NOTE: some news sites require free registration in order to read their stories. Follow these and other news stories at http://www.progressnowaction.org.

Today’s digest archive: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/031207.htm

TOP STORIES

Top

National

Securing Iraq Votes, One at a Time
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001300.html
Rep. Jerry Nadler was the only lawmaker at a meeting of all House Democrats on Thursday to stand up and declare that he could not support a compromise plan to fund the Iraq war with a timeline to end the conflict. So some party leaders had written him off even as he joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a private meeting. In the confines of the speaker's suite, Nadler (N.Y.) could be specific. He sought assurances from Pelosi (Calif.) that President Bush would be compelled to withdraw all troops from combat by August 2008, as the legislation proposed. He wanted to know: "What is the legal compulsion to follow this timeline?"
RELATED: House Democrats unveil plan for U.S. troop pullout from Iraq
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-warvote9mar09,1,999353.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
RELATED: Pelosi Cautions Bush Not to Veto an Iraq Bill
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/washington/11cong.html

More Iraq war news in NATIONAL/ELECTION, NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT, NATIONAL/MILITARY, COLORADO/GOVERNMENT, COLORADO/CIVIL LIBERTIES, COLORADO/MILITARY

After Tough Week, Gonzales Says He Remains Focused
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001001.html
For two years, Gonzales, 51, has led the Justice Department through a series of prominent controversies, including complaints of political meddling in civil rights cases and clashes over the powers of the federal government to detain terrorism suspects and spy on Americans. But under the protection of a Republican Congress, and insulated by his status as one of President Bush's closest confidants, Gonzales emerged largely unscathed. Now, the former White House counsel finds himself at the center of two of the fiercest political disputes to recently engulf the Bush administration, which is already coping with a deteriorating Iraq war and a newly Democratic Congress. Some of the sharpest criticism has come from fellow Republicans, including a suggestion by Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) that Gonzales may leave office soon.
RELATED: Gonzales Tries to Mollify GOP Critics on Firings, FBI Missteps
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902029.html
RELATED: Gonzales is urged to quit 'for the nation'
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gonzales12mar12,1,2643620.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: No. 3 Senate leader calls on Gonzales to step down
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-11-schumer-gonzales_N.htm

More FBI civil liberties abuse news in NATIONAL/CIVIL LIBERTIES

Justice Official 'Horrified' Phone Call Was Seen as Threat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101042.html
Until last Tuesday, Michael J. Elston was the happily anonymous chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty. But then a former U.S. attorney told Congress that Elston had warned him and other fired prosecutors to stay quiet or risk retaliation from the Justice Department. The testimony from former U.S. attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock was one of a string of damning accounts to emerge from the firings of eight federal prosecutors. The firings have prompted outrage in Congress and moves to limit the attorney general's power to appoint replacements. Elston said in an interview that he is "horrified" by the accusation, portraying it as an unfortunate misunderstanding fueled by rising tensions over the firings. "By no means did I have any message in mind," Elston said. "I think he misinterpreted what I was saying, and I'm very sorry that occurred."
RELATED: U.S. attorneys often clash with Washington
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-usattys11mar11,1,4255447.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
RELATED: Rove linked to fired prosecutors
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120143mar12,1,1724570.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: N.M. GOP official sought attorney ouster
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-11-nm-gop_N.htm

Top

Colorado

Guv brushes off threat to move '08 convention
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408522,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter on Friday dismissed threats to move the Democratic National Convention out of Denver by labor leaders pressuring him to reverse his veto of a pro-union bill. "I don't have any reason to believe it's going to move," Ritter said of the convention scheduled for Denver in August 2008. Union leaders meeting in Las Vegas this week decided to take on the governor for vetoing House Bill 1072, called the Labor Peace Act, and use the convention as leverage. But Ritter showed no inclination to bow to the AFL-CIO's threats and revive the fight over House Bill 1072. The measure, which would have made it easier to organize a union, set off howls of protest from business leaders as it made its way toward the governor's desk. "The veto message was a pretty clear message," Ritter said. "Not many people in Colorado are talking about 1072."
RELATED: AFL-CIO turns up heat
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5410072
RELATED: Big labor's threat puts power into play
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5408777

Salazar asks Army to limit growth
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5400031
In a letter to Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army, Salazar suggested the Army consider a number of concepts in its contentious plan to triple the size of its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site near Trinidad. Salazar said the Army should consider leasing land from private landowners, allowing public access to cultural and historic sites, buying its supplies from local farms and stores, allow grazing to continue on the training land, and create an economic development fund that would sustain the communities there. "In addition, the Army should demonstrate that its plans for expansion ... do not involve the use of eminent domain, are fiscally responsible and protect the agricultural, natural, cultural and environmental heritage of the region," he wrote.
RELATED: Salazar gives Army conditions on Pinon Canyon
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/1

Legislature eyes reform for energy
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/12/3_12_1A_Energy_Reform.html
The 2007 legislative session could go down as the start of a sea change for Colorado’s oil and gas industry. Halfway into the session, Colorado lawmakers have floated roughly a dozen bills ranging from changes in mining fees to retooling the distribution of impact funds to reorganizing the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. These reforms, lawmakers say, are necessary to confront the growing problems spurred by Colorado’s current energy boom. Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, who is spearheading most of the major extraction-reform bills this session, said the surge in mineral extraction activities makes the reforms introduced this session not only fair, but necessary to protect the state. “I don’t see this as tipping the scale too far,” Curry said. “These are things the public wants to see happen.”
RELATED: Energy tops state issues
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070311_1.htm

More energy policy news in NATIONAL/ENERGY, NATIONAL/ENVIRONMENT, COLORADO/ENERGY, COLORADO/ENVIRONMENT

COLORADO NEWS

Top

Election

Western leaders praised
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5411168,00.html
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper says he foresees the 2008 Democratic National Convention in his city as an opportunity for the national media to observe how leadership happens in the West. Leadership is different in this part of the country, and that is why Democrats are finding success in the Rocky Mountain states, said Hickenlooper, who was the keynote speaker at a Montana Democratic Party gathering on Saturday. Hickenlooper spoke at the annual Mansfield-Metcalf dinner, the state party's biggest fundraiser and cheerleading event of the year. A record 1,015 tickets were sold. "I think Western Democrats talk about creating opportunities," Hickenlooper told reporters before the dinner.

Electoral changes in the air
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070311/NEWS/103100128/-1/NEWS
It's not even an election year, but Colorado electoral changes have been bandied about recently in the state Legislature. One measure that would have bypassed the Electoral College died Thursday in a House commmittee, after speeding through the Senate more than a month ago. Senate Bill 46 would have set up an agreement with other states in presidential elections to funnel the states' electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote. If it were in effect in 2000, Colorado's then-eight electoral votes would have gone to Al Gore, even though George W. Bush carried the state with 51 percent of the vote, because Gore won the popular vote nationwide. The state added an elector in 2002.

City campaign finance laws being violated
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411944,00.html
Political candidates in Denver are pocketing thousands of dollars for their campaigns but failing to report their donors' employers and occupations, a violation of the city's campaign finance laws. Worse yet, nobody seems to be paying attention to the problem. The Denver Clerk and Recorder's Office hasn't been auditing campaign finance statements for "a few years" because of a staffing shortage, a supervisor said. "I don't think anyone would expect that they would have to go line by line on every campaign," said Jenny Flanagan, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a watchdog group. "But as (the reports) come in, we really shouldn't turn a blind eye to some of the basic requirements of complying with our campaign finance rules." Politicians are supposed to disclose certain donor information to shed light on who — and what interests — are financing politicians' campaigns.

National group endorses Poppaw and Roy
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/NEWS01/703100359/1002/NEWS17
National eyes are on the Fort Collins City Council race. Progressive Majority, a Washington, D.C.-based group with a Denver office, has endorsed council candidates Lisa Poppaw and David Roy, labeling Poppaw's competition against Matt Fries a "hot race." The group, which says it promotes progressive candidates who stand for fiscal responsibility, strong schools and the environment, aims to "build locally to win nationally," according to its Web site. It's also promoting other council candidates in Colorado and Wisconsin and five school board candidates in Wisconsin. Notably missing from their endorsement list is Glen Colton, considered a progressive, who faces Wade Troxell and LeRoy Gomez in a District 4 race that could be the spring's most competitive council race.
RELATED: Teacher, 29, mayor's lone opponent
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS01/703110361/1002/NEWS17

Incumbent ready to tackle more issues
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/10/3_10_1b_Palmer_profile.html
Gregg Palmer said when he ran for the Grand Junction City Council four years ago, he ran on a platform of growth management, fiscal responsibility and being accessible. He believes he has kept his word to work on all three areas in his first term.

Geer, with ample experience, ready to step up to council
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070311_4.htm
Linda Geer thinks it's time for her to graduate. As a member of various Durango city boards and commissions for 20 years, Geer has recommended actions to a generation of city councilors. Now, the graphic designer says, "It's time to move on to the council."
RELATED: Graham supports open space and smart progress for city
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070311_5.htm
RELATED: Leigh Meigs takes common-sense approach to solving city problems
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070310_3.htm
RELATED: Jerry Swingle is eager to put experience to work for Durango
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070310_4.htm

Incumbent seeking re-election
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/25701
As Joe Herod finishes his first four-year term on the Craig City Council, he also is looking ahead to what the city can be in the future.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Colorado delegation speaks on Iraq, Salazar speaks on health care
http://blogs.denverpost.com/washington/2007/03/09/colorado-delegation-speaks-on-iraq-salazar-speaks-on-health-care/
Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation gave tentative support to a House plan to link Iraq war funding to benchmarks for the Iraqi government, the Post’s Anne C. Mulkern reported. Rep. Ed Perlmutter was the only member of the delegation to give full support to the plan announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Residents get face time with lawmaker
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5409175
Angela Darraga of Lochbuie had stopped by the Safeway here Saturday morning to pick up a few things when she found her congressman, Ed Perlmutter, sitting in the floral department. Perlmutter, a Democrat from Golden, sat there with notepad in hand ready to address constituents' concerns. "You never know what you're going to run into at the grocery store," Darraga said. "I wouldn't have known this was going on if I didn't need some groceries." This was the third of Perlmutter's "Government in the Grocery Store" events, a program that he says helps him reach constituents in their daily lives. "This gives me a chance to keep my feet on the ground and not be separated in D.C.," Perlmutter said.

Ritter tightens appointee rules for vacation, sick leave
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5411103,00.html
Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter has instituted a "use-it-or- lose-it" vacation and sick leave policy for his top appointees. "These rules are fair and they protect taxpayer dollars," Ritter said in a news release. The policy comes after an outcry over practices by Ritter's predecessor, Republican Gov. Bill Owens. Owens initially had a similar use-it-or-lose-it policy when he took office in 1999. But that changed effective July 1, 2004, when Owens allowed Cabinet directors and other appointees to accrue unlimited vacation and sick leave, so they would have hefty final paychecks.
RELATED: Ritter caps leave accrual for top execs
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5414521

GOP balks at fund
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173708261/12
Even though all 24 Republicans in the Colorado House supported it, the GOP leadership in the Senate has come out against a proposed rainy-day fund pushed by Democrats. HB1302, introduced by Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, and Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, is designed to double the state's already required budget reserve to guard against any future economic downturn. Historically, it's always been the Republicans who pushed for such a savings account, though traditionally they've requested tighter controls on when it could be accessed.

Fierce battles yet to come at Capitol
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5411896,00.html
A legislative session billed as odd, bland and boring by a number of political veterans is half over, but some of the fiercest battles - over the budget, for instance - have yet to be fought.

Counties could get more power
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20071&template=article.html
Bills coming out of the Capitol have been known to cut into local governments’ authority, but this year’s General Assembly is granting increasing power to counties. Measures have passed through at least one chamber this year that will allow counties to ban the sale and use of fireworks, establish buildingcontractor programs and enforce the quarantine orders of local health officers. Legislators also are considering allowing cities and counties to create special districts to cover health care costs or take care of forest needs. Cities are faring a bit more evenly, while school districts have complained that bills imposing mandatory graduation requirements in areas such as math and science are cutting into local control. Counties, though, seem to be the darling of Republicans and Democrats.

Hearing to bring Iraq debate to Statehouse
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5411171,00.html
Colorado lawmakers are set to join the national debate on Iraq this week, with everyone from war protesters to military families expected to be heard. State senators will hold a public hearing Wednesday - in the state Capitol's largest room - to discuss a resolution criticizing President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq. Republicans say the rare public forum on a nonbinding resolution is political grandstanding and could hurt the morale of troops and their families. "We ought not be inflaming passions unnecessarily," said Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray. Democrats believe the states have a right to voice their disapproval of Bush, seeing their party's gains in the November election as a repudiation of his strategy. They also say federal funding to the states is at risk because so much is being spent on the war.
RELATED: State Dems’ Iraq resolution draws fire from Republicans
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070311_9.htm

Open record copy prices capped
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/11/open-record-copy-prices-capped/
They are free for the asking in many Colorado cities and counties, but copies of minutes from planning and zoning board meetings can cost anywhere from a dime a page in Logan County to $1.25 per page in Arapahoe and Douglas counties. Reducing that variability — and capping the cost for copies of public records at 25 cents rather than the $1.25-per-page maximum set in 1968 — would make it easier for people to obtain documents detailing how their governments work, supporters of a legislative proposal say.

5 questions for Roxy Huber
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5411909,00.html
There's nothing like being appointed the head of a department that's generated negative headlines for months. In January, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter named Roxy Huber to oversee the Department of Revenue. Her appointment came three weeks after a Denver District Court judge ordered the agency to back off on its stringent ID requirements to get a driver's license. In some cases, applicants showed up with several different forms of identification and still were turned away. With the legislature still discussing the ID requirements and this year's April 17 tax deadline looming, Hubert's department is in the public eye these days.

50 years ago this week (Extra!, March 12)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411926,00.html
Sen. Peter Culig Jr., D-Pueblo, came up for daylight and got it. After rejecting Culig's periodic attempts to pass a daylight-saving time for years, the Colorado Senate gave its approval to his latest version. If the House of Representatives concurs, all clocks in the state will be advanced one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April.

Official: It's time to return to winning track for GOP
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173708261/7
The newly elected state chairman of the Republican Party told fellow GOP members here Saturday night that the time has come for Colorado Republicans to start winning elections again. Dick Wadhams was the keynote speaker at the annual Lincoln Day dinner, hosted by the Huerfano County Republican Party Saturday night at Andy’s Smokehouse. The event filled the restaurant and brought in more than $2,500. Wadhams, who has managed numerous political campaigns, including those of U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and former Gov. Bill Owens, told the crowd of 75 that the way to win in 2008 is to keep a clear vision and stay organized.

