http://spencerspeaks.com Here are my thoughts; share yours Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:17:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com February 4, 2008 I planned to die of old age while writing a newspaper column. I wanted to be sitting in a newsroom amidst a bunch of journalists and keel over dead at my desk. Life is rarely Plan A. It is rarely even Plan B. After 32 years in ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/02/03/moving-on-sadly-but-proudly/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com February 1, 2008 Arapahoe County Republican Barbara Fruitman wanted to know where to go for her local presidential caucus Feb. 5. So the Centennial woman went where it made sense – to her party’s local website. The website instructed Fruitman to use a “precinct finder” to figure out where ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/02/01/caucus-crush-challenges-both-parties/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 31, 2008 The political director for the Democratic National Committee showed up in Colorado in December. He came, said Colorado Democratic chairwoman Pat Waak, to measure progress in his party’s so-called “Western strategy.” That’s the notion that for the first time in decades, the Democratic presidential nominee has ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/31/dems-ponder-how-west-might-be-won/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 29, 2008 When he didn’t answer or provided an answer they didn’t like, at first [name blacked out] would slap Mowhoush, and then after a few slaps, it turned into punches. And then from punches, it turned into [name blacked out] using a piece of hose. It’s ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/28/even-without-video-evidence-of-cia-torture-exists/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 23, 2008 First the Sudan and now Iran. The road to stripping public pensions of immoral investments will require significant detours. Colorado has taken two. On Tuesday, the state’s retirement program announced a moratorium on new investments in companies doing significant amounts of business in the Iranian energy ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/23/divesting-in-iran-could-prove-tricky-for-public-pensions/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 21, 2008 I was wrong. Colorado Rep. Doug Bruce’s apparent inability to utter those three words after kicking a newspaper photographer could cost him most of his influence in the General Assembly. Bruce’s fellow Republicans are annoyed with Bruce’s behavior. They are as annoyed as the El Paso County ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/21/state-rep-kicks-himself-out-of-legislative-clout/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 18, 2008 There will be no specific maternity leave policy in Denver Public Schools, because there doesn’t need to be, administrators and school board members said this week. What there soon will be are newly clarified regulations about long-term absences for all students who miss school for health-related ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/18/school-system-maternity-leave-must-balance-bonding-books/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 17, 2008 The Navajo Indians call it “yellow death.” But like so much of what happens in Colorado, the question of uranium mining may boil down to the state’s most precious and rare resource - drinking water. The battle brewing in Weld County, where a Canadian company ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/17/uranium-mining-whets-thirst-to-preserve-drinking-water/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com January 15, 2008 The Colorado constitution is a self-defeating mess. So some of the most critical government work performed in the state in 2008 will not be done by the General Assembly. Rather, it will be done by the committee asked to deal with the state’s constitutional crisis. That’s right, ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/15/constitutional-crisis-trumps-legislative-battles/ By Jim Spencer SpencerSpeaks.com   January 14, 2008 The Republican advantage in registered voters in Colorado is disintegrating, according to numbers compiled by Colorado Public Radio. The trend seems to favor moderate Democrats in statewide races and could affect the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Numbers assembled by Dan Meyers, the editor of KCFR’s Public ... http://spencerspeaks.com/2008/01/14/voter-registrations-bode-badly-for-gop/