ProgressNow Daily News Digest

Job Losses Dampen Hopes for Economic Recovery - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200354.html Mounting job losses rattled hopes yesterday that the economy is on track to grow later this year, showing that prospects for American workers are terrible -- and still getting worse. Employers reduced their payrolls by 467,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said, far more than forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent. And last week, another 614,000 people applied for unemployment insurance benefits. The number of job losses had decreased every month since January before spiking again in June, and economists think it is highly likely that the jobless rate will hit double-digits later this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people working part time who want full-time work and those who have given up looking for a job, has already risen to 16.5 percent. The nation now has the same number of jobs it did in 2000, meaning that nine years of employment gains have disappeared. The stock market fell steeply on the news yesterday, with the Standard and Poor's 500-stock index off 2.9 percent. European stock markets fell sharply as well, after the European Central Bank left its target interest rate unchanged and its president indicated that he expects a recovery to begin in the middle of next year. Investors have wanted the bank to fight the recession more aggressively, which it seems disinclined to do.

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Key Senate Democrats unveil plans for health care bill - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-02-democrats-health-care_N.htm Senate Democrats unveiled new details of a plan to revamp the nation's health care system Thursday, including a public, government-run insurance program and a $750-per-employee annual fee on companies that do not offer health benefits. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a leading architect of the legislation, said the new bill will cost $611 billion over the next decade — lower than an earlier $1 trillion estimate — and that he hoped his committee could have its version completed next week. "This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president's goals," Dodd said today of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill's cost. "We believe people ought to be able to keep [insurance] plans they like and that people ought to have choices." In a statement, President Obama said the bill "reflects many of the principles I've laid out" and he praised the committee for including a controversial public insurance option that he said would "make health care affordable by increasing competition."

Presidential pardons nullify victories against Afghan drug trade - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/presidential_pardons_nullify_victories_against_afghan_drug_trade/ When five drug traffickers in military uniforms were caught transporting heroin in a police truck in 2007, it was a victory for a dogged team of Afghan investigators and their US mentors who are waging a Quixotic battle against narcotics, the nation’s largest industry. The men were prosecuted by a special drug court that the US government has spent tens of millions of dollars developing as a bulwark against corruption. They were sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison. But in April, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pardoned the five men. One was the nephew of a powerful politician managing Karzai’s reelection campaign, and the presidential decree ordering their release notes that they had ties to a well-respected family, according to a senior Afghan official. Those pardons - and at least five others in recent weeks - have outraged US officials working to combat drug trafficking in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest supplier of heroin and opium, and raised fears that Karzai will set more traffickers free in a bid to curry favor with influential families before the presidential election on Aug. 20. “Karzai is pulling out all the stops in his bid to get reelected,’’ said Jake Sherman, a former UN official in Afghanistan who is now at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation.

Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03calif.html?ref=politics An ever-widening budget gap joined with intractable political paralysis to deliver California its biggest fiscal blow in decades on Thursday, when the state’s controller began printing i.o.u.’s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments. It was only the second time the state had adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression. The National Conference of State Legislatures had no record of any other state’s ever using them. It was unclear whether the i.o.u.’s, known as warrants, would be accepted by all of the banks in California, which were caught off guard by the move and seemed hesitant to entrust the state to repay the them — at an interest rate of 3.75 percent — in October, as promised. The controller, John Chiang, issued 28,742 warrants totaling $53.3 million. If state lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement by the end of August, the amount would grow to $4.8 billion. While the emergency move resulted from California’s combination of outsized budget gaps, unusual budget rules and a morass of financial obligations approved at the polls, the action was seen as a warning flag to other states that have failed to close their budgets this fiscal year because of the economic downturn.

Experts at Aspen Ideas weigh in on U.S.‘s role in the world | AspenTimes.com

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029971/1001/NONE The heavy hitters came out Thursday during the Aspen Ideas Festival, talking about big issues around the world and how the United States fits in. For more than four hours, a lineup including former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and James Baker, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, economist Hernando de Soto, biologist Eric Lander, Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, and deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg discussed myriad issues during “An Afternoon of Conversation” at the Benedict Music Tent. On the topic of America and the world, the three secretaries said they think President Obama has handled the crisis in Iran correctly. They also agree that the U.S. must continue to try to talk to the Iranian government to persuade them from backing off on its nuclear program. “You don't lose anything by talking to somebody,” Baker said. “You talk to your enemies, not your friends.”

Faithful pitch in on health care - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745262 A national coalition of liberal faith groups is pushing for "affordable health care for all families" through a radio ad campaign this week in Colorado and four other states. In Denver, the interfaith Metro Organizations for People has teamed with the Rev. Bill Calhoun of Montview Presbyterian Church to create radio ads. Calhoun is the voice in the Colorado radio ad, which, like the others, "remind lawmakers that the status quo on health care is not who we are as a nation" and that America can do better. "It is a sin that a nation as rich and great and compassionate as ours tolerates a health care system that leaves so many sick people without the care they need, and so many parents unable to raise healthy children," Calhoun said in a statement. The ad campaign began Tuesday and will run through Saturday in Colorado, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Carolina. Ads urge senators from these states to support reform that makes quality coverage affordable for every American family.

Colorado Independent | Candidate McInnis moves mountains - from Canadian Rockies to Colorado

http://coloradoindependent.com/32533/candidate-mcinnis-moves-mountains-from-canadian-rockies-to-colorado What is it with Colorado politicians and their mountains? No, Mount McKinley isn’t Pikes Peak, and the Canadian Rockies are nowhere to be found in the Centennial State. Hours after launching his campaign Web site to much fanfare, official Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott McInnis yanked from the site a prominent graphic featuring a vista of Lake Louise, a resort nestled in the Canadian Rockies. The Canadian terrain appeared behind the question, “What do you want for the future of Colorado?” Soon after bloggers uncovered the geographic blooper, lovely Lake Louise vanished from the McInnis site, replaced with background shots of the Boulder Flatirons. A McInnis campaign spokesman didn’t return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment. Intrepid contributors to the political blog Colorado Pols uncovered the McInnis campaign’s graphic mixup Thursday afternoon.

Angling for a rematch on personhood - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745765 Colorado voters in 2008 trounced an amendment that would have defined a fertilized human egg as a person, but supporters of the "personhood" battle are angling for a rematch in 2010. This time, though, they're avoiding the word "fertilization" in the amendment's language, saying that it confused voters, who may have visualized chicken eggs. "When we use 'fertilized egg,' it's a pejorative," said Keith Mason, director of Personhood USA, an Arvada- based organization supporting the measure and similar proposals across the country. Supporters on Thursday filed the proposed Colorado Personhood Constitutional Amendment with the state Legislative Council, the first step in getting an initiative petition approved for circulation to place it on the ballot in November 2010. If proponents of an initiative do not choose to revise their proposals after review and comment by Legislative Council staff, they then may file the language with the state's title board, which approves the ballot language voters would actually see.

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Colo. casinos hit jackpot with higher stakes - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745076 Colorado's casinos reported Thursday huge spikes in traffic and business on the first day of higher-stakes gambling. Shortly after the bet limits were raised and new games added at just past midnight, the Lodge and Gilpin casinos in Black Hawk had nearly three times more gamblers than they did on the same day last year. "It's fair to characterize the launch as successful," said John East, a vice president with Jacobs Entertainment, which owns the Lodge and Gilpin casinos. Gamblers were playing the new table games — craps and roulette — until well into the morning, East said. Casinos can now stay open 24 hours instead of having to close at 2 a.m. The maximum single bet has been raised from $5 to $100. Voters statewide approved the changes last fall.

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Colorado Independent | Judge grants CSU motion; chancellor search tape to remain unreleased

http://coloradoindependent.com/32504/judge-grants-csu-motion-chancellor-search-tape-to-remain-unreleased Unbowed by a ruling two weeks ago in which a Larimer County judge found that Colorado State University violated Open Meetings laws, the CSU board and its lawyers fought an order demanding the release of audio tapes of the executive session where the board selected its own vice chairman, Joe Blake, as sole finalist for the new chancellor position. Judge Stephen Schapanski today granted CSU a stay of his order. The battle over the release of the tapes is part of a larger ongoing suit brought last month by The Colorado Independent, The Fort Collins Coloradoan and The Pueblo Chieftan alleging the university violated state transparency laws. Following a motion in the suit brought last month by the media organizations, Schapanski listened in private to a four-hour tape of the May 5 meeting. He said the board had clearly discussed Blake’s candidacy and made decisions about filling the new chancellor position behind closed doors in direct violation of laws intended to open those sorts of discussions to the public. The meeting and the decision to back Vice Chairman Blake’s candidacy raised questions immediately about the fairness of the process. Had a true variety of candidates been considered? What qualifications were most highly valued in the decision-making process? Who were the other candidates and how were they recruited?

The Pueblo Chieftain :: Environmental group seeks halt to Comanche 3 unit

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d8598156c5834224487.txt An environmental group Thursday asked a judge to order Xcel Energy to stop construction on a coal-fired generating (plant), known as Unit 3, at its Pueblo Comanche Station. Xcel plans to finish construction and put the unit into operation later this year. It is to produce enough electricity to serve more than 500,000 residential customers. The group, WildEarth Guardians, alleges the facility violates the federal Clean Air Act because Xcel has not shown the unit will have required technology to limit emission of hazardous air pollutants. "This is a matter of preventing poisoning," WildEarth Guardians stated in a prepared statement. The group is based in Santa Fe, N.M., and has offices in Denver and in several western states. Several environmental groups wanted the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to cancel its approval of the Comanche 3 unit. They argued coal-fired plants produce enormous levels of greenhouse gases, endangering the world's environment.

Telluride Daily Planet - Uranium mill near Paradox gets planning permit

http://telluridenews.com/articles/2009/07/02/news/doc4a4d6b6ccb298397287659.txt Montrose County made a move into the future — or the past, depending on perspective — when its planning commission unanimously approved a uranium mill in Paradox Valley Wednesday night. The Piñon Ridge Mill has to be approved by the county commissioners and state and federal regulatory agencies. The area near the Utah border was a hub of uranium mining at the beginning of the atomic age. If a mill is built, it could revive an industry that gave its name to the town of Uravan. But the threat of radiation and pollution worries residents who live nearby. A crowd of about 75 came to the Montrose County Fairgrounds and spoke overwhelmingly against the mine, parading to the podium to protest what they clearly saw as a threat to their health, water and way of life. “If they contaminate our ground water, what happens then?” said Paradox’s Marie Moore. “This is my life. You don’t even live there. You don’t even know.” Daryl Hannah, fresh off an arrest in West Virginia protesting coal mining, showed up. It’s not often the chair of the planning commission, David Laursen, tells a Hollywood actress, “Daryl, can you just sit for a second? We want to get through this.” But, as Hannah stated, she lives in Placerville, and said this was a regional issue, not just a county issue.

Business as usual for 2nd Brigade in Iraq | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/kievenaar-57832-basra-soldiers.html In Basra, June 30 was just another day for most soldiers with Fort Carson's 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division. The day marked the pullout of American troops from urban settings in Baghdad and other cities and the end of unilateral U.S. offensives. But Col. Butch Kievenaar, the brigade's commander, said his soldiers have been letting the Iraqis take the lead in Basra for months, with the Americans acting as trainers and occasionally backing their allies up in firefights. "It didn't mean much of a change for our soldiers from what we have been doing," Kievenaar said of the new agreement that paves the way for American withdrawal. "It is another milestone in which we see the security forces and people of Iraq taking charge." Kievenaar's brigade went to Iraq last fall and was first assigned to Diwahniyah, south of Baghdad, before replacing British troops in Iraq's port city of Basra, near the Kuwaiti border. While sectarian attacks in Baghdad have been on the rise, the insurgency in Basra has faded since a 2008 offensive crushed a Shiite uprising there.

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CDOT fails to meet minority hiring targets - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745859 Colorado transportation officials are lagging behind their minority hiring target for federal stimulus projects, prompting a protest that has led to an internal review. Since 2007, the state highway department also has fallen short of its goal to distribute 12.8 percent of its federally financed road work to companies primarily owned by blacks, Latinos and other groups deemed disadvantaged, hitting about 10 percent. At issue is whether the Colorado Department of Transportation is doing enough to meet recruitment goals under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program mandated by Congress. "I'm very hopeful that we can move this situation forward," said Helga Grunerud, executive director of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado.

Source: JBS USA not a target of new wave of ICE audits | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039986/1002/NONE Immigration officials have not said which companies in Colorado are part of a nationwide crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants, but Greeley-based JBS USA likely is not one of them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday they would review employees' I-9 documents at 652 companies nationwide. Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for ICE, would not identify specific companies being audited by ICE, citing privacy issues. He said 20 firms in the four-state region of Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming are being audited. A JBS source said Greeley's JBS USA meat-packing plant isn't among the companies being targeted.

Lawsuit claims false arrest by Glenwood Springs police | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029986/1001/NONE A former Aspen resident claims in a lawsuit that his constitutional rights were violated during a 2008 arrest by Glenwood Springs police. Gerard Michael Vuolo, 52, filed a complaint in Garfield County District Court on May 22, alleging that he was falsely arrested in September 2008 for unlawful sexual contact. Vuolo, who listed a Sedona, Ariz., address in the complaint, was arrested on Sept. 10, 2008, at a Glenwood Springs laundromat. The allegations of unlawful sexual contact stemmed from an earlier incident that allegedly occurred between Vuolo and an employee at the Smoker Friendly store in Glenwood Springs, according to the complaint. Vuolo was booked into the Garfield County Jail and later released on bond, the complaint stated. The charges were dropped and the case was ultimately dismissed in April, according to court clerk officials.

Springs surgery tech suspected of exposing thousands to hepatitis C | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/parker-57838-surgery-rose.html Federal officials Thursday warned that about 6,000 surgery patients, including 1,000 at a Colorado Springs surgery center, are at risk of having been infected by an operating room technician with hepatitis C. On Thursday, federal authorities filed criminal charges in U.S. District Court in Denver against Kristen Diane Parker, a former scrub technician at Rose Medical Center in Denver and Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs. According to the criminal complaint, Parker - a former heroin addict - admitted swapping her own dirty syringes filled with saline solution for syringes filled with Fentanyl, a narcotic 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug is supposed to be used to help major post-surgery patients manage pain. Instead, they got no relief while Parker injected herself with the painkiller at home and in the hospital bathrooms before and after a surgery, according to the seven-page complaint.

GJSentinel.com: Experts say Grand Junction Police walking fine line using public funds

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_1a_Police_pamphlet.html A double-sided page tucked into the center of the Grand Junction Police Department’s 2008 annual report highlights 10 reasons why Police Chief Bill Gardner believes the community should support the creation of a new public safety building. Using public money to create the document walks a fine line between disseminating information and allocating taxpayer dollars to advocate for a potential ballot issue, according to some experts on campaign finance law. While a ballot question to create a new public safety center has not been formalized by city leaders, last year’s failed $98 million public safety initiative question is being pared down, possibly to head back to voters this November. According to Colorado’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, government money or resources cannot be used to influence an election. While the police department’s report is not illegal because a tax question hasn’t been placed on the ballot, the chief’s wording in the police report is improper, said Denver attorney Scott Gessler.

Shooting victim pained by job loss - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745766 A man who was fatally shot by police early Thursday morning was despondent over being out of work and was battling bipolar disorder, a family member said. Hector Esparza, 25, was shot by police about 1:20 a.m. inside his home at 4503 Fillmore St., as he came at officers with a BB gun in his hand. Before the shooting, Esparza had talked of getting in a shootout with officers, Denver police and family members said. Esparza had been upset about losing his job as a landscaper, said his half brother, Mondo Guillart. The loss of income stymied his ability to make child-support payments for his two girls. He was separated from his wife, Guillart said.

News : Prelim set in drug case involving former political candidate (Montrose, CO)

http://montrosepress.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/doc4a4d7aa035da7912632975.txt A former political candidate rounded up after a multi-agency drug investigation was hit with 13 felony charges Thursday. David Williams was arrested in June by the Seventh Judicial District Meth/Drug Task Force, which was working in conjunction with several other area law enforcement agencies. Four others, Raul Blas-Solano and Bertha Blas-Solano, and Juan Ruezgo-Andrade and Hector Ruezgo-Andrade, all of Ouray, were also arrested on drug allegations. Williams was formally charged with three counts of distribution of a controlled substance, possession of a schedule II controlled substance, three counts of possession of a controlled substance, three counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, two counts of conspiracy to distribute or manufacture a controlled substance, and as a special offender-within 1,000 feet of a school. According to District Attorney Myrl Serra, Williams once ran for the state legislature in the 1980s. He was defeated by Steve Acquafresca.

Aspen cop blotter: Man, unhappy about getting the boot, cited after encounter | AspenTimes.com

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029974/1001/NONE As long as Brit Queer, Aspen's boot man, has made illegally parked vehicles immovable objects with his clamp-on devices, he has dealt with surly motorists. Sunday, June 26, was one of those days, when Dagoberto Munoz, 32, of El Jebel allegedly pushed and yelled at Queer in the parking lot of Clark's Market after Queer booted his car. According to a report by Aspen police officer Chance Williams, Munoz admitted to being angry after he paid Queer $100 to remove the boot. The suspect, however, told police that he did not have any physical contact with Queer, nor did he verbally threaten him. Munoz was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Cops, DA see Carbondale solar panel theft differently | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029978/1001/NONE Carbondale police and the District Attorney's Office have an apparent difference of opinion over whether there is enough evidence for an arrest in the theft of 30 solar panels from the recreation center. Carbondale police were prepared to arrest a suspect on June 1 for possession of stolen property. But the 9th Judicial District Attorney's Office believes investigators need to collect more evidence before they will approve an arrest warrant, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Jim Leuthauser. “There were major concerns about the sufficiency of information in that warrant,” Leuthauser. Those concerns were explained to the police department, and no other warrant has been submitted so far, he said.

Contract allegedly specified beatings - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745254 A police officer faces a domestic-violence charge after a woman claimed he beat her regularly as part of a relationship contract that called for corporal punishment. Olathe Officer Michael Percival was arrested June 26 on suspicion of misdemeanor assault. Town Attorney David Masters said Percival has been suspended pending a hearing. There was no answer Thursday at a number listed for Percival. A deputy booking the woman into jail on unrelated charges discovered marks that the woman said came from beatings with a belt.

GJSentinel.com: Cop accused of beating his ex-girlfriend

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_1a_Olathe_cop.html An Olathe police officer was suspended without pay Wednesday after an ex-girlfriend claimed he regularly beat her under the terms of contracts he had with the woman. Michael E. Percival, 44, was arrested June 26 and booked into the Montrose County Jail on suspicion of third-degree assault and domestic violence. Percival is free on $2,500 bond. “I have nothing to say to you, thank you,” Percival said after answering his cell phone on Thursday, before hanging up. Percival was arrested by Montrose County sheriff’s deputies, who served a warrant at the Olathe Police Department on June 26.

Perlmutter to talk economy with businesses in Arvada - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739889 Rep. Ed Perlmutter is answering stimulus and economy questions from small business owners. The Democrat from Denver's suburbs is putting on a forum in Arvada today with small business owners and officials from the Small Business Administration. Topics include the economic climate and pending legislation affecting small business. Perlmutter serves on the Financial Services Committee and largely focuses on legislation related to business affairs.

Bank’s ag loans up for sale | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039985/1002/NONE The liquidation of New Frontier Bank continues. Qualified investors can now bid on about $750 million in agriculture loans from the collapsed bank. But changes in ownership of area dairies, feedlots or farms as a result will likely not distress the industry as much as many have feared. “The calls that I've had from investors out of state wanting more information about how to get involved in this process, from what I can tell, they have a true interest in operating agricultural entities. I think potentially, they will be here for the long haul,” said Les Hardesty, chairman of the Mountain Council of the Dairy Farmers of America, and an area dairy farmer who knows many agricultural borrowers from the bank.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d845f34bce639234802.txt The streets were quiet Thursday morning in this former mountain mining community. A few tourists strolled up and down the sidewalks, occasionally ducking inside a shop or casino. Some of the town's frequent visitors pulled up a stool and tried their luck at the slot and poker machines. Sitting noticeably empty in some of the casinos were the new craps and roulette tables, which had been rolled out for the first time at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. But casino operators said it was a different story just after midnight Thursday. "It was a phenomenal night," said Nancy Darcy, a spokeswoman for the Brass Ass Casino. "Every table was full and it stayed that way until at least 4:30 this morning."

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GJSentinel.com: Bank, mail service available in advance of Fourth

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_7a_holiday_closures.html The extended Independence Day weekend begins today, and while several services are halted and buildings shuttered, not everything has ground to a halt.

GJSentinel.com: GJ firms foresee more job cuts

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_1a_Chamber_survey.html Thirty-one percent of respondents to a new Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce survey expect to eliminate staff at their businesses. The poll wrapped Tuesday with responses from 399 local business professionals. In a November 2008 chamber poll, 22 percent of local employers planned to decrease staff numbers. Local governments are hoping to avoid layoffs through budget-cutting measures other than layoffs. The city of Grand Junction has reassigned some personnel from departments with decreased workload to departments with increased workloads, said city spokeswoman Sam Rainguet. Mesa County department heads have been instructed to fill an empty position only when necessary and, unlike past years, supervisors were not allowed to give merit-based pay increases to employees.

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Sales taxes continue decline in Boulder, Broomfield counties : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/sales-taxes-continue-decline-boulder-broomfield-co/ Through the first four months of the year, area sales tax revenues continued to reflect the economic malaise and sluggish consumer spending as the majority of cities and towns within Boulder and Broomfield counties recorded declining collections. In the city of Boulder, sales tax revenues through April were down 5.2 percent, a fairly comparable decline from the prior month’s year-to-date figures, according to Boulder’s most recent sales tax report. Finance officials said it is too early to project trends, noting sales in April 2008 were “extremely strong.” Combined with revenue from use taxes — which can be considered more volatile because some are generated from one-time events — Boulder recorded a 2.5 percent year-to-date decrease. City officials have projected retail sales tax and use tax drops of 1 percent and 6 percent, respectively, said Duane Hudson, deputy finance director and controller. Practically all retail sectors experienced declining revenues, with areas such as home furnishings and consumer electronics taking the biggest hits, according to the report.

First Data and BofA team up for venture - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744881 Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp. could eventually end up processing more than a billion electronic transactions a month generated through a new joint venture with Bank of America. But the real payoff from the new Banc of America Merchant Services partnership might come in popularizing new payment methods such as cellphones and electronic wallets through Bank of America's huge branch network. "That is where this gets very powerful because obviously the bank and obviously First Data have been working on next-generation payment types and are investing in those, and this is an opportunity to bring those together and do it collaboratively," said Tom Bell, chief executive of the newly formed company, in a conference call last week.

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Shooting victim pained by job loss - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745766 A man who was fatally shot by police early Thursday morning was despondent over being out of work and was battling bipolar disorder, a family member said. Hector Esparza, 25, was shot by police about 1:20 a.m. inside his home at 4503 Fillmore St., as he came at officers with a BB gun in his hand. Before the shooting, Esparza had talked of getting in a shootout with officers, Denver police and family members said. Esparza had been upset about losing his job as a landscaper, said his half brother, Mondo Guillart. The loss of income stymied his ability to make child-support payments for his two girls. He was separated from his wife, Guillart said.

Some Vail hotels sell out for Fourth | VailDaily.com

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029948/1001/NONE Hotels and lodges in Vial, Colorado are reporting sold-out bookings for the weekend and are optimistic that business this Fourth of July will measure up to previous years. “We're really happy because we're sold out,” said Matthew Martinucci, regional director of sales and marketing for the 292-room Vail Cascade Resort and Spa. “It did not look like that a month ago. We were very concerned.” But late bookings, including a big wedding, gave the Cascade a good push. The Cascade has been offering discount rates and running promotions, such as a photo contest, to draw in guests in the midst of a economy still mired in recession, Martinucci said. Other hotels reported strong bookings thanks to the special events in the town.

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‘Staycationers’ give RMNP a boost | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090703/NEWS01/90703001/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02/‘Staycationers--give-RMNP-a-boost Overlooking Forest Canyon with her two children Wednesday, Linda Wasson said she and her family came to Rocky Mountain National Park from Round Rock, Texas, to realize her dream of seeing the Rockies up close but on a shoestring. Splitting the cost of the trip with in-laws, Wasson, her husband and two children were staying in Brighton with family instead of booking nights in local hotels. If gasoline were $4 per gallon like it was last summer, she said, “We definitely wouldn’t come.” Mark Colvalt of Aurora said he’s a local and doesn’t care much about gas prices on his frequent visits to the park. Every time family members visit from out of state, he said, the park is the first place he takes them. With park officials readying for one of RMNP’s busiest Fourth of July weekends ever, it’s tourists such as Wasson and Colvalt and hordes of local “staycationers” who are contributing to the park’s skyrocketing number of visitors this year, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.

LandCo drops mayor, assistant city manager from lawsuit | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/city-57807-landco-lawsuit.html Mayor Lionel Rivera and Assistant City Manager Mike Anderson have been dropped from a federal lawsuit filed in March by the lead developer in the now-defunct deal to keep the U.S. Olympic Committee from leaving the city, court documents state. LandCo Equity Partners filed a "stipulation of dismissal ... without prejudice" against Rivera and Anderson on Wednesday, according to court documents. However, the legal fight between LandCo and the city hasn't been resolved, the documents state. But in a joint motion filed last week seeking an extension of time, both LandCo and the city said a settlement was "close at hand."

Vendors: Rainy days put damper on profits | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039987/1002/NONE Vendors at the Greeley Stampede have mixed reactions to what they describe as a low turnout at this year's festival. Many of the vendors said that they are not seeing the same large crowds — and profits — as they have in previous years. They say the culprit likely is a combination of the weather and the economy. Sandra Baker, proprietor of Blue Sky Concessions and Nana's Famous BBQ and Grille, has been a fixture at the Stampede for a decade. She said her sales this year are down dramatically, despite her popular “Hollywood Dogs,” heavily topped gourmet hot dogs named after movie stars. “We're down 40 percent from last year,” she said. She cited the poor weather as the biggest reason for the low turnout.

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254 apartments slated in Lafayette - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744978 Milestone Development Group is building a $30 million apartment complex in Lafayette. The project, expected to break ground this month, will add 254 apartments to a community that hasn't seen new multifamily housing developed in the past 15 years. The site, on South Public Road, is one mile north of Northwest Parkway adjacent to Good Samaritan Hospital on U.S. 287. The complex should be completed by March. "We always look for high-traffic areas," said Ken Kiken, principal of Denver-based Milestone. "(U.S.) 287 in Lafayette carries 50,000 cars a day. They realize we're under construction, that we're coming, and it cuts down on marketing."

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d845f34bce639234802.txt The streets were quiet Thursday morning in this former mountain mining community. A few tourists strolled up and down the sidewalks, occasionally ducking inside a shop or casino. Some of the town's frequent visitors pulled up a stool and tried their luck at the slot and poker machines. Sitting noticeably empty in some of the casinos were the new craps and roulette tables, which had been rolled out for the first time at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. But casino operators said it was a different story just after midnight Thursday. "It was a phenomenal night," said Nancy Darcy, a spokeswoman for the Brass Ass Casino. "Every table was full and it stayed that way until at least 4:30 this morning."

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Broadcasts on school buses run into static - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746439 Congress has ordered a Federal Communications Commission review of BusRadio, a controversial radio-programming system that targets kids riding on school buses — including some in the metro Denver area — with advertising and what some say is inappropriate music. BusRadio sends music and commercials over the Internet to school district servers that forward the programming to buses, using wireless transmitters. Douglas County, Denver and the Aurora school districts are among a handful in Colorado that use BusRadio. Supporters say the radio content calms the kids on what can at times be a hectic bus ride. But some parents say forcing their children to listen to commercials on the bus is akin to having their kids held hostage by corporate America. They also say the music is sometimes age-inappropriate.

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Craig Daily Press / CNCC sees tuition increase by 9 percent

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2009/jul/03/cncc_sees_tuition_increase_9_percent/ The state legislature approved Colorado community colleges, including Colorado Northwestern Community College, to raise tuition by 9 percent in preparation for probable cuts in state funding, according to the Colorado Community College System. Amid state budget cuts for higher education, CNCC has to raise costs to cover growing enrollment. “We make a concerted effort to keep tuition raises as low as we can,” CNCC President John Boyd said. “But it’s like any other business, we have to pay for what we are doing.” Last year, CNCC’s gross income was above the state average for community colleges, but the school still relies on state funding to offset costs. The state cut $600,000 this year from CNCC’s funding. However, almost all of that was made up in stimulus money.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: State agrees to audit of Cesar Chavez school network

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d84db38399257582558.txt The Pueblo City Schools board of education voted Thursday night to spend up to $80,000 for the Colorado Department of Education to conduct an independent audit of the Pueblo-based Cesar Chavez Network. The network oversees several schools, including Pueblo schools Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High school. Pueblo City Schools holds the charter for those two schools. The audit will look into the testing and administration practices of the schools within CCN. Board President Stephanie Garcia said the audit will be done in cooperation with CDE, Pueblo City Schools and the Charter School Institute. The three entities will share in the cost of the audit.

Eagle County graduation rates improve | VailDaily.com

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029957/1001/NONE The most recent statistics available show Eagle County Schools are all over the map with graduation rates, with some school performing way above state averages, and others well below. Local graduation rates are looked at in nine categories, including total graduation rates for whites, Hispanics, and males and females for each race. Eagle Valley High School was the only high school in Eagle County to score above average in all nine categories. Battle Mountain High School was above state averages in its total graduation rate, and above average in white graduation rates, but it came in below average with its Hispanic rates. “Both of our regular high schools improved from last year and are exceeding the state by at least 10 percent,” said Brooke Skjonsby, spokeswoman for the school district. “That obviously says something about us districtwide.”

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: City schools’ board sets search timeline

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d8500aa319721890818.txt Pueblo City Schools District will begin advertising by July 13 for a new superinten- dant. The timetable was set during a discussion Thursday between the school board and Bob Cito, special projects consultant for the Colorado Association of School Boards, which is helping the board search for a new superinten- dant. John Covington left the district at the end of June to become superintendent of the Kansas City, Mo., public school district. Longtime Pueblo City Schools educator Kathy West has been named interim superintendant.

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Bennet talking health reform at Denver church - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739888 Sen. Michael Bennet is headed to a Presbyterian church in Denver to talk about health care reform with a pastor pushing for change. Bennet meets today with the Rev. Bill Calhoun and his parishioners at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church. The meeting comes as Calhoun stars in radio ads on Christian stations this week calling for improvements to health care. Liberal-leaning religious groups have launched radio ads in four other states this week in which local pastors urge senators to back efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system. Today's meeting will include testimony from patients who want changes. Then, Bennet plans to lay out his vision for improving health care.

Perlmutter to talk economy with businesses in Arvada - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739889 Rep. Ed Perlmutter is answering stimulus and economy questions from small business owners. The Democrat from Denver's suburbs is putting on a forum in Arvada today with small business owners and officials from the Small Business Administration. Topics include the economic climate and pending legislation affecting small business. Perlmutter serves on the Financial Services Committee and largely focuses on legislation related to business affairs.

