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TOP STORIES

ProgressNow in the news

Westword Best of Denver 2007: Best Blog -- Political
www.progressnowaction.com
http://www.westword.com/bestof/award.php?award=379210&year=2007
All of politics is personal -- very, very personal -- for the folks over at ProgressNow.org. Since lawyer (and former Westword intern) Michael Huttner started his troublemaking squad of truth-seekers, they've made news as often as they've reported it, creating the catchy "Both Ways Bob" campaign that gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez could never escape, offering a stylish video response to Marilyn Musgrave's disabled-vet ads, jumping so fast on inconsistencies in Scott McInnis's campaign that the former congressman took a pass on the 2008 U.S. Senate race, and now running a Presidential March Madness elimination. But ProgressNowAction.com isn't all fun and games; the blog's home is full of information and position papers, and its get-out-the-vote campaign just won a Golden Dot award from the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. Turn on and tune in. Readers' Choice: www.coloradopols.com
RELATED: Best Political Campaign Souvenir: "Both Ways Bob" Flip-Flops
http://www.westword.com/bestof/award.php?award=379230&year=2007
RELATED: Westword's Best of Denver 2007
http://www.westword.com/bestof/index.php?year=2007

Congratulations to the other Best of Denver award winners, including Colorado Media Matters, Colorado Confidential, Drinking Liberally, Wash Park Prophet, Coyote Gulch, and the Question Alliance.

Top

National

Officials may face firing over 'security letters'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-fbi-security-letters_N.htm
Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday called for sweeping changes in how "national security letters" are issued and tracked, including firing and prosecuting FBI officials responsible for allowing hundreds of such letters to be issued without authorization. "It's very rarely that a bureaucrat is prosecuted," said Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala., who called himself a "longtime supporter" of the FBI. "We've reached a point where someone has to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." The reaction came during a hearing on a March 9 inspector general report that found that the FBI issued over 143,000 NSL requests from 2003 through 2005, including many that appeared to violate laws and the bureau's own guidelines. The letters, authorized by the Patriot Acts of 2001 and 2006, allow the FBI to access subscriber information for telephone and e-mail accounts as well as some credit information in national security investigations without resorting to a subpoena or a court order.

More DOJ scandal news in NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT

Rights Group Challenges Assurances On Torture
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802119.html
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday challenged the value of "diplomatic assurances" routinely obtained by the United States from other governments that inmates returned home from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be treated humanely. The New York-based advocacy group said governments with records of torture "don't suddenly change their behavior" because of agreements with Washington. The group called on the United States "to establish screening procedures so that a person being transferred from Guantanamo Bay has an effective opportunity to challenge his transfer before an impartial body."
RELATED: 7 Were Abused, Group Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/europe/29russiagitmo.html

More detainee policy news in NATIONAL/CIVIL LIBERTIES

Gunmen Go On Rampage In Iraqi City
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800166.html
A day after twin truck bombings laid waste to predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in the northern Iraqi city of Tall Afar, marauding Shiite gunmen and police executed dozens of Sunnis in retaliatory attacks that many Iraqis feared might precipitate a resurgence of open sectarian warfare. The killings took place in a city once cited by President Bush as a sign of the U.S. military's success in pacifying the insurgency. Bush said in a speech almost exactly a year ago that the "example of Tall Afar gives me confidence in our strategy." But parts of the city reverted to chaos and carnage Wednesday as gunmen went door to door assassinating as many as 60 people in revenge for the previous day's truck bombings, Iraqi military and government officials said.
RELATED: Dozens die in revenge spree Shiites, Sunnis clash in once-pacified city
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703281078mar29,1,2375352.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

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

GSA Chief Grilled on GOP Political Presentation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801808.html
The chief of the General Services Administration testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that she could not recall details of a Jan. 26 videoconference in which a White House official briefed top political appointees at the agency about targeting 20 congressional Democrats in 2008. Lurita Alexis Doan, the GSA's administrator, appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about her 10-month tenure at the government's premier contracting agency, including her attempt to award a no-bid job to a business associate and her alleged intervention in a contract dispute with a technology company. Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said the committee was focusing on the videoconference at GSA facilities because it might have violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts government agencies and employees from engaging in political activity on the job.
RELATED: PowerPoint Targeting 20 Democrats
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/20070328151840-07177.pdf

Top

Colorado

Needy's hopes fade as energy aid dwindles
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5542660
A faulty furnace has left Chris Eikenberg struggling through the winter to keep her house, two kids and a husband warm. With space heaters blasting, a stoked fireplace and an electric stove providing the only sources of warmth, it wasn't long before energy expenses easily exceeded the family's income. Now, like thousands of other Coloradans, the disabled 46-year-old former surgical nurse is relying on government help with the bills. That help, however, is dwindling. Federal dollars used to supplement state aid through the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, known as LIEAP, haven't been allocated and Colorado officials say they are resigned to not getting them. As a result of the $13.5 million loss in federal aid, state officials estimate they will drop the average energy-assistance grant to $202 this year from $545 in 2006. For families like the Eikenbergs, who live in Pierce, just south of the Wyoming border in Weld County, it could be the difference in keeping the heat turned on.

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

Lawmaker's alleged threat sparks review of ethics rules
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5449527,00.html
It's a she-said, they-said dilemma that has the House looking at changing its ethics rules. Rep. Debbie Stafford, of Aurora, said that a fellow Republican in the House told her she would be a target in future elections if she supported a construction-defects bill that the homebuilders industry opposed. Republican leadership said the exchange never happened, that Stafford's story has changed several times and that she is simply mad at the homebuilders for helping kill an unrelated measure she introduced this session. Stafford stands by her story, but said she doesn't plan to file any sort of complaint. After hearing about the hubbub, Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said he asked staffers to review the rules. "There is a specific House rule that says a lobbyist cannot threaten a legislator, for that matter any other public employee, with violence or economic or political reprisal," he said. "There is no corresponding rule in the House with respect to threats made by lawmakers, and I think there should be." Stafford said that a number of people lobbied her to vote against House Bill 1338, including Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, the assistant minority leader. She said Balmer told her that she would receive heat from the Colorado Association of Homebuilders if she ran for another office. And she said Balmer mentioned that the group has been generous to Republican candidates in the past.

More Colorado ethics news in COLORADO/GOVERNMENT

More Homeowners Protection Act news in COLORADO/HOUSING

CSU's bid to raise tuition expelled
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5544364
The state Senate on Wednesday rejected Colorado State University's last-minute bid for permission to collect an extra $34 million in tuition from some students. CSU officials wanted lawmakers to change the state budget to allow the university to collect more money from middle- and high-income students so it could offer free admission to lower-income students. The effort caught budget-writing lawmakers and CSU students by surprise. The proposal was initially added to the budget and later stripped on an 18-15 vote. A final vote on the budget is set for today in the Senate.
RELATED: Senate says no to CSU free tuition proposal
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5450061,00.html
RELATED: Dems want free college for all low-income students
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5448596,00.html

More JBC news in COLORADO/GOVERNMENT

Salazar wants full study on Aurora deal
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/2
A full environmental impact statement is needed on the proposed contract between the Bureau of Reclamation and Aurora, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said Wednesday. The 3rd Congressional District’s representative in Washington said the expanded look at the environmental, social and economic impacts is needed to get the full picture of how water transfers have affected the Arkansas Valley. “I can’t understand why people are sweeping things under the rug,” Salazar said. “How can they say there’s not going to be an economic impact on the Arkansas Valley by taking water out of it?”
RELATED: Water contract a bargain for Aurora
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/10

COLORADO NEWS

Top

Election

Dean is Denver-bound for convention huddle
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543406
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is coming to the Mile High City next month in what will be his first visit since he announced that Denver would host the party's 2008 national convention, the DNC confirmed Wednesday. Dean is scheduled to spend April 12 in Denver to meet with host-committee members and other city officials to discuss convention plans. The former governor of Vermont and 2004 presidential-primary candidate also is expected to tour the Pepsi Center, where the convention is to be held, and to hold a public rally to promote the convention. But details of the event aren't complete, and the DNC only confirmed that the chairman would be in town on that date.
RELATED: DNC chief plans fete in city April 12
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450037,00.html
RELATED: Security funds on track
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450036,00.html

Cancer patients laud Edwards
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450040,00.html
To Deb Martin, a Colorado Springs mother of three, Elizabeth Edwards' choice was "absolutely the right decision. "Just because we have breast cancer, life doesn't stop," said Martin, 44, who works as a software manager. "You need to be as active in your life as you can. "You have to take every day for all it's worth, because you don't know how many you are going to get. The campaign obviously is important to both of them. Of course, he (John Edwards) should be there to support her as well." Martin was 38 when she first found that she had breast cancer. She felt fairly confident that the chemotherapy had gotten it all. Four years later, the cancer was found again, this time in her liver, bones and brain. Radiation took care of the cancer in the brain, but the liver is the big problem. "I first thought that I would have 18 months to two years," she said. But it's been two years already, and now she's thinking five years, maybe 10 or 15.

No decision yet on Tancredo seat
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5539848
Tom Tancredo isn't deciding any time soon whether he's going to leave his congressional seat in order to run for the Republican presidential nomination. The Littleton Republican said today that he doesn't intend to decide between the two. Election rules allow him to run for his House seat and the presidential primary at the same time. "I don't know that I won't run again, should things not turn out that I was president of the United States," Tancredo said.

Udall coming to town
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/29/udall_coming_town/?local_news
For the second year in a row, the Routt County Democratic Party is bringing an A-list political lineup to its annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner. The event is the local party’s biggest fundraiser of the year and begins at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, at the Howelsen Hill Lodge on Howelsen Parkway. U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, state Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff and state Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak are scheduled to speak at the event, which will include a potluck dinner, live and silent auctions, a recipe contest, music and a local comedy act. Routt County Commissioner Doug Monger said Routt County’s reputation as a Democratic stronghold is growing. In November 2006, Democratic candidates won races for county commissioner, sheriff and assessor, and Routt County voters also gave strong majorities to several state and regional Democratic candidates, including Gov. Bill Ritter and U.S. Rep. John Salazar. “The state party has seen the results, and the impacts we’ve been having on local elections — I guess this is a reward for our local committees and Democratic voters,” Monger said. “We’re starting to get some face-time out of candidates. It’s not an unknown that Udall is looking for (U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard’s) seat.” Udall is in his fifth term representing Colorado’s Second Congressional District, which includes much of the Front Range along with Eagle, Summit and Grand counties on the Western Slope.

LINKHART PONDERS WARDROBE CHANGE (EXTRA!, March 29)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450058,00.html
At-large Denver City Councilman Doug Linkhart, might be trading in his business suits for Dickies and Sean Jean apparel. On Tuesday, Linkhart was accused of being a racist in a letter to the editor after he said in a story about graffiti that people fear kids who wear "saggy, baggy pants all over the place." Linkhart fired back Wednesday in his e-mail newsletter. "The teenagers I see hanging out on the mall with their 'saggy, baggy pants' are mostly white, so I'm not sure where racism comes in," he wrote. "Nonetheless, my campaign manager is suggesting that I might want to update my wardrobe."

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Sen. Salazar rebukes Bush over moral leadership
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/3
President Bush insisted Wednesday the U.S. would "lose its moral purpose in the world" if it withdraws from the war in Iraq - an argument that Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., rebuked, saying the Bush administration has directed a mismanaged war for four years that has undermined American leadership in the world. Defending his vote to establish a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq next year, Salazar said he expects Bush to veto the defense supplemental bill being finished in the Senate this week. "We're trying to make this president listen to the American public," Salazar said in a telephone press conference. "His answer has been ‘it's my way or the highway.’ ”

CSU-Pueblo grad takes over White House press duty
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/16
Dana Perino, a 1994 graduate of Colorado State University-Pueblo, has moved into the role of White House spokeswoman this week when Tony Snow was diagnosed with liver cancer and is taking leave for treatment. Perino, 34, was named the Outstanding Alumna in 2003 by the CSU-Pueblo Alumni Association. She was named deputy press secretary last year; she was previously a special assistant to the president.

