Despite the finger pointing, California and the lower basin, are doing our part for the Colorado River (Letters)

The Lower Basin is doing our part for the Colorado River Re California and Arizona s water negotiators wrong to target Colorado Oct editorial The editorial misrepresented both facts and intent In a perfect encapsulation of the us-vs-them mentality pervading the Colorado River Basin my latest quote in the Los Angeles Times calling for all of the Basin States to abandon legal hardlines for a compromise remedy was reinterpreted by the Post s Editorial Board as over-the-top hyperbole and accus ing the upper basin states of Wyoming Colorado Utah and New Mexico of clinging to their the bulk aggressive and rigid dreamland legal positions As tempting as it is to look outward rather than inward for the explanation to dwindling runoff and storage in the Colorado River Basin that approach leads only to failure California Arizona and Nevada the Lower Basin States have not been sitting idly by in the face of this historic drought Over the past two decades collective Lower Basin actions have raised the elevation of Lake Mead by nearly feet From through the end of we are projected to cut water use by a staggering million acre-feet more than double the Upper Basin s annual use Going forward we have proposed annual cuts to the Lower Basin that dwarf current commitments with those reductions expanding to the Upper Basin only if hydrology worsens In all the proposals discussed so far the Lower Basin has offered to take on or more of the needed cuts Lower Basin representatives are also acting to protect the farms and families we represent who make up three-quarters of the Basin s residents We cannot accept a approach in which the Upper Basin does not meaningfully participate We are running out of time New Colorado River rules must be adopted before The key issue is how all seven Basin States will share in the cuts necessary to live with less water Scapegoating downstream may feel satisfying but it solves nothing The only way forward is through compromise and cooperation not falsehoods and finger-pointing JB Hamby El Centro Calif Editor s note Hamby is Chairman of the Colorado River Board of California Supreme Court hearing is another circumstance of Colorado targeting Christians Re Fighting Colorado for the free speech I need and my clients deserve in my office Oct commentary Related Articles California and Arizona negotiators targeting Colorado s water users should look closer to home Opinion Why declining aquifers like the crucial Denver Basin matter as much as our rivers Opinion Trump rollback of rule for inhabitants lands including square miles in Colorado would reduce conservation role Enviro nonprofit identifies greater part at-risk wild lands on Western Slope Adult zebra mussels detected in Colorado River as invasive species continues to spread on Western Slope In her commentary Christian counselor Kaley Chiles wrote My calling is simple to listen with compassion to my clients and to walk with them through their struggles But as she rightly contends the State of Colorado has passed a law legally forbidding her to help her clients There was a time when Chiles would have been commended for her utility To its credit the U S Supreme Court agreed to hear her incident In Colorado Christian proprietors have been repeatedly targeted for exercising their free exercise of religion Why then should it be surprising that Chiles has been targeted for refusing to parrot a government-approved viewpoint that inveighs against her religious beliefs Isn t it the Christian faith after all that is under siege in Colorado Brian Stuckey Denver Re Conversion therapy Justices seem skeptical of ban in Colorado scenario Oct news story The Supreme Court oral arguments focused a lot on the free speech of the therapist versus the harm done to the youth client I am an -year-old gay man who got married and had two children before I came out at to overcome my severe depression I had been programmed by my Catholic priest confessor to deny my sexuality so that I even considered it myself The free speech argument supposes that it is a friendly conversation between two more or less equal people not the situation of a confused afraid adolescent and a trained verbally adroit adult That is on top of a social context that is strongly biased or the parents wouldn t be bringing their child to the therapist in the first place The free speech argument stinks John D Ferguson Denver Political appointees are to blame for EPA slide away from science Re EPA s roll back of greenhouse gas finding will only endanger communities like mine in Adams County Oct commentary Your urging to the Environmental Protection Aagency is no better than standing at the grave of your favorite scientist and urging them to awake Science began falling prey to political appointees in the early s when the division between the two political parties began to heat up to the melting point we see at present The science that protects us from the cancer we may get years later is fragile and easily upended by political appointees non-caring decisions Ignoring simple science leaves us asking when will the next major waterborne malady outbreaks occur like in Gideon Missouri and Alamosa Colorado People died in both cases Ignoring more complex science leaves us with hundreds of years of