Colorado wraps up first highway stimulus project | VailDaily.com

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029939/1002/NONE Colorado has wrapped up its first highway project financed with federal stimulus dollars with about a half-million to spare. The Colorado Department of Transportation said Thursday that the one-mile repaving project in Littleton was finished in a month. Engineers had estimated the job would cost $1.2 million but the winning bid came in at nearly half that — $678,000. Department spokeswoman Mindy Crane says the savings will be pooled with other money saved on jobs in the Denver area and spent on more stimulus projects. Colorado's $400 million in highway stimulus money was divided by among the state's six transportation regions.

Bank’s ag loans up for sale | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039985/1002/NONE The liquidation of New Frontier Bank continues. Qualified investors can now bid on about $750 million in agriculture loans from the collapsed bank. But changes in ownership of area dairies, feedlots or farms as a result will likely not distress the industry as much as many have feared. “The calls that I've had from investors out of state wanting more information about how to get involved in this process, from what I can tell, they have a true interest in operating agricultural entities. I think potentially, they will be here for the long haul,” said Les Hardesty, chairman of the Mountain Council of the Dairy Farmers of America, and an area dairy farmer who knows many agricultural borrowers from the bank.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: McInnis files for campaign committee

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d85cd2a32a008221549.txt Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis has filed the necessary documents with the Colorado Secretary of State's office to create his committee to campaign for governor in the 2010 election. A Republican, McInnis announced that the formation of the committee will enable him to begin raising funds. Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat elected in 2006, has indicated that he will seek re-election. McInnis is a native of Glenwood Springs and a resident of Grand Junction. He began serving the country as a police officer, then in the Colorado House of Representatives from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Pueblo. He decided to leave Congress and became affiliated with a major Denver law firm. Thursday, the campaign launched its official Web site, ScottMcInnisForGovernor.com.

Colorado Independent » McInnis set to begin legally running for governor

http://coloradoindependent.com/32524/mcinnis-set-to-begin-legally-running-for-governor Scott McInnis has made his bid for governor official — again. The former six-term GOP congressman from Grand Junction filed Wednesday with the state to begin legally fundraising for a 2010 run against Bill Ritter. McInnis filed to run with the secretary of state at the end of May after Colorado Ethics Watch alleged he had been engaged in illegal fundraising for weeks. On Wednesday, McInnis filed to set up a campaign committee. The herky-jerky false-starts that have so far characterized his campaign suggest the battle McInnis may face winning even his party’s nomination. As The Colorado Independent reported in May, McInnis will likely be competing for the nomination against his former staffer and current Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry.

CDOT fails to meet minority hiring targets - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745859 Colorado transportation officials are lagging behind their minority hiring target for federal stimulus projects, prompting a protest that has led to an internal review. Since 2007, the state highway department also has fallen short of its goal to distribute 12.8 percent of its federally financed road work to companies primarily owned by blacks, Latinos and other groups deemed disadvantaged, hitting about 10 percent. At issue is whether the Colorado Department of Transportation is doing enough to meet recruitment goals under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program mandated by Congress. "I'm very hopeful that we can move this situation forward," said Helga Grunerud, executive director of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado.

Battlement Mesa residents want county to speak up | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029984/1001/NONE Although it seems a foregone conclusion in the making, the Garfield County commissioners will be asked on Monday to formally confirm that any gas drilling within the Battlement Mesa community boundaries must undergo the modern version of a special-use permit review before work can begin. “We're pretty sure that they've come around to our point of view, we just want to hear them say it publicly,” said Paul Light, a Battlement Mesa resident and board member of two citizen action groups — the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress. Light said there had been indications that one of the commissioners, whom he declined to identify, believed that the county has no authority concerning efforts to find and pump natural gas in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, it is the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that issues permits and monitors the industry for compliance with state and local regulations.

Gas seeps, drilling to be subjects at COGCC meetings in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029981/1001/NONE State regulators of the oil and gas industry will be in Glenwood Springs twice this month to discuss a variety of controversial subjects, ranging from pollution coinciding with gas-drilling activities to plans for setting up drilling rigs in a residential community. On July 8, the COGCC will hold a special meeting at Battlement Mesa to talk about plans by Antero Resources to drill wells within the boundaries of the community. Antero has announced plans to build 10 well pads, and drill up to 20 wells from each pad, at various locations throughout the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development. The community is located south of the Colorado River adjacent to the town of Parachute, approximately 40 miles west of Glenwood Springs. According to Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, the meeting is intended to provide information about the commission's review process relative to Antero's plans, and the opportunities for public input as part of that process.

Grant would fuel use of natural gas in state - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745078 Colorado is angling for $10 million in federal funds to expand the use of compressed natural gas as a vehicle fuel. The grant from the U.S. Department of Energy would be part of a $27.6 million project to add five fueling stations and 68 natural gas-powered buses and trash trucks in the state. "The biggest challenge in promoting compressed natural gas is getting enough infrastructure in place and enough vehicles to increase the volume of the fuel being consumed," said Stacey Simms, project manager in the Governor's Energy Office.

GJSentinel.com: Bank, mail service available in advance of Fourth

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_7a_holiday_closures.html The extended Independence Day weekend begins today, and while several services are halted and buildings shuttered, not everything has ground to a halt.

Craig Daily Press / CNCC sees tuition increase by 9 percent

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2009/jul/03/cncc_sees_tuition_increase_9_percent/ The state legislature approved Colorado community colleges, including Colorado Northwestern Community College, to raise tuition by 9 percent in preparation for probable cuts in state funding, according to the Colorado Community College System. Amid state budget cuts for higher education, CNCC has to raise costs to cover growing enrollment. “We make a concerted effort to keep tuition raises as low as we can,” CNCC President John Boyd said. “But it’s like any other business, we have to pay for what we are doing.” Last year, CNCC’s gross income was above the state average for community colleges, but the school still relies on state funding to offset costs. The state cut $600,000 this year from CNCC’s funding. However, almost all of that was made up in stimulus money.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: State agrees to audit of Cesar Chavez school network

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d84db38399257582558.txt The Pueblo City Schools board of education voted Thursday night to spend up to $80,000 for the Colorado Department of Education to conduct an independent audit of the Pueblo-based Cesar Chavez Network. The network oversees several schools, including Pueblo schools Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High school. Pueblo City Schools holds the charter for those two schools. The audit will look into the testing and administration practices of the schools within CCN. Board President Stephanie Garcia said the audit will be done in cooperation with CDE, Pueblo City Schools and the Charter School Institute. The three entities will share in the cost of the audit.

Thousands appeal property values | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/news/property-57863-appeals-equalization.html Nearly 10,000 El Paso County property owners appealed their property value following the latest reappraisal. Of the 9,499 appeals filed, 64 percent received an adjustment of some kind, Assessor Mark Lowderman said Thursday. Most of the appeals, 5,526, involved residential property. Industrial property drew the fewest, at 60. The appeals that were granted would mean $89,000 less tax money for the county, based on its current property tax rate. Board of Equalization hearings start Monday and are scheduled to run through Aug. 6. The deadline to file for a Board of Equalization hearing is July 15.

Sales taxes continue decline in Boulder, Broomfield counties : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/sales-taxes-continue-decline-boulder-broomfield-co/ Through the first four months of the year, area sales tax revenues continued to reflect the economic malaise and sluggish consumer spending as the majority of cities and towns within Boulder and Broomfield counties recorded declining collections. In the city of Boulder, sales tax revenues through April were down 5.2 percent, a fairly comparable decline from the prior month’s year-to-date figures, according to Boulder’s most recent sales tax report. Finance officials said it is too early to project trends, noting sales in April 2008 were “extremely strong.” Combined with revenue from use taxes — which can be considered more volatile because some are generated from one-time events — Boulder recorded a 2.5 percent year-to-date decrease. City officials have projected retail sales tax and use tax drops of 1 percent and 6 percent, respectively, said Duane Hudson, deputy finance director and controller. Practically all retail sectors experienced declining revenues, with areas such as home furnishings and consumer electronics taking the biggest hits, according to the report.

GJSentinel.com: Experts say Grand Junction Police walking fine line using public funds

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_1a_Police_pamphlet.html A double-sided page tucked into the center of the Grand Junction Police Department’s 2008 annual report highlights 10 reasons why Police Chief Bill Gardner believes the community should support the creation of a new public safety building. Using public money to create the document walks a fine line between disseminating information and allocating taxpayer dollars to advocate for a potential ballot issue, according to some experts on campaign finance law. While a ballot question to create a new public safety center has not been formalized by city leaders, last year’s failed $98 million public safety initiative question is being pared down, possibly to head back to voters this November. According to Colorado’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, government money or resources cannot be used to influence an election. While the police department’s report is not illegal because a tax question hasn’t been placed on the ballot, the chief’s wording in the police report is improper, said Denver attorney Scott Gessler.

BOCC backs wilderness plan | SummitDaily.com

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029959/1001/NONE A proposal to add significant new chunks of wilderness got a boost Tuesday, as the county commissioners decided to back the plan after a presentation by wilderness advocates. “Personally, I'm very supportive ... I would like to see a resolution or a letter of support,” said Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier. The final proposal could be tweaked with a few minor boundary changes to address trail use issues and the need to protect homes from fires, she added. Assistant county manager Steve Hill will draft a letter for the commissioners after checking with the local wildfire council to make sure the proposal doesn't conflict with efforts to reduce fire risk to homes and businesses. Meanwhile, local mountain bikers are saying “not so fast.” “We were a few meetings away from coming to agreement,” said Breckenridge resident Ellen Hollinshead, referring to ongoing talks between the wilderness advocates and local cyclists.

Highlands Ranch dedicates veterans memorial - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12740666 It took three years from concept to creation. Now Highlands Ranch has its own veterans monument. The monument, which was dedicated Wednesday night, honors all those who have served our country in years past and those who are currently enlisted. The Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument committee is still selling dedication tiles to pay for the monument. The committee is about $20,000 short of the $200,000 goal, but the Highlands Ranch Metro District Board of Directors advanced funds to get it built. The monument is at Civic Green Park, off Highlands Ranch Parkway between Lucent and Broadway.

News : JetAway’s Part 16 complaint dismissed (Montrose, CO)

http://montrosepress.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/doc4a4d7a37acc56201952506.txt Montrose County is claiming vindication after the Federal Aviation Administration found it was not in violation of federal grant assurances at Montrose Regional Airport. Thursday, the FAA dismissed — for the second time in three years — a Part 16 complaint brought by JetAway Aviation. The company has 30 days to appeal the decision, which is an initial agency finding. JetAway filed a Part 16 complaint with the FAA last January, claiming the county unreasonably denied its attempts to become a fixed-base operator.

LandCo drops mayor, assistant city manager from lawsuit | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/city-57807-landco-lawsuit.html Mayor Lionel Rivera and Assistant City Manager Mike Anderson have been dropped from a federal lawsuit filed in March by the lead developer in the now-defunct deal to keep the U.S. Olympic Committee from leaving the city, court documents state. LandCo Equity Partners filed a "stipulation of dismissal ... without prejudice" against Rivera and Anderson on Wednesday, according to court documents. However, the legal fight between LandCo and the city hasn't been resolved, the documents state. But in a joint motion filed last week seeking an extension of time, both LandCo and the city said a settlement was "close at hand."

Commissioners to meet with southwest Weld County residents | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029977/1008/NONE Weld County Commissioners Bill Garcia and Doug Rademacher will meet area residents in southwest Weld to an informal meeting July 10. Garcia and Rademacher meet with residents on the second Friday of each month where residents can share their views, ask questions, and express concerns about Weld government. This month's meeting will be 4-6 p.m. at the Weld County Southwest Services Complex, 4209 Weld County Road 24.5, Conference Room B, near Del Camino. To chat on line, go to http://www.co.weld.co.us, click on Weld County Chat.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: McInnis files for campaign committee

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d85cd2a32a008221549.txt Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis has filed the necessary documents with the Colorado Secretary of State's office to create his committee to campaign for governor in the 2010 election. A Republican, McInnis announced that the formation of the committee will enable him to begin raising funds. Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat elected in 2006, has indicated that he will seek re-election. McInnis is a native of Glenwood Springs and a resident of Grand Junction. He began serving the country as a police officer, then in the Colorado House of Representatives from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Pueblo. He decided to leave Congress and became affiliated with a major Denver law firm. Thursday, the campaign launched its official Web site, ScottMcInnisForGovernor.com.

Colorado Independent » McInnis set to begin legally running for governor

http://coloradoindependent.com/32524/mcinnis-set-to-begin-legally-running-for-governor Scott McInnis has made his bid for governor official — again. The former six-term GOP congressman from Grand Junction filed Wednesday with the state to begin legally fundraising for a 2010 run against Bill Ritter. McInnis filed to run with the secretary of state at the end of May after Colorado Ethics Watch alleged he had been engaged in illegal fundraising for weeks. On Wednesday, McInnis filed to set up a campaign committee. The herky-jerky false-starts that have so far characterized his campaign suggest the battle McInnis may face winning even his party’s nomination. As The Colorado Independent reported in May, McInnis will likely be competing for the nomination against his former staffer and current Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d845f34bce639234802.txt The streets were quiet Thursday morning in this former mountain mining community. A few tourists strolled up and down the sidewalks, occasionally ducking inside a shop or casino. Some of the town's frequent visitors pulled up a stool and tried their luck at the slot and poker machines. Sitting noticeably empty in some of the casinos were the new craps and roulette tables, which had been rolled out for the first time at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. But casino operators said it was a different story just after midnight Thursday. "It was a phenomenal night," said Nancy Darcy, a spokeswoman for the Brass Ass Casino. "Every table was full and it stayed that way until at least 4:30 this morning."

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News : Prelim set in drug case involving former political candidate (Montrose, CO)

http://montrosepress.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/doc4a4d7aa035da7912632975.txt A former political candidate rounded up after a multi-agency drug investigation was hit with 13 felony charges Thursday. David Williams was arrested in June by the Seventh Judicial District Meth/Drug Task Force, which was working in conjunction with several other area law enforcement agencies. Four others, Raul Blas-Solano and Bertha Blas-Solano, and Juan Ruezgo-Andrade and Hector Ruezgo-Andrade, all of Ouray, were also arrested on drug allegations. Williams was formally charged with three counts of distribution of a controlled substance, possession of a schedule II controlled substance, three counts of possession of a controlled substance, three counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, two counts of conspiracy to distribute or manufacture a controlled substance, and as a special offender-within 1,000 feet of a school. According to District Attorney Myrl Serra, Williams once ran for the state legislature in the 1980s. He was defeated by Steve Acquafresca.

Battlement Mesa residents want county to speak up | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029984/1001/NONE Although it seems a foregone conclusion in the making, the Garfield County commissioners will be asked on Monday to formally confirm that any gas drilling within the Battlement Mesa community boundaries must undergo the modern version of a special-use permit review before work can begin. “We're pretty sure that they've come around to our point of view, we just want to hear them say it publicly,” said Paul Light, a Battlement Mesa resident and board member of two citizen action groups — the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress. Light said there had been indications that one of the commissioners, whom he declined to identify, believed that the county has no authority concerning efforts to find and pump natural gas in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, it is the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that issues permits and monitors the industry for compliance with state and local regulations.

Gas seeps, drilling to be subjects at COGCC meetings in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029981/1001/NONE State regulators of the oil and gas industry will be in Glenwood Springs twice this month to discuss a variety of controversial subjects, ranging from pollution coinciding with gas-drilling activities to plans for setting up drilling rigs in a residential community. On July 8, the COGCC will hold a special meeting at Battlement Mesa to talk about plans by Antero Resources to drill wells within the boundaries of the community. Antero has announced plans to build 10 well pads, and drill up to 20 wells from each pad, at various locations throughout the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development. The community is located south of the Colorado River adjacent to the town of Parachute, approximately 40 miles west of Glenwood Springs. According to Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, the meeting is intended to provide information about the commission's review process relative to Antero's plans, and the opportunities for public input as part of that process.

GJSentinel.com: Montrose County to review proposal for uranium mill

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_3a_Montrose_uranium.html The Montrose County Commission will soon begin its review of a proposed uranium mill in the county’s West End. The proposed Piñon Ridge mill won a unanimous recommendation Wednesday from the county planning commission, culminating a series of meetings that extended late into the night on two occasions before the commission vote. The county commission is expected to conduct a public hearing in the West End within 30 days of the planning commission vote. Opponents of the plan were joined Wednesday by actress Darryl Hannah, who maintains a home in nearby San Miguel County, and told a reporter for the Montrose Daily Press that she was “pretty concerned about short-term thinking leading to a disaster.”

Darryl Hannah decries proposed Colo. uranium mill - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12741939 Actress Darryl Hannah is speaking out against a proposed uranium and vanadium mine in southwest Colorado. Hannah, who grew up in the area and has a home in San Miguel County, spoke Wednesday at a meeting of the planning commission in adjacent Montrose County, where Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. wants to build the mill. The site is about 225 miles southwest of Denver. Hannah told the commission she's concerned "about short-term thinking leading to a disaster." The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend a special-use permit for the mill, but the project has other hurdles to clear.

Grant would fuel use of natural gas in state - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745078 Colorado is angling for $10 million in federal funds to expand the use of compressed natural gas as a vehicle fuel. The grant from the U.S. Department of Energy would be part of a $27.6 million project to add five fueling stations and 68 natural gas-powered buses and trash trucks in the state. "The biggest challenge in promoting compressed natural gas is getting enough infrastructure in place and enough vehicles to increase the volume of the fuel being consumed," said Stacey Simms, project manager in the Governor's Energy Office.

Cops, DA see Carbondale solar panel theft differently | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029978/1001/NONE Carbondale police and the District Attorney's Office have an apparent difference of opinion over whether there is enough evidence for an arrest in the theft of 30 solar panels from the recreation center. Carbondale police were prepared to arrest a suspect on June 1 for possession of stolen property. But the 9th Judicial District Attorney's Office believes investigators need to collect more evidence before they will approve an arrest warrant, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Jim Leuthauser. “There were major concerns about the sufficiency of information in that warrant,” Leuthauser. Those concerns were explained to the police department, and no other warrant has been submitted so far, he said.

Battlement Mesa residents want county to speak up | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029984/1001/NONE Although it seems a foregone conclusion in the making, the Garfield County commissioners will be asked on Monday to formally confirm that any gas drilling within the Battlement Mesa community boundaries must undergo the modern version of a special-use permit review before work can begin. “We're pretty sure that they've come around to our point of view, we just want to hear them say it publicly,” said Paul Light, a Battlement Mesa resident and board member of two citizen action groups — the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress. Light said there had been indications that one of the commissioners, whom he declined to identify, believed that the county has no authority concerning efforts to find and pump natural gas in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, it is the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that issues permits and monitors the industry for compliance with state and local regulations.

Gas seeps, drilling to be subjects at COGCC meetings in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029981/1001/NONE State regulators of the oil and gas industry will be in Glenwood Springs twice this month to discuss a variety of controversial subjects, ranging from pollution coinciding with gas-drilling activities to plans for setting up drilling rigs in a residential community. On July 8, the COGCC will hold a special meeting at Battlement Mesa to talk about plans by Antero Resources to drill wells within the boundaries of the community. Antero has announced plans to build 10 well pads, and drill up to 20 wells from each pad, at various locations throughout the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development. The community is located south of the Colorado River adjacent to the town of Parachute, approximately 40 miles west of Glenwood Springs. According to Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, the meeting is intended to provide information about the commission's review process relative to Antero's plans, and the opportunities for public input as part of that process.

GJSentinel.com: Montrose County to review proposal for uranium mill

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_3a_Montrose_uranium.html The Montrose County Commission will soon begin its review of a proposed uranium mill in the county’s West End. The proposed Piñon Ridge mill won a unanimous recommendation Wednesday from the county planning commission, culminating a series of meetings that extended late into the night on two occasions before the commission vote. The county commission is expected to conduct a public hearing in the West End within 30 days of the planning commission vote. Opponents of the plan were joined Wednesday by actress Darryl Hannah, who maintains a home in nearby San Miguel County, and told a reporter for the Montrose Daily Press that she was “pretty concerned about short-term thinking leading to a disaster.”

Darryl Hannah decries proposed Colo. uranium mill - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12741939 Actress Darryl Hannah is speaking out against a proposed uranium and vanadium mine in southwest Colorado. Hannah, who grew up in the area and has a home in San Miguel County, spoke Wednesday at a meeting of the planning commission in adjacent Montrose County, where Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. wants to build the mill. The site is about 225 miles southwest of Denver. Hannah told the commission she's concerned "about short-term thinking leading to a disaster." The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend a special-use permit for the mill, but the project has other hurdles to clear.

Smuggler trees take flight before the pine beetles do | AspenTimes.com

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029986/1001/NONE Aspenites were shut out of their Smuggler Mountain stomping grounds Thursday, but treated to the spectacle of huge trees dangling from a cable, pulled aloft by a helicopter as part of an experimental effort to slow the spread of the mountain pine beetle. Pitkin County and city of Aspen trail rangers closed off access to the mountain from Smuggler Mountain Road and various trails until late afternoon, while the felled trees swung over the forest canopy. The pilot deftly retrieved a tree about every two minutes from various spots at mid-mountain, where 202 lodgepole pines infested with beetle larvae were felled by loggers earlier in the week and painted with blaze orange to help the pilot spot them from above. Originally, rangers hoped to keep the lower mile of Smuggler Mountain Road open for hikers and mountain bikers, but the fuel truck for the helicopter couldn't make it up the road, said Gary Tennenbaum, land steward for the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails program.

BOCC backs wilderness plan | SummitDaily.com

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029959/1001/NONE A proposal to add significant new chunks of wilderness got a boost Tuesday, as the county commissioners decided to back the plan after a presentation by wilderness advocates. “Personally, I'm very supportive ... I would like to see a resolution or a letter of support,” said Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier. The final proposal could be tweaked with a few minor boundary changes to address trail use issues and the need to protect homes from fires, she added. Assistant county manager Steve Hill will draft a letter for the commissioners after checking with the local wildfire council to make sure the proposal doesn't conflict with efforts to reduce fire risk to homes and businesses. Meanwhile, local mountain bikers are saying “not so fast.” “We were a few meetings away from coming to agreement,” said Breckenridge resident Ellen Hollinshead, referring to ongoing talks between the wilderness advocates and local cyclists.

Pine beetles cramp Colo. campers : Get Out : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/pine-beetles-cramp-colo-campers/ When campers have more trouble than usual finding a campsite this holiday weekend, they can blame the pine beetle. Thirteen of 233 national forest campgrounds and picnic areas in Colorado and southern Wyoming will be closed this summer because of hazardous beetle-killed trees. Five more will open later than usual after dead trees have been removed. Although it puts a damper on camping plans, the Forest Service stresses that the closures are to keep people safe. “Public safety is our No. 1 priority. Beetle-killed trees can fall anytime,” Cal Wettstein, commander of the Rocky Mountain Region Bark Beetle Incident Management Team, said in a news release. Once beetles have burrowed into a tree and killed it, the tree will almost always fall. That makes beetle-killed trees particularly dangerous in high-traffic areas such as campgrounds.

‘Staycationers’ give RMNP a boost | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090703/NEWS01/90703001/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02/‘Staycationers--give-RMNP-a-boost Overlooking Forest Canyon with her two children Wednesday, Linda Wasson said she and her family came to Rocky Mountain National Park from Round Rock, Texas, to realize her dream of seeing the Rockies up close but on a shoestring. Splitting the cost of the trip with in-laws, Wasson, her husband and two children were staying in Brighton with family instead of booking nights in local hotels. If gasoline were $4 per gallon like it was last summer, she said, “We definitely wouldn’t come.” Mark Colvalt of Aurora said he’s a local and doesn’t care much about gas prices on his frequent visits to the park. Every time family members visit from out of state, he said, the park is the first place he takes them. With park officials readying for one of RMNP’s busiest Fourth of July weekends ever, it’s tourists such as Wasson and Colvalt and hordes of local “staycationers” who are contributing to the park’s skyrocketing number of visitors this year, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.

It may be wetter than usual, but there is still fire danger in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029987/1001/NONE Despite wetter conditions than typical for a Fourth of July holiday, Glenwood Springs Fire Chief Mike Piper says that potential fire dangers still exist. “It's not as dry as it was in 2003 and 2004 when we were in a drought,” he said. “With all the rain this year it's eased a little, but it's still dry enough to spark a fire.” He said that current conditions in and around Glenwood specifically were “moderate,” but conditions vary up and down the valley. “There are some areas that are dry, and the winds are drying out the grasses,” Piper said. “But we are not in an extreme situation here.”

Up to a million gallons released in gigantic Boulder water main break : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/break-boulder-water-main-flooding-street/ A water main break, considered to be one of Boulder's largest gushers, unleashed half a million to a million gallons of water Thursday afternoon along an industrial section of Walnut Street before the city was able to shut the water off. The rupture, which kicked out a chunk of an underground 16-inch iron pipe at the intersection of 38th and Walnut streets shortly after the lunch hour, flooded several blocks of the roadway with about a foot of water. "The quantity of water that escaped -- that is one of the largest I've ever seen," said Joe Cowan, water district maintenance supervisor for the city of Boulder. Cowan, who has been in the municipal water business for 28 years, said there was no major reported damage from the main break. But he said the Betasso Water Treatment Plant noted a drop in water pressure as a result of the rupture and supplemented the city's water supply from other sources.

Dead bald eagle used in legal ceremony - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746498 Colorado Division of Wildlife officials say they believe a bald eagle found dead in a Boulder County park in May came from a federal repository used by American Indians. The bird was found in Legion Park and was missing its head, talons and tail feathers. At the time, wildlife officials worried the eagle had been poached and its parts sold on the black market. But Thursday, they said the bird had been dismembered by an American Indian who had a federal permit to use eagle parts in a religious ceremony. "We got an anonymous tip that a young Native American gentleman was doing a ritual out in the area," said DOW spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill. Federal officials met with the man and a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund.

Job Losses Dampen Hopes for Economic Recovery - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200354.html Mounting job losses rattled hopes yesterday that the economy is on track to grow later this year, showing that prospects for American workers are terrible -- and still getting worse. Employers reduced their payrolls by 467,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said, far more than forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent. And last week, another 614,000 people applied for unemployment insurance benefits. The number of job losses had decreased every month since January before spiking again in June, and economists think it is highly likely that the jobless rate will hit double-digits later this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people working part time who want full-time work and those who have given up looking for a job, has already risen to 16.5 percent. The nation now has the same number of jobs it did in 2000, meaning that nine years of employment gains have disappeared. The stock market fell steeply on the news yesterday, with the Standard and Poor's 500-stock index off 2.9 percent. European stock markets fell sharply as well, after the European Central Bank left its target interest rate unchanged and its president indicated that he expects a recovery to begin in the middle of next year. Investors have wanted the bank to fight the recession more aggressively, which it seems disinclined to do.

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DHS Cybersecurity Plan Will Involve NSA, Telecoms - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve "monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic," and Department of Homeland Security officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems. But the program has provoked debate within DHS, the officials said, because of uncertainty about whether private data can be shielded from unauthorized scrutiny, how much of a role NSA should play and whether the agency's involvement in warrantless wiretapping during George W. Bush's presidency would draw controversy. Each time a private citizen visited a "dot-gov" Web site or sent an e-mail to a civilian government employee, that action would be screened for potential harm to the network. "We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has. But . . . they will be guided, led and in a sense directed by the people we have at the Department of Homeland Security," the department's secretary, Janet Napolitano, told reporters in a discussion about cybersecurity efforts.

Jobless Rate Climbs to 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/economy/03jobs.html?ref=business The American economy lost 467,000 more jobs in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent in a sobering indication that the longest recession since the 1930s had yet to release its hold. “The numbers are indicative of a continued, very severe recession,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh. “There’s nothing in here to show that the economy and the market are pulling out of the grip of recession.” The Labor Department’s monthly snapshot of employment, released Thursday, challenged visions of a recovery already taking root. The numbers intensify pressure on the Obama administration to show returns on programs aimed at improving national fortunes — not least its $787 billion stimulus plan. Some economists are now calling for another dose of government spending to stimulate the economy, though the White House maintains that enough money is in the pipeline already. “Not all the recovery money has been put to work yet,” said the labor secretary, Hilda L. Solis. “We’re making progress.” But Ms. Solis acknowledged that joblessness was already much worse than the administration projected in January when it created its stimulus spending bill, suggesting then that joblessness would peak at about 8 percent.

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Grand Jury Inquiry on Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03inquire.html?ref=politics Current and former top Central Intelligence Agency officers have appeared before a federal grand jury in Virginia as part of an 18-month investigation into the agency’s destruction of 92 videotapes depicting the brutal interrogations of two Qaeda detainees. The witnesses recently called by the special prosecutor, former government officials said, include the agency’s top officer in London and Porter J. Goss, who was C.I.A. director when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005. The grand jury testimony of C.I.A. officers is further evidence that, despite President Obama’s pledge not to punish agency operatives for their role in the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, the shadow of the controversial program still looms over the agency’s daily operations. The court appearances are tied to a criminal investigation led by John L. Durham, whom the Justice Department appointed in January 2008 to investigate the destruction of the tapes. The tapes had shown C.I.A. officers using harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, on two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Justice Dept. Seeks More Time to Review Report on Interrogations - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203548.html The Justice Department asked a federal court yesterday for two more months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's interrogation program before releasing a new version of the document to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued to make it public. The May 2004 report, which was prepared by the agency's inspector general and runs to more than 200 pages, provides a "comprehensive summary and review" of the agency's program, according to a Justice Department letter filed yesterday in federal court in New York. The Washington Post reported last month that the prospect of revealing details of the interrogation program has alarmed some CIA officials, who fear damage to counterterrorism operations and to cooperation with other intelligence agencies. The officials are pressing for the report to be heavily redacted, as it was when a version was released last year. The Justice Department letter said the CIA report could be vetted only after the department reviews 318 other documents that the ACLU is also seeking, including CIA cables and memos.

Before Russia Trip, Obama Lauds Medvedev at Putin’s Expense - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/europe/03moscow.html?ref=world President Obama said Thursday that Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia still had “one foot” in the cold war and needed to move on, a provocative assessment for an American leader just days before traveling here for the first time since taking office. Mr. Obama distinguished Mr. Putin from President Dmitri A. Medvedev, his hand-picked successor, who was elected last year and is the object of much speculation, given the unusual power-sharing arrangement here. Unlike Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama said, Mr. Medvedev recognizes that it is time for the two cold war antagonists to put the past behind them. “It’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old cold war approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated — that it’s time to move forward in a different direction,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think Medvedev understands that,” he said. “I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.”

Iran’s Ahmadinejad faces diplomatic isolation - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-ostracize3-2009jul03,0,3454095.story Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a much-disputed reelection. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament.

Iranian cleric says British Embassy employees will be tried - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran4-2009jul04,0,7171229.story Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, says Iran's enemies 'made an effort to poison the people' during post-election unrest. European Union nations consider pulling ambassadors from Tehran.