Trying to save a few bucks in D.C.
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070310/NEWS/70309036
Eagle County Commissioner Peter Runyon went to Washington to try to save the county $350,000. That was not the only thing Runyon said he had on his to-do list during his trip to the nation’s capital from March 3 through March 7 to participate in the National Association of Counties’ 2007 Legislative Conference. The conference was held at the Hilton Towers, which is also where Runyon stayed. “Going to Washington is exciting because I am so in awe of the institution, and keeping contact with the higher level government from a county standpoint is invaluable,” Runyon said. “National Association of Counties has a lot of power as a lobbying group, and to be a part of that and get things done for our county is great.”

Jeffco report suggests deceit over files
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408078,00.html
A Jefferson County commissioner and two of the county's attorneys weren't straightforward with investigators looking into the disappearance of legal files, a sheriff's report indicates. Commissioner Jim Congrove, former County Attorney Frank Hutfless and former Assistant County Attorney Duncan Bradley provided answers that flew in the face of common knowledge about the missing documents and that contradict information given to detectives by other elected officials and county employees, the report says. The report, compiled two years ago by Jefferson County sheriff's officers and recently obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, also shows Congrove and Bradley were in their offices the evening the files were taken from the office of former Assistant County Attorney Lily Oeffler.

City Council costs rise sharply
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/11/city_council_costs_rise_sharply/?local_news
Steamboat Springs City Council expenses for such things as travel, meals, organization dues and other incidental costs have nearly tripled since 2003. A review of payments throughout the past four years shows City Council members, primarily former council presidents Ken Brenner and Paul Strong, are spending increasing amounts of city taxpayer dollars to attend various conferences and seminars in Denver and across the Western Slope. City checks also pay for catered meals at City Council retreats and meetings, which doubled in 2006, and for the city credit cards issued to council presidents and president pro-tems.

Town’s books mismanaged, lawsuit says
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070312_2.htm
A Silverton couple has filed a lawsuit accusing the town government of having its finances in disarray. What is more, town employees say their paychecks have been inaccurate, deposits to their retirement accounts have been off and businesses have been undercharged for utilities. The problems have been occurring for six months or more, they say. The 11-page complaint filed last week in District Court accuses Linda Davis of failing to perform her duties as town clerk and town treasurer. It accuses Town Administrator Devin Granbery of failing to oversee the town clerk. And it accuses four of the town's trustees of failing to ensure completion of the annual audit for fiscal year 2006.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

CU students accused in attack on gay man
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411910,00.html
Two University of Colorado students were arrested following an attack on a gay man near Pearl Street in Boulder. Eric Schorling and Adam Perez, both 21, were arrested early Sunday for alleged assault and bias-motivated crimes. The suspects are accused of making derogatory remarks to a gay couple who were walking in front of them. The 21-year-old victim was walking with his arm around a 19-year-old man near 10th and Pearl streets around 12:30 a.m. Sunday. There was a brief verbal exchange before Schorling, Perez and the victim began fighting, police said. The victim was able to punch one of his attackers and free himself shortly before police arrived. The victim's name was not released. Boulder police are labeling the attack a bias-motivated crime.
RELATED: Assaults may be hate crimes
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/12/assaults-may-be-hate-crimes/

UNC students say university ignores racism complaints
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070310/NEWS/70309005
University of Northern Colorado students, parents and faculty lodged hefty accusations to the Board of Trustees Friday morning about the lack of response to complaints of racism on campus. "It's absolutely outrageous to me that there's been nothing done to prevent issues of racial intolerance," said Kacie Morgan, a UNC student and former representative to the trustees. "I have reported several incidents of issues of racial intolerance over several years and the response has been the same. 'I'll look into it."

Indian struggles discussed
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/11/indian-struggles-discussed/
A discussion session Saturday night on the University of Colorado campus spoke of a different kind of education many Boulder residents may not have been used to hearing — the reality of American Indians today. The event was called American Indian Voices and was put on by CU students to host Madonna Thunder Hawk and Ahse Deer. The American Indian speakers highlighted a three-hour-long event that had live performances from rap group Savage Family, and which featured artists on both the wind pipe and drums as well as a live drawing by another local artist. The message the speakers, musicians and artists all wanted to share was an understanding with the audience that the struggle with issues affecting indigenous people continues.

Students: RHS is misrepresented
http://postindependent.com/article/20070310/VALLEYNEWS/103100059
Two girls, one a Hispanic and the other Anglo, had a fight in the hallways of Rifle High School. Two weeks later, life at RHS continues. Students attend class, teachers assign homework, and Hispanic and Anglo students pass by each other in the hallways where the fight occurred. But some of the students feel that their school is getting portrayed in a bad light with all the media attention the fight has received. "I think we're being falsely represented by the media," RHS senior Shanaira Foreman said. "This was a battle between two people that may have been over a racial issue, but it's not the whole school. It's one situation and it's not a representation of the student body."

Shoppers allege bias at Aurora mall
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5407773,00.html
A mall in Aurora is under fire for allegedly using a new ban on "gang related" clothing and other means to harass blacks and Hispanics. Almost 50 shoppers surveyed since last summer "have given alarming testimony of racial discrimination" at the Aurora Town Center, on East Alameda Avenue and Interstate 225, according to a report by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The American Civil Liberties Union is conducting an investigation of the claims and is considering legal action, Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU, said Friday.

Four years in Iraq: Groups organize marches, vigils to mark anniversary
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/12/from-page-3a/
The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center is sponsoring two separate events Saturday in Boulder and Denver. "We've been opposed to this war since before it began," said Betty Ball, nonviolent education coordinator for the Boulder-based center. "It's way past time for it to end. We are calling on elected officials to cut funding, end the war and bring our troops home." Ball said her center's events will not only focus on ending the occupation in Iraq, they'll also discourage an attack on Iran. Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni, who was raised in Iraq, is scheduled to speak at the Boulder rally.
RELATED: Local Dems join call to end Iraq war
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070310_5.htm

Top

Immigration

Prisoners to Work Colorado Fields
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902032.html
Ever since Colorado passed tough immigration laws last year, farmers have worried that the immigrant laborers they depend on to plant and harvest their crops will not show up in the fields this season. So, a state legislator has proposed a novel idea: Send in the prisoners. In a pilot program officials hope to roll out before the May planting season, minimum-security prison inmates will work five farms in southeastern Colorado to fill in for migrant workers. The inmates will earn the state's standard prison pay of 60 cents per day. Critics from every side of the immigration debate have called Colorado's plan a deeply flawed stopgap solution to the chronic labor shortage, which afflicts agriculture from New York's apple orchards to Oregon's Christmas tree farms.

Immigration raids split families, leaving kids behind
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/NEWS01/703120327/1002
After almost 1,300 people were arrested in December in raids at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah, community activists reported hearing of scores of children left on their own. Swift donated $300,000 to United Way agencies to help the families affected by the raids. Since the December raids hit the Swift plant at Greeley, Catholic Charities has provided assistance to about 160 families or individuals, said Ernie Giron, the charity's vice president for mission and ministry. That has included rent or mortgage checks, helping with utility bills, and providing phone and grocery store gift cards. Giron said the number of people seeking aid has begun to drop from its peak in mid-February. "But a number of families are still hanging on just trying to get through until they have to make some kind of life choice in terms of which way they're going," he said.

Protest calls for bank boycott
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/11/3_11_1b_Wells_Fargo_protest.html
Several Western Colorado groups protested outside the downtown Wells Fargo Bank on Saturday, beseeching people to boycott the bank because it aids illegal immigrants by accepting identification cards from Mexico. Fourteen people from the Rocky Mountain Minutemen, Campo California Minutemen and Stand Up Now America, held up signs and shouted at passing cars and pedestrians from the sidewalk outside the Wells Fargo Bank at 359 Main St. “We’re out here to try to inform the public that our financial institutions are aiding illegal immigrants,” said Dana Isham, founder of the Rocky Mountain Minutemen. “We feel this is wrong.”

Suthers files suit for laws to be enforced
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408742,00.html
Complying with a mandate from voters, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday, demanding that the federal government enforce immigration laws. Voters approved Referendum K in November directing Suthers to sue.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

Rocky Flats (EXTRA!, March 10)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408520,00.html
"Clearly, the administration put dollars above honoring the nation's promise to the Cold War veterans." Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, on documents that show federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from the Rocky Flats plant outside Denver.
RELATED: Long wait for relief drags on
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408507,00.html
RELATED: Feds tried to cut aid
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408519,00.html
RELATED: Rocky Flats document excerpts
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5407710,00.html

Rule would cut up safety net
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5409308
A federal rule, set to take effect in September, would strip about $120 million in Medicaid payments from Colorado hospitals and could devastate institutions that care for the state's poor and uninsured patients. "We're struggling to see how we could stay open" if the rules goes through, said Peg Burnette, Denver Health's chief financial officer. The rules could slash about $65 million from Denver Health's $518 million annual budget, Burnette said. The University of Colorado Hospital and Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs would also face crippling cuts, hospital officials said. "This is a very big deal," said Richard Knapp, executive vice president of the American Association of Medical Colleges. "In many states, institutions are very dependent on these dollars." The rule, as hospital administrators read it, would mean that only a public hospital could receive funds from Medicaid's "disproportionate share" program, which supports facilities that treat the greatest number of poor and uninsured people.

5 questions for Bill Allen, the TSA's acting federal security director in Denver
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/airlines/article/0,2777,DRMN_23912_5408008,00.html
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has a broad mission: protect the nation's skies, railways, ports, subway systems and other transportation networks. But ask travelers what the TSA does and you'll likely get a decisive answer: airport security screening. Anyone who's flown a commercial jet in the past five years has encountered TSA workers, who on a daily basis screen more than 2 million passengers at airports nationwide for weapons, explosives and other banned items. Now the agency is implementing several new policies and procedures nationwide. In Denver, it recently started a new employee screening program, and it plans to bring bomb and behavioral detection specialists on board in coming months.

Survivor mom backs vaccine
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411170,00.html
Wendy Creason never missed an appointment. Mammograms, Pap smears, uterine exams - she did everything she was supposed to do to take care of herself and lower her risks of cancer. But in 2003, after a partial hysterectomy, doctors discovered that she had cervical cancer in a place that Pap smears never would have reached. "It was a shock. I had no idea," said Creason, 50, who lives in Littleton. Creason's husband had died, and she was raising two young daughters. Suddenly, she was facing a possible death sentence of her own. "My doctors asked me, 'What do you want?' I told them I wanted to live to watch my daughters grow up," Creason said. "So they took out everything - my uterus, lymph nodes." The procedures rid her body of cancer, and she never had to go through radiation or chemotherapy. But the experience was both frightening and shattering.
RELATED: Lawmakers weigh adding HPV vaccine to immunization list
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411172,00.html

Bars exude air of defiance
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20024&template=article.html
Four Colorado Springs bar owners who recently announced plans to defy the state’s smoking ban were cited Friday for suspected violations of the law. Customers openly smoked at the bar of Murray Street Darts early Friday afternoon, about an hour after a visit from police officers and state liquor inspectors ended with owner Bruce Hicks holding a stack of tickets listing 22 suspected violations of the law, each carrying a $200 fine. “They are trying to shut us up,” said Hicks, who has tried to organize bar owners to join him in a rebellion against the ban that calls for each to collect $1 from customers who choose to smoke for a “get-out-of-jail” fund. He said he does not plan to change course now. “Do you think it will make a difference if they give me four or five more?” Hicks asked.

Ads target parents who smoke
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5407967,00.html
A new ad campaign from a Denver marketing firm aims to dispel myths along with the cigarette smoke you can't see. The "One Step" campaign by Cactus Marketing Communications features a series of billboards, print ads and TV and radio commercials. It lets parents know that stepping outside to smoke is the only way - aside from quitting - to keep their kids from being exposed to secondhand smoke at home.

Teach children early, and go beyond "Beware of strangers"
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5404413
What can parents do to protect their children from sexual assault? Telling children to look out for strangers isn't enough, experts say, because cases where a child is abducted by an unknown person are rare. Most child victims of sexual assault are manipulated by people they know.

Pueblo storm tide leaves scars
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5409310
"Hurricane Cochina" flooded the Pueblo neighborhood of Peppersauce Bottoms last summer, leaving the working-class neighborhood under several feet of mud and residents furious at the city. The storm on Aug. 26, 2006, wasn't really a hurricane. It was a 4-foot flood of stormwater that residents dubbed "Cochina," the Spanish word for filthy. The rushing water from a rainstorm inundated the 30 homes in Peppersauce Bottoms - named after the hot peppers grown there by Japanese immigrants in the 1920s. The neighborhood is one of the lowest-lying spots in the city. "It was like a lake," said Gloria Cornejo. "It just kept coming. My daughter was so scared. She kept asking me if we were going to die."

Growing Grand Valley area facing shortage of doctors
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411131,00.html
Is there a doctor in the valley? Family Physicians of Western Colorado gets at least 20 to 30 calls a day from people looking for a doctor, but none is available. "It breaks your heart," Deb Stegall, scheduling supervisor, told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. "They say they have tried everywhere else." The current 35 physicians in the practice will be joined by a new family physician and a new pediatrician later this year, said Dr. Roger Shenkel, the group's executive director. While that's good, it's little consolation to those seeking a doctor right now.

Human services input sought
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15107
Government and nonprofit agencies are trying to identify any holes in Boulder County’s human-services safety net. “We’re very fortunate that in Boulder County, the services provided are very well coordinated and collaborated,” said Robin Bohannan, director of the county’s Community Services Department. But the needs of the county’s poorest, most vulnerable and at-risk residents are increasing, Bohannan said, with community, nonprofit and government groups scrambling to keep up. A number of those agencies are collaborating on preparation of a “human services strategic plan” for addressing current and projected health and human services needs.

Valley-Wide urges records requests
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070312_1.htm
Medical records of Valley-Wide Health Systems patients will be available for 10 years after the Durango clinic closes March 30. But the clinic administrator urges prompt action. "I'd recommend that patients come by to pick up a release-authorization form," Gail Murphy said Thursday. "Forms are always available at the corporate office in Alamosa, but there won't be anyone here after March 30." Except for already-scheduled appointments, only walk-ins will be accepted after today. No new appointments are being scheduled.

