Columns

When I was a kid, my family took a trip to Washington, D.C., to see the sights. I especially remember the day we sat in the Senate gallery, watching a debate. There, I saw something strange — Teddy Kennedy, a Democrat, and Orrin Hatch, a Republican, sharing a friendly conversation and a laugh together. I later read those two were the best of friends, despite their vast differences on matters of policy.

Who would have thought with the emphasis on our state’s new-energy economy that advances in ways to extract oil and natural gas would trigger economic opportunities in the energy industry in Colorado? And yet, that is what is happening as energy companies are preparing to utilize hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract energy around Colorado.

When I first heard that Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Denver, would announce her bid to be re-elected to Congress from the 1st Congressional District at the Columbine Library, my first thought was, “I thought that library in Cherry Creek was on Milwaukee, not Columbine.”
As it turned out, I was right — there is no Denver library on Columbine Street. DeGette, who has represented Denver in Congress since 1997, chose to announce her re-election plans from the newest part of her district, the part in South Jeffco around Columbine and Ken Caryl.

With January finally here, Americans are increasingly turning their attention toward the presidential race. Until now, many of us watched the GOP primary out of the corner of our eye, vaguely aware of the waxing and waning of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain. Late in the year, the omnipresent Newt Gingrich entered the race with great fanfare, only to fall short of being the game-changer he no doubt planned to be.