BILL'S BILLS (Roll Call, March 29)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5449741,00.html
83 Bills Gov. Bill Ritter has signed into law, from sweeping energy legislation to routine departmental budget adjustment requests. 1 Bill vetoed - the labor union bill that led to a Senate filibuster

Bill to increase allowance for lawmakers clears Senate
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/29/3_29_Per_Diem.html
A bill aimed at easing the fiscal woes of rural lawmakers forced to maintain two homes throughout the legislative session cleared the Senate floor Wednesday morning. Senate Bill 139, which would increase the daily living allowance for lawmakers from outside the Denver metro area, passed the Senate on a 31-4 vote. The bill’s prospects seemed dim during a Monday floor debate when Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, said the bill could put the state budget in the red more than $200,000. Legislative staff estimates Senate Bill 139 could cost the state upwards of $299,880. Keller, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee, said Wednesday she would work with Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, in the House to find room in the legislative budget.

Measure to fund motor vehicle office in El Paso County is OK’d
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20657&template=article.html
A last-minute attempt to include a 36 percent tuition increase for many Colorado State University students in the coming year’s state budget failed Wednesday. However, a provision allowing another motor vehicle office in El Paso County passed, as did an amendment that could take about $30 million from road funding and put it toward fixing or constructing college buildings.
RELATED: Budget amendment favors buildings over roads
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/12
RELATED: Senate tweaks state budget
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070329_2.htm

Budget discussions, 1994 (On the side, 3/29)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543380
Rep. Gil Romero, D-Pueblo, a member of the Joint Budget Committee in 1994, would ritually forgo shaving between the time the bill was crafted and when the measure was passed. During the 1994 session, he revealed the habits of other JBC members as the bill worked through both chambers. "Sen. (Jim) Rizzuto told me he's not going to bathe until the bill is out," Romero said. "Sen. (Elsie) Lacy wasn't to be outdone, so she's not going to shave her legs. I turned to Rep. (Tony) Grampsas Friday and said, 'What are you going to do?' He said, 'Well, as a Greek, I'm going to do something. But if I tell you, I'll have to kill you."' Rep. Dave Owen promised something different from his fellow JBC'ers. "With all these smelly people on the budget committee, I decided to be Mr. Clean, and I'll change my underwear every day."

City looking at reduced federal funds
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/6
The city of Pueblo could be looking at roughly the same amount of federal community development block grants as last year, and possibly less. City Housing Director Ada Clark said the White House is asking for a 27 percent reduction in the amount of CDBG funding in the 2008 budget, but she doesn't anticipate President Bush will get such a steep reduction. Instead, Clark told council on Monday that she anticipates a 1 percent cut, estimating that the city could get about $1.6 million in CDBG funding next year. The city dispersed nearly $1.7 million in 2007. Clark reserves 20 percent of the funding for administrative costs, and council's policy last year was to cap funding for nonprofit public service agencies at 15 percent. Clark's proposed breakdown of the funds, assuming a minimal 1 percent cut, would set aside $320,000 for administrative costs, $400,000 for curb ramps, $240,000 for public service agencies and $640,000 for capital construction projects.

Council gives first OK to ethics panel
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20653&template=article.html
A three-member Ethics Commission would investigate conflicts of interest and other ethical breaches under a new code of ethics given initial approval this week by the Colorado Springs City Council. Under the city’s existing ethics code, adopted in 1994, allegations can be reviewed in a variety of ways, but City Attorney Patricia Kelly said there’s no consistency. Under the proposed code, due for final approval next month, questions would be handled by the Ethics Commission, empowered to subpoena documents and witnesses. The commission, appointed by the City Council, would send recommendations and advisory opinions to the council for action. Approved on first reading Tuesday, the new code would supersede Amendment 41, a state measure approved by voters last fall and seen by some as onerous and complicated.

A ‘mission ended abruptly’
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/29/3_29_1B_Merling_funeral.html
Darline Merling was a quiet force on the Fruita City Council who could “really speak up when she had a cause,” fellow council member Nick Kohls said. Merling was looking forward to the next municipal election and had planned to run for another term, he said. “Her mission ended abruptly,” Kohls said Wednesday to more than 50 family and community members gathered to remember the life of the former councilwoman who was best known for her community involvement and love of animals. Merling died Friday at St. Mary’s Hospital at the age of 73. Her funeral was held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fruita.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Thumbprinting has thumbs-up in state
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/29/thumbprinting-has-thumbs-up-in-state/
It seemed like a mundane task — going to the bank and getting his signature notarized on a traffic ticket his daughter had received. But when asked by the notary to provide a thumbprint along with his signature, Boris Sergeev was perplexed. That's when the notary, an employee at US Bank on 28th Street in Boulder, told Sergeev that recording customers' thumbprints was a practice encouraged by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Incensed, Sergeev left and got the ticket notarized by another bank across the street — no thumbprint, no problem. Then the Boulder County resident fired off a complaint to the Secretary of State's Office. "With all the unauthorized wiretapping by the FBI, this incident seemed kind of like that," he said of his experience at the bank last week. "I would guess you would have to have some legal authority to fingerprint people." But it turns out what the notary at US Bank did is perfectly legal and heartily encouraged by the secretary of state's licensing division.

KKK comes between history buffs
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450034,00.html
The Golden Pioneer Museum and the Daughters of the American Revolution, partners in history projects over the years, clashed over an exhibit that includes the Ku Klux Klan. The flap has led to allegations the DAR is trying to "micromanage" the museum and ignore ugly chapters in the area's history. The DAR says it's not interested in censorship, only in protecting its image.

Activist speaks Friday against occupation of Iraq
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/03/29/news/news03.txt
Ten days ago was the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. The day was marked by a small army of TV show hosts and news anchors standing beside maps and images of Iraq and pointed mostly to the trail of blood and disappointment. The war has changed melodramatically since the early days of “Shock and Awe.” Still, Americans have been spared tax increases, rationing and a draft. Despite President Bush’s recent statement that Americans “sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night,” and the ultimate sacrifice of many who fought, this has been a couch war for our country. Although members of the House anticipate a presidential veto, on March 23, they voted along party lines 218 to 212 to set a date for an Iraq pullout. Not soon enough for Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, an anti-war activist with some very controversial ideas, who is speaking Out Loud on Friday night against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The talk at the Old Library begins at 6:30 p.m.

Top

Immigration

Salazar, others talk immigration
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5542537
Four U.S. senators, including Ken Salazar of Colorado, are working to pump life into immigration legislation that has stalled amid other priorities. Salazar, a Democrat, met Wednesday with Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; Mel Martinez, R-Fla.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to discuss the legislation. "We are working to try to move forward," Salazar said. The group plans to write a bill starting the second week in April, Salazar said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he wants to pass the bill before August.

Mahd closer to the oath
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543185
A blind Palestinian computer whiz in Denver fought the FBI and Department of Homeland Security without a lawyer - and won. Now his case may help force the FBI to expedite background checks on aspiring citizens. U.S. District Judge Walker Miller has ordered the FBI to complete a stalled background check within 45 days for Zuhair Mahd, 33, who passed all U.S. citizenship tests in 2004 but still couldn't get sworn in. Miller ruled that federal officials violated their own rules in handling Mahd's case. The order last week in Mahd's self-filed lawsuit set a regional precedent for dozens of similar lawsuits by mostly Muslim citizenship applicants pending in federal court.

Immigration forum set Thursday at UNC
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070329/NEWS/103280131
Residents are invited to attend an immigration forum at the University of Northern Colorado Thursday discuss its effects on the community. "Beyond ICE: The past, present and future of Weld County" is scheduled from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Columbine Room B at the University Center, 10th Avenue and 20th Street. Two professors from UNC as well as an immigration attorney from Fort Collins will be part the panel to discuss immigration in Weld. Afterward, there will be time for open discussion and questions from the audience.

Immigration law forum on Friday
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/15
Even lawyers don't know everything. Local barristers will have a chance to learn about immigration issues on Friday. The Pueblo County Hispanic Bar Association and the Pueblo County Bar Association will host a continuing legal education seminar addressing many legal questions about immigration. The immigration consequences of criminal cases, an update on immigration legislation, employment issues involving immigration status and local law enforcement's response to immigration will be topics. The session lasts from 8 a.m. to noon Friday at the Pueblo Union Depot Loft, 132 W. B St. Pre-registration is required. The session costs $30 per person.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

Health department chief named to state panel
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/14
Dr. Chris Nevin-Woods, executive director of the City-County Health Department, has been appointed to the state board of health by Gov. Bill Ritter, she told the local health board on Tuesday. The appointment is subject to confirmation by the state Senate, but she has not been told when the confirmation hearing will be scheduled. Nevin-Woods worked on Ritter's transition team, including making a recommendation for his appointment of Jim Martin to head the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Remedy sought for health premiums
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543377
Saying Starbucks workers get better health benefits, three state employees delivered 3,000 petition signatures to legislative leaders Wednesday in support of lower insurance premiums. "If baristas can make better health insurance than state troopers, that's just criminal," Lori Ganni told House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald during a morning meeting. Ganni, who works for the Department of Labor and Employment, and two other state workers delivered the pile of petitions that Colorado Association of Public Employees gathered.

Panel OKs tax checkoff for cancer ed
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5450038,00.html
Teri Cole was shocked when she learned 16 months ago that she had Stage 3 ovarian cancer. "It is the cancer that whispers because the symptoms are so subtle," said Cole, 56, of Denver. "There are women all over who have the symptoms and don't know." Cole was among a half-dozen women - almost all cancer survivors - who testified before the House Finance Committee on Wednesday in support of a measure creating a tax checkoff to fund education, screening and support for men and women who have breast cancer or women with reproductive cancers. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, who is a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988 and cervical cancer in 1992.

Measure on drunken driving goes to governor
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5449589,00.html
A bill to give the Colorado State Patrol more flexibility in gathering evidence to crack down on drunken drivers is on its way to the governor. Senate Bill 154 passed the House on a 51-14 vote. "Were closing the loophole that allows drunk drivers to escape justice. We want to make sure that we'll have fewer repeat offenders and give law enforcement greater ability when they take these cases to court," said Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley.

CU health program endures cuts
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/03/28/news/c_u_and_boulder/news2.txt
Robin Kolble worries about what to cut from Wardenburg's Community Health Education Department. In the wake of the CU Student Union's budget cuts from CHED, she knows she has to scale back something. Her one-on-one counseling sessions with students who want to quit smoking will probably end, said Kolble, CHED's manager and a registered nurse. She needs to reallocate those 10 hours a week into work that alleviates the budget cuts -like grant-writing or volunteer recruiting. UCSU's debate over CHED's funding has largely centered around fiscal efficiency. But some public health officials say the discussion begs an underlying question: what is cost versus value, if an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

Antidepressants fail in bipolar test
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5542707
For treating bipolar disorder depression, patients are as likely to get relief from sugar pills as they are from widely used antidepressants, according to a new study. The findings, which appear in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, are sure to confound therapy, researchers say. "Bipolar depression is notoriously difficult to treat," said David Miklowitz, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Colorado at Boulder and an investigator on the study. This study, Miklowitz said, "helps us find what does and does not work." In the largest study of its kind, researchers at the University of Colorado and sites across the country gave patients Paxil, Wellbutrin or a sugar pill.
RELATED: Study could change bipolar treatment
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/29/study-could-change-bipolar-treatment/
RELATED: Antidepressants don't help bipolar patients, study finds
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-bipolar29mar29,1,3626666.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Seniors’ needs a topic for Summit
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/29/3_29_1B_edit_board.html
In an effort to respond to the needs of Mesa County’s growing senior population, County Commissioner Janet Rowland said she and a collection of local groups will hold a summit next week to identify challenges facing the local senior citizen population.

Tornado hits town of Holly
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/1
A tornado up to 600 feet wide touched down in this small Southeastern Colorado community Wednesday evening, injuring several residents and causing extensive damage to homes and property.

Clinics to combine: Campesina, People's Clinic boards OK merger
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/29/clinics-to-combine/
People's Clinic of Boulder will soon merge with Clinica Campesina Family Health Services, creating the county's largest provider of low-cost health care. The boards of directors for both organizations voted Wednesday to merge, following three months of review. The deal calls for Clinica's administration to oversee People's Clinic, which will keep its name but lose its autonomy. The two community health centers serve 35,000 low-income residents annually. People's Clinic has one office in Boulder. Clinica Campesina operates three health centers in Lafayette, Thornton and unincorporated Adams County. Combined, the four clinics have more than 140,000 visits annually.
RELATED: People's board OKs merger
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/03/28/news/c_u_and_boulder/news1.txt

NCMC becomes Magnet hospital
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070329/NEWS/103290089
North Colorado Medical Center officials announced Wednesday the hospital earned the Magnet designation, joining fewer than 250 hospitals nationwide recognized for superior nursing care.

