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TOP STORIES

Top

National

Bush's Latin Trip: An Unusual Look At Ordinary Life
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402698.html
He dispensed with the formal state dinners and traveled through shanty neighborhoods. He met people struggling to make ends meet and called a visit to a Guatemalan village "one of the great experiences of my presidency." For President Bush, the six-day voyage through Latin America that ended Wednesday proved to be unlike any of his previous foreign trips. It was one in which he tried ever so haltingly to escape the palaces and diplomatic salons long enough to see how people live and to emphasize that it matters to him.
RELATED: Bush promises a compromise on immigration
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bush15mar15,1,4634980.story?coll=la-headlines-world

More immigration policy news in NATIONAL/IMMIGRATION, COLORADO/ELECTION, COLORADO/IMMIGRATION

Violence Down in Baghdad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402673.html
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Wednesday that the month-old Baghdad security plan has reduced the level of violence in the capital, but they cautioned that the security situation in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq remains unstable. The top U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said sectarian killings had decreased since the operation began in mid-February but noted a record number of bombings in Baghdad last month. "By the indicators that the government of Iraq has, it has been extremely positive," Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said. "But I would again caution everybody about patience, about diligence. This is going to take many months, not weeks."
RELATED: Iraqis point to success; U.S. reaction cautious
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150137mar15,1,5001379.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Iraqi forces backslide on lead role
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iraq15mar15,1,5761754.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: Iraqis’ Progress Lags Behind Pace Set by Bush Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/washington/15policy.html?ref=washington

More Iraq war news in NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT, NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL/MILITARY, COLORADO/TOP STORIES, COLORADO/GOVERNMENT, COLORADO/MILITARY

Can a negative be a positive for Clinton?
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/15/can_a_negative_be_a_positive_for_clinton/
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton , pledging to stand by the first responders who loyally defend their communities, reminded firefighters yesterday of something her supporters hope voters will forget: she knows something about loyalty from the tests of her marriage. "I'm a little experienced in staying the course, and sticking with people who stick with me," said Clinton, drawing applause and knowing chuckles from a ballroom filled with enthusiastic members of the International Association of Firefighters. Clinton, a New York lawmaker and leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, didn't specifically mention her husband, former President Bill Clinton, the marital troubles that first surfaced during his 1992 campaign, or his affair with a 22-year-old intern. But attendees at the firefighters' presidential forum said they believed the senator was clearly referring to her personal life.
RELATED: Clinton goes for top rung of firefighters' ladder
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-forum15mar15,1,2459611.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: Clinton Says Some G.I.’s in Iraq Would Remain
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/washington/15clinton.html
RELATED: Clinton Seesaws on Question of Gay Morality
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/politics/15gays.html

More 2008 presidential race news in NATIONAL/ELECTION, COLORADO/ELECTION

Statements On Firings of Prosecutors Are Key Issue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400519.html
In testimony on Jan. 18, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department had no intention of avoiding Senate input on the hiring of U.S. attorneys. Just a month earlier, D. Kyle Sampson, who was then Gonzales's chief of staff, laid out a plan to do just that. In an e-mail, he detailed a strategy for evading Arkansas Democrats in installing Tim Griffin, a former GOP operative and protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove, as the U.S. attorney in Little Rock. "We should gum this to death," Sampson wrote to a White House aide on Dec. 19. "[A]sk the senators to give Tim a chance . . . then we can tell them we'll look for other candidates, ask them for recommendations, evaluate the recommendations, interview their candidates, and otherwise run out the clock. All of this should be done in 'good faith,' of course."
RELATED: Despite 'Mistakes,' Bush Backs Gonzales
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400447.html
RELATED: Intersection of Politics, Law Fuels Fighting
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031401155.html
RELATED: Sununu first Republican to call for firing Gonzales
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-sununu15mar15,1,2100710.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
RELATED: Gonzales aide called prosecutor a 'real problem'
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-usattys15mar15,1,7162174.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: Gonzales’s Critics See Lasting, Improper Ties to White House
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/washington/15justice.html

More Alberto Gonzales news in COLORADO/GOVERNMENT

Top

Colorado

Loud and divided on Iraq
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418755,00.html
It was calmer inside the Capitol. "I'm proud to be a part of this debate. I'm proud to be an American," Tupa said, in his opening remarks at the hearing. Tupa called his proposal a "modest" measure that, unlike resolutions some other states are debating, does not call for removing troops from Iraq or cutting off funding for the war. That was done, he said, after seeking input from many Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Gordon said Colorado stands to lose millions of dollars of federal funding during the next five years because of the cost of the war, including $21 million for Head Start programs and $41 million for low-income energy assistance. He said more troops will not help the United States win. "The time of good options has passed," Gordon said. "By this resolution we are asking the administration to make a true change in course." Sen. Peter Groff, chairman of the committee, called the war a "mistake." "We need to figure out how to get out of there. At some point we need to say enough is enough," said Groff, a Denver Democrat. But Sen. David Schultheis of Colorado Springs, one of two Republicans on the five-member committee, argued that Islamic extremists only understand brute force. He said President Bush's troop surge is an investment in "world freedom."
RELATED: What does it mean? It depends on what side of issue you're on
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418691,00.html
RELATED: Voicing their stands on the Iraq resolution
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418690,00.html
RELATED: Rallying for support
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/NEWS01/703150358/1002
RELATED: War of words grips statehouse
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438273
RELATED: Iraq debate draws protests
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5434904
RELATED: Coloradans debate Iraq resolution at Capitol
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150096
RELATED: Panel votes to oppose buildup
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20175&template=article.html
RELATED: Senate panel approves Iraq war measure
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1173967803/3

House OKs Amendment 41 fix, but Senate approval uncertain
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418600,00.html
The Colorado House passed a bipartisan fix for the new, problem-plagued government ethics law Wednesday, but it won't fly unless skeptical Senate lawmakers vote initial approval. It didn't help that Senate President pro tem Peter Groff said he learned about the House compromise plan for implementing Amendment 41 in the newspapers - not from fellow Democrats in the House. "It still has to come through the Senate, so it certainly would have been nice to kind of hear what was going on," said Groff, D-Denver. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said he briefed Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald on the measure Tuesday before the House compromise solution won initial passage. He stressed that House leaders had their hands full just hammering out how to put Amendment 41 in action.
RELATED: House passes measure asking voter approval to revise ethics rules
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/14/house-passes-measure-asking-voter-approval-revise-/
RELATED: House passes ethics measures
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103140125

More Amendment 41 news in COLORADO/GOVERNMENT

Lawmakers not hopping aboard Ritter ed plan
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418589,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter's proposal to curtail property tax reductions to fund public schools met with skepticism Wednesday from some lawmakers who wonder how they'll explain it to voters. Even a member of Ritter's Democratic Party questioned the legality - and political feasibility - of mandating higher taxes without going to the voters. "Explain to me how this is not a constitutional problem - because taxes will go up for somebody, whether it's the homeowner or the business or whomever," said Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder. "How do we get by that?" Tupa added, "We're going to have to talk to our constituents in a way that's going to be explainable."
RELATED: Tax plan would fund kindergarten
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438596
RELATED: Ritter's school fund plan draws heat from some legislators
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1173967803/5
RELATED: Ritter’s school plan wins support
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20188&template=article.html
RELATED: Bill to boost school funding likely to be approved by panel
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_5a_School_Finance.html

Oil, gas industry to oppose overhaul
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5418298,00.html
Colorado's $13 billion oil and gas industry has taken on Gov. Bill Ritter and his administration by backing out of a deal to reform energy regulation. The industry is taking a stand against House Bill 1341, shifting from its initial decision to remain neutral. The bill seeks to increase the size and composition of the board of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Ritter had promised during his election campaign to reform the commission. Since he took office, his administration has discussed the bill with industry for at least a month to try to reach consensus, said Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer.
RELATED: Oil-panel change wins 1st OK
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5438189
RELATED: Panel’s new makeup, mission passes
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20185&template=article.html
RELATED: Oil, gas group shuffle survives hearing
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_1B_COGCC_bill.html

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

COLORADO NEWS

Top

Election

Tancredo and Repubs break Reagan’s “11th commandment”
http://blogs.denverpost.com/washington/2007/03/14/tancredo-and-repubs-break-reagans-11th-commandment/
Ronald Reagan once said “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican,” but according to Rep. Tom Tancredo, it’s a rule to be broken. The Littleton Republican, who has formed an exploratory committee to run for president, has said that a focus of his campaign is to point out inconsistencies in the positions of his fellow Republicans, particularly on the immigration issue. “Here’s the thing that really makes me angry,” Tancredo wrote in a recent email to thousands of supporters. “The Republican Party’s drifting the wrong way, away from border security, away from conservative principles.” The Colorado Congressman then preceded to detail problems with other Republican candidates in the race for the White House. “I’m sure you don’t want amnesty supporters Rudy Giuliani or Chuck Hagel getting the nomination! These men are hardly conservatives!” Tancredo wrote. “Maybe you think Mitt Romney is better? Romney refused to support those persecuted border patrol agents who were recently sent to prison for wounding an illegal alien drug dealer,” he added, referring to Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

Open-access jitters slow election bill
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/03/14/local_news/5.txt
An amendment to Senate Bill 83 — which is already catching heat for its parolee-vote provisions — could sink the measure. The bill is designed as routine clean-up of the Uniform Election Code. However, an amendment that would require those wishing to inspect ballots preserved as election records to first obtain a court order has generated controversy and criticism. Now, a week later, SB 83 continues to be held over for further reading, and the Secretary of State’s office said the bill could be scrapped. “From the beginning, the secretary of state said he didn’t want any controversial issues on this measure,” spokesman Jonathan Tee said. “The secretary opposes the bill as it is now written.”

Political watchdog claiming victory
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/NEWS01/703150362/1002
An ethics watchdog group dropped a complaint against a local campaign committee after it agreed to report campaign spending to the state. Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government, the state branch of a Washington, D.C.-based group, filed a complaint last month against the Northern Colorado Victory Fund. The fund, registered with the IRS as a 527 political committee, is led by Fort Collins conservative strategist Andrew Boucher. The ethics group complained that Boucher didn't file a report with the state Secretary of State's office last fall after his committee spent nearly $30,000 for television ads attacking Democrat John Kefalas, who beat Republican Bob McCluskey for the House District 52 seat that covers east Fort Collins.

Four counties on ‘election watch list’
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15184
A county risks winding up on Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s “election watch list” if it violates state or federal laws or regulations in conducting its elections. A county could also join the watch list if its handling of an election has put unreasonable obstacles in the way of people attempting to vote, Coffman said Tuesday. Coffman announced on Monday that he’d put Denver, Douglas, Pueblo and Montrose counties on his initial watch list because each had major problems in the 2006 general election. While “no election is perfect,” Coffman said, he didn’t include any of Colorado’s other 60 counties on the list because their elections “went reasonably well.”

County welcomes task force findings
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/03/14/local_news/3.txt
The Montrose County Elections Task Force report is in and county leaders pledged to use it for the benefit of future elections. “The county as a whole is not going to sit and argue with the findings,” Montrose County Commissioner Allan Belt said Tuesday during a meeting with the clerk and members of the press. “We’re going to get to work.” The commissioners convened a task force to look at what went wrong during the county’s 2006 elections when new voting machines were beset with programming errors and other problems.

Voters close to second shot at Home Rule
http://vaildaily.com/article/20070314/NEWS/70314008
Residents will have one last opportunity to voice their opinions on a new draft of the home rule government reform charter before the county commissioners vote to send it back to a ballot or let it die. The proposal that, among other measures, would expand the board of county commissioners from three to five members, was rejected by voters in November. The citizens home rule commission will hold a public comment session in the commissioners chamber in the Eagle County Building from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., today, and will then officially meet for a vote to give the charter to the county commissioners, who have the final say over whether the measures goes back to a ballot.

Climate group’s picks come with cold cash
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20196&template=article.html
What do melting ice caps and drowning polar bears have to do with Colorado Springs? Plenty, say City Council candidates endorsed by the upstart Climate Change Coalition of the Pikes Peak Region. Incumbents Randy Purvis and Larry Small and challengers Jan Martin and Tom Harold got $300 contributions from the coalition, which wants to “open the dialogue” locally on global warming. The coalition, formed about a month ago, announced its support at a meeting at Poor Richard’s Book Store on Wednesday in a push to raise awareness that rising temperatures are threatening the planet. The group endorsed candidates in the April 3 election based on questionnaires and interviews.

