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TOP STORIES

ProgressNow in the news

McInnis takes time weighing senate run
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482845
Dick Wadhams, head of the state GOP, said McInnis was being "thoughtful and methodical" and the possibility of a primary is "not a bad thing." Colorado is currently the only state with a 2008 Senate race in the "tossup" category, said Jennifer Duffy, managing editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. National players are expected to funnel large amounts of money here, but they don't want to waste it on bitter primaries or candidates that don't have adequate support. Indeed, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who has only been in office two months, told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that he has been "courted" to run and implied he has spoken to people with the National Republican Senatorial Committee - the campaign arm of GOP senators. Suthers, however, refused comment Tuesday and the NRSC did not return calls. And McInnis does have some handicaps, Duffy pointed out. He is a lobbyist, which can be a liability in a political race. Some of his work has already led some liberal groups to dub him "McLobbyist" - similar to the "lawyer-lobbyist" label wielded effectively against Democrat Tom Strickland when running against Allard. McInnis, the six-term congressman from Grand Junction, also left office two years ago embroiled in a controversy for paying his wife more than $37,000 to serve as his campaign manager even though he wasn't running for anything. The payments were not illegal, but it caused some watchdog groups to contend McInnis violated the spirit of the law. "It's a different political climate, ... and some of his baggage becomes much heavier," Duffy said.
RELATED: Call for McInnis to apologize: McLobbyist hypocritical in criticizing Colorado Attorney General
http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/al/CbdT

Top

National

Senators want more Iraq fraud prosecutions
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-20-senator-fraud_N.htm
Senators pressed federal investigators Tuesday to aggressively prosecute contracting fraud in Iraq, saying the dozen criminal cases filed aren't enough of a deterrent. "The administration has allocated precious few resources to investigate and prosecute those who have illegally exploited this war for profit," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at a hearing on Iraq contracting abuses. "There is no better therapy to combat white-collar crime than a prison sentence," said the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Prosecutors are pursuing 28 investigations of possible misconduct among contractors in Iraq, and some of them could lead to indictments in the next few months, a top Justice Department official told the panel. "It's a priority area for the Department of Justice," said Barry Sabin, an assistant attorney general.

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

FBI Violations May Number 3,000, Official Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000921.html
The Justice Department's inspector general told a committee of angry House members yesterday that the FBI may have violated the law or government policies as many as 3,000 times since 2003 as agents secretly collected the telephone, bank and credit card records of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals residing here. Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that according to the FBI's own estimate, as many as 600 of these violations could be "cases of serious misconduct" involving the improper use of "national security letters" to compel telephone companies, banks and credit institutions to produce records.
RELATED: F.B.I. Is Warned Over Its Misuse of Data Collection
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/washington/21fbi.html?ref=washington

Bush Offers Aides For Hill Interviews
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000111.html
President Bush sought yesterday to defuse the controversy over the firings of U.S. attorneys, offering strong support for embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales while proposing to make Karl Rove and other top aides available for private interviews with congressional investigators. The White House, however, limited the kinds of questions the aides would answer and said the interviews may not be conducted under oath or transcribed. The conditions enraged congressional Democrats, who vowed to go ahead with plans to issue subpoenas as early as today that would compel the aides to testify. The actions raised the likelihood of another clash between the White House and the congressional Democratic leadership, which has already been pressuring the administration to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq and to improve the care of wounded service members. The president seemed eager to portray the scandal as a partisan sideshow.
RELATED: E-Mails Reveal Tumult In Firings and Aftermath
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001943.html
RELATED: Rove offered for unsworn testimony
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000450.html
RELATED: Bush takes tough line on firings
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210106mar21,1,1200281.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Justice Dept. made memos to pacify Democrats' probe
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-performance21mar21,0,6718386.story?coll=la-home-headlines
RELATED: Bush, Democrats clash on prosecutors
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/21/bush_democrats_clash_on_prosecutors/
RELATED: Gonzales Bowed to Politics, a Former U.S. Attorney Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/politics/21mckay.html

More FBI scandal news in COLORADO/GOVERNMENT

Consumer Confidence Plunges Amid Rising Gas Prices
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000955.html
Consumer confidence plunged this week, reversing its gains for the year amid rising gas prices, a volatile stock market and fresh signs of inflation. In its biggest one-week drop in more than three years, The Washington Post-ABC News Consumer Comfort Index (CCI) is down seven points to -5 on its scale of -100 to +100. The index has fallen this precipitously in a week only three other times in the more than 20-year history of the poll. Only a week ago, The Post-ABC CCI had edged up to +2, a five-year high, after starting the year at -5, exactly where it is today. Now, the gains for the year have been reversed under the cumulative weight of higher pump prices, uneasiness on Wall Street and indicators of inflationary pressures for both consumers and businesses.

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

Top

Colorado

Senate nixes Ritter's school funding plan, House up next
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5431855,00.html
Republicans offered Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter's property tax plan on the Senate floor Tuesday - just to watch it die. Ritter's fellow Democrats have been reluctant to bring the school funding proposal to a Senate vote. Officially, they are waiting for a legal interpretation on whether it violates the Colorado Constitution. But some Democrats are uncomfortable voting for a measure Ritter calls a tax freeze, but Republicans call a tax hike. On Tuesday, Republicans offered Ritter's proposal as an amendment to the annual school finance bill, Senate Bill 199, which specifies details of school funding for next year. The motion came from Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, who called for a vote against it. The plan went down unanimously after Democratic leaders urged their party members to vote against it, too. Senate President Joan Fitz- Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon, said the vote wasn't a rebuff to the governor. Democrats don't want to vote for the proposal until they know it doesn't violate part of the Constitution that requires voters to approve all tax increases, she said.
RELATED: GOP forces vote on tax plan
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482843
RELATED: Republicans force debate on $65 million school plan
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070320/NEWS/70320018
RELATED: Senate drops school funding addition
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20399&template=article.html

More Colorado revenue/budget news in COLORADO/GOVERNMENT, COLORADO/CRIME

House-Senate battle likely over ethics measure fixes
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5432473,00.html
The Senate's latest measure is one of several proposals to limit the long reach of Amendment 41, which backers maintain was meant to simply rein in influence peddling at the state Capitol. The Senate's latest chess move sets the stage for a fierce battle between the House and Senate. The House has a separate plan that seeks to provide government workers immediate answers and clear up confusion surrounding Amendment 41. House Bill 1304 defines terms in Amendment 41 such as gifts for special occasions. A companion resolution asks the Colorado Supreme Court to confirm some lawmakers' conclusions that college professors can accept Nobel Prize money and children of government workers can accept scholarships. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said both proposals accomplish the same thing, but that the Senate's measure leaves government employees and their families in limbo for another 18 months.
RELATED: Senate wants to repeal, rewrite Amend. 41
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482500
RELATED: Senators plan to rewrite ethics law
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070320/NEWS/70320015

Lawmakers ask Ritter to delay energy reform
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5431863,00.html
Three Democrats joined Republican lawmakers Tuesday in asking Gov. Bill Ritter to delay energy reform legislation, saying that it could affect oil and gas industry production and the livelihood of 70,000 workers and their families. The lawmakers expressed concern about a spate of energy reform bills, including regulations to prevent health and environmental damage. "With severance tax dollars playing such an important role in local communities, it is short-sighted to hurt the industry that is filling local and state coffers," the 14 Republican and Democrat lawmakers warned in a Tuesday letter to Ritter. "Stop the madness," said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma. "We need thoughtful deliberations before we pluck the goose that laid the golden egg." Ritter issued a statement saying his "administration has made every effort to listen to the concerns of the energy and resource-development industry . . . We look forward to continuing this productive dialogue as the legislative process moves forward." But he said the state must balance the major oil and gas drilling boom "with the concerns the people of this state have expressed surrounding impacts to our water, air and land." He cited 1,500 impact complaints filed with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in the past five years.
RELATED: Lawmakers: Slow down oil-and-gas panel overhaul
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482502
RELATED: Legislators ask help (Legislative briefs)
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/21

Forecasters see slower economic growth
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5432553,00.html
Colorado's economy will continue to grow next year, but the pace will slow a bit, affecting the state's revenue projections, according to two forecasts given to lawmakers Tuesday. Colorado's general fund will post 6.1 percent revenue growth in the 2006-07 fiscal year that ends June 30, predicted Todd Saliman, the budget director for Gov. Bill Ritter. He expects a 5 percent increase in 2007-08. Mike Mauer, the chief legislative economist, concurred with the slower growth rate expectation. "Growth in Colorado's advanced technology, defense, tourism, and natural resource industries, which will fuel growth in the important business and professional services sector, should be strong enough to override the contraction in the housing market," he wrote. Both of the financial experts said high energy prices and a cooling housing market are potential trouble spots for the state.
RELATED: Economic forecast cloudy
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20390&template=article.html

COLORADO NEWS

Top

Election

Coffman issues voting machine standards (Briefing, 3/21)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482145
Secretary of State Mike Coffman said Tuesday he has adopted new rules for testing electronic voting machines after problems in the November election. "Coloradans must have confidence in the technology used to conduct elections, and these new testing requirements will provide that confidence," Coffman said in a statement. The new procedures were adopted under the secretary's rule-making authority. They include detailed security standards for all voting systems that will require 437 tests to be certified for use in Colorado.

Mayoral hopeful has beer whoopsie
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431854,00.html
The first meeting between Denver's mayoral candidates got off to a splash Tuesday. Danny Lopez, who is challenging Mayor John Hickenlooper in the May election, spilled beer on Hickenlooper's lap when the two rivals met for lunch at Pints Pub, a couple blocks south of City Hall. Lopez, a supervisor in the city's Public Works Department, said he didn't do it on purpose. "No, it was an accident," he said. "I have the utmost respect for him, both as the mayor and as my boss, and just as a fellow human being out there."
RELATED: "David" meets "Goliath"
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482139

Election mailers set precedence on partisanship
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS01/703210331/1002
The city's nonpartisan City Council election has become a partisan affair. Political mailings hitting some voters in District 2 and District 4 this week - as ballots for the April 3 election land in voters' mailboxes - laud Wade Troxell and Matt Fries as the only Republicans in their Council races. Troxell faces Glen Colton and LeRoy Gomez in District 4, while Fries faces Lisa Poppaw in District 2. City Council elections are nonpartisan under the city's charter, which means candidates' political affiliations don't appear on the ballot. Nothing, however, restricts candidates from disclosing their affiliation, and nothing prevents political committees from touting a candidate's affiliation. But it's never happened before, said Council member Kelly Ohlson, who also served on the council two decades ago. He said the city has a "long tradition" of nonpartisan elections.

Recall petition entering final stage
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/25828
Up against an April 9 deadline, a committee attempting to oust 14th Judicial District Attorney Bonnie Roesink has begun its final push to acquire necessary petition signatures. Craig resident Kathy Oberwitte, who began the recall process after a disagreement arose with Roesink in January regarding a criminal case, said 80 people circulating the petition began going door-to-door Monday in Moffat and Routt counties.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Udall wants details on fallback plan
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431548,00.html
Rep. Mark Udall wants Congress to force the Bush administration to be more forthcoming about contingency plans for the war in Iraq. Udall, a Democrat from Eldorado Springs, made the pitch during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday. He was promoting legislation that would require the Department of Defense to give details on what actions will be taken if the so-called surge of more than 20,000 new troops fails to solve the unrest in Iraq.

Salazar questions A.G.'s role; Tancredo calls for resignation
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5430549,00.html
Sen. Ken Salazar today hinted he might join calls for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign if it is proven Gonzales took actions threatening the independence of federal prosecutors. "If the Attorney General has indeed crossed this line, then in my view he has forfeited his right to lead the Department of Justice," said Salazar, who is considered one of Gonzales' closest Democratic allies in the U.S. Senate. Gonzales is under fire over questions about the way the Justice Department fired eight U.S. attorneys late last year. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Littleton Republican, today said Gonzales should step down. "Alberto Gonzales has repeatedly shown that he is unwilling to enforce the law and unable to effectively manage the department," said Tancredo, "While I do not believe the dismissal of these eight political appointees warrants Mr. Gonzales' removal, his total mishandling of the affair is simply the latest in a series of leadership failures at the Justice Department."
RELATED: Delegation displeasure grows over Gonzales
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482512
RELATED: Allard, Salazar vote to restrict White House power on U.S. attorneys
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/10

Ref. C. forecast: $1.6 billion extra
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482501
Referendum C will bring in about $1.6 billion more than originally forecast, according to reports released Tuesday by top state economists. Mike Mauer, chief economist for the nonpartisan Legislative Council, said his forecast shows that the state will take in $5.37 billion over the five years the referendum is in place. During that time, the state's spending obligations total about $50 billion, Mauer said. Referendum C, approved by voters in 2005, suspends revenue limits imposed by the state constitution's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. At the time of the vote, economists expected it would let the state spend $3.75 billion that otherwise would have been refunded to taxpayers.
RELATED: Projected revenues looking up
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/03/20/news/c_u_and_boulder/news3.txt
RELATED: Revenue forecast not as high as hoped
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/1
RELATED: Severance taxes to take a huge hit from ’06
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/21/3_21_1a_severance_taxes.html

Citizen legislator: Jim Kerr
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5431862,00.html
Rep. Jim Kerr spent nearly 30 years in the automotive industry in various fields before becoming an appraiser with the Jefferson County Assessor's Office four years ago. A tape measure is a big part of the job. He wishes he had been able to serve in the military, but an injury kept him out. In 1956, at the age of 11, Kerr lost his right eye while playing with a bow and arrow. The Littleton Republican, a lawmaker since 2005, is concerned about telemedicine, mental health and seniors issues. He and his wife, Patsy, have four children and seven grandchildren.