Honduran Leadership Stands Defiant - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200381.html Officials in the new Honduran government led by interim President Roberto Micheletti said that they were prepared to hunker down for weeks or months and that they could survive economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and even the condemnation of their closest ally, the United States, which has played an outsize role in the history of Honduras for a century. Micheletti, however, said he was open to one compromise: moving presidential elections up from November to an earlier date in a bid to soften outside condemnation of the coup and keep Hondurans from turning toward violence. "Since I have no desire to run for president myself, you can believe me when I say that what we want is a legal, orderly transfer of power," Micheletti told The Washington Post. José Miguel Insulza, head of the Organization of American States, said he would fly to Honduras on Friday and insist on the return of Zelaya, who was seized by troops at dawn Sunday and flown to exile in Costa Rica.

OAS chief, en route to Honduras, calls economic sanctions likely - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2009/07/03/oas_chief_en_route_to_honduras_calls_economic_sanctions_likely/ A top diplomat said yesterday that he is heading to Honduras to demand the return of the president toppled at gunpoint, a mission he said is likely to meet rejection, bringing diplomatic and economic punishment for the impoverished Central American nation. The head of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said he plans to travel to Honduras today to demand the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup Sunday. “I will do everything I can,’’ Insulza said at a summit of Caribbean leaders in Guyana. “But I think it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days. We are not going to Honduras to negotiate. We are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing.’’ The interim government of Roberto Micheletti has shown little willingness to do so, contending that the army acted legally on orders of Congress and the Supreme Court when it raided Zelaya’s house amid gunfire and deported him, still in his nightshirt.

El Nino more like Los Ninos, weather study finds - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-weather4-2009jul04,0,5854766.story El Nino, the seasonal Pacific Ocean warming that affects the world's weather, may not be just one little boy -- it seems to be two little boys. Two distinct patterns of warming occur in the Pacific Ocean, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and their frequencies have been changing in recent decades. Tracking one of these two events could yield earlier, more-accurate predictions of seasonal North Atlantic hurricanes. The periodic warming (El Nino) and cooling (La Nina) of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation and affects global weather patterns. El Nino, which occurs about every three to five years, is an ocean warming that begins in the early summer months and that reaches its peak in December.

Key Senate Democrats unveil plans for health care bill - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-02-democrats-health-care_N.htm Senate Democrats unveiled new details of a plan to revamp the nation's health care system Thursday, including a public, government-run insurance program and a $750-per-employee annual fee on companies that do not offer health benefits. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a leading architect of the legislation, said the new bill will cost $611 billion over the next decade — lower than an earlier $1 trillion estimate — and that he hoped his committee could have its version completed next week. "This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president's goals," Dodd said today of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill's cost. "We believe people ought to be able to keep [insurance] plans they like and that people ought to have choices." In a statement, President Obama said the bill "reflects many of the principles I've laid out" and he praised the committee for including a controversial public insurance option that he said would "make health care affordable by increasing competition."

Revisions to Health Bill Are Unveiled by Democrats - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/health/policy/03health.html?ref=politics To warm words from President Obama, the Democratic leaders of the Senate health committee unveiled a revised plan Thursday to provide health coverage to nearly all Americans. The plan would require most employers to offer benefits to their workers or pay fees to the government and would create a public competitor to insurance companies. The proposal clears the way for the committee to vote on a package next week as the House and the Senate hustle to pass separate health bills this month before Congress leaves on its August break. But a second Senate panel, the Finance Committee, is still struggling to reach consensus. The health committee’s blueprint builds on an incomplete version that was much criticized two weeks ago when the Congressional Budget Office reported that it would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and still leave up to 37 million Americans uninsured. That budget report was widely considered a setback for a health care overhaul, Mr. Obama’s top domestic priority. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the health committee chairman, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut subsequently filled in details of the plan and scaled back subsidies that would help low-income people buy insurance.

Obama, Party Tout Lower Figure for Health Reform - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203914.html Senate Democrats and President Obama, trying to assuage fears about the cost of health reform, yesterday touted new estimates that put the price tag for one bill at $611 billion over the next decade. But the measure drafted by the Senate health committee falls far short of Obama's goal of providing insurance to virtually every American. Analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, released in a letter yesterday, shows that it would cover just 39 percent of uninsured Americans in 2019 -- or about 21 million of the 54 million people expected to lack coverage if no change is made. "The figures presented in this letter do not represent a formal or complete cost estimate for the draft legislation," CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote. The draft legislation does not include details on how to pay for expanded coverage or administrative fees. The latest missive from the budgetary scorekeeper is part of a wonky mini-drama over the struggle to meet Obama's promise to enact legislation that greatly expands health coverage without adding to the federal deficit.

Kennedy, Dodd unveil trimmer Senate healthcare bill - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/07/03/kennedy_dodd_unveil_trimmer_senate_healthcare_bill/ Americans who refuse to buy medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a healthcare overhaul bill unveiled yesterday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Obama’s top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines would raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals. People would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now, and the government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families. But those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties, called “shared responsibility payments,’’ set at least at half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. As in Massachusetts, the legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines.

Obama Supports ‘‘Robust’ Protection for Catholic Health-Care Workers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202451.html President Barack Obama said today that he still favors a "robust" federal policy protecting health-care workers who have moral objections to performing some procedures even though he plans to roll back a Bush administration rule that expanded such protection. Speaking to eight religion reporters at the White House before his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI next Friday, Obama sought to reassure Catholic health-care workers that they would not be forced to perform abortions and other procedures that violate the Church's teachings. Obama said he is a "believer in conscience clauses" and supports a new policy that would "certainly not be weaker" than the rules in place before the expansion late in President George W. Bush's administration. Obama's comments were part of a broad interview that touched on issues including his hopes for his meeting with the pontiff, abortion and his struggle to choose a home church for him and his family. Obama's trip to the Vatican will coincide with his participation in the Group of Eight summit, a meeting of leaders of major industrial nations, Wednesday to next Friday.

Senator Grassley Asks Aetna About Limited Health Policy - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03aetna.html?ref=politics Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican taking a lead role in the health care debate, sent a letter Thursday to the insurer Aetna asking for details about a policy it sold to a man in Texas that left him owing nearly $200,000 in medical bills. The man, Lawrence Yurdin, age 64, was included in a front-page article in The New York Times on Tuesday about the many people whose insurance coverage does not protect them from financial ruin in the case of a medical crisis. Although Mr. Yurdin and the hospital where he received heart treatments say they both understood that the Aetna policy covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the medical care he received. He and his wife, Claire, filed for personal bankruptcy in December. Senator Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has also investigated some of the health plans that another insurer, the UnitedHealth Group, sold through AARP, the advocacy group for older people. Those plans, which also had sharp limits on coverage, are no longer being sold.

New White House Office to Redefine Urban Policy - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201410.html Once upon a time, when cities were poor and suburbs were rich, "urban policy" meant programs to alleviate poverty. But in the last few decades, the cities and suburbs turned inside out. Poverty spread in the aging suburbs, as many encountered rising immigration, unemployment and crime. Wealth flooded once again to the cities, as urban living and enterprise came back in vogue. City and suburb started to look economically alike. Now President Obama has created the Office of Urban Affairs, which seeks to redefine the word "urban." It aims to establish a policy agenda not just for inner cities, but for the suburbs that surround them, and it views these metropolitan regions as the country's economic engines. "Part of our discussion as a country will be, 'What is urban?' " said Adolfo Carrión Jr., Office of Urban Affairs director. "We want to essentially tease out what the elements of a national agenda ought to be." In his most definitive statements laying out the office's work, Carrión said in an interview that he hopes to spark a national conversation about urban needs. He said he plans to bring agencies together to change urban growth patterns and foster opportunity, reduce sprawl, and jump-start the economy.

In Iraq, Biden to Press Officials to Forge Progress - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html?ref=politics Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. landed in Baghdad on Thursday, beginning a two-day diplomatic mission that he said was intended to “re-establish contact” with Iraqi leaders and prod them toward settling internal disputes over oil revenues and political power-sharing. Mr. Biden’s surprise trip, just days after American combat forces officially withdrew from Iraqi cities, underscores the concern in the White House about the fragility of the security situation. President Obama has asked Mr. Biden to serve as a kind of unofficial envoy to the country, and the vice president said this would be his first in a series of trips to the region. The trip is unusually long for such a high-level official; when Mr. Obama visited Iraq, he spent just a few hours here, and President George W. Bush did not spend more than a day. But Mr. Biden said Iraq was at a pivotal moment, “the moment where a lot of Iraqis cynically believed we’d never keep the agreement.” He said the White House wanted to send a message to Iraqi leaders that it was engaged at the highest levels.

S.E.C. May Reinstate Rules For Short-Selling Stocks - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03shorts.html?ref=business They have been reviled as the bad hats of Wall Street, nefarious traders who cashed in on the market collapse and, some insist, helped precipitate it. Now short-sellers, the market skeptics who correctly called last year’s downturn, are coming under even more unwanted scrutiny, this time from federal regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission appears poised to reverse itself and reinstate rules that would make shorting stocks — that is, betting their prices will decline — somewhat more difficult. Whether the S.E.C. will go far enough to satisfy the many critics of short-sellers is far from certain. The controversial role of these investors has divided not only the financial industry, but also federal regulators. As the S.E.C. considers its options, the debate is heating up.

U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?ref=politics Unlike the approach of the Bush administration, which brought criminal charges in its final two years against many illegal immigrant workers, the new effort makes broader use of fines and other civil sanctions, federal officials said Thursday. Federal agents will concentrate on businesses employing large numbers of workers suspected of being illegal immigrants, the officials said, and will reserve tough criminal charges mostly for employers who serially hire illegal immigrants and engage in wage and labor violations. “These actions underscore our commitment to targeting employers that cultivate illegal work forces by knowingly hiring and exploiting illegal workers,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, said it had sent notices announcing audits of hiring records, like the one it conducted at American Apparel, to 652 other companies across the country. Officials said they were picking up the pace of such audits, after performing 503 of them in 2008.

McCain, Feingold Team Up Again Over FEC - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202959.html Seven years after their landmark campaign finance legislation became law, Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold are reuniting under the banner of spending reform at a time when restrictions have come under fire both in the courts and at the embattled Federal Election Commission. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Feingold (D-Wis.) announced this week that they were blocking the appointment of Democratic union lawyer John Sullivan to the FEC until President Obama agrees to fill two other open panel seats. The two senators, who co-sponsored legislation in 2002 that banned "soft money" donations and other practices, said in a statement that the agency is "mired in anti-enforcement gridlock. The president must nominate new commissioners with a demonstrated commitment to the existence and enforcement of the campaign finance laws." Liberal-leaning advocacy groups have complained that enforcement actions at the six-member FEC have effectively ground to a halt amid a partisan standoff between Democratic and Republican commissioners. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold a ban on corporate spending in federal elections, which is a key component of the McCain-Feingold statute.

Bombings kill three in Baghdad area - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/bombings_kill_three_in_baghdad_area/ Bombings killed at least three people in the Baghdad area yesterday in the first significant violence since Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for securing cities after the withdrawal of US combat troops from urban areas earlier this week. A car bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk also killed one man and wounded six others, police said. In Baghdad, the violence began when a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi Army patrol, killing a soldier and wounding seven other people, police and hospital officials said. The attack occurred near a bridge used to access the walled-off Green Zone in central Baghdad. A car bomb exploded later near a market on the highway south of Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding 15, according to a police officer at the regional command.

Republicans Question Sotomayor’s Role in Puerto Rican Group’s Legal Battles - The Caucus

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/republicans-question-sotomayors-role-in-puerto-rican-groups-legal-battles/ As Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing nears, the Obama administration and Senate Republicans are squaring off over whether she is responsible for lawsuits filed by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund when she was a board member of the civil-rights group. Ms. Sotomayor held the position from 1980 until 1992, when she resigned to become a federal judge. During that era, the group pursued lawsuits over issues like affirmative action, bilingual education, and gerrymandering election districts to increase minority voting power. Republicans would like to tie her to those cases, while the White House would like to distance her from them. But the extent to which she was in a position to influence the group’s court filings remains murky, prompting a dispute over whether more documents exist that should be turned over and how to interpret the ones already in the Senate’s hands. On Wednesday, for example, after the group turned over 300 pages of material to the Senate, a spokesman for the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said the material showed she had “deeper-than-previously thought involvement in developing the legal positions of the organization.”

GI seemingly seized in Afghanistan - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan3-2009jul03,0,6943594.story The apparent capture of an American soldier by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, believed to be the first such case in nearly eight years of warfare, presents U.S. military officials with potentially agonizing choices just as a major military offensive is underway in one of the most guerrilla-filled areas of the south. The soldier could provide insurgents with both a propaganda bonanza and a bargaining chip. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any group, but a number of militant commanders, not all of them affiliated with the Taliban, operate in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military said in a terse statement that the soldier had disappeared Tuesday, but it disclosed virtually nothing of the circumstances other than to say he was believed to have been captured. However, an American military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident, said that for unknown reasons, the soldier apparently left his base near the Pakistani border. Like most U.S. installations in the country's rugged eastern sector, the base is surrounded by hostile territory where a number of insurgent groups operate. The soldier was reported to have been in the company of several Afghans. "We are using all of our available resources to establish his whereabouts and provide for his safe return," said Army Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for American forces.

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Integrity of Federal ‘Organic’ Label Questioned - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203365.html Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula. The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products. Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture. Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest growing segment of the food industry. Half of the country's adults say they buy organic food often or sometimes, according to a survey last year by the Harvard School of Public Health.

U.S. Faces Resentment in Afghan Region - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/asia/03helmand.html?ref=world The mood of the Afghan people has tipped into a popular revolt in some parts of southern Afghanistan, presenting incoming American forces with an even harder job than expected in reversing military losses to the Taliban and winning over the population. Villagers in some districts have taken up arms against foreign troops to protect their homes or in anger after losing relatives in airstrikes, several community representatives interviewed said. Others have been moved to join the insurgents out of poverty or simply because the Taliban’s influence is so pervasive here. On Thursday morning, 4,000 American Marines began a major offensive to try to take back the region from the strongest Taliban insurgency in the country. The Marines are part of a larger deployment of additional troops being ordered by the new American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, to concentrate not just on killing Taliban fighters but on protecting the population. Yet Taliban control of the countryside is so extensive in provinces like Kandahar and Helmand that winning districts back will involve tough fighting and may ignite further tensions, residents and local officials warn. The government has no presence in 5 of Helmand’s 13 districts, and in several others, like Nawa, it holds only the district town, where troops and officials live virtually under siege.

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U.S. Troops Move Deeper Into Afghanistan’s Helmand Province; One Marine Killed - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200832.html The movement of the Marines to the town of Khan Neshin in the lower Helmand River valley is the most significant deployment of U.S. forces in areas near the Pakistani border with southern Afghanistan, and it reflects a growing concern among U.S. military and intelligence officials that much of the violence that has plagued the south is linked to a flow of fighters and munitions from Pakistan's Baluchistan region. The troops encountered roadside bombs and small-arms attacks, which resulted in the death of one Marine, but commanders opted to mute their return fire. In the first 24 hours of the operation, the Marines did not lob artillery or call for fighter planes to drop bombs. The drive to Khan Neshin is part of a Marine campaign to root out Taliban insurgents by restoring the authority of local officials and police departments in the Helmand River valley. The 4,000-strong operation -- one of the largest conducted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan -- is intended to demonstrate new strategies advocated by the Obama administration to turn around a struggling, seven-year-old war effort.

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Presidential pardons nullify victories against Afghan drug trade - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/presidential_pardons_nullify_victories_against_afghan_drug_trade/ When five drug traffickers in military uniforms were caught transporting heroin in a police truck in 2007, it was a victory for a dogged team of Afghan investigators and their US mentors who are waging a Quixotic battle against narcotics, the nation’s largest industry. The men were prosecuted by a special drug court that the US government has spent tens of millions of dollars developing as a bulwark against corruption. They were sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison. But in April, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pardoned the five men. One was the nephew of a powerful politician managing Karzai’s reelection campaign, and the presidential decree ordering their release notes that they had ties to a well-respected family, according to a senior Afghan official. Those pardons - and at least five others in recent weeks - have outraged US officials working to combat drug trafficking in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest supplier of heroin and opium, and raised fears that Karzai will set more traffickers free in a bid to curry favor with influential families before the presidential election on Aug. 20. “Karzai is pulling out all the stops in his bid to get reelected,’’ said Jake Sherman, a former UN official in Afghanistan who is now at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation.

Palestinians, Israel agree on Dead Sea - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/palestinians_israel_agree_on_dead_sea/ Israel and the Palestinian Authority compromised in the name of nature this week, teaming up at the last moment to support the Dead Sea in a contest to choose the world’s top seven natural wonders. Just days before the contest rules would have forced the Dead Sea’s elimination, Israel’s ministry of tourism took over as official sponsor from the Megilot Dead Sea Council, removing a big political obstacle blocking Palestinian participation. The famously buoyant Dead Sea, the world’s most saline lake, lies at the bottom of the Jordan Rift Valley at the lowest spot on earth, some 400 meters below sea level. The Palestinians had refused to form a sponsorship committee because Israel’s Megilot municipality covers occupied West Bank land, including Jewish settlements near the Dead Sea that it considers illegal.

Paul Krugman - That ’30s Show - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03krugman.html?ref=opinion O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that? Let’s do the math. Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole. And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The job figures weren’t the only bad news in Thursday’s report, which also showed wages stalling and possibly on the verge of outright decline. That’s a recipe for a descent into Japanese-style deflation, which is very difficult to reverse. Lost decade, anyone? Wait — there’s more bad news: the fiscal crisis of the states. Unlike the federal government, states are required to run balanced budgets. And faced with a sharp drop in revenue, most states are preparing savage budget cuts, many of them at the expense of the most vulnerable. Aside from directly creating a great deal of misery, these cuts will depress the economy even further.

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U.S. Confirms Inquiry Into Google Books Deal - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/technology/companies/03google.html?ref=business The Justice Department confirmed on Thursday that it was conducting an antitrust investigation into the settlement of a lawsuit that groups representing authors and publishers filed against Google. In a letter to the federal judge charged with reviewing the settlement, the Justice Department said it was reviewing concerns that the agreement could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. “At this preliminary stage, the United States has reached no conclusions as to the merit of those concerns or more broadly what impact this settlement may have on competition,” William F. Cavanaugh, a deputy assistant attorney general, said in the letter. “However, we have determined that the issues raised by the proposed settlement warrant further inquiry.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Obama Should Stop Mountaintop Mining - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203022.html Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse? If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly -- to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains -- encompassing about a million acres -- buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not -- obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas -- while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry's promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry's fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains -- with their impoverished and alienated population -- are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens.

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US highway deaths drop in quarter - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/03/us_highway_deaths_drop_in_quarter/ Fewer people died on the nation’s highways during the first three months of 2009 as motor vehicle fatalities continued to fall to levels not seen in nearly a half-century. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday about 7,689 motorists were killed in the months of January through March, a 9 percent decline from a year ago. Reporting ahead of the July 4 holiday, a busy period on the nation’s roadways, the government estimated 37,261 motorists died in 2008, the fewest since 1961. If the 2009 fatality trends continue, fewer than 31,000 people will die this year. Highway safety officials also reported a decline in the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It fell to 1.27 in 2008, the lowest on record, from 1.36 in 2007. The rate dropped to 1.12 during the first three months of 2009. Specialists have attributed the declines to the economic recession, record-high use of seat belts, and fewer people driving.

Tennessee Wins Ruling on Execution - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03death.html?ref=us A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a lower court’s finding that Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional. The case concerns Edward J. Harbison, who was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of an elderly woman. In 2007, as a result of Mr. Harbison’s appeals, the Federal District Court in Nashville found that Tennessee’s procedures for execution were unconstitutional, in part because of the potential that the process would cause unnecessary pain to the condemned. After that decision, however, the Supreme Court issued an opinion that largely supported lethal injection. The opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was one of several in a fractured decision and approved Kentucky’s process, which uses a sequence of three drugs. The opinion said a state with procedures “substantially similar to the protocol we uphold today” would pass muster.

A More Combative Leader Strives to Rebuild Big Labor - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03labor.html?ref=business Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., can boast of something unusual for a labor leader — one of his videos has more than 535,000 hits on YouTube. That video shows Mr. Trumka giving a stemwinder of a speech at a steel workers’ convention last year, telling union members it would be wrong — and stupid — to vote against Barack Obama because of his race. “There’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism — and it’s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge,” Mr. Trumka said. “It’s our special responsibility because we know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.” Mr. Trumka’s friends often say that speech lifted him out of semi-obscurity after spending the last 14 years taking a back seat to John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president. But now Mr. Trumka, a former coal miner and fierce critic of corporate America, is running all out to succeed Mr. Sweeney, who is retiring, as president of the nation’s main labor federation.

GM Bondholders Try to Block Firm’s Sale - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203787.html One of the main challengers to the proposed sale of General Motors on Thursday urged a federal bankruptcy judge to act as a check on an "overbearing" government and reject the restructuring plan pursued by the Obama administration. The government, pushing the limits of its power in stressful economic times, made a "conscious, strategic decision" to circumvent a traditional reorganization plan, said Michael Richman, an attorney for dissident GM bondholders. His comments came during closing arguments on the third and final day of hearings to approve the sale of the automaker's profitable assets to a new, leaner GM to be 61 percent owned by the federal government. Judge Robert Gerber adjourned the hearing late Thursday, after three days of marathon oral arguments and testimony. He did not indicate when he would render his decision.

Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03calif.html?ref=politics An ever-widening budget gap joined with intractable political paralysis to deliver California its biggest fiscal blow in decades on Thursday, when the state’s controller began printing i.o.u.’s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments. It was only the second time the state had adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression. The National Conference of State Legislatures had no record of any other state’s ever using them. It was unclear whether the i.o.u.’s, known as warrants, would be accepted by all of the banks in California, which were caught off guard by the move and seemed hesitant to entrust the state to repay the them — at an interest rate of 3.75 percent — in October, as promised. The controller, John Chiang, issued 28,742 warrants totaling $53.3 million. If state lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement by the end of August, the amount would grow to $4.8 billion. While the emergency move resulted from California’s combination of outsized budget gaps, unusual budget rules and a morass of financial obligations approved at the polls, the action was seen as a warning flag to other states that have failed to close their budgets this fiscal year because of the economic downturn.

In States Still Waiting for New Budgets, the Waiting Goes On - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03states.html?ref=politics Facing a long holiday weekend, elected officials who have been unable to pass budgets for their states made little progress on Thursday toward a resolution. Gov. Patrick J. Quinn of Illinois met behind closed doors for several hours with two dozen female legislators who had been invited to share their solutions for closing the state’s $9.2 billion budget gap. Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, has said he will not sign a budget unless it includes a 50 percent increase in the state income tax rate. Afterward, State Senator Pamela J. Althoff, a Republican from McHenry County who is opposed to a tax increase, said, “There’s not a single new suggestion I heard today, but there are some ideas we perhaps share.” Ms. Althoff added, “I apologize profusely to the people of the state until a budget is in place.”

Sheep getting smaller in Scotland due to climate change, study says - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-small-sheep3-2009jul03,0,4671661.story Along with polar icecaps and sandy beaches, sheep on a remote Scottish island are gradually shrinking as a result of global warming, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The finding offers unusual proof that large animals are already evolving to adapt to changes wrought by climate change, experts said. The average weight of sheep in the feral flock has been falling nearly 3 ounces per year since 1985, the researchers reported. The cumulative effect has been a 5% reduction in total body size. That trend had puzzled scientists because they knew that evolution clearly favored larger sheep that are better equipped to survive the harsh winters of Hirta, a rocky outpost more than 100 miles west of mainland Scotland. Now, using a sophisticated mathematical model, British and American researchers have concluded that warming temperatures have made it easier for scrawnier sheep to survive, thus reducing the average size of animals in the herd. "Environmental change is having a substantial influence on the population," said Arpat Ozgul, a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London and lead author of the report. That influence appears to have played out in a surprisingly intricate and counterintuitive manner, said UC San Diego biologist Kaustuv Roy, who wasn't involved in the study. For example, milder winters have helped the overall herd grow larger even as the average size of animals got smaller.

Editorial - More Jobs Lost - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri2.html?ref=opinion The jobs report for June should put a chill on hopes for an economic recovery anytime soon. And it makes a compelling case for more government stimulus, as unpopular as that idea may be in Washington. Americans all over the country are struggling. Last month, another 467,000 positions disappeared. In all, the economy is now coming up short by some 8.8 million jobs: since the recession began at the end of 2007, 6.5 million jobs have been lost and 2.3 million new jobs that were needed to keep up with population growth never materialized. Most of the $787 billion in stimulus spending approved in February — for education, health care, building projects and other fiscal relief — has yet to be spent. Over time, it is expected to preserve or create three million to four million jobs. But with job losses already far exceeding four million, that is unlikely to be enough to create a true recovery. President Obama and his advisers must start preparing now for what is sure to be a tough legislative fight over more stimulus.

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Editorial - After the Crackdown - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri1.html?ref=opinion Tragically, Iran’s government appears to have driven back the most significant challenge to its repressive rule since the 1979 revolution. First, the hard-line mullahs brazenly stole the election for the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When hundreds of thousands of Iranians protested, they sent their thugs to beat and shoot them. At least 20 people are dead, and hundreds of journalists, political activists and former government officials have been detained. Even before the elections, Iranians — likely the majority — were fed up with Mr. Ahmadinejad. They were sick of the corruption and incompetence. They wanted more say in how they are governed and more engagement with the world, including the United States. The regime’s refusal to listen has now exposed deep fault lines in Iranian society. Even some members of the clerical elite seemed to question the thuggery.

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Bad memories in Honduras - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/07/03/bad_memories_in_honduras/ WHEN SOLDIERS rousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from bed early Sunday morning and flew him off to exile in Costa Rica, they revived memories of earlier Latin American military coups, many of them backed by Washington. Their action may affect not only Honduran democracy, but also the political balance of power across Latin America and the regional standing of the United States. Fortunately, President Obama appears to appreciate what is at stake. He called “on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms,’’ and the rule of law. Even more important, his administration tried to head off the coup in advance.

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Pay-for-Chat Plan Falls Flat at Washington Post - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/media/03post.html?ref=politics For generations, The Washington Post has been a scrupulous watchdog over the capital’s cozy world of power networking. For a short time, it almost became the network’s host. The Post decided Thursday to cancel plans to charge lobbyists and trade groups $25,000 or more to sponsor private, off-the-record dinner parties at the home of its publisher, Katharine Weymouth, events that would have brought together lobbyists, business leaders, Post journalists and officials from the Obama administration and Congress. The revelation of the parties early Thursday morning by Politico.com appalled members of The Post newsroom and put the paper squarely in the cross hairs of journalism ethicists. In response, Ms. Weymouth canceled the first dinner, scheduled for July 21.

Early Word: A Snafu at The Washington Post - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/early-word-a-snafu-at-the-post/ Official Washington business may be closed for the holiday weekend, but the city is still buzzing about the news that The Washington Post made, and then had to cancel, plans to charge lobbyists and trade groups as much as $250,000 off-the-record access to “those powerful few” – a group that included the paper’s top reporters and editors as well as members of President Obama’s administration and Congress.

Washington Post scraps plans for ‘salons’ after uproar - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-washington-post3-2009jul03,0,6537672.story The Washington Post's publisher abruptly canceled a series of policy dinners Thursday that were to have been underwritten by lobbyists or corporations willing to pay thousands of dollars to be in the same room as journalists and lawmakers, saying the marketing department had misrepresented the newspaper's intent. Lawmakers who had been invited said they were not told the events would make money for the newspaper. But the Post had separately sent fliers seeking sponsors who would pay $25,000 for a single "salon" or $250,000 for 11 events. The concept raised questions about journalistic ethics. Rep. Jim Cooper's office said the Tennessee Democrat received an invitation this week to attend a dinner on July 21 at the house of Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican, was also among those asked to attend. In both cases, the invitations came as personal e-mails from Weymouth's office.

Air France Jet Was Intact When It Hit Surface of Atlantic, Investigators Say - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201409.html French crash investigators said Thursday they have determined that an Air France jetliner that plunged from a stormy sky on June 1 was intact when it smacked belly-first into the Atlantic Ocean at high speed, killing all 228 people aboard, but acknowledged they still have no clear idea what caused the disaster. Alain Bouillard, who is heading a probe by the French Investigation and Analysis Bureau, told a news conference that findings so far indicate that the four-year-old Airbus A330-200 broke into pieces only when it hit the surface of the water. No inflated life jackets have been found in a month of searching, he added, indicating that the 216 passengers and 12 crew members on Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris were probably unaware during their final minutes that they were speeding from 35,000 feet toward the deadly crash. But the key question -- what happened to cause the plane to plummet without any known warning -- was left wrapped in mystery and conjecture, offering nothing to reassure the thousands of summer holiday travelers scheduled to board one of hundreds of similar Airbus A330 long-haul passenger jets in use by airlines around the world. "Today we are indeed far from establishing the causes of the accident," Bouillard said at the bureau's headquarters near Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of Paris.

Ellen Goodman - Happy Dependence Day - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/03/happy_dependence_day/ THIS IS probably not the best week to air any reservations about the American passion for independence. After all, we don’t have fireworks for Dependence Day. We don’t hold parades to celebrate Interdependence Day. Our allegiance to independence as a nation is Yankee doodle dandy. But I’m wondering whether our ode to independence as a people is a bit over the top. We foster an unrealistic view of the way we live, not just in the designated years of caring for our children but in the undesignated years when we care for our elders. Maybe independence is too crisply defined as “exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; direction of one’s own affairs without interference.’’

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Yemenia Crash Stirs Calls for Stronger Watchdogs - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/africa/03plane.html?ref=world As the sole survivor of a flight that crashed near the island nation of Comoros arrived in Paris on Thursday, debate was brewing in Europe about whether aviation watchdogs needed more potent tools to guard against lax airline safety standards, especially in the developing world. Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of the Yemenia flight that crashed this week, was flown back to France on Thursday. The crash of the Yemenia flight on Tuesday that carried 153 passengers and crew members outraged Comorans in France, who said that the airline had long used substandard aircraft. The crash has prompted some transportation officials to call for a global “blacklist” that could shame unsafe airlines or ban them from operating. The sole survivor, Bahia Bakari, spent hours clinging to plane wreckage in the Indian Ocean not far from Moroni, the capital of Comoros. Bahia, who is 12, sustained a broken collarbone, as well as burns and bruises. Her mother died in the crash, and the girl was flown back to France on Thursday to be reunited with her father, Kassim Bakari.

Editorial - The House Eyes the Swamp - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri3.html?ref=opinion Self-investigation has never been a signature virtue of Congress. So taxpayers should closely monitor the House ethics committee’s inquiry into the lucrative relationships between defense appropriators and military contractors. The committee finally confirmed the inquiry — not yet a full-blown investigation — into suspicions that members and staffers earmarked hundreds of millions in defense contracts for favored companies in return for tens of millions in political donations. In a separate matter, the ethics committee opened an inquiry into whether Caribbean trips taken by Representative Charles Rangel and four other lawmakers violated House gift rules. It is encouraging to see such curiosity from the traditionally somnolent panel. The committee is being prodded to act by freshmen Democrats who were elected on promises of ethical reform. They have anxiously watched the criminal investigation into the PMA Group of lobbyists.