neurologic damage to our children by leaving lead pipe in the ground The EPA is aggressively ignoring the apex of scientific complexity circumstances change which involves all fields of science and is an existential threat to people we will never meet Political appointees are actively quashing and eliminating these experts Putting this in perspective political appointees are performing the last body slam to an almost dead body of science at EPA We might as well be asking Sauron Lord of the Rings for peace They have abandoned empathy for power Robert Clement Littleton Thank you for volunteering for healthcare studies Re Man is a scientific unicorn who s dodging Alzheimer s Oct news story Thank you to Doug Whitney and others like him who volunteer to be studied for years and submit to physical tests He is helping and giving and I thank God that he is willing He is also a Naval veteran A hero in so several areas Deanna R Walworth Brighton Where is Trump s outrage for violence in Mississippi Re Homecoming celebrations turn deadly eight are killed in separate shootings Oct news story Trump insists to be the president who advocates for law and order But an article published in The Denver Post Homecoming celebrations turn deadly eight are killed in separate shootings covered that in Mississippi on separate sides of the state high school homecoming celebrations ended in gunfire with at least eight people dead including one pregnant woman twenty more wounded and four in critical condition being flown to hospitals Sure sounds like a situation for Trump to call in the National Guard and maybe the military to quell the violence But wait this is Mississippi a state that supported him and everyone knows violence and lawlessness only occur in cities like Chicago Washington D C and Portland Oregon cities that did not endorsement him Apparently when Trump took his oath of office he did not understand it included all Americans and all states He seems to feel he has right to seek revenge on all who did not advocacy him even though they are ostensibly the majority Steve Nash Centennial Build the Burnham Yards stadium and hurry Re Penner talks early stages of stadium design Oct sports story In October of I caught my first live Bronco meeting sitting in the temporary east stands at the old Bears Stadium It was my first and coach Jack Faulkner s last the fans rolled out a large Hit the Road Jack sign in the second half as we were losing again and I fell in love with the group Been through a couple stadium moves since and hope to see the first match at Burnham Yards before I wing it My request to ownership is don t dawdle I ll be in and I fear my beer is going flat Harry Puncec Lakewood Office of the Independent Monitor is doing good work for Denver Re Audit Police oversight office does too much work in secret Sept news story The role of the Office of the Independent Monitor is laborious and often misunderstood Unfortunately headlines and articles like the Denver Post s Denver s police oversight office does too much work in secret audit finds do little to improve citizens understanding of the complex legal context the OIM operates in or the challenges they have already overcome in building a nationally recognized oversight model The Citizen Oversight Board was established to serve as an independent body charged with evaluating the effectiveness of the Office of the Independent Monitor OIM With access to the confidential materials the OIM handles we conduct rigorous assessments and publish our findings in annual reports We take this responsibility seriously and consistently urge the OIM to leverage every available reserve to deliver updates that are accessible relevant and informative to the constituents Over the past two decades the ordinances guiding the Office of the Independent Monitor OIM have been revised multiple times to strengthen its quota to serve the citizens effectively We welcome the opportunity this audit review presents to evaluate whether additional changes to the ordinance are warranted However sensationalized headlines do little to advance meaningful revision They undermine the progress Denver has made in building a robust oversight framework and fail to foster a deeper society understanding of the complex surroundings in which the OIM operates Julia Richman Denver Editor s note Richman is chairman of Denver s Citizen Oversight Board which oversees the Office of the Independent Monitor Why are we chasing the mythical Antifa again Right-wing sources claimed that members of Antifa were in the crowd that stormed the Capitol on January Since then over people have been arrested and charged for their part in the insurrection including The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers but no one identified as Antifa was arrested Was this because it was a left-wing conspiracy or were MAGA folks looking for a Yeti Over the past years no Antifa sightings have occurred no FBI or ICE arrests no word about their leaders their organization their funding their internal communications their secret handshake etc Now the babble about them is back Like a Yeti when the first Antifa member is caught and confesses let s have a press event and expose the entire structure of the organization Until then common sense says we are chasing a Yeti Curt Anderson Broomfield Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail