Michael D. Brown

Sometimes the most innocuous things said by elected officials raise the most serious policy implications. Did you hear Fargo, North Dakota’s Mayor Walaker: it’s time Fargo received some serious flood protection. Why is that important? Because it raises the issue of pre-disaster mitigation. Under current laws governing FEMA, states receive post-disaster mitigation funds for projects [...]

Much like Caesar crossing the Rubicon River in Italy in 49 BC and creating our modern day “point of no return” or “crossing the Rubicon” phraseology, I believe today we have crossed a Rubicon. This man was fired today. Perhaps he needed to be fired or should have resigned long ago. He is the Chairman [...]

Appearing yesterday with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business News, Neil asked a question about insurance and whether FEMA programs and policies encourage people not to insure their homes and belongings on the belief that FEMA will come in and bail them out. That got me to thinking about the National Flood Insurance Program.  How long [...]

I am a voracious consumer of news – newspapers (print and online), television (cable and broadcast), magazines and books (paper and electronic), radio (terrestrial and satellite).  However it seems that newspapers are disappearing – and fast.  And, inevitably, politicians are stepping in and trying to find a government method of resurrecting or saving print journalism. [...]

As I listened to parts of President Obama’s press conference last night and later read the transcript, I knew instinctively there was something amiss, that what I was hearing didn’t really make sense although it sounded smart, delivered well and smoothly. But, it wasn’t because of his use of the teleprompter. I have to admit [...]

And all this time I thought Boulder was only full of bleeding heart liberals!  Photographed at gas station on South Boulder Road today.  Wonder what’s in the ice chest?

For those of you outside Colorado or otherwise trying to ignore Boulder’s most famous person (other than Jon Benet Ramsey) I wanted to give you a taste of what the University of Colorado’s students were hearing by a 61-year old professor accused of plagiarism. Ward Churchill has the same Constitutional guarantee of Free Speech under [...]

As President (then-Candidate) Obama and Massachusetts Governor Deval have told us, “words matter:” Apparently, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano didn’t get the message or didn’t see the speeches. In an interview with the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, Secretary Napolitano was quoted: SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland [...]

We should pay attention, but I doubt we will. After all, we are all (this author included) focused on news items like the AIG bailout and the bonuses paid to executives at the firm. The NCAA championships are on, and Barack Obama is going on Jay Leno tonight. Even those affected didn’t really pay attention. [...]