Columns

The Gallup organization recently released a stunning poll showing that 81 percent of Americans are unhappy with the way the country is being governed.
Further breaking down those poll numbers, the Gallup press release went on to note that “57 percent have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding the previous high of 53 percent recorded in 2010 and well exceeding the 43 percent who have little or no confidence in the government to solve international problems.”

The Heritage Foundation has been getting attention lately for its report on the poor. Noting that poor people have air conditioners, cable TV and an Xbox, they make the case that “poor” in America isn’t what it used to be.
Tavis Smiley, PBS pundit, and Cornell West, the eccentric author, have been traveling around the country talking about poverty. They’re not drawing much media attention. Most of us don’t want to know about the poor.

As this newspaper reported, last week, the Colorado Reapportionment Commission approved a map redrawing this state’s legislative districts. Not only does the map deprive Jefferson County of its allotted number of whole House seats, it carves up significant natural, cultural and administrative communities of interest.

If you watched a recent college football game between the universities of Utah and Southern California, you couldn’t have missed a somewhat strange interlude when the announcers rattled off statistics about the amount of money PAC 12 universities are spending on stadiums.