Exempla honors blizzard of activity: Deb Steveson worked 36 hours straight during December storm
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/29/exempla-honors-blizzard-of-activity/
When Deb Steveson walked into her grandmother's hospital room, her mother noticed a change in her. "My mother said, 'You know, you turned into a nurse when you walked into that room,'" Steveson said. Others notice it, too. An assistant in the emergency room, her co-workers and supervisor at Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette say they have all observed that Steveson was born to be a nurse. Steveson, a nurse for 27 years, will be honored today in Denver with the Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses. The award comes from The Daisy Foundation, a nonprofit with the goal of fighting diseases of the immune system. More than 1,000 nurses at 80 hospitals have been recognized with the award. Steveson is being honored for going above and beyond during the Dec. 20 blizzard to help patients and stranded travelers at the hospital.

Shaving heads, fighting cancer
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070328/NEWS/70327008
Thirty-five people shaved their heads last week to raise money for cancer research and support two local boys who are battling the disease.

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

Concealed-carry change all but final (Under the dome, 3/29)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543381
The House on Wednesday sent to the governor a bill to tighten the concealed-weapons permits law. Senate Bill 34, which passed on a 36-29 vote, closes a loophole that lets Coloradans who don't want to work through their local sheriff to use permits from other states. Current law does not allow enforcement officers to yank the permits issued by another state.
RELATED: Bill to tighten gun permits goes to Ritter
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20656&template=article.html

Friends bid officer farewell
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5542659
Among the 200 or so people who came to honor fallen Aurora police officer Doug Byrne on Wednesday was a young man who felt Byrne's influence more than most. Fifteen-year-old Brandon Cadena had known Byrne since he was about 7, when Byrne was a cop in Glendale. The officer, Brandon recalled, was always first on the scene to any call in his neighborhood. Brandon said he and Byrne would "take" radar together to catch speeders. He would even stop by to give Christmas presents to Brandon. The youngster proudly wore the police cap Byrne gave him.
RELATED: Crowd gathers to remember officer who died in accident
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5449533,00.html

Grand jury eyes Crips in unsolved slayings
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450060,00.html
A Denver grand jury is investigating violent gang members suspected in a number of unsolved homicides, including the brazen New Year's Day drive-by shooting of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams. The grand jury inquiry follows an ongoing investigation into a segment of the Crips gang believed to be involved in a growing drug trade.

Denver police to crack down on young curfew violators
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450141,00.html
Denver Police officers will beef up curfew patrol Sunday and begin sending young offenders to the SafeNite site at its headquarters. Anyone under 17 who is out in public after midnight on weekends, and after 11 p.m. on weekdays, will be ticketed and arrested. "The purpose is to keep them safe," said Tiffany Vu, the diversion officer supervisor for Safe City. "The reason they are out is because of their environment at home."

Deputy lands DUI in county vehicle
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070329_2.htm
A deputy from the Montezuma County Detention Center was arrested Monday for alleged reckless driving and driving under the influence. Douglas Spigner, 43, was arrested by a Cortez Police Department officer after he drove a jail transport van off the road. The accident occurred about 8:56 p.m. on U.S. Highway 491 just south of Cortez. Spigner did not have permission to be driving the van, according to a release from the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office. He was off duty at the time of the accident, and there were no passengers inside the van.

Ex-trooper guilty of peeping
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5540652
Former Colorado State Trooper Eric Leon Bufkin was convicted Tuesday of a misdemeanor peeping-Tom charge after a jury found him guilty of using a special mirror to watch a woman undress in a Golden department store. The mirror is used by law enforcement to read vehicle indentification number information on the underside of automobiles. Bufkin, 34, set one up in a dressing room in the juniors department at Kohl's in April 2006, authorities said.

Top

Economy

Transfer of assets alleged
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542650
Former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio tried to hide more than $90 million in assets in February 2002 by transferring them to accounts held solely in his wife's name, the Justice Department alleges in a court filing. Prosecutors are seeking permission to introduce the evidence when they call Nacchio's former financial counselor, David Weinstein, to the stand in the next few days in Nacchio's criminal insider-trading trial. Nacchio's lead attorney, Herbert Stern, had raised the issue of how Nacchio handled his family's assets during opening statements last week as a way to show that Nacchio held Qwest stock when he could have sold it.
RELATED: Proceedings lack hoopla of high-profile trials past
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542653
RELATED: Ex-controller wanted to reveal Qwest 1-time deals
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542735
RELATED: Nacchio 'hid' assets, adviser may testify
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5450163,00.html
RELATED: Qwest's revenue goals a 'huge stretch,' former execs testify
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5450150,00.html
RELATED: Special coverage: Nacchio on trial
http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/business/nacchio/

Qwest in running for rich contracts
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542651
The General Service Administration this morning will announce the winners in a four-way race to provide telecommunications services to hundreds of federal agencies. Denver-based Qwest Communications is among the telecom companies seeking approval to participate in the Networx Universal contract, worth between $20 billion and $48 billion over 10 years. "It represents a significant opportunity for us," said said Thomas Richards, executive vice president of the Business Markets Group at Qwest. "We would love the opportunity, whether there are two, three or four winners."
RELATED: Qwest to hear today on federal contract
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5449526,00.html

Microsoft seeks to buy DoubleClick
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5543090
Microsoft Corp. is in talks to buy DoubleClick Inc., the Internet advertising company owned by private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation. DoubleClick hired Morgan Stanley to explore its options, including a possible stock-market listing, the Journal said, citing the sources, who indicated there are other potential suitors. Hellman & Friedman is seeking at least $2 billion, almost double the $1.1 billion it paid for the New York-based company in 2005, the newspaper said. The company has a center in Thornton, where its data business is based.

Telluride faces new challenge on Valley Floor
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543408
The owner of the Valley Floor at the entrance to Telluride has appealed the town's right to acquire the land through condemnation. Attorneys for the San Miguel Valley Corp. filed an appeal Tuesday with the Colorado Supreme Court arguing that Telluride should not have been allowed to use an eminent-domain taking because the town plans to maintain the 570 acres as open space. The appeal is based on a 2004 state law that prohibits Telluride and other home-rule towns from condemning land outside their boundaries for open space or parks. That law was deemed unconstitutional at the district court level because the Colorado Constitution grants home-rule municipalities the right to take land through condemnation without stipulations on use.

Contested Wal-Marts gain
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543345
Two Front Range cities have given the thumbs-up to controversial Wal-Mart proposals after separate, marathon city council meetings. The Longmont City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday night to approve the city's second Wal-Mart Supercenter, as well as a Sam's Club to be built adjacent to the store. The stores will be built on the southeast corner of Colorado 119 and County Line Road on a parcel of land that had long been zoned for big-box retail. But critics of the proposal - who numbered several dozen at the meeting - argued that placing the mammoth stores there would mar vistas from the adjacent Sandstone Ranch open space. "Many, many years ago, people had the vision to talk about open space," Longmont resident Sarah Levison, a critic of the store proposals, said Wednesday. "It becomes not open any more if you put something intensive next to it."

Farm sows community-crop idea
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290363/1002
Bringing consumers closer to the food they eat is not a new concept, but it's one from which most Americans have strayed. Content to buy produce at the grocery store - maybe the farmers market in the summer - most of us have no idea where the food we eat comes from, maybe California, maybe Chile. Grant Family Farms, a longtime Wellington organic farm, is selling opportunities for residents to get closer to their food. The farm has set aside about 20 of its 1,800 acres for community supported agriculture, or CSA, a program in which residents can buy annual shares to reap what is sown.

Top

Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Circuit City fires highest-paid salespeople
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5449465,00.html
Circuit City Stores Inc. fired 3,400 of its highest-paid hourly salespeople Wednesday morning, including 38 in the Denver market, and plans to replace them with lower-paid workers. The biggest cuts in Colorado came at a Westminster store where nine staffers were fired, said spokesman Jim Babb. Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City operates 15 Colorado stores, 11 in the Denver area. The company said it cut jobs that paid "well above" market rates.

United to add 100 workers
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/airlines/article/0,2777,DRMN_23912_5450302,00.html
United Airlines is hiring up to 100 ramp workers and customer service agents in Denver, providing yet another boost to the region's growing aviation industry. The added staff will help United better accommodate its passengers and operate more efficiently at its gates, said Mike Scanlan, general manager of the carrier's Denver operations. Some of the openings are for new positions, while others are the result of attrition, Scanlan said.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

Bill protecting homeowners supported
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5544085
Homeowners would not be able to sign their rights away in contracts with builders under a measure lawmakers initially approved Wednesday. House Bill 1338, dubbed the Homeowner Protection Act of 2007, would prohibit homebuilders from forcing buyers to sign contracts with certain provisions if they want the property. Under the bill, the provisions in the contracts designed to protect builders from lawsuits would be voided if there is fraud or gross negligence. The homeowner also would not be able to waive home-repair costs that are currently allowed by state law. "I think very few homes are bad, but when they are and a homeowner can't get a remedy, it's devastating," said Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, who sponsored the bill. "Homebuyers may have invested their current and future income and sometimes need legal intervention to make sure that their basic rights are available."
RELATED: Home buyer rights bill gets initial House OK
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5449531,00.html
RELATED: Homeowner bill gets preliminary approval
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20658&template=article.html

Where will Vail's cheap housing be?
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070328/NEWS/70328031
Vail’s new affordable homes could be next door to multi-million-dollar condos in Vail Village. They could be in a condo complex in Intermountain. They could be in a new building on town land. They could be geared toward seasonal workers or families. They could be for sale or for rent. The employee housing that’s created under the stricter rules the town is proposing could take lots of different forms. Developers could satisfy the requirements by putting housing within their developments or they could put them elsewhere in town or pay a fee to the town that would be used for employee housing.

Top

Education

State starts education chief search
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543344
The competition to become Colorado's highest ranking education official, a leader who will oversee the education of more than 750,000 public school children, officially launches today. The seven-member State Board of Education will take applications for the job of education commissioner through April 26. They hope to hire an education chief by summer, when Commissioner William Moloney plans to step down after 10 years. "We are, at this point, looking nationally," said Karen Middleton, a Democrat who represents the 7th Congressional District on the board. "Some of our best candidates may come from Colorado, but we don't want to limit ourselves in any way."

Growth slowing down in St. Vrain Valley schools
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15451
The St. Vrain Valley School District’s fastest-growing elementary schools next year are expected to be Alpine, Erie, Frederick and Prairie Ridge. That’s not a surprise, as northeast Longmont, Erie and the Carbon Valley are where much of the area’s growth is. But the school district’s planning department and the long-range facility planning committee expect growth to slow a bit in the coming years. Only 536 more students are expected to join St. Vrain schools next year, compared to 642 new students in 2006 and 1,021 in 2005, according to the school district.

FCHS losing fight for enrollment
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290367/1002/NEWS01
Concerned about the diminishing size of Fort Collins High School's student body and how it might affect the quality of education, a group of the school's faculty and parents met Wednesday evening to discuss the issues and possible solutions. The school lost five staff members this year and is poised to eliminate 2½ positions next year because of declining enrollments - a trend that can be attributed to poorly set boundaries and academic disadvantages within the district, said presenters at the forum, held at the FCHS McNeal Performing Arts Center.
RELATED: Study reveals PSD students fit right in at CSU
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/CSUZONE01/703290365/1002/NEWS01

Fund Board approves budget
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/mar/29/fund_board_approves_budget/?local_news
Steamboat Springs — The Education Fund Board approved a budget of more than $3 million for next year, meaning the board will have to dip into its long-term reserve. Projected half-cent sales tax revenues for 2007-08 are approximately $2.7 million, which is an all-time high since the education tax’s inception in 1993. Initial funding requests for this year’s budgeting process were $3.7 million, but a majority of Fund Board members were not comfortable spending nearly $1 million more than the projected sales tax revenue. Instead, the Fund Board approved, 7-2, shaving 10 percent from the capital, educational excellence and technology commissions’ initial budget requests to bring the Fund Board budget closer to its projected revenue.