TIED FOR COOLEST (Roll Call, March 21)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5431868,00.html
Sen. Steve Ward, R-Littleton, this week sported a Jerry Garcia necktie featuring the artwork of the late Grateful Dead musician. "Boy, what are you, some kind of liberal?" said Sen. Ron May, R-Colorado Springs, who proudly showed off his Rush Limbaugh designer necktie.

THOUGHT YOU COLORADANS WOULD WANT TO KNOW (EXTRA!, March 21)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432620,00.html
On the state seal - the round thing that Gov. Bill Ritter, above, is standing behind - what's that funny-looking symbol at the top? An ax surrounded by bundled sticks? Yup. It's a fasces - a Roman symbol of power and authority and an emblem of strength through unity. The bound sticks are stronger together than their parts alone. The fasces also is thought by some to be symbolic of Rome's authority to punish criminals by beating them with birch rods, and the ax symbolic of executing evil-doers. And if fasces sounds like a modern word, it is: Italian fascism took its name and emblem from the fasces. (Not that Colorado wants to be a fascist state, you understand. We just want, naturally, to be unified in the cause of justice and progress.)

Fire damages mayor’s official home
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5430365,00.html
Cableland, located near Leetsdale Drive and South Colorado Boulevard, is used for nonprofit groups' fund-raising events and city functions. Mayor John Hickenlooper doesn’t actually live there. It is equipped with 88 televisions, 97 telephones as well as a grand room for 200 people, a dining room, and multi-level outdoor pool. A caretaker who lives at the home was not injured.
RELATED: Cableland damaged in fire
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5478465

City Council blasts owners of Jerome
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070321/NEWS/103210049
Three Aspen City Council members blasted the owners of the Hotel Jerome on Tuesday, calling their intentions to renovate disingenuous, while the mayor said the council could have treated them better. Reactions came Tuesday upon learning that the Oklahoma Publishing Co. - which bought the Main Street landmark in June 2005 for $33.7 million - is selling the 92-bedroom hotel. The sale is expected to close within 60 days, and a confidentiality agreement prevented the disclosure of the buyer. The pending pullout sent a jolt through Aspen's city government, chiefly because officials had spent hours hammering out details of a massive renovation, estimated to cost as much as $50 million.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Gay man says police ignored hate crime on 16th Street Mall
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432587,00.html
A Denver police officer is under investigation after a gay law student accused him of failing to arrest a man for an alleged hate crime. Nima Daivari, 24, of New York, filed a complaint against officer Richard Boehnlein, saying the officer told him to "go home" after he was attacked by a stranger on the 16th Street Mall. Daivari, who was visiting a cousin in Denver, said Sunday's incident began shortly after midnight when a man walked past him and made a derogatory, anti-gay statement. Daivari turned around and asked the man what he had said. That confrontation turned into a fight, with both men throwing punches.

Boulder hate-crime fighters urge 'Safe Day'
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431866,00.html
There's nothing wrong with Boulder that can't be fixed by what is right with Boulder, an activist told the City Council on Tuesday night, proposing an Annual City Safe Day to fight hate crimes. Paraphrasing former President Clinton's assessment of America, Boulder Pride Executive Director Blake Weber said Boulder is good enough to emerge stronger from the recent spate of bias-motivated assaults. "People came out of the woodwork to show support" for victims of the recent crimes, she said. "I'd like to thank the Boulder Police Department for its quick action. Let your voice be heard to be part of the change."

Durango silently honors war dead
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5478480
Organizers of a "wordless" candlelight vigil Monday night wanted to commemorate the loss of all service men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan without any speechifying, protesting, rallying or judging. Organizer Ricardo Moreno wanted an occasion and a place, just after sunset along the paths of the Animas River leading to Rotary Park, where a community, as divided as any by American policy in the Middle East, could unify to grieve, at his last count, 3,525 dead.
RELATED: Protesters bring their messages to [Greeley's] 23rd Avenue about war
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070321/NEWS/103210079
RELATED: [Telluride] Vigil marks four years in Iraq
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/03/21/news/news02.txt

Students say Rifle High School is safe
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/21/3_21_3a_Rifle_High.html
About the same number of people who criticized administrators two weeks ago after an attack of a 14-year-old white girl by an older Hispanic girl in a Rifle High School hallway turned out to praise those same people Tuesday night. Student-designed signs on the wall of the packed gym at Wamsley Elementary School in Rifle read, “All Bears are Beautiful” and “We Don’t See in Brown and White, We See in Blue and Gold.”
RELATED: Community shows support for Re-2
http://postindependent.com/article/20070321/VALLEYNEWS/103210042

Calls in Spanish, responses in English
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/03/21/news/news01.txt
Spanish-speaking immigrants who pick up the phone to dial government offices in Telluride face a thicket of dead-end conversations and English-only voice-mail systems. The calls can end in frustration for both immigrants who can’t communicate, and government employees who can’t offer help. On Monday, the Daily Planet called a dozen government offices in Telluride, Mountain Village and San Miguel County to test their Spanish-readiness.

Filmmaker backs Latino museum plan
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432353,00.html
A Hollywood filmmaker teamed up with Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar on Tuesday in hopes of advancing a proposed National Museum of the American Latino Community. At a Senate subcommittee hearing, Moctesuma Esparza, a producer behind movies such as The Milagro Beanfield War, endorsed Salazar's proposed legislation to create a commission to study the museum. He said the museum would honor the descendants of Spanish settlers.

House concerts denied by county
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/21/house-concerts-denied-by-county/
A husband and wife who have twice lost a bid to hold concerts in their home in the foothills near Nederland won't get any relief from the highest levels of county government. Tuesday, Boulder County commissioners signed off on a letter to Greg and Debbie Ching, informing the couple that the commission doesn't have the authority to review a decision by the county's Board of Adjustment that upheld a cease-and-desist order from the Land Use Department.

Top

Immigration

House tells feds to pay up for illegals in state's prisons
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5431547,00.html
The House passed a unanimous resolution on Monday telling the federal government to quit stiffing Colorado on millions of dollars the state spends to imprison illegal immigrants - or face a lawsuit. "We were promised these funds," fumed Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who sponsored House Resolution 1008 with Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville. State prisons and county jails are bursting with prisoners, Weissmann said, but the Bush administration failed to pay $5 million owed last year to the state and 22 counties, and has killed repayment for next year. "All we're asking is to be reimbursed 10 cents on the dollar for housing criminal aliens," McFadyen said. She noted that the cost of housing illegal immigrants who have been convicted of at least one felony or two misdemeanors is estimated at $43 million a year.

Top

Marriage and Family Issues

13-year-old father raises legal problems
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5483006
A 38-year-old Louisville woman faces charges of sexual assault on a child after police discovered she had a long-term relationship with a teen that produced two children and began when the boy was 13. Police allege in court documents that Irene Marie Gomez was 32 when she and the teen, who is now 18, conceived their first child together. The couple conceived another child three years later, according to the records. Gomez, in a telephone interview Tuesday, said the couple's children, a boy and a girl, are now 4 and 1. She said she and the teen, whom she said she keeps in close contact with, are trying to raise the children and Gomez's three other children as a normal family. "I think they're just trying to break up a family now," Gomez said. "We've already been together for a long time. And the kids are hurting now more than us."
RELATED: Police allege underage boy fathered 2 of woman's kids
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432627,00.html

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

From slice of the pie, to high and dry
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/03/20/local_news/2.txt
When Congress failed to pass an appropriations bill last year, Montrose methamphetamine-control efforts lost out. The Delta/Montrose Drug Task Force was one of 10 Colorado task forces to be designated for priority funding under the Meth Hot Spots program. In Fiscal Year 2007, those task forces were the first in line for a cut of $85 million in grants. But the money was part of the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriation bill, which ultimately was not passed — a blow for local law enforcement and “disappointing” to Sen. Ken Salazar’s office.

Cigarette sales can be used to dodge ban
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5431867,00.html
Bar owners can still use cigarette sales to get around a statewide smoking ban after a measure designed to fix that loophole died in committee Tuesday. Colorado's Clean Indoor Air Act says that if a bar gets 5 percent or $50,000 of its gross revenue from "tobacco products" it can continue to allow smoking. House Bill 1108 would have limited the term "tobacco products" solely to cigars. It also would have required bars to undergo a certification process to receive a "cigar bar" exemption and install on-site humidors. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, was instrumental in the bill's demise. He said that measure didn't give bar owners who have used the exemption enough time to adjust their business plans to stave off the financial hit. "We really ran roughshod over people's lives when we implemented the smoking ban," Romer said.
RELATED: Bar wins again in smoking-ban fight
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070321_1.htm

FEMA urges preparation for floods
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/13
After unusual amounts of winter snowfall in large areas of Colorado, the Federal Emergency Management Agency urges people to prepare for possible flooding this spring, especially in Southeastern Colorado. The National Weather Service also has warned of flooding potential in the area, because of high soil moisture levels caused by the melting of deep snowpack. Many counties in the southeast corner of the state had record snowfall in December and January.

Colorado, nation face challenges of rising Alzheimer's cases
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070321/NEWS/103210081
Wacker estimates that in the last eight years, Weld County has seen an increase of almost 25 percent in sufferers. The increase locally is attributable not only to population growth but also to an aging baby boomer population and improved diagnosis techniques, she said. From 2000 to 2010, the report estimates that Colorado will have a 47 percent increase in sufferers. Nationwide, 78 million baby boomers turned 60 last year, meaning someone in America develops Alzheimer's approximately every 72 seconds. These new estimates were released at a hearing in Washington D.C. where four Congress members introduced bipartisan legislation to address issues identified. Medicare spends nearly three times as much for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias than for the average Medicare beneficiary, and those costs are expected to double by 2015. In 2005, Colorado saw more than $1 billion of unpaid care for Alzheimer and dementia caregivers.

Men, women report rash of date-rape cases
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070320/NEWS/103200064
A rash of people in Telluride have reported effects consistent with ingestion of the so-called date-rape drugs, GHB or Rohypnol, or "roofies." But unlike most such reports, at least some of the victims in this case were men.

Payback time amid smoke
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482844
Fifty years ago, Fire Chief Robert Schneider bought a tiny home in the foothills of Jefferson County solely because it was next door to the Inter-Canyon Volunteer Fire Station, making it easier for him to quickly help people in peril. Tuesday, a decade after Schneider's death, his decision about where to live may have helped volunteer firefighters save his wife's life when flames engulfed the home.

Agonizing vigil for a beloved pal
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482900
Stella is dying. She won't play with her tennis ball anymore. She can barely walk around the house or look up when someone tries to pet her. She hasn't eaten in 10 days and vomits every time she takes a drink. Just two weeks ago, the 5 1/2-year- old golden retriever loved to go swimming and for long walks with her owner, Stu McFadden. "How bad do you let it get?" McFadden asked Tuesday at his Denver Tech Center apartment. McFadden has come to the decision that if Stella doesn't get better by Thursday, he will put her down. On March 10, Stella ate pet food that was later recalled after being linked to at least 10 pet deaths.
RELATED: Pet stores play it safe after food is recalled
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15297
RELATED: Area sees effects of pet food recall
http://postindependent.com/article/20070321/VALLEYNEWS/70320008

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

Hiring fewer judges may give boost to road funds
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5432351,00.html
Lawmakers are considering hiring only 43 judges - 20 fewer than originally planned - so there will be more money for highways. The judges will be hired over three years and will cost the state $15.3 million a year, including their staff. More of the money would come from raising court filing fees, which would mean that less money would be diverted from transportation funds under the state's complicated budget laws. A Senate panel backed the compromise Tuesday, a move that Sen. Brandon Shaffer said was made because of opposition from road contractors. Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, said that Republicans also were able to pressure Democrats to change the plan because adding judges requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate.
RELATED: Bill may net county only one judge
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/21/3_21_1b_judgeship_bill.html

Limits on concealed-gun permits (Under the dome, 3/21)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482503
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved a measure barring Colorado residents from getting concealed-weapons permits from other states. Out-of-state visitors would be allowed to use only permits issued by their home states, not a third state, under Senate Bill 34, which goes to the full House for debate. House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, said she was concerned because people who were denied permits in Colorado were able to get them elsewhere. She said opponents of her bill "don't like Colorado law. They want to go around it and get permits elsewhere."