AIDS quilt on display starting Tuesday
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070312/NEWS/103110129/-1/NEWS
Three panels from the AIDS Memorial quilt will be on display in Greeley beginning Tuesday. The Greeley Wesleyan Church Visual Arts Ministry, 3600 22nd St., is hosting the panels, which are a small part of the 46,000 pieces that make up the entire quilt. The work memorializes more than 83,440 people or about 17.5 percent of those who've died from the disease.

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

Bill targets cold homicides
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/10/bill-targets-cold-homicides/
It's a natural combination to some and an unacceptable compromise to others. But a bill in the state Legislature that would repeal the death penalty and use the savings to help solve cold-case homicides has brought renewed attention to some 1,200 unsolved killings in Colorado since 1970. About 40 of those cases have ties to Boulder County. Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, is sponsoring the bill, which passed the House Judiciary Committee in February and is scheduled for a hearing by the Appropriations Committee in the next two weeks. Weissmann said he's "not overly optimistic" about the bill's passage, but he is convinced it's sound public policy.

Judge’s disqualification of prosecutors could have statewide affect
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/11/3_11_1b_Deister_ruling_follow.html
Mesa County Judge Thomas Deister’s decision to disqualify two prosecutors from trying two high-profile attempted-murder cases because of ethical conflicts could deter district attorneys from hiring private attorneys, particularly in rural areas, according to the head of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council. Dave Thomas, executive director of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council, said requiring prosecutors to disqualify themselves from cases where their former clients are witnesses could hit rural jurisdictions hardest, where district attorneys already have a small applicant pool who are well-connected with their community.

Gangs: Prevention or intervention
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5414519
One way to stop gang violence is to head it off by reaching out to gang members, giving them job training and encouraging them to reform. The other tactic, which has been the trend in Denver in recent years, is to offer alternatives to young children, even preschoolers, before they ever sport gang tattoos and throw gang signs. With limited anti-gang dollars available, proponents of the two approaches are weighing in as each seeks to get a share of the funds. The oldest gang program in Denver, Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, once was in the thick of interacting with gang members and counseling them. But that program, under the leadership of the Rev. Leon Kelly, has shifted its focus almost completely to working with younger, non-gang children.
RELATED: Gangs in [Longmont's] crosshairs
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15116

Man pleads not guilty in cop slaying
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20013&template=article.html
A man accused of killing a Colorado Springs police officer last year pleaded not guilty Friday after a judge cleared the way for him to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge. Jereme Lamberth is accused of shooting to death detective Jared Jensen after Jensen apparently tried to arrest him at a bus stop near Memorial Park on Feb. 22, 2006, on an attempted-murder warrant.

Proposed graffiti law change similar to those in other cities
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070311/NEWS/103100132/-1/NEWS
The faded blue, yellow and green letters probably lost their meaning long ago, but Mary Sauve could soon be fined for them. A storage building at Sauve's business, Kamms Unlimited Self-Serve Storage, 1130 7th Ave., has graffiti on it that is probably five years old. The sun has ravaged the lettering to the point that you can't even make out letters anymore; all you see when looking at the building is a red splotch here, a blue splotch there. And under a proposed ordinance before the Greeley City Council, landowners who don't clean up graffiti like that or who refuse to let city workers clean it could soon face a fine.

Top

Economy

Gas flap, law review pits small businesses vs. giants
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/NEWS01/703100349/1002/NEWS17
A dispute over the fairness of a Depression-era law has pitted independent Colorado gas retailers against the state's largest grocery chain. House Bill 1208, sponsored primarily by local state Rep. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud) and Sen. Steve Johnson (R-Fort Collins) looks to repeal the portion of Colorado's 1937 Unfair Practices Act that prohibits retailers from pricing gasoline less than cost.

Subcontractors bill OK'd
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173596400/12
Subcontractors shouldn't have to bear a financial liability for mistakes others make, said the sponsor of a bill that received preliminary approval in the Colorado House on Friday. Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, said it's unfair to require subcontractors to be forced to enter into construction agreements with general contractors that require them to buy insurance coverage to protect themselves from errors made by other subcontractors. Fischer, who's the House sponsor for Sen. Abel Tapia's SB87, said subcontractors such as drywallers or masons often are required to carry additional insurance that includes indemnifying the general contractors who hire them. He said they often are left with little choice but to enter into the contracts or risk losing jobs from those general contractors.

Attorneys finalizing procedures for Nacchio trial
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5400470
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the criminal insider trading case of former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio met with a federal judge this afternoon to finalize procedural matters for the upcoming trial. Though it was the last scheduled hearing before the start of the trial, defense attorney Herb Stern said he may request another meeting for this week. Jury selection is set to begin March 19. First assistant U.S. Attorney and lead prosecutor Cliff Stricklin disclosed during today's hearing that assistant U.S. attorney James Hearty will present the opening argument on behalf of the government. Stern is expected to conduct the opening for Nacchio.

4 questions for Chuck Ward, Qwest Colorado president
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5411169,00.html
Qwest Colorado President Chuck Ward has a full plate these days: He's spearheading the company's efforts to enter the state's pay-TV market and is in charge of providing communications services for the 2008 Democratic National Convention — all while he's overseeing the telco's operations in Denver.

Telluride fighting the clock to raise funds for valley floor
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/12/3_12_1A_Valley_floor_update.html
Forty three-million dollars down, $7 million to go. That’s the tally for money to be raised by the citizens of Telluride so the town can buy 500-plus acres at the west end of town to keep it from being developed. The battle to save the valley floor has been going on for years between the town, which wants to take over the property through a condemnation process, and the San Miguel Valley Corp., which owns the land.

Havana Street looks for a revival
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5414520
The marquee outside the Fan Fair liquor store reads "Coldest beer in town." Unfortunately for owner Samuel Lee, hardly anyone is noticing it. "This area is really getting down," said Lee, owner of the liquor store on Havana Street near East Sixth Avenue for 14 years. "I don't know why it fell down so fast." Businesses along that stretch of Havana in Aurora have seen more shutters than customers in recent years. Patrons are going to newer areas to shop, like Southlands and City Center of Aurora. So business owners along Havana recently started a petition drive to create a business improvement district, which would allow them to tax themselves to make the area more inviting for customers. The business owners would vote in November.

Resorts look for Spring Break fraud
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070310/NEWS/103100057
Vail Resorts representatives see a problem with fraudulent use of passes, and have taken steps to deter and prevent it from happening, said Nicky DeFord, Breckenridge ski resort spokeswoman.

Top

Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Lots of memories processed by man during Swift meatpacking plant tour
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070312/NEWS/103110135
Duane Oster looked at the end dump machine on the kill floor of the Swift Co. meatpacking plant and remembered the day he almost died in there.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

Downtown playing catchup for families
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5414209
Wayne Dale has been a big-city guy for years. He enjoys walking or riding his scooter to restaurants, sporting events and the office. But when he remarried seven years ago, Dale wasn't ready to give up the bright lights and skyscrapers for a home in the 'burbs. So, he began what became an almost-quixotic quest to find a four-bedroom loft in downtown Denver that he could afford for his daughter, Alex, and his new wife. "It's tough unless there's something new going in," he said.

Annex to Gunnison could add 2,500 to its population
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/12/3_12_1A_Gunnison_annex.html
Bratton said his goal is to create affordable housing in addition to higher-end homes, and a lot of consideration has been given to Western State College because it’s his alma mater, and his property joins the eastern edge of the campus.

Top

Media

FCC order may help Qwest's quest
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5414210
Although Qwest has lost attempts to win statewide franchise agreements in three states this year, a recent Federal Communications Commission order on the issue may give the company a much-needed boost. The Denver-based telecommunications company is seeking to bypass local franchising rules and win permission to offer video service statewide. Proposals failed or were tabled in Colorado, Idaho and Utah, while legislation is pending in Iowa, Minnesota and Washington. Last week, the FCC issued rules requiring local communities to decide within 90 days on applications to offer TV service from companies that already have access to a community's rights of way. The order limits the types of fees local agencies can collect from TV franchises. Companies such as Comcast now must negotiate video franchise agreements with individual cities and municipalities. Qwest is following in the footsteps of AT&T and Verizon to lobby for video franchise reform, which would allow franchise agreements at the state level.

Sierra Club presents first annual Energy Film Festival
http://postindependent.com/article/20070312/VALLEYNEWS/103120020
Energy - both renewable and non - is a hot topic in film these days, what with Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." The Sierra Club has climbed aboard the bandwagon with its inaugural nationwide Energy Film Festival with screenings in New Castle, Aspen and Carbondale this weekend. The idea of showing the films "is to make people more aware of energy issues," said Bob Millette, chair of the Roaring Fork Group of the Sierra Club. "While we are experiencing rapid advances in sustainability, Coloradans are being told we need massive new coal-fired power plants. However, the answer to our energy needs is renewable energy and energy efficiency." The films will be screened on Friday, March 16, at 7 p.m. at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES); on Saturday, March 17, at 7 p.m. at Dos Gringos Burritos in Carbondale; and on Sunday, March 18, at 6 p.m. at the New Castle Community Center.

Jeffco's towering decision
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5414884
After nearly nine years of testimony and four previous votes, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners will decide today whether to rezone a Lookout Mountain site for a digital-TV tower. No public comment will be taken at the special meeting, which was prompted by a zoning appeal filed by the city of Golden and the homeowner umbrella group Canyon Area Residents for the Environment. In May, Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson remanded the case for the third time for the commissioners to decide. Jackson ruled that there was no need for further testimony, citing a "voluminous record" of evidence in the case. "Because of the judge's opinion, I don't think any new evidence should be accepted," said Commissioner Kevin McCasky. Lake Cedar Group, a consortium of local TV stations, contends Lookout Mountain is the best site to broadcast the widest coverage. Opponents have raised concerns about health effects, electronic interference and tower failure. Lake Cedar Group already has started work on a 730-foot-high digital tower.

Top

Education

Ritter visits Western to sign bill as college gets graduate programs back
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/03/12/local_news/6.txt
Gov. Bill Ritter stepped away from the capital to visit Western State College in Gunnison for the first signing of a bill outside the governor's office. House Bill 1014, signed by Ritter Friday at the college's union in front of more than 100 Western alumni, students and community members, gives the college the authority to offer graduate degree programs. "There's a reason we're doing this. ... We believe it's such an important message to take to every part of the state, that we view higher education opportunities as investment opportunities on the part of the state," Ritter said at the ceremony held for the signing. "When we are able to do this for a community like Gunnison, Colorado or Western College, we're doing it for the kids ... but were also sending this message that we believe education and investing in education undergirds everything we are about going forward."

Legislature eyes teacher tracking numbers
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5407752,00.html
The Colorado Department of Education tracks achievement test scores through a unique number attached to each public school student. Now lawmakers are looking at assigning a number to each teacher, linking them to their students' test scores. The House Education Committee this week approved Senate Bill 140. The measure establishes a 13-member council to look into the feasibility of teacher tracking numbers. The idea enjoys bipartisan support. It is sponsored by Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, in the Senate and Rep. Debbie Benefield, D-Arvada, in the House.

New questions about Churchill book
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5411914,00.html
Did University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill see secret Canadian government files about child abuse in Indian boarding schools? Highly unlikely, says a Canadian researcher who reviewed the files and cited them in his 1999 book about the history of the infamous boarding schools. So how did references to those documents end up in Churchill's 2004 book on the schools? "Unless he got himself into one of those black suits that Tom Cruise used in that movie and snuck himself into the Department of Indian Affairs at midnight, he's not seen the documents," said John S. Milloy, a professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. This is not the first time Churchill has been accused of stealing facts from someone else's research.

New America charter school targets immigrant students
http://postindependent.com/article/20070310/VALLEYNEWS/103100068
Local statistics show that dropout rates for immigrant high school students who lack English skills are nearly six times as high as their English-speaking peers. The problem is often complex, involving social differences and economics, as well as language barriers. But the bottom line is that this segment of the student population is all too often leaving school prematurely and unprepared for the future ahead. How to address that problem is always an issue. The New America School believes it has the answer. Starting Fall 2007, a New America charter school will open in Eagle County. It will target the valley's large Hispanic student population, particularly teens between the ages of 15 and 21, who are still struggling with language and school skills.

CSU unveils $8 million in scholarships
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5404146
Two new scholarships unveiled Friday are aimed at attracting more students from low- and middle-income families to Colorado State University. CSU is committing $8.3 million for the scholarships - Colorado's Success Scholarships and Colorado's Choice Scholarships - which will be available in the fall, university officials said. Colorado's Success Scholarships will support all qualified CSU students who are eligible for federal Pell Grants. Those with an annual family income up to about $48,000 - twice the level allowed for Pell Grants - and who qualify for need-based aid will be eligible for the Choice Scholarships.
RELATED: CSU offers 2 new scholarships
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/CSUZONE01/703100352/1002/NEWS17

UNC salaries decried (Briefing, March 12)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411915,00.html
Professors at the University of Northern Colorado have told administrators that salaries are so low they are insulting. Professor Joan Clinfelter said the salaries are among the lowest of 154 universities that offer doctorates, and morale among faculty is the lowest she has seen in 11 years. She said efforts to recruit staff are failing because of the salaries. Board of Trustees Chairman Dick Monfort conceded that salaries are a problem, but he noted that state funding has declined.
RELATED: UNC professors call salaries 'insulting'
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070310/NEWS/103090135

Evaluation team praises CSU-Pueblo
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/4
An evaluation team lauded Colorado State University-Pueblo for the high-quality education it has provided during a time of financial challenges. Howard Ross, chairman of the Higher Learning Commission team, offered a brief overview of the team's recent two-day visit to CSU-Pueblo as part of the reaccreditation process of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The six-member team indicated it would recommend reaccreditation.
RELATED: Grant to ease students’ transition to CSU-Pueblo
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/14

Online school provides dream trip for student
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/12
Mark Smead had his dream come true in January because of the Colorado Distance and Electronic Learning Academy. Smead, who turned 15 on July 24, had to wait almost half a year to receive his birthday present: an educational trip to Italy and Greece. The teen had problems at Sangre de Cristo School in Mosca and his parents, Chuck Smead, a rare stamp dealer, and Carol Smead, a math tutor, opted to enroll him in CDELA, an online academy, after they attended a meet and greet here.

Panel chides D-11 for adding time to the school day
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20021&template=article.html
Colorado Springs School District 11 is catching flak for adding minutes to the school day to make up for snow days, a change a former board member thinks is illegal. The District Accountability Advisory Committee, made up of parents and community members, has written a resolution chiding the board and administrators for not giving the DAAC and others a chance to comment on what they say is a change to the school calendar.