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Court Filing Shows Evidence Cheney Swayed White House Response to CIA Leak - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203608.html A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations. The administration's discussion of Wilson's link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial. A list of at least seven related conversations involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees at the Justice Department. In the filing, the officials argue that the substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in 2004 must remain secret.

Naval Academy Professor Challenges School’s Push for Diversity - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202588.html Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the academy's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it is a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation. The service academy has almost twice as many black, Hispanic and Asian midshipmen as it did a decade ago. Much of the increase has occurred in the past two years, with a blitz of 1,000 outreach and recruitment events across the country. But during the past two weeks, a faculty member has stirred debate by suggesting that the school's quest for diversity comes at a price. Bruce Fleming, a tenured English professor, said in a June 14 opinion piece in the Capital newspaper of Annapolis that the academy operates a two-tiered admission system that makes it substantially easier for minority applicants to get in. Academy leaders strenuously deny Fleming's assertion. Fleming served on the academy's admissions board several years ago.

Obama Should Heed Generals’ Troop Requests - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203283.html AS U.S. MARINES launched a major offensive in Afghanistan's Taliban-infested Helmand province yesterday, one problem was already apparent: There are not enough troops to properly carry out the Pentagon's new counterinsurgency strategy. The force is "a little light," Marine Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, its commander, told national security adviser James L. Jones in a meeting reported by The Post's Bob Woodward. "We don't have enough force to go everywhere." Those comments will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the attempts by U.S. commanders to turn around the Afghan war. The idea is to replicate the strategy that finally reversed American fortunes in Iraq: protecting the population rather than seeking out insurgents, while building the economy and political institutions. Though the Bush and Obama administrations approved new troop deployments that will double the U.S. force, the ratio of American and allied Afghan soldiers to the population is still well below that mandated by the Army's new counterinsurgency doctrine.

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Official Says Sanford Did Not Spend Money Improperly - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03sanford.html?ref=politics A review of travel and financial records showed that Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina did not spend public money improperly while conducting an extramarital affair, the chief of the State Law Enforcement Division said Thursday. Since Monday, the governor’s continuing revelations about the affair, including his admission that he had seen his lover more times than he initially acknowledged, have stepped up calls for his resignation and heightened support for an investigation into his travel records. The chief of the State Law Enforcement Division, Reginald Lloyd, said that the review of Mr. Sanford’s records was not a criminal inquiry, that the governor had cooperated and that there was no evidence of any crime. “Until we get some fact suggesting a criminal violation or the possibility of a violation,” Mr. Lloyd said, “SLED’s done. We don’t intend to be used in a political battle about the governor.”

Judge Throws Out Conviction in Cyberbullying Case - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03bully.html?ref=us A federal judge on Thursday threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman on charges of computer fraud for her role in creating a false MySpace account to dupe a teenager, who later committed suicide. The judge, George H. Wu, said that he was tentatively acquitting the woman, Lori Drew, of misdemeanor counts of gaining access to computers without authorization and that the ruling would be final when he issued his written decision. In November, a federal jury here convicted Ms. Drew of three misdemeanor charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law intended to combat computer crimes. Legal experts followed the case closely, saying it was the first time the statute had been used to prosecute a patron of a social networking site for abuses of the site.

India: Gay sex legal - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-gays3-2009jul03,0,2735442.story The Delhi High Court issued a landmark ruling Thursday decriminalizing homosexuality, a move that could bring more freedom to millions of people in this deeply conservative nation. The ruling said that treating relations between consenting adult homosexuals as a crime is a violation of basic human rights safeguarded under the Indian Constitution. The court decision amending an 1860s-era British Empire statute ostensibly applies only to Delhi. But activists said that given the capital territory's leadership position, they expect the ruling to influence courts across the country. "I think this is quite fantastic," said Anjali Gopalan, director of the Naz Foundation, an HIV/AIDS awareness group, one of the parties that submitted the lawsuit eight years ago. "It's a big step forward, although there are many more steps ahead." The decision inspired celebratory rallies in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and other major Indian cities. "This is going to impact the whole country," said A.J. Hariharan, founder of a gay rights group in Chennai, formerly Madras. "This will change the lives of millions of gays and lesbians in India."

The Internet isn’t tax-free - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-tax03-2009jul03,0,3596526.story California should require online sellers to collect sales taxes, not leave that job to the buyer.

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Edward Schumacher-Matos - Honduras Coup May Be Legitimate - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202684.html It is now clear that if the Honduran Supreme Court or Congress had used legal means such as impeachment before asking the army to remove President Manuel Zelaya, we would be calling events there a constitutional crisis rather than a coup d'etat. This would be especially true if Honduras were a larger country such as Brazil or Pakistan and its court, Congress, attorney general, human rights ombudsman and electoral commission were all saying afterward, as they do in Tegucigalpa, that the army moved legally in alliance with them. The Honduran army never took political control. Perhaps the Honduran leaders were constitutionally "lazy," as Chilean political scientist Patricio Navia mused. Certainly, they were being forced to act quickly by a president pushing to carry out an illegal referendum this Sunday in defiance of those constitutional institutions and his own party. But small countries are easy to punish in order to send messages, as Peter Hakim of the Inter-American Dialogue notes. The U.N. General Assembly voted unanimously to condemn the overthrow of Honduras's democratically elected president. Of course, the fact that only 90 of the world's nearly 200 nations are ranked by Freedom House as fully democratic suggests that many of the votes had more to do with the precedent of protecting the hides of incumbents than with democracy.

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Black Member Tests Message of Masons in Georgia Lodges - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03masons.html?ref=us The members of the Gate City Lodge No. 2 would like it known that Freemasonry, a centuries-old fraternal organization founded on the principles of the Enlightenment, is not racist. But some of their fellow Masons here in Georgia are spoiling the message. In June, the Worshipful Master, or leader, of the Gate City Lodge was served with complaints from two other lodges, whose Worshipful Masters were upset that Gate City had admitted a “nonwhite man” to its ranks. Although the rules of Freemasonry do not say that members must be white, and there are numerous Hispanics, Asians and other ethnicities represented in lodges across the state, the Grand Master of Georgia decreed that the complaints would be heard in a Masonic trial that could have resulted in expulsion of a lodge or members of it. In response, Gate City (the name is an old nickname for Atlanta) filed a lawsuit in state court seeking an injunction to prevent its charter from being revoked. The “nonwhite man” whose presence had caused such a fuss is Victor Marshall, a shy, 26-year-old African-American Army reservist who has been eagerly studying the secret catechisms of the Masons for almost a year. Mr. Marshall, who has the Army rank of specialist, said he was attracted to the Masons because of the group’s spirit of volunteerism.

Experts at Aspen Ideas weigh in on U.S.‘s role in the world | AspenTimes.com

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029971/1001/NONE The heavy hitters came out Thursday during the Aspen Ideas Festival, talking about big issues around the world and how the United States fits in. For more than four hours, a lineup including former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and James Baker, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, economist Hernando de Soto, biologist Eric Lander, Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, and deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg discussed myriad issues during “An Afternoon of Conversation” at the Benedict Music Tent. On the topic of America and the world, the three secretaries said they think President Obama has handled the crisis in Iran correctly. They also agree that the U.S. must continue to try to talk to the Iranian government to persuade them from backing off on its nuclear program. “You don't lose anything by talking to somebody,” Baker said. “You talk to your enemies, not your friends.”

Faithful pitch in on health care - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745262 A national coalition of liberal faith groups is pushing for "affordable health care for all families" through a radio ad campaign this week in Colorado and four other states. In Denver, the interfaith Metro Organizations for People has teamed with the Rev. Bill Calhoun of Montview Presbyterian Church to create radio ads. Calhoun is the voice in the Colorado radio ad, which, like the others, "remind lawmakers that the status quo on health care is not who we are as a nation" and that America can do better. "It is a sin that a nation as rich and great and compassionate as ours tolerates a health care system that leaves so many sick people without the care they need, and so many parents unable to raise healthy children," Calhoun said in a statement. The ad campaign began Tuesday and will run through Saturday in Colorado, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Carolina. Ads urge senators from these states to support reform that makes quality coverage affordable for every American family.

Bennet talking health reform at Denver church - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739888 Sen. Michael Bennet is headed to a Presbyterian church in Denver to talk about health care reform with a pastor pushing for change. Bennet meets today with the Rev. Bill Calhoun and his parishioners at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church. The meeting comes as Calhoun stars in radio ads on Christian stations this week calling for improvements to health care. Liberal-leaning religious groups have launched radio ads in four other states this week in which local pastors urge senators to back efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system. Today's meeting will include testimony from patients who want changes. Then, Bennet plans to lay out his vision for improving health care.

Perlmutter to talk economy with businesses in Arvada - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739889 Rep. Ed Perlmutter is answering stimulus and economy questions from small business owners. The Democrat from Denver's suburbs is putting on a forum in Arvada today with small business owners and officials from the Small Business Administration. Topics include the economic climate and pending legislation affecting small business. Perlmutter serves on the Financial Services Committee and largely focuses on legislation related to business affairs.

Colorado wraps up first highway stimulus project | VailDaily.com

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029939/1002/NONE Colorado has wrapped up its first highway project financed with federal stimulus dollars with about a half-million to spare. The Colorado Department of Transportation said Thursday that the one-mile repaving project in Littleton was finished in a month. Engineers had estimated the job would cost $1.2 million but the winning bid came in at nearly half that — $678,000. Department spokeswoman Mindy Crane says the savings will be pooled with other money saved on jobs in the Denver area and spent on more stimulus projects. Colorado's $400 million in highway stimulus money was divided by among the state's six transportation regions.

Bank’s ag loans up for sale | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039985/1002/NONE The liquidation of New Frontier Bank continues. Qualified investors can now bid on about $750 million in agriculture loans from the collapsed bank. But changes in ownership of area dairies, feedlots or farms as a result will likely not distress the industry as much as many have feared. “The calls that I've had from investors out of state wanting more information about how to get involved in this process, from what I can tell, they have a true interest in operating agricultural entities. I think potentially, they will be here for the long haul,” said Les Hardesty, chairman of the Mountain Council of the Dairy Farmers of America, and an area dairy farmer who knows many agricultural borrowers from the bank.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: McInnis files for campaign committee

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d85cd2a32a008221549.txt Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis has filed the necessary documents with the Colorado Secretary of State's office to create his committee to campaign for governor in the 2010 election. A Republican, McInnis announced that the formation of the committee will enable him to begin raising funds. Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat elected in 2006, has indicated that he will seek re-election. McInnis is a native of Glenwood Springs and a resident of Grand Junction. He began serving the country as a police officer, then in the Colorado House of Representatives from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Pueblo. He decided to leave Congress and became affiliated with a major Denver law firm. Thursday, the campaign launched its official Web site, ScottMcInnisForGovernor.com.

Colorado Independent | Candidate McInnis moves mountains - from Canadian Rockies to Colorado

http://coloradoindependent.com/32533/candidate-mcinnis-moves-mountains-from-canadian-rockies-to-colorado What is it with Colorado politicians and their mountains? No, Mount McKinley isn’t Pikes Peak, and the Canadian Rockies are nowhere to be found in the Centennial State. Hours after launching his campaign Web site to much fanfare, official Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott McInnis yanked from the site a prominent graphic featuring a vista of Lake Louise, a resort nestled in the Canadian Rockies. The Canadian terrain appeared behind the question, “What do you want for the future of Colorado?” Soon after bloggers uncovered the geographic blooper, lovely Lake Louise vanished from the McInnis site, replaced with background shots of the Boulder Flatirons. A McInnis campaign spokesman didn’t return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment. Intrepid contributors to the political blog Colorado Pols uncovered the McInnis campaign’s graphic mixup Thursday afternoon.

Colorado Independent » McInnis set to begin legally running for governor

http://coloradoindependent.com/32524/mcinnis-set-to-begin-legally-running-for-governor Scott McInnis has made his bid for governor official — again. The former six-term GOP congressman from Grand Junction filed Wednesday with the state to begin legally fundraising for a 2010 run against Bill Ritter. McInnis filed to run with the secretary of state at the end of May after Colorado Ethics Watch alleged he had been engaged in illegal fundraising for weeks. On Wednesday, McInnis filed to set up a campaign committee. The herky-jerky false-starts that have so far characterized his campaign suggest the battle McInnis may face winning even his party’s nomination. As The Colorado Independent reported in May, McInnis will likely be competing for the nomination against his former staffer and current Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry.

Angling for a rematch on personhood - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745765 Colorado voters in 2008 trounced an amendment that would have defined a fertilized human egg as a person, but supporters of the "personhood" battle are angling for a rematch in 2010. This time, though, they're avoiding the word "fertilization" in the amendment's language, saying that it confused voters, who may have visualized chicken eggs. "When we use 'fertilized egg,' it's a pejorative," said Keith Mason, director of Personhood USA, an Arvada- based organization supporting the measure and similar proposals across the country. Supporters on Thursday filed the proposed Colorado Personhood Constitutional Amendment with the state Legislative Council, the first step in getting an initiative petition approved for circulation to place it on the ballot in November 2010. If proponents of an initiative do not choose to revise their proposals after review and comment by Legislative Council staff, they then may file the language with the state's title board, which approves the ballot language voters would actually see.

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Source: JBS USA not a target of new wave of ICE audits | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039986/1002/NONE Immigration officials have not said which companies in Colorado are part of a nationwide crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants, but Greeley-based JBS USA likely is not one of them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday they would review employees' I-9 documents at 652 companies nationwide. Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for ICE, would not identify specific companies being audited by ICE, citing privacy issues. He said 20 firms in the four-state region of Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming are being audited. A JBS source said Greeley's JBS USA meat-packing plant isn't among the companies being targeted.

Colo. casinos hit jackpot with higher stakes - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745076 Colorado's casinos reported Thursday huge spikes in traffic and business on the first day of higher-stakes gambling. Shortly after the bet limits were raised and new games added at just past midnight, the Lodge and Gilpin casinos in Black Hawk had nearly three times more gamblers than they did on the same day last year. "It's fair to characterize the launch as successful," said John East, a vice president with Jacobs Entertainment, which owns the Lodge and Gilpin casinos. Gamblers were playing the new table games — craps and roulette — until well into the morning, East said. Casinos can now stay open 24 hours instead of having to close at 2 a.m. The maximum single bet has been raised from $5 to $100. Voters statewide approved the changes last fall.

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d845f34bce639234802.txt The streets were quiet Thursday morning in this former mountain mining community. A few tourists strolled up and down the sidewalks, occasionally ducking inside a shop or casino. Some of the town's frequent visitors pulled up a stool and tried their luck at the slot and poker machines. Sitting noticeably empty in some of the casinos were the new craps and roulette tables, which had been rolled out for the first time at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. But casino operators said it was a different story just after midnight Thursday. "It was a phenomenal night," said Nancy Darcy, a spokeswoman for the Brass Ass Casino. "Every table was full and it stayed that way until at least 4:30 this morning."

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Colorado Independent | Judge grants CSU motion; chancellor search tape to remain unreleased

http://coloradoindependent.com/32504/judge-grants-csu-motion-chancellor-search-tape-to-remain-unreleased Unbowed by a ruling two weeks ago in which a Larimer County judge found that Colorado State University violated Open Meetings laws, the CSU board and its lawyers fought an order demanding the release of audio tapes of the executive session where the board selected its own vice chairman, Joe Blake, as sole finalist for the new chancellor position. Judge Stephen Schapanski today granted CSU a stay of his order. The battle over the release of the tapes is part of a larger ongoing suit brought last month by The Colorado Independent, The Fort Collins Coloradoan and The Pueblo Chieftan alleging the university violated state transparency laws. Following a motion in the suit brought last month by the media organizations, Schapanski listened in private to a four-hour tape of the May 5 meeting. He said the board had clearly discussed Blake’s candidacy and made decisions about filling the new chancellor position behind closed doors in direct violation of laws intended to open those sorts of discussions to the public. The meeting and the decision to back Vice Chairman Blake’s candidacy raised questions immediately about the fairness of the process. Had a true variety of candidates been considered? What qualifications were most highly valued in the decision-making process? Who were the other candidates and how were they recruited?

Editorial: State system reboot not easy - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744983 The ghost of failed computer projects past reared its head again as the state unemployment system slowed to a crawl earlier this week, leaving Coloradans seeking benefits frustrated and confused. The state's techies got on the case and restored the system to normal operation within two days, which we were glad to see. The episode, however, raises questions about whether Colorado will ever be free of the antiquated networks and legacy of botched prior contracts that have so beleaguered the state's information systems. The answer is not entirely clear at this point, though progress has been made. But there are certainly some lessons to be learned from the recent computer troubles at the State Department of Labor and Employment. Don Mares, executive director of the state labor department, said CUBline Online, the system that dramatically slowed down, is just five years old.

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: Environmental group seeks halt to Comanche 3 unit

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d8598156c5834224487.txt An environmental group Thursday asked a judge to order Xcel Energy to stop construction on a coal-fired generating (plant), known as Unit 3, at its Pueblo Comanche Station. Xcel plans to finish construction and put the unit into operation later this year. It is to produce enough electricity to serve more than 500,000 residential customers. The group, WildEarth Guardians, alleges the facility violates the federal Clean Air Act because Xcel has not shown the unit will have required technology to limit emission of hazardous air pollutants. "This is a matter of preventing poisoning," WildEarth Guardians stated in a prepared statement. The group is based in Santa Fe, N.M., and has offices in Denver and in several western states. Several environmental groups wanted the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to cancel its approval of the Comanche 3 unit. They argued coal-fired plants produce enormous levels of greenhouse gases, endangering the world's environment.

Broadcasts on school buses run into static - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746439 Congress has ordered a Federal Communications Commission review of BusRadio, a controversial radio-programming system that targets kids riding on school buses — including some in the metro Denver area — with advertising and what some say is inappropriate music. BusRadio sends music and commercials over the Internet to school district servers that forward the programming to buses, using wireless transmitters. Douglas County, Denver and the Aurora school districts are among a handful in Colorado that use BusRadio. Supporters say the radio content calms the kids on what can at times be a hectic bus ride. But some parents say forcing their children to listen to commercials on the bus is akin to having their kids held hostage by corporate America. They also say the music is sometimes age-inappropriate.

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CDOT fails to meet minority hiring targets - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745859 Colorado transportation officials are lagging behind their minority hiring target for federal stimulus projects, prompting a protest that has led to an internal review. Since 2007, the state highway department also has fallen short of its goal to distribute 12.8 percent of its federally financed road work to companies primarily owned by blacks, Latinos and other groups deemed disadvantaged, hitting about 10 percent. At issue is whether the Colorado Department of Transportation is doing enough to meet recruitment goals under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program mandated by Congress. "I'm very hopeful that we can move this situation forward," said Helga Grunerud, executive director of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado.

Battlement Mesa residents want county to speak up | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029984/1001/NONE Although it seems a foregone conclusion in the making, the Garfield County commissioners will be asked on Monday to formally confirm that any gas drilling within the Battlement Mesa community boundaries must undergo the modern version of a special-use permit review before work can begin. “We're pretty sure that they've come around to our point of view, we just want to hear them say it publicly,” said Paul Light, a Battlement Mesa resident and board member of two citizen action groups — the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress. Light said there had been indications that one of the commissioners, whom he declined to identify, believed that the county has no authority concerning efforts to find and pump natural gas in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, it is the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that issues permits and monitors the industry for compliance with state and local regulations.

Gas seeps, drilling to be subjects at COGCC meetings in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029981/1001/NONE State regulators of the oil and gas industry will be in Glenwood Springs twice this month to discuss a variety of controversial subjects, ranging from pollution coinciding with gas-drilling activities to plans for setting up drilling rigs in a residential community. On July 8, the COGCC will hold a special meeting at Battlement Mesa to talk about plans by Antero Resources to drill wells within the boundaries of the community. Antero has announced plans to build 10 well pads, and drill up to 20 wells from each pad, at various locations throughout the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development. The community is located south of the Colorado River adjacent to the town of Parachute, approximately 40 miles west of Glenwood Springs. According to Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, the meeting is intended to provide information about the commission's review process relative to Antero's plans, and the opportunities for public input as part of that process.

GJSentinel.com: Montrose County to review proposal for uranium mill

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_3a_Montrose_uranium.html The Montrose County Commission will soon begin its review of a proposed uranium mill in the county’s West End. The proposed Piñon Ridge mill won a unanimous recommendation Wednesday from the county planning commission, culminating a series of meetings that extended late into the night on two occasions before the commission vote. The county commission is expected to conduct a public hearing in the West End within 30 days of the planning commission vote. Opponents of the plan were joined Wednesday by actress Darryl Hannah, who maintains a home in nearby San Miguel County, and told a reporter for the Montrose Daily Press that she was “pretty concerned about short-term thinking leading to a disaster.”

Telluride Daily Planet - Uranium mill near Paradox gets planning permit

http://telluridenews.com/articles/2009/07/02/news/doc4a4d6b6ccb298397287659.txt Montrose County made a move into the future — or the past, depending on perspective — when its planning commission unanimously approved a uranium mill in Paradox Valley Wednesday night. The Piñon Ridge Mill has to be approved by the county commissioners and state and federal regulatory agencies. The area near the Utah border was a hub of uranium mining at the beginning of the atomic age. If a mill is built, it could revive an industry that gave its name to the town of Uravan. But the threat of radiation and pollution worries residents who live nearby. A crowd of about 75 came to the Montrose County Fairgrounds and spoke overwhelmingly against the mine, parading to the podium to protest what they clearly saw as a threat to their health, water and way of life. “If they contaminate our ground water, what happens then?” said Paradox’s Marie Moore. “This is my life. You don’t even live there. You don’t even know.” Daryl Hannah, fresh off an arrest in West Virginia protesting coal mining, showed up. It’s not often the chair of the planning commission, David Laursen, tells a Hollywood actress, “Daryl, can you just sit for a second? We want to get through this.” But, as Hannah stated, she lives in Placerville, and said this was a regional issue, not just a county issue.

Darryl Hannah decries proposed Colo. uranium mill - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12741939 Actress Darryl Hannah is speaking out against a proposed uranium and vanadium mine in southwest Colorado. Hannah, who grew up in the area and has a home in San Miguel County, spoke Wednesday at a meeting of the planning commission in adjacent Montrose County, where Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. wants to build the mill. The site is about 225 miles southwest of Denver. Hannah told the commission she's concerned "about short-term thinking leading to a disaster." The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend a special-use permit for the mill, but the project has other hurdles to clear.

Grant would fuel use of natural gas in state - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745078 Colorado is angling for $10 million in federal funds to expand the use of compressed natural gas as a vehicle fuel. The grant from the U.S. Department of Energy would be part of a $27.6 million project to add five fueling stations and 68 natural gas-powered buses and trash trucks in the state. "The biggest challenge in promoting compressed natural gas is getting enough infrastructure in place and enough vehicles to increase the volume of the fuel being consumed," said Stacey Simms, project manager in the Governor's Energy Office.

Group invests in state’s health - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744880 The Colorado Health Foundation announced four grants totaling $50 million to make investments in the state's key health care organizations. "These significant grants represent investments that we believe will contribute most to meeting the state's immediate health care needs," said Anne Warhover, chief executive of the foundation, in a statement. "(They also) build the necessary infrastructure for Colorado to become the healthiest state in the nation."

Business as usual for 2nd Brigade in Iraq | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/kievenaar-57832-basra-soldiers.html In Basra, June 30 was just another day for most soldiers with Fort Carson's 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division. The day marked the pullout of American troops from urban settings in Baghdad and other cities and the end of unilateral U.S. offensives. But Col. Butch Kievenaar, the brigade's commander, said his soldiers have been letting the Iraqis take the lead in Basra for months, with the Americans acting as trainers and occasionally backing their allies up in firefights. "It didn't mean much of a change for our soldiers from what we have been doing," Kievenaar said of the new agreement that paves the way for American withdrawal. "It is another milestone in which we see the security forces and people of Iraq taking charge." Kievenaar's brigade went to Iraq last fall and was first assigned to Diwahniyah, south of Baghdad, before replacing British troops in Iraq's port city of Basra, near the Kuwaiti border. While sectarian attacks in Baghdad have been on the rise, the insurgency in Basra has faded since a 2008 offensive crushed a Shiite uprising there.

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GJSentinel.com: Bank, mail service available in advance of Fourth

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_7a_holiday_closures.html The extended Independence Day weekend begins today, and while several services are halted and buildings shuttered, not everything has ground to a halt.

Craig Daily Press / CNCC sees tuition increase by 9 percent

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2009/jul/03/cncc_sees_tuition_increase_9_percent/ The state legislature approved Colorado community colleges, including Colorado Northwestern Community College, to raise tuition by 9 percent in preparation for probable cuts in state funding, according to the Colorado Community College System. Amid state budget cuts for higher education, CNCC has to raise costs to cover growing enrollment. “We make a concerted effort to keep tuition raises as low as we can,” CNCC President John Boyd said. “But it’s like any other business, we have to pay for what we are doing.” Last year, CNCC’s gross income was above the state average for community colleges, but the school still relies on state funding to offset costs. The state cut $600,000 this year from CNCC’s funding. However, almost all of that was made up in stimulus money.

Setting high standards a must for today’s children - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744984 If today's children are going to succeed tomorrow, high expectations must be set for them. And if our country is going to thrive in the 21st century, high school graduation rates hovering around 50 percent in some areas just won't cut it. That's why we were pleased to see the Denver Public Schools board recently raise expectations for its students — even if the goals seem optimistically out of reach. DPS wants to increase its graduation rate by 5 percent each year, reaching 82 percent by 2012. The idea is to push more high school students to take and pass advanced placement tests and college-level courses, while implementing stricter graduation requirements.

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Frontier to mark 15th year - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744864 Frontier Airlines will celebrate its 15th anniversary Sunday with employee events, although no public festivities are planned. The Denver-based airline is the second-largest carrier at Denver International Airport, with 5,000 employees and 350 daily flights to more than 50 destinations in the U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica. The original Frontier operated in Denver for 40 years before it was purchased in 1993. The current airline was launched July 5, 1994, with 180 employees and two jets on routes between Denver and Bismarck, Grand Forks and Minot, N.D.

Rocky Mtn. Independent to debut Monday - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744862 A Denver daily Web magazine led by former staffers of the defunct Rocky Mountain News and others plans to officially launch Monday. A dozen equity owners, about a dozen freelancers and partner blogs are providing content for the Rocky Mountain Independent. A spokesman wouldn't say how much owners have invested but said it is enough to fund three months of operations.

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: State agrees to audit of Cesar Chavez school network

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d84db38399257582558.txt The Pueblo City Schools board of education voted Thursday night to spend up to $80,000 for the Colorado Department of Education to conduct an independent audit of the Pueblo-based Cesar Chavez Network. The network oversees several schools, including Pueblo schools Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High school. Pueblo City Schools holds the charter for those two schools. The audit will look into the testing and administration practices of the schools within CCN. Board President Stephanie Garcia said the audit will be done in cooperation with CDE, Pueblo City Schools and the Charter School Institute. The three entities will share in the cost of the audit.

Thousands appeal property values | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/news/property-57863-appeals-equalization.html Nearly 10,000 El Paso County property owners appealed their property value following the latest reappraisal. Of the 9,499 appeals filed, 64 percent received an adjustment of some kind, Assessor Mark Lowderman said Thursday. Most of the appeals, 5,526, involved residential property. Industrial property drew the fewest, at 60. The appeals that were granted would mean $89,000 less tax money for the county, based on its current property tax rate. Board of Equalization hearings start Monday and are scheduled to run through Aug. 6. The deadline to file for a Board of Equalization hearing is July 15.

GJSentinel.com: GJ firms foresee more job cuts

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_1a_Chamber_survey.html Thirty-one percent of respondents to a new Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce survey expect to eliminate staff at their businesses. The poll wrapped Tuesday with responses from 399 local business professionals. In a November 2008 chamber poll, 22 percent of local employers planned to decrease staff numbers. Local governments are hoping to avoid layoffs through budget-cutting measures other than layoffs. The city of Grand Junction has reassigned some personnel from departments with decreased workload to departments with increased workloads, said city spokeswoman Sam Rainguet. Mesa County department heads have been instructed to fill an empty position only when necessary and, unlike past years, supervisors were not allowed to give merit-based pay increases to employees.

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Lawsuit claims false arrest by Glenwood Springs police | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029986/1001/NONE A former Aspen resident claims in a lawsuit that his constitutional rights were violated during a 2008 arrest by Glenwood Springs police. Gerard Michael Vuolo, 52, filed a complaint in Garfield County District Court on May 22, alleging that he was falsely arrested in September 2008 for unlawful sexual contact. Vuolo, who listed a Sedona, Ariz., address in the complaint, was arrested on Sept. 10, 2008, at a Glenwood Springs laundromat. The allegations of unlawful sexual contact stemmed from an earlier incident that allegedly occurred between Vuolo and an employee at the Smoker Friendly store in Glenwood Springs, according to the complaint. Vuolo was booked into the Garfield County Jail and later released on bond, the complaint stated. The charges were dropped and the case was ultimately dismissed in April, according to court clerk officials.

Sales taxes continue decline in Boulder, Broomfield counties : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/sales-taxes-continue-decline-boulder-broomfield-co/ Through the first four months of the year, area sales tax revenues continued to reflect the economic malaise and sluggish consumer spending as the majority of cities and towns within Boulder and Broomfield counties recorded declining collections. In the city of Boulder, sales tax revenues through April were down 5.2 percent, a fairly comparable decline from the prior month’s year-to-date figures, according to Boulder’s most recent sales tax report. Finance officials said it is too early to project trends, noting sales in April 2008 were “extremely strong.” Combined with revenue from use taxes — which can be considered more volatile because some are generated from one-time events — Boulder recorded a 2.5 percent year-to-date decrease. City officials have projected retail sales tax and use tax drops of 1 percent and 6 percent, respectively, said Duane Hudson, deputy finance director and controller. Practically all retail sectors experienced declining revenues, with areas such as home furnishings and consumer electronics taking the biggest hits, according to the report.

NOREEN: Higher taxes, more fees? Sure, that’ll raise money | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/tax-57833-city-committee.html A Sustainable Funding Committee has been directed by city hall to explore ways to increase city revenue. Some of the suggestions contained in the panel's 169-page report (see the full report on my blog) might seem outlandish, but remember that part of the committee's charge is to think outside the box. That's because the city's depleted cashbox can't be expected to cover rising costs as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights ratchets down revenue. It is inevitable and inescapable that a direct result of TABOR is that tax increase proposals will become more and more specific. Whether such tax increases are approved by voters or not, another reality is that governments will increase existing fees while inventing new ones. TABOR backers like to argue this isn't the case, but when they do, they are either terminally ignorant or they are simply lying to you.