Former police chief nominated to run parole board
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5430829,00.html
Former Denver Police Chief David Michaud has been nominated by Gov. Bill Ritter to serve as chairman of the Colorado Parole Board. Michaud served as chief from 1992 to 1998. During those years, he was one of the highest-profile chiefs in Denver's history, overseeing The Summit of the Eight, the Oklahoma City bombing trial and the pope's visit.

DA pushes expanded gang prosecutions
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431864,00.html
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey will push ahead today with plans for an expanded special gang prosecution force despite questions about who will foot the bill. The district attorney says he needs $224,000 to pay for two prosecutors, an investigator and a legal secretary for the remaining months of this year. They would join three prosecutors and a single investigator now with the unit. The 18-month pilot project Morrissey wants to try would cost $426,000. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper says he can raise $150,000 of the total through a private source he has so far declined to name, while several City Council members say the city probably will find the money in Denver contingency funds.

Shooter of Qwest executive is not in prison in Mexico
http://postindependent.com/article/20070321/VALLEYNEWS/103210038
Oscar Hoyos Delacruz, convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of an Aurora man who was hunting turkey near New Castle in 2005, has been allowed to remain in a work release program. Jeff Garrett, 37, was a state lobbyist for Qwest. He was shot on May 14, 2005, while hiding in the brush and calling for turkey in the East Elk Creek area near New Castle during a hunting trip. Investigators thought Garrett could have been mistaken for a turkey. They said Delacruz, a worker at the Bear Wallow Ranch at the time, probably fled that day upon discovering he had shot Garrett. The Colorado Attorney General Office said in March that Delacruz was sentenced on Jan. 30 to three years in a Mexican prison for second-degree manslaughter, but did not add that Delacruz had appealed the case and was on work release. Garrett's family members and the Garfield County Sheriff's Office provided the additional information about the appeal. Nate Strauch, communications director for the attorney general's office, confirmed the case had been appealed. He said Delacruz's appeal proceedings are ongoing in Agua Prieta, Mexico, in the state of Sonora. The sheriff's office said the appeal was complete, and Delacruz was sentenced to work release for three years. "It's a joke," the deceased man's brother, John Garrett, said.

Commissioners debate inmate vs. union work
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/8
When two men escaped from the Pueblo County jail last November by boosting large metal ceiling plates and slipping out through ventilation ducts, the county's Public Works department set out on a major welding project to keep it from happening again. It did happen again, two days after Sheriff Kirk Taylor took office in January, but the welding job continued, with the help of a couple of welding students from Pueblo Community College. Greg Severance, the county's public works director, told commissioners Monday that the security work is about three weeks from completion. In addition, he noted that Taylor is presiding over a cleanup in the jail and inmates are doing a lot of painting.

DOC inmate labor crews to return to Fremont County
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=6454
Inmate labor crews from the Department of Corrections are returning to Fremont County, Florence City Council was told Monday night. “We’re going to be doing general labor-type duties,” said Cañon Minimum Centers Administrative Services Officer Gina Roberts, including mowing, ditch digging, trash removal and cleanup. The pilot program, utilizing one supervisor and eight inmates from Skyline Correctional Center, will be instituted April 1. Roberts told the council the program will provide services as requested by Florence, Cañon City and Fremont County. “Hopefully this program will take off again,” Roberts said.
RELATED: Prison officials working out details
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=6455

Activist Armstrong acquitted of threatening cops
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482965
Activist Earl Andrew Armstrong has been acquitted of charges of interfering with and threatening Denver police. A Denver County Court jury returned the verdict Monday after about an hour's deliberation. Prosecutors claimed that on Aug. 14, Armstrong, 40, ignored police requests to get back in his car following a traffic stop and then threatened the officers. Armstrong has claimed that for years he has been harassed by Denver police because of his criticism of the force. He blasted the department in November 2005 after his brother, Thomas Charles Armstrong, sustained injuries while being arrested.

State agrees to deal with 2 DOC workers
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/12
State officials have agreed to reinstate a Colorado Department of Corrections employee to a $91,000 job and pay $266,210 to settle her allegations that a department official discriminated and retaliated against her. Margaret "Peggy" Heil said she was head of the entire department's sex offender treatment program for 19 years. She lived in Canon City when she sued the department in 2005. She quit in 2004, saying she had been reassigned to lesser jobs for which she had no training. State officials also have agreed to pay Jacqueline Grant to settle her similar allegations in the same lawsuit. Grant also lived in Canon City and said she was supervisor of some computer operations at two prisons there.

Commissioners get first-hand look at jail troubles
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/25807
Moffat County Sheriff Tim Jantz sees problems and maintenance issues at the county jail every day. On Tuesday, he gave the Moffat County Commissioners a tour of the facility to show them first hand.

Suspect in dragging death may be retarded
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482141
The man who dragged his girlfriend to death behind his car last fall might be mentally handicapped, his public defender said Tuesday. Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 36, could face the death penalty if convicted of the grisly death of Maria Franco-Fierros, 49. He admitted to investigators that he tied a 10-foot strap to his bumper, placed an opposing noose around her neck and sped away on Sept. 18, leaving a 1.3-mile trail of blood along Surrey Ridge Drive. "Some investigation has strongly indicated to us we are dealing with problems of mental retardation and other cognitive comprehension disabilities," public defender Tamara Brady said.

Metro prof picked for corrections panel
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432352,00.html
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has appointed LiYing Li, chair and professor of the department of criminal justice and criminology at Metropolitan State College, to serve on the Denver Community Corrections Board. Li earned her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Utah in 1994 and her master's degree in demography from the University of California-Berkeley in 1986.

Top

Economy

Lawmaker attacks changes in gas discount bill
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/18
A ranking Democratic lawmaker plans to ask the Colorado House today to completely reject changes the Senate made to her measure to allow grocers to sell gasoline at below cost. After much deliberation earlier this month, the Senate tacked an amendment to exempt rural parts of the state from Rep. Cheri Jahn's measure to allow major stores in the state to continue to offer lower gas prices for customers who purchase a certain amount of groceries. While rural senators said HB1208 gave an unfair advantage to such "big-box" chains as King Soopers and Wal-Mart, their urban counterparts said the amendment goes too far. Jahn, a Wheat Ridge Democrat who also is the deputy House speaker, said the amendment needs to be stripped out of the bill. "Gas discounts shouldn't be over geographical areas," John said on Tuesday. "If anybody should have a discount, it should be the rural areas, so this shouldn't be a dogfight between urban and rural. That's ridiculous."

Defense: Nacchio forced to sell stock
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5431789,00.html
Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio unloaded nearly $101 million of company stock in early 2001 not because he had insider information that the company was in trouble but because the board of directors forced him to use his valuable options before they expired, defense attorney Herbert Stern told jurors Tuesday. Stern also said any warnings Nacchio received from employees about not meeting 2001 numbers referred to internal goals that were higher than the targets Nacchio was giving Wall Street. Nacchio, who is charged with 42 counts of insider trading, believed "passionately, honestly and fervently" in the company's publicly stated goals, Stern added during two hours of opening statements at the federal courthouse in Denver on the second day of the trial. Prosecutors say Nacchio sold the stock because he knew the company's revenue targets were inflated - information he didn't share with investors. When the stock later dropped, thousands of shareholders who weren't privy to the information - including many current and former employees - lost money, some of them their entire retirement savings.
RELATED: Lawyers leave nothing uncontested
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482532
RELATED: Nacchio foes come out swinging
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482898
RELATED: Smallest details count as 18 members seated
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482757
RELATED: Prosecutor says Nacchio deceptive
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5478767
RELATED: Nacchio on Trial Special Section
http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/business/nacchio/

Ex-Utilities worker suspected of ID theft
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20387&template=article.html
A former Colorado Springs Utilities employee was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of identity theft that involved at least one Utilities customer, police said. Elizabeth Bischoff, 26, was arrested during a traffic stop near the Colorado Springs Airport and jailed on $1,000 bail. Police released few details, citing an ongoing investigation that began after Bischoff was arrested a week ago in Scottsdale, Ariz., for allegedly trying to use a stolen credit card to buy a car. “That investigation identified a number of potential victims here,” Colorado Springs police detective Ed Bjorkvist said. “It’s a small number. It’s not like every Utilities customer in the city. Right now, we’re just looking at one victim.”

Comcast to target businesses
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5431464,00.html
Comcast, which traditionally has focused on residential customers, is poised for an aggressive push into the $15 billion small-business market. Comcast on Tuesday announced the opening of a Centennial call center that's one of two facilities nationwide dedicated to the company's small- business clientele. The center initially will be staffed by 100 employees and has room to expand to 400. The Centennial office will play an integral part in the nation's largest cable company's plans to offer a bundle of phone, Internet and video services to the estimated 5 million small businesses in its territory. Comcast already offers Internet and pay TV to businesses but will ramp up efforts when it launches phone service later this year, said Jim Erickson, Comcast's vice president of business services for the west division.
RELATED: Comcast launches new support center
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482476

Top

Housing and Homelessness

"Teaser" rates ripe for trouble
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482693
One out of three mortgages made during the past three years with "teaser" interest rates below 4 percent are expected to go into foreclosure because of rising payments, according to a study Tuesday from FirstAmerican CoreLogic. Overall, CoreLogic estimates rising mortgage payments from adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) will trigger 1.1 million foreclosures representing $326 billion in loans. The loss to lenders and investors after they sell the foreclosed properties: $112 billion. "This does not break or dominate the market," said Chris Cagan, the study's author. "It is part of the market. But there is that slice that is exposed." The study doesn't break out state numbers, but it points to another wave of foreclosures this year and next for Colorado, which reported more than 28,000 foreclosures last year.

Tour the various stages of homelessness
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070320/NEWS/103200107
On March 31, The Ranch in Loveland will host the 2nd Annual Family and Youth Summit in the First National Bank Exhibition Hall. The event runs from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. and features a "tour" through the various stages of homelessness. According to Kim Sharpe, coordinator for Healthier Communities Coalition, in a press release, Larimer County's homeless numbers are about 800 youth and as many as 2,000 adults.

Brown property deal closes
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/21/brown_property_deal_closes/?local_news
“The immediate need is affordable housing, and that’s likely to be the first phase of the project,” Mulcahy said. “Our property is likely the best solution for affordable housing. The WSSAP plan requires 20 percent of the housing meet affordable-housing requirements. Mulcahy said he has hired a firm that specializes in affordable housing to consult. “There is a need for the entire range of housing in this market … rental, attainable and market rate,” Mulcahy said.

Top

Media

Qwest holds off on state cable
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20385&template=article.html
Qwest Communications International Inc. has halted any further talks in Colorado about cable television franchises until new federal rules are enacted. Charles Ward, president of Qwest’s Colorado operations, said Tuesday that the Denver-based telecommunications giant is awaiting final approval of new Federal Communications Commission rules making it easier for providers to win franchises. Qwest broke off talks with Colorado Springs in September over whether the company should pay a higher customer fee to the city —32 cents a month — than Comcast Corp. now pays in exchange for the city’s dropping a requirement that Qwest’s system be available to all residents.

Rocky wins 8 awards in design, photo
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431856,00.html
The Rocky Mountain News has won eight awards - six in design and two in photography - in the Society for News Design's annual international competition.

Sentinel staffers win national awards from Cox Newspapers
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/21/3_21_1b_Best_of_Cox.html
Excellent headline writing and Web site innovation scored two Daily Sentinel employees first-place awards in the Best of Cox 2007 newspaper contest Tuesday in Atlanta.

