Columns

“Financial planning would be far simpler if we came stamped with an expiration date on the bottom.” Thus saith my financial planner. True, that. I have planned for my “golden years” with the goal of living until 90. But recently, I learned that I have a rare, fatal and untreatable ailment. It means that my […]

I love Carbondale and the Roaring Fork Valley! Where else can you find four known rivers converging, Mt. Sopris’ constant vigil over us all and cattle walking down Main Street? The mix of friendly and caring folks all around gives somewhat of a mirror image of being in New Zealand, a place where people still […]

Amid ongoing efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), and after rejection of Colorado’s state-level single-payer plan, the United States struggles to determine its healthcare future. Meanwhile, premiums, deductibles, and other forms of cost sharing continue to rise for those fortunate enough to have insurance. Companies, cities, and school districts struggle to fund […]

Extreme. What in the world do we mean by extreme?  When we speak of temperature we say that something is too hot or too cold, or perhaps that it is pleasantly warm or cool, or perhaps tepid. The highest and lowest temperatures would be at the extremities, thousands of degrees in the case of the […]

There are legitimate concerns and consequences to be considered pertaining to the reintroduction of wolves. It is disingenuous to state that opponents of wolf reintroduction base their beliefs solely on myth while wolf advocates use only facts as suggested by Senator Phillips of Montana.   The real myth is that anyone could believe that wolves […]

As mayor, the most common question I get is “How are things with the Town?” My response usually includes some combination of the following statements: “The Town is doing great. I inherited a great situation where we have an incredible Board of Trustees and a very dedicated staff. We don’t have much money to fight […]

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” -Mark Twain I’ve been watching the Olympics like a middle-aged woman: every night, on the couch, arguing with my husband about the etiquette of curling. I love seeing athletes from all over the world coming together to compete with such […]

When I moved from Denver to the Roaring Fork Valley, I assumed my access to new cinema would suffer. It hasn’t. Thanks to theaters like the Crystal in Carbondale and the Isis in Aspen, the handy inter-library reservation system, and hard-working postal workers delivering Netflix DVDs every few days, it’s easy to go beyond the […]

A while back my older son asked me about God. I got all panicky, fumbled around with some half-assed reply and hoped that it would hold off any more questions concerning life after death, God or anything to do with religion for a while. But, as we know, kids are naturally curious and the questions […]