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First Data and BofA team up for venture - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744881 Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp. could eventually end up processing more than a billion electronic transactions a month generated through a new joint venture with Bank of America. But the real payoff from the new Banc of America Merchant Services partnership might come in popularizing new payment methods such as cellphones and electronic wallets through Bank of America's huge branch network. "That is where this gets very powerful because obviously the bank and obviously First Data have been working on next-generation payment types and are investing in those, and this is an opportunity to bring those together and do it collaboratively," said Tom Bell, chief executive of the newly formed company, in a conference call last week.

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5,700 may be at risk for hepatitis C in Colorado - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746614 A Rose Medical Center operating room technician who was fired after failing a drug test for a powerful pain medication may have exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis C. The technician, infected with hepatitis C, is charged with swapping her used dirty syringes, refilled with saline solution, for ones containing the painkiller fentanyl. Hospital officials said they knew the technician had the virus when she was hired. She began work Oct. 21, 2008. She was fired April 13. Rose is offering free testing to all people who had surgery in the main hospital or the Wolf Building between those dates. Letters will be sent to more than 4,700 former patients. Maternity and emergency room patients are not affected.

Springs surgery tech suspected of exposing thousands to hepatitis C | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/parker-57838-surgery-rose.html Federal officials Thursday warned that about 6,000 surgery patients, including 1,000 at a Colorado Springs surgery center, are at risk of having been infected by an operating room technician with hepatitis C. On Thursday, federal authorities filed criminal charges in U.S. District Court in Denver against Kristen Diane Parker, a former scrub technician at Rose Medical Center in Denver and Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs. According to the criminal complaint, Parker - a former heroin addict - admitted swapping her own dirty syringes filled with saline solution for syringes filled with Fentanyl, a narcotic 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug is supposed to be used to help major post-surgery patients manage pain. Instead, they got no relief while Parker injected herself with the painkiller at home and in the hospital bathrooms before and after a surgery, according to the seven-page complaint.

Suzanne Handler - Immigrant neighbors fly the flag - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744989 I recently spent a few days in the Windy City, and during that time I happened to read an article in the Chicago Tribune (June 11, 2009) about a trash hauler named Jeff Olson. Olson, 34, has made it his personal mission to rescue American flags from landfills in Elgin, Ill. The story of his patriotism and commitment to save over 250 Old Glories from their inevitable demise reminds me of another flag story much closer to home. My neighbors also love America, and they display that love almost every day of the year. Barring a blizzard or winds of tornadolike velocity, the flag of our nation flies unfettered on their property — a symbol of the pride they feel for their adopted country and in appreciation for all the blessings it offers those fortunate enough to live here. It's not unusual for Americans to be complacent about the freedoms we perceive as our birthright: equality, free speech, universal education, personal security and unlimited opportunities, to name a few. In pursuit of these liberties, and to escape the many injustices of an apartheid government, my neighbors emigrated from South Africa in 1988. With their two young children and nine suitcases (a container of household goods would arrive by ship seven months later), they entered the U.S. and began the "enormously difficult," decade-long quest to become American citizens.

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Bennet talking health reform at Denver church - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739888 Sen. Michael Bennet is headed to a Presbyterian church in Denver to talk about health care reform with a pastor pushing for change. Bennet meets today with the Rev. Bill Calhoun and his parishioners at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church. The meeting comes as Calhoun stars in radio ads on Christian stations this week calling for improvements to health care. Liberal-leaning religious groups have launched radio ads in four other states this week in which local pastors urge senators to back efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system. Today's meeting will include testimony from patients who want changes. Then, Bennet plans to lay out his vision for improving health care.

Group invests in state’s health - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744880 The Colorado Health Foundation announced four grants totaling $50 million to make investments in the state's key health care organizations. "These significant grants represent investments that we believe will contribute most to meeting the state's immediate health care needs," said Anne Warhover, chief executive of the foundation, in a statement. "(They also) build the necessary infrastructure for Colorado to become the healthiest state in the nation."

5,700 may be at risk for hepatitis C in Colorado - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746614 A Rose Medical Center operating room technician who was fired after failing a drug test for a powerful pain medication may have exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis C. The technician, infected with hepatitis C, is charged with swapping her used dirty syringes, refilled with saline solution, for ones containing the painkiller fentanyl. Hospital officials said they knew the technician had the virus when she was hired. She began work Oct. 21, 2008. She was fired April 13. Rose is offering free testing to all people who had surgery in the main hospital or the Wolf Building between those dates. Letters will be sent to more than 4,700 former patients. Maternity and emergency room patients are not affected.

Springs surgery tech suspected of exposing thousands to hepatitis C | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/parker-57838-surgery-rose.html Federal officials Thursday warned that about 6,000 surgery patients, including 1,000 at a Colorado Springs surgery center, are at risk of having been infected by an operating room technician with hepatitis C. On Thursday, federal authorities filed criminal charges in U.S. District Court in Denver against Kristen Diane Parker, a former scrub technician at Rose Medical Center in Denver and Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs. According to the criminal complaint, Parker - a former heroin addict - admitted swapping her own dirty syringes filled with saline solution for syringes filled with Fentanyl, a narcotic 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug is supposed to be used to help major post-surgery patients manage pain. Instead, they got no relief while Parker injected herself with the painkiller at home and in the hospital bathrooms before and after a surgery, according to the seven-page complaint.

JBS USA reveals retailers that bought tainted beef | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039982/1002/NONE JBS USA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service have released a list of retailers that received meat that may have been tainted with E. coli. The company has recalled more than 420,000 pounds of beef that left the Greeley packing plant in April.

Telluride Daily Planet - Toward better health records

http://telluridenews.com/articles/2009/07/02/news/doc4a4d6b438d59c804831976.txt The annals of today’s health care system have turned patients into Homeric wanderers, plagued to roam for years on end before washing home. Tests are repeated. Results seldom travel with patients from doctor to specialist to hospital. The list goes on. “Eighty percent of all of your medical records are in three different buckets,” said Paul Major, President of the Telluride Foundation. “Imaging, lab results and pharmacy.” But those buckets aren’t something patients can easily tote from office to office. There is a chance, though, that it could get easier for both patients and doctors here in the region: The Telluride Foundation just snared a $70,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that allows regional health care providers to study, among other things, the feasibility of electronic health records — records that would travel with patients, albeit in cyberspace, to their appointments. That means if an X-ray is snapped in one doctor’s office it would show up at another office should patients need more care, eliminating the need for duplicated tests. Tests that were expensive the first time ‘round.

Boulder police field fireworks complaints : County News : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/boulder-police-field-fireworks-complaints/ With seasonal moisture levels higher than they’ve been in years, area police and firefighters say they’re worried residents might have a false sense of security and illegally use fireworks over the Fourth of July weekend. But Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said homes can catch fire and people can get burned in any weather conditions. And, she said, the overgrowth of weeds, grasses and trees that the spring and summer rains have caused can burn — even with the moisture. “The ground is not as dry, but that is more concerning because people might be inclined to pull out fireworks, where they haven’t in the past,” Huntley said. “We are very concerned about injuries.” All fireworks are illegal in the city of Boulder, but fireworks allowed by the state are allowed in most other Boulder County cities and towns and in some unincorporated parts of the county.

Parents of infant sue Edwards clinic | VailDaily.com

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029940/1001/NONE A local family recently filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Eagle Care Medical Clinic, an extension of the Vail Valley Medical Center located in the Edwards Pavilion. Jose De Jesus and Maria Leuvano Lopez claim their son, Luis, died as a result of “negligent and substandard care,” according to a statement released by the couple's attorney, Joseph Bloch. The complaint alleges that after two separate visits to the clinic, the child was misdiagnosed with teething on the first visit, and bronchitis on the second visit. The child died within hours of being sent home from the clinic the second time, according to the statement. Denise Triba, a spokeswoman for the Vail Valley Medical Center, said the hospital can't comment on the lawsuit.

It may be wetter than usual, but there is still fire danger in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029987/1001/NONE Despite wetter conditions than typical for a Fourth of July holiday, Glenwood Springs Fire Chief Mike Piper says that potential fire dangers still exist. “It's not as dry as it was in 2003 and 2004 when we were in a drought,” he said. “With all the rain this year it's eased a little, but it's still dry enough to spark a fire.” He said that current conditions in and around Glenwood specifically were “moderate,” but conditions vary up and down the valley. “There are some areas that are dry, and the winds are drying out the grasses,” Piper said. “But we are not in an extreme situation here.”

For Palmer Lake bar patrons, this bus is for you | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/lake-57868-palmer-bar.html It's 1 a.m., time for Jeff Hulsmann to make his first run driving home the drunks. "Get on the bus," he tells revelers slumped on bar stools and dancing in the aisles. A few stagger behind him. Most hold out until the 2 a.m. ride. You might say this bar owner is just protecting his investment. Not only the bar, but the patrons and 2,300 residents in this remote town about 20 miles away from the nearest taxi service in Colorado Springs. Hulsmann, owner of O'Malley's Steak Pub, gives free rides to imbibers after a night of too many shots and karaoke. He has delivered more than 1,000 riders in the seven months since he bought the 15-passenger bus that in a former life toted senior citizens. That's 1,000 drunks off the streets.

2 hurt in Summit County copter crash - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12743869 Two people were injured in a helicopter crash in Summit County this morning. Their names have not been released. One was airlifted by to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver. The second person was still being transported down from the mountain by the The Summit Rescue Group at 5:30 p.m., according to the Summit County Sheriff's office, according to the Summit County Sheriffs Office. The Bell 206 crashed at about 11:30 a.m. about 2.5 miles west of the Blue Lakes Dam near Hoosier Pass while delivering supplies to a mine in the area. The crash site is at about 13,000 feet in elevation the Monte Cristo Creek drainage area, the Sheriff's Department said.

Aspen cop blotter: Man, unhappy about getting the boot, cited after encounter | AspenTimes.com

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029974/1001/NONE As long as Brit Queer, Aspen's boot man, has made illegally parked vehicles immovable objects with his clamp-on devices, he has dealt with surly motorists. Sunday, June 26, was one of those days, when Dagoberto Munoz, 32, of El Jebel allegedly pushed and yelled at Queer in the parking lot of Clark's Market after Queer booted his car. According to a report by Aspen police officer Chance Williams, Munoz admitted to being angry after he paid Queer $100 to remove the boot. The suspect, however, told police that he did not have any physical contact with Queer, nor did he verbally threaten him. Munoz was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Thousands appeal property values | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/news/property-57863-appeals-equalization.html Nearly 10,000 El Paso County property owners appealed their property value following the latest reappraisal. Of the 9,499 appeals filed, 64 percent received an adjustment of some kind, Assessor Mark Lowderman said Thursday. Most of the appeals, 5,526, involved residential property. Industrial property drew the fewest, at 60. The appeals that were granted would mean $89,000 less tax money for the county, based on its current property tax rate. Board of Equalization hearings start Monday and are scheduled to run through Aug. 6. The deadline to file for a Board of Equalization hearing is July 15.

254 apartments slated in Lafayette - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744978 Milestone Development Group is building a $30 million apartment complex in Lafayette. The project, expected to break ground this month, will add 254 apartments to a community that hasn't seen new multifamily housing developed in the past 15 years. The site, on South Public Road, is one mile north of Northwest Parkway adjacent to Good Samaritan Hospital on U.S. 287. The complex should be completed by March. "We always look for high-traffic areas," said Ken Kiken, principal of Denver-based Milestone. "(U.S.) 287 in Lafayette carries 50,000 cars a day. They realize we're under construction, that we're coming, and it cuts down on marketing."

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Source: JBS USA not a target of new wave of ICE audits | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039986/1002/NONE Immigration officials have not said which companies in Colorado are part of a nationwide crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants, but Greeley-based JBS USA likely is not one of them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday they would review employees' I-9 documents at 652 companies nationwide. Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for ICE, would not identify specific companies being audited by ICE, citing privacy issues. He said 20 firms in the four-state region of Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming are being audited. A JBS source said Greeley's JBS USA meat-packing plant isn't among the companies being targeted.

Shooting victim pained by job loss - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745766 A man who was fatally shot by police early Thursday morning was despondent over being out of work and was battling bipolar disorder, a family member said. Hector Esparza, 25, was shot by police about 1:20 a.m. inside his home at 4503 Fillmore St., as he came at officers with a BB gun in his hand. Before the shooting, Esparza had talked of getting in a shootout with officers, Denver police and family members said. Esparza had been upset about losing his job as a landscaper, said his half brother, Mondo Guillart. The loss of income stymied his ability to make child-support payments for his two girls. He was separated from his wife, Guillart said.

Broadcasts on school buses run into static - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746439 Congress has ordered a Federal Communications Commission review of BusRadio, a controversial radio-programming system that targets kids riding on school buses — including some in the metro Denver area — with advertising and what some say is inappropriate music. BusRadio sends music and commercials over the Internet to school district servers that forward the programming to buses, using wireless transmitters. Douglas County, Denver and the Aurora school districts are among a handful in Colorado that use BusRadio. Supporters say the radio content calms the kids on what can at times be a hectic bus ride. But some parents say forcing their children to listen to commercials on the bus is akin to having their kids held hostage by corporate America. They also say the music is sometimes age-inappropriate.

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Rocky Mtn. Independent to debut Monday - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744862 A Denver daily Web magazine led by former staffers of the defunct Rocky Mountain News and others plans to officially launch Monday. A dozen equity owners, about a dozen freelancers and partner blogs are providing content for the Rocky Mountain Independent. A spokesman wouldn't say how much owners have invested but said it is enough to fund three months of operations.

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Highlands Ranch dedicates veterans memorial - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12740666 It took three years from concept to creation. Now Highlands Ranch has its own veterans monument. The monument, which was dedicated Wednesday night, honors all those who have served our country in years past and those who are currently enlisted. The Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument committee is still selling dedication tiles to pay for the monument. The committee is about $20,000 short of the $200,000 goal, but the Highlands Ranch Metro District Board of Directors advanced funds to get it built. The monument is at Civic Green Park, off Highlands Ranch Parkway between Lucent and Broadway.

Army Air Corps vets to be honored | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090703/NEWS01/907030332/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02/Army-Air-Corps-vets-to-be-honored Veterans of the U.S. Army Air Corps will be honored this holiday weekend in conjunction with a display of World War II aircraft. The public is invited to attend the tribute, which will be an informal gathering of veterans and their families beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport. The airport also is playing host to the annual Wings of Freedom tour of vintage planes sponsored by the Collings Foundation. Brad Hoopes of Windsor said he wanted to organize an event at the same time as the tour in hopes of setting up photographs of Air Corps veterans with the type of planes they flew in during the war.

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Editorial: State system reboot not easy - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744983 The ghost of failed computer projects past reared its head again as the state unemployment system slowed to a crawl earlier this week, leaving Coloradans seeking benefits frustrated and confused. The state's techies got on the case and restored the system to normal operation within two days, which we were glad to see. The episode, however, raises questions about whether Colorado will ever be free of the antiquated networks and legacy of botched prior contracts that have so beleaguered the state's information systems. The answer is not entirely clear at this point, though progress has been made. But there are certainly some lessons to be learned from the recent computer troubles at the State Department of Labor and Employment. Don Mares, executive director of the state labor department, said CUBline Online, the system that dramatically slowed down, is just five years old.

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Setting high standards a must for today’s children - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744984 If today's children are going to succeed tomorrow, high expectations must be set for them. And if our country is going to thrive in the 21st century, high school graduation rates hovering around 50 percent in some areas just won't cut it. That's why we were pleased to see the Denver Public Schools board recently raise expectations for its students — even if the goals seem optimistically out of reach. DPS wants to increase its graduation rate by 5 percent each year, reaching 82 percent by 2012. The idea is to push more high school students to take and pass advanced placement tests and college-level courses, while implementing stricter graduation requirements.

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NOREEN: Higher taxes, more fees? Sure, that’ll raise money | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/tax-57833-city-committee.html A Sustainable Funding Committee has been directed by city hall to explore ways to increase city revenue. Some of the suggestions contained in the panel's 169-page report (see the full report on my blog) might seem outlandish, but remember that part of the committee's charge is to think outside the box. That's because the city's depleted cashbox can't be expected to cover rising costs as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights ratchets down revenue. It is inevitable and inescapable that a direct result of TABOR is that tax increase proposals will become more and more specific. Whether such tax increases are approved by voters or not, another reality is that governments will increase existing fees while inventing new ones. TABOR backers like to argue this isn't the case, but when they do, they are either terminally ignorant or they are simply lying to you.

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Suzanne Handler - Immigrant neighbors fly the flag - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744989 I recently spent a few days in the Windy City, and during that time I happened to read an article in the Chicago Tribune (June 11, 2009) about a trash hauler named Jeff Olson. Olson, 34, has made it his personal mission to rescue American flags from landfills in Elgin, Ill. The story of his patriotism and commitment to save over 250 Old Glories from their inevitable demise reminds me of another flag story much closer to home. My neighbors also love America, and they display that love almost every day of the year. Barring a blizzard or winds of tornadolike velocity, the flag of our nation flies unfettered on their property — a symbol of the pride they feel for their adopted country and in appreciation for all the blessings it offers those fortunate enough to live here. It's not unusual for Americans to be complacent about the freedoms we perceive as our birthright: equality, free speech, universal education, personal security and unlimited opportunities, to name a few. In pursuit of these liberties, and to escape the many injustices of an apartheid government, my neighbors emigrated from South Africa in 1988. With their two young children and nine suitcases (a container of household goods would arrive by ship seven months later), they entered the U.S. and began the "enormously difficult," decade-long quest to become American citizens.

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GJSentinel.com: Happy Fourth of July

http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2009/07/02/070309_fourth_edit.html It’s only July 3, of course. But, since The Daily Sentinel doesn’t publish a Commentary Page on Saturday, we decided to offer the salutation a day early. Besides, early in our history, there was some dispute over what date should represent the birth of the United States of America. It was on July 2, 1776, that the members of the Continental Congress declared the 13 colonies independent from England and its king. John Adams believed that would be the date remembered by history. “I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival,” he famously wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail.

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Miller: Waving that flag | SummitDaily.com

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090703/COLUMNS/907029984/1026/NONE Every year around this time, my family starts asking me about the “Wave the Flag” cake I always make for our neighborhood Fourth of July party. They want to make sure it will, in fact, be created, and that this little tradition will continue. The cake itself is nothing special - just a recipe I found on the Kraft website that involves layering some Cool Whip atop pound cake and arranging strawberries and blueberries to look like stars and stripes. There's some Jell-O involved as well - and no baking whatsoever. But I must say it does look very cool, and always reinforces my belief that the American flag is a particularly beautiful symbol that translates well into many different media - Cool Whip included.

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Let freedom ring this Fourth of July | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090703/OPINION01/907030308/1014/OPINION/Let freedom ring this Fourth of July Whether spending the day with family and friends or paying tribute to those who paved the way for the lifestyles we enjoy today, each Fourth of July is an opportunity to acknowledge the fortune we have in the United States.

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Johnson: Unable to fathom boy on bull - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745764 I acknowledge upfront that I am way too citifiedperhaps too sissified — to comprehend anyone putting a kid on a bull. Yet, tell me that if I strapped a 12-year-old onto, say, a lawn chair, put a helmet and even a parachute on him, tied 10 dozen huge helium balloons to the chair and sent him on his way, wouldn't you call the cops? So tell me how that is any different from the way 12-year-old Richard Wayde Hamar of Yuma got killed in Longmont on Sunday. Acknowledgment must be made here that I feel terrible for the boy's parents, Mitch and Angie. My condolences honestly go out to them. Still, what were they thinking?

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: Independence Day

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/editorial/doc4a4d6fb1b953c501857843.txt The red stripes of the American flag remind us of all blood spilt in the defense of our liberty. This weekend we urge all to display Old Glory. For those who do not own a flag, one will be printed in the July 4 edition, suitable for taping to a front window for all passersby to see.

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Job Losses Dampen Hopes for Economic Recovery - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200354.html Mounting job losses rattled hopes yesterday that the economy is on track to grow later this year, showing that prospects for American workers are terrible -- and still getting worse. Employers reduced their payrolls by 467,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said, far more than forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent. And last week, another 614,000 people applied for unemployment insurance benefits. The number of job losses had decreased every month since January before spiking again in June, and economists think it is highly likely that the jobless rate will hit double-digits later this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people working part time who want full-time work and those who have given up looking for a job, has already risen to 16.5 percent. The nation now has the same number of jobs it did in 2000, meaning that nine years of employment gains have disappeared. The stock market fell steeply on the news yesterday, with the Standard and Poor's 500-stock index off 2.9 percent. European stock markets fell sharply as well, after the European Central Bank left its target interest rate unchanged and its president indicated that he expects a recovery to begin in the middle of next year. Investors have wanted the bank to fight the recession more aggressively, which it seems disinclined to do.

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DHS Cybersecurity Plan Will Involve NSA, Telecoms - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve "monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic," and Department of Homeland Security officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems. But the program has provoked debate within DHS, the officials said, because of uncertainty about whether private data can be shielded from unauthorized scrutiny, how much of a role NSA should play and whether the agency's involvement in warrantless wiretapping during George W. Bush's presidency would draw controversy. Each time a private citizen visited a "dot-gov" Web site or sent an e-mail to a civilian government employee, that action would be screened for potential harm to the network. "We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has. But . . . they will be guided, led and in a sense directed by the people we have at the Department of Homeland Security," the department's secretary, Janet Napolitano, told reporters in a discussion about cybersecurity efforts.

Jobless Rate Climbs to 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/economy/03jobs.html?ref=business The American economy lost 467,000 more jobs in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent in a sobering indication that the longest recession since the 1930s had yet to release its hold. “The numbers are indicative of a continued, very severe recession,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh. “There’s nothing in here to show that the economy and the market are pulling out of the grip of recession.” The Labor Department’s monthly snapshot of employment, released Thursday, challenged visions of a recovery already taking root. The numbers intensify pressure on the Obama administration to show returns on programs aimed at improving national fortunes — not least its $787 billion stimulus plan. Some economists are now calling for another dose of government spending to stimulate the economy, though the White House maintains that enough money is in the pipeline already. “Not all the recovery money has been put to work yet,” said the labor secretary, Hilda L. Solis. “We’re making progress.” But Ms. Solis acknowledged that joblessness was already much worse than the administration projected in January when it created its stimulus spending bill, suggesting then that joblessness would peak at about 8 percent.

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Grand Jury Inquiry on Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03inquire.html?ref=politics Current and former top Central Intelligence Agency officers have appeared before a federal grand jury in Virginia as part of an 18-month investigation into the agency’s destruction of 92 videotapes depicting the brutal interrogations of two Qaeda detainees. The witnesses recently called by the special prosecutor, former government officials said, include the agency’s top officer in London and Porter J. Goss, who was C.I.A. director when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005. The grand jury testimony of C.I.A. officers is further evidence that, despite President Obama’s pledge not to punish agency operatives for their role in the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, the shadow of the controversial program still looms over the agency’s daily operations. The court appearances are tied to a criminal investigation led by John L. Durham, whom the Justice Department appointed in January 2008 to investigate the destruction of the tapes. The tapes had shown C.I.A. officers using harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, on two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Justice Dept. Seeks More Time to Review Report on Interrogations - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203548.html The Justice Department asked a federal court yesterday for two more months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's interrogation program before releasing a new version of the document to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued to make it public. The May 2004 report, which was prepared by the agency's inspector general and runs to more than 200 pages, provides a "comprehensive summary and review" of the agency's program, according to a Justice Department letter filed yesterday in federal court in New York. The Washington Post reported last month that the prospect of revealing details of the interrogation program has alarmed some CIA officials, who fear damage to counterterrorism operations and to cooperation with other intelligence agencies. The officials are pressing for the report to be heavily redacted, as it was when a version was released last year. The Justice Department letter said the CIA report could be vetted only after the department reviews 318 other documents that the ACLU is also seeking, including CIA cables and memos.

Before Russia Trip, Obama Lauds Medvedev at Putin’s Expense - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/europe/03moscow.html?ref=world President Obama said Thursday that Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia still had “one foot” in the cold war and needed to move on, a provocative assessment for an American leader just days before traveling here for the first time since taking office. Mr. Obama distinguished Mr. Putin from President Dmitri A. Medvedev, his hand-picked successor, who was elected last year and is the object of much speculation, given the unusual power-sharing arrangement here. Unlike Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama said, Mr. Medvedev recognizes that it is time for the two cold war antagonists to put the past behind them. “It’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old cold war approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated — that it’s time to move forward in a different direction,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think Medvedev understands that,” he said. “I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.”

Iran’s Ahmadinejad faces diplomatic isolation - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-ostracize3-2009jul03,0,3454095.story Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a much-disputed reelection. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament.

Iranian cleric says British Embassy employees will be tried - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran4-2009jul04,0,7171229.story Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, says Iran's enemies 'made an effort to poison the people' during post-election unrest. European Union nations consider pulling ambassadors from Tehran.

Honduran Leadership Stands Defiant - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200381.html Officials in the new Honduran government led by interim President Roberto Micheletti said that they were prepared to hunker down for weeks or months and that they could survive economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and even the condemnation of their closest ally, the United States, which has played an outsize role in the history of Honduras for a century. Micheletti, however, said he was open to one compromise: moving presidential elections up from November to an earlier date in a bid to soften outside condemnation of the coup and keep Hondurans from turning toward violence. "Since I have no desire to run for president myself, you can believe me when I say that what we want is a legal, orderly transfer of power," Micheletti told The Washington Post. José Miguel Insulza, head of the Organization of American States, said he would fly to Honduras on Friday and insist on the return of Zelaya, who was seized by troops at dawn Sunday and flown to exile in Costa Rica.

OAS chief, en route to Honduras, calls economic sanctions likely - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2009/07/03/oas_chief_en_route_to_honduras_calls_economic_sanctions_likely/ A top diplomat said yesterday that he is heading to Honduras to demand the return of the president toppled at gunpoint, a mission he said is likely to meet rejection, bringing diplomatic and economic punishment for the impoverished Central American nation. The head of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said he plans to travel to Honduras today to demand the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup Sunday. “I will do everything I can,’’ Insulza said at a summit of Caribbean leaders in Guyana. “But I think it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days. We are not going to Honduras to negotiate. We are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing.’’ The interim government of Roberto Micheletti has shown little willingness to do so, contending that the army acted legally on orders of Congress and the Supreme Court when it raided Zelaya’s house amid gunfire and deported him, still in his nightshirt.

El Nino more like Los Ninos, weather study finds - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-weather4-2009jul04,0,5854766.story El Nino, the seasonal Pacific Ocean warming that affects the world's weather, may not be just one little boy -- it seems to be two little boys. Two distinct patterns of warming occur in the Pacific Ocean, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and their frequencies have been changing in recent decades. Tracking one of these two events could yield earlier, more-accurate predictions of seasonal North Atlantic hurricanes. The periodic warming (El Nino) and cooling (La Nina) of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation and affects global weather patterns. El Nino, which occurs about every three to five years, is an ocean warming that begins in the early summer months and that reaches its peak in December.

Key Senate Democrats unveil plans for health care bill - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-02-democrats-health-care_N.htm Senate Democrats unveiled new details of a plan to revamp the nation's health care system Thursday, including a public, government-run insurance program and a $750-per-employee annual fee on companies that do not offer health benefits. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a leading architect of the legislation, said the new bill will cost $611 billion over the next decade — lower than an earlier $1 trillion estimate — and that he hoped his committee could have its version completed next week. "This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president's goals," Dodd said today of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill's cost. "We believe people ought to be able to keep [insurance] plans they like and that people ought to have choices." In a statement, President Obama said the bill "reflects many of the principles I've laid out" and he praised the committee for including a controversial public insurance option that he said would "make health care affordable by increasing competition."

Revisions to Health Bill Are Unveiled by Democrats - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/health/policy/03health.html?ref=politics To warm words from President Obama, the Democratic leaders of the Senate health committee unveiled a revised plan Thursday to provide health coverage to nearly all Americans. The plan would require most employers to offer benefits to their workers or pay fees to the government and would create a public competitor to insurance companies. The proposal clears the way for the committee to vote on a package next week as the House and the Senate hustle to pass separate health bills this month before Congress leaves on its August break. But a second Senate panel, the Finance Committee, is still struggling to reach consensus. The health committee’s blueprint builds on an incomplete version that was much criticized two weeks ago when the Congressional Budget Office reported that it would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and still leave up to 37 million Americans uninsured. That budget report was widely considered a setback for a health care overhaul, Mr. Obama’s top domestic priority. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the health committee chairman, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut subsequently filled in details of the plan and scaled back subsidies that would help low-income people buy insurance.

Obama, Party Tout Lower Figure for Health Reform - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203914.html Senate Democrats and President Obama, trying to assuage fears about the cost of health reform, yesterday touted new estimates that put the price tag for one bill at $611 billion over the next decade. But the measure drafted by the Senate health committee falls far short of Obama's goal of providing insurance to virtually every American. Analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, released in a letter yesterday, shows that it would cover just 39 percent of uninsured Americans in 2019 -- or about 21 million of the 54 million people expected to lack coverage if no change is made. "The figures presented in this letter do not represent a formal or complete cost estimate for the draft legislation," CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote. The draft legislation does not include details on how to pay for expanded coverage or administrative fees. The latest missive from the budgetary scorekeeper is part of a wonky mini-drama over the struggle to meet Obama's promise to enact legislation that greatly expands health coverage without adding to the federal deficit.

Kennedy, Dodd unveil trimmer Senate healthcare bill - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/07/03/kennedy_dodd_unveil_trimmer_senate_healthcare_bill/ Americans who refuse to buy medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a healthcare overhaul bill unveiled yesterday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Obama’s top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines would raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals. People would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now, and the government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families. But those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties, called “shared responsibility payments,’’ set at least at half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. As in Massachusetts, the legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines.

Obama Supports ‘‘Robust’ Protection for Catholic Health-Care Workers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202451.html President Barack Obama said today that he still favors a "robust" federal policy protecting health-care workers who have moral objections to performing some procedures even though he plans to roll back a Bush administration rule that expanded such protection. Speaking to eight religion reporters at the White House before his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI next Friday, Obama sought to reassure Catholic health-care workers that they would not be forced to perform abortions and other procedures that violate the Church's teachings. Obama said he is a "believer in conscience clauses" and supports a new policy that would "certainly not be weaker" than the rules in place before the expansion late in President George W. Bush's administration. Obama's comments were part of a broad interview that touched on issues including his hopes for his meeting with the pontiff, abortion and his struggle to choose a home church for him and his family. Obama's trip to the Vatican will coincide with his participation in the Group of Eight summit, a meeting of leaders of major industrial nations, Wednesday to next Friday.

Senator Grassley Asks Aetna About Limited Health Policy - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03aetna.html?ref=politics Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican taking a lead role in the health care debate, sent a letter Thursday to the insurer Aetna asking for details about a policy it sold to a man in Texas that left him owing nearly $200,000 in medical bills. The man, Lawrence Yurdin, age 64, was included in a front-page article in The New York Times on Tuesday about the many people whose insurance coverage does not protect them from financial ruin in the case of a medical crisis. Although Mr. Yurdin and the hospital where he received heart treatments say they both understood that the Aetna policy covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the medical care he received. He and his wife, Claire, filed for personal bankruptcy in December. Senator Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has also investigated some of the health plans that another insurer, the UnitedHealth Group, sold through AARP, the advocacy group for older people. Those plans, which also had sharp limits on coverage, are no longer being sold.

