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Ben Nighthorse Campbell Longtime Colorado Lawmaker Dies at 92
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CBS News, Approved, State

Ben Nighthorse Campbell Longtime Colorado Lawmaker Dies at 92

By Jesse Sarles | CBS News Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne tribal chief who became a prominent American politician, has died. He was 92. His daughter Shanan Campbell confirmed to CBS News that her father died Tuesday at his home on a ranch in southwestern Colorado surrounded by family members.   Campbell served in Colorado's congressional delegation across three different decades. He started out as a member of the Democratic Party and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, three years after his election to the U.S. Senate, he decided to leave the Democrats and switch to the Republican Party. He served two terms as senator and then retired in the 2000s because of what he said were concerns...
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How Did Compact Negotiators Split the Colorado River’s Flow in 1922?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

How Did Compact Negotiators Split the Colorado River’s Flow in 1922?

By Steve Harris | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice For my third installment in our discussion of the 100-year anniversary of the Colorado River Compact in 1922, I’ll describe how the states negotiated their respective share of the annual flow of the Colorado River. Though I was not in attendance in 1922, the minutes of the negotiations are very thorough. A few definitions before we start: “WY” is short for the federal water year from October 1st to September 30th. Colorado water years are November to October. AF is acre-feet or 325,851 gallons or 43,560 cubic feet. MAF is million acre-feet. Actual Colorado River flows in 1922: At the first Colorado River Compact Commission (CRCC) meeting on January 30, 1922, data on the flow of the Colorado River at various l...
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“Harris Water Time” and the Colorado River Compact’s century of lessons
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

“Harris Water Time” and the Colorado River Compact’s century of lessons

By Steve Harris | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Any good water management effort, process or project takes what I like to call “water time”—if you expect a water negotiation to take one year, add a zero because it will more likely consume 10! This I now officially and publicly trademark as “Harris Water Time,” patent pending. Yet somehow the sturdy Colorado River Compact seems to turn my “water time” on its head—a complex, controversial interstate compact was negotiated in a year and has withstood over 100! The Colorado River Compact split the basin into Upper and Lower regions, shaping water rights for seven states. Photo source: U.S. Geological Survey (2016a). To explore this confounding story, my young friend suggested I write a series of articles on the Com...
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The COvid Chronicles June 24-30, 2020: Statues fall, restrictions return–and kids get left behind
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The COvid Chronicles June 24-30, 2020: Statues fall, restrictions return–and kids get left behind

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board As June gave way to July, Colorado stood suspended in confusion. Were cases going down—or climbing again? Should the public still be afraid? Was it time to reopen bars—or shut them again? Those were surface-level questions. But the deeper question was this: who was actually being prioritized? While pediatricians urged Gov. Polis and health officials to consider the toll on kids, homeless camps spread into schoolyards and parks—and protesters shut down public meetings. Rioters tore down statues. And millionaire athletes declared that a revolution was not just coming—it was necessary. What could have been a cautious corner-turn instead gave way to something more combustible. The moment hardened into something worse: the foreshadowing of near-e...
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Fighting for a country that doubted them—but never broke them
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Approved, denvergazette.com, Local, National

Fighting for a country that doubted them—but never broke them

By Vince Bzdek | Denver Gazette In his 99 years on the planet, Ken Akune has been sorted into many bins. The first was Nisei, the term for second-generation Japanese Americans born in the United States. Akune had lived in both the United States and Japan and his family was divided between the two. The second bin was “evacuee.” That was the term given to 18-year-old Akune, his brother Harry and 7,000 other Japanese Americans shipped out to the Granada Relocation Center in Colorado at the start of World War II because of worries about their loyalty. Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 forcibly removed them from their home on the West Coast to a remote plain of sage and dust in southeastern Colorado, known simply as Amache. “I was mad, jealous, whatever you want to call i...
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Gotlieb: You know you’re from Colorado when… 
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Gotlieb: You know you’re from Colorado when… 

By Dorothy Gotlieb | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Former legislator and longtime Denver public servant Dorothy Gotlieb has compiled this list of Colorado quirks and cultural touchstones. You might laugh, nod in agreement – or want to add your own. Over the years, there have been several versions of a “You Know You’re from Colorado When…” list. The following is just one of the latest.  Everyday observations You ask someone you meet, “Where are you from?” You recognize FIVE seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter – and Construction! Your side of the street looks like a winter wonderland, but there’s no snow on the other side of the street. You are pretty sure that you have seen a bank, a carwash, and/or a dispensary on every block. You know that “Mile Hi...
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The COvid Chronicles: How fear and force reshaped Colorado
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The COvid Chronicles: How fear and force reshaped Colorado

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board How Polis and the powers-that-be permitted the COVID-19 pandemic to pervert Colorado's pioneer spirit It's one of the more ubiquitous storytelling styles in legacy corporate media — anniversary time pegs. In editorial meetings, reporters and editors look at a calendar, see what historic newsy event(s) are upcoming that originally occurred 5, 10, 25 years ago, and put into proper historical perspective said event on the respective anniversary. So, we thought here at Rocky Mountain Voice, with our exploding audience in the evolving media landscape, that we would do the same – bringing a historical spotlight on a topic that impacted all Coloradans, Americans – and just about every human on planet earth.  That topic? The government and m...
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