposing to increase camping fees by $2 a night, reservation fees by $2 and boat registrations by $10 to $25. Annual passes, good for any park in the state system, would remain at $60 per vehicle, and daily entrance fees would remain $6 per vehicle. But a full-hookup campsite at…
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Republicans at a crossroads: Retrench or reach out
Tom McDowell, a moon-faced, 62-year-old retired businessman, describes himself as “a pretty heavy-duty fiscal conservative.” Nothing unusual there — many other folks who live in northern Colorado Springs wouldn’t mind being described the same way. But McDowell parts ways with many of his neighbors when he says he’s pro-choice on abortion and doesn’t care about…
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Locals defend tabor on steps of city hall
Local conservative leaders gathered Wednesday to denounce a campaign to “eviscerate” Colorado Springs’ version of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.TABOR, an amendment to the state constitution and the Colorado Springs city charter, is a formula limiting government spending. It takes the authority to impose tax increases out of the hands of lawmakers and grants it…
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Conservatives sound alarm over city’s efforts to de-TABOR
Local conservative leaders gathered Wednesday to denounce a campaign to “eviscerate” Colorado Springs’ version of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. TABOR, an amendment to the state constitution and the Colorado Springs city charter, is a formula limiting government spending. But its core provision has nothing to do with formulas: it takes the authority to impose…
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Local lawmakers’ handiwork set to go on display
Just in time for the new school year, a state law that goes into effect today helps parents take time off from work to attend parent-teacher conferences and other meetings involving their school-age children. The law protects working parents from being fired from a job at a business with more than 50 employees if they…
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Beauprez could give GOP name recognition in Senate race
Bob Beauprez, a former congressman from the Denver suburbs and the Republican nominee for governor in 2006, is reported to be “leaning toward” seeking the GOP nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in 2010. Politico.com quoted Beauprez on Monday as saying, “There’s a general sense that our field isn’t really set on our side,…