By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

January 11, 2008
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s first State of the State speech was about dreams. His second was about reality.
In comparison to the bold vision he showed in 2007, Ritter offered caution in Thursday’s speech to a joint session of the General Assembly. In some ways, it reflected the lessons learned in […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

January 10, 2008
Peter Groff made history Wednesday the way Barack Obama is trying to. Offering a message of unification, inspiration and spirituality, Groff introduced himself as the first African-American president of the Colorado Senate in much the same style Obama uses to try to become the first African-American president of the United […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

January 9, 2008
As the U.S. government announced that health care spending topped $2 trillion in 2006, the Colorado General Assembly announced that it will take several years to keep a promise to provide health care coverage to all of the state’s residents.
Talk about a tale of two worlds.
In one live the politicians […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

Democrat Mark Benner has declared himself a participant in the U.S. Senate race in Colorado in defiance of the wishes of his party’s hierarchy. But he’s likely to be out of the contest before he hurts fellow Democrat and presumptive candidate Mark Udall.
Benner, a member of the state’s Democratic executive committee, said […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

Ex-Colorado Sen. Gary Hart boarded the Dump Hillary bandwagon over the weekend. So did ex-New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Both endorsed Iowa caucus winner Sen. Barack Obama for President.
“As one who has struggled throughout a lifetime for restoration of idealism to American politics, I can only smile, and perhaps shed a tear […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 21, 2007
When he arrived in a rural area to practice medicine, Dr. Mark Deutchman saw his first patient before he finished unloading the moving van.
“They came to get me to help someone who had been hurt in a car wreck,” said Deutchman, a professor of family medicine at the University of […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 20, 2007
AKRON, Col.
Three companies tried to make money running the Washington County Clinic – Banner Health Care, Rose Medical Center and Colorado Plains Medical Center.
All failed, said nurse practitioner Becky Hutcheson.
Hutcheson treats patients at the clinic four days a week because there is no doctor available.
“When (Colorado Plains) bailed,” […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 19, 2007
AKRON, Col.
Kent Vance has thick hands that bear the calluses and scars of installing heating and air conditioning systems and tending his family’s century-old farm.
On this day, however, his right hand is thicker than usual. It is swollen.
It has been days since Vance cut his hand on some sheet metal. […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 17, 2007
Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar calls it “not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
That has become Salazar’s way of dealing with a president who has become as much an obstructionist as an advocate.
Like many in Congress, Salazar has grown willing to take what he can get on […]

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By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 14, 2007
A controversial church-backed commercial and residential development has decided to withdraw its application to be annexed by the city of Longmont. The 348-acre Union Project was part of an effort by LifeBridge mega-church to enter the development business.
The Longmont City Council’s initial approval of the annexation of the project from […]

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