Top

Education

Senate approves English aptitude bill
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5430611,00.html
Students will have to demonstrate mastery of English to graduate from Colorado public high schools under a bill approved overwhelmingly in the Senate this morning. Under SB 73, each of the 178 school districts will decide how to determine mastery. But they will not be allowed to use scores on statewide achievement tests, which are given only through 10th grade. The districts have five years to adopt the standards. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, the chief sponsor of the bill, said the bill will spark discussion in school districts about how to equip foreign-born students for the workplace while maintaining a multicultural society. "The public yearns for a thoughtful discussion about assimilation, not just immigration," Romer said. "You have to send a signal about assimilation. That doesn't mean we can't be multilingual." The bill passed on a voice vote. A tallied vote is scheduled for Wednesday, after which the measure proceeds to the House. Opposition came from Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada, the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.
RELATED: Senate: High schoolers need English skills
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482899
RELATED: Bill would mandate English skills for graduates
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20400&template=article.html

Tapia fed up with fight over charters
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/5
State Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, criticized the Pueblo City Schools Board of Education on Monday, complaining that the board was spending money suing a local charter school that could be better used for education. "I met with my school board president (Kathleen Kennedy) this weekend, and she chastised me about why I was not supporting public education," Tapia, a former School District 60 (now Pueblo City Schools) board president, said on the floor of the Senate. "I told her that as far as I knew, charter schools were part of public education." Tapia said he was fed up with the local district spending taxpayers’ money in suing the Cesar Chavez School Network for various reasons just because they don't like the school, however successful. That money, he said, would best be spent on students.

CU makes pitch for library funds
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/21/cu-makes-pitch-for-library-funds/
The University of Colorado's libraries, confronted with skyrocketing costs of academic journals and a tight budget, have canceled thousands of subscriptions over the past decade. Budget officers have pinpointed the dwindling library collection as one of several areas where the university needs to invest more money. CU officials are proposing that the school's regents approve an 8 percent increase for fiscal year 2008 for campus library materials. The regents, at their meeting in Denver today, will review the library report and other requests from the campuses highlighting areas that — with more money — they say would improve the quality of education and research.

D-11 votes on shift to full-day kindergarten
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20398&template=article.html
Colorado Springs School District 11 will convert to free full-day kindergarten if a proposal before the board is approved tonight. Many districts offer fullday kindergarten, but ask parents to pay a fee because schools only receive state funds for half-day kindergarten. D-11 board members are considering using money from the voter-approved 2000 mill levy override that was originally targeted to pay for transportation and improved start times.

King appointed superintendent
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/21/king-appointed-superintendent/
Boulder Valley Deputy Superintendent Chris King is getting a promotion. The school board unanimously agreed to appoint King as the district's next superintendent, voting at a special meeting Tuesday on his contract. King, 45, will replace retiring Superintendent George Garcia on July 1. "Chris has grown up in the district," said school board President Helayne Jones. "He sees the real strengths that we have, and he has a pretty good grasp of our weaknesses. We picked the right person, the one who could bring it all together." King's first job after graduating from college was teaching at Broomfield High School. He also taught in Cherry Creek and worked as an assistant principal before he was hired as the principal at Boulder High School in 1997. Four years later, he was promoted to assistant superintendent and then deputy superintendent.

PSD to add new position
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS01/703210324/1002
Poudre School District announced two new top administrators Tuesday, filling duties currently performed by one man. Kevin Hahn, director of student achievement in Aurora Public Schools, was chosen to be the district's next assistant superintendent of elementary schools, replacing Ron Maulsby, who will retire in June. Jan Borman, currently serving as the student achievement coach for PSD elementary schools and a school support team member for the Colorado Department of Education, has been tapped to fill a newly created executive director position in charge of student achievement and professional development.

Old issues simmer at 9-R
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070321_3.htm
The Durango school board just can't seem to get away from the many controversies that have roiled Durango School District 9-R in recent months. The board offered parents a forum to voice their complaints at a meeting Tuesday. And voice them they did, for almost two hours.

Walsenburg parents rally for ex-principal
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/20
A group is planning a letter-writing and telephone campaign to ask the Huerfano County RE-1 school board to deny the district’s superintendent an extension of his contract. Forty people met Monday to discuss the removal of David Gray after allegations that he used bullying tactics to prompt the resignation of John Mall High School Principal Paul Heesaker, and had caused teachers to fear for their jobs. Gray denied the allegations and said the district does not plan to clean house.

More school in new school calendar
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070321/NEWS/103210039
Aspen's youth will spend more time in class next year, in small increments and at various times, if the district's proposed calendar wins approval from parents and the board.

East should be closed, D-11 committee says
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20401&template=article.html
The fate of Colorado Springs School District 11’s East Middle School isn’t sealed yet, but a district committee has called for closing the school. The District Accountability Advisory Committee recommended closing East Middle School and forming a committee to study options about how to use the building in the future. The school board will consider whether to close East at its meeting tonight at the district administration building, 1115 N. El Paso St. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., but the board is expected to meet in closed session for about an hour. The board has discussed three options for East, including keeping the school open and closing the school for a year or longer. The board is considering closing East or changing its use because of low enrollment and low test scores.

Schools shaken up by downvalley shift
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070320/NEWS/70320021
Like pioneers on the Oregon trail, Vail families have this overwhelming urge to move west. Nancy Ricci can see this as principal of Red Sandstone Elementary, a longtime public school in Vail. Her school used to have more than 550 students — now, it’s closer to 230. More and more families are moving downvalley for affordable housing, and fewer are moving into Vail, she said.

Howell, Board still at odds
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/21/howell_board_still_odds/?local_news
Three hours of facilitated discussion Tuesday could not resolve the differences between the Steamboat Springs School Board and Superintendent Donna Howell. Instead, both sides agreed to end the special public meeting early and continue it next week behind closed doors. Facilitator Ken DeLay, who is executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards, was in Steamboat on Tuesday to lead the discussion between Howell and the School Board. The relationship between the two sides has deteriorated recently, particularly after a disagreement over how and why an administrator’s resignation letter was released to district staff.
RELATED: Board narrowly approves principal contracts
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/21/board_narrowly_approves_principal_contracts/?local_news

Truancy court goes to school
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/6
For a handful of students, it was imperative that they not miss school Tuesday. As the school day ended, truancy court got under way with Magistrate Rebecca Moss presiding in a makeshift courtroom that usually holds music classes. Moss said that Pueblo City Schools Superintendent John Covington had asked that Moss and District Court Judge Dennis Maes take the courts to the schools because of Colorado Student Assessment Program tests were being administered. Moss said that the judges were willing to do that but that she found it to carry an added bonus - getting to have the students’ teachers present for the proceedings.

Bear Creek High out till April 2 for fire repair
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431827,00.html
Bear Creek High School has canceled classes for the rest of the week as it works to repair three classrooms damaged by smoke and water from a fire Saturday. The school's scheduled spring break is next week, with students returning on April 2. "We're trying to get them fixed as quickly as possible, but we do have a backup plan to ensure students that they have a classroom when they come back on April 2," Principal Phyllis Emrich said. A fire started in the art room about 11 p.m. Saturday and spread to one other classroom. Another classroom nearby suffered water and smoke damage. The cause of the fire has not been determined, although the kiln in the art room has been ruled out as the source.

Top

Military

Salazar backs funding bill for new VA hospital
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/19
Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., is co-sponsoring legislation that would provide $523 million for the new Veterans Administration hospital at Fitzsimons Army Medical Hospital in Aurora. Salazar, who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is backing the legislation to build the new VA center, along with Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., who represents Aurora. Companion legislation is being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. The new hospital will cost $621 million when complete and Congress authorized the initial $98 million last year.

Top

Religion

Sex-addicted clergy urged to 'fess up fast
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5430364,00.html
If you’re a pastor plagued with sexual addictions, come clean or your discovery is virtually guaranteed. And it will be messy. That’s what a noted Christian therapist told 170 pastors gathered Monday for a conference prompted by last year’s downfall of Colorado evangelist Ted Haggard. What’s more, said Harry Schaumburg, Haggard apparently has a lot of secret company: It’s likely that 50 percent of Christian clergy, as well as church members, are in a losing struggle with pornography and related behaviors, he said.

Chaput slams 'toxic waste' of porn, backs general's remarks on gays' 'immoral' acts
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431543,00.html
Chaput said the outrage over Pace's defense of "Western moral tradition" is a symptom of how dysfunctional the culture has become about sexuality.

Man testifies on priest's alleged abuse
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432358,00.html
An articulate, composed but nervous 25-year-old man told jurors on Tuesday that his former Catholic priest touched him inappropriately in 1999, when he was 17. The alleged victim, who now lives in Ohio, told Larimer County District Court jurors that he waited more than four years to tell anyone about his encounters with Father Timothy Evans because he was scared and confused. Evans, now 43, is being tried on two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and one count of sexual assault on a child in a pattern of abuse.
RELATED: Jury told of priest's alleged groping
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5483005
RELATED: Priest's accuser testifies
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS01/703210328/1002

County lawsuit rejected
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15293
Boulder County might have to pay Rocky Mountain Christian Church’s legal fees in a land-use fight, because a federal judge dismissed the county’s lawsuit in the matter. When the county commissioners ruled in February 2006 not to approve the church’s 132,000-square-foot expansion, they agreed to ask a federal judge if they had made the correct decision. In a decision filed Monday, federal District Judge Marcia Krieger dismissed that lawsuit and ruled that a suit filed by Rocky Mountain Christian Church would better decide the issues. That case is scheduled to go to trial in September.

Top

Energy Policy

Ritter tours labs at School of Mines
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/21/ritter-tours-labs-at-school-of-mines/
Gov. Bill Ritter toured renewable energy laboratories at the Colorado School of Mines on Tuesday and said he was impressed with the possibilities they present for Colorado to develop new industries. "We're really excited about this," Ritter said. Dag Nummedal, director of the Colorado Energy Research Institute or CERI, said new public-private partnerships announced Monday by Ritter will help universities work with companies to pioneer new technologies. Nummedal said Colorado is one of the few states doing parallel research on fossil fuels and renewable energy. Ritter said the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels will create a partnership between businesses and the newly formed Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory.

Renewable-energy summit draws crowd
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/21/renewable-energy-summit-draws-crowd/
Government leaders, businesspeople, researchers and community members — an anticipated 1,000 total attendees — will convene for the second year of the Colorado New Energy Summit on Saturday. Participants will hear about the cutting edge of renewable energy and its potential for the future at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The event is sponsored by government representatives from both sides of the aisle, including U.S. Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard. It also will host speakers of various political backgrounds. "Events like this show that, in Colorado, energy is a bipartisan issue," said Laura Condeluci, a spokeswoman for Allard.

BP to be state's top wind power producer
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5431482,00.html
Global energy behemoth BP is emerging as the energy giant of Colorado. From being the state's No. 1 natural gas producer for years, BP now is on track to become its top wind power producer. BP's foray into the local wind industry came about recently when it bought Greenlight Energy, a Virginia company that is developing a 300-megawatt wind farm east of Grover, near Greeley. The Cedar Creek wind farm will be the biggest in the state, with 274 turbines capable of providing electricity to 120,000 customers. BP intends to break ground at the 32,000-acre leased site this fall, said Jack Rigg, BP's regional manager of government and public affairs.

Windmill blade factory to open in '08
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5431465,00.html
A Denmark-based company plans to open a $59.9 million, 180,000-square-foot windmill blade factory in the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor that will employ more than 400 people. The Rocky Mountain News first reported the deal with Vestas Blades in January. Construction will start in the coming weeks with an opening in 2008 for the facility that will serve as the North American headquarters for the company that manufactures blades for 31,000 turbines in 60 countries.
RELATED: Danish firm to build Weld plant
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482694
RELATED: It's official: Turbine factory to build in Windsor
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070321/NEWS/103200112

Trouble down the pipe has stations on empty
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20383&template=article.html
Signs saying “Sorry, Out of Fuel” greeted motorists at some Diamond Shamrock gas stations Tuesday, a repercussion of a Feb. 16 explosion and fire at a Texas refinery that supplies the Pikes Peak region.

Frederick plant set for testing to begin
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15296
Invenergy executives weren’t shy about wooing the locals into accepting a power plant proposal on Frederick’s southeast border last year. They promised a $250,000 donation to the St. Vrain Valley School District for a new school in Frederick and a $150,000 donation to the Carbon Valley Recreation District to build ballfields. They also struck deals with nine adjacent landowners to the site at Weld County roads 141/2 and 19, buying them water taps to the Central Weld Water District or the equivalent of those costs, Invenergy vice president Doug Carter said. And if the Frederick Town Board still didn’t want to annex the property, submittals were already in place to build the project in unincorporated Weld County on the same site. Now, 10 months after the town board approved the annexation and development plan, the turbines and stacks have been raised, and operational tests will begin next month.

Huerfano County's flat prospects
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5482755
When the fizz goes out of carbon dioxide production, this county's economy may go flat. Or flatter, perhaps. Like many parts of rural Colorado, Huerfano already is struggling to hang on. For 25 years carbon dioxide has been the glue helping hold the local economy together. Yet this major extraction industry - recovery of naturally occurring COb from underground wells - is in steep decline. "Carbon dioxide is what has saved this county, but it looks like it's really starting to drop off," said Huerfano County Commissioner Roger Cain. Not that anybody expected the COb to last for centuries. Although Colorado is the nation's largest producer of natural carbon dioxide, the 4,000-foot-deep deposits have a finite production life.