Boulder's Chautauqua faces need to change
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450149,00.html
Boulder's landmark at the foot of the Flatirons got its start in 1898, when a group of Texas educators looking for a retreat founded the Texas Colorado Chautauqua and began hosting summer events beneath white tents. Those tents were eventually replaced by the dozens of cottages - along with an auditorium, dining hall and academic hall - that still stand today. Boulder was part of a chautauqua movement that started in New York in 1874 before sweeping across the country. During balmy summer months, chautauquas hosted classes and cultural events such as plays and operas, typically in a scenic outdoor setting. The movement largely disappeared during the Depression. During its heyday, speakers ranging from William Jennings Bryan to social activist Jane Addams visited Boulder's Chautauqua to debate issues of the day.

Date-rape awareness class alters attitudes at CSU
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543405
They enter the classroom in typical college-guy fashion. They elbow one another and kid about the day's events. Most of them - who number 10 in all and come from Greek houses on the fringes of the Colorado State University campus - sit on one side of the room while their sorority sisters sit on the other. The women are a little more serious as they take out pens and papers and prepare for the night's lecture. By all appearances the 20 students could be hunkering down to study economics, European history or calculus. Instead, they are diving into one of touchiest subjects on this or any other college campus in America: date rape. The class is a one-hour credit course created by Greeks Against Sexual Assault, a group aimed at preventing rape and debunking myths about it, especially in the college's Greek houses.

Resolution sought in knife incident
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450139,00.html
Teachers, parents and school leaders plan to meet with two students involved in an alleged death threat at Erie Elementary School to resolve the conflict, possibly without criminal charges, officials said.

Top

Military

Salazar wants VA to explain botched computer contract
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/17
An audit of a $100 million Veterans Administration contract for computer security has shown that VA officials allowed the contract to swell to $250 million and could not account for some $35 million in expenditures, bringing the computer-plagued agency under fire this week. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., and a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he would call for Veterans Secretary Jim Nicholson to explain the errors in testimony before the committee later this week. "This is just another $100 million example of how this administration has once again failed our veterans," Salazar said Wednesday in a statement.
RELATED: Audit: VA wasted millions on contract for computer security
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-va-security_N.htm

Wounded in Iraq - local couple worries about their son
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070328/NEWS/103280101
A rocket-propelled grenade landed within feet of Army Staff Sgt. Rich Watson on the streets in the Diyala Province of Iraq, throwing him into the ground. "When he woke up from the initial blast he was face down on the pavement," said his mom, Sharon Jones-Bird, of Frisco, who talked to her son while he laid in an Iraqi hospital bed this week. She and her husband, Jerry Bird, worry everyday about their son, who is in the ninth month of his second tour of Iraq. The call that came in this week only intensified their concerns.

Builders, soldiers break ground on Carson housing development
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5449543,00.html
Builders and soldiers broke ground Wednesday on a housing development at Fort Carson to make room for some of the thousands of soldiers moving here in the next three years. Officials from GMH Military Housing, the construction company building the 404 units, joined Fort Carson's garrison commander, Col. Eugene Smith and a Pentagon representative in praising the new homes as a step up in quality and amenities for American soldiers. "We are striving to provide the same quality of life for soldiers and their families as the people they are pledged to defend," said Ivan Bolden, assistant for policy of the Office of Assistant Secretary of the Army.
RELATED: More homes going up at Fort Carson
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20661&template=article.html

Satellite network pact up for bid
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542652
Raytheon Co. in Aurora will pursue a satellite control network operations and maintenance contract administered by Air Force Space Command at Schriever Air Force Base, the company announced Wednesday. The Network and Space Operations & Maintenance contract, currently held by Harris Corp., is up for bid and could be worth about $500 million. "We're going after the incumbent, which is Harris Corp.," said Raytheon spokesman Keith Little. "It should be a good thing for the space systems business in Aurora."

Top

Religion

Musgrave takes on push for praying
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290369/1002/NEWS01
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers Wednesday in launching an effort to encourage every American to spend five minutes a week praying for the nation. Rep. J. Randy Forbes, the Virginia Republican who heads the Congressional Prayer Caucus, said lawmakers want to "build a spiritual prayer wall around America" that will not cease "until God heals our land." "I think we'll all know when that happens," Forbes said. A Web site, www.prayercaucus.org, allows people to sign up for specific times to pray for the nation so someone is praying every moment. Lawmakers quoted George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln on the issue of prayer, including Lincoln's comment, "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." "I believe in prayer," said Musgrave, a Republican. "It's meant a great deal in my personal life. And I believe our nation is facing enormous challenges right now. I think it's a very appropriate time to call people around this nation to join us in prayer to heal our land."

Effect of judge's ruling on molestation cases unclear
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/11
It is unclear whether a new Denver court ruling about sexual molestation will affect more than 20 lawsuits in Pueblo by men who allege they were sexually molested by a former Roncalli High School teacher. A Denver District Court judge ruled this week that the Denver Catholic Archdiocese could not use the statute of limitations as a basis for him to throw out lawsuits that have allegations similar to the Roncalli lawsuits.

Conflict escalates between diocese, dissident pastor
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450039,00.html
An investigation by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado into accusations of "financial wrongdoing" by the Rev. Don Armstrong of Grace and St. Stephen's parish alleges the theft and misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money over about 10 years, the bishop said. The allegations are listed in a March 27 letter to parishioners of the 2,000-member Colorado Springs church from Bishop Rob O'Neill. Armstrong could not be reached for comment. On Monday, he explained to the Rocky Mountain News in broad terms the allegations and denied wrongdoing.
RELATED: Episcopal fight in Springs won’t happen at church
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5448253,00.html
RELATED: Denominational change emotional for members
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20654&template=article.html
RELATED: Priest a thief, diocese says
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20643&template=article.html

Top

Energy Policy

Gibbs reflects on recent trip to D.C.
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070328/NEWS/103280100
Rep. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, spent fewer than 24 hours in Washington D.C. to testify before Congress this week, but the quick trip didn't take anything away from the value of the experience. "It was wonderful," Gibbs said on Wednesday afternoon. "It was just a unique opportunity, of course, especially from being a former congressional staffer to be able to be testifying- it was really unique." Gibbs spent six years working under U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colorado. In fact, on Tuesday morning, he walked to the Longworth building, where the hearing titled "Access Denied: The Growing Conflict Between Fishing, Hunting and Energy Development on Federal Lands" was held, with Udall's legislative director.
RELATED: Gibbs' wildlife habitat stewardship bill passes [state] house unanimously
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070328/NEWS/103280098

Ritter touts northern Colorado's role in 'new energy economy'
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070329/NEWS/103290090
Inside, the plant smells like a microbrewery that crafts pale ales infused with popcorn. The aroma is yeasty, yet somehow sweet. Taking in the scent, Gov. Bill Ritter peered up at a massive fermentation tank, part of a complicated process that turns corn into ethanol. "That's why it smells like a brewery," he said. The governor toured Front Range Energy's ethanol plant in Windsor on Wednesday, touting ethanol's role in what he describes as Colorado's "new energy economy." Renewable energy and biofuels are a high priority for Ritter, who says their production in Colorado can augment rural economies and make the state a national leader in research and technology.
RELATED: Ritter celebrates city's new fuel
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290366/1002

Environmental group starts ballot process as fallback
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/29/3_29_Ballot_measures.html
A Front Range environmental group has taken the first steps toward placing on the 2008 ballot two initiatives aimed at changing the way local governments regulate the oil and gas industry and modifying the industry’s influence on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Matthew Garrington, field director for Environment Colorado, said he filed two ballot titles last week with the Colorado Legislative Council staff as a fallback option to measures moving through the Legislature this year. “We’re keeping our options open,” Garrington said. “We’re very hopeful the state Legislature is going to take a look at and address these important issues.”

COUNTY TOUTS SOLAR POWER (Briefing, March 29)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5450059,00.html
Boulder County plans to install about 40 solar panels on top of the west wing of the county courthouse on Pearl Street this summer in an effort to generate electricity to power, in part, four future hybrid-electric vehicles in its fleet. County officials say they also would like to place several working photovoltaic panels on the courthouse lawn to demonstrate to the public how solar- energy generation works.

BLM seeks comment on drilling, evaporation pond proposal
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/29/3_29_BLM_Noble_Energy_Plan.html
Noble Energy plans to construct evaporation ponds and 42 natural gas wells south of Parachute, and the Bureau of Land Management wants public opinion about the proposal. The company recently submitted a “geographic area plan” to the BLM describing its development proposal for 1,790 acres of public land near Pete and Bill Creek. Noble Energy plans to drill on three leases, one of which was issued more than 30 years ago. The plan, according to the BLM, calls for 42 wells to be directionally drilled over three years from two existing well pads and four proposed well pads. Three miles of new roads and pipelines may be built. The BLM requires energy companies to submit the geographic area plans so the agency can evaluate the entire development’s impact to the area.

Western to build natural-gas plant
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542539
Williams Cos. plans to build a new processing plant in western Colorado to increase by more than fivefold production of natural-gas liquids from gas extracted by the company in the region's Piceance Basin. The Willow Creek plant, with a capacity to process 450 million cubic feet of natural gas a day, is expected to begin operations in the third quarter of 2009, Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams said in a statement Wednesday.
RELATED: West Slope to get Williams plant
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5449464,00.html
RELATED: Gas plant could add to heavy traffic on Rio Blanco Road 5
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/03/29/3_29_1B_Gas_processing.html
RELATED: Williams announces plans for new gas processing plant and pipeline
http://postindependent.com/article/20070329/VALLEYNEWS/103290041

County works out permit details
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=6531
Final details for the conditional-use permit of the Northfield Coal Mine near Williamsburg were ironed out and approved Tuesday by the Fremont County Commissioners. Some of those finer points, including hours of operation, still were argued by members of the audience. However, the commissioners have worked on the six-page list of conditions for the permit since Feb. 27 and were ready to adopt them. Despite a contentious meeting March 13, the resolution adopting the conditions was approved unanimously by the board Tuesday.

Top

Transportation and Infrastructure

Cab company assailed over lobbying tactics
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5449740,00.html
An independent Yellow Cab driver says a supervisor offered him and other cabbies up to $110 if they'd call state lawmakers and urge them to kill a taxi deregulation bill up for a hearing today. In a sworn statement, Yellow Cab driver Mengisteab Desta said a supervisor offered to knock off two days of lease fees for drivers who called lawmakers. A company executive Wednesday denied cabbies were offered payment. The allegation hits as the House Transportation and Energy Committee votes on House Bill 1114 this morning. Meanwhile, a political watchdog group says it will ask the secretary of state to investigate whether Yellow Cab paid drivers to call lawmakers in violation of lobbyist registration laws.

Locals picked as transportation advisors
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070328/NEWS/70328008
Two local transportation advocates — Mick Ireland and Dan Blankenship — were tapped this week to advise the governor on transportation. Ireland, an Aspen mayoral candidate and former Pitkin County commissioner, was named as a panel member on the newly formed Colorado Transportation Finance and Implementation Panel. Blankenship, CEO of the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, will be on the technical advisory subcommittee that will work with panel members on strategies for overcoming various challenges in transportation development.

Guess what? No solutions for I-70, yet
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070328/NEWS/103280099
Ninety percent of The Mint's customers are tourists, and manager James Kubik is seeing more and more of them frustrated with traffic on Interstate 70. Unfortunately, Colorado Department of Transportation executive director Russell George couldn't give Summit County business owners a specific answer on when they'll see a workable plan to ease I-70 congestion. George, appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter on Jan. 20, was the keynote speaker at Silverthorne's annual business breakfast Wednesday. He shared his philosophy on finding transportation solutions with approximately 145 people at the Silverthorne Pavilion. Trying to agree on solutions to I-70 bottlenecks has been a seven-year project. Gov. Ritter hopes to decide on the corridor remedy by November. George, the only member of the governor's cabinet from the West Slope, said the decision will probably not happen this year. When asked about the time frame, he said, "It will be some months - certainly, it can't be some years, I hope."