Sidny Zink leads money race in [Durango] council campaign
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070314_4.htm
Sidny Zink is lapping the field in the City Council election money race, with Tom Howley and Michael Rendon a distant second and third. According to campaign fundraising reports submitted Tuesday, Zink has raised $12,048, nearly $5,300 of it coming in one night when she and Howley hosted a joint fundraiser. The detailed information gathered that night gives special insight into one cohort of strong support for Zink, who saw a large number of contributions from home builders at the fundraiser, including at least five architects, 10 real estate agents and several developers and contractors. Also backing her were eight local attorneys and three accountants.
RELATED: Candidates' Forum: Scott Graham
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=opin&article_path=/opinion/opin070314_1.htm
RELATED: Candidates' Forum: Michael Rendon
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=opin&article_path=/opinion/opin070314_2.htm

Rec center not a priority for council candidates
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_1B__candidate_forum.html
A majority of the candidates seeking to be elected to the Grand Junction City Council said Wednesday they would not support a city-driven effort to build a recreation center in the Grand Valley.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Salazar 'troubled' but not calling for Gonzales to resign
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5417263,00.html
Sen. Ken Salazar said today he is troubled by allegations that have "blemished" the Department of Justice, but so far he is not joining the parade of Democrats calling for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. "I think we need to know the facts first," Salazar, D-Denver, told reporters during a conference call. "I am troubled by the allegations here, that the arm of the law in the Department of Justice would somehow be used to further a particular political end," Salazar said. "That would be a misuse of the prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice, in my view." Several prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have called for Gonzales to follow his chief of staff's lead and resign over a series of prosecutor firings that critics claim were politically-motivated.
RELATED: Salazar stands by Gonzales
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5437940
RELATED: Gonzales oversight concerns Salazar
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1173967803/4

Allard votes against debate on Iraq troop withdrawals
http://blogs.denverpost.com/washington/2007/03/14/allard-votes-against-debate-on-iraq-troop-withdrawals/
Sen. Wayne Allard was one of nine Republicans on Wednesday who voted against allowing debate on a resolution setting next March as a target for withdrawing all troops from Iraq. The Senate voted 89-9 in favor of opening debate on the resolution and President Bush’s strategy for the Iraq War. “I have a very reasonable position and that is that we should not have timelines,’’ Allard said after casting his vote. “To cut the legs out from under (President Bush) early in the game is hard to justify.’’ Though the war is in it’s fifth year, Allard said, “We’re talking about a new game plan (Bush) just put out at the beginning of the year.’’ Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, voted for allowing the debate. He is not one of the 40 Democratic co-sponsors of the resolution, however, and said he has not decided how he will vote on another procedural measure needed before a vote on the actual resolution.

Musgrave pays tab to avoid possible violation
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5418504,00.html
U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's office on Wednesday wrote a $480 check for the use of a vacation cabin during a recent staff retreat to avoid a possible violation of congressional ethics rules. Musgrave took the action after the Rocky Mountain News questioned her staff's free use of a cabin near rural Culpepper, Va., for two nights in late January. The cabin has a rich political history. Owned by conservative activist Morton C. Blackwell, it's where Republican leaders signed the "Contract with America" that helped the party seize control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994. Musgrave chief of staff, Guy Short, said he has known Blackwell for 15 years since they worked together at the Leadership Institute.

State tied to an eclectic mix of nations
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20194&template=article.html
As the official representative of the Danish government in Colorado, Nanna Nielsen Smith does tasks one might expect to be handled by dozens of agencies. There was the last-minute arrangement of tours and meetings for business executives visiting from Denmark. In another case, Smith helped a woman on a cultural exchange program who got into a traffic wreck. One time, a Danish visitor to Breckenridge suffered a heart attack as he lifted his suitcase into a car trunk. The man died, and Smith helped return his body to Denmark. Smith said she receives up to four calls a day as honorary consul of Denmark, responsible for serving Danish citizens in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. “The bottom line for a consul is you do whatever needs to be done,” Smith said. It’s a long way from the diplomatic niceties of Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., but Colorado is home to a surprising array of foreign representatives. Smith is one of 32 consular officials the U.S. State Department recognizes here.

Ideas driven to "protect" constitution
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438120
Colorado lawmakers who want to make it harder for citizens to change the state constitution are seizing a "political window" created by Capitolwide loathing of the new ethics amendment.

Yes, it cleared HazMat (Roll Call, March 15)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418593,00.html
Republican Dick Wadhams, and Democrat Mike Stratton tangled in 2002 when they were on opposite sides of the U.S. Senate race between Wayne Allard and Tom Strickland. So Wadhams got a big kick out of a gift basket he received this week from Stratton in honor of Wadhams' being elected Colorado Republican Party chairman. Stratton signed the card from "your former adversary." "My chairmanship clearly inspires bipartisanship and good feelings," deadpanned Wadhams, who has a reputation for bare-knuckles politics.

Citizen Legislator: Larry Liston
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418641,00.html
Rep. Larry Liston is vice president of RBC Dainrauscher, an investment banking firm where he's worked for 30 years. He keeps up by reading Barron's Financial and keeps fit by getting in a game of tennis whenever he can. Liston, of Colorado Springs, served as vice chairman of the Colorado Republican Party before being elected to the state House in 2004 and 2006. His chief issues are taxation, transportation and creating a business-friendly environment.

Link found in software dealings
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20173&template=article.html
The chairman of the city’s Telecommunications Policy Advisory Committee received $3,500 under a consulting contract to help market the same software he was discussing using on the committee’s Web site, an executive of the company that makes the software said Wednesday. Michael Schmidt, the advisory committee’s chairman, signed a contract last March with Colorado Springs-based ITBrix LLC to market corporate collaboration and communication software from an affiliated company, while he was in discussions to use the software on the committee’s Web site, said George Athannassov, ITBrix chief executive. Schmidt refused Mayor Lionel Rivera’s request Monday that he resign the unpaid post because of allegations that he violated the city’s ethics rules. Council members were briefed Monday by City Manager Lorne Kramer on the results of a police investigation of the allegations.

Lafayette looking long-term
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/15/lafayette-looking-long-term/
Lafayette officials are attempting an exercise in long-term planning to help the city wean itself off growth while keeping valuable city services. The traditional method used by local governments to determine their annual budget includes a review of revenues and anticipated expenditures. Elected officials and residents chime in with their priorities, and city employees offer their own opinions. But if times are lean, then let the chopping begin — recent unexpected cuts in Lafayette have included funding for a ball park, a few library hours and street-paving projects. Other cities such as Louisville, Boulder and Fort Collins have made much larger cuts in the last year.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Anti-Semitic incidents in Colorado decline
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419272,00.html
Colorado has dropped from 10th place to 11th place among 45 states and the District of Columbia last year for reporting -anti-Semitic incidents, according to an audit conducted by the Anti-Defamation League. In 2006, the Rocky Mountain region reported 23 anti-Semitic incidents (22 in Colorado and 1 in Wyoming) down from 37 reported in Colorado in 2005. None were reported in Wyoming in 2005. "We're encouraged (that) there appears to be an overall reduction in these incidents in the last few years in Colorado," said Bruce DeBoskey, regional director of the ADL.

ADL applauds Boulder’s response to hate crimes
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5417405,00.html
The Anti-Defamation League, in a press release issued today, is praising Boulder’s quick response and denunciation of three incidents of hate crimes in the past month. One involved two gay men who were attacked and assaulted as they walked arm-in-arm on a Boulder street. The two men who allegedly attacked them were arrested. In the other incident about six blocks away the night before, two men questioned the race of a man and then attacked him while using the "n" word. They are both being sought at this time by police. And on Feb. 20, a student at Boulder's Naropa University was severely beaten by two men in her apartment after they made sexual advances and she told them she was a lesbian. They, too, are being sought.

Top

Immigration

Bush's Mexico trip greeted with skepticism by some
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419312,00.html
At the Avanza supermarket on South Federal Boulevard, Hispanic shoppers were mostly skeptical about President Bush's visit to Mexico this week as part of his outreach to Latin American nations. "I don't think it will help his image among Latin Americans," said Daniel Rivera of Denver. "He started out his presidency speaking Spanish and talking about improved relations between the United States and Mexico," Rivera said. "Instead, relations have only worsened due to his persecution of undocumented Mexican immigrants and the way he has otherwise ignored Latin America overall."

Top

Marriage and Family Issues

Boulder rep shares own story in 'second parent' adoption debate
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5418591,00.html
A Boulder lawmaker on Wednesday injected a strong dose of reality into the fierce ideological debate over whether cohabitating couples - including gays - should be allowed to adopt. Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, rose to cap two days of charged exchanges over the "Second Parent Adoption Bill," including one Republican's insistence that "these families" without a married man and woman "do not exist." "I have three beautiful nieces," said Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, her voice shaking. "They're gorgeous girls. "They have two mothers - my sister and her partner. They live in . . . a loving, supportive family. It is everything anyone would want in a family." Levy said that under state law, her sister and partner can't get married, and her sister's partner can't adopt their children.
RELATED: House OKs same-sex adoptions
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1173967803/10

Ritter expected to sign family-planning bill (Under the dome, 3/15)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438600
Gov. Bill Ritter is scheduled to sign the first family-planning measure into law since 1999 at noon today, the bill's sponsor said Wed nesday. The Protect Families, Protect Choice measure will expand access to family-planning services to low-income Coloradans. Ritter was expected to sign the bill, said Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood. The law would require hospital emergency rooms to provide information about emergency contraception to sexual-assault victims as a basic standard of care. It also would require pharmacies that don't stock Plan B, the brand name of an emergency contraception regimen, to post a sign saying the medication is unavailable.

City's foster care program earns honor
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5418527,00.html
Denver's effort to reform its child welfare system has been singled out as a national model. For the past few years, Denver has been trying to change the way it deals with foster children. Instead of moving children into foster homes with strangers, the city has tried to place children with relatives or find foster care in the neighborhood where they go to school. City officials credit the program with reducing the trauma that often accompanies removing children from their home.

Away from home
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/25733
In 2004, Moffat County Department of Social Services placed 27 children in new homes. A year later, 43 children were removed from unhealthy home environments. In 75 percent of the removal cases, parental methamphetamine use was a factor. The problem didn't get much better in 2006, Social Services Director Marie Peer said. "I think even though the number is down, our average is higher," Peer said. "(Meth) has been something that has hurt families and hurt children tremendously in this community." Last year, Social Services' caseworkers placed 39 children in the care of relatives, foster homes, adoptive parents or treatment centers. Peer said rough estimates indicate 83 percent of those removal cases were because of parental meth use.
RELATED: Meth users lose kids to foster care
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070315_6.htm

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

Coloradans call on Congress to restore kids' insurance aid
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/health_care/article/0,2808,DRMN_25396_5418297,00.html
Less than half of lower-income working families receive health insurance from their employers, a 9 percent drop in the past decade, according to a study released Wednesday. Some 47 percent of parents nationwide earning less than $40,000 are offered health insurance from their employers, while offers of health insurance to families earning $80,000 or more have held steady at 78 percent during the same period. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released the report as Congress debates reauthorizing the state Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which provides each state with federal funds to design a health insurance plan for children not poor enough for Medicaid but not earning enough to buy private insurance. "SCHIP funds are the only thing that has mitigated the increase in uninsured because employers aren't providing as much health care," said Anne Warhover, chief executive of the Colorado Health Foundation. She was joined by leaders of groups including the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry and the head of Children's Hospital, who met Wednesday to show support for reauthorization of the federal program.

Bill lets counties regulate fireworks
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070315_8.htm
Counties would be allowed to regulate fireworks under a bill moving through the Legislature. Currently, only cities have the authority, and counties have to settle for the state law. "Municipalities have the right to do it. Counties should have the right to do the same," said Sen. Tom Wiens, R-Castle Rock. "The entirety of the Hayman Fire was in my district, so I'm keenly aware of the issue."

Grieving parents implore teens: Don't drink, drive
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419346,00.html
Standing just 20 feet from where their daughter was killed in a head-on crash, Michelle and Bill Stricklen repeated a heartfelt message Wednesday to nearly 300 grieving teenagers who bid farewell to the high school student. "Please don't drink and drive!" Michelle Stricklen said in sign language through an interpreter as mourners held a candlelight tribute in memory of her 17-year-old daughter, Samara Stricklen, who was killed 24 hours before. The crash injured five others, and Samara's friends said the 19-year-old driver she was riding with was in critical condition.