Top

Transportation and Infrastructure

Sponsor sees Slab bill dying in committee
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5431857,00.html
A bill that would have altered some of the protections plains residents won last year in their opposition to the Super Slab private toll road proposal will die in committee, its sponsor agreed. That avoids another packed hearing that had been set for Thursday in the Senate Transportation Committee. House Bill 1068, sponsored by Rep. Marcia Looper, R-Calhan, was initially meant to address property value concerns residents had in the wake of last year's legislation. Private toll road developers now are required to notify all property owners in a three-mile path of their proposed road, before any approval for the road. An unintended consequence developed when title insurance companies began listing the toll road filings that showed up in county courthouses. Some private real estate sales were canceled as a result, and many owners cried foul.
RELATED: Toll road bill will hit the highway
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20393&template=article.html
RELATED: Sponsor looks to scuttle toll-road legislation
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/3

Computer conundrum
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5431859,00.html
A new $30 million computer system at the Colorado Department of Transportation is anything but user-friendly and might never operate as a paperless system, as intended, lawmakers were told Tuesday. Russ George, who inherited the system when he became transportation director in January, told the Audit Committee that the department is working to correct the payroll problems. About 200 CDOT workers went to the state Capitol two weeks ago to complain that they had not been paid their overtime for working during December and January's blizzards.

County supports passenger rail study
http://postindependent.com/article/20070321/VALLEYNEWS/103210040
The Garfield County commissioners threw their support - and $10,000 - behind a push to upgrade passenger train service from Denver International Airport through western Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Rail Authority (RMRA) wants to establish high-speed commuter rail from Casper, Wyo., on existing tracks along the Colorado Front Range to Albuquerque, N.M., and from DIA along the Interstate 70 corridor to mountain communities, ski areas and the Utah state line.

Better mileage claim for hydrogen system
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431514,00.html
Sixteen years ago, Dennis Jarrett set out to build a three-wheeled alternative fuel car. What he ended up with is a design for a hydrogen-electrolysis add-on system that provides better fuel mileage. The add-on system has not been installed in "Car Hydro 1," still a work in progress, but he has installed the add-on system into his 1985 Ford Ranger. Jarrett said he is working on his 10th design of the system, and one of the first designs he put on his truck about six months ago increased his horsepower by about 15 percent and nearly doubled his fuel mileage from 18 to 35 mpg.

Commerce City sees FasTracks rail plans
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432356,00.html
"Yes, it is a tricky area," said longtime Commerce City resident Beth Lambrecht. Still, she says, don't put a FasTracks commuter rail station "in my lap." Lambrecht, who moved to the neighborhood north of the Suncor refinery and east of the O'Brien Canal in 1952, lives in a home surrounded by industrial properties on 64th Avenue. Lambrecht was among the crowd that turned out at Adams City High School on Tuesday for an informational open house on the FasTracks North Metro rail corridor, a $437.7 million project that is scheduled to be moving people back and forth between Thornton and Denver by 2015. Among the open house displays was a set of oversize aerial photos of the corridor showing a multitude of alternate commuter train pathways aimed at bypassing the busy Sand Creek Junction, a tangle of crossings for the main lines of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads.
RELATED: RTD using two-budget strategy for FasTracks program
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5431513,00.html

County nixes chopper charters
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070321/NEWS/103210037
Private jet owners will have to find other ways to Aspen when the airport closes this spring - and the Pitkin County commissioners recently ruled out private helicopter charters. "The only helicopter operations are going to be emergency operations," said Jim Elwood, director of aviation at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport. With a closure pending from April 9 to June 7, some jet owners contacted Elwood to ask about charter helicopter connections from airports in Rifle, Grand Junction or Eagle.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Arctic Refuge topic of slide show, discussion
http://postindependent.com/article/20070321/VALLEYNEWS/103210037
Waterman said his slide show - featuring travels by foot, raft and kayak - is an up-close-and-personal look at the changes affecting the Arctic Refuge. He said he did not grasp the extent of the Earth's climate changes in the area until he met with about two dozen scientists during his two-month trip last summer. "There's a phenomenon called the greening of the Arctic, where all the shrubs are slowly marching northward," he said. "There's ground slumping ... where there are whole sections of the tundra collapsing." He also said animal species, such as a fish called the Arctic grayling, caribou, the endangered shaggy musk ox and the polar bear face extinction.

Army Corps to provide funds for Fountain Creek study
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/14
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will use $300,000 from 2007 funds toward the continuation of the Fountain Creek Watershed study, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., announced Tuesday. “I am pleased that the Army Corps recognized the importance of this study and plans to direct these funds to it,” said Allard, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. “While this is not the full amount that I was able to secure in the Senate version of the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, the fact that the Army Corps chose to use $300,000 for Fountain Creek clearly demonstrates that they are supportive of completing the study.” Allard was able to secure $449,000 in the Fiscal Year 2007 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill last Congress for the continuation of the Fountain Creek Watershed study. Because the Continuing Resolution passed this year lacked congressional direction, Allard sent a letter to the Corps of Engineers on Feb. 15 asking that the Corps use as much of the Fiscal Year 2007 funding as possible for this study.
RELATED: Fountain's water supply feels squeeze
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1174483920/2

Jeffco officials ditch proposed water rules
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5432483,00.html
Jefferson County commissioners on Tuesday rejected proposed groundwater assessment rules for new mountain homes because a requirement to monitor nearby wells during yield tests on new wells had been dropped. "What you've got now doesn't do it," said Jim Peterson, a career geologist and president of the Bear Mountain Homeowners Association. "All it does is put lipstick on the pig." The county's planning and zoning division had proposed the revised Mountain Groundwater Overlay District after a series of hearings last year on how to promote sustainable development and an adequate water supply for homes in the foothills and mountains.

Weather trips up sewer plant
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15292
Cold weather compounded problems with the new ultraviolet disinfection system at the city’s wastewater-treatment plant last month, causing the release of higher-than-permitted levels of fecal coliform bacteria and suspended solids into the St. Vrain River, officials said. Two separate problems happened last month: Cold temperatures reduced the plant’s ability to “settle” out solid matter from treated water, and dirty covers on the UV system reduced its ability to zap bacteria in the water. “In 10 years, I’ve never seen the water so cold,” plant superintendent John Anderson said.

Top

Opinion

Johnson: Anti-smoking zealots get swift kick in the backside
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5431825,00.html
It has to be the dumbest, most-transparent piece of legislation ever. And in Colorado, that is saying a lot. It is why, standing face to face with Rob and Heidi Orio after their latest legislative battle, it is almost impossible to know whether to congratulate or resent them for taking on the system and kicking it square in the mouth. A state Senate committee killed legislation Tuesday that would have eliminated an exemption in last year's Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act that allowed customers in the Orios' restaurant and bar, the Roadhouse, to continue smoking. The legislation, regardless of what its sponsors repeatedly say, clearly was designed to foil the Orios, who had the guts and money to challenge first the city of Durango and, later, the local district attorney, demonstrating that they, indeed, were in full compliance with terms of the smoking ban enacted a year ago.

Spencer: Shareholders should judge Nacchio
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5482847
An airline pilot. A masonry contractor. An electrician/rancher. A maintenance supervisor. A power-equipment operator. A retired furniture-store owner. A child-care worker. A registered nurse. This list goes on, but it's safe to say the people who will decide Joe Nacchio's fate are not a jury of his peers. Nacchio lives and operates in a realm of corporate wealth and entitlement unknown to those who could send him to jail for illegal insider trading. Maybe that isn't American justice, but it sure is poetic justice.

Hallelujah for renewable!
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070321/DAILYCOMMENT/103210026
Last month, the Rocky Mountain News quoted Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, as saying, "I think a lot of folks have gotten religion around renewable energy this year." To that, we say hallelujah.

Munoz: This column may not be for you
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070320/COLUMNS/103200057
These are just a sampling of comments following the first article in a series by the Denver Post entitled "Fortress America." I have added some context in parenthesis.

Our View: Give BLM feedback
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/21/our_view_give_blm_feedback/?our_view
The Bureau of Land Management has a plan on the table that could radically change how public lands in Northwest Colorado are used. Let’s hope the public is paying close enough attention to make its voice heard before the plan takes effect.

Colorado schools need local flexibility
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5480492
Lawmakers are considering several bills that will impact public education. We urge them to respect the tradition, and benefits, of local control.

Adoption bill benefits children
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5480491
Colorado children with only one legal parent would be able to gain a second parent if the state Senate approves a long-needed change in adoption laws already OK'd by the House on a bipartisan vote of 39 to 25. House Bill 1330 is now in the Senate's State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. We urge the committee and the full Senate to approve the bill. HB 1330 simply allows a child to be adopted by a second qualified adult parent upon the consent of a single parent if that child has no other legal parent.

Pueblo, Grand Junction offices still too far away
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=opin&article_path=/opinion/opin070320_1.htm
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter thinks his state needs more Civil Rights Commission offices. According to The Denver Post , the Joint Budget Committee believes money can be found for offices in Pueblo and Grand Junction. Ritter says federal grant money will pay for one full-time person in each new office. The state-federal funding mix is nothing new. It is definitely a step in the right direction. People who fall into the demographics most at risk for civil-rights violations are likely to have problems either traveling to Denver to file a complaint or figuring out how to file one remotely. Dealing with a government office either over the phone or via the Internet is never easy, and we should not forget that a lot of Coloradans have neither Internet access or the opportunity to spend large blocks of time on a long-distance phone call between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., let alone a couple days to drive to Denver.

Tragically private: 'Nosiness' in Damm case might have spared lives
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/21/tragically-private/
Of all the horrific details of the recent murder of Linda Damm of Lafayette, one of the most disturbing is the number of people who apparently were aware of her death but did not report it to police.

Blake: Polis undone by a typesetter
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5431481,00.html
...it turns out that Kennedy filed her campaign reports manually last year, not electronically like most candidates. And on the original sheets the June 15 contribution was said to come from June Polis, not Jared. Apparently the mistake was made at the secretary of state's office, where they have to transfer the manual filings into the main computer database. June turns out to be Jared's grandmother. She had been sales manager at Blue Mountain Arts, the company started by Polis' parents, and now lives part of the year in San Diego. And thus her contribution to Kennedy's campaign is every bit as legitimate as the matching contributions often given to candidates by the spouses of business tycoons who've already maxed out. The lesson for candidates is that if you can file electronically, you'd better do so.

NATIONAL NEWS

Top

Election

Clinton Camp Aims to Minimize Differences With Obama on Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000800.html
In criticizing Sen. Barack Obama over his early views on Iraq, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign appears to be trying to blur the differences between the two on the war and seeking to direct attention away from criticism of her vote to authorize it. During a public forum on Monday night, Mark J. Penn, the chief strategist for Clinton (D-N.Y.), challenged Obama's antiwar credentials by paraphrasing comments Obama made in 2004 about his uncertainty over the war; former president Bill Clinton reportedly made similar remarks about Obama (D-Ill.) at a fundraiser in Manhattan last week. When asked to support the claims, Clinton officials provided pages of Obama quotations -- some of them abridged -- from 2002 and 2004.

Edwards unveils 'aggressive' energy plan
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-20-edwards-iowa_N.htm
America should drastically cut carbon-dioxide emissions, conserve electricity and increase the fuel economy of its cars, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards said here Tuesday. The North Carolina Democrat, who is running for president, said few scientists doubt that the Earth is warming because of human activity. The trend will lead to disaster unless dramatic steps are taken, he said. "Unfortunately, Washington has sort of turned a blind eye to this; dealt with it as a problem of the future, not as an emergency, not as something we need to deal with now." Edwards said his proposals are "clearly at the aggressive end of the scale," but he said they are necessary and feasible.
RELATED: Edwards’s Energy Plan Proposes a Cap on Heat-Trapping Gases
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/politics/21edwards.html

Candidates Stress Early Fundraising
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001537.html
Presidential candidates are collecting contributions at a record-setting pace and are racing to load their schedules with fundraising events ahead of March 31, the campaign's cutoff for financial reports that will be filed next month. The amounts that contenders can bring in will shape the narrative of the race for months to come -- potentially vaulting a candidate into the top tier -- and could spell an early exit for some. Fundraising professionals say they expect the candidates to greatly exceed totals from previous cycles, perhaps by hundreds of millions of dollars. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), for example, mingled with about a thousand donors last night at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for her campaign's second million-dollar-plus fundraiser in three days.