Extra lane doesn’t doom a monorail
http://postindependent.com/article/20070329/VALLEYNEWS/70328005
Coming over the pass at a steady speed and suddenly finding yourself stuck behind a slow going truck with no room to pass it, or having to hit the breaks thanks to an accident ahead are some of the most frustrating things motorists have to deal with on Interstate 70 . “I was stuck on the pass for a couple of hours one year,” said Paul Miklas, who has been making the trip from the Denver Airport to Vail every year for 32 years. “There was black ice and an accident so we got diverted off the highway and it took a very long time.” Miklas’ experience is just one example of what the Colorado Department of Transportation is working to avoid by proposing a third, slow-moving traffic lane for the west side of the pass, project manager Peter Kozinski said.

[Westminster] hopeful FasTracks will energize declining areas
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5542654
Over the past five years, Frances Falbo has watched the neighborhood surrounding her family's restaurant decline as new residential developments and shopping centers popped up to the north and west. In early days, the neighborhood was known as Goat Hill, had no sidewalks or sewers, and was populated with poor farmers. Westminster annexed it several decades ago. "Goat Hill has always been a low-income, family-type thing," said Falbo, whose family has for 46 years owned Bova's Italian Restaurant at West 72nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard. "Now there's a lot of problems with gang-related stuff - graffiti and tagging." She's hopeful a proposed light-rail station nearby will breathe new life into the area and into her business. With buyers increasingly priced out of northwest Denver's gentrifying neighborhoods, Westminster is hoping to lure them northward. City officials have devised a plan to create a vibrant, urban center around the light-rail stop planned for West 70th Avenue and Irving Street, a 10-minute ride from Denver Union Station.

Forum to address transportation of disabled in rural Weld
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070329/NEWS/103280134
This meeting is designed to address concerns of rural Weld transportation, but all residents are invited to attend. Another meeting, not yet scheduled, will address the concerns of the disabled commuting around Greeley. Don Coloroso, chair of the disability advocacy network, said the meeting will present an opportunity for people and officials to trade ideas on goals improving transportation options for senior citizens and the disabled. Coloroso added that there is never enough money to do all the projects but that by working with officials, his group might be able to identify those projects that could be done. "We're hoping that one: existing service improves and we may have to readjust priorities to do that," Coloroso said. "And two: we hope to hear stories about the quality of customer service and how it has impacted (the disabled)." County Commissioner Bill Garcia, who has worked as a disability attorney, said a regional transportation authority, currently under study by many northern Colorado communities, could help senior citizens and the disabled in the development of mass transit programs that would use matching funds from the authority. An RTA would impose a sales tax increase.

Public Works budget hits a pothole
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5544071
Denver's budget for building roads and adding stoplights is projected in 2008 to be lower than the lean times of 2003 and 2004. And it will be 2011 before the Public Works Department has a capital improvements budget that is higher than it is this year. The figures, presented Wednesday at a committee meeting, caught several City Council members off guard. "It was amazing to me to learn that we had a dramatic cut in the budget for this important aspect of what the city does," said Councilwoman Marcia Johnson, who chairs the public works committee. She added later, "When I told my colleagues about this, they were stunned."

Residents revved up over ATV misuse
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15450
A group of residents and property owners are upset with what they say is increasingly irresponsible all-terrain vehicle use in the Allenspark area. They’re planning a Friday afternoon community meeting at the Allenspark Fire Station to discuss their concerns, which they say include erosion, noise, vandalism, litter and trespassing on private property.

Rifle airport anticipates flight boost
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070329/NEWS/103290057
The Garfield County Airport in Rifle will get a boost in business with the temporary closure of the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, starting next month. The Aspen airport will close from April 9 until June 7 for runway reconstruction.

Auto show fires on all cylinders
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543184
The show, which features 46 brands and dozens of aftermarket and specialty-equipment companies, attracted hundreds within the first hour of opening Wednesday.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Bills would expand Mesa Verde park
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070329_4.htm
An effort is under way to expand Mesa Verde National Park by 362 acres. Jerry Henneman wants to sell 324 acres he owns adjacent to the park to the Conservation Fund. Mesa Verde Foundation would donate another 38 acres to the park. The plan must be approved by Congress. U.S. Rep John Salazar, D-Manassa, has introduced a bill for that purpose. In the Senate, Wayne Allard, R-Colo, and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., are co-sponsoring a companion bill.

Officials find fish safe at Horsetooth
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290368/1002/NEWS01
Eating fish caught at Horsetooth Reservoir is safe for most people even with elevated levels of mercury found in some species, state officials said Wednesday. But children 6 and younger, pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid eating some types of fish from the reservoir because of the health risk posed by the toxin, officials said during a meeting on mercury in the popular recreation spot west of Fort Collins.

Minding the melt
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15446
City water officials on Tuesday began topping off Union Reservoir to prepare for the summer, even as experts are seeing above-average snowpack along the Front Range. Federal soil conservationists on Tuesday measured the snowpack on Longs Peak at 112 percent of the 30-year average, continuing a trend they saw in January.
RELATED: Snowpack more dismal than last year, conservationists say
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070329/NEWS/103290088

Pueblo West discusses storm runoff
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/7
Pueblo West Metropolitan District, which spent much of last summer under water from a series of ferocious thunderstorms, is moving toward forming a stormwater utility to deal with drainage issues. At a work session after the metro board meeting Tuesday, Tamara Muhic of North Star Engineering explained two resolutions the district needs to adopt before its stormwater drainage permit with the state health department expires next year.

Elkhead reaches milestone
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/25936
Calls were made to people living near the Elkhead River telling them to expect high water levels. But on Wednesday, anyone living downstream from Elkhead Reservoir needed only to look at the river to realize that something was very different. At 10 a.m. the valves in the control room at the dam were opened, allowing the water entering the reservoir to flow downstream unobstructed for the first time this spring. The 1.8 cubic feet per second flow rate jumped to 400 cfs with the opening of the valves. For Lonnie Kawcak, owner of the ranch directly below the dam, the flow level was something he was used to.

Council to take on wetlands
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/03/28/local_news/4.txt
The Montrose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow for the creation of wetlands on 1.57 acres of city-owned open space behind the River Landing shopping center currently under construction. In making the decision, which also included comments to be passed along to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, council resisted calls from the public to broaden its focus and demand a public hearing from the Army Corps. Instead, council determined that the prospective wetlands, which would include a recreation trail, would increase public access to the river corridor and transform what was once a gravel pit.

DOW recruiting for Bear Aware!
http://postindependent.com/article/20070329/VALLEYNEWS/103290038
For a third straight year, state wildlife officials are looking for people who care about bears to advocate on their behalf in the Glenwood Springs area. The Colorado Division of Wildlife is recruiting volunteers for its Bear Aware! program. Participants do not handle bears, but rather work to educate other humans about how to avoid problems with the animals. The agency is putting out the call for volunteers just as bears are starting to emerge from hibernation, urged along by the unseasonably warm temperatures of recent weeks. The bears' return follows two years of reduced conflicts between people and bears in the Glenwood area. Credit goes to everything from good weather that resulted in healthy crops of berries and other natural bear food, to increased public awareness about eliminating bear attractants, a 2005 city ordinance that aimed at reducing those attractants, and a more aggressive approach by the DOW in dealing with problem bears.

Top

Opinion

Sirota: The marriage of hypocrisy and corruption in Washington
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5542197
We all know that special interests talk out of both sides of their mouths whenever they are trying to buy public policy. But in recent weeks, we have seen glaring examples of sheer hypocrisy that are eye-popping, even by Washington standards. On issues from pharmaceutical prices to democracy to trade, lobbyists are stepping all over their own rhetoric in attempts to keep Congress from embracing a populist, middle-class agenda.

Another Denver election glitch
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5542194
Perhaps it's time for Denver civic leaders to take to the airwaves with a message targeting citizens who might miss the May 1 city election. More than 100,000 Denver residents have been classified as "inactive" voters because they didn't vote in the November or January elections. That doesn't mean they can't vote in the May election - but it does mean they won't receive ballots for the all-mail election unless they request them. The problem has two causes. The first is a delayed time bomb from the disastrous November election, when computer problems forced citizens to wait in line for hours and sent an estimated 20,000 frustrated residents home without voting. And the January special election had a miserably low turnout - just 53,797 voted on a ballot issue to abolish Denver's election commission and replace it with an elected clerk and recorder.

Littwin: Beauprez hits comeback trail, if only in his dreams
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5449737,00.html
Don't blame me. I was willing to let sleeping horses lie.

Don't re-create '68: Exuberant activists should fail to reprise Chicago
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/29/dont-re-create-68/
Glenn Spagnuolo thinks the Democratic Convention of 1968 is worth reprising. Pray that most people disagree. Denver in 2008 should not devolve into the Chicago of '68. In 1968, thousands of anti-war activists came to Chicago to oppose Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey. They came largely in the cause of peace but helped to foment an orgy of violence.

Sundin: The lifeblood of elections: money
http://postindependent.com/article/20070329/COLUMNISTS/103290032
The 2008 election campaign which has already started, is expected to cost more than four times as much as the 1996 campaign. Clearly, the situation has gotten out of hand. What can be done about it? So-called "campaign finance reform" measures invariably fail. By design, they are as full of holes as Swiss cheese, because lavish campaign donations are like oxygen to elected officials. Common "wisdom" says, "You can't beat the system - so why even try?" But there is a better way. Several states, including Maine, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut, and several cities, have adopted simple "Clean Elections" reform measures, which give candidates for state and local offices a choice of sticking with the current corrupting system with its endless pursuit of private sources of campaign funds, or forgoing private interest money in return for public funds to finance their campaigns. To qualify for public funds, Clean Election candidates must demonstrate a broad level of support by obtaining modest donations from a specified number of voters. Once qualified, they will receive a fixed and equal amount of public funds for both the primaries and the general election. The advantages: it would open the door to a broader spectrum of candidates; elections would be run on a more level playing field; and candidates would no longer have to solicit from and cater to corporate interests, but could devote their time and dedicate themselves to addressing the issues that are important to the public.

Funding help needed for schools
http://greeleytrib.com/article/20070329/TRIBEDIT/103290096/-1/TRIBEDIT
With fanfare at a mid-March press conference, Ritter announced his support for a measure that would provide $84 million annually to K-12 education. Most of the money from the proposal -- $65 million -- would be generated by stabilizing local mill-levy rates used to determine property taxes. That amount would be spent on full-day kindergarten and would help prevent the State Education Fund from slipping toward insolvency, Ritter said. The measure, of course, is controversial. Many lawmakers view the stabilization of mill levies as essentially a tax increase. As property values rise, regardless of a frozen mill rate, taxes will correspondingly go higher, they argue. So when the proposal came before the Senate last week, lawmakers booted it out of the School Finance Act. Senate Bill 199, without the property tax measure, passed the Senate on a 34-0 vote last week. It's unfortunate the proposal appears headed from stall to fall -- before it moves to the House, lawmakers are awaiting an opinion from legislative counsel about the legality of the measure -- because it's clear the school funding system is in need of a fix.

A sad final note for Flats whistleblower
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5542192
An engineer who helped expose problems at the former nuclear plant deserves thanks, even if the Supreme Court denied his monetary claims.

Harsanyi: Medical-marijuana user taken on a bad trip by legal system
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5542663
Sometimes there's a fine line between consent and coercion. Jack Branson learned that lesson the hard way in October 2004 when officers from the North Metro Drug Task Force knocked on his door. Would Branson give consent to these officers to conduct a warrantless search of his home in Thornton? Well, of course he would consent - especially after, as Branson tells it, the dozen or so armed cops explained, in detail, the needless tragedies that would befall his home if they were forced to go through the trouble of returning with a warrant. In they went. The police, naturally, knew exactly what they were looking for and quickly seized about a dozen marijuana plants Branson was growing in the backyard. Charged with felony cultivation and possession with intent to distribute, the 38-year-old Branson, who is in a 20-year fight with HIV, is now facing a maximum six years in prison. Branson, who had no previous criminal record, claims that a physician named Dr. Cynthia Firnhaber verbally recommended medical marijuana to him in 2002 to help ease his pain. "That or pick out a hospice which you'd like to die in," Branson alleges the doctor told him.

