Columns

By Paula Noonan

The tenor and tone of the beginning of the administration of Gov. John Hickenlooper and the first session of the 68th Colorado General Assembly have been decidedly positive and should give Colorado citizens a good feeling about how business will be conducted over the next couple of years.

By Mike Coffman
The film “Waiting for Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott, is a documentary that analyzes the failures of American public education by following several students through the system. The documentary is a clear indictment of many of our nation’s urban public schools, which are labeled in the film as “dropout factories” because, on average, 40 percent of their students fail to graduate.

Democrats took control of the Colorado Senate by a narrow 18-17 margin after the 2000 election. Republicans maintained control of the House and the governor’s office. When incoming Senate President Stan Matsunaka spoke at the annual pre-legislative forum sponsored by the Colorado Press Association that year, he announced that because he didn’t believe a split legislature could agree on a plan, the Senate wouldn’t try to pass a bill to establish congressional districts for the next 10 years and the issue would be passed onto the courts.