County, seniors talk health-care crisis
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070314_2.htm
La Plata County commissioners spoke with nearly 50 seniors about Durango's health-care crisis Tuesday and received an earful about the lack of available services.

Deep-slab slides occur on frozen north-face slopes
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419232,00.html
Tuesday's massive Category 5 avalanche outside Aspen, which cut all the way down to the rock, is known as a deep-slab avalanche and is one of two types that forecasters have been watching recently. Deep slab avalanches typically set up on north-facing slopes, where the late-afternoon sun doesn't shine. Over the course of the winter, wind hardens various layers of snow, "kind of like an Oreo cookie," said John Snook, a forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Lately, he said, deep-slab conditions have developed across Colorado's mountains. "They're pretty isolated, but those slides are large," Snook added. Avalanches tend to happen late in the day. "The key is to get out of the backcountry after noon," said Jeff Lumsden, Pitkin County Sheriff's spokesman.
RELATED: Avalanche victims were expert skiers
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_3a_Avalanche_deaths.html

Reducing risk of food-borne illness
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/15/reducing-risk-of-food-borne-illness/
Most restaurant and food-service employees use gloves or utensils when handling ready-to-eat foods, but a new bare-hand ban could result in penalties against establishments that violate the policy. The Colorado Retail Food Establishment put the new statewide regulation into effect March 1 in an effort to reduce the number of people sickened by food-borne illnesses. Food-service employees are no longer allowed to use their bare hands to touch any food that will not be cooked or reheated before consumption, including fresh fruits, raw vegetables, cold meats, cheeses and breads.

Crackdown on serving alcohol to minors
http://vaildaily.com/article/20070314/NEWS/70314022
Minors trying to order alcohol is not an uncommon event in Eagle County, but the county commissioners said more and more bars have been caught serving the alcohol to minors. It is a problem they say they want to stop, and they are hoping tougher liquor license suspensions will send a message to the bar community that the problem has to stop.

Advocates call for no pot tickets on St. Patrick's Day
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5417401,00.html
If everyone getting drunk on St. Patrick’s Day would smoke marijuana instead, the car crashes, fist fights and sexual assaults would plummet, pro-marijuana advocates said today. The speakers at a gathering on the Pearl Street Mall called on Boulder police to issue no citations for marijuana use on Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day, as a way of encouraging recreation that leads to less violence than alcohol does. "I’ll come back to the dorm about 1 a.m. and there will be people screaming in the hallways, writing rude things on the wall, verbally abusing and sexually abusing other people," University of Colorado sophomore Summer Weirich said, describing a typical scene when people have been drinking. "Guys try to wander in your room and see what you’re doing, see if they can hook up." Conversely, "If I’m around people who’ve been smoking marijuana, I’m not afraid they’re going to trap me somewhere." Boulder police did not immediately respond to questions about the appeal to issue no marijuana-possession citations.

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Crime and Penal Reform

System worked in excessive-force case, watchdog says
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419395,00.html
Kenneth Rodriguez probably didn't know what hit him. Handcuffed at a police station, he was shot in the neck by a stun gun by a Denver police officer. It should never have happened, according to a report on police conduct released Wednesday. The report does not name Rodriguez or the officer involved but the Rocky Mountain News confirmed the identities through court records and other sources. Denver Independent Police Monitor Richard Rosenthal, showcased the incident as instance where the system worked. Rodriguez, 47, was at a north Denver bar in January 2006, when there was a disturbance, according to a police report. He soon found himself handcuffed and in custody in a police district station. The exact whys and hows are still up in the air.
RELATED: Citizen complaints against police up 24 percent in '06
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419394,00.html
RELATED: Complaints on cops up 23%
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438272

Officers cleared in death of man in downtown hotel: Man was shot 12 times
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150094
A possibly suicidal man who was shot and killed last month when he threatened Greeley police with a large knife was shot 12 times, according to the Weld District Attorney. The two Greeley police officers who shot and killed Brian Scott Croissant, 36, in a downtown Greeley hotel that night were cleared Wednesday by the Weld District Attorney's Office. The report stated the officers "reasonably believed that it was necessary to defend themselves and others from the imminent use of deadly physical force."

Police ID man killed in faceoff
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5437892
A man fatally shot by Lakewood police as he drew a weapon on them had previously pointed a handgun at his wife and threatened to kill her boyfriend and his small child, court records show. Steve Davis, Lakewood police spokesman, identified the man killed in Tuesday's confrontation with police as Andrew Constable, 27. On May 5, 2006, his wife, Jennifer Constable, filed for a restraining order against him in Arapahoe County Court claiming he had pointed a gun at her and had choked and kicked her.

Company pulls plan for North Cascade corrections facility
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/03/14/local_news/1.txt
The Lakewood-based company seeking to set up a community corrections facility on North Cascade Avenue withdrew Tuesday from its attempts to purchase a building for the program. Intervention Community Corrections Services Executive Director Gregg Kildow informed the 7th Judicial Community Corrections Board that he did not get any assurances from the city of Montrose last week that the building’s use would fit in the existing zoning for the city.

Columbine site opens final fund drive
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438478
A final drive to raise the remaining $167,000 needed to complete the permanent Columbine Memorial was kicked off Wednesday. The memorial, on a hill in Clement Park adjacent to Columbine High School, is about 50 percent finished.

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Economy

Lawmakers: No-deals bill is a big deal
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5419310,00.html
Sen. Jim Isgar on Wednesday stirred up an angry flock of bargain lovers who don't want to lose their $5 turkeys, cheap gas and day-old doughnuts. Isgar got an amended bill passed in the Senate that would make it illegal for merchants to sell anything below cost in counties with fewer than 200,000 people, according to an interpretation by the attorney general. Isgar, a Western Slope Democrat, says he was only trying to exempt rural counties from a bill allowing retailers to give price breaks on gas and generic drugs so it wouldn't drive small gas stations and fuel distributors out of business. But his hasty amendment accidentally cuts 55 of Colorado's 64 counties out of more than just sweet deals on gas or drugs - it ends discounts in smaller counties entirely, and some lawmakers are hearing from unhappy constituents.
RELATED: Discount-gas bill countered with amendment
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/NEWS01/703150360/1002
RELATED: Discount gas plan amended
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438597
RELATED: Gas discounts may soon be back
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150095

Business property tax bill advances
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20183&template=article.html
Owners of more than 30,000 small businesses in Colorado would no longer pay taxes on the equipment and other personal property their companies use under legislation that made an initial move toward becoming law Wednesday. The bill’s sponsor, meanwhile, said he hopes eventually to get rid of the tax for all businesses. House Bill 1325 incrementally raises an exemption that business owners get from the tax from $2,500 to $7,000. The tax, which raises money for Colorado school districts and local governments, would eliminate $2.4 million from their budgets when fully implemented in 2012. The change would not affect larger businesses that have more than $7,000 in desks, office equipment and other taxable personal property.

A step closer
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/03/14/news/c_u_and_boulder/news1.txt
The state of Colorado is a step closer to ending its role in the murder of an estimated 400,000 people - an initiative that began thanks to the University of Colorado.
Yesterday afternoon, the Senate Committee on State, Veterans, and Military Affairs voted unanimously, passing House Bill (HB) 1184, a bill which will require that Colorado divest its assets from companies helping to facilitate genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Colorado, which first passed 1184 unanimously in the Colorado House of Representatives, joins 18 other states with similar bills. Currently seven states have divested, and according to Scott Wisor, president of the advocacy group DivestColorado, if HB 1184 continues to move through the State Senate, and then past governor Bill Ritter, Colorado will be the first state to agree to Sudanese divestment this legislative session. If HB 1184 is passed by Ritter, the state will be required to withdraw all its pension funds from companies that invest in the Sudanese government.

Qwest waits for word on contract
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5418295,00.html
After a bidding process that took more than three years, hundreds of employees and some thousand follow-up questions, Qwest Communications soon will find out whether it won the largest telecommunications contract ever awarded. The Denver-based telco is competing against AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel to oversee an overhaul of the federal government's telecommunications, focusing on integrating next-generation technology. The General Services Administration said it will award the most lucrative part of the contract, known as Networx, this month. Networx is expected to be worth as much as $48 billion, and winning the 10-year-deal could be a transforming event for debt-laden Qwest. Qwest hasn't received any indication from the GSA as to how it stands, said spokeswoman Claire Mylott. "We certainly feel we've put our best foot forward."

Key issue: what Nacchio knew
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5418332,00.html
Joe Nacchio repeatedly touted new contracts and Qwest's industry-defying revenue growth at the same time he was unloading $100 million of company stock. What Nacchio knew during early 2001 about the Denver telco's true not-so-rosy financial condition will be a critical issue at the former CEO's insider-trading trial starting Monday in Denver. "What I would do is compare a timeline of events and show the dates of the trades," said Tony Leffert, a former federal prosecutor who now is partner of Robinson Waters & O'Dorisio in Denver. Prosecutors must prove Nacchio had a willful intent to defraud or, as Leffert put it, "intentionally acted on insider (nonpublic) information."
RELATED: Judge orders Nacchio witnesses sequestered
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5438029

Judge: Pay up by May 21 or lose the VF
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/03/15/news/news01.txt
Exactly nine weeks from today, Telluride will know whether it can buy the Valley Floor, or whether it has lost the land forever. A long-awaited ruling from District Court Judge Charles Greenacre yesterday gave the town until May 21 to come up with the $50 million it needs to buy the 570-acre property. If the town doesn't have the cash by then, Greenacre said he would end the years-long legal struggle by dismissing Telluride's eminent-domain case.
RELATED: TC says no VF post-trial motions
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/03/15/news/news02.txt

Money managers fear bombs
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5434811
A security firm is warning that the person who mailed non-working letter bombs to Denver-based Janus Capital and other money management firms earlier this year may soon escalate his tactics, including targeting industry executives at home. The mailer, who identifies himself as "The Bishop," appears to have studied the pattern set by the "Unabomber," according to an alert sent out by Fred Burton with Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, first came to the attention of authorities in 1978, but it wasn't until 1980 that he sent a working explosive device to the home of United Airlines CEO Percy Woods.

Skier visits hit bump but stay course
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5418334,00.html
Colorado's ski areas took a hit in January and February compared with a year ago, but crowds of skiers and snowboarders in the first part of the season kept the industry on pace to match last year's strong showing. Stormy weather hurt business, mostly at resorts catering to Front Range residents, according to the trade group for the state's 26 ski areas. "There was challenging travel to the mountains on the weekends this season," Colorado Ski Country USA President Rob Perl- man said. Overall, the industry drew 5.2 million skiers in January and February, a decrease of almost 1.7 percent from the first two months of 2006. The hardest hit: nearby "destination resorts" of Copper Mountain, Winter Park, Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone. Together that category saw a 3.2 percent drop to 3.04 million from 3.1 million a year before.
RELATED: Spring-break lift likely
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5438080

Swift's Imprint: Nothing to laugh about
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150099
For years, Swift & Co. has been known as that big plant out east that many people on Greeley's west side try not to acknowledge -- except on windy days. Even then, it's only with a wrinkle of their noses. Though the all-too-familiar smell is the butt of thousands of jokes, the company's future is nothing to laugh about, Greeley business leaders say. The economic fate of Greeley and Weld County in many ways is tied to the fate of the plant, and one needs to look back to the early 1980s to see how.

Owners after right mix
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/15/owners_after_right_mix/?local_news
Steamboat Springs developer Jim Cook assured downtown business owners Wednesday that large national chains are not eyeing downtown.

Business owners found in contempt
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20198&template=article.html
A 10-year battle to stop Dana and Sheryl Glasgow from operating their landscaping and snow-removal business out of a northeast Colorado Springs neighborhood may be over.

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Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Over-50 is nifty for employers at job fair
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5418578,00.html
Hard to believe or not, more than 100 companies recruited workers over the age of 50 on Wednesday at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. "We find that those workers have the maturity to roll with the punches," said Elaine Hood, communications specialist for Raytheon Polar Services. The Raytheon division provides support for scientists in Antarctica and hires about 1,000 people a year for five-month stints, including some in their 60s and 70s. "The mature workers have seen a lot. When the work schedule changes due to the weather, they just shrug it off and get it done," Hood said.

