Deck the halls with loan papers: Foreclosure-crisis holiday jingles
Just in time for your holiday listening pleasure, two songs are making their way around the blogosphere, marking another year of falling home prices...
U.S. abortion politics: Senate Bill would pay teens to have babies
Blogger Smintheus writing at Unbossed.com throws light on a new twist in the effort to write passable health reform legislation. Senate Dems, concerned that...
Spin Watch: Colo. personhood initiative would have major consequences
The Colorado Personhood ballot initiative would be something altogether new. The initiative is about more than merely outlawing abortion. According to Crystal Clinkbeard, communications...
The hard bargains and steep costs of passing health reform
Unveiling a modified health reform bill on Saturday, Senate Democratic leaders appear to have cobbled together the 60 votes they’ll need to pass the most expansive overhaul to the nation’s health care system in generations. But winning that support comes at a steep cost.
Tancredo isn’t alone in recent push for hate crimes prosecutions
Anti-illegal immigrant conservative GOP firebrand Tom Tancredo loathes hate-crimes laws, which he thinks are biased in favor of minorities and redundant. But Tancredo's recent...
Colorado insurers admit to providing uneven birth control coverage
Colorado women offered small-group health insurance plans or looking to buy plans on the individual market and expecting them to cover birth control should be sure to read the fine print. Plans vary widely on the birth control coverage they provide, and the reasoning guiding the products on offer is often unclear. What's more, denials of service are often buried in contract sections newcomers to the market are likely to skim or not read at all.
Personhood spokesperson: Stories about fetus litigation simply made up
Lolita Hanks, Colorado Right to Life board member and a spokesperson for the 2010 Colorado Personhood ballot initiative, told 710 KNUS talk-radio host John Andrews today that stories detailing the legal threats personhood laws might pose to pregnant women were just fabrications designed to scare voters.
"But what about all the hypotheticals where attorneys would be retained on behalf of an unborn child, perhaps to litigate against the mother of that child?" asked Andrews.
"Well I just think that's just scare tactics," Hanks said
Deal with Big Pharma haunts Democrats
Democratic leaders face a major decision now on health care reform-- yet another one this year that will throw into relief the interests that compete in American representative democracy. They have to choose between either closing the "doughnut hole" and offering full coverage for millions of low-income seniors on Medicare who need to buy prescription drugs or sticking to a deal they made with the nation's major drug companies. According to the deal, the government agrees not to use its bulk buying power to lower the cost of drugs, so long as the drug companies dole out $80 billion over the next decade to subsidize health reform.
State Latino leaders warm to Ritter, dismiss top Republicans
DENVER-- Gov. Bill Ritter shored up support with the state's growing number of Latino voters Tuesday, appearing with a group of roughly 40 of the community's leaders, who came to the downtown Auraria campus to endorse him as the best choice for governor in 2010. In discussions with the Colorado Independent, Latino leaders at the event made it clear that Ritter has been working hard to smooth relationships with the community and to address grievances. They also made it clear that Ritter's Republican rivals have moved in the opposite direction, their recent efforts further alienating Colorado Latinos.
In Colorado, pregnancy makes men, children uninsurable, too
When commercial pilot Matt Temme of Castle Rock was furloughed by his employer last June, he lost his health insurance. Temme's wife had coverage through her employer, but adding Temme and his son would have cost $800 a month— an expensive proposition for a family who had just lost a portion of their income. So Temme went looking on the individual market for insurance. He's a healthy 41-year-old. His son is a healthy 6-year-old.
"I never imagined I would have a problem," he said.