Tech commission proposes overhaul
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/12/tech_commission_proposes_overhaul/?local_news
The Technology Commission is proposing a significant software and network upgrade in the Steamboat Springs School District that will cost a substantial amount of money. During Wednesday’s budget presentation for the 2007-08 school year, district technology director Tim Miles asked the Education Fund Board to support his $1.37 million technology plan for the district. It is nearly $500,000 more than the Technology Commission asked for last year.

Change boosts spending for low-income schools
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/NEWS01/703100360/1002/NEWS17
Schools in Fort Collins serving higher populations of low-income children will see more funding as Poudre School District adopts its student-based budgeting model, according to a Coloradoan analysis of district data released Friday. However, some individual schools with large percentages of low-income students will actually lose money once the new budgeting model is fully implemented, while some wealthier schools will see significant increases.
RELATED: New formula could create disparity
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/NEWS01/703100362/1002/NEWS17

Court sets arguments in ex-CU student’s sex assault suit
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5407129,00.html
A federal appeals court has scheduled oral arguments May 7 in the attempt by two women to revive their lawsuit alleging they were sexually assaulted by University of Colorado football players or recruits. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments by both sides in the appeal of a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Lisa Simpson, who has agreed to be named publicly, and another women, who has not. Sixteen women’s and civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP have filed friend-of-the-court brief supporting the women. Simpson and the other woman say they were assaulted at an off-campus party in 2001 and that CU violated federal Title IX gender-equality law by fostering an atmosphere that led to the alleged attacks.

Teen who brought loaded gun to school claims gang affiliation
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/10/3_10_1B_teen_gun_sentence.html
A 16-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to bringing a loaded revolver to Grand Junction High School in December may be sentenced to up to 15 months in the Division of Youth Corrections. At a hearing Friday, Magistrate Cynthia Cyphers recommended the Division of Youth Corrections give the boy a six- to 15-month sentence for possession of a weapon on school grounds, a class six felony. She said the boy, who told investigators he was in a gang, brought the gun to school in self-defense, for fear of getting “jumped by about 20 people” from a rival gang.

Top

Military

Military widows meet to share news, support
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20070&template=article.html
On a recent Wednesday morning, in a meeting room at the Officer Club at Peterson Air Force Base, 25 women stood for a moment of silence, prayed for soldiers overseas and then turned to the flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Later that afternoon, a group of 12 women held hands in Fountain and also prayed for those at war. The women have something in common. They are all classified as “unremarried widows.” Two chapters of the Society of Military Widows meet in the Pikes Peak region, with members ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s.

Colorado soldiers guilty in bank robbery
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5409313,00.html
Two former Army Rangers based at Fort Lewis pleaded guilty on Friday to charges related to an August 2006 bank robbery. Alex Blum, 19, of Greenwood Village, Colo., and Scott A. Byrne, 32, of California, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, according to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington. A third Army Ranger, Chad Palmer pleaded guilty in December to charges related to the robbery. A fourth Army Ranger, Luke E. Sommer, who has a dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship is under house arrest in his mother's home in Peachland, B.C., and fighting extradition to the United States.

Pueblo soldier given tribute in Congress
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/2
Army Spc. Blake Harris, who was killed in Iraq on Monday, was honored in the House of Representatives on Friday by a floor tribute from Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo. Harris, 22 and from Pueblo, was a member of the 1st Cavalry Division and serving his second tour in Iraq when he was killed Monday by a roadside bomb about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad. He is the second Pueblo soldier to die in the four-year war.

Marine takes question in stride
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5408776
On Thursday, he and 24 other veterans who have lost an arm or leg - mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan - gathered in this ski mecca. They were the guests of the Vail Veterans Program, a nonprofit group without a single salaried worker, a group that has for four years brought military amputees to Colorado to ski in the winter and fly-fish and raft in the summer. Most of the veterans, who skied Thursday through today, came from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, a hospital ridden with scandal for its recently revealed treatment of wounded soldiers. At a Thursday morning breakfast at the ski resort, they were ordered not to talk about it. "You're not authorized to give your opinion," they were told by Defense Department official Steve Bucci. "If asked, you will say, 'No comment.' We're all in the military, and that's the way we play it."

Staff Sgt. Ramos called to war again
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/NEWS01/703120326/1002
After spending a year patrolling the hot, dusty streets of war-torn Baghdad, Fort Collins native Staff Sgt. Rey Ramos, 24, said one of the things he missed most about his hometown was the scenery. "It was so cool to live in the foothills and see the mountains," Ramos said. Ramos, who served in Iraq from January 2005 to January 2006 and is training to return in four months, wasn't anticipating he'd get to see so much when he joined the Army seven years ago to become "more responsible."

Air Force general praises Doss facility
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/5
Doss Aviation's new facility at the Pueblo Memorial Airport earned praise from the U.S. Air Force's commander in charge of air education and training Friday. Maj. Gen. Mark Zamzow flew into Pueblo Friday morning to tour the facility, meet with some of the students and take a ride on one of Doss' training planes. "This is fantastic, especially for how quickly this has come along," Zamzow said during a brief interview Friday. "I think we're well on our way to meeting and exceeding our expectations."

One last honor
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408823,00.html
Felix Sparks, retired brigadier general of the Colorado National Guard, is nearing 90 years old, and his health is deteriorating rapidly. But before he dies, his buddies want to give the "soldier's soldier" a final tribute: the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal, next to the Medal of Honor, for saving three wounded GIs during World War II.

Top

Religion

Woman claims Rev. Phillips, ex-husband defrauded her
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5410192
The Jefferson County district attorney's office is checking out an Aurora woman's claim that her ex-husband and embattled pastor Acen Phillips convinced her to take out a $100,000 loan as collateral for an out-of-state business venture, but instead set up an account without her knowledge and spent the money themselves. Now, six years later, Michele Wheeler said she faces losing her house to foreclosure because she is being held responsible for payments she can't afford. "Once people find out they've been had by Rev. Phillips, they go underground because they're embarrassed and ashamed, like I am," Wheeler said. "He is very persuasive. He can talk a drowning man into a bottle of water." Phillips did not respond to phone calls last week seeking comment, and Jim Wheeler declined to comment.
RELATED: Pastor preaches God, commerce
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5408767

Haggard's massage table for sale on eBay
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5406387,00.html
The only eBay bid so far for the purple massage table "where it all happened" between former gay male escort Mike Jones and fallen evangelical preacher Ted Haggard was $300. Jones put the table up for auction on eBay Thursday night to benefit Project Angel Heart, a nonprofit group that provides meals for people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The description reads: "The Table is about 10 years old with a few tears but totally usable. Will autograph table if requested and in June an autographed book 'I Had To Say Something' by Mike Jones will be sent.

Top

Energy Policy

Ritter: Colorado should be energy conservation leader
http://aspentimes.com/article/20070311/NEWS/103110049
Colorado is a key state in the national quest for energy independence, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter said Friday during his keynote dinner speech at the American Bar Association's environmental law conference. "We're at the center of the debate about how we go forward with energy production in this country," Ritter said, explaining that, without leadership at the national level, states will play a crucial role in developing a national energy policy. Ritter said that state role will be the headline topic at the upcoming national governors conference. As far as Ritter is concerned, Colorado intends to lead by example. His administration is close to issuing an executive order that will address the conversion of the state's fleet of vehicles to biofuels, as well as set environmental standards for the construction of state buildings.

Enviro groups push new energy agenda
http://aspentimes.com/article/20070311/NEWS/103110048
Several groups of Western conservationists are pushing for tighter control on oil and gas development through changes to the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005. They are calling for Congress to repeal parts of the act, provide for tighter environmental rules and slow the pace of drilling on public lands. The groups, including the Aspen Wilderness Workshop, Western Colorado Congress and the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, will take their "Western Energy Agenda" to legislators, said Steve Smith of Glenwood Springs, assistant regional director of The Wilderness Society.

Bill aims to boost biosciences
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/NEWS01/703120317/1002
A state representative from Greeley is hoping an infusion of cash will help jumpstart Northern Colorado's bioscience industry while simultaneously investing in technologies developed through public research. Rep. James Riesberg, D-Greeley, is sponsoring House Bill 1060, an initiative that provides $2.5 million in grants for state bioscience research and development. The grants will match those provided by the Governor's Office of Economic Development for research institutions and the federal Small Business Innovation Research program for small businesses. HB 1060 is an extension of last year's HB 1360, which provided $2 million in bioscience research grants to Colorado universities and research institutions. The additional $500,000 added to this year's bill is earmarked specifically for development of biofuel technology. "Last year biofuels technology wasn't eligible, so there wasn't funding in that area," said Denise Brown, executive director of the Colorado Bioscience Association, the group that lobbied and initiated both bills at the Capitol. The biofuels grants are available only to Colorado research institutions such as Colorado State University and will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $150,000, according to Brown.

$70 million contingent on cleanup of shale site
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/11/3_11_1A_Anvil_Points.html
An account bulging with more than $70 million has nearly double the amount of money needed to fulfill federal obligations on part of the Roan Plateau. That account is growing at a rate of about $1 million a month, according to the federal agency administering it. It will take an act of Congress, though, to get the money to local governments in western Colorado creaking under the weight of the current energy boom. The money comes from payments to the Bureau of Land Management by companies sucking natural gas out of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 3 in the Piceance Basin.

Energy czar applauds Mesa State’s efforts
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/10/3_10_7a_energy_leader.html
Colorado is the “Saudi Arabia” of geothermal energy, and Mesa State College is leading the way in exploiting it, Tom Plant, director of Gov. Bill Ritter’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation, said Friday.

Colorado wildlife agency, Shell propose land exchange
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5407204,00.html
A land swap is in the works between an energy company and the Colorado Division of Wildlife in a basin that is home to what is believed to be the country's largest mule deer herd. The proposal would exchange 3,108 acres in the Piceance State Wildlife Area west of Meeker for 1,800 acres owned by Shell Frontier Oil & Gas Co. in the Oak Ridge State Wildlife Area to the east. Both sites are in northwest Colorado where natural gas development is flourishing. Plans have been in the works for a while for the exchange, which would allow both the company and state to consolidate their land holdings, said Ron Velarde, manager of the state Wildlife Division's northwest district.

BLM to sell leases on 30,000 acres in May
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/10/3_10_3a_BLM_Lease_Sale.html
The Bureau of Land Management plans to offer more than 33,425 acres for drilling in its May 10 oil and gas lease sale in Denver. The agency announced Friday its May lease sale includes 81 parcels covering more than 53,500 acres across Colorado. Most of those parcels are on the Western Slope, with 28 in Moffat County concentrated northwest of Meeker. The Moffat County parcels total 28,158 acres. The rest of the Western Slope is lightly represented in the lease sale, with 1,654 acres on three parcels slated for lease in Mesa County, 2,763 acres on four parcels in Rio Blanco County, 16 acres on one parcel in Garfield County, 694 acres on one parcel in Montrose County and 160 acres on one parcel in San Miguel County.

Good day sunshine
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173708261/9
Colorado State University-Pueblo is planning to take advantage of the bright sunny skies familiar to Pueblo to help provide energy for at least one of its buildings on campus. CSU-Pueblo, in collaboration with EcoSol/EcoStruct and Smart Growth Advocates of Pueblo, is in the process of having a photovoltaic solar energy panel installed at the Technology Building. When the installation is completed, later this spring, it will provide enough energy to supply at least half the building with electricity, according to Huseyin Sarper, a professor of engineering at CSU-Pueblo.

Customers blowing a gasket over rising fuel costs
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/10/3_10_1B_gas_prices.html
Feeling pinched at the pump? Gas prices have taken a sharp rise in the last few days, affecting everything from the daily commute to over-the-road trucking. As of Friday, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in Grand Junction was $2.50 per gallon, up two cents from Thursday. One year ago the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.36 a gallon, and just last month the average price was $2.17 a gallon, according to AAA. Diesel fuel prices are also on the rise. One month ago the price of a gallon of diesel was $2.16 in Grand Junction. As of Friday it was $2.79, according to AAA.

Ethanol offered locally
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS01/703110359/1002/NEWS17
At $1.99 a gallon, E85 might seem like an appealing fuel choice to those who are tired of rising gas prices and want to make their vehicle more environmentally friendly. And now that the Western station on Shields Street and Drake Road is the first in Fort Collins to carry E85, many people are curious about this alternative fuel that's making a big splash in the Midwest.

Top

Transportation and Infrastructure

Lawmaker to renew truck chain law push
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5411537,00.html
State Rep. Dan Gibbs says he will make another run this week at pushing through a bill to toughen the penalties against truckers who don't chain up before heading up the mountains. Gibbs, a Democrat who represents Eagle, Summit and Lake counties, says he plans to reintroduce a new chain law bill on Thursday. He said he didn't have the votes to get it through last month, but now is confident he will find necessary support. Gibbs wants fines increased for truckers who ignore mandatory tire chain orders. Current laws fine violators $100 if they don't comply, and $500 if the block a traffic lane because of it. Gibbs wants to see those fines boosted to $500 and $1,000.

Cabbies back bill for indy taxi services
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5409311
More than 100 metro-area taxicab drivers Saturday threw support behind a proposed law that would make it easier for them to part ways with big cab companies and go out on their own. Cabdrivers packed a little room in a union building in Englewood to support House Bill 1114, which calls for an easier certification process to start new cab companies. The bill's backers say it would hasten competition and improve taxi service for the public by allowing more cabbies - and new cab companies - to flourish with less regulation. Some taxi drivers say they're tired of giving over hard-earned dollars to big companies just to be able to operate. For Abdi Buni, who has been driving a cab seven years, this amounts to $25,000 a year - about 60 percent of his fares. "This is too much," he said.

CDOT workers demand pay
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5406589,00.html
Nearly 200 Colorado highway workers stormed the Capitol Friday demanding overtime pay due them for non-stop work during this winter's blizzard barrage. Many of them say they haven't been paid overtime since Christmas. Some say they're owed as much as $1,000. They blame relentless problems with a new $30 million computer system, which they say is crippling the state highway agency's ability to pay workers and vendors, and to buy needed supplies, including road salt and deicer.
RELATED: Workers seek 'what we're owed, on time'
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5407934,00.html

Consultants to evaluate overall cost of FasTracks
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5407942,00.html
RTD is bringing in outside experts in construction and finance to evaluate its FasTracks cost and schedule estimates in light of indications the original $4.7 billion program is substantially over budget. RTD is half-way through a four-month overhaul of every aspect of FasTracks. An estimate done as part of that study showed it would now take $6.5 billion to complete the project. But RTD planners rejected that estimate, saying it is too high because it double-counted some items and overestimated others.
RELATED: Privatizing part of rail may help
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5409307

Time change snares Frontier in delays
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5414887
A computer snag in Frontier Airlines' central reservation system caused by the early time change led to long lines and flight delays out of Denver International Airport on Sunday morning, airline spokesman Joe Hodas said.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Researchers see global-warming signs near, far
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5415000
A torrent of water blocked Konrad Steffen from his base camp on a spring afternoon in Greenland last year. Hot weather - for Greenland - had turned a trickle below an ice sheet into a wide river. For more than five hours, Steffen - a University of Colorado glaciologist - waited on his snowmobile for the air to cool and the river to dwindle. Then he built a snow ramp, revved his ride and jumped across. Global warming, scientists say, is reshaping the landscapes in which they work, forcing some researchers to carry shotguns to fend off stranded polar bears and leaving others to watch once- vibrant coral reefs die. In Siberia, CU soil biologist Jason Neff has seen melting permafrost create sinkholes in tundra, which fill with murky water. "Things that you'd think would take hundreds of years are happening before your eyes," Neff said.