New White House Office to Redefine Urban Policy - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201410.html Once upon a time, when cities were poor and suburbs were rich, "urban policy" meant programs to alleviate poverty. But in the last few decades, the cities and suburbs turned inside out. Poverty spread in the aging suburbs, as many encountered rising immigration, unemployment and crime. Wealth flooded once again to the cities, as urban living and enterprise came back in vogue. City and suburb started to look economically alike. Now President Obama has created the Office of Urban Affairs, which seeks to redefine the word "urban." It aims to establish a policy agenda not just for inner cities, but for the suburbs that surround them, and it views these metropolitan regions as the country's economic engines. "Part of our discussion as a country will be, 'What is urban?' " said Adolfo Carrión Jr., Office of Urban Affairs director. "We want to essentially tease out what the elements of a national agenda ought to be." In his most definitive statements laying out the office's work, Carrión said in an interview that he hopes to spark a national conversation about urban needs. He said he plans to bring agencies together to change urban growth patterns and foster opportunity, reduce sprawl, and jump-start the economy.

In Iraq, Biden to Press Officials to Forge Progress - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html?ref=politics Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. landed in Baghdad on Thursday, beginning a two-day diplomatic mission that he said was intended to “re-establish contact” with Iraqi leaders and prod them toward settling internal disputes over oil revenues and political power-sharing. Mr. Biden’s surprise trip, just days after American combat forces officially withdrew from Iraqi cities, underscores the concern in the White House about the fragility of the security situation. President Obama has asked Mr. Biden to serve as a kind of unofficial envoy to the country, and the vice president said this would be his first in a series of trips to the region. The trip is unusually long for such a high-level official; when Mr. Obama visited Iraq, he spent just a few hours here, and President George W. Bush did not spend more than a day. But Mr. Biden said Iraq was at a pivotal moment, “the moment where a lot of Iraqis cynically believed we’d never keep the agreement.” He said the White House wanted to send a message to Iraqi leaders that it was engaged at the highest levels.

S.E.C. May Reinstate Rules For Short-Selling Stocks - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03shorts.html?ref=business They have been reviled as the bad hats of Wall Street, nefarious traders who cashed in on the market collapse and, some insist, helped precipitate it. Now short-sellers, the market skeptics who correctly called last year’s downturn, are coming under even more unwanted scrutiny, this time from federal regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission appears poised to reverse itself and reinstate rules that would make shorting stocks — that is, betting their prices will decline — somewhat more difficult. Whether the S.E.C. will go far enough to satisfy the many critics of short-sellers is far from certain. The controversial role of these investors has divided not only the financial industry, but also federal regulators. As the S.E.C. considers its options, the debate is heating up.

U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?ref=politics Unlike the approach of the Bush administration, which brought criminal charges in its final two years against many illegal immigrant workers, the new effort makes broader use of fines and other civil sanctions, federal officials said Thursday. Federal agents will concentrate on businesses employing large numbers of workers suspected of being illegal immigrants, the officials said, and will reserve tough criminal charges mostly for employers who serially hire illegal immigrants and engage in wage and labor violations. “These actions underscore our commitment to targeting employers that cultivate illegal work forces by knowingly hiring and exploiting illegal workers,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, said it had sent notices announcing audits of hiring records, like the one it conducted at American Apparel, to 652 other companies across the country. Officials said they were picking up the pace of such audits, after performing 503 of them in 2008.

McCain, Feingold Team Up Again Over FEC - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202959.html Seven years after their landmark campaign finance legislation became law, Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold are reuniting under the banner of spending reform at a time when restrictions have come under fire both in the courts and at the embattled Federal Election Commission. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Feingold (D-Wis.) announced this week that they were blocking the appointment of Democratic union lawyer John Sullivan to the FEC until President Obama agrees to fill two other open panel seats. The two senators, who co-sponsored legislation in 2002 that banned "soft money" donations and other practices, said in a statement that the agency is "mired in anti-enforcement gridlock. The president must nominate new commissioners with a demonstrated commitment to the existence and enforcement of the campaign finance laws." Liberal-leaning advocacy groups have complained that enforcement actions at the six-member FEC have effectively ground to a halt amid a partisan standoff between Democratic and Republican commissioners. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold a ban on corporate spending in federal elections, which is a key component of the McCain-Feingold statute.

Bombings kill three in Baghdad area - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/bombings_kill_three_in_baghdad_area/ Bombings killed at least three people in the Baghdad area yesterday in the first significant violence since Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for securing cities after the withdrawal of US combat troops from urban areas earlier this week. A car bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk also killed one man and wounded six others, police said. In Baghdad, the violence began when a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi Army patrol, killing a soldier and wounding seven other people, police and hospital officials said. The attack occurred near a bridge used to access the walled-off Green Zone in central Baghdad. A car bomb exploded later near a market on the highway south of Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding 15, according to a police officer at the regional command.

Republicans Question Sotomayor’s Role in Puerto Rican Group’s Legal Battles - The Caucus

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/republicans-question-sotomayors-role-in-puerto-rican-groups-legal-battles/ As Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing nears, the Obama administration and Senate Republicans are squaring off over whether she is responsible for lawsuits filed by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund when she was a board member of the civil-rights group. Ms. Sotomayor held the position from 1980 until 1992, when she resigned to become a federal judge. During that era, the group pursued lawsuits over issues like affirmative action, bilingual education, and gerrymandering election districts to increase minority voting power. Republicans would like to tie her to those cases, while the White House would like to distance her from them. But the extent to which she was in a position to influence the group’s court filings remains murky, prompting a dispute over whether more documents exist that should be turned over and how to interpret the ones already in the Senate’s hands. On Wednesday, for example, after the group turned over 300 pages of material to the Senate, a spokesman for the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said the material showed she had “deeper-than-previously thought involvement in developing the legal positions of the organization.”

GI seemingly seized in Afghanistan - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan3-2009jul03,0,6943594.story The apparent capture of an American soldier by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, believed to be the first such case in nearly eight years of warfare, presents U.S. military officials with potentially agonizing choices just as a major military offensive is underway in one of the most guerrilla-filled areas of the south. The soldier could provide insurgents with both a propaganda bonanza and a bargaining chip. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any group, but a number of militant commanders, not all of them affiliated with the Taliban, operate in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military said in a terse statement that the soldier had disappeared Tuesday, but it disclosed virtually nothing of the circumstances other than to say he was believed to have been captured. However, an American military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident, said that for unknown reasons, the soldier apparently left his base near the Pakistani border. Like most U.S. installations in the country's rugged eastern sector, the base is surrounded by hostile territory where a number of insurgent groups operate. The soldier was reported to have been in the company of several Afghans. "We are using all of our available resources to establish his whereabouts and provide for his safe return," said Army Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for American forces.

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Integrity of Federal ‘Organic’ Label Questioned - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203365.html Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula. The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products. Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture. Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest growing segment of the food industry. Half of the country's adults say they buy organic food often or sometimes, according to a survey last year by the Harvard School of Public Health.

U.S. Faces Resentment in Afghan Region - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/asia/03helmand.html?ref=world The mood of the Afghan people has tipped into a popular revolt in some parts of southern Afghanistan, presenting incoming American forces with an even harder job than expected in reversing military losses to the Taliban and winning over the population. Villagers in some districts have taken up arms against foreign troops to protect their homes or in anger after losing relatives in airstrikes, several community representatives interviewed said. Others have been moved to join the insurgents out of poverty or simply because the Taliban’s influence is so pervasive here. On Thursday morning, 4,000 American Marines began a major offensive to try to take back the region from the strongest Taliban insurgency in the country. The Marines are part of a larger deployment of additional troops being ordered by the new American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, to concentrate not just on killing Taliban fighters but on protecting the population. Yet Taliban control of the countryside is so extensive in provinces like Kandahar and Helmand that winning districts back will involve tough fighting and may ignite further tensions, residents and local officials warn. The government has no presence in 5 of Helmand’s 13 districts, and in several others, like Nawa, it holds only the district town, where troops and officials live virtually under siege.

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U.S. Troops Move Deeper Into Afghanistan’s Helmand Province; One Marine Killed - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200832.html The movement of the Marines to the town of Khan Neshin in the lower Helmand River valley is the most significant deployment of U.S. forces in areas near the Pakistani border with southern Afghanistan, and it reflects a growing concern among U.S. military and intelligence officials that much of the violence that has plagued the south is linked to a flow of fighters and munitions from Pakistan's Baluchistan region. The troops encountered roadside bombs and small-arms attacks, which resulted in the death of one Marine, but commanders opted to mute their return fire. In the first 24 hours of the operation, the Marines did not lob artillery or call for fighter planes to drop bombs. The drive to Khan Neshin is part of a Marine campaign to root out Taliban insurgents by restoring the authority of local officials and police departments in the Helmand River valley. The 4,000-strong operation -- one of the largest conducted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan -- is intended to demonstrate new strategies advocated by the Obama administration to turn around a struggling, seven-year-old war effort.

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Presidential pardons nullify victories against Afghan drug trade - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/presidential_pardons_nullify_victories_against_afghan_drug_trade/ When five drug traffickers in military uniforms were caught transporting heroin in a police truck in 2007, it was a victory for a dogged team of Afghan investigators and their US mentors who are waging a Quixotic battle against narcotics, the nation’s largest industry. The men were prosecuted by a special drug court that the US government has spent tens of millions of dollars developing as a bulwark against corruption. They were sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison. But in April, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pardoned the five men. One was the nephew of a powerful politician managing Karzai’s reelection campaign, and the presidential decree ordering their release notes that they had ties to a well-respected family, according to a senior Afghan official. Those pardons - and at least five others in recent weeks - have outraged US officials working to combat drug trafficking in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest supplier of heroin and opium, and raised fears that Karzai will set more traffickers free in a bid to curry favor with influential families before the presidential election on Aug. 20. “Karzai is pulling out all the stops in his bid to get reelected,’’ said Jake Sherman, a former UN official in Afghanistan who is now at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation.

Palestinians, Israel agree on Dead Sea - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/palestinians_israel_agree_on_dead_sea/ Israel and the Palestinian Authority compromised in the name of nature this week, teaming up at the last moment to support the Dead Sea in a contest to choose the world’s top seven natural wonders. Just days before the contest rules would have forced the Dead Sea’s elimination, Israel’s ministry of tourism took over as official sponsor from the Megilot Dead Sea Council, removing a big political obstacle blocking Palestinian participation. The famously buoyant Dead Sea, the world’s most saline lake, lies at the bottom of the Jordan Rift Valley at the lowest spot on earth, some 400 meters below sea level. The Palestinians had refused to form a sponsorship committee because Israel’s Megilot municipality covers occupied West Bank land, including Jewish settlements near the Dead Sea that it considers illegal.

Paul Krugman - That ’30s Show - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03krugman.html?ref=opinion O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that? Let’s do the math. Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole. And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The job figures weren’t the only bad news in Thursday’s report, which also showed wages stalling and possibly on the verge of outright decline. That’s a recipe for a descent into Japanese-style deflation, which is very difficult to reverse. Lost decade, anyone? Wait — there’s more bad news: the fiscal crisis of the states. Unlike the federal government, states are required to run balanced budgets. And faced with a sharp drop in revenue, most states are preparing savage budget cuts, many of them at the expense of the most vulnerable. Aside from directly creating a great deal of misery, these cuts will depress the economy even further.

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U.S. Confirms Inquiry Into Google Books Deal - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/technology/companies/03google.html?ref=business The Justice Department confirmed on Thursday that it was conducting an antitrust investigation into the settlement of a lawsuit that groups representing authors and publishers filed against Google. In a letter to the federal judge charged with reviewing the settlement, the Justice Department said it was reviewing concerns that the agreement could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. “At this preliminary stage, the United States has reached no conclusions as to the merit of those concerns or more broadly what impact this settlement may have on competition,” William F. Cavanaugh, a deputy assistant attorney general, said in the letter. “However, we have determined that the issues raised by the proposed settlement warrant further inquiry.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Obama Should Stop Mountaintop Mining - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203022.html Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse? If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly -- to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains -- encompassing about a million acres -- buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not -- obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas -- while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry's promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry's fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains -- with their impoverished and alienated population -- are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens.

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US highway deaths drop in quarter - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/03/us_highway_deaths_drop_in_quarter/ Fewer people died on the nation’s highways during the first three months of 2009 as motor vehicle fatalities continued to fall to levels not seen in nearly a half-century. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday about 7,689 motorists were killed in the months of January through March, a 9 percent decline from a year ago. Reporting ahead of the July 4 holiday, a busy period on the nation’s roadways, the government estimated 37,261 motorists died in 2008, the fewest since 1961. If the 2009 fatality trends continue, fewer than 31,000 people will die this year. Highway safety officials also reported a decline in the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It fell to 1.27 in 2008, the lowest on record, from 1.36 in 2007. The rate dropped to 1.12 during the first three months of 2009. Specialists have attributed the declines to the economic recession, record-high use of seat belts, and fewer people driving.

Tennessee Wins Ruling on Execution - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03death.html?ref=us A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a lower court’s finding that Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional. The case concerns Edward J. Harbison, who was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of an elderly woman. In 2007, as a result of Mr. Harbison’s appeals, the Federal District Court in Nashville found that Tennessee’s procedures for execution were unconstitutional, in part because of the potential that the process would cause unnecessary pain to the condemned. After that decision, however, the Supreme Court issued an opinion that largely supported lethal injection. The opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was one of several in a fractured decision and approved Kentucky’s process, which uses a sequence of three drugs. The opinion said a state with procedures “substantially similar to the protocol we uphold today” would pass muster.

A More Combative Leader Strives to Rebuild Big Labor - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03labor.html?ref=business Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., can boast of something unusual for a labor leader — one of his videos has more than 535,000 hits on YouTube. That video shows Mr. Trumka giving a stemwinder of a speech at a steel workers’ convention last year, telling union members it would be wrong — and stupid — to vote against Barack Obama because of his race. “There’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism — and it’s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge,” Mr. Trumka said. “It’s our special responsibility because we know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.” Mr. Trumka’s friends often say that speech lifted him out of semi-obscurity after spending the last 14 years taking a back seat to John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president. But now Mr. Trumka, a former coal miner and fierce critic of corporate America, is running all out to succeed Mr. Sweeney, who is retiring, as president of the nation’s main labor federation.

GM Bondholders Try to Block Firm’s Sale - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203787.html One of the main challengers to the proposed sale of General Motors on Thursday urged a federal bankruptcy judge to act as a check on an "overbearing" government and reject the restructuring plan pursued by the Obama administration. The government, pushing the limits of its power in stressful economic times, made a "conscious, strategic decision" to circumvent a traditional reorganization plan, said Michael Richman, an attorney for dissident GM bondholders. His comments came during closing arguments on the third and final day of hearings to approve the sale of the automaker's profitable assets to a new, leaner GM to be 61 percent owned by the federal government. Judge Robert Gerber adjourned the hearing late Thursday, after three days of marathon oral arguments and testimony. He did not indicate when he would render his decision.

Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03calif.html?ref=politics An ever-widening budget gap joined with intractable political paralysis to deliver California its biggest fiscal blow in decades on Thursday, when the state’s controller began printing i.o.u.’s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments. It was only the second time the state had adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression. The National Conference of State Legislatures had no record of any other state’s ever using them. It was unclear whether the i.o.u.’s, known as warrants, would be accepted by all of the banks in California, which were caught off guard by the move and seemed hesitant to entrust the state to repay the them — at an interest rate of 3.75 percent — in October, as promised. The controller, John Chiang, issued 28,742 warrants totaling $53.3 million. If state lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement by the end of August, the amount would grow to $4.8 billion. While the emergency move resulted from California’s combination of outsized budget gaps, unusual budget rules and a morass of financial obligations approved at the polls, the action was seen as a warning flag to other states that have failed to close their budgets this fiscal year because of the economic downturn.

In States Still Waiting for New Budgets, the Waiting Goes On - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03states.html?ref=politics Facing a long holiday weekend, elected officials who have been unable to pass budgets for their states made little progress on Thursday toward a resolution. Gov. Patrick J. Quinn of Illinois met behind closed doors for several hours with two dozen female legislators who had been invited to share their solutions for closing the state’s $9.2 billion budget gap. Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, has said he will not sign a budget unless it includes a 50 percent increase in the state income tax rate. Afterward, State Senator Pamela J. Althoff, a Republican from McHenry County who is opposed to a tax increase, said, “There’s not a single new suggestion I heard today, but there are some ideas we perhaps share.” Ms. Althoff added, “I apologize profusely to the people of the state until a budget is in place.”

Sheep getting smaller in Scotland due to climate change, study says - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-small-sheep3-2009jul03,0,4671661.story Along with polar icecaps and sandy beaches, sheep on a remote Scottish island are gradually shrinking as a result of global warming, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The finding offers unusual proof that large animals are already evolving to adapt to changes wrought by climate change, experts said. The average weight of sheep in the feral flock has been falling nearly 3 ounces per year since 1985, the researchers reported. The cumulative effect has been a 5% reduction in total body size. That trend had puzzled scientists because they knew that evolution clearly favored larger sheep that are better equipped to survive the harsh winters of Hirta, a rocky outpost more than 100 miles west of mainland Scotland. Now, using a sophisticated mathematical model, British and American researchers have concluded that warming temperatures have made it easier for scrawnier sheep to survive, thus reducing the average size of animals in the herd. "Environmental change is having a substantial influence on the population," said Arpat Ozgul, a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London and lead author of the report. That influence appears to have played out in a surprisingly intricate and counterintuitive manner, said UC San Diego biologist Kaustuv Roy, who wasn't involved in the study. For example, milder winters have helped the overall herd grow larger even as the average size of animals got smaller.

Editorial - More Jobs Lost - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri2.html?ref=opinion The jobs report for June should put a chill on hopes for an economic recovery anytime soon. And it makes a compelling case for more government stimulus, as unpopular as that idea may be in Washington. Americans all over the country are struggling. Last month, another 467,000 positions disappeared. In all, the economy is now coming up short by some 8.8 million jobs: since the recession began at the end of 2007, 6.5 million jobs have been lost and 2.3 million new jobs that were needed to keep up with population growth never materialized. Most of the $787 billion in stimulus spending approved in February — for education, health care, building projects and other fiscal relief — has yet to be spent. Over time, it is expected to preserve or create three million to four million jobs. But with job losses already far exceeding four million, that is unlikely to be enough to create a true recovery. President Obama and his advisers must start preparing now for what is sure to be a tough legislative fight over more stimulus.

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Editorial - After the Crackdown - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri1.html?ref=opinion Tragically, Iran’s government appears to have driven back the most significant challenge to its repressive rule since the 1979 revolution. First, the hard-line mullahs brazenly stole the election for the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When hundreds of thousands of Iranians protested, they sent their thugs to beat and shoot them. At least 20 people are dead, and hundreds of journalists, political activists and former government officials have been detained. Even before the elections, Iranians — likely the majority — were fed up with Mr. Ahmadinejad. They were sick of the corruption and incompetence. They wanted more say in how they are governed and more engagement with the world, including the United States. The regime’s refusal to listen has now exposed deep fault lines in Iranian society. Even some members of the clerical elite seemed to question the thuggery.

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Bad memories in Honduras - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/07/03/bad_memories_in_honduras/ WHEN SOLDIERS rousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from bed early Sunday morning and flew him off to exile in Costa Rica, they revived memories of earlier Latin American military coups, many of them backed by Washington. Their action may affect not only Honduran democracy, but also the political balance of power across Latin America and the regional standing of the United States. Fortunately, President Obama appears to appreciate what is at stake. He called “on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms,’’ and the rule of law. Even more important, his administration tried to head off the coup in advance.

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Pay-for-Chat Plan Falls Flat at Washington Post - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/media/03post.html?ref=politics For generations, The Washington Post has been a scrupulous watchdog over the capital’s cozy world of power networking. For a short time, it almost became the network’s host. The Post decided Thursday to cancel plans to charge lobbyists and trade groups $25,000 or more to sponsor private, off-the-record dinner parties at the home of its publisher, Katharine Weymouth, events that would have brought together lobbyists, business leaders, Post journalists and officials from the Obama administration and Congress. The revelation of the parties early Thursday morning by Politico.com appalled members of The Post newsroom and put the paper squarely in the cross hairs of journalism ethicists. In response, Ms. Weymouth canceled the first dinner, scheduled for July 21.

Early Word: A Snafu at The Washington Post - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/early-word-a-snafu-at-the-post/ Official Washington business may be closed for the holiday weekend, but the city is still buzzing about the news that The Washington Post made, and then had to cancel, plans to charge lobbyists and trade groups as much as $250,000 off-the-record access to “those powerful few” – a group that included the paper’s top reporters and editors as well as members of President Obama’s administration and Congress.

Washington Post scraps plans for ‘salons’ after uproar - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-washington-post3-2009jul03,0,6537672.story The Washington Post's publisher abruptly canceled a series of policy dinners Thursday that were to have been underwritten by lobbyists or corporations willing to pay thousands of dollars to be in the same room as journalists and lawmakers, saying the marketing department had misrepresented the newspaper's intent. Lawmakers who had been invited said they were not told the events would make money for the newspaper. But the Post had separately sent fliers seeking sponsors who would pay $25,000 for a single "salon" or $250,000 for 11 events. The concept raised questions about journalistic ethics. Rep. Jim Cooper's office said the Tennessee Democrat received an invitation this week to attend a dinner on July 21 at the house of Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican, was also among those asked to attend. In both cases, the invitations came as personal e-mails from Weymouth's office.

Air France Jet Was Intact When It Hit Surface of Atlantic, Investigators Say - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201409.html French crash investigators said Thursday they have determined that an Air France jetliner that plunged from a stormy sky on June 1 was intact when it smacked belly-first into the Atlantic Ocean at high speed, killing all 228 people aboard, but acknowledged they still have no clear idea what caused the disaster. Alain Bouillard, who is heading a probe by the French Investigation and Analysis Bureau, told a news conference that findings so far indicate that the four-year-old Airbus A330-200 broke into pieces only when it hit the surface of the water. No inflated life jackets have been found in a month of searching, he added, indicating that the 216 passengers and 12 crew members on Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris were probably unaware during their final minutes that they were speeding from 35,000 feet toward the deadly crash. But the key question -- what happened to cause the plane to plummet without any known warning -- was left wrapped in mystery and conjecture, offering nothing to reassure the thousands of summer holiday travelers scheduled to board one of hundreds of similar Airbus A330 long-haul passenger jets in use by airlines around the world. "Today we are indeed far from establishing the causes of the accident," Bouillard said at the bureau's headquarters near Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of Paris.

Ellen Goodman - Happy Dependence Day - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/03/happy_dependence_day/ THIS IS probably not the best week to air any reservations about the American passion for independence. After all, we don’t have fireworks for Dependence Day. We don’t hold parades to celebrate Interdependence Day. Our allegiance to independence as a nation is Yankee doodle dandy. But I’m wondering whether our ode to independence as a people is a bit over the top. We foster an unrealistic view of the way we live, not just in the designated years of caring for our children but in the undesignated years when we care for our elders. Maybe independence is too crisply defined as “exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; direction of one’s own affairs without interference.’’

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Yemenia Crash Stirs Calls for Stronger Watchdogs - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/africa/03plane.html?ref=world As the sole survivor of a flight that crashed near the island nation of Comoros arrived in Paris on Thursday, debate was brewing in Europe about whether aviation watchdogs needed more potent tools to guard against lax airline safety standards, especially in the developing world. Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of the Yemenia flight that crashed this week, was flown back to France on Thursday. The crash of the Yemenia flight on Tuesday that carried 153 passengers and crew members outraged Comorans in France, who said that the airline had long used substandard aircraft. The crash has prompted some transportation officials to call for a global “blacklist” that could shame unsafe airlines or ban them from operating. The sole survivor, Bahia Bakari, spent hours clinging to plane wreckage in the Indian Ocean not far from Moroni, the capital of Comoros. Bahia, who is 12, sustained a broken collarbone, as well as burns and bruises. Her mother died in the crash, and the girl was flown back to France on Thursday to be reunited with her father, Kassim Bakari.

Editorial - The House Eyes the Swamp - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri3.html?ref=opinion Self-investigation has never been a signature virtue of Congress. So taxpayers should closely monitor the House ethics committee’s inquiry into the lucrative relationships between defense appropriators and military contractors. The committee finally confirmed the inquiry — not yet a full-blown investigation — into suspicions that members and staffers earmarked hundreds of millions in defense contracts for favored companies in return for tens of millions in political donations. In a separate matter, the ethics committee opened an inquiry into whether Caribbean trips taken by Representative Charles Rangel and four other lawmakers violated House gift rules. It is encouraging to see such curiosity from the traditionally somnolent panel. The committee is being prodded to act by freshmen Democrats who were elected on promises of ethical reform. They have anxiously watched the criminal investigation into the PMA Group of lobbyists.

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Court Filing Shows Evidence Cheney Swayed White House Response to CIA Leak - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203608.html A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations. The administration's discussion of Wilson's link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial. A list of at least seven related conversations involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees at the Justice Department. In the filing, the officials argue that the substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in 2004 must remain secret.

Naval Academy Professor Challenges School’s Push for Diversity - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202588.html Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the academy's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it is a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation. The service academy has almost twice as many black, Hispanic and Asian midshipmen as it did a decade ago. Much of the increase has occurred in the past two years, with a blitz of 1,000 outreach and recruitment events across the country. But during the past two weeks, a faculty member has stirred debate by suggesting that the school's quest for diversity comes at a price. Bruce Fleming, a tenured English professor, said in a June 14 opinion piece in the Capital newspaper of Annapolis that the academy operates a two-tiered admission system that makes it substantially easier for minority applicants to get in. Academy leaders strenuously deny Fleming's assertion. Fleming served on the academy's admissions board several years ago.

Obama Should Heed Generals’ Troop Requests - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203283.html AS U.S. MARINES launched a major offensive in Afghanistan's Taliban-infested Helmand province yesterday, one problem was already apparent: There are not enough troops to properly carry out the Pentagon's new counterinsurgency strategy. The force is "a little light," Marine Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, its commander, told national security adviser James L. Jones in a meeting reported by The Post's Bob Woodward. "We don't have enough force to go everywhere." Those comments will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the attempts by U.S. commanders to turn around the Afghan war. The idea is to replicate the strategy that finally reversed American fortunes in Iraq: protecting the population rather than seeking out insurgents, while building the economy and political institutions. Though the Bush and Obama administrations approved new troop deployments that will double the U.S. force, the ratio of American and allied Afghan soldiers to the population is still well below that mandated by the Army's new counterinsurgency doctrine.

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Official Says Sanford Did Not Spend Money Improperly - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03sanford.html?ref=politics A review of travel and financial records showed that Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina did not spend public money improperly while conducting an extramarital affair, the chief of the State Law Enforcement Division said Thursday. Since Monday, the governor’s continuing revelations about the affair, including his admission that he had seen his lover more times than he initially acknowledged, have stepped up calls for his resignation and heightened support for an investigation into his travel records. The chief of the State Law Enforcement Division, Reginald Lloyd, said that the review of Mr. Sanford’s records was not a criminal inquiry, that the governor had cooperated and that there was no evidence of any crime. “Until we get some fact suggesting a criminal violation or the possibility of a violation,” Mr. Lloyd said, “SLED’s done. We don’t intend to be used in a political battle about the governor.”

Judge Throws Out Conviction in Cyberbullying Case - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03bully.html?ref=us A federal judge on Thursday threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman on charges of computer fraud for her role in creating a false MySpace account to dupe a teenager, who later committed suicide. The judge, George H. Wu, said that he was tentatively acquitting the woman, Lori Drew, of misdemeanor counts of gaining access to computers without authorization and that the ruling would be final when he issued his written decision. In November, a federal jury here convicted Ms. Drew of three misdemeanor charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law intended to combat computer crimes. Legal experts followed the case closely, saying it was the first time the statute had been used to prosecute a patron of a social networking site for abuses of the site.

India: Gay sex legal - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-gays3-2009jul03,0,2735442.story The Delhi High Court issued a landmark ruling Thursday decriminalizing homosexuality, a move that could bring more freedom to millions of people in this deeply conservative nation. The ruling said that treating relations between consenting adult homosexuals as a crime is a violation of basic human rights safeguarded under the Indian Constitution. The court decision amending an 1860s-era British Empire statute ostensibly applies only to Delhi. But activists said that given the capital territory's leadership position, they expect the ruling to influence courts across the country. "I think this is quite fantastic," said Anjali Gopalan, director of the Naz Foundation, an HIV/AIDS awareness group, one of the parties that submitted the lawsuit eight years ago. "It's a big step forward, although there are many more steps ahead." The decision inspired celebratory rallies in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and other major Indian cities. "This is going to impact the whole country," said A.J. Hariharan, founder of a gay rights group in Chennai, formerly Madras. "This will change the lives of millions of gays and lesbians in India."

The Internet isn’t tax-free - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-tax03-2009jul03,0,3596526.story California should require online sellers to collect sales taxes, not leave that job to the buyer.

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Edward Schumacher-Matos - Honduras Coup May Be Legitimate - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202684.html It is now clear that if the Honduran Supreme Court or Congress had used legal means such as impeachment before asking the army to remove President Manuel Zelaya, we would be calling events there a constitutional crisis rather than a coup d'etat. This would be especially true if Honduras were a larger country such as Brazil or Pakistan and its court, Congress, attorney general, human rights ombudsman and electoral commission were all saying afterward, as they do in Tegucigalpa, that the army moved legally in alliance with them. The Honduran army never took political control. Perhaps the Honduran leaders were constitutionally "lazy," as Chilean political scientist Patricio Navia mused. Certainly, they were being forced to act quickly by a president pushing to carry out an illegal referendum this Sunday in defiance of those constitutional institutions and his own party. But small countries are easy to punish in order to send messages, as Peter Hakim of the Inter-American Dialogue notes. The U.N. General Assembly voted unanimously to condemn the overthrow of Honduras's democratically elected president. Of course, the fact that only 90 of the world's nearly 200 nations are ranked by Freedom House as fully democratic suggests that many of the votes had more to do with the precedent of protecting the hides of incumbents than with democracy.

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Black Member Tests Message of Masons in Georgia Lodges - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03masons.html?ref=us The members of the Gate City Lodge No. 2 would like it known that Freemasonry, a centuries-old fraternal organization founded on the principles of the Enlightenment, is not racist. But some of their fellow Masons here in Georgia are spoiling the message. In June, the Worshipful Master, or leader, of the Gate City Lodge was served with complaints from two other lodges, whose Worshipful Masters were upset that Gate City had admitted a “nonwhite man” to its ranks. Although the rules of Freemasonry do not say that members must be white, and there are numerous Hispanics, Asians and other ethnicities represented in lodges across the state, the Grand Master of Georgia decreed that the complaints would be heard in a Masonic trial that could have resulted in expulsion of a lodge or members of it. In response, Gate City (the name is an old nickname for Atlanta) filed a lawsuit in state court seeking an injunction to prevent its charter from being revoked. The “nonwhite man” whose presence had caused such a fuss is Victor Marshall, a shy, 26-year-old African-American Army reservist who has been eagerly studying the secret catechisms of the Masons for almost a year. Mr. Marshall, who has the Army rank of specialist, said he was attracted to the Masons because of the group’s spirit of volunteerism.