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Housing and Homelessness

Area homeless don't fit the state model
http://postindependent.com/article/20070315/VALLEYNEWS/103150047
Homeless people in Garfield County don't fit the mold. That's what a "point in time" survey found on Aug. 28, 2006. Here homeless people come to that situation not because of drug or alcohol problems or mental illness, or because they can't find jobs, but because they can't find a place to live. While 118 people were accounted for in the Garfield County survey, those who answered the survey questions represent perhaps only half to a third of the actual homeless population in Garfield County. "The numbers were way under-reported," said Tom Ziemann, director of Catholic Charities Western Slope in Glenwood Springs, and coordinator of the survey in the seven counties of northwest Colorado. Not counted were people who may have been working that day, or people living outdoors in tents and their cars. Those taking the survey were approached by area nonprofit agencies that provided services for them, Ziemann said.

Interest rates fall, mortgage applications rise
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_7b_Mortgage.html
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, rose nearly 3 percent to a reading of 690.5 in the week ended March 9 from 671.6 percent in the week ended March 2. The index, which is compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association of Washington, D.C., covers approximately 50 percent of total U.S. retail residential mortgage applications. In the same one-week period, the refinance index climbed 3.5 percent to a reading of 2,312.2 from 2,234.2, while the purchase index went up more than 2 percent to 414.3 from 405.3, the association reported. In Grand Junction, some mortgage brokers said purchase applications have been tracking higher this month, when compared to the same period a year ago. “We are seeing a higher (number) of mortgage applications on the purchase side. We are flat on the (refinance) side,” said David Roof, owner of Platinum Mortgage on Independent Avenue in Grand Junction. “We’ve seen a 15 percent increase in the purchase side.”

Semrau's housing proposal takes beating
http://aspentimes.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150041
The area's chief housing officer on Wednesday threw cold water on a recent proposal to allow locals to make extra money on price-controlled housing. Tom McCabe, director of the Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority, said he is worried that the plan would hurt local government's ability to prevent the conversion of some 224 housing units into free-market condominiums. McCabe said the entire stock of condos and apartments at Centennial and at the Castle Ridge complex near Aspen Valley Hospital are due to revert to free-market status in the future.
RELATED: Conflict at home?
http://aspentimes.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150040

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Media

Judge rules against newspaper
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/14/judge_rules_against_newspaper/?local_news
A judge ruled Wednesday that the Steamboat Springs School Board did not violate the Colorado Open Meetings Law during a Jan. 8 executive session meeting. After reviewing a transcript of the closed-door discussion, visiting Senior Judge Thomas Ossola denied the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s request to review the tapes, saying the board’s meeting “was not improper” and that “no violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law or the Colorado Open Records Law occurred.” Ossola did not make a decision about whether the School Board entered the discussion for a valid topic, as is required by state law. Attorneys for the newspaper argued it did not. Ossola also ordered the newspaper to pay for the School Board’s attorney fees.

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Education

Charter schools bill (Legislative briefs)
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1173967803/15
A measure designed to improve communications between local school boards and their charter schools received preliminary support in the Colorado House on Monday. When the measure, SB61, cleared the Senate earlier this month, it had been altered to do nearly the opposite: Allow the Colorado Charter School Institute to establish as many as three schools similar to the Cesar Chavez Academy in Pueblo in any district in the state even if they objected. But that change was removed in the House, which could result in a clash between the two versions.

Breck Town Council finalizes CMC MOU, aggressive timeline
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070314/NEWS/70314013
Colorado Mountain College is well on its way to a new Breckenridge site. Breckenridge Town Council passed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at this week’s meeting, CMC’s floor plan designs are expected to be completed by the end of this month, and a groundbreaking is planned for the summer for the facility that will be on a 20-acre parcel on Block 11 near the town’s entrance.

Barter wins reprieve, will stay at 9-R
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070314_1.htm
Superintendent Mary Barter will stay, the Durango school board announced Tuesday. Barter, who has led Durango School District 9-R since 1999, will serve out the remainder of her contract, which ends June 30, 2008. Barter's job had been in doubt after board President Mike Matheson resigned last week, alleging secret meetings and a plot by board members to fire the superintendent.

2nd try for Imagine
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15181
The St. Vrain Valley School Board is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to approve a charter school in Firestone. On Nov. 8, the board denied an application from Imagine Charter School, citing school capacity and a possible negative effect on Carbon Valley Academy, a charter school in Frederick.

Summit County Preschool asks Frisco Town Council for help
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070314/NEWS/103140039
A financial crisis, not unlike ones that many early childcare facilities are facing, brought Summit County Preschool to the Frisco Town Council to ask for help this week.

Woman wants rape case reopened
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/14/woman-wants-rape-case-reopened/
A former student who says she was raped by University of Colorado football players in 2001 wants her criminal case resurrected in light of statements made by one of the men she said attacked her. The Boulder County District Attorney's Office is reviewing a taped interview that appeared on 9News Wednesday to see if there is reason to reopen the investigation, the station reported. Monique Gillaspie claims former CU football players Marques Harris and Clyde Surrell assaulted her. In 2004, she dropped a civil suit against the school over her alleged attack. There have been no assault charges in the case. The TV station interviewed Surrell, who originally said he wasn't in the room with Harris and Gillaspie that night. In the new interview, Surrell said he was there but wasn't involved. He said Harris later called and asked him questions about that night, including: "Did we" rape her? "He was like, 'I'm just trying to make sure, man,'" Surrell said in the interview. "I'm like, 'Yeah man, that didn't happen.' And I was like, 'Man, how you gonna rape a girl that you been messing with?'" He told the station that he doesn't think Gillaspie was a victim and that she pursued her lawsuit for money.

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Military

Fallen soldier comes home to family, friends
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1173967803/1
Sgt. Blake Harris came home Wednesday morning, his flag-draped casket reverently carried off a small charter jet by members of a Fort Carson honor guard, who had waited with solemn dignity to salute their fallen comrade and escort him to a local funeral home. Out on the tarmac, standing close or hugging each other in grief, were Harris' family and friends. It was a morning for weeping. Even members of the American Legion Riders, local veterans who provided a motorcycle escort for Harris' body, lost the battle against tears as the young soldier's casket slowly was carried to a waiting hearse. Harris, 22, and a member of the 1st Cavalry Division, was killed March 5 by a roadside bomb, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad. He is the second Pueblo soldier to die in the war in Iraq, but the first who will be buried at home. Harris' funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Montgomery & Steward Chapel. His remains will be interred at the Mountain View Cemetery Chapel Mausoleum following the service.

Iraq training is no ‘camping trip’
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20176&template=article.html
Computer engineers, satellite experts and others who make Peterson Air Force Base their home found themselves ankle-deep in the red clay mud of Fort Carson this week as they learned how to survive in Iraq. About 150 airmen who will deploy in support of the war in the next few months have spent the week training on the south side of Fort Carson. It was an eye-opener for airmen more used to comfortable offices than rugged war games.

AFA cadets face charges of indecent assault, drugs
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438476
An Air Force Academy cadet has been charged with indecent assault on a fellow cadet, and two other cadets, including a women's basketball player, have been charged with wrongful use of drugs. Cadet Christopher Wolff, a junior at the academy, has been charged with indecent assault on a female cadet. "Indecent assault is serious," academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said. "Indecent assault does not include any type of sexual penetration but includes unwanted sexual contact, unwanted touching, fondling." Whitaker said he could not provide details of the alleged assault in the Wolff case because it is a legal matter. Wolff faces up to five years' confinement. A sexual-assault scandal erupted at the academy in January 2003, leading to a series of reforms. At the time, victims alleged that the academy was indifferent to their reports of sexual assault and instead punished them for infractions that led up to the assaults, like drinking.

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Energy Policy

COGA seeks energy blueprint
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/70314002
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association has called on Gov. Bill Ritter to develop an energy blueprint for the state. Ted Brown, president of the group whose focus is to foster and promote the beneficial, efficient, responsible and environmentally sound development, production and use of Colorado oil and natural gas, said the state is at a crossroads on how it manages natural resources for the good of all of Colorado.

Industry has little interest in tar sands
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_1a_Tar_Sands.html
Tar sand is the often ignored silent partner of oil shale. The elephant on the plateau. The small-scale oil bonanza the energy industry just isn’t interested in. Viewing from the co-pilot’s seat of a Cessna 210, the landscape that hosts oil shale’s silent partner appears to be little more than a wild badland of canyons and mesas, a great emptiness between Grand Junction and Duchesne, Utah. Bruce Gordon, a pilot for the Aspen-based nonprofit group EcoFlight at the controls of the six-seat prop plane, looked at his aviation map and asked a passenger to show him where in this mostly uninhabited canyon land this silent partner may be located.
RELATED: Potential tar sands project sparks suit
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_1a_Tar_Sands_Lawsuit.html

Commissioners work through mine conditions
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?id=6398
Verbal sparring disrupted conversation several times Tuesday as the Fremont County Commissioners worked through a five-page list of conditions for the new Northfield Coal Mine. The conditional use permit for the mine, located near the intersection of CR 11A and CR 79 in the Williamsburg area, was approved Feb. 27 by the commissioners with a forthcoming list of stipulations. That list was on Tuesday’s agenda. District 1 Commissioner Mike Stiehl is on record as opposing the mine, since he voted against the permit in February. He said at that time he believed the application was incomplete and said the Northfield company was “not yet ready for prime time.”

Norwegian firm heats up Ascent stock
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5438077
Shares of tiny Ascent Solar Technologies nearly doubled Wednesday after a Norwegian-based energy company paid $9.2 million - or $5.77 per share - to acquire a 23 percent stake in the Littleton-based firm. Ascent shares jumped 89 percent to close at $8.79, a surge that pushed the company's market capitalization to $46.6 million. Ascent, which employs 19 people, is developing thin-film solar modules, also called photovoltaic cells. The technology can be used to convert the sun's rays into electricity to help power homes, laptop computers and other items.

Windsor works on fast track to approve wind turbine facility
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103150098
Vestas Blades Inc. is working overtime to put new development guidelines in Windsor to work. In March 2006, Windsor hired Robert Tipton of Littleton to critique its development review process amid complaints the town moved too slow. One year later, Windsor is getting its first true test of "fast-tracking." Through Great Western Development's land use attorney, Lucia Liley, the company explained to the town board why it wanted to change so many of the normal procedures it went through when annexing the 1,400 acres of land that surrounds the Kodak Colorado plant on the east side of Windsor. The changes concerned the subdivision of Great Western's latest annexation that Vestas is negotiating to purchase to build a wind turbine blade manufacturing facility.

Broomfield considers solar plan
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/15/broomfield-considers-solar-plan/
The city and county is considering installing photovoltaic solar panels on six public buildings. Broomfield's city staff is exploring the possibility of partnering with the Allco Finance Group and SunEdison to install the panels. The power generated from the panels would be sold to Xcel Energy, providing the city with lower electricity costs and eventual ownership of the equipment. "At that point, all the energy that's generated is ours at no cost," said Assistant City and County Manager Kevin Standbridge.

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Transportation and Infrastructure

Light-rail ridership exceeds projections
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5418506,00.html
RTD's new Southeast Corridor light-rail trains ramped up to near their one-year ridership projections in February after a snowy start to the service in December. Ridership estimates from the transit agency - which extrapolates the number of riders from automated counters installed in about 30 percent of the train cars - are that the four lines serving the 19-mile Southeast Corridor along Interstates 25 and 225 handled an average of 33,323 riders per work day. Total weekday ridership on the entire light-rail system averaged 62,523, higher than the RTD projection of 54,000 with the completion of T-REX.

Transit revision worries Auraria
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5438078
To contain the projected costs of the FasTracks project, RTD officials want to forgo the expense of moving the light-rail line on the Auraria campus, much to the chagrin of school officials who were going to use the vacated property for a new building and parking garage. "It renders any of the land to the south pretty much undevelopable," said Chris Geddes, senior associate at StudioInsite LLC, which is developing a master plan for the Auraria campus. The FasTracks plan originally called for relocating a section of the line to the south end of the campus, parallel to Colfax Avenue. But the Regional Transportation District reversed course after officials determined that leaving the light-rail line in place would save up to $6 million, said Dennis Cole, RTD's project manager for the West Corridor.

Local authorities track hazardous materials
http://postindependent.com/article/20070315/VALLEYNEWS/103150040
Hazardous materials are transported all over the state, and the nation, in tanker trucks every day. Highway 13, which runs north from Rifle to Meeker and beyond, sees its share of materials being transported. That's why the Colorado State Patrol thought that it would be a good route to watch. "It just makes sense to us to track the traffic on this highway," Miller said. The Emergency Preparedness Department (EPD), a division of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, has the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) helping track and document commercial tankers and the material being transported with truck checks statewide.