Attorneys’ Case Will Be Subject of Political Ad
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/politics/21dems.html
Illustrating the potential political fallout from removing eight federal prosecutors, the House Democratic campaign committee plans to begin broadcasting a radio advertisement on Wednesday that seeks to link a Republican member of Congress to the controversy. In its first advertisements of the 2008 election cycle, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is underwriting a commercial that calls on Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico to release telephone records related to her contacts with the former United States attorney there.

White House threatens D.C. vote bill
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-20-dc-vote_N.htm
The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto legislation giving the District of Columbia a vote in the House, possibly prolonging a two-century-long wait for representation in Congress. The bill, the White House said in a statement, violates constitutional language saying the House should be made up of representatives chosen by the people of the states. "The District of Columbia is not a state," it said, and if the legislation reaches President Bush's desk, "his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill." The House is to vote Friday on the legislation that would give a vote to the D.C. delegate while creating, until the 2010 census, a new at-large seat for Utah. That would increase House membership to 437, with the seat from overwhelmingly Democratic D.C. offset by the extra vote from Utah, a predominantly Republican state. Utah narrowly missed obtaining a fourth House seat after the 2000 census.

Durbin: Publicly fund Congress races
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210107mar21,1,1593498.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
After years of opposing the idea of taxpayer-financed campaigns, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would let congressional candidates apply for public money to run their campaigns. The plan would make a total of $2.8 billion available every election for candidates who demonstrate a basic level of support by raising "seed money" but then agree to limit their campaign spending to the amount allocated from public funds.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Democrats Split on Iraq Bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000840.html
One of the Democrats' chief designated vote counters, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), is actively working against the Iraq war spending bill. The leadership's senior chief deputy whip, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), spoke passionately against it on the House floor. And one of the whip organization's regional representatives, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), is implacably opposed. The disarray in the House whipping operation ahead of tomorrow's expected vote on the bill is putting a harsh spotlight on House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who has the task of rounding up the 218 votes needed to pass the $124 billion measure, but who has not even kept his organization in line.
RELATED: Veterans boost Democrats' Iraq war exit efforts
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warvote21mar21,1,1661724.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

New Accusation in Running of Smithsonian
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21museum.html
The former inspector general of the Smithsonian Institution says Lawrence M. Small, the institution’s top official, tried to head off an audit of the organization’s business ventures division. In a telephone interview yesterday, the former official, Debra S. Ritt, said Mr. Small called her in April 2006, soon after she announced plans for the audit, to say that “he did not think it was a good use of our resources, and that we were being manipulated by disgruntled employees.” Ms. Ritt said she found his call to be “very unusual, because he urged me instead to investigate the Smithsonian’s construction spending.” The audit proceeded nonetheless, and about two months later, Ms. Ritt broadened it to examine Mr. Small’s annual compensation, which was most recently $915,698.

Louisiana Governor Announces She Won't Seek Reelection
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001437.html
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) announced last night that she will not seek a second term this November, bowing to a political reality created by her handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "I am choosing to do what is best for my state," Blanco said. "I will focus my time and energy for the next nine months on the people's work, not politics." Analysts said Blanco's fate had been sealed long before the announcement. "Katrina just washed away all the good that Governor Blanco has done for the state of Louisiana," said Donna Brazile, a Louisiana native, political consultant and campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 presidential bid.

Public Less Satisfied With Government Web Sites
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001338.html
E-gov isn't easy in a webscape dotted with YouTube, Wikipeida, blogs and changing expectations. Citizen satisfaction with federal government Web sites slipped in the first quarter of the year, with some data showing that the gap between the government's score and private-sector scores has started to widen.

'D.C. madam' case brings speculation
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-20-phone-list_N.htm
High-priced call girls always seem to have their little black books. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, accused of running an illegal escort service in the nation's capital, has 46 pounds of phone records. And her offer — or threat — to turn them over to the media has some in Washington playing a guessing game as to whether any Beltway movers and shakers are on her list of up to 15,000 client phone numbers.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Ex-Captive in Guantánamo Makes Run for Office in Australia
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/asia/21habib.html
Mamdouh Habib cannot drink cold water. He vomits when he tries to, he said. He knows he must drink water, so he engages in vigorous exercise in order to force some lukewarm water down. He says his doctor has told him his stomach has been damaged. Mr. Habib thinks it is from having gas forced into it through some kind of tubes inserted into his rectum when he was detained and, he says, tortured in Egypt. “It made you feel like you were flying,” he said. Mr. Habib, an unemployed 51-year-old father of four, was an early case of rendition. He was seized in Pakistan in October 2001, where he has alleged that he was tortured, then bound up by tough English-speaking men in black and secretly flown to Egypt, where he was held and, by his accounts, tortured for several months, before being shipped to the American detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in April 2002. He was released from Guantánamo and returned to Australia in February 2005 without any charges filed against him, because the Bush administration did not want the torture allegations aired in court, Australian and American officials have said. Now, he is fighting back. He is running in elections on March 24 for a seat in the parliament of the state of New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney.

Top

Foreign Policy

Rep. Lantos sees 'calamitous decline' of U.S. image
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-lantos21mar21,1,104771.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
Lantos, who arrived from Hungary in 1947, sees the United States as a guarantor of freedom and a beacon of democracy. But he believes the war in Iraq has squandered that reputation. Now, as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he intends to stiffen oversight of U.S. foreign policy and change the way America conducts itself around the world. On Tuesday he took the unusual step of giving the sponsors of more than 30 bills on Iraq the chance to make their case, and he introduced a bill to streamline Iraq reconstruction. "It's a role he has looked forward to for a long time, and he's fulfilling it very well," said Madeline Albright, a friend and former Secretary of State under President Clinton. In a recent interview in his Capitol Hill office, Lantos explained why he had shifted from being a supporter of the war to a leading critic.

Duty in Iraq grinds down diplomats
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-03-20-diplomat-stress_N.htm
Much has been written about the stretched U.S. military in Iraq. There has been less focus on State Department diplomats who have been thrust into the most dangerous posting of their careers.
RELATED: Sensing Shift in Bush Policy, Another Hawk Leaves
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/washington/21hawks.html

US looks to sell arms in Gulf to try to contain Iran
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/21/us_looks_to_sell_arms_in_gulf_to_try_to_contain_iran/
The State Department and the Pentagon are quietly seeking congressional approval for significant new military sales to US allies in the Persian Gulf region. The move is part of a broader American strategy to contain Iranian influence by strengthening Iran's neighbors and signaling that the United States is still a strong military player in the Middle East, despite all the difficulties in Iraq. But the arms sales, which would come on top of a recent upgrade of US Patriot antimissile interceptors in Qatar and Kuwait and the deployment of two aircraft carriers to the Gulf, could spark concerns that further military buildup in the volatile region would bring Washington closer to a confrontation with Iran.

Sadrist Lawmaker Says U.S. troops Raided His Office, Calls It a 'Provocation'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032100215.html
A Sadrist lawmaker said U.S. troops raided his office Wednesday, seizing the memory card from his computer along with a gun and a rifle. The U.S. military had no immediate comment. Bahaa al-Araji, one of 30 members of parliament loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said the troops arrived at his office in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah at about 3 a.m. They asked the guards whether the lawmaker was in the office and went in after they were told he was not, al-Araji said, calling the raid a violation of Iraq's sovereignty. "It is a message of provocation sent to the al-Sadr movement. They want to draw al-Sadr's followers into a confrontation in order to foil the security plan," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We will not be drawn into this confrontation."

Accounts Differ on Raid in Baghdad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001578.html
The U.S. military, Iraqi government officials and witnesses here offered conflicting accounts Tuesday of whether several people killed during a Baghdad raid Monday night were armed insurgents or civilians gathered at a mosque. According to a U.S. military statement, Iraqi soldiers assisting in a search for insurgents entered the Imam al-Abass mosque in Hurriyah, a formerly mixed Baghdad neighborhood that is now a stronghold of the Shiite Mahdi Army, before 9 p.m. Monday. About 50 people were detained as a search of the area continued. They were later released, the military said. After the search, the statement said, a separate group of about 20 armed men attacked Iraqi and U.S. soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades and guns. The soldiers returned fire, killing three insurgents; three other armed men were detained, the military said. Military aircraft participated in the raid but did not fire, the statement said. But Col. Mahmoud Abdul Hussein of Iraq's Interior Ministry said six civilians were killed and seven wounded when U.S. helicopters fired on homes after coming under attack from armed men. Another ministry spokesman, Sami Jabarah, said late Tuesday that the casualties had risen to eight killed and 11 wounded.
RELATED: Insurgents used children in suicide bombing, US says
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/03/21/insurgents_used_children_in_suicide_bombing_us_says/

Nearly 60% in Britain say invading Iraq was a mistake
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210092mar21,1,3231901.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Nearly 6 in 10 people in Britain say they believe it was a mistake to invade Iraq, according to a BBC poll published Tuesday. Fifty-five percent of respondents said they felt the war in Iraq has made Britain less safe, and only 5 percent said it left them feeling safer, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. poll commissioned to mark the invasion's fourth anniversary. "Four years on from the war, most people in the country have now come to the view that the United States and Britain were wrong to take military action against Iraq in 2003," said Nick Sparrow from ICM Research, which conducted the poll.
RELATED: Britain will scrap some bombs for safety
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cluster21mar21,1,2716031.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Russia recalls experts from Iran reactor
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210068mar21,1,4214944.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Russia is bringing home its technicians and engineers from Iran's unfinished nuclear reactor site at a time of growing international pressure on Tehran to curb its atomic ambitions, U.S. and European representatives said Tuesday. Although Russia and Iran officially say their differences are financial, the dispute has a strong political component that the West hopes could result in Moscow lining up closer behind U.S.-led efforts to slap harsher UN sanctions on Tehran for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment. The representatives--a European diplomat and a U.S. official--said a large number of Russian technicians, engineers and other specialists were flown to Moscow in the past week, around the time senior Russian and Iranian officials tried but failed to resolve differences over the nuclear reactor outside the southern city of Bushehr.

For Gaza, a Question of Responsibility
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001610.html
The Israeli government is arguing in domestic courts that it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, a designation that under international law holds the Jewish state responsible for the welfare of Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinians. Israel declined to seek a change in Gaza's legal status with the United Nations following its September 2005 departure from the coastal territory, when it pulled out thousands of Jewish settlers and shut down its military government. The move was hailed internationally as a step toward peace.
RELATED: Aid to Palestinians Grew to 1.2B in '06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032100267.html
RELATED: U.S. resumes Palestinian contact
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210078mar21,1,4673697.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Israeli union strikes (except for soccer)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-20-israel-strike_N.htm

Lawyers Press Musharraf With Protests
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001948.html
When the police broke into the offices of some of this city's best-known lawyers last week, they didn't hold back. They smashed through doors and windows, tossed computers, ransacked files and beat anyone standing in their way with iron-tipped batons. "We couldn't even see them because of the tear gas, but we could hear the cries of our lawyers," said Khurram Latif Khosa, a counselor who was in the courtyard below. To Khosa, the raid was a clear message from Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf: Don't cross me. But Khosa, like lawyers across this country, is failing to heed it.
RELATED: 58 Militants and Tribespeople Die in Fighting in Northern Pakistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/asia/21pakistan.html?ref=world

Early vote set in Egypt on limits to opposition
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210062mar21,1,1855642.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has scheduled a referendum next week on constitutional amendments that would limit the country's largest opposition movement, drawing accusations that the government was speeding up the process to avoid debate. The government says the changes will help increase democracy in a country where Mubarak has ruled unchallenged for a quarter-century. But opponents say the amendments are part of a plan to ensure the son of the 78-year-old president succeeds him in a future election.

North Korea Nuclear Talks Remain Stalled
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032100314.html
Delegates at talks on disarming North Korea's nuclear program voiced impatience Wednesday that the negotiations remained stalled for a second day over a dispute on when $25 million of Pyongyang's funds will be released from a Macau bank. North Korea said it would not take part in the six-party negotiations in China's capital to meet goals outlined in a landmark Feb. 13 disarmament agreement until the money was transferred.

Airbus to Produce Military Transport Plane
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032100340.html
The Airbus A400M airlifter program, expected to cost $24 billion, was launched in the 1990s in the wake of the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia, when European countries couldn't dispatch peacekeepers to a region right on their own doorstep without American assistance. At the time, the Clinton administration fiercely criticized the strategy as wasteful duplication _ since the U.S. had similar aircraft for sale, such as the C-130 Hercules. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned of the potential "decoupling" of Europe and the U.S. if the European Union continued to divert resources from joint NATO-directed programs to its own security priorities. But the war on terror has changed the relationship between the United States and Europe, who are facing common threats such as the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and rogue states like North Korea and Iran.