Experts at Aspen Ideas weigh in on U.S.‘s role in the world | AspenTimes.com

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029971/1001/NONE The heavy hitters came out Thursday during the Aspen Ideas Festival, talking about big issues around the world and how the United States fits in. For more than four hours, a lineup including former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and James Baker, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, economist Hernando de Soto, biologist Eric Lander, Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, and deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg discussed myriad issues during “An Afternoon of Conversation” at the Benedict Music Tent. On the topic of America and the world, the three secretaries said they think President Obama has handled the crisis in Iran correctly. They also agree that the U.S. must continue to try to talk to the Iranian government to persuade them from backing off on its nuclear program. “You don't lose anything by talking to somebody,” Baker said. “You talk to your enemies, not your friends.”

Faithful pitch in on health care - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745262 A national coalition of liberal faith groups is pushing for "affordable health care for all families" through a radio ad campaign this week in Colorado and four other states. In Denver, the interfaith Metro Organizations for People has teamed with the Rev. Bill Calhoun of Montview Presbyterian Church to create radio ads. Calhoun is the voice in the Colorado radio ad, which, like the others, "remind lawmakers that the status quo on health care is not who we are as a nation" and that America can do better. "It is a sin that a nation as rich and great and compassionate as ours tolerates a health care system that leaves so many sick people without the care they need, and so many parents unable to raise healthy children," Calhoun said in a statement. The ad campaign began Tuesday and will run through Saturday in Colorado, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Carolina. Ads urge senators from these states to support reform that makes quality coverage affordable for every American family.

Bennet talking health reform at Denver church - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739888 Sen. Michael Bennet is headed to a Presbyterian church in Denver to talk about health care reform with a pastor pushing for change. Bennet meets today with the Rev. Bill Calhoun and his parishioners at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church. The meeting comes as Calhoun stars in radio ads on Christian stations this week calling for improvements to health care. Liberal-leaning religious groups have launched radio ads in four other states this week in which local pastors urge senators to back efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system. Today's meeting will include testimony from patients who want changes. Then, Bennet plans to lay out his vision for improving health care.

Perlmutter to talk economy with businesses in Arvada - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12739889 Rep. Ed Perlmutter is answering stimulus and economy questions from small business owners. The Democrat from Denver's suburbs is putting on a forum in Arvada today with small business owners and officials from the Small Business Administration. Topics include the economic climate and pending legislation affecting small business. Perlmutter serves on the Financial Services Committee and largely focuses on legislation related to business affairs.

Colorado wraps up first highway stimulus project | VailDaily.com

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029939/1002/NONE Colorado has wrapped up its first highway project financed with federal stimulus dollars with about a half-million to spare. The Colorado Department of Transportation said Thursday that the one-mile repaving project in Littleton was finished in a month. Engineers had estimated the job would cost $1.2 million but the winning bid came in at nearly half that — $678,000. Department spokeswoman Mindy Crane says the savings will be pooled with other money saved on jobs in the Denver area and spent on more stimulus projects. Colorado's $400 million in highway stimulus money was divided by among the state's six transportation regions.

Bank’s ag loans up for sale | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039985/1002/NONE The liquidation of New Frontier Bank continues. Qualified investors can now bid on about $750 million in agriculture loans from the collapsed bank. But changes in ownership of area dairies, feedlots or farms as a result will likely not distress the industry as much as many have feared. “The calls that I've had from investors out of state wanting more information about how to get involved in this process, from what I can tell, they have a true interest in operating agricultural entities. I think potentially, they will be here for the long haul,” said Les Hardesty, chairman of the Mountain Council of the Dairy Farmers of America, and an area dairy farmer who knows many agricultural borrowers from the bank.

The Pueblo Chieftain :: McInnis files for campaign committee

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d85cd2a32a008221549.txt Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis has filed the necessary documents with the Colorado Secretary of State's office to create his committee to campaign for governor in the 2010 election. A Republican, McInnis announced that the formation of the committee will enable him to begin raising funds. Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat elected in 2006, has indicated that he will seek re-election. McInnis is a native of Glenwood Springs and a resident of Grand Junction. He began serving the country as a police officer, then in the Colorado House of Representatives from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Pueblo. He decided to leave Congress and became affiliated with a major Denver law firm. Thursday, the campaign launched its official Web site, ScottMcInnisForGovernor.com.

Colorado Independent | Candidate McInnis moves mountains - from Canadian Rockies to Colorado

http://coloradoindependent.com/32533/candidate-mcinnis-moves-mountains-from-canadian-rockies-to-colorado What is it with Colorado politicians and their mountains? No, Mount McKinley isn’t Pikes Peak, and the Canadian Rockies are nowhere to be found in the Centennial State. Hours after launching his campaign Web site to much fanfare, official Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott McInnis yanked from the site a prominent graphic featuring a vista of Lake Louise, a resort nestled in the Canadian Rockies. The Canadian terrain appeared behind the question, “What do you want for the future of Colorado?” Soon after bloggers uncovered the geographic blooper, lovely Lake Louise vanished from the McInnis site, replaced with background shots of the Boulder Flatirons. A McInnis campaign spokesman didn’t return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment. Intrepid contributors to the political blog Colorado Pols uncovered the McInnis campaign’s graphic mixup Thursday afternoon.

Colorado Independent » McInnis set to begin legally running for governor

http://coloradoindependent.com/32524/mcinnis-set-to-begin-legally-running-for-governor Scott McInnis has made his bid for governor official — again. The former six-term GOP congressman from Grand Junction filed Wednesday with the state to begin legally fundraising for a 2010 run against Bill Ritter. McInnis filed to run with the secretary of state at the end of May after Colorado Ethics Watch alleged he had been engaged in illegal fundraising for weeks. On Wednesday, McInnis filed to set up a campaign committee. The herky-jerky false-starts that have so far characterized his campaign suggest the battle McInnis may face winning even his party’s nomination. As The Colorado Independent reported in May, McInnis will likely be competing for the nomination against his former staffer and current Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry.

Angling for a rematch on personhood - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12745765 Colorado voters in 2008 trounced an amendment that would have defined a fertilized human egg as a person, but supporters of the "personhood" battle are angling for a rematch in 2010. This time, though, they're avoiding the word "fertilization" in the amendment's language, saying that it confused voters, who may have visualized chicken eggs. "When we use 'fertilized egg,' it's a pejorative," said Keith Mason, director of Personhood USA, an Arvada- based organization supporting the measure and similar proposals across the country. Supporters on Thursday filed the proposed Colorado Personhood Constitutional Amendment with the state Legislative Council, the first step in getting an initiative petition approved for circulation to place it on the ballot in November 2010. If proponents of an initiative do not choose to revise their proposals after review and comment by Legislative Council staff, they then may file the language with the state's title board, which approves the ballot language voters would actually see.

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Source: JBS USA not a target of new wave of ICE audits | Greeley Tribune

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907039986/1002/NONE Immigration officials have not said which companies in Colorado are part of a nationwide crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants, but Greeley-based JBS USA likely is not one of them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday they would review employees' I-9 documents at 652 companies nationwide. Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for ICE, would not identify specific companies being audited by ICE, citing privacy issues. He said 20 firms in the four-state region of Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming are being audited. A JBS source said Greeley's JBS USA meat-packing plant isn't among the companies being targeted.

Colo. casinos hit jackpot with higher stakes - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745076 Colorado's casinos reported Thursday huge spikes in traffic and business on the first day of higher-stakes gambling. Shortly after the bet limits were raised and new games added at just past midnight, the Lodge and Gilpin casinos in Black Hawk had nearly three times more gamblers than they did on the same day last year. "It's fair to characterize the launch as successful," said John East, a vice president with Jacobs Entertainment, which owns the Lodge and Gilpin casinos. Gamblers were playing the new table games — craps and roulette — until well into the morning, East said. Casinos can now stay open 24 hours instead of having to close at 2 a.m. The maximum single bet has been raised from $5 to $100. Voters statewide approved the changes last fall.

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d845f34bce639234802.txt The streets were quiet Thursday morning in this former mountain mining community. A few tourists strolled up and down the sidewalks, occasionally ducking inside a shop or casino. Some of the town's frequent visitors pulled up a stool and tried their luck at the slot and poker machines. Sitting noticeably empty in some of the casinos were the new craps and roulette tables, which had been rolled out for the first time at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. But casino operators said it was a different story just after midnight Thursday. "It was a phenomenal night," said Nancy Darcy, a spokeswoman for the Brass Ass Casino. "Every table was full and it stayed that way until at least 4:30 this morning."

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Colorado Independent | Judge grants CSU motion; chancellor search tape to remain unreleased

http://coloradoindependent.com/32504/judge-grants-csu-motion-chancellor-search-tape-to-remain-unreleased Unbowed by a ruling two weeks ago in which a Larimer County judge found that Colorado State University violated Open Meetings laws, the CSU board and its lawyers fought an order demanding the release of audio tapes of the executive session where the board selected its own vice chairman, Joe Blake, as sole finalist for the new chancellor position. Judge Stephen Schapanski today granted CSU a stay of his order. The battle over the release of the tapes is part of a larger ongoing suit brought last month by The Colorado Independent, The Fort Collins Coloradoan and The Pueblo Chieftan alleging the university violated state transparency laws. Following a motion in the suit brought last month by the media organizations, Schapanski listened in private to a four-hour tape of the May 5 meeting. He said the board had clearly discussed Blake’s candidacy and made decisions about filling the new chancellor position behind closed doors in direct violation of laws intended to open those sorts of discussions to the public. The meeting and the decision to back Vice Chairman Blake’s candidacy raised questions immediately about the fairness of the process. Had a true variety of candidates been considered? What qualifications were most highly valued in the decision-making process? Who were the other candidates and how were they recruited?

Editorial: State system reboot not easy - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744983 The ghost of failed computer projects past reared its head again as the state unemployment system slowed to a crawl earlier this week, leaving Coloradans seeking benefits frustrated and confused. The state's techies got on the case and restored the system to normal operation within two days, which we were glad to see. The episode, however, raises questions about whether Colorado will ever be free of the antiquated networks and legacy of botched prior contracts that have so beleaguered the state's information systems. The answer is not entirely clear at this point, though progress has been made. But there are certainly some lessons to be learned from the recent computer troubles at the State Department of Labor and Employment. Don Mares, executive director of the state labor department, said CUBline Online, the system that dramatically slowed down, is just five years old.

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: Environmental group seeks halt to Comanche 3 unit

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d8598156c5834224487.txt An environmental group Thursday asked a judge to order Xcel Energy to stop construction on a coal-fired generating (plant), known as Unit 3, at its Pueblo Comanche Station. Xcel plans to finish construction and put the unit into operation later this year. It is to produce enough electricity to serve more than 500,000 residential customers. The group, WildEarth Guardians, alleges the facility violates the federal Clean Air Act because Xcel has not shown the unit will have required technology to limit emission of hazardous air pollutants. "This is a matter of preventing poisoning," WildEarth Guardians stated in a prepared statement. The group is based in Santa Fe, N.M., and has offices in Denver and in several western states. Several environmental groups wanted the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to cancel its approval of the Comanche 3 unit. They argued coal-fired plants produce enormous levels of greenhouse gases, endangering the world's environment.

Broadcasts on school buses run into static - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746439 Congress has ordered a Federal Communications Commission review of BusRadio, a controversial radio-programming system that targets kids riding on school buses — including some in the metro Denver area — with advertising and what some say is inappropriate music. BusRadio sends music and commercials over the Internet to school district servers that forward the programming to buses, using wireless transmitters. Douglas County, Denver and the Aurora school districts are among a handful in Colorado that use BusRadio. Supporters say the radio content calms the kids on what can at times be a hectic bus ride. But some parents say forcing their children to listen to commercials on the bus is akin to having their kids held hostage by corporate America. They also say the music is sometimes age-inappropriate.

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CDOT fails to meet minority hiring targets - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745859 Colorado transportation officials are lagging behind their minority hiring target for federal stimulus projects, prompting a protest that has led to an internal review. Since 2007, the state highway department also has fallen short of its goal to distribute 12.8 percent of its federally financed road work to companies primarily owned by blacks, Latinos and other groups deemed disadvantaged, hitting about 10 percent. At issue is whether the Colorado Department of Transportation is doing enough to meet recruitment goals under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program mandated by Congress. "I'm very hopeful that we can move this situation forward," said Helga Grunerud, executive director of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado.

Battlement Mesa residents want county to speak up | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029984/1001/NONE Although it seems a foregone conclusion in the making, the Garfield County commissioners will be asked on Monday to formally confirm that any gas drilling within the Battlement Mesa community boundaries must undergo the modern version of a special-use permit review before work can begin. “We're pretty sure that they've come around to our point of view, we just want to hear them say it publicly,” said Paul Light, a Battlement Mesa resident and board member of two citizen action groups — the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the Western Colorado Congress. Light said there had been indications that one of the commissioners, whom he declined to identify, believed that the county has no authority concerning efforts to find and pump natural gas in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, it is the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that issues permits and monitors the industry for compliance with state and local regulations.

Gas seeps, drilling to be subjects at COGCC meetings in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029981/1001/NONE State regulators of the oil and gas industry will be in Glenwood Springs twice this month to discuss a variety of controversial subjects, ranging from pollution coinciding with gas-drilling activities to plans for setting up drilling rigs in a residential community. On July 8, the COGCC will hold a special meeting at Battlement Mesa to talk about plans by Antero Resources to drill wells within the boundaries of the community. Antero has announced plans to build 10 well pads, and drill up to 20 wells from each pad, at various locations throughout the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development. The community is located south of the Colorado River adjacent to the town of Parachute, approximately 40 miles west of Glenwood Springs. According to Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, the meeting is intended to provide information about the commission's review process relative to Antero's plans, and the opportunities for public input as part of that process.

GJSentinel.com: Montrose County to review proposal for uranium mill

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_3a_Montrose_uranium.html The Montrose County Commission will soon begin its review of a proposed uranium mill in the county’s West End. The proposed Piñon Ridge mill won a unanimous recommendation Wednesday from the county planning commission, culminating a series of meetings that extended late into the night on two occasions before the commission vote. The county commission is expected to conduct a public hearing in the West End within 30 days of the planning commission vote. Opponents of the plan were joined Wednesday by actress Darryl Hannah, who maintains a home in nearby San Miguel County, and told a reporter for the Montrose Daily Press that she was “pretty concerned about short-term thinking leading to a disaster.”

Telluride Daily Planet - Uranium mill near Paradox gets planning permit

http://telluridenews.com/articles/2009/07/02/news/doc4a4d6b6ccb298397287659.txt Montrose County made a move into the future — or the past, depending on perspective — when its planning commission unanimously approved a uranium mill in Paradox Valley Wednesday night. The Piñon Ridge Mill has to be approved by the county commissioners and state and federal regulatory agencies. The area near the Utah border was a hub of uranium mining at the beginning of the atomic age. If a mill is built, it could revive an industry that gave its name to the town of Uravan. But the threat of radiation and pollution worries residents who live nearby. A crowd of about 75 came to the Montrose County Fairgrounds and spoke overwhelmingly against the mine, parading to the podium to protest what they clearly saw as a threat to their health, water and way of life. “If they contaminate our ground water, what happens then?” said Paradox’s Marie Moore. “This is my life. You don’t even live there. You don’t even know.” Daryl Hannah, fresh off an arrest in West Virginia protesting coal mining, showed up. It’s not often the chair of the planning commission, David Laursen, tells a Hollywood actress, “Daryl, can you just sit for a second? We want to get through this.” But, as Hannah stated, she lives in Placerville, and said this was a regional issue, not just a county issue.

Darryl Hannah decries proposed Colo. uranium mill - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12741939 Actress Darryl Hannah is speaking out against a proposed uranium and vanadium mine in southwest Colorado. Hannah, who grew up in the area and has a home in San Miguel County, spoke Wednesday at a meeting of the planning commission in adjacent Montrose County, where Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. wants to build the mill. The site is about 225 miles southwest of Denver. Hannah told the commission she's concerned "about short-term thinking leading to a disaster." The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend a special-use permit for the mill, but the project has other hurdles to clear.

Grant would fuel use of natural gas in state - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12745078 Colorado is angling for $10 million in federal funds to expand the use of compressed natural gas as a vehicle fuel. The grant from the U.S. Department of Energy would be part of a $27.6 million project to add five fueling stations and 68 natural gas-powered buses and trash trucks in the state. "The biggest challenge in promoting compressed natural gas is getting enough infrastructure in place and enough vehicles to increase the volume of the fuel being consumed," said Stacey Simms, project manager in the Governor's Energy Office.

Group invests in state’s health - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744880 The Colorado Health Foundation announced four grants totaling $50 million to make investments in the state's key health care organizations. "These significant grants represent investments that we believe will contribute most to meeting the state's immediate health care needs," said Anne Warhover, chief executive of the foundation, in a statement. "(They also) build the necessary infrastructure for Colorado to become the healthiest state in the nation."

Business as usual for 2nd Brigade in Iraq | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/kievenaar-57832-basra-soldiers.html In Basra, June 30 was just another day for most soldiers with Fort Carson's 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division. The day marked the pullout of American troops from urban settings in Baghdad and other cities and the end of unilateral U.S. offensives. But Col. Butch Kievenaar, the brigade's commander, said his soldiers have been letting the Iraqis take the lead in Basra for months, with the Americans acting as trainers and occasionally backing their allies up in firefights. "It didn't mean much of a change for our soldiers from what we have been doing," Kievenaar said of the new agreement that paves the way for American withdrawal. "It is another milestone in which we see the security forces and people of Iraq taking charge." Kievenaar's brigade went to Iraq last fall and was first assigned to Diwahniyah, south of Baghdad, before replacing British troops in Iraq's port city of Basra, near the Kuwaiti border. While sectarian attacks in Baghdad have been on the rise, the insurgency in Basra has faded since a 2008 offensive crushed a Shiite uprising there.

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GJSentinel.com: Bank, mail service available in advance of Fourth

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_7a_holiday_closures.html The extended Independence Day weekend begins today, and while several services are halted and buildings shuttered, not everything has ground to a halt.

Craig Daily Press / CNCC sees tuition increase by 9 percent

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2009/jul/03/cncc_sees_tuition_increase_9_percent/ The state legislature approved Colorado community colleges, including Colorado Northwestern Community College, to raise tuition by 9 percent in preparation for probable cuts in state funding, according to the Colorado Community College System. Amid state budget cuts for higher education, CNCC has to raise costs to cover growing enrollment. “We make a concerted effort to keep tuition raises as low as we can,” CNCC President John Boyd said. “But it’s like any other business, we have to pay for what we are doing.” Last year, CNCC’s gross income was above the state average for community colleges, but the school still relies on state funding to offset costs. The state cut $600,000 this year from CNCC’s funding. However, almost all of that was made up in stimulus money.

Setting high standards a must for today’s children - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744984 If today's children are going to succeed tomorrow, high expectations must be set for them. And if our country is going to thrive in the 21st century, high school graduation rates hovering around 50 percent in some areas just won't cut it. That's why we were pleased to see the Denver Public Schools board recently raise expectations for its students — even if the goals seem optimistically out of reach. DPS wants to increase its graduation rate by 5 percent each year, reaching 82 percent by 2012. The idea is to push more high school students to take and pass advanced placement tests and college-level courses, while implementing stricter graduation requirements.

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Frontier to mark 15th year - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744864 Frontier Airlines will celebrate its 15th anniversary Sunday with employee events, although no public festivities are planned. The Denver-based airline is the second-largest carrier at Denver International Airport, with 5,000 employees and 350 daily flights to more than 50 destinations in the U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica. The original Frontier operated in Denver for 40 years before it was purchased in 1993. The current airline was launched July 5, 1994, with 180 employees and two jets on routes between Denver and Bismarck, Grand Forks and Minot, N.D.

Rocky Mtn. Independent to debut Monday - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744862 A Denver daily Web magazine led by former staffers of the defunct Rocky Mountain News and others plans to officially launch Monday. A dozen equity owners, about a dozen freelancers and partner blogs are providing content for the Rocky Mountain Independent. A spokesman wouldn't say how much owners have invested but said it is enough to fund three months of operations.

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The Pueblo Chieftain :: State agrees to audit of Cesar Chavez school network

http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/local/doc4a4d84db38399257582558.txt The Pueblo City Schools board of education voted Thursday night to spend up to $80,000 for the Colorado Department of Education to conduct an independent audit of the Pueblo-based Cesar Chavez Network. The network oversees several schools, including Pueblo schools Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High school. Pueblo City Schools holds the charter for those two schools. The audit will look into the testing and administration practices of the schools within CCN. Board President Stephanie Garcia said the audit will be done in cooperation with CDE, Pueblo City Schools and the Charter School Institute. The three entities will share in the cost of the audit.

Thousands appeal property values | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/news/property-57863-appeals-equalization.html Nearly 10,000 El Paso County property owners appealed their property value following the latest reappraisal. Of the 9,499 appeals filed, 64 percent received an adjustment of some kind, Assessor Mark Lowderman said Thursday. Most of the appeals, 5,526, involved residential property. Industrial property drew the fewest, at 60. The appeals that were granted would mean $89,000 less tax money for the county, based on its current property tax rate. Board of Equalization hearings start Monday and are scheduled to run through Aug. 6. The deadline to file for a Board of Equalization hearing is July 15.

GJSentinel.com: GJ firms foresee more job cuts

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/02/070309_1a_Chamber_survey.html Thirty-one percent of respondents to a new Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce survey expect to eliminate staff at their businesses. The poll wrapped Tuesday with responses from 399 local business professionals. In a November 2008 chamber poll, 22 percent of local employers planned to decrease staff numbers. Local governments are hoping to avoid layoffs through budget-cutting measures other than layoffs. The city of Grand Junction has reassigned some personnel from departments with decreased workload to departments with increased workloads, said city spokeswoman Sam Rainguet. Mesa County department heads have been instructed to fill an empty position only when necessary and, unlike past years, supervisors were not allowed to give merit-based pay increases to employees.

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Lawsuit claims false arrest by Glenwood Springs police | PostIndependent.com

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20090703/VALLEYNEWS/907029986/1001/NONE A former Aspen resident claims in a lawsuit that his constitutional rights were violated during a 2008 arrest by Glenwood Springs police. Gerard Michael Vuolo, 52, filed a complaint in Garfield County District Court on May 22, alleging that he was falsely arrested in September 2008 for unlawful sexual contact. Vuolo, who listed a Sedona, Ariz., address in the complaint, was arrested on Sept. 10, 2008, at a Glenwood Springs laundromat. The allegations of unlawful sexual contact stemmed from an earlier incident that allegedly occurred between Vuolo and an employee at the Smoker Friendly store in Glenwood Springs, according to the complaint. Vuolo was booked into the Garfield County Jail and later released on bond, the complaint stated. The charges were dropped and the case was ultimately dismissed in April, according to court clerk officials.

Sales taxes continue decline in Boulder, Broomfield counties : Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/02/sales-taxes-continue-decline-boulder-broomfield-co/ Through the first four months of the year, area sales tax revenues continued to reflect the economic malaise and sluggish consumer spending as the majority of cities and towns within Boulder and Broomfield counties recorded declining collections. In the city of Boulder, sales tax revenues through April were down 5.2 percent, a fairly comparable decline from the prior month’s year-to-date figures, according to Boulder’s most recent sales tax report. Finance officials said it is too early to project trends, noting sales in April 2008 were “extremely strong.” Combined with revenue from use taxes — which can be considered more volatile because some are generated from one-time events — Boulder recorded a 2.5 percent year-to-date decrease. City officials have projected retail sales tax and use tax drops of 1 percent and 6 percent, respectively, said Duane Hudson, deputy finance director and controller. Practically all retail sectors experienced declining revenues, with areas such as home furnishings and consumer electronics taking the biggest hits, according to the report.

NOREEN: Higher taxes, more fees? Sure, that’ll raise money | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/tax-57833-city-committee.html A Sustainable Funding Committee has been directed by city hall to explore ways to increase city revenue. Some of the suggestions contained in the panel's 169-page report (see the full report on my blog) might seem outlandish, but remember that part of the committee's charge is to think outside the box. That's because the city's depleted cashbox can't be expected to cover rising costs as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights ratchets down revenue. It is inevitable and inescapable that a direct result of TABOR is that tax increase proposals will become more and more specific. Whether such tax increases are approved by voters or not, another reality is that governments will increase existing fees while inventing new ones. TABOR backers like to argue this isn't the case, but when they do, they are either terminally ignorant or they are simply lying to you.

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First Data and BofA team up for venture - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_12744881 Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp. could eventually end up processing more than a billion electronic transactions a month generated through a new joint venture with Bank of America. But the real payoff from the new Banc of America Merchant Services partnership might come in popularizing new payment methods such as cellphones and electronic wallets through Bank of America's huge branch network. "That is where this gets very powerful because obviously the bank and obviously First Data have been working on next-generation payment types and are investing in those, and this is an opportunity to bring those together and do it collaboratively," said Tom Bell, chief executive of the newly formed company, in a conference call last week.

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5,700 may be at risk for hepatitis C in Colorado - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_12746614 A Rose Medical Center operating room technician who was fired after failing a drug test for a powerful pain medication may have exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis C. The technician, infected with hepatitis C, is charged with swapping her used dirty syringes, refilled with saline solution, for ones containing the painkiller fentanyl. Hospital officials said they knew the technician had the virus when she was hired. She began work Oct. 21, 2008. She was fired April 13. Rose is offering free testing to all people who had surgery in the main hospital or the Wolf Building between those dates. Letters will be sent to more than 4,700 former patients. Maternity and emergency room patients are not affected.

Springs surgery tech suspected of exposing thousands to hepatitis C | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

http://www.gazette.com/articles/parker-57838-surgery-rose.html Federal officials Thursday warned that about 6,000 surgery patients, including 1,000 at a Colorado Springs surgery center, are at risk of having been infected by an operating room technician with hepatitis C. On Thursday, federal authorities filed criminal charges in U.S. District Court in Denver against Kristen Diane Parker, a former scrub technician at Rose Medical Center in Denver and Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs. According to the criminal complaint, Parker - a former heroin addict - admitted swapping her own dirty syringes filled with saline solution for syringes filled with Fentanyl, a narcotic 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug is supposed to be used to help major post-surgery patients manage pain. Instead, they got no relief while Parker injected herself with the painkiller at home and in the hospital bathrooms before and after a surgery, according to the seven-page complaint.

Suzanne Handler - Immigrant neighbors fly the flag - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12744989 I recently spent a few days in the Windy City, and during that time I happened to read an article in the Chicago Tribune (June 11, 2009) about a trash hauler named Jeff Olson. Olson, 34, has made it his personal mission to rescue American flags from landfills in Elgin, Ill. The story of his patriotism and commitment to save over 250 Old Glories from their inevitable demise reminds me of another flag story much closer to home. My neighbors also love America, and they display that love almost every day of the year. Barring a blizzard or winds of tornadolike velocity, the flag of our nation flies unfettered on their property — a symbol of the pride they feel for their adopted country and in appreciation for all the blessings it offers those fortunate enough to live here. It's not unusual for Americans to be complacent about the freedoms we perceive as our birthright: equality, free speech, universal education, personal security and unlimited opportunities, to name a few. In pursuit of these liberties, and to escape the many injustices of an apartheid government, my neighbors emigrated from South Africa in 1988. With their two young children and nine suitcases (a container of household goods would arrive by ship seven months later), they entered the U.S. and began the "enormously difficult," decade-long quest to become American citizens.

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Job Losses Dampen Hopes for Economic Recovery - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200354.html Mounting job losses rattled hopes yesterday that the economy is on track to grow later this year, showing that prospects for American workers are terrible -- and still getting worse. Employers reduced their payrolls by 467,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said, far more than forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent. And last week, another 614,000 people applied for unemployment insurance benefits. The number of job losses had decreased every month since January before spiking again in June, and economists think it is highly likely that the jobless rate will hit double-digits later this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people working part time who want full-time work and those who have given up looking for a job, has already risen to 16.5 percent. The nation now has the same number of jobs it did in 2000, meaning that nine years of employment gains have disappeared. The stock market fell steeply on the news yesterday, with the Standard and Poor's 500-stock index off 2.9 percent. European stock markets fell sharply as well, after the European Central Bank left its target interest rate unchanged and its president indicated that he expects a recovery to begin in the middle of next year. Investors have wanted the bank to fight the recession more aggressively, which it seems disinclined to do.

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DHS Cybersecurity Plan Will Involve NSA, Telecoms - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve "monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic," and Department of Homeland Security officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems. But the program has provoked debate within DHS, the officials said, because of uncertainty about whether private data can be shielded from unauthorized scrutiny, how much of a role NSA should play and whether the agency's involvement in warrantless wiretapping during George W. Bush's presidency would draw controversy. Each time a private citizen visited a "dot-gov" Web site or sent an e-mail to a civilian government employee, that action would be screened for potential harm to the network. "We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has. But . . . they will be guided, led and in a sense directed by the people we have at the Department of Homeland Security," the department's secretary, Janet Napolitano, told reporters in a discussion about cybersecurity efforts.

Jobless Rate Climbs to 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/economy/03jobs.html?ref=business The American economy lost 467,000 more jobs in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent in a sobering indication that the longest recession since the 1930s had yet to release its hold. “The numbers are indicative of a continued, very severe recession,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh. “There’s nothing in here to show that the economy and the market are pulling out of the grip of recession.” The Labor Department’s monthly snapshot of employment, released Thursday, challenged visions of a recovery already taking root. The numbers intensify pressure on the Obama administration to show returns on programs aimed at improving national fortunes — not least its $787 billion stimulus plan. Some economists are now calling for another dose of government spending to stimulate the economy, though the White House maintains that enough money is in the pipeline already. “Not all the recovery money has been put to work yet,” said the labor secretary, Hilda L. Solis. “We’re making progress.” But Ms. Solis acknowledged that joblessness was already much worse than the administration projected in January when it created its stimulus spending bill, suggesting then that joblessness would peak at about 8 percent.