County supports mountain backdrop
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15106
County commissioners are urging Colorado’s two U.S. senators to support Rep. Mark Udall’s latest attempt to launch a study of ways to protect the eastern face of the northern Front Range from urban-level development. Commissioners on Thursday authorized writing Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar about Boulder County government’s support of a Udall measure they called “landmark legislation that would provide the first step in protecting the Front Range mountain backdrop in northern Colorado.” Udall’s bill, which got House approval on a Monday voice vote, would require the U.S. Forest Service to study the ownership patterns of lands comprising that mountain backdrop west of the Denver metropolitan area, including portions of Boulder, Jefferson and Gilpin counties. The Forest Service would have to identify areas that are still open but might be at risk of development. The Forest Service would then recommend to Congress how to protect those lands and how the federal government could help local communities achieve that goal, according to the 2nd Congressional District lawmaker’s staff.

Water quality signing (Legislative briefs)
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/23
Gov. Bill Ritter will be in Pueblo on Monday to sign a landmark water quality measure approved by the Legislature late last month. HB1132, introduced by Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, is designed to allow a water court judge to consider environmental issues before approving large transfers out of a river basin.

Water forum set for April
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173596400/11
Gov. Bill Ritter and Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs will speak during the 2007 Arkansas River Basin Water Forum April 12-13 at the William L. Gobin Building in Rocky Ford. Other presenters include state engineers from Colorado and Kansas; top officials from the Upper Arkansas, Southeastern Colorado, and Lower Arkansas Valley water conservancy districts; the chair of the Arkansas River Roundtable; a member of the Interbasin Compact Committee; wildlife professionals; individuals involved in agribusiness or agritourism; and Colorado’s state climatologist.

Area farmland vanishing at steady rate
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173596400/1
The amount of irrigated farmland in the Arkansas Valley has been dwindling for three decades and will continue to disappear as more water is converted to other uses. While past water deals or court cases have dried up more than 70,000 acres in the lower Arkansas Valley - roughly one-fourth of the ground once irrigated - a like amount of land could go out of production as new plans develop over the next 30 years. Three years ago, the Statewide Water Supply Initiative predicted 23,000 to 70,000 acres of Arkansas Valley farmland would be dried up to support growth of more than 450,000 additional residents in the Arkansas Valley, mostly in Colorado Springs, by the year 2030. That could happen sooner rather than later, and 70,000 acres may be the conservative end of the estimate, based on what’s already happening. Some dryup also will be caused as water shifts to electrical generation or is exported from the valley.
RELATED: What’s the land worth? Water figures in value
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173596400/2

Sewage plants brace for ammonia rules
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411889,00.html
Sewage plants in metro Denver and across Colorado are preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to comply with tough new rules to protect fish by limiting ammonia in rivers and streams. The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, the largest sewage facility in the region, plans $235 million worth of upgrades to its sprawling operation in northeast Denver. Other plants, including Boulder's and the Littleton/Englewood site - the state's third-largest - also plan major improvements. The costly upgrades are linked to new federal ammonia rules, which are based on numerous studies showing that standards dating to 1987 don't sufficiently protect fish from what can be the toxic effects of the chemical - formed from urine and manure that wind up in wastewater plants.

Fountain Creek group grapples with stormwater rules
http://chieftain.com/metro/1173510000/6
Stormwater is unpredictable, sometimes destructive and a source of pollution, but is regulated without firm guidelines. Using too much fertilizer, littering or not cleaning up after pets contributes to the contamination, but those who create the problem are largely unaware of the impact of their actions. Cities so far have depended on best management practices, effective design of new projects and community education to attempt to deal with stormwater, but in the future may be required to fix the problems created in the past. Those were some of the thoughts shared Friday at a meeting of the Fountain Creek Vision Committee’s water quality committee as it looked at the potential impact of more impervious surfaces - rooftops, driveways, parking lots and streets - on the watershed.

Experiment thwarted
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5408865,00.html
Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder designed and are overseeing the experiment, which is funded by the state of Wyoming. It started last year with the collection of baseline weather data - but no seeding - at sites in the Wind River, Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre mountain ranges. Western states spend millions of dollars each year seeding clouds with silver iodide to increase snow or rain. But about 60 years after the first cloud-seeding demonstration, no one knows for sure how well it works. In 2003, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that "scientifically acceptable proof for significant seeding effects has not been achieved." The Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project is designed to help resolve the issue.

Ginn’s plan for wildlife falls short, experts say
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070311/NEWS/70311004
Experts agree that the development will negatively impact wildlife, such as Canada lynx, elk and peregrine falcons. The plans submitted to Minturn requesting approval for a private ski resort, golf course and housing development provide inadequate explanations on how Ginn plans to lessen impacts on wildlife, some say.

Cranes on the wing again
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5411913,00.html
March brings the return of the greater sandhill cranes to Colorado as they migrate from winter habitat in the south to summer nesting and breeding grounds in Idaho, Montana and Canada. About 25,000 birds were expected over the weekend in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, where the city of Monte Vista drew about 3,000 to its 24th annual crane festival. Some cranes are expected to feed and rest in the San Luis Valley for the next two weeks, especially at the Russell Lakes State Wildlife Area and the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, said Joe Lewandowski, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The sanctuaries are about 220 miles south of Denver.

Colleges team up on preservation
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5414211
Students and faculty from three schools are working together on historic preservation projects, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the State Historical Fund. The projects are part of a new program aimed at training students in historic preservation principles and skills. "We need to grow the capacity in Colorado to take care of the structures that are aging," said James Stratis, State Historical Fund preservation projects manager. "There's a need to produce craftsmen and architects."
RELATED: Endangered buildings, too
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/03/11/news/c_u_and_boulder/news2.txt

Top

Opinion

Schoettler: Cheney's power starts to weaken
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5390401
President Bush is trying to salvage something of his disastrous presidency. The Walter Reed Army Medical Center debacle and the "Scooter" Libby guilty verdict have made that more difficult. As a result, the No. 1 administration hardliner, Vice President Dick Cheney, as The New York Times reported, "has been diminished." That's the good news. The bad news is that America still suffers the shame of this administration's behavior. Under this president's leadership, our country has been engaged in a devastating war that has destroyed the lives of countless young American soldiers and their families while asking nothing of the rest of us. We have financed the Iraq war with huge deficits, putting the burden on the children of the very veterans who are fighting in Iraq. These deficits are in part due to large tax cuts for the rest of us, who have sacrificed nothing. Even worse is the shame of our military medical system, which saves the lives of dreadfully wounded young men and women but denies them the quality long-term care and benefits they deserve.

Kids without a country
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5408922,00.html
Comprehensive immigration reform remains an elusive goal for Congress. Still, the stalemate in Washington should not preclude lawmakers from embracing worthwhile, incremental policy changes. On Wednesday, a group of local students and community activists rallied at North Presbyterian Church in Denver to support one such advance - the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (or DREAM) Act. The DREAM Act has been around in some form since 2001, and it would remove hundreds of thousands of youngsters from a baffling state of legal limbo. There's no excuse to delay its passage further.

U.S. needs humane immigration solution
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5390430
Recent policies are having an impact along the U.S. border with Mexico. Now it's time for Congress to forge a comprehensive immigration bill.

Helping veterans
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5411014,00.html
Some state lawmakers are promoting a half dozen bills they say should make life somewhat easier for Colorado's active-duty servicemen and veterans alike. That's obviously a worthy goal, and four of these proposals deserve support. Unfortunately, a couple of them miss the mark and should be defeated.

National Guard lacking gear
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5390431
In recent weeks the nation has heard of severe equipment shortages in National Guard units across the country stemming from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A congressional panel has reported that 88 percent of National Guard units nationwide are rated "not ready" for domestic emergencies due largely to huge equipment shortfalls. It's a sad state of affairs, and the U.S. Department of Defense ought to move quickly to remedy the situation. Colorado's condition is better than the average, but it provides a typical example of how the shortages occur. Some 2,500 of Colorado's 3,500 Army National Guard soldiers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years. Along with them have gone helicopters, humvees, trucks, artillery, radios and other communications equipment.

Nix the death penalty: Spend state funds on unsolved murders
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/11/nix-death-penaltyx/
On Colorado's scales of justice, which weighs more heavily? Pursuing the death penalty, in some cases for decades, for a handful of convicted murderers? Or attempting to bring to justice the perpetrators of some 1,200 unsolved homicides? A bill making its way through the state Legislature attempts to answer that question. Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, is sponsoring the bill. It proposes abolishing the state's death penalty and using most of the savings — estimated at about $750,000 a year — to help the Colorado Bureau of Investigation solve those cold cases, about 40 of which occurred in Boulder County.

AFL-CIO's boorish threat
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5400971
Even so, we see room for a sensible compromise on the nagging issue of labor organizing reform.
RELATED: Strong-arm tactics shouldn't sway governor
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/OPINION01/703120314/1014/CUSTOMERSERVICE02

Brown: A tricky proposition
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5390428
Momentum appears to be building in the Colorado legislature in favor of tightening the state's uniquely lenient rules on how citizens can change the state constitution. But it will be a risky political fight. Cynics will say legislators want to get back at voters for having saddled them, and their lobbyist friends, with the no-gifts restrictions of last fall's Amendment 41. And public opinion likes things the way they are. Insiders may appreciate that fewer than half the states allow their citizens this direct-access "redress of grievances," and that Colorado's signature and voting requirements stand alone in ease of access. But try explaining that to the general public.

Pivotal period ahead for PUC
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5414160
It took 23 years, but Ron Binz has become chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission - at just the right time. Binz, a well-respected utilities consultant and consumer advocate, was one of Gov. Bill Ritter's first nominees and was confirmed by the state Senate on a 34-1 vote in late January. It was a different story in 1984, when then- Gov. Dick Lamm nominated Binz for the three-member panel. The nomination failed - twice - with 18 state senators voting "no" and 17 voting "yes." Binz was strongly opposed by the state's two largest utilities, Mountain Bell (now Qwest) and the Public Service Co. of Colorado (now Xcel Energy). Among other things, Binz's questions about the costs of Public Service's Fort St. Vrain nuclear power plant (since decommissioned) made him a target. Attack literature, including a photo of a pony-tailed Binz from his college years, was traced back to Public Service operatives.

All utilities should aim for broadened portfolio
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=opin&article_path=/opinion/opin070312_1.htm
When voters approved Amendment 37 in 2004, requiring public utilities to garner 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2015, they signaled a desire to move away from keeping the lights on by way of fossil fuels. That move's trajectory heads toward increased energy independence - a politically and practically appealing concept that Coloradans and Americans strongly favor. Amendment 37 has proved successful well ahead of its mandates, and the Legislature is poised to build on that success. House Bill 1281, which the House approved in late February, would raise the 10 percent ante set by Amendment 37. The measure would require investor-owned utilities such as Xcel Energy to get 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. But it also brings into the fold larger municipal and all cooperative electric associations - including La Plata Electric Association and its provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission - where they had been exempt under Amendment 37. These utilities would be required to meet a 10 percent renewable standard by 2020.
RELATED: Senate should support HB 1281
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Opinion-story.asp?ID=6374

March madness for Colo. schoolchildren
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5414161
These are tense days for Colorado's schoolchildren: It's CSAP time. Students in every district are taking a series of math, reading, writing and science tests this month as part of the Colorado Student Assessment Program. The tests are designed to measure how well students in third through 10th grades meet state standards. They can produce loads of anxiety for students and teachers because schools that repeatedly perform poorly can face sanctions, such as a cut in federal funding. While students spend this month concentrating on their performance, we urge state leaders to concentrate on ways to make CSAPs and the state's overall accountability system more relevant for parents and schools. Last month, the state legislature and Gov. Bill Ritter took a big step forward by approving a system that better tracks academic progress on the CSAP tests.

A cakewalk to a 2nd term
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5407558,00.html
At this time in 1987 and 1995, when Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's two most recent predecessors approached the end of their first terms, each was gearing up for a bruising battle for re-election. Both Federico Peña and Wellington Webb won, but not without all-out efforts that forced each into a bitter runoff. Enter John Hickenlooper. With the filing deadline passed and no serious opponent in sight, the mayor won't break a sweat cruising to a first-round triumph.

Tatum: Big week for freedom of information
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5414159
This week promises to be a big one in the never-ending fight to improve access to federal government records. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday on the Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007, which stand to be the most comprehensive reform of the act in more than a decade. On Tuesday, a bipartisan- backed Senate version of the reform bill - which mirrors the House proposal, lobbyists say - is scheduled for introduction. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to conduct a hearing on the measure Wednesday. FOIA is one of the most powerful tools Americans have to supervise the inner workings of their government. The act has been revised several times since its passage almost 41 years ago, but its gist remains the same: The public benefits when government conducts its business in the open.

Ewegen: Tear down our wall of bigotry
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5400969
"Something there is about a wall, That wants it down." Like most Americans, I learned Robert Frost's unforgettable poem "Mending Wall" in grade school. Much later I learned it doesn't really apply in Colorado. For something there is in our state that wants to build a wall, and maintain at any cost a hostile rampart to separate a loving adult and a needy child so that they may never become become parent and child. To build that wall in Colorado and deprive children of their right to two loving parents, it is only necessary to whisper one word: Homosexuality. Utter that word and the law - framed by centuries of fear and misinformation - will do the rest.

Ophoff: A home for those without
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5390394
How does one exist without a home in the long, cold winter of the Colorado high country?