U.N. Mediator Calls for Kosovo Independence
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001795.html
A senior U.N. mediator has proposed that U.N.-administered Kosovo be granted independence, setting the stage for a diplomatic showdown between Russia and the West over the fate of Serbia's troubled ethnic Albanian province. Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish president and chief U.N. negotiator on Kosovo, concluded that U.N.-sponsored negotiations between Kosovo's and Serbia's leaders will never produce a settlement, and that Kosovo cannot continue under U.N. or Serbian rule. He called for a phased transition to independence, initially supervised by a European Union bureaucrat and protected by NATO forces.

Cuban government backers stop protest
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-20-cuban-protests_N.htm
Government supporters broke up a protest Tuesday by political prisoners' wives who shouted "Freedom! Freedom!" as they marched through a congested neighborhood marking the anniversary of the crackdown that put their loved ones behind bars.

Colombia wants 8 Chiquita employees extradited over payments to death squads
http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2007-03-20-columbia-chiquita_N.htm
Colombia's chief federal prosecutor said Tuesday he will demand the extradition to Colombia of eight people who were allegedly involved with the U.S. fruit giant Chiquita's payments to right-wing death squads and leftist rebels.

Venezuela worries U.S. counter-narcotics officials
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-vzdrugs21mar21,1,4345248.story?coll=la-headlines-world
The airliner leaving Caracas for Mexico City carried a seemingly conspicuous cargo: one ton of Colombian cocaine stuffed into 25 bulky, nearly identical suitcases. But the smugglers' baggage went untouched by the Venezuelan National Guard and airport police that day in early February. And it may not have been an oversight. Drug traffickers routinely pay a "tax" of nearly $1,400 a pound to security forces to move cocaine through the terminals at the busy Maiquetia airport and on to global markets, foreign and Venezuelan investigators and experts say. "Maiquetia is to narcos what Memphis is for Federal Express: the hub," one foreign counter-narcotics official said.
RELATED: Venezuela's consumerism flourishes
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2007/03/21/venezuelas_consumerism_flourishes/

Top

Immigration

U.S. to Ease Illegal Immigrants' Children's Access to Medicaid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001254.html
In response to concerns that some babies may be missing out on essential health care, the Bush administration will issue a rule making it easier for the infants of noncitizens to gain access to services covered through Medicaid. Typically, newborns of Medicaid beneficiaries are deemed automatically eligible for the health-care program during their first year as long as the mother remains eligible. Last year, Medicaid officials said this automatic status would not extend to infants whose delivery was covered through emergency Medicaid. Such emergency care covers the labor and delivery expenses for many uninsured couples, including illegal immigrants.
RELATED: U.S. to Offer Care to Infants of Illegal Immigrants
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21medicaid.html?ref=washington

House immigration bill offers citizenship
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig21mar21,1,4631473.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Two lawmakers will fire the opening salvo in this year's immigration debate Thursday when they introduce the first House bill in many years to call for citizenship for illegal immigrants. Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) will unveil broad legislation that would also create a new worker program, stiffen worker verification procedures and overhaul the visa system to reduce waiting times for legal immigrants. In recognition of the tensions that surround the controversial issue, the bill also contains provisions designed to appeal to conservatives who want stronger border enforcement and oppose citizenship provisions that grant amnesty to people in the country illegally.

Immigrant law's basis disputed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210066mar21,1,3428510.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
The crime rate in Hazleton [PA] declined at the same time its Hispanic population was exploding, but the numbers do not tell the whole story, the police chief testified Tuesday at a federal trial over the city's crackdown on illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants and Hispanic groups are suing Hazleton to overturn a new city act that targets landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that employ them.

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Reproductive Choice

Tailoring an antiabortion message to blacks
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-abortion21mar21,1,2517144.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Antiabortion activists are reaching aggressively to draw more African Americans into their movement, targeting urban communities that they have long considered hostile turf. They are opening crisis pregnancy centers in minority neighborhoods, establishing partnerships with black pastors and distributing provocative leaflets to raise suspicion about Planned Parenthood, a longtime provider of reproductive healthcare and abortions in poor urban areas. Framing their cause as the new frontier in civil rights — an effort to stop "black genocide" — these activists have turned to revered names in black history. A niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. tours the nation, speaking out against "the war on the womb." The great-great-granddaughter of Dred Scott recently compared Roe vs. Wade to the 1857 Supreme Court decision declaring blacks so far inferior that they had no rights.

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Marriage and Family Issues

Few N.J. gays apply to join in civil unions
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210053mar21,1,1790106.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
At least 219 gay couples applied to join in civil unions during the first month they were available in New Jersey, according to a report by the state Health and Senior Services Department released Tuesday. The number was much smaller than activists had expected. By comparison, about 500 gay and lesbian couples in New Jersey registered on the first day the state's domestic partnership law went into effect in 2004. That law was simpler to take advantage of but offered only a handful of the benefits extended in the civil union law. The data collected by the state may not be complete. Some county registrars may not have sent application records, and there could be couples who applied for licenses but have not yet made the relationship official.

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Health Care and Public Safety

Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21drug.html?ref=us
Dr. Allan Collins may be the most influential kidney specialist in the country. He is president of the National Kidney Foundation and director of a government-financed research center on kidney disease. In 2004, the year he was chosen as president-elect of the kidney foundation, the pharmaceutical company Amgen, which makes the most expensive drugs used in the treatment of kidney disease, underwrote more than $1.9 million worth of research and education programs led by Dr. Collins, according to records examined by The New York Times. In 2005, Amgen paid Dr. Collins at least $25,800, mostly in consulting and speaking fees, the records show. The payments to Dr. Collins and the research center appear in an unusual set of records. They come from Minnesota, the first of a handful of states to pass a law requiring drug makers to disclose payments to doctors.

Consumer Reports scolded on seat study
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210067mar21,1,3821727.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Consultants hired by Consumer Reports to investigate how it botched a story about infant car seats concluded Tuesday that a major misunderstanding between the magazine and the lab that conducted the test resulted in the error. The test findings--that most seats "failed disastrously"--were withdrawn two weeks after their Jan. 4 publication, when the magazine learned that its side-impact tests had simulated speeds twice as fast as it reported. The error prompted criticism from manufacturers and confusion among readers, especially parents of younger children. The results of the magazine's investigation were released Tuesday and will be published in the May issue, among reports on Teflon and lawn-care products. The issue includes a pledge from Jim Guest, president of parent company Consumers Union, that in the future he will sign off on "any report that calls a product Not Acceptable or raises questions about an entire group of products."

Biomedical lab evacuated
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/21/biomedical_lab_evacuated/
Firefighters evacuated hundreds of people from a 10-story Boston University biomedical research building yesterday after white smoke wafted through a laboratory that houses vials of highly infectious bacteria, renewing concern about the danger of studying potentially deadly pathogens in a densely populated area.

Paraguayans fuming over dengue outbreak
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dengue21mar21,1,5024691.story?coll=la-headlines-world
An outbreak of dengue fever linked to a hot, wet South American summer has prompted charges here of a botched government response and spurred fear that the disease is spreading to neighboring countries. More than 18,000 people in Paraguay have contracted the mosquito-borne ailment, with at least a dozen fatalities, according to government statistics in this landlocked nation of 6.5 million. An elevated incidence of dengue also has been reported in neighboring Brazil and Bolivia.

Toll From Tainted Pet Food Is 14; F.D.A. Is Focusing on New Gluten
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21petfood.html
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that five family pets had died as a result of eating contaminated food that is the subject of a widespread recall. Fourteen animals have died after eating the food, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine, which is part of the F.D.A. The agency said that included nine animals that died as a result of taste tests administered by the manufacturer, Menu Foods. Dr. Sundlof said that to his knowledge such tests were routinely administered to make sure that pets liked the taste of the products. He said the agency had been flooded with calls, some reporting that pets died after eating. He said he believed that the official toll would increase.

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

U.S. Supreme Court holds up execution
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210084mar21,1,3559582.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a man who had been scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a woman in 1991 and scattering her remains across two states. Inmate Kenneth Biros -- and the family of the victim, Tami Engstrom--had waited for the decision more than six hours past his scheduled execution time at Ohio's death house. The justices' one-sentence decision agreed with two lower courts that delayed the execution so Biros could continue arguing that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

Top

Economy

Stocks and Bonds: Shares Rise as Optimism in Tech Sector Offers Comfort
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/business/21stox.html
Shares rose yesterday as takeover activity in the technology sector reassured investors about equity valuations and offset apprehension about a monetary policy meeting under way at the Federal Reserve.
RELATED: Oracle Says Profit Rose 35% to Exceed Expectations
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/business/21oracle.html?ref=business

Stocks Head Lower Ahead of Fed Decision
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032100355.html
U.S. stocks headed for a moderately lower opening Wednesday as investors await the Federal Reserve's latest take on the economy and any hint of the central bank's plans for short-term interest rates. With the Fed set to end a two-day meeting, investors will be awaiting to see whether its midafternoon statement will address a recent perception of a further slowdown in the economy. The Fed left interest rates unchanged at its last five meetings after a string of 17 straight increases that began in 2004. While the Fed isn't expected to move on rates Wednesday, investors will be anxious for any sign of where the Fed might go next.

World Bank Revises Loan Strategy
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/21worldbank.html?ref=world
After months of internal wrangling, the World Bank committed itself Tuesday to a new strategy to combat corruption in its $20 billion annual loan program but not to cut off financing to poorly or dishonestly governed countries without consulting the bank’s board. The action, taken in a unanimous vote of the 24 members of the board, was hailed as a step forward by the bank president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, who has made the fight against corruption a signature issue since taking over the institution nearly two years ago.

Hedge Fund Is Charged Over Trades
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/business/21hedge.html
Beacon Rock Capital has been charged with defrauding mutual funds of $2.4 million, the first hedge fund to be criminally accused of deceptive market timing, the United States attorney in Philadelphia said. Thomas J. Gerbasio, 36, the former vice president of mutual funds at Fiserv Securities in Philadelphia, was also charged in the case, the United States attorney, Patrick L. Meehan, said yesterday. Market timing involves short-term trading that tries to take advantage of perceived inaccuracies in mutual fund share prices, Mr. Meehan said.

Charges Readied Against Reagan Aide Stockman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001648.html
Federal prosecutors are preparing to unveil criminal charges against former budget director David A. Stockman for incomplete disclosures and improper accounting practices he allegedly endorsed while at the helm of a Michigan auto parts company, according to sources familiar with the two-year investigation. Stockman, 60, famously led the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, who once took him "to the woodshed" for privately expressing doubts about huge deficits at the same time he was selling the administration's budget to the public and federal lawmakers.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

Houses hold up Katrina recovery
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-20-no-demolitions_N.htm
An ambitious effort to bulldoze more than 9,000 rotting houses still standing after Hurricane Katrina has slowed sharply this year, prolonging the city's attempts to rebuild blighted neighborhoods, city and federal records show. The homes — some almost untouched since Katrina struck a year and a half ago — are a lingering icon of the storm's devastation and one of the biggest obstacles to New Orleans' rebirth. More than half of the houses ruined during Katrina haven't been razed, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the debris from them would fill several times the volume of the Empire State Building.

February home starts climb 9%
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-03-20-housing-starts_N.htm
Housing starts rebounded in February from a nine-year low, easing concern that the U.S. real estate slump will worsen and threaten the economic expansion. Builders broke ground on new homes at an annual rate of 1.525 million last month, up 9% from January and more than economists had forecast, the Commerce Department said. Building permits, though, fell 2.5%.

Top

Media

Watching Big Sister
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001931.html
It's the first viral attack ad of the 2008 presidential campaign: a clever idea, visually arresting images, the sound of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's voice and, all too fittingly in this YouTube age, an anonymous filmmaker. The 74-second spot has been viewed more than a million times online, making it far more popular than any of the official videos posted by the presidential contenders. It's a "mash-up" of Ridley Scott's 1984 Super Bowl commercial that portrayed IBM as an Orwellian Big Brother and introduced Apple's Macintosh as the bright new vanguard of computing. But now it's Big Sister, Clinton, vs. the upstart, Sen. Barack Obama. Interspersed with speeches from videos on Clinton's official site, the clip shows a horde of ghostlike followers droning on. It closes with an altered Apple symbol -- the Apple's now an O -- and the Web address BarackObama.com. And just as the young blond athletic woman in the video causes a massive explosion by hurling a sledgehammer at a giant screen with Clinton's image, this ad's reach blows up any notion that candidates and mainstream media outlets can control the campaign dialogue. Especially online.
RELATED: Campaign spots get special treatment on Web
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hillary21mar21,1,6918388.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Governor calls Limbaugh 'irrelevant'
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-arnold21mar21,1,2075438.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
After repeatedly being asked about his conservative critics, including talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped his diplomatic veneer Tuesday and declared their views irrelevant to his work in California. "All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant," the governor said on NBC's "Today" show. Limbaugh then declared on his radio program that Schwarzenegger, lacking the communications skills to persuade Californians of his Republican values, had sold them out.