Guards to ride East Colfax buses
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419302,00.html
At the urging of RTD drivers and a petition from regular riders of the Routes 15 and 15 Limited, which ply East Colfax Avenue night and day with such regular frequency that it's in the top 10 busiest bus routes in the nation, security patrols will start random monitoring of the buses. "We just started doing this last Friday," John Tarbert, RTD's manager of security, told the agency's board committee for customer service Wednesday. Drivers and riders have complained of unruly customers, fare evaders, criminal activity and other problems. The plan is to have two-member patrols of Wackenhut Security, which has a contract with RTD, hop on buses at random.

Rio Blanco roads remain restricted
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_3a_Rio_Blanco_roads.html
Weight restrictions that were imposed on Rio Blanco County Road 5 last week didn’t seem to have much affect, according to an official with an energy-related company located on the road. County officials on March 5 imposed their first-ever weight restrictions on two county roads heavily used by natural-gas industry trucks. They were to be reviewed and possibly eased Wednesday, but will last at least another week, said David Luzmoor, plant manager of Natural Soda, a nahcolite production plant that trucks baking soda over County Road 5.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Governor to attend water meeting
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070315/NEWS/103140122
Gov. Bill Ritter will hear about economic problems in northeast Colorado during a meeting next week at Wiggins High School, 320 Chapman. Wiggins is about 35 miles east of Greeley and is located near the intersection of U.S. 34 and Interstate 76. Don Jones, president of Morgan County Economic Development, said that while the meeting is open to the public, no public comment will be allowed. The meeting, he said, is designed to give Ritter a broad overview of problems faced for communities and residents along the South Platte River, many the result of the shut down of irrigation and other wells in the area, and offer solutions to those problems.

Commissioners put roadless letter to Gov. Ritter on hold
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070314_10.htm
La Plata County commissioners will not sign a letter in support of Gov. Bill Ritter's request to protect all of Colorado's roadless areas - at least not yet. On Feb. 28, 2006, commissioners passed a resolution favoring protection of the San Juan National Forest's roadless areas. Before leaving office, former Gov. Bill Owens presented a petition, based on recommendations from a statewide task force, that grants concessions to industry in Colorado's roadless areas. Critics of Owens' petition said it weakens the Clinton 2001 Roadless Rule and fails to offer the fullest protection for roadless areas. Ritter recently requested an interim protection of all Colorado roadless areas. At their regular meeting Tuesday, commissioners voted 2-1 against sending Ritter a letter of support, with Joelle Riddle and Kellie Hotter voting against the letter for different reasons. Owens had assigned a task force to oversee the petition process that would allow some exemptions for industries, including oil and gas, ski areas, mining and logging. It was the support of that process that prompted Hotter to make a motion against the board sending the letter.

GMUG forest plan to be released today
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/15/3_153a__GMUG_Plan.html
The long-awaited plan that will govern how the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests is managed is expected to be released today. The GMUG nearly released its original management plan last summer, but the Forest Service’s Washington office withdrew the plan after it had been printed. GMUG spokeswoman Ann Janik said Wednesday the plan will be released to the public following a 10 a.m. news conference at forest headquarters in Delta. The plan will be posted online at noon today, she said. In December, National Forest System Associate Deputy Chief Fred Norbury said the original plan was withdrawn last year to allow Washington officials to review it for compliance with a new forest planning rule, which prevents plans from undergoing environmental review before they’re released.

Arsenal refuge to become home to herd of bison
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419280,00.html
Bison soon will roam the range about 10 miles northeast of downtown Denver where some of the deadliest substances known to man were once made. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Saturday will turn loose 16 bison from the National Bison Range in northwestern Montana on about 1,400 acres of the 17,000-acre Rocky Mountain Arsenal, once a Superfund site.

Lottery funds for parks to be released
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5418508,00.html
About $8.5 million of lottery money will be released for parks work after the State Parks Division and the agency that delivers the funds resolved a dispute. Great Outdoors Colorado and parks officials on Wednesday announced the resolution of a monthlong impasse stemming from GOCO's questions about billing and internal controls for parks spending.

Ridge to show health of wildlands
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5419305,00.html
A remote alpine ridge west of Boulder has been picked as one of 20 monitoring stations in a new nationwide "environmental observatory" that would take the pulse of America's rapidly changing wildlands for decades to come. The proposed National Ecological Observatory Network would monitor ecological changes - many of them human-caused - and try to forecast future impacts. "I think there is a general recognition that ecosystems are changing quickly due to climate change and due to land-use changes," said University of Colorado biologist Russell Monson.

Dolores River health goes on agenda
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070315_3.htm
The health of the Lower Dolores River was on everyone's mind Wednesday when a group of about 20 people met for the Dolores River Dialogue. The group of people, who range from wildlife experts, rafting enthusiasts and ranchers, have been meeting to discuss the 130-mile portion of the river below the McPhee Dam for four years. "The thing the Dolores River Dialogue has done more than anything is to bring together a community-minded effort," said Jim Siscoe, science coordinator for the Dolores River Dialogue and general manager for the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co.

Warning, pesticides on park weeds
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5417415,00.html
The Denver Department of Environmental Health is notifying park visitors that pesticides may be applied on weeds and could be hazardous to health. The city is offering residents an opportunity to be notified before pesticides are applied by having their name included on a pesticide notification registry by calling the Department of Environmental Health at 720-865-5417. Just leave your name (including spelling), address (including zip code), telephone number, and the full name of the park or parks for which you wish to be notified and how you would like to be notified. Three parks per person maximum will be accepted.

Beetle eats salt cedar plague
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070315_4.htm
Montezuma County residents who have battled with the invasive tamarisk, or salt cedar, could find relief in the form of a beetle. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is introducing a beetle - the only known natural enemy of the tamarisk. The beetle comes from Asia, where tamarisk first originated.

Wildlife official says Ginn project could work
http://vaildaily.com/article/20070314/NEWS/103140073
The Ginn Development Co. could build a private ski resort south of Minturn with little harm to wildlife, a state wildlife official said Wednesday night. "I think this can be done with very minimal impact," said Bill Andree, district wildlife manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Echoing previous statements, Andree said the environmental report Ginn submitted to the Minturn Planning and Zoning Commission lacked sound conclusions. However, Ginn could satisfy the Division of Wildlife by making some changes to its plan, he said.

Massive die-off of ducks
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438479
The investigation into why hundreds of ducks died at Front Range wastewater-treatment facilities continues in laboratories across the country with no breakthroughs. "We got people all over the country working on it," said John Wegrzyn, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official. "This has been a really tough nut for us to crack." More than 850 birds died at the Metro wastewater plant in Denver, the Northglenn Water Treatment Facility, the Boulder wastewater plant, the Littleton/Englewood plant and Sunfish Lake in south Denver. Bird deaths were reported at the first of the year and continued through the end of February.

Top

Opinion

Carman: Iraq resolution sets off rage and rationalizations
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5438598
After four years of sanitized news coverage from Iraq, a ban on photos of the coffins of dead soldiers, and nonsensical "Mission Accomplished" pronouncements, I could hardly believe what I was hearing. The bitter truth about Iraq was suddenly finding a voice in, of all places, the state Capitol. The legislature had provided a forum for the debate that has been muted, stifled and smothered for so long. The troubled, ugly, devastating war finally has come home.
RELATED: Legislature right to weigh in on Iraq war (3/14)
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5427295

Salazar is 'troubled'
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/15/salazar-is-troubled/
With some regularity, Sen. Ken Salazar says he is gravely concerned about something. So it was Wednesday, when the Colorado Democrat told reporters that he is "troubled" by the burgeoning scandal in the U.S. Department of Justice. But Salazar declined to call for the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, saying, "I think we need to know the facts first." On the face of it, Salazar's position is eminently reasonable. One should carefully gather the facts before calling for someone's head. But much is already known about the latest scandal, and Salazar's judgment about Gonzales has long been questionable.
RELATED: Law enforcement should be free of political pressure
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=opin&article_path=/opinion/opin070314_3.htm

House restores sense to ethics
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5436302
If Fitz-Gerald can't be swayed by the amendments or by the fact HB 1304 is good for Colorado - and the thousands of families left in limbo because of the law's vague wording - we would urge her to free her caucus so other Democrats can vote for the measure without pressure from leadership. We also hope she sends it to a committee that will give it a fair hearing. The House also approved Joint Resolution 1019, which formally asks the Colorado Supreme Court to rule whether the legislature has the power to clarify the amendment, a question that hangs over all Amendment 41 concerns. The Senate should approve that as well. The interrogatory can't be sent to the Supreme Court until HB 1304 gets to a second reading in the Senate, however, so time is of the essence. Fitz-Gerald said courts are often reticent to answer interrogatories on cases when lawsuits are pending, which is the case here. She supports a Senate bill that merely sets up an ethics commission. "Trying to solve this is not that easy," she said Wednesday. "We need to be careful we don't mire this thing down any more than it is." If the court does provide guidelines, as we hope it will, lawmakers could then tweak HB 1034 to finish turning the will of the voters into the details of the law. House Republican Leader Mike May voted for HB 1034 after Democrats proposed another vote of the people. Otherwise, he told his colleagues, "go ahead and drive your car off the cliff and take the voters with you." Certainly members of the Senate don't want to take that plunge either.

State tackles local voting ills
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5436304
Voters last November had plenty of reason to lose confidence in our election system. Counties with king-sized headaches ranged from urban Denver and Pueblo to suburban Douglas and sparsely populated Montrose. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Mike Coffman placed these four counties on what he called an "election watch list" and offered assistance to ensure better voting- day performance. The four counties said they would cooperate with Coffman, who cited mismanagement in Denver and Douglas counties and violation of state law in Montrose and Pueblo counties. It's important that counties identify their problems and take steps to avoid a recurrence. If they don't, Coffman can seek a court order to take over the administration of the elections - at the county's expense.

Gabow, Schroffel: Funding rule a threat (3/14)
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5427300
The federal government has proposed a rule change that could eliminate Colorado's ability to draw the federal Medicaid funds that support care for the uninsured at Denver Health, University of Colorado Hospital and 22 other safety-net hospitals in the state. This proposal would be devastating to the state of Colorado. It would put at risk thousands of medically indigent patients in our state, cripple our safety-net system and create ripple effects on the entire Colorado hospital system, which is an $8 billion industry with 55,000 employees and payroll and benefits of more than $3 billion.

Can water and oil shale mix?
http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/03/15/3_15_07_water_edit.html
The decision by the Colorado Water Conservation Board to allocate $300,000 for a study of the impact of energy development — particularly a commercial oil-shale industry — on the Western Slope’s water resources is certainly a welcome one. The study is to be conducted by the Western Slope’s Colorado River Water Conservation District. The state water agency providing the money said it hopes for cooperation from the oil-shale industry. That’s unquestionably something to be desired. But don’t count on it happening to a great extent. Oil-shale companies have been notoriously tight-lipped about the actual water requirements their operations will need if they ever are able to go into commercial production. Most of the very rough water estimates to date have come from outside the shale industry.

Help our neighbors
http://pueblochieftain.com/editorial/1173967803/3
THE CONCERT to benefit Southeastern Colorado farmers and ranchers stricken by this winter’s blizzards will be held Sunday evening at the Colorado State Fairgrounds Events Center. The 7:30 p.m. “Operation Blizzard Concert” will feature country music star Michael Martin Murphey. It is being presented by the Colorado Farm Bureau, in conjunction with the Colorado Cattlemen's Association, Colorado Livestock Association and the Colorado Department of Agriculture/State Fair. Sponsors of the event hope to raise at least $500,000 to assist livestock producers impacted by the blizzard. Corporate sponsorship is also being sought for assistance.

Justice revelations broaden (3/14)
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5427293
The burgeoning controversy about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys has now, shamefully, reached the White House. Indeed, the president's counsel was in the thick of it.

Sundin: Impeach Cheney, not Bush
http://postindependent.com/article/20070315/COLUMNISTS/103150038
Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution provides for impeachment and removal from office of federal officials on grounds of "Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors." The nefarious actions of Dick Cheney in the office of vice president provides a long list of justifications for his impeachment.