Lewis: Cry not for mortgage lenders
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5404197
Glenn Puller and Cindy Ingram are on their way to federal prisons for mortgage fraud. At a sentencing hearing last week, Puller received one year and Ingram received two years in prison for their separate roles as straw buyers in a massive mortgage fraud scheme in Aurora. "I apologize to the lenders," Ingram told the court. Puller said the same. I wanted to laugh out loud in the courtroom. Lenders make money lending, even when borrowers never pay it back. The industry runs on loan volume, not loan quality. Mortgage companies sell the loans they make to Wall Street investment banks, which sell them to investors.

Spencer: Justice fails teens when prosecutors run the show
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5414804
The two teens allegedly responsible for a horrible murder in Lafayette probably deserve to be tried as adults. But a judge, not a prosecutor, should have made the call.

Concerns of people of color at UNC
http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/speakout/2007/03/concerns_of_people_of_color_at.html
The Black-Latino Coalition of UNC met with UNC President Kay Norton on November 30, 2006 in order to expedite the unreasonably stalled approval of Secondary Teacher Education Licensure Program proposals submitted by Africana Studies and Mexican-American Studies in Fall 2005. The meeting characteristically failed to produce any positive result.

Becker: Going nuclear on warming
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5390391
As we plan a response to global warming, many good thinkers are grasping at simple solutions to a very complex problem. Take nuclear power, for example. Some of the nation's most respected environmental leaders, who a year or two ago would never have endorsed the reincarnation of the nuclear industry, now say it is a necessary step to slow climate change. But as we discuss what to do about climate change, government officials, technology experts and the public all should keep a few basic facts in mind.

NATIONAL NEWS

Top

Election

Obama, Clinton Sparring Early
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101690.html
In the month since the presidential nominating contest got underway, Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) have barely mentioned each other's names in public or even greeted each other in the Senate halls. But each campaign has increasingly fixated on the other, engaging in a shadowboxing match in which they intentionally cross paths but dodge to avoid each other's subtle jabs. With an intensity unusual for this stage of the campaign the two are indirectly engaging, invading each other's terrain and going to great lengths to contrast their candidacies.

Iowans get an up-close view of Obama
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-11-obama-iowa_N.htm
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday told a small group of Iowa Democrats that U.S. policy in the Middle East can be compassionate as well as tough — while he also provided these influential voices in the leadoff caucus state with an up-close view of him as a presidential candidate. Obama told the Muscatine-area party activists that he supports relaxing restrictions on aid to the Palestinian people. He said they have suffered the most as a result of stalled peace efforts with Israel. "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people," Obama said while on the final leg of his weekend trip to eastern Iowa.

New John Edwards Sells Less Biography, More Liberal Issues
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001374.html
When he first ran for president, then-Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) was the fresh face in the Democratic Party, a perpetually buoyant campaigner who built his candidacy around his own biography and whose success in the primaries earned him a place on the 2004 Democratic ticket. Fast-forward to today, and there is a new John Edwards on the campaign trail. His demeanor is more serious and his elbows far sharper than four years ago. Two years after leaving the Senate, he rarely mentions his time in Washington. Nor does he talk about his experience as Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry's vice presidential running mate. His political positions also have more edge. An emphasis on biography has given way to a focus on issues, where there has been a demonstrable shift to the left -- on the Iraq war, health care and the federal budget deficit. The changes have given him entree to the liberal voters and constituencies who are influential in selecting Democratic presidential nominees.
RELATED: Edwards focuses on health care during Iowa stop
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-10-edwards-iowa_N.htm

In Romney’s Bid, His Wallet Opens to the Right
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/us/politics/11romney.html
In the months before announcing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts contributed tens of thousands of dollars of his personal fortune to several conservative groups in a position to influence his image on the right.

Conservatives balk over Giuliani's judges
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-judicial12mar12,1,6655089.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Rudolph W. Giuliani, in an effort to temper his support for abortion rights and his other socially liberal stances, has been assuring conservatives that as president he would appoint "strict constructionists" to the federal bench, in the tradition of Supreme Court jurists Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and John G. Roberts Jr. But now, some prominent conservatives are saying that Giuliani's record as mayor undermines that promise. In his eight years leading New York City, they say, Giuliani appointed a number of judges who did not appear to fit the conservative mold.
RELATED: Giuliani vs. firefighters: 9/11 heroes' rift
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-giuliani10mar10,1,1486826.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

In Crowded G.O.P. Field, a Lesser-Known Hopes to Capitalize on the Issues
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/us/politics/12brownback.html?ref=us
When the dapper man in the starched shirt, lavender tie and navy blue suit interrupted Donna Van Peursem, 61, and her friends at the Pizza Ranch here on Saturday, she failed to recognize him but sensed she somehow should. “I’m Senator Sam Brownback,” the man said brightly. “And I’m running for president.” Mrs. Van Peursem clucked out a greeting. But after Mr. Brownback, a Kansas Republican, moved to another table, she whispered to a reporter, “Who is he again?”

Actor Thompson Considers Role in Presidential Race
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100518.html
Not enough "star" power for Fred D. Thompson in a GOP presidential field that includes some of his friends? Whatever the case, the actor and former senator from Tennessee is considering getting into the 2008 race. Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's drama "Law & Order," said yesterday, "I'm giving some thought to it, going to leave the door open," and said he would decide in the coming months. "It's not really a reflection on the current field at all," he said.
RELATED: Actor and Former Senator May Run in ’08
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/us/politics/12thompson.html

Early Primary Rush Upends ’08 Campaign Plans
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/us/politics/12primary.html?ref=washington
The trickle of states moving their 2008 presidential primaries to Feb. 5 has turned into an avalanche, forcing all the presidential campaigns to reconsider every aspect of their nominating strategy — where to compete, how to spend money, when to start television advertising — as they gird for the prospect of a 20-state national Primary Day.

Voters say honesty, integrity trump policies in presidential candidates
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-11-candidate-traits_N.htm
For all the policy blueprints churned out by presidential campaigns, there is this indisputable fact: Americans care less about issues than they do about a candidate's character. A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll says 55% of those surveyed consider honesty, integrity and other values of character the most important qualities they look for in a presidential candidate. Just one-third look first to candidates' stances on issues; even fewer focus foremost on leadership traits, experience or intelligence. "Voters only look at policies as a lens into what type of person the candidate is," said Ken Mehlman, chairman of President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. That campaign based its voter targeting and messaging strategies on the character-first theory.

Donations Pooled Online Are Getting Candidates' Attention
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001185.html
In a political fundraising world traditionally dominated by lobbyists and wealthy business executives, small-dollar donor Hrishi Karthikeyan found a way to make his own splash, right from his desk. With tools offered free on Barack Obama's Internet site, Karthikeyan, 28, created his own "South Asians for Obama" Web portal to gather money from friends who were inspired to support his favorite candidate. Within days, he was able to forward to Obama's presidential campaign $1,600 -- more than he ever planned to give on his own -- in bundled contributions from those who saw the targeted site.
RELATED: ActBlue raises money online for Democrats
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-actblue11mar11,1,7297648.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Clinton to Back Iraq Deadline
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902034.html
A vote on the Democratic-sponsored Iraq resolution expected to hit the Senate floor next week will mark the first time Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has embraced a legislative deadline for withdrawing from the war-torn nation, a step she has consistently resisted to this point. The March 31, 2008, date in the text is described as a "goal," but Democratic leaders said the intent is clear: The war's combat phase should end by that date.

A Reality Show That Obey Would Rather Forget
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901504.html
Tina Richards, an Iraq war protester and mother of a Marine, confronted Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) this week to ask why he would vote for a war spending bill and demanded that Congress bring the troops home. Obey, who had spent long days working on compromise language between liberals and conservatives in his party, said the bill was the best hope to stop the war. And gave her an earful. And in this digital age, it all was captured surreptitiously on video by another protester for the world to see on YouTube.

Granting pardons can cause leaders grief
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-11-presidential-pardons_N.htm
Richard Nixon. Mark Felt. Caspar Weinberger. Marc Rich. Is President Bush willing to risk — on behalf of ex-White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby — the kind of political grief that pardons for those four men brought the presidents who granted them?

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

FBI Audit Prompts Calls for Reform
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902356.html
Lawmakers from both parties yesterday called for limits on antiterrorism laws in response to a Justice Department report that the FBI improperly obtained telephone logs, banking records and other personal information on thousands of Americans. The audit by the department's inspector general detailed widespread abuse of the FBI's authority to seize personal details about tens of thousands of people without court oversight through the use of national security letters. It also found that the FBI had hatched an agreement with telephone companies allowing the agency to ask for information on more than 3,000 phone numbers -- often without a subpoena, without an emergency or even without an investigative case. In 2006, the FBI then issued blanket letters authorizing many of the requests retroactively, according to agency officials and congressional aides briefed on the effort.

Government Sites Aren't FOIA-Friendly
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101043.html
Federal agencies helped create the Internet, but most do not use it to inform the public about what they do, a study to be released today shows. In 1996, Congress intended to keep government ahead of the curve by amending the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to require that agencies put more public information on their Web sites. Posting important and most-requested records online, the theory went, would burn through a raft of hard-copy FOIA requests, save money and eliminate waiting time.

In this Florida city, sex change a firing offense
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120173mar12,1,3100829.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
For months, Steve Stanton, the longtime city manager of this small Gulf Coast Florida town, scripted his plans to tell his employees, city commissioners and his own child of a major change in his life. Stanton was preparing to have a sex-change operation. He was to be called Susan, no longer Steve. True to his bureaucratic temperament, he drafted an eight-page transition plan. Then came questions from a local newspaper reporter. What he hoped would be a low-key affair within City Hall became national news. His life and that of his family would never be the same.

Top

Foreign Policy

Bush Continues on Latin America Tour
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031000504.html
Bush flew by helicopter Saturday morning to the scenic, woodsy, waterfront ranch of Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez to share a beef lunch and discuss trade. For the second day in a row, Bush was asked by a reporter why he refused to even utter Chavez's name and he again avoided answering the question, instead saying he wanted to present a positive and constructive message to the region. Bush arrived in Uruguay on Friday night after a day in Sao Paulo, where he announced a new energy partnership with Brazil to promote wider production of ethanol throughout the region as an alternative to oil, the first step in an effort to strengthen economic and political alliances in Latin America.
RELATED: Under Tight Security, Bush Lauds Colombia's Uribe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100372.html
RELATED: Bush to Press Free Trade in a Place Where Young Children Still Cut the Cane
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/world/americas/12guatemala.html

Terrorists Proving Harder to Profile
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101618.html
On the surface, the young Dutch Moroccan mother looked like an immigrant success story: She studied business in college, hung out at the pub with her friends and was known for her fashionable taste in clothes. So residents of this 900-year-old river town were thrown for a loop last year when Bouchra El-Hor, now 24, appeared in a British courtroom wearing handcuffs under an all-encompassing black veil. Prosecutors said she had covered up plans for a terrorist attack and wrote a letter offering to sacrifice herself and her infant son as martyrs. "We were flabbergasted to learn that she had become a fanatic," said Renee Haantjes, a college instructor who recalled her as "a normal Dutch girl." People in Zutphen may have been surprised, but terrorism suspects from atypical backgrounds are becoming increasingly common in Western Europe.

Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Says Britain Embellished Intelligence on Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Britain-Iraq-Blix.html
The British government embellished intelligence used to justify the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector said in an interview broadcast Monday. Hans Blix, who led the U.N. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003, said a later discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons programs had deliberately embellished the case for war. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government published a dossier before the invasion that claimed Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could deploy some within 45 minutes. ''I do think they exercised spin. They put exclamation marks instead of question marks,'' Blix said in an interview with Britain's Sky News television broadcast Monday.

Insurgents Burn Homes in Shiite Area
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100334.html
The armed men who entered a village in Diyala province Saturday after sunset seized the residents' weapons and made a request that turned out to be an ultimatum. "They asked us to join the Islamic State of Iraq," Sameer Muhammad, who lives in the village, said Sunday. "After that, they burned the houses of those who work with the army or police." At least 31 houses in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood were doused with gasoline and set ablaze, said residents, who quickly fled the raging fire, leaving behind loved ones and belongings, and walked miles to find shelter. U.S. military officials have described Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, as a particularly volatile part of the country. A recent surge in violence there may have been driven by an exodus of militant fighters and insurgents from the capital, where stiffer security measures are in place.
RELATED: Baghdad blast kills 31 Shiite pilgrims
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq12mar12,1,440665.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Agencies Tangle on Efforts to Help Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001442.html
The dispute between Commerce and State illuminates the rivalries that have cropped up within the U.S. government as the White House seeks to involve more parts of the federal bureaucracy in the reconstruction of Iraq. Instead of collaborating, agencies have often found themselves split by the gulf between idealistic officials in Washington, some of whom have never been to Iraq, and embassy staffers whose ambition to promote change has been attenuated by the violence and dysfunction they witness every day.

U.S., Allies Agree to Drop Proposed Iran Travel Ban
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902075.html
U.S., British, French and German diplomats agreed in a closed-door meeting Friday to drop a proposal to impose a mandatory travel ban on Iranian officials linked to the country's most sensitive nuclear activities, Security Council diplomats said. The concession was aimed at securing Russian and Chinese support for a Security Council resolution that would further penalize Iran for its refusal to halt its enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
RELATED: Iran sees progress in talks with U.S.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraniraq12mar12,1,3243770.story?coll=la-headlines-world
RELATED: Iran's nuclear vision first glimpsed at MIT
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/03/12/irans_nuclear_vision_first_glimpsed_at_mit/

Olmert, Abbas Hold Talks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101516.html
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met here Sunday for the second time in less than a month, but made little progress on reviving peace talks, exchanging prisoners or resolving differences over the nascent Palestinian power-sharing government. The two-hour meeting came as the Bush administration is pressing the two sides, which have not engaged in formal peace negotiations in more than six years, to begin talks again as soon as possible. But Olmert and Abbas are both operating from weak political positions, and neither side expected any substantive agreements.
RELATED: Israeli and Palestinian leaders make little progress at summit
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/03/12/israeli_and_palestinian_leaders_make_little_progress_at_summit/
RELATED: Years of Strife and Lost Hope Scar Young Palestinians
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/world/middleeast/12intifada.html?ref=world

Sudan orchestrated Darfur crimes, U.N. mission says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200225.html
A U.N. human rights mission on Monday accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in war crimes in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there. The United Nations mission, led by Nobel peace prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan's vast western region, where observers say some 200,000 people have been killed since revolt broke out in 2003.