Top

Military

Tighter definition of post-traumatic stress disorder needed, study says
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/21/tighter_definition_of_post_traumatic_stress_disorder_needed_study_says/
The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are so common that depressed people who have never faced trauma usually qualify for the condition, according to a new study that raises questions about whether thousands of Iraq war veterans as well as civilians are getting the right diagnosis and treatment for their emotional problems. Military researchers estimate that 12 to 20 percent of Iraq war veterans show signs of post-traumatic stress, such as recurrent nightmares, emotional numbness, and high anxiety, and the disorder accounts for half of all mental health disability claims. But the new study by McLean Hospital researchers suggests those numbers may be greatly inflated: Researchers found that almost 80 percent of the depressed people they interviewed showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress even if they could not name a single trauma that could have caused them.

Vet shot in Iraq fights for benefits
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-disabled21mar21,0,6670885.story?coll=la-home-headlines
A sniper shot Sgt. Joe Baumann on a Baghdad street in April 2005. The AK-47 round ripped through his midsection, ricocheted off his Kevlar vest and shredded his abdomen. The bullet also ignited tracer rounds in the magazine on his belt, setting Baumann on fire. Almost two years later, the 22-year-old California National Guard soldier from Petaluma, walks with a cane, suffers from back problems and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder that keeps him from sleeping and holding a job. "He can't even go to the grocery store by himself," said his wife, Aileen, also 22. The question pending before a military review board at this big Army post south of Tacoma is whether to grant Baumann a military disability pension and healthcare or simply cut him an $8,000 check for his troubles.

Air Force Says Boeing Will Keep Contract
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/business/21boeing.html
The Air Force will not reopen the $15 billion contract awarded to Boeing to build rescue helicopters. but will continue to talk to two rival companies that contested the contract. An Air Force spokesmanm, Major Aaron Burgstein, said the Air Force was working with the Government Accountability Office, Boeing, Sikorsky and Lockheed “to resolve the concerns and ensure and open and transparent process.”

Top

Religion

Episcopal rejection of demands looks likely
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-church21mar21,1,2664264.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Bishops of the Episcopal Church on Tuesday requested an urgent meeting with the spiritual head of their denomination, the worldwide Anglican Communion, and appeared to take the first steps toward rejecting several demands made of the American church at a recent gathering of the communion's leadership in Tanzania. In February, Anglican leaders gave the U.S. branch of the communion until Sept. 30 to state explicitly that it would bar official blessings for same-sex couples and stop consecrating gay bishops. They also called for the creation of a council to oversee a number of conservative American dioceses that have rebelled against the U.S. church's relatively liberal views on homosexuality and biblical teachings. But the Episcopal bishops, holding a retreat near Houston this week, released a statement late Tuesday saying that establishment of the outside council would be "injurious" to the church and urging its executive council to refuse it. They called the plan "spiritually unsound" and said it could lead to permanent division of the U.S. church.

Top

Energy Policy

Air, Water Powerful Partners in Northwest
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001634.html
The Pacific Northwest is hardly alone as it chases the wind for clean power. Anxiety about climate change and surging demand for electricity have triggered a wind-power frenzy in much of the United States, making it the fastest growing wind-energy market in the world. Power-generating capacity from wind jumped 27 percent last year and is expected to do the same this year. But it is in the Northwest where wind power, an often capricious source of electricity, meshes most seamlessly with the existing electricity grid, which relies heavily on hydroelectric dams, power managers say. This meshing of power sources is done in a way that maximizes power reliability while minimizing the grid's need for energy from fossil fuels, which release the greenhouses gases that cause global warming.

Oversight of Refineries Is Lax, Report Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000648.html
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a poor record of oversight of the nation's oil and chemical refineries, says a new report on the fatal 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas. The report by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said OSHA had not done a planned comprehensive inspection of process safety at any U.S. oil refinery between 1995 and March 2005, when the Texas City explosion took place.
RELATED: Report slams BP, cites organization, safety deficiencies
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-03-20-bp-explosion_N.htm

Toll rises in Siberian mine blast
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210095mar21,1,4411552.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Rescuers pulled more bodies from a Siberian coal mine Tuesday as investigators tried to pinpoint what sparked a methane gas explosion that killed 107 workers in Russia's deadliest mining disaster in a decade. Among those killed were 20 top mine staff members, including its chief engineer, who had been inside checking a British-made hazard monitoring system, said regional Gov. Aman Tuleyev. A British citizen, identified as Ian Robertson, and his interpreter were also killed. Robertson worked for the British-German mining consultancy IMC.

Top

Transportation and Infrastructure

Politics of Fuel Economy Catch Up to Automakers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001609.html
The auto industry is facing one of its toughest political battles in years as shifts in the political and business landscape have eroded its defenses against stricter fuel-economy standards. Congressional Democrats and environmental groups have new allies in the fight to mandate higher vehicle mileage, including a coalition of business executives and retired military leaders. President Bush's support of higher standards also has hampered Detroit's efforts to fend off new rules. Increasingly, the war in Iraq and related concerns over U.S. dependence on foreign oil are changing the dynamics of the debate.
RELATED: Bush shows off alternative fuel vehicles
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush21mar21,1,7334617.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

An American Version of Virgin Atlantic Is Tentatively Approved for Service
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/business/worldbusiness/21air.html?ref=business
Virgin America, a proposed start-up airline backed by Richard Branson, won tentative approval to operate from the Transportation Department after agreeing to jettison its chief executive and revamp its financing to reduce the influence of Mr. Branson and other non-United States citizens. If Virgin America succeeds in starting operations this summer, as planned, it would add a major new player in the market for flights between the East Coast and West Coast, potentially pushing fares down and offering travelers more choices.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Gore Returns to Capitol Hill a Hero and a Target
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001421.html
Al Gore wowed moviegoers and Hollywood elites with his Oscar-winning documentary on global warming. Today he faces a far tougher audience in Congress. The 2000 Democratic presidential nominee will testify about the urgency of addressing climate change in two appearances on Capitol Hill before panels that include skeptics of the sort that Gore probably hasn't met on the red carpet. For instance, Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.), senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, once called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people." The other witness scheduled to appear at the House Energy and Commerce Committee is Bjorn Lomborg of Copenhagen Business School, who asserts that global warming is real but argues that "the trouble is that the climate models show we can do very little" about it.
RELATED: Gore expected to be big draw at hearings
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703210055mar21,1,2576540.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Activists Feel Warming on Climate Change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001007.html
A rally that called for action to reduce climate change, featuring speakers from Arctic villages who said their landscape is being transformed by rising temperatures, drew several hundred people to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol yesterday. The event, called a Climate Crisis Action Day, was billed in advance as Washington's largest demonstration ever on global warming. It was unclear whether that turned out to be accurate, but those attending said they sensed a powerful momentum building behind calls to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

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.

Brownstein: Who's watching the president?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brownstein21mar21-2,0,4942983.column?coll=la-opinion-center
AT TIMES, President Bush's second term has resembled a laboratory test of what happens to a large institution when all mechanisms of accountability are disabled. The results have not been pretty. Hurricane Katrina, the chaotic occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, the breakdown at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the FBI's abuse of Patriot Act powers, the troubling dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys — everywhere, the administration has been plagued by an epidemic of incompetence. Bush has stumbled so badly at managing the basic responsibilities of government that even the National Review, the flagship magazine of the conservative movement and hardly a traditional critic of the president, used its latest cover to plaintively ask: "Can't anyone here play this game?" How did it come to this for an administration that, as the National Review noted, initially portrayed itself as buttoned-down "adults" returning to Washington after President Clinton's baby boom bacchanal?

Ignatius: Rice's Mideast Minefield
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001429.html
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is crossing a modest threshold in her efforts to mediate the Palestinian problem: She is signaling her willingness to meet with some members of the Hamas-backed "national unity government," even though the Israelis have publicly opposed such a move. Rice doesn't do anything impulsively, least of all jump into the world's most intractable conflict. And the space she has opened between U.S. and Israeli positions is quite small. But as she prepares for another trip to the Middle East late this week, Rice is sending the message that despite the complications posed by the Palestinian unity government announced last weekend, she is pressing ahead with her diplomatic efforts to broker the creation of a Palestinian state.
RELATED: Be practical with the Palestinians
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-mideast21mar21,0,6023643.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

Jackson: What American sacrifice?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/21/what_american_sacrifice/
FOUR YEARS after the invasion of Iraq, Americans still behave as if there is no war at all.

Sikorski: Don't Take Poland for Granted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001427.html
The U.S. proposal to place radar and interceptor sites for a new missile defense system in Central Europe -- respectively, in the Czech Republic and Poland -- may generate a new security partnership with the countries of the region. Or it could provoke a spiral of misunderstanding, weaken NATO, deepen Russian paranoia and cost the United States some of its last friends on the continent.

Froomkin: White House Countermeasures
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/03/20/BL2007032000694.html
Last night's 3,000-page Justice Department document dump, still dribbling out into the public domain, appears to be a much more carefully screened release than the smaller but newsier one last week. In barely acknowledging the White House role in the highly controversial, possibly politically-motivated firing of eight U.S. attorneys, these new documents may best be described as a lot of chaff, intended to deflect attention from evidence in the previous dump that the purge originated at the White House, was executed by the White House, and was extensively discussed with White House aides.
RELATED: Kass: Connecting dots and Fitzgerald's fall
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0703210070mar21,1,4717359.column?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Not distinguished, eh?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0703210109mar21,0,3090304.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed
RELATED: What People Really Need
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/opinion/21wed1.html

Tom DeLay Looks Back
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/opinion/21wed4.html
Since his forced retreat from power in a corruption scandal, Tom DeLay, the former House Republican majority leader, must have been watching re-runs of “Cool Hand Luke.” That film’s cynical rationalization of life’s conflicts as merely a “failure to communicate” is Mr. DeLay’s approach to explaining the Republicans’ loss of Congress last year. No, no, he insists in a new memoir, it wasn’t voters revolting against the quid pro quo corruption that Mr. DeLay turned into a dark art. Rather, Republicans “did not communicate their message” and overcome “short-term, media-fed issues.”

Jacoby: GOP 'family values'
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/21/gop_family_values/
A man who publicly castigates an adulterous president while secretly carrying on an affair of his own -- as Gingrich did in 1998 -- may be a hypocrite, but he has not undermined the public code that condemns adultery and celebrates marital faithfulness. By contrast, a man who flaunts his infidelity and goes out of his way to publicly humiliate his wife -- as Giuliani did in 2000 -- has behaved far more destructively. He has not just violated society's moral guidelines: He has subverted them. There are saints and sinners in every political camp, and no party has a monopoly on "family values." When the spotlight was on Clinton's indiscretions, that was something too many Republicans tended to forget.

Slavery: State's apology justified
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/03/20/0321edslave.html
Many Georgians don't believe they should apologize for slavery since they had nothing to do with it. That's fine. The NAACP, however, wants the state of Georgia to apologize for its official sanctioning of slavery, which is a very different thing. Given the state's historic role in promoting and protecting slavery, the General Assembly ought to comply.

Meyerson: God and His Gays
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001428.html
Up to now, the preferred theory among Christian conservatives has been that homosexuality is behaviorally induced and thus can be unlearned. That gave added moral weight to the biblical proscriptions of gay and lesbian sex and to the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality as a sin -- though for those who believe in biblical inerrancy, no added moral weight was necessary. But once you recognize homosexuality as a genetic reality, it does create a theological dilemma for the Mohlers among us, for it means that God is making people who, in the midst of what may otherwise be morally exemplary lives, have a special and inherent predisposition to sin. Mohler's response is that since Adam's fall, sin is the condition of all humankind. That sidesteps, however, the conundrum that a gay person may follow the same God-given instincts as a straight person -- let's assume fidelity and the desire for church sanctification in both cases -- and end up damned while the straight person ends up saved. Indeed, it means that a gay person's duty is to suppress his God-given instincts while a straight person's duty is to fulfill his.

Page: Don't ask, don't tell, don't leave
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0703210091mar21,0,3633111.column?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed
How much harm do gays and lesbians really cause in the ranks of the military? Not much, it turns out.

Precedent 4 Student Speech
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001565.html
WHAT IS a bong hit 4 Jesus? We're not sure, and we doubt anyone really knows what the phrase means -- which is one reason the Supreme Court ought not to regard it as prohibited speech.

YouTube enters the 2008 fray
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-youtube21mar21,0,1544228.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
Instead of asking for political statements on the site to be regulated, candidates should answer them in kind.

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