Millions of pages, hidden from view
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5417978,00.html
Since 9/11, the National Archives, the keeper of the nation's records, has quietly removed more than 1.1 million pages of government documents from public view. According to The Associated Press, which broke the story, "entire file boxes were removed without significant review," some of them containing papers more than a century old, because the Archives lacked the time to do a thorough scrutiny. The Bush administration has occasional justification for secrecy, of course, and at least some of the records at the Archives are a case in point - files on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons technology, intelligence gathering, blueprints of critical facilities, government contingency plans. But 1.1 million pages worth? One of the reclassified documents was a 1960 map of a Tennessee reservoir; a motivated terrorist could get more up to date information from the local bait and tackle shop.

Malcolm, Broz: End the Aid Elimination Penalty
http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/speakout/2007/03/end_the_aid_elimination_penalt.html
The Higher Education Act of 1965 was intended to broaden access to college education by providing financial support to eligible students and institutions. What resulted was our modern federal financial aid system, which includes all types of need-based resources such as Pell grants, low-interest loans and federal work-study. For lower- and middle-class students, these forms of assistance put a post-secondary education within their reach. However, when the act was reauthorized in 1998, a provision that directly contradicts the original spirit of the law was adopted. Now dubbed the Aid Elimination Penalty, the amendment effectively strips federal financial aid from students convicted of any drug crime — even simple possession. Admission of a conviction or failure to answer on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form automatically renders the student ineligible for aid, regardless of financial need. To date, approximately $200 million has been withheld from nearly 200,000 students nationwide, which does not include an unknown number of students who did not apply for fear of rejection.

Stone: Mountains are, you know, high
http://aspentimes.com/article/20070315/COLUMN/103150034
Way back in the early '70s, when John Denver's anthem to the Rockies was in the Top 10, the smug, hip "cool kids" here in Aspen (including me, of course) smirked when we heard that refrain. As if John Denver, the super-straight, wide-eyed "Golly Gee-Whiz Kid," had any idea what he was talking about when it came to "high." Remember, this was the same era when Aspen's other great pop icon, Hunter S. Thompson, wrote about hearing his "attorney" sing "One Toke Over the Line" and thinking, "One toke? You poor fool! Wait till you see those goddamn bats!" Now that was a man who knew what "high" was all about. Anyway, that was then and this is now ... and now super-straight state legislators are recoiling in horror at the mere use of the word "high." Then: We smirked. Now: They panic. Their little horrified hissy fit happened during the debate over making "Rocky Mountain High" Colorado's second State Song. "But ... but ... but," they sputtered, "it says 'high'! 'High' means drugs!!! That's evil." Um ... guys? We're talking about mountains? Mountains are, you know, high?

NATIONAL NEWS

Top

Election

McCain Fighting to Recapture Maverick Spirit of 2000 Bid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402301.html
In the seven years since John McCain and his "Straight Talk Express" nearly derailed George W. Bush's White House ambitions, the blunt-spoken senator from Arizona has become the very picture of the highly managed presidential candidate he once scorned.

As a child, Obama crossed a cultural divide in Indonesia
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama15mar15,1,2014621.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
As a boy in Indonesia, Barack Obama crisscrossed the religious divide. At the local primary school, he prayed in thanks to a Catholic saint. In the neighborhood mosque, he bowed to Allah. Having a personal background in both Christianity and Islam might seem useful for an aspiring U.S. president in an age when Islamic nations and radical groups are key national security and foreign policy issues. But a connection with Islam is untrod territory for presidential politics. Obama's four years as a child in Indonesia underscore how dramatically his background differs from that of past presidential hopefuls, most of whom spent little, if any, time in other countries. No one knows how voters will react to a candidate with an early exposure to Islam, a religion that remains foreign to many Americans.

Hugo Chávez Is Tied to Giuliani Firm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/politics/15rudy.html
Rudolph W. Giuliani’s law firm has lobbied for years on behalf of an oil company controlled by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, a strident critic of President Bush and American-style capitalism. Bracewell & Giuliani, the firm based in Houston that Mr. Giuliani joined as a name partner two years ago, handles lobbying in the Texas capital for the Citgo Petroleum Corporation of Houston. Citgo is the American subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, the state-owned oil company that Mr. Chávez controls.

Firefighters Gain Favored Spot With 2008 Hopefuls
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402341.html
The International Association of Fire Fighters made a strong case yesterday for the title of the politicians' favorite labor union. Who else but the union that represents many of America's first responders -- the heroes of Sept. 11, 2001 -- can draw 11 declared or would-be presidential candidates, Republican and Democrat alike, to speak on the same day in Washington -- and along the way get into a public spat with former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was a no-show?
RELATED: Hopefuls answer call of firefighters union
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150131mar15,1,2642077.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

GOP Dinner a Test of Fundraising Ability
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402302.html
House Republicans will see if their newfound minority status hurts their bottom line after tonight's annual dinner featuring President Bush as the guest of honor, an event that organizers say has raised $6.1 million for the members' chief fundraising committee. Organizers of the dinner, which will be at the Washington Hilton, said they expect the total to climb. Last year's dinner took in $8 million, though National Republican Congressional Committee aides note that a tense election season helped boost the total haul. This time, House Republicans are in the minority, the president's popularity is sagging, and the NRCC is competing with a crowded field of presidential contenders for donors.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Democrats' Resolution on Iraq Reaches Senate Floor
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400269.html
After weeks of delay, Democratic leaders yesterday managed to bring to the Senate floor for the first time a binding resolution that would bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. But Republicans remained confident that they could kill the proposal, and the White House threatened a veto, raising constitutional concerns. Democrats want the new proposal to supersede the 2002 resolution that authorized the Iraq invasion. It would restrict troop movements and set March 31, 2008, as a target date for bringing the troops home.
RELATED: Liberal lawmakers may sway key vote on Iraq war
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wardems15mar15,1,2588415.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: Democrats’ Measure for Iraq Pullout in 2008 Nears Senate Vote; White House Threatens Veto
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/washington/15cong.html?ref=washington

Fitzgerald: Can't say much to Congress
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-14-fitzgerald_N.htm
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who spent years investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity, told lawmakers Wednesday that he could offer little help during congressional hearings on the leak. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked Fitzgerald last week to meet with members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which will hold hearings on the Bush administration's handling of CIA operative Valerie Plame's classified employment status. Plame's identity was leaked to reporters after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, began criticizing the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.

House Passes Open-Government Bills
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402300.html
In a bipartisan confrontation with the White House over executive branch secrecy, the House ignored a stern veto threat and overwhelmingly passed a package of open-government bills yesterday that would roll back administration efforts to shield its workings from public view. Even top Republicans supported three bills that would streamline access to records in presidential libraries, expand safeguards for government whistle-blowers, and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which guides public requests for government documents. All were approved with veto-proof majorities.

GOP Sees Tax Hikes In Budget Proposal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402293.html
Republicans charged yesterday that Capitol Hill Democrats are hatching a plan to raise taxes, noting that a new Democratic budget proposal assumes a $400 billion revenue jump over five years without adequately specifying where the money would come from. The Democratic budget blueprint, released during a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee, suggests that the extra cash could be raised by improving tax collections, closing tax shelters and cracking down on off-shore tax havens. But Republicans argued that those steps would not produce sufficient new revenue to cover the gap. "It's almost like Wizard of Oz tax policy here," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the committee's ranking minority member. "There's somebody behind the curtain, and we can't see who it is, but he's going to come up with the money to pay for this."

House approves bill to divulge funding of presidential libraries
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150153mar15,1,4346017.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
In funding a campaign, three of the big rules to be aware of are: no big gifts, no secrets and no foreign money. Such campaign finance regulations are meant to ensure that politicians' allegiances aren't for sale. But according to several experts, it isn't working because there's still a place where donations can quietly escape regulations--presidential libraries. There, it seems, the practices that are expressly forbidden when funding a presidential campaign are in fact commonplace and legal when funding a president's legacy. "There are no limits on what you can give a presidential library," said Celia Wexler, a vice president at Common Cause, a non-partisan group advocating campaign and lobbying reform. "There's no limits on where the money comes from, and there's no disclosure requirement. And that's a real problem." It's a loophole that has caused consternation on Capitol Hill as well. The House on Wednesday voted 390-34 to approve the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act, which would require organizations raising funds for presidential libraries to disclose the source and amount of any donations over $200 on a quarterly basis until the completed library and its archival contents are turned over to the National Archives.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

U.S. officials want more outreach to American Arabs, Muslims
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror15mar15,1,2191748.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Senior Homeland Security officials told a Senate panel Wednesday that they were having a hard time employing enough interpreters and analysts to counter domestic terrorist threats and that they needed to do more to reach out to American Arabs and Muslims. They also warned that some American Muslims were at risk of becoming radicalized and might try to execute homegrown terrorist attacks of the sort carried out on London subways and buses in 2005. And even though they said they were aware of the sensitivity of the situation, Secretary Michael Chertoff and other officials acknowledged that they did not fully understand the radicalization process or know the size of the problem.

`Gay baby' article irks both sides
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150130mar15,1,2248860.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
The president of the leading Southern Baptist seminary has incurred sharp attacks from the left and right by suggesting that a biological basis for homosexuality may be proven, and that prenatal treatment to reverse gay orientation would be biblically justified. Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., one of the country's pre-eminent evangelical leaders, acknowledged he irked many fellow conservatives with a blog article this month saying scientific research "points to some level of biological causation" for homosexuality. Proof of a biological basis would challenge the belief of many conservative Christians that homosexuality, which they view as sinful, is a matter of choice that can be overcome through prayer and counseling.

Top

Foreign Policy

Old Mideast peace plan finds support
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-14-mideast-peace-plan_N.htm
The United States and Israel offered new support Wednesday for a dormant Arab proposal they hope holds promise for peace among Israel and Arab neighbors and a goad toward resolving the underlying question of a political settlement for the Palestinians. "I hope that this speaks to the clear need for an Israeli-Arab reconciliation to accompany ... the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after a Mideast strategy session with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Rice sees the plan as a potential parallel to an Israeli-Palestinian peace drive the United States helped launch in 2003 that has also been in mothballs, as violence rose and Israel-Palestinian relations deteriorated.
RELATED: Deal reached on Palestinian government
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-palestinians15mar15,1,4621251.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Israeli Panel on Lebanon War Lays Onus With Top Officials
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/world/middleeast/15mideast.html
A government-appointed committee examining Israel’s failures during the war in Lebanon last summer says it will publish an interim report in mid- to late April apportioning responsibility to top officials, heightening uncertainty about the future of the beleaguered prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and his government. The committee, led by a retired judge, Eliyahu Winograd, announced its intention on Tuesday, saying the report would include “individual conclusions pertaining to the personal responsibility of the prime minister, the defense minister and the army chief of staff.” That set off a flurry of debate about the possibility that the government would not serve out its term, scheduled to run three more years. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the wartime chief of staff, resigned in January.

Pentagon Issues Dire Look At End of '06 in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402444.html
The Pentagon yesterday released its bleakest assessment of Iraq yet, reporting record levels of violence and hardening sectarian divisions in the last quarter of 2006 as rival Sunni and Shiite militias waged campaigns of "sectarian cleansing" that forced as many as 9,000 civilians to flee the country each month. Weekly attacks in Iraq rose to more than 1,000 during the period and average daily casualties increased to more than 140, with Iraqi civilians bearing the brunt of the violence -- nearly 100 killed or wounded a day, according to statistics in the Pentagon's latest congressionally required quarterly report on security in Iraq.
RELATED: Pentagon: Some Iraq violence is 'civil war'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-14-pentagon-report_N.htm

Emerging Epicenter In the Afghan War
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402285.html
With a weak government presence in Helmand, the Taliban has gained more control there than in any other province in the five years since U.S.-led forces ejected the Islamic militia from power, according to foreign and Afghan officials. In many villages, Taliban gunmen patrol day and night, residents said in telephone interviews. Some government supporters have been beheaded or hanged. Men who shave their beards, in breach of Taliban orders, have faced public whippings. Meanwhile, NATO forces, now commanded by a four-star U.S. general, are focused on Helmand for their largest Afghan offensive ever. In the past week, NATO planes have carried out frequent airstrikes, trying to loosen the Taliban's grip before troops move in for what is expected to be intense ground combat this spring and summer.
RELATED: An Explosion and a Bomb Kill at Least 11 in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/world/asia/15afghan.html

Suspension of Jurist Unleashes Furor Against Musharraf
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/world/asia/15pakistan.html
A political and legal maelstrom has erupted after Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, unceremoniously suspended the country’s chief justice last week, in a step that lawyers and rights activists have called an assault on the independence of the judiciary. The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who did not shy away from taking on cases that challenged the government, has set off immense controversy and threatens to spiral into a constitutional crisis, according to lawyers and analysts here.