Zimbabwe opposition gathering quashed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120178mar12,1,5066914.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Hundreds of Zimbabwe's riot police officers Sunday violently crushed an attempt by protesters to hold what they called a prayer meeting in one of the capital's largest slums to express opposition to President Robert Mugabe's rule. Beatrice Mtetwa, a civil rights lawyer in Harare, the capital, said at least 35 people were arrested, including the leaders of the two rival political factions that oppose Mugabe's governing party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

Care for Injured British Troops Is Faulted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100610.html
British troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving appalling care in British hospitals, according to families who have made complaints similar to those leveled against Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. "We gloriously see them off to war and then neglect them when they come back," said Phillip Cooper, whose son, Jamie, 18, is a soldier who was severely injured in a mortar attack in Iraq in November. "They lay down their lives for their country, then they get treated appallingly."

Pro-Kremlin parties ahead in Russia vote
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russvote12mar12,1,6432081.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Russian voters went to the polls Sunday in regional elections dominated by two pro-Kremlin parties, a result that critics said gave the appearance of democracy without its substance. Sporadic incidents of violence were reported, and in the Moscow region, protesters who called the elections fraudulent were arrested. United Russia, the main party backing highly popular President Vladimir V. Putin, appeared set to win the most votes. But a new party called Just Russia, led by Sergei Mironov, a Putin ally who heads the upper house of parliament, also did well, according to early returns.
RELATED: Russian Election Is Marred by Complaints
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/world/europe/12russia.html

Chirac Tells France He Won't Run Again
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100573.html
French President Jacques Chirac said Sunday that he will not seek a third term next month, opening the way for a new generation of leaders to take over a country struggling to halt the erosion of its economy, social cohesion and global standing. "I will not ask for your votes for a new mandate," Chirac, 74, told a national television audience in a long-anticipated announcement that reflected his age, failing health and abysmal public opinion ratings. The news media declared his political obituary months ago, but Chirac delayed announcing his decision for fear of becoming an even more obvious lame duck, according to political analysts and government officials.
RELATED: After 40 Years in French Politics, Chirac to Retire
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/world/europe/12france.html?ref=world

Top

Immigration

Mexico Tries a Slower Path To Changes on Immigration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101387.html
When President Bush lands in the Yucatan colonial city of Merida on Monday night, he will encounter a new Mexican government that wants the same thing the old one wanted: comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. What's different is that Mexican President Felipe Calderón, in office since December, is trying a slower and subtler approach. Calderón and his lieutenants have even invented a buzzword to define their strategy, saying they will "desmigratizar" the bilateral agenda, or remove immigration from the forefront of U.S.-Mexico relations.

Medicaid rule deters thousands
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120165mar12,1,3428510.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
A new federal rule intended to keep illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid has shut out tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who have had difficulty complying with documentation requirements proving citizenship, state officials say. Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio and Virginia have all reported declines in enrollment and traced them to the new federal requirement. Under a 2006 federal law, the Deficit Reduction Act, most people who say they are U.S. citizens and want Medicaid must provide "satisfactory documentary evidence of citizenship."

DSS urges release of 21 more detainees
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/12/dss_urges_release_of_21_more_detainees/
The Massachusetts Department of Social Services yesterday urged federal authorities to release at least 21 immigrants detained during a raid on a New Bedford factory and held in Texas detention facilities. Nineteen of the detainees are the sole or primary caretakers of children in New Bedford; DSS also called for the release of a woman who said she was recently diagnosed with cancer, and a 17-year-old boy, because he is a minor. A day after interviewing dozens of people detained Tuesday because they could not prove they were in the country legally, DSS social workers said detainees told them they feared for their children in Massachusetts. The children range in age from infants to a 17-year-old, and include a disabled 4-year-old girl who requires a feeding tube and 2-year-old boy with a respiratory ailment.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

At the End of Life, a Racial Divide
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101565.html
After lives in which they often struggle to get medical care, African Americans and other minorities are more likely than whites to want, and get, more aggressive care as death nears and are less likely to use hospice and palliative-care services to ease their suffering, according to a large body of research and leading experts. As a result, they are more likely to experience more medicalized deaths, dying more frequently in the hospital, in pain, on ventilators and with feeding tubes -- often after being resuscitated or getting extra rounds of chemotherapy, dialysis or other care, studies show. "I think we need to be very attentive to attending to suffering in our patients and do everything we can to help minimize and ameliorate it," said Richard Payne, who runs Duke University's Institute on Care at the End of Life. "African Americans and other minorities are at greater risk of not dying well."

Texans Want to Strike Rule on Projecting Retiree Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/business/12retiree.html?ref=business
The nation’s 50 states and the largest cities will soon be required to disclose the value of the health care they have promised their retired workers. The prospect of that disclosure, under a new accounting rule, is not a happy one for governments. Cities or states that have already calculated the price of their retirement promises have often found the figures to be alarmingly high, angering taxpayer groups and posing a potential threat to government bond ratings. New York City, for instance, disclosed in the fall that its obligation for retiree health care was $53.5 billion. Now Texas wants to opt out of the whole process, and hopes to persuade other states to join it. State Senator Robert Duncan, a Republican from Lubbock, has introduced a bill that would make the new accounting rule inoperable in Texas.

Where Tobacco Ruled, Smoking Ban Gains Ground
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/us/12tobacco.html?ref=us
Tennessee will probably become the first major tobacco-growing state to pass a comprehensive smoke-free-workplace law. Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, proposed the ban in February. He also wants to triple taxes on cigarette sales and to use some of the money for smoking prevention. The proposals show how far public policy toward smoking has shifted, even in tobacco-friendly Robertson County, Mr. Gregory said.

Rice Industry Troubled by Genetic Contamination
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001323.html
When Fred Zaunbrecher heard in August that the popular variety of long-grain rice he was planning to grow had become contaminated with snippets of experimental, unapproved DNA, the Louisiana rice farmer took it in stride and ordered a different variety of seed for his spring planting. But when federal officials announced last week that the rice he and many others switched to was also contaminated -- this time with a different unapproved gene -- irritation grew to alarm. The two sidelined varieties accounted for about a third of last year's Southern rice crop, and planting was set to begin within days.

Top

Economy

Steadier as You Go
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001375.html
Many investors watched in gut-wrenching shock as the stock market plunged on Feb. 27, afraid the decline might mark the start of a crash that would wipe out their savings. Not Robert Youker. The retired World Bank employee's holdings in ultra-safe Treasury securities scored big gains that day while the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 400 points.

China Set to Loosen Exchange Rate of Yuan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/world/asia/12china.html
The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, said Monday that it would gradually increase the flexibility in the exchange rate of the yuan, the national currency. The statement, distributed ahead of a news conference by Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, provided no details on the degree of flexibility the bank would permit. But China has come under increasing pressure, particularly from the United States, to loosen artificial controls on the yuan and permit it to rise in value. The current rate is about 7.74 yuan to the dollar.

97,000 jobs added in February, weakest in 2 years
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2007-03-09-jobs_N.htm
The nation's unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.5% in February as businesses created 97,000 jobs, fewest in two years, and wages grew at a fast clip, the Labor Department said Friday. Despite the slight improvement in the unemployment rate, from 4.6% in January, the factory and construction sectors shed jobs, hit by a slowdown in the housing and auto markets. Further, improvement in the unemployment rate was partly because the number of people in the labor pool declined 190,000 during the month and there was large job creation in the government sector

Businesses Prepare to Mount a Concerted Attack on Regulation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101197.html
Call it the end of the post-Enron era. A major anti-regulatory offensive culminates this week with a one-two punch thrown by Washington and Wall Street's most moneyed institutions, as the Treasury Department convenes a star-studded meeting tomorrow and the nation's largest business lobby issues its own call to action a day later. At the top of the agenda are ways to "secure America's competitiveness." Translation: Burdensome rules, costly litigation and hard-nosed prosecutors are killing U.S. companies.

Facing Fraud Trial, Conrad Black Flouts the Rules
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/business/12black.html?ref=business
Unlike most defendants in corporate malfeasance trials, Mr. Black has chided his accusers and vowed a comeback.

AMD's well may be running dry
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2007-03-11-amd_N.htm
The high-flying Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of 2006 has given way to a company in financial peril, saddled with debt and bleeding from a brutal price battle with its larger and suddenly resurgent Silicon Valley archrival, Intel Corp. AMD finds itself the subject of rumors of a possible takeover or private-equity cash infusion. While it wasn't long ago that AMD was stealing a big slice of the microprocessor market and emerging as a long-term threat to Intel, those very gains may have left AMD's well running dry. Though the price competition has cut into both chipmakers' profits, Wall Street has punished AMD's stock particularly hard.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

An End to Easy Money
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902155.html
During the first half of this decade, when housing prices spiked, lenders chased after such borrowers, making it easier for them to buy homes they otherwise could not have afforded. But after the housing market cooled last year, delinquencies and defaults spiked, forcing more than two dozen lenders to close, sell themselves to larger firms or report staggering financial losses. Some have chosen to get pickier about borrowers -- a course encouraged by federal regulators. General Electric's U.S. mortgage arm this week laid off a fifth of its workers because of a jump in defaults and has stopped making some risky loans. New Century Financial, one of the nation's largest lenders to subprime borrowers, said Thursday that it had stopped accepting new loan applications under pressure from its creditors.

'We Called It Hurricane FEMA'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101178.html
Shortly after noon, FEMA agents began rapping on the trailer doors, their knocks resounding inside the tinny white homes. Everyone in the park, the agents announced without warning, would have to pack and leave within 48 hours. Where do we go now? Why? What about school? To the residents of the Yorkshire Mobile Home Park, all of them families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency crews offered answers that were uncertain and sometimes contradictory. As residents spilled out of their homes to meet their similarly bewildered neighbors, the adults wondered where they would be sent next, and how far they might wind up from their jobs. Some began sobbing. Then the children, seeing their parents' tears, began crying, too. A woman fainted, and an ambulance came.

Top

Media

Nevada Democrats Drop Debate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902471.html
The Nevada Democratic Party canceled yesterday an August debate in Reno it had been scheduled to co-sponsor with Fox News, after weeks of complaints from liberal groups and a controversial remark by the network's chairman. Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said Thursday while accepting an award from the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation: "It is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?' " Democrats said the comment, which referred to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, likened Obama, a senator from Illinois, to Osama bin Laden. Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Tom Collins, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party, released a letter to the network that said Ailes "went too far." "We cannot, as good Democrats, put our party in a position to defend such comments," the two added.
RELATED: A Wrangle After Democrats Shun Fox as Debate Platform
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/business/media/12fox.html
RELATED: Obama: Fox chief's joke no big deal
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120154mar12,1,2576540.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

No walk in the park for Ann Coulter
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-coulter12mar12,1,327869.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
A recent gay-slur quip has some news shows skittish about booking her. Others can't resist a loose-cannon righty in leggy-blond trappings.

Media's focus narrowing, report warns
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-journalism12mar12,1,5951504.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
News organizations confronted with declining revenue and increased competition are entering an era of more limited ambition in which they will drop a broad worldview for more narrowly focused reporting, according to an annual review of the news business being released today by a watchdog group. The Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that the struggle to create sustainable media brands is driving "hyper-local" coverage in newspapers; encouraging citizen journalism on the Internet; and giving rise to opinion-driven television personalities like CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. "The consequences of this narrowing of focus involve more risk than we sense the business has considered," said the report from the project, an arm of the Washington-based Pew Research Center. "Concepts like hyper-localism, pursued in the most literal sense, can be marketing speak for simply doing less."

Top

Education

Modern-Day 3 R's: Rules, Rules, Rules
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001475.html
A culture of control has Washington area campuses in an ever-tightening grip, many students say, extending beyond the long-standing restrictions on provocative clothing, cellphone use and class-time bathroom visits. Akin to the omnipresent "helicopter parents," these students say, are helicopter administrators who home in on their smallest moves, no matter how guileless or mundane. Some administrators acknowledge that the list of rules meant to ban, limit or deter potentially inappropriate or dangerous actions is steadily growing.

Top

Science and Technology

Tracking of Killer Asteroids Runs Low on Money and Short on Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/science/space/12asteroid.html?ref=science
NASA can find and track most of the nearby asteroids that could hit and damage the Earth, but there is not enough money in its budget to finish the project within a 15-year deadline mandated by Congress, according to an agency report released Friday.

Top

Military

Additional Troop Increase Approved
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001397.html
President Bush approved 8,200 more U.S. troops for Iraq and Afghanistan on top of reinforcements already ordered to those two countries, the White House said Saturday, a move that comes amid a fiery debate in Washington over the Iraq war. The president agreed to send 4,700 troops to Iraq in addition to the 21,500 he ordered to go in January, mainly to provide support for those combat forces and to handle more anticipated Iraqi prisoners. He also decided to send a 3,500-member brigade to Afghanistan to accelerate training of local forces, doubling his previous troop increase to fight a resurgent Taliban. Although officials had foreshadowed the additional forces for Iraq in recent days, the latest troop increase in Afghanistan had not been known and will bring U.S. forces there to an all-time high.
RELATED: Fallback strategy for Iraq: Train locals, draw down forces
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-planc12mar12,0,4250952.story?coll=la-home-headlines

New Defense Chief Eases Relations Rumsfeld Bruised
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/washington/12intel.html?ref=washington
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has set in motion a review of the Pentagon’s dealings with the nation’s spy agencies to improve cooperation and heal working relationships bruised by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, just one way Mr. Gates has forcefully if quietly pushed back on Mr. Rumsfeld’s initiatives. On issues that include shifting priorities on spending, demanding accountability of senior leaders for improper care of wounded troops and encouraging a more consultative dialogue with the military brass and overseas allies, Mr. Gates has already adopted policies and a style in sharp contrast with Mr. Rumsfeld’s.

Privatized Walter Reed Workforce Gets Scrutiny
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902082.html
The scandal over treatment of outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has focused attention on the Army's decision to privatize the facilities support workforce at the hospital, a move commanders say left the building maintenance staff undermanned. Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned the decision to hire IAP Worldwide Services, a contractor with connections to the Bush administration and to KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary.

Disparity seen in disability pay among services, ranks
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-10-disability-pay_N.htm
The Army and Marine Corps, bearing the brunt of the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan, tend to give their wounded troops lower disability ratings than the Navy and Air Force, according to Defense Department data. The result: Soldiers and Marines receive an average of several hundred dollars per month less in disability retired pay than sailors and airmen.

Nuclear Weapons Rarely Needed, General Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902334.html
The head of U.S. Strategic Command has told Congress that precision conventional weapons have replaced the need for nuclear ones in almost all areas, except when a quick intercontinental strike is required against unexpected or fast-moving threats. "While America possesses dominant conventional capabilities second to none, we lack the capability to respond promptly to globally dispersed or fleeting threats without resorting to nuclear weapons," Gen. James E. Cartwright, commander of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces on Thursday.