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Grand Jury Inquiry on Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03inquire.html?ref=politics Current and former top Central Intelligence Agency officers have appeared before a federal grand jury in Virginia as part of an 18-month investigation into the agency’s destruction of 92 videotapes depicting the brutal interrogations of two Qaeda detainees. The witnesses recently called by the special prosecutor, former government officials said, include the agency’s top officer in London and Porter J. Goss, who was C.I.A. director when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005. The grand jury testimony of C.I.A. officers is further evidence that, despite President Obama’s pledge not to punish agency operatives for their role in the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, the shadow of the controversial program still looms over the agency’s daily operations. The court appearances are tied to a criminal investigation led by John L. Durham, whom the Justice Department appointed in January 2008 to investigate the destruction of the tapes. The tapes had shown C.I.A. officers using harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, on two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Justice Dept. Seeks More Time to Review Report on Interrogations - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203548.html The Justice Department asked a federal court yesterday for two more months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's interrogation program before releasing a new version of the document to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued to make it public. The May 2004 report, which was prepared by the agency's inspector general and runs to more than 200 pages, provides a "comprehensive summary and review" of the agency's program, according to a Justice Department letter filed yesterday in federal court in New York. The Washington Post reported last month that the prospect of revealing details of the interrogation program has alarmed some CIA officials, who fear damage to counterterrorism operations and to cooperation with other intelligence agencies. The officials are pressing for the report to be heavily redacted, as it was when a version was released last year. The Justice Department letter said the CIA report could be vetted only after the department reviews 318 other documents that the ACLU is also seeking, including CIA cables and memos.

Before Russia Trip, Obama Lauds Medvedev at Putin’s Expense - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/europe/03moscow.html?ref=world President Obama said Thursday that Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia still had “one foot” in the cold war and needed to move on, a provocative assessment for an American leader just days before traveling here for the first time since taking office. Mr. Obama distinguished Mr. Putin from President Dmitri A. Medvedev, his hand-picked successor, who was elected last year and is the object of much speculation, given the unusual power-sharing arrangement here. Unlike Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama said, Mr. Medvedev recognizes that it is time for the two cold war antagonists to put the past behind them. “It’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old cold war approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated — that it’s time to move forward in a different direction,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think Medvedev understands that,” he said. “I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.”

Iran’s Ahmadinejad faces diplomatic isolation - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-ostracize3-2009jul03,0,3454095.story Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a much-disputed reelection. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament.

Iranian cleric says British Embassy employees will be tried - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran4-2009jul04,0,7171229.story Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, says Iran's enemies 'made an effort to poison the people' during post-election unrest. European Union nations consider pulling ambassadors from Tehran.

Honduran Leadership Stands Defiant - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200381.html Officials in the new Honduran government led by interim President Roberto Micheletti said that they were prepared to hunker down for weeks or months and that they could survive economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and even the condemnation of their closest ally, the United States, which has played an outsize role in the history of Honduras for a century. Micheletti, however, said he was open to one compromise: moving presidential elections up from November to an earlier date in a bid to soften outside condemnation of the coup and keep Hondurans from turning toward violence. "Since I have no desire to run for president myself, you can believe me when I say that what we want is a legal, orderly transfer of power," Micheletti told The Washington Post. José Miguel Insulza, head of the Organization of American States, said he would fly to Honduras on Friday and insist on the return of Zelaya, who was seized by troops at dawn Sunday and flown to exile in Costa Rica.

OAS chief, en route to Honduras, calls economic sanctions likely - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2009/07/03/oas_chief_en_route_to_honduras_calls_economic_sanctions_likely/ A top diplomat said yesterday that he is heading to Honduras to demand the return of the president toppled at gunpoint, a mission he said is likely to meet rejection, bringing diplomatic and economic punishment for the impoverished Central American nation. The head of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said he plans to travel to Honduras today to demand the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup Sunday. “I will do everything I can,’’ Insulza said at a summit of Caribbean leaders in Guyana. “But I think it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days. We are not going to Honduras to negotiate. We are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing.’’ The interim government of Roberto Micheletti has shown little willingness to do so, contending that the army acted legally on orders of Congress and the Supreme Court when it raided Zelaya’s house amid gunfire and deported him, still in his nightshirt.

El Nino more like Los Ninos, weather study finds - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-weather4-2009jul04,0,5854766.story El Nino, the seasonal Pacific Ocean warming that affects the world's weather, may not be just one little boy -- it seems to be two little boys. Two distinct patterns of warming occur in the Pacific Ocean, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and their frequencies have been changing in recent decades. Tracking one of these two events could yield earlier, more-accurate predictions of seasonal North Atlantic hurricanes. The periodic warming (El Nino) and cooling (La Nina) of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation and affects global weather patterns. El Nino, which occurs about every three to five years, is an ocean warming that begins in the early summer months and that reaches its peak in December.

Key Senate Democrats unveil plans for health care bill - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-02-democrats-health-care_N.htm Senate Democrats unveiled new details of a plan to revamp the nation's health care system Thursday, including a public, government-run insurance program and a $750-per-employee annual fee on companies that do not offer health benefits. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a leading architect of the legislation, said the new bill will cost $611 billion over the next decade — lower than an earlier $1 trillion estimate — and that he hoped his committee could have its version completed next week. "This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president's goals," Dodd said today of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill's cost. "We believe people ought to be able to keep [insurance] plans they like and that people ought to have choices." In a statement, President Obama said the bill "reflects many of the principles I've laid out" and he praised the committee for including a controversial public insurance option that he said would "make health care affordable by increasing competition."

Revisions to Health Bill Are Unveiled by Democrats - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/health/policy/03health.html?ref=politics To warm words from President Obama, the Democratic leaders of the Senate health committee unveiled a revised plan Thursday to provide health coverage to nearly all Americans. The plan would require most employers to offer benefits to their workers or pay fees to the government and would create a public competitor to insurance companies. The proposal clears the way for the committee to vote on a package next week as the House and the Senate hustle to pass separate health bills this month before Congress leaves on its August break. But a second Senate panel, the Finance Committee, is still struggling to reach consensus. The health committee’s blueprint builds on an incomplete version that was much criticized two weeks ago when the Congressional Budget Office reported that it would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and still leave up to 37 million Americans uninsured. That budget report was widely considered a setback for a health care overhaul, Mr. Obama’s top domestic priority. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the health committee chairman, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut subsequently filled in details of the plan and scaled back subsidies that would help low-income people buy insurance.

Obama, Party Tout Lower Figure for Health Reform - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203914.html Senate Democrats and President Obama, trying to assuage fears about the cost of health reform, yesterday touted new estimates that put the price tag for one bill at $611 billion over the next decade. But the measure drafted by the Senate health committee falls far short of Obama's goal of providing insurance to virtually every American. Analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, released in a letter yesterday, shows that it would cover just 39 percent of uninsured Americans in 2019 -- or about 21 million of the 54 million people expected to lack coverage if no change is made. "The figures presented in this letter do not represent a formal or complete cost estimate for the draft legislation," CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote. The draft legislation does not include details on how to pay for expanded coverage or administrative fees. The latest missive from the budgetary scorekeeper is part of a wonky mini-drama over the struggle to meet Obama's promise to enact legislation that greatly expands health coverage without adding to the federal deficit.

Kennedy, Dodd unveil trimmer Senate healthcare bill - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/07/03/kennedy_dodd_unveil_trimmer_senate_healthcare_bill/ Americans who refuse to buy medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a healthcare overhaul bill unveiled yesterday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Obama’s top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines would raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals. People would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now, and the government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families. But those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties, called “shared responsibility payments,’’ set at least at half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. As in Massachusetts, the legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines.

Obama Supports ‘‘Robust’ Protection for Catholic Health-Care Workers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202451.html President Barack Obama said today that he still favors a "robust" federal policy protecting health-care workers who have moral objections to performing some procedures even though he plans to roll back a Bush administration rule that expanded such protection. Speaking to eight religion reporters at the White House before his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI next Friday, Obama sought to reassure Catholic health-care workers that they would not be forced to perform abortions and other procedures that violate the Church's teachings. Obama said he is a "believer in conscience clauses" and supports a new policy that would "certainly not be weaker" than the rules in place before the expansion late in President George W. Bush's administration. Obama's comments were part of a broad interview that touched on issues including his hopes for his meeting with the pontiff, abortion and his struggle to choose a home church for him and his family. Obama's trip to the Vatican will coincide with his participation in the Group of Eight summit, a meeting of leaders of major industrial nations, Wednesday to next Friday.

Senator Grassley Asks Aetna About Limited Health Policy - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03aetna.html?ref=politics Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican taking a lead role in the health care debate, sent a letter Thursday to the insurer Aetna asking for details about a policy it sold to a man in Texas that left him owing nearly $200,000 in medical bills. The man, Lawrence Yurdin, age 64, was included in a front-page article in The New York Times on Tuesday about the many people whose insurance coverage does not protect them from financial ruin in the case of a medical crisis. Although Mr. Yurdin and the hospital where he received heart treatments say they both understood that the Aetna policy covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the medical care he received. He and his wife, Claire, filed for personal bankruptcy in December. Senator Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has also investigated some of the health plans that another insurer, the UnitedHealth Group, sold through AARP, the advocacy group for older people. Those plans, which also had sharp limits on coverage, are no longer being sold.

New White House Office to Redefine Urban Policy - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201410.html Once upon a time, when cities were poor and suburbs were rich, "urban policy" meant programs to alleviate poverty. But in the last few decades, the cities and suburbs turned inside out. Poverty spread in the aging suburbs, as many encountered rising immigration, unemployment and crime. Wealth flooded once again to the cities, as urban living and enterprise came back in vogue. City and suburb started to look economically alike. Now President Obama has created the Office of Urban Affairs, which seeks to redefine the word "urban." It aims to establish a policy agenda not just for inner cities, but for the suburbs that surround them, and it views these metropolitan regions as the country's economic engines. "Part of our discussion as a country will be, 'What is urban?' " said Adolfo Carrión Jr., Office of Urban Affairs director. "We want to essentially tease out what the elements of a national agenda ought to be." In his most definitive statements laying out the office's work, Carrión said in an interview that he hopes to spark a national conversation about urban needs. He said he plans to bring agencies together to change urban growth patterns and foster opportunity, reduce sprawl, and jump-start the economy.

In Iraq, Biden to Press Officials to Forge Progress - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html?ref=politics Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. landed in Baghdad on Thursday, beginning a two-day diplomatic mission that he said was intended to “re-establish contact” with Iraqi leaders and prod them toward settling internal disputes over oil revenues and political power-sharing. Mr. Biden’s surprise trip, just days after American combat forces officially withdrew from Iraqi cities, underscores the concern in the White House about the fragility of the security situation. President Obama has asked Mr. Biden to serve as a kind of unofficial envoy to the country, and the vice president said this would be his first in a series of trips to the region. The trip is unusually long for such a high-level official; when Mr. Obama visited Iraq, he spent just a few hours here, and President George W. Bush did not spend more than a day. But Mr. Biden said Iraq was at a pivotal moment, “the moment where a lot of Iraqis cynically believed we’d never keep the agreement.” He said the White House wanted to send a message to Iraqi leaders that it was engaged at the highest levels.

S.E.C. May Reinstate Rules For Short-Selling Stocks - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03shorts.html?ref=business They have been reviled as the bad hats of Wall Street, nefarious traders who cashed in on the market collapse and, some insist, helped precipitate it. Now short-sellers, the market skeptics who correctly called last year’s downturn, are coming under even more unwanted scrutiny, this time from federal regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission appears poised to reverse itself and reinstate rules that would make shorting stocks — that is, betting their prices will decline — somewhat more difficult. Whether the S.E.C. will go far enough to satisfy the many critics of short-sellers is far from certain. The controversial role of these investors has divided not only the financial industry, but also federal regulators. As the S.E.C. considers its options, the debate is heating up.

U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?ref=politics Unlike the approach of the Bush administration, which brought criminal charges in its final two years against many illegal immigrant workers, the new effort makes broader use of fines and other civil sanctions, federal officials said Thursday. Federal agents will concentrate on businesses employing large numbers of workers suspected of being illegal immigrants, the officials said, and will reserve tough criminal charges mostly for employers who serially hire illegal immigrants and engage in wage and labor violations. “These actions underscore our commitment to targeting employers that cultivate illegal work forces by knowingly hiring and exploiting illegal workers,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, said it had sent notices announcing audits of hiring records, like the one it conducted at American Apparel, to 652 other companies across the country. Officials said they were picking up the pace of such audits, after performing 503 of them in 2008.

McCain, Feingold Team Up Again Over FEC - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202959.html Seven years after their landmark campaign finance legislation became law, Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold are reuniting under the banner of spending reform at a time when restrictions have come under fire both in the courts and at the embattled Federal Election Commission. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Feingold (D-Wis.) announced this week that they were blocking the appointment of Democratic union lawyer John Sullivan to the FEC until President Obama agrees to fill two other open panel seats. The two senators, who co-sponsored legislation in 2002 that banned "soft money" donations and other practices, said in a statement that the agency is "mired in anti-enforcement gridlock. The president must nominate new commissioners with a demonstrated commitment to the existence and enforcement of the campaign finance laws." Liberal-leaning advocacy groups have complained that enforcement actions at the six-member FEC have effectively ground to a halt amid a partisan standoff between Democratic and Republican commissioners. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold a ban on corporate spending in federal elections, which is a key component of the McCain-Feingold statute.

Bombings kill three in Baghdad area - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/bombings_kill_three_in_baghdad_area/ Bombings killed at least three people in the Baghdad area yesterday in the first significant violence since Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for securing cities after the withdrawal of US combat troops from urban areas earlier this week. A car bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk also killed one man and wounded six others, police said. In Baghdad, the violence began when a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi Army patrol, killing a soldier and wounding seven other people, police and hospital officials said. The attack occurred near a bridge used to access the walled-off Green Zone in central Baghdad. A car bomb exploded later near a market on the highway south of Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding 15, according to a police officer at the regional command.

Republicans Question Sotomayor’s Role in Puerto Rican Group’s Legal Battles - The Caucus

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/republicans-question-sotomayors-role-in-puerto-rican-groups-legal-battles/ As Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing nears, the Obama administration and Senate Republicans are squaring off over whether she is responsible for lawsuits filed by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund when she was a board member of the civil-rights group. Ms. Sotomayor held the position from 1980 until 1992, when she resigned to become a federal judge. During that era, the group pursued lawsuits over issues like affirmative action, bilingual education, and gerrymandering election districts to increase minority voting power. Republicans would like to tie her to those cases, while the White House would like to distance her from them. But the extent to which she was in a position to influence the group’s court filings remains murky, prompting a dispute over whether more documents exist that should be turned over and how to interpret the ones already in the Senate’s hands. On Wednesday, for example, after the group turned over 300 pages of material to the Senate, a spokesman for the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said the material showed she had “deeper-than-previously thought involvement in developing the legal positions of the organization.”

GI seemingly seized in Afghanistan - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan3-2009jul03,0,6943594.story The apparent capture of an American soldier by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, believed to be the first such case in nearly eight years of warfare, presents U.S. military officials with potentially agonizing choices just as a major military offensive is underway in one of the most guerrilla-filled areas of the south. The soldier could provide insurgents with both a propaganda bonanza and a bargaining chip. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any group, but a number of militant commanders, not all of them affiliated with the Taliban, operate in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military said in a terse statement that the soldier had disappeared Tuesday, but it disclosed virtually nothing of the circumstances other than to say he was believed to have been captured. However, an American military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident, said that for unknown reasons, the soldier apparently left his base near the Pakistani border. Like most U.S. installations in the country's rugged eastern sector, the base is surrounded by hostile territory where a number of insurgent groups operate. The soldier was reported to have been in the company of several Afghans. "We are using all of our available resources to establish his whereabouts and provide for his safe return," said Army Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for American forces.

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Integrity of Federal ‘Organic’ Label Questioned - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203365.html Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula. The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products. Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture. Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest growing segment of the food industry. Half of the country's adults say they buy organic food often or sometimes, according to a survey last year by the Harvard School of Public Health.

U.S. Faces Resentment in Afghan Region - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/asia/03helmand.html?ref=world The mood of the Afghan people has tipped into a popular revolt in some parts of southern Afghanistan, presenting incoming American forces with an even harder job than expected in reversing military losses to the Taliban and winning over the population. Villagers in some districts have taken up arms against foreign troops to protect their homes or in anger after losing relatives in airstrikes, several community representatives interviewed said. Others have been moved to join the insurgents out of poverty or simply because the Taliban’s influence is so pervasive here. On Thursday morning, 4,000 American Marines began a major offensive to try to take back the region from the strongest Taliban insurgency in the country. The Marines are part of a larger deployment of additional troops being ordered by the new American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, to concentrate not just on killing Taliban fighters but on protecting the population. Yet Taliban control of the countryside is so extensive in provinces like Kandahar and Helmand that winning districts back will involve tough fighting and may ignite further tensions, residents and local officials warn. The government has no presence in 5 of Helmand’s 13 districts, and in several others, like Nawa, it holds only the district town, where troops and officials live virtually under siege.

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U.S. Troops Move Deeper Into Afghanistan’s Helmand Province; One Marine Killed - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200832.html The movement of the Marines to the town of Khan Neshin in the lower Helmand River valley is the most significant deployment of U.S. forces in areas near the Pakistani border with southern Afghanistan, and it reflects a growing concern among U.S. military and intelligence officials that much of the violence that has plagued the south is linked to a flow of fighters and munitions from Pakistan's Baluchistan region. The troops encountered roadside bombs and small-arms attacks, which resulted in the death of one Marine, but commanders opted to mute their return fire. In the first 24 hours of the operation, the Marines did not lob artillery or call for fighter planes to drop bombs. The drive to Khan Neshin is part of a Marine campaign to root out Taliban insurgents by restoring the authority of local officials and police departments in the Helmand River valley. The 4,000-strong operation -- one of the largest conducted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan -- is intended to demonstrate new strategies advocated by the Obama administration to turn around a struggling, seven-year-old war effort.

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Presidential pardons nullify victories against Afghan drug trade - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/presidential_pardons_nullify_victories_against_afghan_drug_trade/ When five drug traffickers in military uniforms were caught transporting heroin in a police truck in 2007, it was a victory for a dogged team of Afghan investigators and their US mentors who are waging a Quixotic battle against narcotics, the nation’s largest industry. The men were prosecuted by a special drug court that the US government has spent tens of millions of dollars developing as a bulwark against corruption. They were sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison. But in April, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pardoned the five men. One was the nephew of a powerful politician managing Karzai’s reelection campaign, and the presidential decree ordering their release notes that they had ties to a well-respected family, according to a senior Afghan official. Those pardons - and at least five others in recent weeks - have outraged US officials working to combat drug trafficking in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest supplier of heroin and opium, and raised fears that Karzai will set more traffickers free in a bid to curry favor with influential families before the presidential election on Aug. 20. “Karzai is pulling out all the stops in his bid to get reelected,’’ said Jake Sherman, a former UN official in Afghanistan who is now at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation.

Palestinians, Israel agree on Dead Sea - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/07/03/palestinians_israel_agree_on_dead_sea/ Israel and the Palestinian Authority compromised in the name of nature this week, teaming up at the last moment to support the Dead Sea in a contest to choose the world’s top seven natural wonders. Just days before the contest rules would have forced the Dead Sea’s elimination, Israel’s ministry of tourism took over as official sponsor from the Megilot Dead Sea Council, removing a big political obstacle blocking Palestinian participation. The famously buoyant Dead Sea, the world’s most saline lake, lies at the bottom of the Jordan Rift Valley at the lowest spot on earth, some 400 meters below sea level. The Palestinians had refused to form a sponsorship committee because Israel’s Megilot municipality covers occupied West Bank land, including Jewish settlements near the Dead Sea that it considers illegal.

Paul Krugman - That ’30s Show - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03krugman.html?ref=opinion O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that? Let’s do the math. Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole. And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The job figures weren’t the only bad news in Thursday’s report, which also showed wages stalling and possibly on the verge of outright decline. That’s a recipe for a descent into Japanese-style deflation, which is very difficult to reverse. Lost decade, anyone? Wait — there’s more bad news: the fiscal crisis of the states. Unlike the federal government, states are required to run balanced budgets. And faced with a sharp drop in revenue, most states are preparing savage budget cuts, many of them at the expense of the most vulnerable. Aside from directly creating a great deal of misery, these cuts will depress the economy even further.

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U.S. Confirms Inquiry Into Google Books Deal - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/technology/companies/03google.html?ref=business The Justice Department confirmed on Thursday that it was conducting an antitrust investigation into the settlement of a lawsuit that groups representing authors and publishers filed against Google. In a letter to the federal judge charged with reviewing the settlement, the Justice Department said it was reviewing concerns that the agreement could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. “At this preliminary stage, the United States has reached no conclusions as to the merit of those concerns or more broadly what impact this settlement may have on competition,” William F. Cavanaugh, a deputy assistant attorney general, said in the letter. “However, we have determined that the issues raised by the proposed settlement warrant further inquiry.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Obama Should Stop Mountaintop Mining - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203022.html Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse? If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly -- to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains -- encompassing about a million acres -- buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not -- obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas -- while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry's promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry's fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains -- with their impoverished and alienated population -- are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens.

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US highway deaths drop in quarter - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/03/us_highway_deaths_drop_in_quarter/ Fewer people died on the nation’s highways during the first three months of 2009 as motor vehicle fatalities continued to fall to levels not seen in nearly a half-century. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday about 7,689 motorists were killed in the months of January through March, a 9 percent decline from a year ago. Reporting ahead of the July 4 holiday, a busy period on the nation’s roadways, the government estimated 37,261 motorists died in 2008, the fewest since 1961. If the 2009 fatality trends continue, fewer than 31,000 people will die this year. Highway safety officials also reported a decline in the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It fell to 1.27 in 2008, the lowest on record, from 1.36 in 2007. The rate dropped to 1.12 during the first three months of 2009. Specialists have attributed the declines to the economic recession, record-high use of seat belts, and fewer people driving.

Tennessee Wins Ruling on Execution - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03death.html?ref=us A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a lower court’s finding that Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional. The case concerns Edward J. Harbison, who was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of an elderly woman. In 2007, as a result of Mr. Harbison’s appeals, the Federal District Court in Nashville found that Tennessee’s procedures for execution were unconstitutional, in part because of the potential that the process would cause unnecessary pain to the condemned. After that decision, however, the Supreme Court issued an opinion that largely supported lethal injection. The opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was one of several in a fractured decision and approved Kentucky’s process, which uses a sequence of three drugs. The opinion said a state with procedures “substantially similar to the protocol we uphold today” would pass muster.

A More Combative Leader Strives to Rebuild Big Labor - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/03labor.html?ref=business Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., can boast of something unusual for a labor leader — one of his videos has more than 535,000 hits on YouTube. That video shows Mr. Trumka giving a stemwinder of a speech at a steel workers’ convention last year, telling union members it would be wrong — and stupid — to vote against Barack Obama because of his race. “There’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism — and it’s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge,” Mr. Trumka said. “It’s our special responsibility because we know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.” Mr. Trumka’s friends often say that speech lifted him out of semi-obscurity after spending the last 14 years taking a back seat to John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president. But now Mr. Trumka, a former coal miner and fierce critic of corporate America, is running all out to succeed Mr. Sweeney, who is retiring, as president of the nation’s main labor federation.

GM Bondholders Try to Block Firm’s Sale - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203787.html One of the main challengers to the proposed sale of General Motors on Thursday urged a federal bankruptcy judge to act as a check on an "overbearing" government and reject the restructuring plan pursued by the Obama administration. The government, pushing the limits of its power in stressful economic times, made a "conscious, strategic decision" to circumvent a traditional reorganization plan, said Michael Richman, an attorney for dissident GM bondholders. His comments came during closing arguments on the third and final day of hearings to approve the sale of the automaker's profitable assets to a new, leaner GM to be 61 percent owned by the federal government. Judge Robert Gerber adjourned the hearing late Thursday, after three days of marathon oral arguments and testimony. He did not indicate when he would render his decision.

Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03calif.html?ref=politics An ever-widening budget gap joined with intractable political paralysis to deliver California its biggest fiscal blow in decades on Thursday, when the state’s controller began printing i.o.u.’s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments. It was only the second time the state had adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression. The National Conference of State Legislatures had no record of any other state’s ever using them. It was unclear whether the i.o.u.’s, known as warrants, would be accepted by all of the banks in California, which were caught off guard by the move and seemed hesitant to entrust the state to repay the them — at an interest rate of 3.75 percent — in October, as promised. The controller, John Chiang, issued 28,742 warrants totaling $53.3 million. If state lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement by the end of August, the amount would grow to $4.8 billion. While the emergency move resulted from California’s combination of outsized budget gaps, unusual budget rules and a morass of financial obligations approved at the polls, the action was seen as a warning flag to other states that have failed to close their budgets this fiscal year because of the economic downturn.

In States Still Waiting for New Budgets, the Waiting Goes On - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03states.html?ref=politics Facing a long holiday weekend, elected officials who have been unable to pass budgets for their states made little progress on Thursday toward a resolution. Gov. Patrick J. Quinn of Illinois met behind closed doors for several hours with two dozen female legislators who had been invited to share their solutions for closing the state’s $9.2 billion budget gap. Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, has said he will not sign a budget unless it includes a 50 percent increase in the state income tax rate. Afterward, State Senator Pamela J. Althoff, a Republican from McHenry County who is opposed to a tax increase, said, “There’s not a single new suggestion I heard today, but there are some ideas we perhaps share.” Ms. Althoff added, “I apologize profusely to the people of the state until a budget is in place.”

Sheep getting smaller in Scotland due to climate change, study says - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-small-sheep3-2009jul03,0,4671661.story Along with polar icecaps and sandy beaches, sheep on a remote Scottish island are gradually shrinking as a result of global warming, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The finding offers unusual proof that large animals are already evolving to adapt to changes wrought by climate change, experts said. The average weight of sheep in the feral flock has been falling nearly 3 ounces per year since 1985, the researchers reported. The cumulative effect has been a 5% reduction in total body size. That trend had puzzled scientists because they knew that evolution clearly favored larger sheep that are better equipped to survive the harsh winters of Hirta, a rocky outpost more than 100 miles west of mainland Scotland. Now, using a sophisticated mathematical model, British and American researchers have concluded that warming temperatures have made it easier for scrawnier sheep to survive, thus reducing the average size of animals in the herd. "Environmental change is having a substantial influence on the population," said Arpat Ozgul, a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London and lead author of the report. That influence appears to have played out in a surprisingly intricate and counterintuitive manner, said UC San Diego biologist Kaustuv Roy, who wasn't involved in the study. For example, milder winters have helped the overall herd grow larger even as the average size of animals got smaller.

Editorial - More Jobs Lost - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03fri2.html?ref=opinion The jobs report for June should put a chill on hopes for an economic recovery anytime soon. And it makes a compelling case for more government stimulus, as unpopular as that idea may be in Washington. Americans all over the country are struggling. Last month, another 467,000 positions disappeared. In all, the economy is now coming up short by some 8.8 million jobs: since the recession began at the end of 2007, 6.5 million jobs have been lost and 2.3 million new jobs that were needed to keep up with population growth never materialized. Most of the $787 billion in stimulus spending approved in February — for education, health care, building projects and other fiscal relief — has yet to be spent. Over time, it is expected to preserve or create three million to four million jobs. But with job losses already far exceeding four million, that is unlikely to be enough to create a true recovery. President Obama and his advisers must start preparing now for what is sure to be a tough legislative fight over more stimulus.

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National News

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ProgressNow Daily News Digest

Daily News Digest for 7/3/2009

Top Stories

National News

Job Losses Dampen Hopes for Economic Recovery - washingtonpost.com

Key Senate Democrats unveil plans for health care bill - USATODAY.com

Presidential pardons nullify victories against Afghan drug trade - The Boston Globe

Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s - NYTimes.com

Colorado News

Experts at Aspen Ideas weigh in on U.S.‘s role in the world | AspenTimes.com

Faithful pitch in on health care - The Denver Post

Colorado Independent | Candidate McInnis moves mountains - from Canadian Rockies to Colorado

Angling for a rematch on personhood - The Denver Post

Colo. casinos hit jackpot with higher stakes - The Denver Post

Colorado Independent | Judge grants CSU motion; chancellor search tape to remain unreleased

The Pueblo Chieftain :: Environmental group seeks halt to Comanche 3 unit

Telluride Daily Planet - Uranium mill near Paradox gets planning permit

Business as usual for 2nd Brigade in Iraq | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

News by Category

Colorado News

Civil Liberties and Equality

CDOT fails to meet minority hiring targets - The Denver Post

Crime and Penal Reform

Source: JBS USA not a target of new wave of ICE audits | Greeley Tribune

Lawsuit claims false arrest by Glenwood Springs police | PostIndependent.com

Springs surgery tech suspected of exposing thousands to hepatitis C | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

GJSentinel.com: Experts say Grand Junction Police walking fine line using public funds

Shooting victim pained by job loss - The Denver Post

News : Prelim set in drug case involving former political candidate (Montrose, CO)

Aspen cop blotter: Man, unhappy about getting the boot, cited after encounter | AspenTimes.com

Cops, DA see Carbondale solar panel theft differently | PostIndependent.com

Contract allegedly specified beatings - The Denver Post

GJSentinel.com: Cop accused of beating his ex-girlfriend

Economy

Perlmutter to talk economy with businesses in Arvada - The Denver Post

Bank’s ag loans up for sale | Greeley Tribune

The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

GJSentinel.com: Bank, mail service available in advance of Fourth

GJSentinel.com: GJ firms foresee more job cuts

Sales taxes continue decline in Boulder, Broomfield counties : Boulder Daily Camera

First Data and BofA team up for venture - The Denver Post

Shooting victim pained by job loss - The Denver Post

Some Vail hotels sell out for Fourth | VailDaily.com

‘Staycationers’ give RMNP a boost | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

LandCo drops mayor, assistant city manager from lawsuit | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Vendors: Rainy days put damper on profits | Greeley Tribune

254 apartments slated in Lafayette - The Denver Post

Education

The Pueblo Chieftain :: Higher rollers

Broadcasts on school buses run into static - The Denver Post

Craig Daily Press / CNCC sees tuition increase by 9 percent

The Pueblo Chieftain :: State agrees to audit of Cesar Chavez school network

Eagle County graduation rates improve | VailDaily.com

The Pueblo Chieftain :: City schools’ board sets search timeline

Effective and Ethical Government

Bennet talking health reform at Denver church - The Denver Post

Perlmutter to talk economy with businesses in Arvada - The Denver Post

Colorado wraps up first highway stimulus project | VailDaily.com

Bank’s ag loans up for sale | Greeley Tribune

The Pueblo Chieftain :: McInnis files for campaign committee

Colorado Independent » McInnis set to begin legally running for governor

CDOT fails to meet minority hiring targets - The Denver Post

Battlement Mesa residents want county to speak up | PostIndependent.com

Gas seeps, drilling to be subjects at COGCC meetings in Glenwood | PostIndependent.com

Grant would fuel use of natural gas in state - The Denver Post

GJSentinel.com: Bank, mail service available in advance of Fourth

Craig Daily Press / CNCC sees tuition increase by 9 percent

The Pueblo Chieftain :: State agrees to audit of Cesar Chavez school network

Thousands appeal property values | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Sales taxes continue decline in Boulder, Broomfield counties : Boulder Daily Camera

GJSentinel.com: Experts say Grand Junction Police walking fine line using public funds

BOCC backs wilderness plan | SummitDaily.com

Highlands Ranch dedicates veterans memorial - The Denver Post

News : JetAway’s Part 16 complaint dismissed (Montrose, CO)

LandCo drops mayor, assistant city manager from lawsuit | Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Commissioners to meet with southwest Weld County residents | Greeley Tribune

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