World Powers Agree on New Iran Sanctions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031500248.html
A proposed new package of sanctions against Iran for enriching uranium appeared headed to the U.N. Security Council after ambassadors for six world powers resolved remaining differences. The six-nation show of unity would be unlikely to meet strong opposition from the other 10 members on the council, which must approve the measures. A vote was expected in the days to come. "We have an agreement in principle based on some additional changes that were introduced and presented today by some delegations," acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said Wednesday.
RELATED: U.N. powers agree on new Iran sanctions
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-webiran15mar15,0,2301028.story?coll=la-home-headlines
RELATED: Ex-UN inspector faults US on Iran
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/03/15/ex_un_inspector_faults_us_on_iran/

Attackers Kill Dozens of Police in India
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/world/asia/15cnd-india.html?ref=world
Suspected Maoist rebels stormed a police post in the heavily forested center of India early this morning, killing several dozen policemen in what appeared to be the biggest attack on state law enforcement in the last several years of insurgency. Maoist rebels have cut a bloody swath through parts of 13 of India’s 28 states. They are largely entrenched in the forest belt, which is rich in natural resources but home to some of the poorest communities of indigenous people.
RELATED: Indian Police Kill 11 at Protest Over Economic Zone
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/world/asia/15india.html

N. Korea Demands May Delay Reactor Shutdown
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031401030.html
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that North Korean officials told him they will begin shutting down their main nuclear reactor only after the United States lifts financial restrictions against North Korea. Mohamed ElBaradei, speaking here after completing a visit to North Korea, said officials made it clear they were still willing to carry out a Feb. 13 commitment to close the reactor, a plutonium-based facility at Yongbyon near Pyongyang. But he said they also stressed that the United States must first fulfill its pledge to cancel measures that have frozen millions of dollars in North Korean-linked accounts at a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, accused by U.S. investigators of money-laundering.
RELATED: U.S. moves toward resolving financial feud with N. Korea
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150162mar15,1,4411553.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Zimbabwe Lawmaker Describes Beatings of Activists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402352.html
Zimbabwean police ordered opposition lawmaker Nelson Chamisa to lie on the ground Sunday afternoon and then kicked, punched and whipped him and beat him with batons, he said. But the brutality Chamisa suffered, he said, was mild compared with what he saw meted out to party leader Morgan Tsvangirai in an incident that has sparked outrage in Zimbabwe and around the world. Police had broken up a major opposition rally in Highfield, a township west of the capital, Harare, and began attacking Chamisa and other opposition figures at a police station. When Tsvangirai arrived, more than 20 officers -- some in uniform, others not -- directed their fury at him, Chamisa said.
RELATED: Zimbabwe Leader Faces Growing Condemnation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031500410.html

Le Pen Joins Volatile Race For French Presidency
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402445.html
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the anti-immigration politician who stunned France and the world by finishing second in this country's 2002 presidential contest, formally placed his name on this year's ballot Wednesday, adding new uncertainty to an increasingly volatile campaign. Barely six weeks from the April 22 vote, the French election has become close and unpredictable. The two longtime front-runners -- Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement party, and Socialist Party nominee Ségolène Royal, who is vying to become the first female president of France -- are facing a challenge from the surging campaign of François Bayrou of the Union for French Democracy.

Top

Immigration

Border states protest plan to cut funds for immigrant care
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hospitals15mar15,1,2663.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
A proposal to divert funds from a federal program that reimburses hospitals for the cost of treating illegal immigrants has angered lawmakers in California and other border states. Under the proposal the House Appropriations Committee planned to consider today, some of those funds would be shifted to help states cover shortfalls in a children's health insurance program. But the plan, which would affect hospitals nationwide, drew a sharp response from lawmakers from border states, where hospitals struggle with the cost of care for illegal immigrants unable to pay their bills. House aides were scrambling Wednesday night to scrap the proposal and find other ways to make up the shortfalls in the children's health insurance program.

Patrick says promises broken on raid
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/15/patrick_says_promises_broken_on_raid/
[Massachusetts] Governor Deval Patrick, responding to criticism that he had ample warning of an immigration raid in New Bedford and didn't do enough to protect workers' children, said yesterday that federal officials had reneged on promises that the raid would be made in coordination with the state. Patrick said his administration had received assurances that state social workers would be given access to illegal immigrants at the Michael Bianco Inc. factory on the day of their arrests to determine whether they had children who needed to be cared for. "Our expectation, for example, was that we would have access at the site to individuals who were being detained," the governor said at a press conference yesterday. "We then expected we would have access at [Fort] Devens. We didn't get that access from the folks who were making the calls on the ground. Those were all understandings we had going in." However, Patrick's account is at odds with those of Kevin Burke, the state's public safety secretary, and Harry Spence, the commissioner of the Department of Social Services.

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Health Care and Public Safety

Benefits for seniors eating up kids' share
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-14-kidsbudget_N.htm
The spiraling cost of benefits for seniors is limiting the federal government's ability to invest in kids. Despite Democrats' plans to boost spending on education and children's health insurance, the projected $2.9 trillion federal budget's tilt toward older Americans will only increase, a study out today from the Urban Institute says. The report, which examined more than 100 federal programs for children, shows that their share of domestic spending and tax breaks has dropped from 20% in 1960 to 15.4% today. Barring a change in policy, it would decline to 13% in 2017. As a share of the nation's economy, spending on kids would go from 2.6% to 2.1%. By contrast, spending for adults only in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — the major programs that benefit seniors — would rise from 7.6% to 9.5% of the economy.

Texas House overturns governor's vaccine order
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/15/texas_house_overturns_governors_vaccine_order/
The Texas House of Representatives voted yesterday to overturn Governor Rick Perry's executive order that sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer. The measure passed 118 to 23, according to Chris Cutrone, a spokesman for House Speaker Tom Craddick. A similar bill in the Texas Senate has been sponsored by half the members. It is still in committee.

FDA Calls for Stronger Warnings Over Possible Reactions to Sleeping Pills
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402884.html
Makers of sleeping pills such as top-selling Ambien and Lunesta should stiffen warnings on allergic reactions and behaviors such as sleep-driving, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. All medicines prescribed to help induce and maintain sleep should use stronger language about these potential risks in their package inserts, the FDA said in a statement. Americans spent $3 billion last year on prescriptions for Ambien and Lunesta, the two most heavily advertised drugs in the United States. Though sleep aids are well tolerated by many people, regulators and consumer advocates have raised concerns that these increasingly popular medicines are more dangerous than consumers realize.
RELATED: A warning to sleeping pill users: Don't sleep and drive
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150148mar15,1,5853349.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Medical Marijuana Use Dealt Setback
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031401364.html
A woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The ruling was the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the government preemptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her doctor's advice, Raich eats or smokes marijuana every two hours to ease her pain. The Supreme Court ruled against Raich in June 2005, saying medical marijuana users and their suppliers could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if they lived in a state such as California, where medical use of the drug is legal. When told of the decision, Raich, 41, began sobbing. "I'm sure not going to let them kill me," she said.
RELATED: Dying Woman Loses Appeal on Marijuana as Medication
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15marijuana.html

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Crime and Penal Reform

Alleged Architect Of 9/11 Confesses To Many Attacks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402102.html
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed told a panel of military officers through a personal representative, who read off a list of 31 terrorist acts that were either carried out or planned but not executed. According to transcripts released by Defense Department officials last night, Mohammed later spoke in broken English and Arabic, saying, "For sure, I'm American enemies." Mohammed took responsibility for the attacks on New York and Washington in an interrogation detailed in the Sept. 11 commission's report. But his appearance before the tribunal at Guantanamo Bay marked the first time since his March 2003 arrest that he was allowed to make an extended statement that was not delivered to interrogators.
RELATED: 9/11 planner confesses to many plots
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ksm15mar15,0,3709403.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Texas Senate Votes to Fire Youth Board
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15texas.html
The board of the Texas Youth Commission, which has faced criticism after accusations that young inmates were sexually abused by staff members, will resign Friday, the governor’s office said Thursday. The surprise announcement came after the State Senate voted unanimously to fire and replace the board, which oversees the youth prison system. The seven-member board is scheduled to meet Friday to approve an agency rehabilitation plan. Once it is approved, the board members are expected to resign, Gov. Rick Perry’s office said in a statement. Mr. Perry’s office said it had talked by telephone with each member of the board Wednesday.

Top

Economy

Stocks Spend Day Bouncing, Land in Positive Territory
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400257.html
At day's end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 57.44 points to finish at 12,133.40 -- a welcome relief for investors after the Dow dipped briefly today below 12,000, a mark it had not hit since Nov. 6. The solid showing followed Tuesday's selloff when the Dow plunged 243 points or 2 percent. Big Dow gainers included Microsoft Corp. (up 2.5 percent), American Express Co. (up 1.75 percent) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (up 1.6 percent).
RELATED: Dow sinks, then claws back well above 12,000 mark
http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2007-03-14-world-markets-wed_N.htm
RELATED: Stock Futures Point Toward Higher Open
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031500404.html

Asian Markets Recover From Recent Tumble
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031500361.html
Relieved by an overnight recovery on Wall Street, Asian markets bounced back and European shares opened higher Thursday after the previous day's plunge triggered by worries about a slowdown in the U.S. economy. Investors who had dumped stocks a day earlier in the wake of sharp decline in the U.S. market snapped up shares in a broad rally that stretched across most markets from Japan to Australia.
RELATED: Hedge Funds, the Usual Suspects, Blamed for Volatility in Asia
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/business/worldbusiness/15hedge.html

Charges Dropped Against HP's Dunn
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031401347.html
Patricia C. Dunn, the woman at the center of the scandal involving Hewlett-Packard's aggressive search for corporate leaks, had all state charges against her dropped yesterday by a California court. Three others who were also accused of breaking laws to obtain such personal information as phone records will have their misdemeanor charges dropped if they complete 96 hours of community service, their attorneys said. The rulings marked an abrupt and somewhat anticlimactic turn in a once-dramatic case that captivated the public and shed light on a shadowy world of spies for hire. In turning investigators against its own board members -- ostensibly to plug leaks to the media -- the venerated Silicon Valley company tainted its corporate image and incurred the wrath of government officials.
RELATED: Charges Dismissed in Hewlett-Packard Spying Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/technology/15dunn.html?ref=business

Wal-Mart Is Said to Have Big Banking Plans
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/business/15walmart.html?ref=business
An Ohio representative is planning to release information today that suggests Wal-Mart’s ambitions into consumer banking may extend beyond what the retail giant had previously disclosed. The information, in the form of an e-mail message sent by a Wal-Mart employee, suggested that the company was laying the groundwork to offer its own banking products. Wal-Mart has long insisted that it was not interested in branch banking but was looking to use the bank as a way to save money. But Representative Paul E. Gillmor, an Ohio Republican, said last night that he was concerned that the undated e-mail message suggested that Wal-Mart was telling its tenants, some which are retail banks, that it was reserving the right to become a full-service bank, including the underwriting of mortgages.

Chiquita to pay $25 million for dealings with militants
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chiquita15mar15,1,4292353.story?coll=la-headlines-world
The fine will settle a U.S. inquiry on whether the company knowingly paid Colombian groups deemed to be terrorist for protection.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

Where the Wolf Comes Knocking
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402477.html
In Mississippi and Louisiana, about 1 in 10 homeowners are failing to make their payments, fresh data show. Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, the nation's industrial heartland and the states suffering the country's highest unemployment, aren't far behind. Yet the repayment of mortgages is holding up well on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in other parts of the country, including those that saw huge run-ups in property values in recent years. Not only that, but there is scant evidence -- so far -- that the mortgage problems are causing wider economic damage. But the big worry, on Wall Street and on Main Street, is that the trouble will spread, worsening the downturn in the housing market and possibly tipping the economy into a painful recession. "The question now is whether the pathology of the housing market is going to infect the rest of the economy," said Edward E. Leamer, director of the Anderson Forecast at the University of California at Los Angeles. "We're optimistic about the economy . . . [but] it's going to feel like a depression in the housing sector."
RELATED: Subprime mortgage troubles could still spread pain
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2007-03-15-subprime-econ-usat_N.htm
RELATED: Loan Unit Drags Down H&R Block
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/business/15lend.html?ref=business

L.A. Police Initiative Thins Out Skid Row
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402271.html
In the latest application of the "broken windows" approach Bratton famously applied to New York, police are targeting petty crimes to discourage violent crime and other serious violations. "The behavior on Skid Row was 'anything goes,' " said Capt. Andrew J. Smith of the area's police station. "Personally, I think we need to have the same standards of behavior as they do in Brentwood or West L.A.," well-heeled parts of the city. Since the police department's Safer City Initiative began in September, an extra 50 police officers have worked Skid Row. Trees are trimmed for better lighting. Police write tickets for jaywalking and public urination and have made more than 1,400 drug arrests. During the daytime, they enforce an ordinance against sleeping on the sidewalk.

