The weekly newsletter of The Denver Post’s opinion pages.
From Republican infighting to federal tax-cut battles to local school board elections, it was another week of conflict, as reflected in the past week’s opinion pages. But read on, as there were some lighter moments as well (see: Garrison Keillor, Steve Lipsher). The highlights:
Perspective
First, a summary of what was in our Sunday Perspective section this week:
Flawed sex offender registry: Vincent Carroll, the retired Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News editorial page editor, . He argued that the state should make its registry more meaningful to the public by assessing offenders’ actual risk and removing some names from the list.
Amazon HQ2 feeding frenzy: Former Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm warned cities against using taxpayer money to lure , which recently put its second headquarters location out to bid. Lamm called the process corporate welfare run amok.
Boulder’s effort to quit Xcel: Former Denver Post reporter Mark Jaffe weighed in on , which will appear on the ballot next week for the third time in six years. Despite past support, Jaffe wrote, this may be a ballot measure too far.
Has America no decency? U.S. Sen Jeff Flake, who criticized President Donald Trump during his announcement last week that he won’t seek re-election, wrote that . Flake compared current times to the moment in 1954 when Joseph Welch called out Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Drone-strike rules carry risk: In its Sunday editorial, The Post’s editorial board wrote: Armed drones provide hefty advantages, but they aren’t without challenges, and President Donald Trump is that were previously in place.
Letters to the editor: On the letters page, Denver Post readers tackled a number of issues. Here are several of their letters:
A man walks into a bar in Oregon: Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” wrote about a , where he struck up a friendship with three strangers, talking about barred owls, aging, Ireland, limericks — everything other than what’s been in the news lately.
Take that, phone-book guy: Columnist and former Denver Post reporter Steve Lipsher told the tale of how he got his revenge on the guy who keeps delivering unwanted telephone directories to his office. (Fun fact: In 2014, Americans received 650,000 tons of phone books, 70 percent of which were discarded without being opened.) Unfortunately, Lipsher didn’t get the last word. Read to the end for the rest of the story.
Accidental racism in Boulder? Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute and a Boulder resident, question housing policies there. He that between 2010 and 2016, Boulder’s black population dropped by 30 percent, pointing a finger at progressive policies that victimize the very people progressives seek to help.
Potential hit to charitable giving: Chris Gates, former executive director of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, wrote that repeal of the estate tax could result in a significant drop in , as happened in 2010, during which the tax was not in force.
Maintaining Blaine in Dougco: Ilana Spiegel, education policy director for Taxpayers for Public Education, explained as it relates to next week’s school board election in Douglas County. Spiegel wrote: “The central question of voucher programs like the one in Douglas County is about whether we actively require taxpayer money to fund other people’s religion.”
A Dougco candidate weighs in: Responding to a recent column by former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Douglas County school board candidate Krista Holtzmann wrote: Considering the consequential nature of the upcoming to our students, it is imperative that the public receives all the facts.
What Va. governor’s race shows: The Washington Post’s George F. Will, reporting on the governor’s race in Virginia, wrote that the election shows the .
Drawn to the News: Here are the editorial cartoons we featured on the back page of Sunday’s Perspective section, on the topic of President Trump’s military condolence calls:
The past week
Here are highlights from last week’s opinion coverage:
Denver Post editorials:
Drain the swamp? Not exactly: President Donald Trump ran on a promise to “drain the swamp.” Recent actions by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, as well as other administration officials, suggest team Trump is actually that is Washington politics.
Jeff Flake’s inspiring challenge: For those seeking a return to honor, civility and truthfulness from our president, should be an inspiration.
Pricing people out of national parks: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plan to more than double entrance fees to national parks to provide access to all of us, not just the better-off.
Denver Post election endorsements:
Vote for Dougco reform candidates: The nation’s second-largest teachers union is pouring money into Douglas County’s heated school board election. We hope the tactic misfires and voters .
Vote “yes” on Denver’s 2A-2G: Denver is growing fast, so we’re pleased Denver’s elected leadership has a meticulous plan to issue bonds to invest in needed improvements that voters .
Vote “no” on Green Roof Initiative: Denver voters should , which would force owners of many buildings to install green roofs. The decision should be left to building owners and developers.
Op-ed columns:
Pence promotes tax cuts: Vice President Mike Pence, who was in Denver last week to promote the Trump administration’s tax cuts, wrote, in an : When we cut taxes, we launch a new era of soaring incomes, more jobs, and a thriving middle class. We will pass a historic tax cut — and we will pass it this year.
Vicki Marble responds: Colorado state Sen. Vicki Marble answered a Denver Post that had criticized her for comments she made to an inquisitive Cub Scout. that her comments during a 2013 legislative hearing were misrepresented and she had provided to the Cub Scout “accurate context thatap always been missing from the preferred media narrative.”
Denver should ban cat declawing: Weekly Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer opposed a Denver City Council committee’s decision to approve a . Though she is opposed to the procedure itself, she argued that a ban could actually hurt the animals it is designed to protect.
“Extremists” and wild horses: Sharon O’Toole, a Wyoming rancher, on Western lands, writing that “extremists” are “responsible for the current situation, in which taxpayers support at least 80,000 excess horses, leaving us with no end in sight.”
Flake making a selfish mistake: Ed Rogers of The Washington Post wrote that leaders like Sen. Jeff Flake need to ; the Republican Party needs more principled conservatives walking the halls of Congress, not fewer.
The first millennial president: Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post made the argument that . Sure, he’s 70, but in many ways he fits the stereotype of those born between 1982 and 2000, the rough bookends for the millennial cohort.
Primarying the president: Aaron Blake, a senior political reporter for The Washington Postap blog, listed the he believes could present a primary challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020.
Good-natured groping? Molly Roberts, who works for The Washington Post’s opinion page, wrote: It’s possible to make too much of 93-year-old , which his family is aware of. It’s also possible to make too little of it.
Close the door on Amazon Key: Christine Emba, editor of The Washington Post’s blog, wrote that Amazon’s plan to deliver packages inside of customers’ homes shows .
America’s wars in Africa: Ishaan Tharoor, who writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post, wrote that the uproar over the deaths of four soldiers in Niger is shining a light on the .
Letters to the editor:
Notable and quotable
“And so, Mr. President, I will not be complicit or silent. I’ve decided that I would be better able to represent the people of Arizona and to better serve my country and my conscience by freeing myself of the political consideration that consumed far too much bandwidth and would cause me to compromise far too many principles.”
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
The Sound Off, which is emailed to subscribers every Monday, is a roundup of what we’ve been publishing on the opinion pages over the past week. That includes Denver Post , op-ed by Post columnists like Chuck Plunkett and Krista Kafer as well as nationally syndicated columnists like George F. Will and Catherine Rampell, plus guest commentaries, and editorial .
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