Columnists - The Journal

My mother and crows: ‘Weird passion holds a lot more’

“Hello!” My mom yelled over the rolling gusts of wind, waving her hands to the crows perched high up in the aspen. “I’m Jennifer!” “Mom,” I said, ducking my head in embarrassment from the st...

DATE: Mar 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Primergy may have ‘back door’ for solar facility approval

Under a proposed state bill, Primergy of California may have found a back door for approval to construct its massive industrial solar facility near Hesperus. The permit application to constr...

DATE: Mar 10, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Hurkle-durkling not a sin. Give yourself gift to lounge’

One of the latest TikTok crazes/wellness trends is hurkle-durkling (TikTok user Kira Kosarin). I am proudly not a TikToker. However, this term caught my eye. The Scots have some wonderfully ...

DATE: Mar 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

San Juan River’s ‘ever-moving pile of sediment’ requires new vigilance

When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake Powell’s water. But there’s a problem: The river carries a hefty 55% of the s...

DATE: Mar 6, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

On water compact: ‘Colorado will never get a better deal’

I’ve been a water engineer in Southwest Colorado for 50 years and watched the importance of the Colorado River Compact increase from a background document to front and center as the current ...

DATE: Mar 6, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

NRA, the U.S. Supreme Court and the public trust

A parallel exists between Wayne La Pierre, former leader of the National Rifle Association, and Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court justice. Both men have damaged public trust in their respecti...

DATE: Mar 3, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘When can we respect dignity, wishes of aged, ill?’

Dr. Thomas J. Perille’s guest column on Feb. 23 in The Durango Herald, previously published in The Colorado Sun, is wrong on so many counts. He talks about Senate Bill 068, currently in the ...

DATE: Mar 1, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Long nights, in-depth debate, good legislation for Colorado’

We are a third of the way through our time in the Legislature this year, and I anticipate the next two-thirds will consist of long nights, in-depth debate, dozens of meetings and some good l...

DATE: Mar 1, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

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