Carlisle: How high will gas prices go this summer?
http://summitdaily.com/article/20070328/COLUMNS/103280070
So, were you: A) mad, B) scared, or C) ignorant of the refinery fire last month in Indiana? There wasn't much damage, no one was hurt, but the owners had to shut down the refinery and stop delivering gasoline to a number of gas stations in Ontario. If you lived in Ontario you were mad. If you lived here, you probably were ignorant. But unless you're rich as Croesus or selfish and egocentric as anyone on Fox News, then you should be scared. Starting tomorrow, when a number of gasoline futures contracts expire, the price of gasoline is going to start to rise, perhaps only by a little at first, but for myself I'm planning on $4 by Memorial Day. That's why I'm a little scared this morning in America.

Carman: Homes' green jewels branching into a nuisance
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5543379
About a third of the 145 homes in the Village I and II neighborhoods in the southwest corner of Lowry are affected by the problem caused when the developer planted inappropriate trees in the yards. About 80 trees are being removed this spring, and new trees are to be planted, all at the homeowners' expense. "It was a painful decision," said Chad Asarch, president of the Village II homeowners association. "People were really upset. They're beautiful trees, but we can't keep them there." Asarch said the Lowry Redevelopment Authority required all builders to submit landscaping plans before anything was planted. "We actually have a copy of the approved landscaping plans, and our arborist said if they'd planted the trees on it, we would have been fine." Instead, Norway maples, Bradford pears and two types of linden trees were planted, most within 5 feet of the houses. "At maturity, these trees will have crowns with a 30-foot radius," he said. Asarch said as the trees grew, homeowners began having problems with limbs banging against their houses and branches growing up against the walls. They required extensive pruning every year, and the neighbors began comparing notes on the cost and the problems they were experiencing.

Thornton: Battling false alarms
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5542196
If you spend hundreds of dollars to have a burglar alarm in your home or business, you expect police or a sheriff's officer to respond when it goes off, right? Think again. You may live in a city or county where law enforcement ignores burglar alarms.

NATIONAL NEWS

Top

Election

A 'Law & Order' Presidential Candidate?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802195.html
"Law & Order" star and former U.S. senator Fred Dalton Thompson is considering a bid for the White House that would test whether Hollywood can once again launch a Republican to the world's premier political stage. His interest, confirmed in a brief interview this week, is generating buzz in Washington. He was third among Republican-leaning voters in a recent Gallup-USA Today survey, behind Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The onetime senator from Tennessee is known to many Americans for playing New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order" and an admiral in the film "The Hunt for Red October." But his real-life record as a no-nonsense lawmaker who also served as the minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee is appealing to party activists dissatisfied with the current crop of Republican hopefuls.

Clinton: Yes, I'm a feminist
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703290257mar29,1,2178743.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Wednesday that if you look up the word "feminist" in a dictionary, you'll find her. Clinton received the endorsement of the National Organization for Women, a group of a half-million members who support feminist candidates for elective office. Asked whether she saw herself as a feminist, Clinton said by the standard definition, yes. "If you look in the dictionary, the word feminist means someone who believes in equal rights for women in society, in the economy, the political process -- generally believes in the equality of women," she said. "And I certainly believe in the equality of women." Her response was met with enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.
RELATED: What will Bill's impact be?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-cover-clintons_N.htm

Voices in fine tune at the 'cattle calls'
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703290020mar29,1,5001380.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
When Sen. Barack Obama addressed a crowd of union firefighters here a couple of weeks ago, he gave an eloquent pro-labor speech that notably failed to use the word, well, "union." But by Wednesday's address to a conference of the nation's building trades unions, Obama had given a prominent place to the word in his stump speech. It was a small change and strictly stylistic, but it apparently improved his reception with a crowd predisposed to like a Democratic senator from Illinois with a labor-friendly record. "That was way, way better," said one union organizer who sat through both Obama speeches. "He's figuring it out." Figuring it out is partly what the presidential "cattle call" process is for at this stage of the campaign cycle. While the crowds at the candidates' campaign events are generally enthusiastic no matter what, the forums held by these and other special-interest groups are more accurate focus groups. Their feedback is immediate -- applause or silence. Sometimes they give standing ovations, and sometimes people take a coffee break in the middle of a candidate's speech.

Giuliani Rings Up Forbes Endorsement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802066.html
Steve Forbes isn't running for president again, but he is getting involved in a big way with the campaign of fellow New Yorker Rudolph W. Giuliani. The former New York mayor's campaign announced yesterday that Forbes, the billionaire magazine publisher, has endorsed Giuliani's campaign for the Republican nomination and will serve as a national campaign co-chairman and senior policy adviser. "As Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani showed how exercising fiscal discipline -- including tax cuts -- lowers deficits, spurs economic growth and increases revenue. It is time the rest of the country benefit from a true fiscal conservative leader who gets real results," Forbes said in a statement.

Franken details what campaign cash buys
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-franken-campaign_N.htm
U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken is telling potential supporters exactly what their contributions will do for his campaign. For example, $25 pays for a phone for one month. And $50 will cover the cost for pizza for a volunteer shift. Franken, running as a Democrat in Minnesota, made the pitch in a recent fundraising letter to help him make a respectable showing in the first quarter of the year, which ends Saturday. "That's why people like me are going to be flooding your inbox this week with a plea for those last few dollars that could push them over their quarterly goal," he wrote. "Great system we have here, huh?"

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Bush Derides Iraq War Measure
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800157.html
In his most combative comments yet, President Bush mocked Democratic lawmakers yesterday for including a deadline for troop withdrawals and "pork" projects in an Iraq spending bill, declaring that "the American people will know who to hold responsible" if funding for the war stalls. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shot back that Bush's vow to veto the spending bill carries its own cost. In a joint letter, they warned him against following "a political strategy that would needlessly delay funding for our troops." "Calm down with the threats. There is a new Congress in town," Pelosi said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "We respect your constitutional role. We want you to respect ours."
RELATED: Bush, Dems vie to frame war debate
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703281077mar29,1,1982135.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: On Iraq, a showdown is all but inevitable
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess29mar29,1,2524027.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: Democrats Are Building on Unity Over Iraq Pullout
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29assess.html

Budget Plan Wipes Out Deficit But Leaves $50 Billion Dilemma
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802060.html
House Democrats say their budget blueprint would erase the federal deficit without raising "a single penny" in new taxes. But the proposal, set for a vote today, requires either that millions of middle-class families be hit with higher taxes next spring or that somebody else pay an extra $50 billion. That stark choice is the result of the inexorable expansion of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax structure that adds $6,800, on average, to a family's tax bill. Next month, an estimated 4.2 million Americans will pay the tax. Next spring, that number will balloon to 23 million unless Congress takes action.

Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29gonzales.html?ref=washington
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys, complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion. About a half-dozen United States attorneys voiced their concerns at a private meeting with Mr. Gonzales in Chicago.

Ex-Aide to Say Others at Justice Knew of Firings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802302.html
The attorney general's former chief of staff plans to testify today that other Justice Department officials knew about the "origins and timing" of the effort to fire eight U.S. attorneys, which began two years earlier in the White House, according to prepared testimony for a Congressional hearing. But D. Kyle Sampson -- who resigned earlier this month ahead of revelations that White House political officials helped direct the dismissals -- also will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he "never sought to conceal or withhold material fact about this matter" while helping prepare witnesses for Congress. Lawmakers are seeking to determine whether top Justice Department officials misled them while testifying on the matter in recent months.
RELATED: Ex-Gonzales aide defends firings
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703281053mar29,1,7491754.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Letter shows Justice misled investigators
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-february-letter_N.htm
RELATED: Kennedy: Justice firings are keyed to '08 vote
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/29/kennedy_justice_firings_are_keyed_to_08_vote/

Bush Withdraws Nominee Who Gave To Anti-Kerry Group
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802050.html
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has finally gotten some closure -- and a taste of revenge -- on the Swift-boating of his 2004 presidential quest. The White House yesterday pulled the ambassadorial nomination of Republican donor Sam Fox, who gave $50,000 in 2004 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the controversial group that ran a campaign questioning Kerry's Vietnam record and -- the way Kerry sees it -- doomed his White House bid. President Bush's decision to withdraw the nomination came as a surprise to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which found out only about 45 minutes before they were scheduled to vote on Fox's nomination late in the morning. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino all but admitted that the votes simply weren't there, saying the president was "disappointed that they made their decision based on partisan politics instead of his leadership abilities."
RELATED: Swift Boat connection sinks Bush nominee
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fox29mar29,1,4110700.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
RELATED: Bush withdraws ambassador choice
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/29/bush_withdraws_ambassador_choice/

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Guantanamo Detainee Described as Lost Soul Seeking 'a Way Out'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801928.html
When Australian David Hicks arrived at this island prison as it opened in January 2002, the U.S. government painted him as one of the world's worst terrorists, someone who would do immeasurable harm and needed to face justice. In the five years since, while nearly 400 other detainees have gone home, Hicks has languished in a tiny cell, often wondering, his defense team says, why he has been targeted as one of the chief enemies of the United States. Hicks's guilty plea on Monday to one count of material support for terrorism was the first step toward concluding his case, one that ultimately amounted to charges that he trained with al-Qaeda and worked with the Taliban after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But the U.S. government dropped allegations that he fired a single shot in the direction of U.S. or allied forces, and a pretrial agreement could limit the amount of prison time he serves to a few years.
RELATED: Newshounds can't get scent in Guantanamo
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-aussies29mar29,1,3961226.story?coll=la-headlines-world
RELATED: New Justice System Is a Work in Progress
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29gitmo.html?ref=washington

Evidence in Padilla case detailed
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-padilla29mar29,1,1745631.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
A key piece of evidence in the case against alleged terrorist operative Jose Padilla came from an Afghan man who told the CIA he found it in an Al Qaeda safe house, according to new court filings.

NOW Demands Access to Program Geared to Fathers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802065.html
It's called the Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Initiative, and the Bush administration doles out up to $50 million annually to fund its programs to build job skills and help fathers connect better with their children. But the National Organization for Women says the effort is illegal because it's only about men. NOW and Legal Momentum, another advocacy group, filed complaints yesterday with the Department of Health and Human Services alleging sex discrimination in the initiative that is funding about 100 programs this year. The complaints cite 34 programs, including one run by the District and two others in the Washington area, that, they say, do not offer the services to women. That, the groups say, violates Title IX, the law that prevents sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and is best known for forcing universities to offer comparable sports programs for men and women.

Top

Foreign Policy

Bush Meets Russian Faulted For Atrocities
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802068.html
President Bush met at the White House this week with a Russian general who has been accused of overseeing some of the most notorious atrocities against civilians during the brutal second war in Chechnya. Bush welcomed Gen. Vladimir Shamanov to the Oval Office Monday in Shamanov's capacity as co-chairman of a U.S.-Russian commission on missing soldiers. Bush posed for pictures with Shamanov and the American co-chairman, retired Air Force Gen. Robert Foglesong, president of Mississippi State University.

Britain Must Admit Error, Iran Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800294.html
Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that in order to win the freedom of 15 navy personnel seized last week in the Persian Gulf, the British government must acknowledge that the team illegally entered Iranian waters. Iranian television broadcast video footage of the sailors and marines on Wednesday, with the lone woman among them, dressed in Muslim garb, saying that the British boats had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. British Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the video as a "completely unacceptable" parading of the British detainees, who were seized by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval unit Friday.
RELATED: Britain freezes ties with Iran over detention of 15
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sailors29mar29,1,2126218.story?coll=la-headlines-world
RELATED: Iran Shows Video of Britons as Dispute Heats Up
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/europe/29britain.html?ref=world

Strikes on Baghdad's Green Zone on the Rise
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802423.html
Iraqi insurgents are increasingly hitting Baghdad's fortresslike Green Zone with rockets and mortar shells, officials said Wednesday. Insurgents have struck inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy, on six of the past seven days, once with deadly consequences. A U.S. soldier and a U.S. government contractor were killed Tuesday night by a rocket attack that also seriously wounded a civilian, military and embassy officials said. One soldier and at least three other civilians received minor injuries, U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.

Ousted Chief Justice Speaks Out in Pakistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802069.html
The nation's suspended chief justice received a hero's welcome from some 2,000 lawyers Wednesday as he gave his first address since President Pervez Musharraf removed him from the bench nearly three weeks ago. The Supreme Court judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, was showered with rose petals and greeted with boisterous chants of "Go, Musharraf, go!" by supporters who have rallied to Chaudhry's side and want Pakistan's president to resign.