Top

Media

Dingell: FCC overstepping its authority
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-14-fcc_N.htm
The chairman of the congressional panel that oversees the Federal Communications Commission accused the agency of overstepping its authority in approving an order meant to create more competition in the cable television industry. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who heads the House Commerce Committee, said at an occasionally rancorous subcommittee meeting Wednesday that "the FCC is not a legislative body — that role resides here in this room with the people's elected representatives." Dingell said he supports competition and lower prices in cable, but that "the commission must work entirely within the existing laws to achieve that goal." He added: "That did not happen and the commission chose to ignore the well-settled divisions of responsibility."

Media Fight Request to Close Parts of Israel Lobbyists' Trial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402294.html
Defense lawyers and media organizations are objecting to what they say is a government effort to bar the public from the upcoming trial of two pro-Israel lobbyists charged with violating U.S. espionage laws. A group of media organizations, which includes The Washington Post, filed a motion late Tuesday criticizing "the government's apparent request to close" the trial of Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman. A federal judge in Alexandria had set a hearing on the motion for today, but it was unclear late yesterday whether the hearing would be held. The media filing follows a motion last week by defense lawyers seeking "to strike the government's request to close the trial," according to the U.S. District Court docket in Alexandria. But the contents of that motion are sealed, and prosecutors declined to comment.

TMZ.com ready to dig into D.C. dirt
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tmz15mar15,1,2729847.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
In Hollywood, the website TMZ.com has already transformed celebrity culture, putting stars on notice that cellphone-toting tattlers and aggressive paparazzi are ready to splash their indiscretions all over cyberspace. Now, the site that first disclosed Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rant and the medications stored in Anna Nicole Smith's refrigerator is coming to the nation's capital. And local denizens are wondering why. Sometimes called "Hollywood for ugly people," Washington usually rewards policy wonks. Think earmarks, fine print, protocols. "Washington is where the term 'celebrity' includes former surgeons general, defense lawyers and Pat Buchanan," said Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood), whose status as a prominent bachelorette and stand-up comedian might make her a target for TMZ's gossip hounds. "TMZ is going to be bored out of its mind. The only thing keeping TMZ in D.C. for more than a week would be its lease."

Top

Education

Dozens in GOP Turn Against Bush's Prized 'No Child' Act
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402741.html
More than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates. For a White House fighting off attacks on its war policy and dealing with a burgeoning scandal at the Justice Department, the GOP dissidents' move is a fresh blow on a new front. Among the co-sponsors of the legislation are House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a key supporter of the measure in 2001, and John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Bush's most reliable defender in the Senate. Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House GOP's chief deputy whip and a supporter in 2001, has also signed on.

Oversight Is Set for Beleaguered U.S. Reading Program
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/washington/15reading.html
Under attack for improprieties uncovered in its showcase literacy program for low-income children, the Department of Education will convene an outside advisory committee to oversee the program, known as Reading First, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday.

Latinos lift scores, shrink learning gap
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150139mar15,1,5787813.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Across Illinois and the nation, the story is much the same: Latino pupils are scoring better on state standardized tests and continuing to catch up to their white peers faster than African-American pupils. Though critics have charged that last year's state test was easier--causing record-high scores for all Illinois pupils--Latinos experienced double-digit gains, continuing a five-year trend of rising scores.

College drug use, binge drinking rise Prescription abuse, pot use both way up
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-15-college-drug-use_N.htm
Nearly half of America's 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs or drink alcohol on binges at least once a month, according to a new study that portrays substance and alcohol abuse as an increasingly urgent problem on campuses across the nation. Alcohol remains the favored substance of abuse on college campuses by far, but the abuse of prescription drugs and marijuana has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s, according to the study released today by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. CASA, which called on educators to move more aggressively to counter intensifying drug and alcohol use among students, first studied students' drug and alcohol habits in 1993. Today's report — the center's second on the subject — involved a survey of 2,000 student and 400 administrators as well as analyses of six national studies.

Top

Military

Testimony may help officer charged in Iraqis' deaths
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-soldier15mar15,1,3505918.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
A senior enlisted man testified Wednesday that he had angrily asked over a military radio why his soldiers had not killed several Iraqi men they had taken into custody during a combat sweep in Iraq last May. Minutes later, three detainees were shot dead. A 101st Airborne Division squad leader, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, is charged with ordering his soldiers to kill the Iraqis. "I don't understand why … we have these guys alive!" 1st Sgt. Eric Geressy testified he shouted over the radio shortly before two soldiers in Girouard's squad shot and killed the unarmed Iraqis. Testifying at Girouard's court-martial, Geressy said he believed the Iraqis had been shooting at his men during a firefight and thus should have been killed. In fact, the men had been detained without incident after a May 9 air assault by Girouard's squad on a marshy island 60 miles northwest of Baghdad. Geressy's radio comments were significant for Girouard's defense team, which maintains that top commanders gave orders to kill every military-age Iraqi male on the island.

Coast Guard Cancels Contract
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402370.html
The Coast Guard took the unusual step yesterday of canceling a troubled $600 million patrol boat program, saying the service could manage the effort more efficiently than two of the nation's largest defense contractors. The Coast Guard had given Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman broad latitude to develop the Fast Response Cutter, shifting significant control to the contractors. But the effort stalled after concerns emerged last year about the design of the vessel. By managing the work itself and rebidding the development work, Coast Guard officials estimated they would save enough money to buy an extra ship and address a patrol boat shortage by getting ships built faster.
RELATED: Coast Guard Cancels Contract for Vessel
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15coast.html?ref=washington

Top

Energy Policy

In a Test of Capturing Carbon Dioxide, Perhaps a Way to Temper Global Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/business/15carbon.html?ref=business
American Electric Power, a major electric utility, is planning the largest demonstration yet of capturing carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant and pumping it deep underground. Various experts consider that approach, known as sequestration, essential to reining in climate change by preventing the gas from being added to the atmospheric blanket that promotes global warming. The project, to be announced Thursday by American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, will use a new process — so far tested only at laboratory scale — that uses chilled ammonia to absorb the gas for collection. The process was developed by Alstom, a major manufacturer of generating equipment, and aims to reduce the amount of energy required to capture the carbon dioxide.

Top

Transportation and Infrastructure

Automakers Tell House to Lay Off On Fuel Economy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400823.html
Auto industry leaders and the United Auto Workers yesterday put up a united front in opposition to congressionally mandated improvements in vehicle fuel economy, potentially complicating the ambitions of Democrats seeking the most extensive changes in the rules since the 1970s. Auto executives appearing at a House hearing not only rejected tough rules sought by Democrats and environmentalists, but also opposed a Bush administration proposal to improve mileage by 4 percent a year over the next 10 years.

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Environment and Conservation

Coalition targeting common refrigerant
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150122mar15,1,2576541.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
A coalition of industrial and developing countries on Wednesday urged a UN agency to push for stringent limits on the world's most popular refrigerant for air conditioners, as evidence mounts that the refrigerant harms the ozone layer and contributes to global warming. The coalition is pitted against China, the world's leading manufacturer of air conditioners that use HCFC-22. Most window air conditioners and air-conditioning systems in the U.S. use this refrigerant.
RELATED: Push to Fix Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/business/worldbusiness/15warming.html?ref=business

Idahoans eager to thin resurgent gray wolf packs
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-14-idaho-wolves_N.htm
Margaret Soulen measures the success of endangered gray wolves by an annual body count. The first few years after wolves were returned to Idaho in 1995, her sheep losses were small — as recently as 2002, just one head. With the wolf population's remarkable growth, her losses soared: 330 sheep in 2004, 175 in 2005, 200 last year. Soulen and her husband, Joe Hinson, who graze 9,000 sheep over nearly a half-million acres of backcountry, have hired more herders and bought more guard dogs. Herders have taken to sleeping among sheep bands to keep wolves away. When wolves are near, sheep get nervous and don't eat and gain weight as they should, Soulen says. As one of the state's largest ranchers, Soulen has felt the wolves' impact as much as anyone. Yet her attitude about this top-rung predator is at odds with Idaho's anti-wolf image.
RELATED: In the Southwest, recovery of the lobo is going slower
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-14-southest-wolves_N.htm

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.

The Reno Precedent
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402194.html
President Clinton's attorney general fired all U.S. attorneys. So why is this different?

Cohen: Alberto Gonzales, Presidential Enabler
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/03/gonzo_part_iithe_presidential_1.html
Three episodes in the career of Alberto R. Gonzales before he became Attorney General of the United States tell us what kind of a job he was likely do as the nation's top attorney at the Justice Department. In each instance, history has not been kind either to Gonzales' actual substantive work or to the ethical and moral judgment he exercised on behalf of his clients at the time. In each case, the advice Gonzales offered -- legally dubious to begin with -- created not just political embarrassment and backlash for his bosses, but unfortunate, even catastrophic results.
RELATED: Froomkin: Is Gonzales a Diversion?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/03/14/BL2007031401330.html
RELATED: Milbank: The Grand Elusion
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301515.html
RELATED: Chapman: If Gonzales gets boot, who should fill shoes?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0703150099mar15,0,810476.column?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed

Bush brings back immigration
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-bush15mar15,0,4686362.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
The president didn't unveil any new initiatives or promises during his trip, but in Guatemala on Monday, he took the important step of setting August as the unofficial deadline for an immigration overhaul to get through Congress. Though Bush portrayed it as a way to beat the late-year appropriations morass, the real political benefit of tackling reform as soon as possible is that by the end of summer, Congress will be too caught up in the 2008 presidential primaries to make a sober deal on such a hot-button issue.
RELATED: O'Malley: A more humane immigration policy
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/15/a_more_humane_immigration_policy/
RELATED: Immigration Misery
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/opinion/15thu1.html

Homeowners at Risk
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/opinion/15thu3.html
So far, the housing bust has been mainly about subprime lenders going broke, bankers and investors trying to avoid the fallout, and regulators rousing — too late, apparently — from hibernation. The story yet to unfold involves the millions of American families who are in danger of losing their homes.

Frank: The immorality of 'don't ask, don't tell'
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-frank15mar15,0,410469.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
WHEN MARINE Gen. Peter Pace said this week that he opposed letting gays serve openly in the military because homosexuality is "immoral," he raised important questions about the role of individual moral codes in shaping broad social policy. But even more elementary is the question of what "morality" actually is. For a concept that's thrown around in discussions including abortion, global warming and the war in Iraq, there's often very little reflection about what it truly means to call a person or an act immoral. The word "moral" shares a Latin root with "mores," which refers to generally accepted norms and customs. But this gives us only limited insight into how most people use the word "morality" today. After all, some cultures and historical eras found acceptable behaviors that most people now find grotesque, such as genocide in Nazi Germany or slavery in the Old South.
RELATED: General Pace and Gay Soldiers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/opinion/15thu4.html

Harris: God's dupes
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-harris15mar15,0,5899452.story?coll=la-opinion-center
The problem is that wherever one stands on this continuum, one inadvertently shelters those who are more fanatical than oneself from criticism. Ordinary fundamentalist Christians, by maintaining that the Bible is the perfect word of God, inadvertently support the Dominionists — men and women who, by the millions, are quietly working to turn our country into a totalitarian theocracy reminiscent of John Calvin's Geneva. Christian moderates, by their lingering attachment to the unique divinity of Jesus, protect the faith of fundamentalists from public scorn. Christian liberals — who aren't sure what they believe but just love the experience of going to church occasionally — deny the moderates a proper collision with scientific rationality. And in this way centuries have come and gone without an honest word being spoken about God in our society.
RELATED: No God on Stark's side
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-stark15mar15,0,3687277.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

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