Top

Religion

New Criticism for Episcopal Bishop
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001179.html
Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, is used to hostility from the right wing of her denomination. Now, she faces a rebellion among her longtime allies on the left. With more puzzlement than rancor, liberal Episcopalians are questioning why Jefferts Schori signed an international statement last month that, in their view, demands a halt to 30 years of growing acceptance of gay men and lesbians.

Evangelical Body Stays Course on Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001175.html
Rebuffing Christian radio commentator James C. Dobson, the board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals reaffirmed its position that environmental protection, which it calls "creation care," is an important moral issue. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and two dozen other conservative Christian leaders, including Gary L. Bauer, Tony Perkins and Paul M. Weyrich, sent the board a letter this month denouncing the association's vice president, the Rev. Richard Cizik, for urging attention to global warming. The letter argued that evangelicals are divided on whether climate change is a real problem, and it said that "Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time," such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
RELATED: Evangelicals battle over agenda, environment
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-evangelicals10mar10,1,722350.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

Top

Energy Policy

Midwest Has 'Coal Rush,' Seeing No Alternative
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030902302.html
From the top of a new coal-fired power plant with its 550-foot exhaust stack poking up from the flat western Iowa landscape, MidAmerican Energy Holdings chief executive David L. Sokol peered down at a train looping around a sizable mound of coal. At this bend in the Missouri River, with Omaha visible in the distance, the new MidAmerican plant is the leading edge of what many people are calling the "coal rush." Due to start up this spring, it will probably be the next coal-fired generating station to come online in the United States. A dozen more are under construction, and about 40 others are likely to start up within five years -- the biggest wave of coal plant construction since the 1970s.

Bush Hails International Ethanol Production
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030900767.html
President Bush sealed a deal with Brazil on Friday morning intended to promote international production of ethanol, opening a six-day tour of Latin America dedicated to renewing U.S. commitment to a region that has become estranged from Washington in recent years. Shucking jacket and tie for a hardhat, Bush toured a massive fuel depot to highlight Brazil's success in developing ethanol into a vital source of energy. The partnership Bush wants to build with Brazil is intended to further research on and development of biofuel technology and to boost private investment for such efforts in other countries.

Demand for ethanol driving up meat prices
http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2007-03-09-corn_N.htm
Strong demand for corn to use in ethanol plants is driving up the cost of livestock and will raise prices for beef, pork and chicken, the Agriculture Department said Friday. Meat and poultry production will fall as producers face higher feed costs, the department said in its monthly crop report. Ethanol fuel, which is blended with gasoline, is consuming 20% of last year's corn crop and is expected to gobble up more than 25% of this year's crop. The price of corn, the main feed for livestock, has driven the cost of feeding chickens up 40%, according to the National Chicken Council. The council says that chicken, the most popular meat with consumers, will soon cost more at the grocery store. The industry worries the competition from ethanol could cause a shortage of corn.

Top

Environment and Conservation

E.U. Raises Bar in Fight Against Global Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901992.html
European Union leaders agreed Friday to take the 27-country bloc beyond the targets of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming, agreeing to legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy. During a sometimes contentious two-day meeting in Brussels, the leaders agreed to cut the gas emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels in the next 13 years. They set binding targets for renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and hydro power, to supply 20 percent of the union's power needs and for biofuels to be used in 10 percent of the bloc's road vehicles by 2020.

In China's toxic air, winds of change
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120171mar12,1,2314395.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
Three years after China first cited Linfen for the nation's worst air quality, local officials have in recent weeks begun shuttering factories that for years had fouled the environment with impunity. And more than 100 other plants in the city face a deadline: adopt environmental protection equipment by the end of March or be shut down. Vows to crack down on polluters are nothing new in China and have brought little improvement. But what makes this case intriguing is that local officials in one of the country's worst-affected cities are closing factories, saying they have been warned that their political careers will hinge on successfully curbing pollution.

Pelosi Reveals Who's Who On Global Warming Panel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101044.html
The best-kept secret on the Hill -- the full membership of the new committee on global warming -- is no longer secret. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has announced the 15 members of the committee, formally known as the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Pelosi's decision to create the committee initially sparked a turf war. Many saw it as a way to diminish the influence of veteran lawmakers, such as Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), who in the past guarded the interests of the big U.S. automakers from his state by opposing higher fuel-efficiency standards.

Inquiry Sought on Agency Memo About Polar Bears, Climate Change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901986.html
Two senior House Democrats demanded yesterday that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne turn over documents to Congress in order to determine whether the administration was preventing federal scientists traveling abroad from discussing how global warming affects polar bears. In a letter to Kempthorne, Bart Gordon (Tenn.), chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, and Brad Miller (N.C.), chairman of the investigations and oversight subcommittee, questioned why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a directive that has stirred protests from environmentalists.

Kerrys mount campaign to help the environment
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/12/kerrys_mount_campaign_to_help_the_environment/
In 2004, during his run for president, Senator John F. Kerry was touting wind power in Minnesota, endorsing clean-coal technology in West Virginia, and talking about preserving fisheries in Washington state. His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, kept her own busy travel schedule, warning about carcinogenic toxins and the importance of cancer screening. They had hoped such issues would help vault them to the White House. Now, they hope to show people that it doesn't take the power of a president -- or even a veteran United States senator -- to help save the environment.

Top

Opinion

Editor’s note: the New York Times has converted to a subscription-based editorial section. We are no longer clipping their op-ed columnists.

Ted Kennedy: What a Difference an Election Makes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901837.html
Rome wasn't built in a day, but if this new Congress had been its architect, it might have been. It has been just 66 days since Congress changed hands, and already the results are remarkable. In my 45 years in Congress, I have never seen the Senate turn so rapidly from stalemate toward real progress. While the daily media focus may be on our internal debates or the next presidential election, the biggest news of 2007 is that the election mattered and that the Democrats have already delivered for the American people. The biggest reason is that the election replaced a do-nothing Congress with the kind of Congress that our Founding Fathers intended: an equal branch of government that takes seriously its responsibility to exercise oversight over the executive branch and to legislate in the public interest. The progress of the past few months only underscores how much our country has needed an active and alert Congress. The examples are numerous.

Abuse of Authority
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031000983.html
THE EXPANSION of law enforcement powers approved by Congress after Sept. 11 and contained in the USA Patriot Act was conditioned on the notion that these new authorities would be carefully used and closely monitored. An infuriating report released Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, demonstrates that the Federal Bureau of Investigation treated its new powers with anything but that kind of restraint. The report depicts an FBI cavalierly using its expanded power to issue "national security letters" without adequate oversight or justification.
RELATED: The Failed Attorney General
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/11sun1.html

Vedantam: Disagree About Iraq? You're Not Just Wrong -- You're Evil.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101439.html
A wide body of psychological research shows that on any number of hot-button issues, people seem hard-wired to believe the worst about those who disagree with them. Most people can see the humor in such behavior when it doesn't involve things they care about: If you don't care about sports, for example, you roll your eyes when fans of one team question the principles and parentage of fans of a rival team. "We are really bad about putting ourselves in other people's places and looking at the world the way they look at it," said Glenn D. Reeder, a social psychologist at Illinois State University who recently conducted a study into how supporters and critics of the Iraq war have come to believe entirely different narratives about the war -- and about each other. "We find it difficult to grant that other people come to their conclusions in good faith if they reach a conclusion that is different than ours," he said.
RELATED: Another Grim Week in Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/opinion/10sat1.html

Fuller: Averting another Walter Reed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0703110413mar11,0,1910652.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed
I wonder if any veteran was surprised to learn that soldiers wounded in Iraq were put up in miserable quarters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and treated with bureaucratic callousness. Appalled and furious, yes. But surprised?

Pawns in Guantanamo's game
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/03/11/pawns_in_guantanamos_game/
THE NEW SHERIFF in town at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has already set a different tone by firing officials responsible for the Walter Reed scandal. But there is a Walter Reed-style scandal of human rights abuses now festering at the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba that becomes his responsibility the longer it continues under his watch. Gates can begin the process of restoring the United States' reputation as a respecter of human rights by releasing 17 Guantanamo detainees from China.

Heck of a Job, FEMA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901792.html
The 'new' agency acts a lot like the old one.

Sunshine on History
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/opinion/12mon4.html
In November 2001, while the world was focused on terrorism, President Bush issued an executive order making it significantly harder for historians and the public to gain access to a former president’s official papers. The House has a chance tomorrow to reverse this damaging decree. Mr. Bush’s decision effectively repealed the presumption of public availability enshrined in the Presidential Records Act of 1978, a post-Watergate reform that established that the treasure trove of historical material amassed by a president belongs to the American people.

Carroll: 60 years of faulty logic
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/12/60_years_of_faulty_logic/
SIXTY YEARS AGO today, Harry Truman went before a joint session of Congress to announce what became known as the Truman Doctrine. "At the present moment in world history, nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life." With that, an era of bipolarity was inaugurated, dividing the world between forces of good and evil.

Kuttner: Cheney's still dangerous
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/10/cheneys_still_dangerous/
ONE BUMPER STICKER proposes: Impeach Cheney First.

Froomkin: Where's Karl Rove?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/03/09/BL2007030901021.html
Denis Collins, a juror in the Scooter Libby trial, wasn't just channeling his fellow jurors on Tuesday when he faced the microphones and asked: "Where's Rove?" Collins's point was that Libby, who he had just helped convict on obstruction-of-justice charges, was quite obviously not the only person involved in the politically motivated outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

The Next Big Health Care Battle
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/opinion/12mon1.html
At a time when the nation is pondering how to provide medical coverage to some 47 million uninsured Americans, it is logical and right to start with the country’s nine million uninsured children. The Bush administration, unfortunately, is going in exactly the opposite direction.

Candidate confessional hour
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-gop11mar11,0,7142268.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
HERE'S THE THING about trial balloons: They soar higher if you unload some ballast. Hence the shedding of personal baggage by many potential contenders for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2008, who recognize that the weight of their past indiscretions could hold them down later if they don't dump it now. The most dramatic of the season's unburdenings to date came last week from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is exploring a run for his party's nomination. He admitted during an interview with evangelical Christian leader James C. Dobson that he was having an extramarital affair even while leading the impeachment drive against former President Clinton over the latter's affair with Monica Lewinsky. This does not make him a hypocrite, huffed the twice-divorced Gingrich, because that whole impeachment thing was about Clinton's perjury, not what he did with Lewinsky. Whether his audience will buy this remains to be seen. But if they don't, they can always consider Republican front-runner Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Lowell: The Right Way to Manage U.S. Attorneys
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901752.html
The dismissals appear to have been politically motivated and carried out heavy-handedly; initially, doublespeak was used to explain what was done and why. The irony is that a president and his or her attorney general should seek a centrally coordinated and cohesive federal prosecution force.

A Self-Inflicted Wound
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100986.html
ONE OF the more self-defeating aspects of this nation's immigration policy is its insistence on denying work visas to thousands of the world's most sought-after doctors, scientists, engineers and technical specialists, including those finishing their degrees at American universities. Understandably, U.S. technological corporations, which, unlike Congress, live in the real world of innovation and cutthroat competition for skilled workers, are furious that their own government's visa policies give foreign firms a leg up. As Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., told a Senate committee last week, "America will find it infinitely more difficult to maintain its technological leadership if it shuts out the very people who are most able to help us compete."

Evangelical Environmentalism
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/opinion/10sat4.html
For a couple of years, there have been encouraging signs that conservative Christians are starting to take environmental matters seriously — especially global warming. But in a recent letter, several of the most prominent leaders of the conservative Christian wing of the Republican Party, including James Dobson, Gary Bauer and Paul Weyrich, told the policy director of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Richard Cizik, to shut up already about global warming. This was not a huge surprise, but it was a sad reminder of how a radical agenda, like the brand of conservatism these men preach, can overshadow everything else.

Hehvarg: Troubled waters on U.N. oceans treaty
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-helvarg12mar12,0,5228022.story?coll=la-opinion-center
The U.S. has been the major stumbling block to a worldwide agreement on ocean governance and fixing damaged seas.

Sub-primes prime the housing slump
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-subprime12mar12,0,676190.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
Generally, sub-prime mortgages carry higher fees and interest rates than prime loans. Often they feature adjustable rates and other options that keep payments low in the first few years of the loan. They make it easier for buyers to break into expensive markets such as Southern California; since 2003, 15% to 25% of the mortgages originated in California have been sub-prime. But these loans have a dark side: The size of their payments can increase, sometimes steeply. When home prices are on the rise and credit is easily available, such spikes aren't as problematic; if the payments are too much, a homeowner can always refinance or sell (at a profit). Or at least a homeowner could during the bubble. In a downturn, those options evaporate — and many borrowers default.

Bhutto: A False Choice for Pakistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101046.html
Last month President Bush told Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan that he must be more aggressive in hunting down al-Qaeda and the Taliban along his country's border with Afghanistan. During his recent visit to Islamabad, Vice President Cheney echoed the claim that al-Qaeda members were training in Pakistan's tribal areas and called on Musharraf to shut down their operations. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also expressed concern recently about suspected terrorist safe havens. Clearly, the pressure is on. Western leaders are finally beginning to recognize that Musharraf's regime has been unsuccessful in taming the Taliban, which has regrouped in the tribal areas of Pakistan while the military regime has given up trying to establish order on the Afghan border. At the same time, the regime has strategically chosen to help the United States when international criticism of the terrorists' presence becomes strident. The arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a top Taliban strategist, by Pakistani authorities late last month is a case in point. The timing, right on the heels of American and British pleas for renewed toughness, is too convenient. Akhund was arrested solely to keep Western governments at bay.

PAPERS REVIEWED TODAY

COLORADO

Rocky Mountain News

Denver Post

Boulder Daily Camera

Colorado Daily

Greeley Tribune

Fort Collins Coloradoan

Colorado Springs Gazette

Pueblo Chieftain

Grand Junction Sentinel

Craig Daily Press

Aspen Times

Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Vail Daily

Steamboat Pilot

Montrose Press

Durango Herald

Cortez Journal

Telluride Daily Planet

Canon City Daily Record

Top

NATIONAL

New York Times

USA Today

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Boston Globe

Washington Post

Los Angeles Times

Chicago Tribune

ProgressNow.org
1536 Wynkoop St. #200
Denver, CO 80202

You received this mailing because you subscribed to the ProgressNow.org daily news digest list, which is strictly opt-in. We hope you have enjoyed this mailing; but if you have received it in error, or if you prefer not to receive any future news digest mailings, please visit http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/unsubscribe and your address will be removed from the list within 24-48 hours.