Saudi King Finds Fault With Arab Leadership
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802421.html
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told Arab leaders gathered here Wednesday that they were to blame for the civil strife and divisions plaguing the Arab world. Speaking at the opening of the Arab summit, Abdullah said that Arabs were less united today than they were just over 60 years ago when the Arab League was formed, and that backwardness and disunity need not be their destiny.
RELATED: At summit, Saudi king scolds Arab leaders
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703280845mar29,1,3423929.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Arab lesbians defy protests at summit
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703281012mar29,1,5263525.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Arab allies condemn U.S. at summit in Saudi Arabia
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-arabs29mar29,1,3467997.story?coll=la-headlines-world
RELATED: U.S. Iraq Role Is Called Illegal by Saudi King
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/middleeast/29saudi.html?ref=world

Zimbabwe Raid Targets Activists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800436.html
Zimbabwean police raided the headquarters of the country's leading opposition party Wednesday and arrested its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, before freeing him a few hours later, party officials said. Riot police cordoned off the party headquarters building in Harare, the capital, late Wednesday morning, shortly before Tsvangirai was scheduled to give a news conference, and arrested more than 20 people inside, according to party officials. Tsvangirai, who is recovering from injuries caused by police beatings during an earlier arrest, was freed about 2 p.m.
RELATED: Zimbabwean Leaders Accused of Abducting Opponents
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/africa/29zimbabwe.html?ref=world

Tanker Explosion Kills 89 Nigerians
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/africa/29nigeria.html
At least 89 people were killed when an upturned oil tanker burst into flames Monday evening as it was being looted in northern Nigeria, officials said Wednesday. More than 100 survivors were being treated for burns, they said.

Czechs pledge support for missile defense shield
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/03/29/czechs_pledge_support_for_missile_defense_shield/
The Czech government announced yesterday that it would open formal negotiations with the United States to build part of a missile defense shield, even as opposition to the idea has stiffened elsewhere in Europe.

42 may face trial in France in arms sales
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-angola29mar29,1,6007741.story?coll=la-headlines-world
French prosecutors have requested that 42 people, including the son of late French President Francois Mitterrand, stand trial for suspected roles in illegal arms sales to Angola during the African nation's civil war, judicial officials said Wednesday. A magistrate will decide whether to proceed with a trial. The group of suspects includes Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, who served as counselor on African affairs from 1986 to 1992 under his father, and former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Preliminary charges of influence trafficking and misappropriating company assets have been filed against both men. Mitterrand also is being investigated for suspected complicity in illicit arms trafficking.

Top

Immigration

White House works behind the scenes for immigration reform
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29mar29,1,301512.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
With President Bush looking to counter a legacy increasingly marred by the war in Iraq, the White House has launched a bold, behind-the-scenes drive to advance a key domestic goal: immigration reform. For a month, White House staffers and Cabinet members have met three to four times a week with influential Republican senators and aides to hash out a consensus plan designed to draw a significant number of GOP votes. With that effort largely completed, Republicans were hoping to present their proposal Wednesday to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who would lead the Democrats in any attempt to move a bill through the Senate. The intense effort — conceived by the president's chief political strategist, Karl Rove — is intended to ensure that Bush will achieve at least one crucial policy victory in the last two years of his presidency.
RELATED: White House floats immigration proposal
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-wh-immigration_N.htm

Naturalization Up Among Immigrants
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801968.html
The number of naturalized citizens in the United States grew to nearly 13 million between 1995 and 2005, a historic increase that reflects the nation's changing ethnic makeup and could increase the power of immigrants to affect public policy at the ballot box, according to a study released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center. More than half of the nation's legal immigrants are now naturalized citizens, "the highest level in a quarter century and a 15 percent increase since 1990," when the proportion of naturalized immigrants reached historic lows, the study said. Since 1995, the average number of yearly naturalizations has surpassed 650,000, compared with 150,000 in 1970.
RELATED: Immigrants Becoming U.S. Citizens at High Rate
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/us/29citizen.html

Immigrant driver bill approved by [Illinois] House
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703281104mar29,1,6115495.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Illinois would become one of only a handful of states in the nation to authorize illegal immigrants to drive legally on their roads under legislation the Illinois House passed Wednesday to create a special driver's permit for undocumented residents. The 60-54 vote was an important victory for immigrant advocates, who have focused their energy this spring on several measures before the General Assembly.

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Health Care and Public Safety

Uganda's Early Gains Against HIV Eroding
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802510.html
Students packed a grassy field at Makerere University in April 1989 for a farewell concert by singer Philly Lutaaya. This symbol of swaggering virility had grown gaunt, with splotchy skin and the fine, sparse hair of a baby. He sang hauntingly, "Today it's me, tomorrow it's somebody else." Between songs, he warned the stunned crowd that having several sex partners was a sure way to die in the age of AIDS, echoing pleas also made by political and religious leaders of the time. When Lutaaya died that December, at age 38, the country already had begun its historic reversal of the epidemic, researchers say, because of the power of that single, terrifying message. Despite this success story, unmatched elsewhere on this AIDS-ridden continent, no country has entirely replicated Uganda's approach. Most instead have followed a diffuse palette of other remedies pushed by Western donors -- condom promotion, abstinence training, HIV testing, drug treatment and stigma reduction -- while forgoing what research shows worked here: fear and a relentless focus on sexual fidelity.
RELATED: Circumcision Recommended in Global HIV Fight
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800417.html

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Crime and Penal Reform

Texas Teen's Imprisonment Sparks Protests
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802196.html
Civil rights activists are rallying around a 15-year-old black girl who has been in a high-security juvenile detention center for a year for shoving a hall monitor at her school and whose sentence was just extended for what authorities call possession of contraband: an extra pair of socks and a plastic foam cup. One of 4,562 juveniles in the Texas Youth Commission's custody, Shaquanda Cotton may have remained incarcerated in obscurity, fretted over by her mother and a handful of supporters in her home town of Paris, in northeast Texas near the Oklahoma border. But a Chicago Tribune article has prompted an inquiry by the Rev. Al Sharpton and spurred several hundred protesters to travel this week from Dallas to the courthouse where Cotton was convicted. Internet message boards and blogs have been flooded with postings crying "Free Shaquanda Cotton!"

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Economy

Bernanke says inflation remains the top threat as economy is more uncertain
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-03-28-bernanke_N.htm
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that inflation remains the main threat to the economy, while cautioning that the risks of both slower growth and rising prices have increased in recent weeks. Bernanke's comments quashed hopes for a quick interest rate cut and raised new fears about the economy, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 96.93 points, or 0.8%, to 12,300.36. The market perked up last week when traders interpreted a Fed statement as setting the stage for a possible rate reduction later this year.

February durable goods orders rose 2.5%, weaker than expected
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-03-28-durables-feb_N.htm
Orders for durable goods rose a smaller-than-expected 2.5% in February, and excluding volatile transportation orders were down for the fourth time in five months, a government report on Wednesday showed. The Commerce Department said excluding transportation orders, which are heavily skewed by aircraft; durable goods orders — items meant to last three or more years — fell 0.1%.

Business investment fell 1.2% in February in closely watched report
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-03-28-business-investment_N.htm
Business investment fell for a second-consecutive month in February, the government said Wednesday in a report that offered disappointing news about a key sector of the U.S. economy. A closely watched proxy for business spending — orders for capital goods outside of the defense sector and excluding aircraft — fell 1.2% in February following a 7.4% plunge in January. It was the fourth drop in five months, according to the Commerce Department. The index measures orders for such goods as heavy machinery and computers. That "implies that businesses are worried about the economic outlook, and are cutting back capital spending as a result," Global Insight U.S. economist Patrick Newport said in a note to clients. "This was not a good report."

TJX: At Least 45.7M Card Numbers Stolen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032900237.html
More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers' financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period. In a regulatory filing that gives the first detailed account of the breach initially disclosed in January, the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and other stores in North America and the United Kingdom also said another 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers.
RELATED: Breach of data at TJX is called the biggest ever
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/29/breach_of_data_at_tjx_is_called_the_biggest_ever/

Gaps remain in controversial IRS private tax collection program
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2007-03-28-irs-private-tax-collection_N.htm
The controversial IRS program that uses private collection companies to dun taxpayers has been effectively implemented, but gaps remain that could jeopardize the security of confidential tax information, a new federal audit reported Wednesday. Conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the audit focused on the IRS' hiring of three private firms to seek back taxes owed by thousands of Americans. The program, launched in September, has been touted by the IRS as a cost-effective collection system and questioned by critics who said the effort would jeopardize taxpayer security and generate public complaints. The IRS "took proactive measures" to ensure proper oversight of the private collection companies, as well as the screening and training of the firms' employees, the audit concluded. But Inspector General J. Russell George said, "Issues still need to be addressed."

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Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.html?ref=business
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows. The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

Fidelity to end employee pension plan
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/03/29/fidelity_to_end_employee_pension_plan/
Fidelity Investments is eliminating its traditional pension plan for roughly 32,000 of its employees, an important symbolic move by a company that has been at the forefront of efforts to push more responsibility for retirement onto workers and away from companies. The Boston mutual fund giant will instead offer workers increased benefits in the company's 401(k) plan plus a new health-savings credit to help pay medical expenses when workers retire, and will allow them to roll their existing pension benefits into a Fidelity profit-sharing plan. Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said the company is taking the steps after internal surveys showed 71 percent of its employees didn't know how they would pay for healthcare in retirement.

Circuit City Cuts 3,400 'Overpaid' Workers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802185.html
Circuit City fired 3,400 employees in stores across the country yesterday, saying they were making too much money and would be replaced by new hires willing to work for less. The company said the dismissals had nothing to do with performance but were part of a larger effort to improve the bottom line. The firings represent about 9 percent of the company's in-store workforce of 40,000. "Retail is very competitive and store operations just have to contain their costs," said Jim Babb, a Circuit City spokesman. "We deeply regret the negative impact that was had on these folks. It was no fault of theirs." The company gave the dismissed workers severance pay and told them that after 10 weeks they were free to apply for any openings. Employees reached by a reporter said they were notified yesterday morning and told to leave immediately.
RELATED: Circuit City to fire 3,400 workers, will hire lower-cost replacements
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2007-03-28-circuit-city-layoffs_N.htm

Bare-Knuckle Enforcement for Wal-Mart’s Rules
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29walmart.html?ref=business
Wal-Mart, renowned to outsiders for its elbows-out business tactics, is known internally for its bare-knuckled no-expense-spared investigations of employees who break its ironclad ethics rules. Over the last five years, Wal-Mart has assembled a team of former officials from the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Justice Department whose elaborate, at times globetrotting, investigations have led to the ouster of a high-profile board member who used company funds to buy hunting equipment, two senior advertising executives who took expensive gifts from a potential supplier and a computer technician who taped a reporter’s telephone calls. The investigators — whose résumés evoke Langley, Va., more than Bentonville, Ark. — serve as a rapid-response team that aggressively polices the nation’s largest private employer, enforcing Wal-Mart’s modest by-the-books culture among its army of 1.8 million employees.

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Housing and Homelessness

Bernanke Open to Limiting Lending
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800753.html
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday blamed loose lending for the recent turmoil in the mortgage market and told Congress that "it's worth looking at" the idea of creating a law against certain lending practices. Bernanke, testifying at a hearing of Congress's Joint Economic Committee, said Fed policymakers are likely to hold interest rates steady for a while and are more concerned about high inflation than slow economic growth. Stock prices fell as his comments dispelled many investors' hopes that the central bank was preparing to cut interest rates to bolster a weakening expansion.

‘Irresponsible’ Mortgages Have Opened Doors to Many of the Excluded
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29scene.html?ref=business
“We are sitting on a time bomb,” the mortgage analyst said — a huge increase in unconventional home loans like balloon mortgages taken out by consumers who cannot qualify for regular mortgages. The high payments, he continued, “are just beginning to come due and a lot of people who were betting interest rates would come down by now risk losing their homes because they can’t pay the debt.” He would have given great testimony at the current Senate hearings on subprime mortgage lending. The only problem is, he said it in 1981 — when soon after several of the alternative mortgage products like those with adjustable rates and balloons first became popular. When Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, gave his opening statement last week at the hearings lambasting the rise of “risky exotic and subprime mortgages,” he was actually tapping into a very old vein of suspicion against innovations in the mortgage market.

Top

Media

2 Suitors for Tribune Co. Renew Their Interest
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/media/29paper.html?ref=business
In the battle of billionaires looking to buy the Tribune Company, Eli Broad and Ronald Burkle may still make a comeback. The company has responded to a request for additional financial information from the two Los Angeles billionaires, whose bid for the company appeared to have been dismissed, people close to the company’s auction said yesterday. The response could reopen a negotiating process that had been perceived as all but over. Tribune had been expected to announce this week that it was selling itself to Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate mogul.

Forced Feeding
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800596.html
Sex and violence are what parents fear their children will consume on television. But a study released yesterday finds that food is the top product that TV serves up to kids and teens. The study, done in 2005 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, is the largest examination yet of television food marketing to young viewers.

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Education

Ties between colleges, lenders raise questions
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/29/ties_between_colleges_lenders_raise_questions/
The telephone number looks like any other university extension. And when students call with questions about financial aid, the recorded voice at the other end says, "Thank you for calling Texas Tech University's student financial center." But what is remarkable about the center is not so much that it is actually located hundreds of miles away from Texas Tech's Lubbock campus. It is that the people giving advice are not university employees at all -- instead they work for Nelnet, a company that made more than $68 million last year off of student loans. Nelnet's role staffing the help line -- which is not disclosed to callers -- is a window into the often hidden relationships between loan companies and the colleges that students rely on for advice about how to finance their schooling. Nelnet is one of several lenders that the university recommends to its students, though it is not among its 10 largest lenders. But critics say such relationships pose a conflict of interest.

Sorority sues university over expulsion
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703280932mar29,1,2309814.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
A sorority accused of evicting members based on appearance and popularity sued DePauw University on Wednesday over the school's decision to expel the organization from campus. Delta Zeta, which had been accused of asking only attractive, popular students to remain active members, filed the claim in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis alleging DePauw had broken promises and contractual agreements, defamed the sorority and interfered with its business relationships.

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Science and Technology

Mammal Theory Challenged
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802070.html
The big dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago did not produce a flurry of new species in the ancestry of modern mammals after all, says a huge study that challenges a long-standing theory. Scientists who constructed a massive evolutionary family tree for mammals found no sign of such a burst of new species at that time among the ancestors of present-day animals. Only mammals with no modern-day descendants showed that effect. "I was flabbergasted," said study co-author Ross MacPhee, curator of vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. At the time of the dinosaur demise, mammals were small, ranging in size between shrews and cats. The long-held view has been that once the dinosaurs were gone, mammals were suddenly free to exploit new food sources and habitats, and as a result they produced a burst of new species. The study says that happened to some extent, but the new species led to evolutionary dead ends.

Top

Military

Increase May Mean Longer Army Tours
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802143.html
Sustaining the U.S. troop increase in Iraq beyond this summer will not be possible without keeping some Army combat brigades in the war zone for up to 16 months -- much longer than the standard year-long tour, a top U.S. general in charge of the military's rotation plans said yesterday. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, also said that if the increase of more than 28,000 combat and support troops continues until February, there is a "high probability" that some Army units would have less than a year at home between combat rotations, further compressing the limited time to train and reconnect with families.
RELATED: For Some G.I.’s, Less Time at Home, More in Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29troops.html

House OKs bill to aid injured troops
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703280881mar29,1,3686073.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Reacting to shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the House on Wednesday created a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, approved 426-0, also establishes a hot line for medical patients to report problems in their treatment and demands an end to the red tape that has frustrated disabled service members as they move from Pentagon to Veterans Affairs Department care.
RELATED: House votes to upgrade military healthcare
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warhealth29mar29,1,1977932.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Critics target Navy dolphin defense plan
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-28-dolphins_N.htm
Critics of a Navy plan to use dolphins and sea lions to guard waters off the coast of a major submarine base say the ocean is too cold for the plan to work. Other critics who showed up at a public open house Tuesday questioned the use of live animals rather than sophisticated technology at Hood Canal, home of the West Coast Trident submarine base.

KBR Prepared to Sever Last Ties To Halliburton With Stock Swap
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802333.html
The company, among the largest private contractors in Iraq, has long been associated with its giant parent, Halliburton, and both have been lightning rods for controversy. Now they are preparing to split, and Halliburton has set a deadline of midnight tonight for a stock swap to help accomplish that.

No more showy tattoos for Marines
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703280726mar29,1,2375351.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Five tattooed skulls stretch from Marine Cpl. Jeremy Slaton's right elbow to his wrist, spelling out "Death." He planned to add a tattoo spelling "Life" on his left arm, but that's on hold because of a Marine policy taking effect Sunday. The Marines are banning any new, extra-large tattoos below the elbow or the knee, saying such body art is harmful to the Corps' spit-and-polish image.

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Energy Policy

Ex-Auditor Says He Was Told to Be Lax on Oil Fees
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29royalty.html
A former top auditor at the Interior Department accused senior officials on Wednesday of prohibiting him and other investigators from recovering hundreds of millions of dollars in underpayments from oil and gas companies that drill on federal land and in federal waters. “There’s hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars out there, and I don’t think we should be scared of the oil companies,” said Bobby L. Maxwell, a former senior auditor who, as a private citizen, sued the Kerr-McGee Corporation, claiming it intentionally cheated the government of royalties for oil and gas it produced in the Gulf of Mexico.

Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $64 a Barrel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032900390.html
Oil prices dipped below $64 a barrel Thursday, reflecting some calming of markets as Iran's detention of 15 British navy personnel approached the one-week mark. Still, prices remained poised to move upward. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is located along the Strait of Hormuz, through which about two-fifths of the world's oil is transported. Traders worry that oil supplies could be disrupted if unrest escalates there.

Cambridge sets $70m energy initiative
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/29/cambridge_sets_70m_energy_initiative/
Seeking to become the greenest city in the country, Cambridge [Mass.] today will launch a sweeping $70 million energy efficiency program to conserve energy in virtually every building within city boundaries, reducing emissions that contribute to global warming. University, commercial, and even residential buildings will receive energy audits over the next five years to pinpoint energy inefficiencies. Property owners will then be offered low- or zero-interest loans to undertake remediation efforts ranging from replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents to installing insulated roofs and more efficient heating and cooling systems.

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Transportation and Infrastructure

Senators oppose billboard exemption
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-billboard-exemption_N.htm
An effort to exempt billboards in 13 Southern states from a long-standing highway beautification law is drawing opposition in Congress. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is soliciting colleagues' support for an amendment he plans to offer today to block what he called "a big wet kiss to the outdoor advertising industry," which gives thousands of dollars annually to Republican and Democratic members of Congress. At issue is whether hundreds of aging billboards, knocked down by hurricanes and other storms, can be rebuilt even if they violate guidelines put into place after the 1965 Highway Beautification Act.

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Environment and Conservation

Report Says Interior Official Overrode Work of Scientists
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29environ.html?ref=science
A top-ranking official overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service at the Interior Department rode roughshod over agency scientists, and decisions made on her watch may not survive court challenges, investigators within the Interior Department have found. Their report, sent to Congress this week by the department’s inspector general, does not accuse the official, Julie A. MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, of any crime. But it does find that she violated federal rules when she sent internal agency documents to industry lobbyists.

Gore climate event turned away from D.C.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warm29mar29,1,7067893.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
When former Vice President Al Gore testified before Congress last week, his appearance was viewed as the triumph of environmentalists over doubters in the debate over global warming. Fresh from Hollywood, where his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar, Gore imbued Democrats now in power on Capitol Hill with a sense of mission, urging them to "rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis." Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), former chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, seemed a lonely dissenter. Forced by November's election results to surrender the gavel to enviro-friendly Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Inhofe — who has called the alarms about man-made global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" — challenged what he called the inaccuracies in Gore's assertions and spent most of his time making speeches to the former vice president. Now, it seems, Inhofe is winning the next round.

Website checks your climate change risk
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2007-03-28-climate-risk_N.htm
A computerized service that assesses global warming risks and other environmental threats is now available for any address in the contiguous USA. Three University of Arizona scientists won approval from the board of regents this month to create Climate Appraisal Services with an East Coast entrepreneur. They call it the first online, address-based tool for gauging climate-change hazards in the next 50-100 years. It also lists natural and man-made dangers, from hurricanes and earthquakes to pollution and disease.

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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.

Waldman, Levitt: The Myth Of Voter Fraud
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801969.html
As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It's just as important to focus on "why," such as the reason given for the firing of at least one of the U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud. Allegations of voter fraud -- someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote -- have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom. But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud.
RELATED: Broder: When the Woodshed Isn't Enough
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801877.html
RELATED: Rich: Bush's long history of tilting Justice
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rich29mar29,0,3371050.story?coll=la-opinion-center
RELATED: Sacrificial Lam
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-lam29mar29,0,4848514.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

Keillor: Curious George takes a little walk
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0703270533mar28,0,595349.column?coll=chi-ed_opinion_columnists-utl
The Current Occupant decided to go for a walk one fine spring morning, and he strolled down the White House drive to the main gate and chatted with the cops in the guardhouse and then strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue and through Lafayette Park to Christ Church and turned and looked at the White House through the trees and then it dawned on him that he was alone, no Secret Service in their dark suits and their earpieces with the curly wires. Nobody had tried to stop him from leaving. They just let him wander away. A couple of kids in Capitals jackets walked past, and then a cop, and an old couple, and nobody stopped: They glanced his way and nodded and moved on. He thought, "It's true what Laura says. I'm different in person than the way the media portrays me." Some folks sat in lawn chairs holding signs, GET OUT OF IRAQ and STOP THE TORTURE and so forth. He walked in among them to get a closer look and said to the GET OUT OF IRAQ man, "What would you say to the president if you could talk to him up close and personal?"

Froomkin: A Consequential Game of Chicken
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/03/28/BL2007032801082.html
Yesterday's Senate vote has put President Bush in a real bind. The combination of veto power and a sizeable Republican minority means the president can reliably block any Democratic legislation he dislikes from becoming law. But in this case, Bush affirmatively needs Congress to send him a war funding bill so he can keep fighting the war in Iraq. Now that the Democrats have succeeded in attaching a timetable for troop withdrawal to the funding bill, he is left with two basic options: negotiate with the Democrats -- or play a hugely consequential game of chicken. So far signs are that Bush is going with the latter option.
RELATED: Bookman: Will Congress finally dare to tell Bush no?
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/bookman/stories/2007/03/29/0329edbookman.html
RELATED: Congress takes a stand on Iraq
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/03/29/congress_takes_a_stand_on_iraq/
RELATED: Legislating Leadership on Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/opinion/29thu1.html

The Results of Diplomacy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802051.html
IRAN'S SEIZURE of 15 British sailors and marines on the day before the U.N. Security Council approved another resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for its nuclear program may have been a coincidence. But the seizure illustrated a stubborn reality about the diplomatic campaign the Bush administration embraced two years ago: While successful on its own terms, the campaign has yet to produce any significant change in Iranian behavior.

Kutler: The 'executive privilege' dodge
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/29/the_executive_privilege_dodge/
THE ERUPTION of a White House scandal inevitably brings in its wake the old chestnut of "executive privilege." Later 20th-century presidents increasingly found revelations of the privilege in the crevices of the Constitution, there to be discovered and re discovered by legions of White House and Justice Department lawyers. It is no great surprise that such words are nowhere to be found in the Constitution.

Morrison: If you could write the federal budget
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-morrison29mar29,0,3152800.column?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
YOU GUYS are so smart — no, no, I mean that sincerely. I'd vote for some of you any day over a number of people known as honorable members in Congress right now.

Mountaintop Rescue
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/opinion/29thu3.html
Mountaintop mining is a cheap and ruthlessly efficient way to mine coal: soil and rock are scraped away by enormous machines to expose the buried coal seam, then dumped down the mountainside into the valleys and streams below. Mountaintop mining has also caused appalling environmental damage in violation of the Clean Water Act. According to a federal study, mountaintop removal has buried or choked 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams and damaged hundreds of square miles of forests. No recent administration, Democrat or Republican, has made a serious effort to end the dumping, largely in deference to the financial influence of the coal industry and the political influence of Robert Byrd, West Virginia’s senior senator. But the Bush administration has gone out of its way to shield the practice.

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