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

Today’s digest archive: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/040507.htm

TOP STORIES

ProgressNow in the news

The Bill Richardson Watch
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/59697.html
Richardson wins the Final Four race on the Internet, taking down Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the online "Presidential March Madness" voter game. The contest had heavy participation from Colorado and Ohio. Richardson beat Obama by almost 20% in the last round in the contest, sponsored by Colorado-based ProgressNowAction.
RELATED: Richardson Ranks 4th Seed (4/3)
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/551759nm04-03-07.htm

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

Top

National

Iran Releases 15 Captive Britons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040400334.html
An hour into a news conference marked by his trademark tirades against the West, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a stunner Wednesday: Iran would release 15 British marines and sailors it had captured in the Persian Gulf and held for almost two weeks. Early Thursday, the former captives departed Tehran, bringing to a peaceful end what had been a tense international standoff. Calling the release an Easter gift to the British people, Ahmadinejad said the captives would go free immediately after his afternoon news conference. The 15 Britons, wearing civilian clothes and looking ebullient, later appeared with him outside his presidential palace, one of them expressing gratitude to him for his "forgiveness." At about 8.30 a.m. local time Thursday, the entire group flew out of Tehran on board a regularly scheduled British Airways flight to London, the Associated Press reported.
RELATED: Iran frees sailors as a 'gift' to Britain
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704050032apr05,1,2445471.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Captives Freed by Iran Arrive in Britain
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/middleeast/05cnd-iran.html?ref=world
RELATED: U.S. Lets Red Cross See Seized Iranians
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402613.html

More Iran news in NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY

Pelosi Meets Syrian President Despite Objections From Bush
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401351.html
Before her meeting, President Bush criticized the visit, saying that sending delegations to Syria "doesn't work." "It's simply been counterproductive," he said at a news conference Tuesday. Vice President Cheney echoed that sentiment Wednesday, telling an ABC News radio interviewer that Assad has "been isolated and cut off because of his bad behavior. And the unfortunate thing about the speaker's visit is it sort of breaks down that barrier. It means without him having done any of those things he should do in order to be acceptable . . . he gets a visit from a high-ranking American anyway. In other words, his bad behavior is being rewarded, in a sense." Pelosi's trip was the latest in a series of visits by U.S. lawmakers to Syria following the release in December of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report, which recommended diplomatic engagement with Iran and Syria. There also has been renewed European attention to Syria, including a visit in March by Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief. The Bush administration itself joined a conference on Iraq in February with Syrian and Iranian diplomats.
RELATED: Speaker's Role In Foreign Policy Is a Recent, and Sensitive, Issue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402752.html
RELATED: Pelosi makes a wave in Syria
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pelosi5apr05,1,3903818.story?coll=la-headlines-world
RELATED: Pelosi’s Delegation Presses Syrian Leader on Militants
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/middleeast/05pelosi.html?ref=washington

Bush Tells Troops Pullout Would Be Accepting Defeat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402445.html
President Bush brought his confrontation with Congress over funding of the war in Iraq to the huge armed forces training facility here in the Mojave Desert on Wednesday, telling troops that to withdraw before "the job is done" would be tantamount to accepting defeat. Bush, trying to ratchet up pressure on House and Senate Democrats, shared lunch with troops before telling them that congressional efforts to force a withdrawal would undercut the already difficult war effort. Speaking in subdued tones, Bush repeated his warning that Iraq will descend deeper into chaos if Democrats succeed in setting a deadline for U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq. Meanwhile, he said, "the clock is ticking for our military" as long as his war funding bill is delayed in the increasingly rancorous debate over a withdrawal deadline.
RELATED: Bush takes the fight to Democrats on Iraq war
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-bushwar5apr05,0,2054768.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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

Waxman Seeks RNC E-Mail on Use of Federal Resources
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402404.html
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) told the Republican National Committee yesterday to turn over copies of any electronic messages from White House officials that relate to the use of federal resources or agencies for partisan Republican purposes. Waxman's broadly worded request came a week after he asked the RNC and the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign to retain copies of e-mails being sent by White House officials via Republican Party e-mail accounts, a practice that surfaced in the course of the Democrats' probe into the administration's decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys.

Top

Colorado

Budget rolls after road bump
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5597038
Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday torpedoed a legislative effort to swipe more than $40 million in potential road funding for building maintenance and construction projects. The effort was the highest-stake change proposed in a $17.8 billion state spending plan that House members approved on a 63-2 vote after more than five hours of debate. The budget, which is Senate Bill 239, faces another House vote today and then heads back to the Senate. A conference committee - comprising the lawmakers who wrote the budget - is then expected to review the amended budget. Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Jefferson County, said the governor's office threatened to veto a budget amendment shifting money into building construction projects, so Witwer and his fellow sponsor, Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, dropped it.
RELATED: Threatened veto ends roads vs. buildings debate
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175784066/11
RELATED: Colleges lose to highways in budget debate
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070405_4.htm

Plan boosts veterans homes
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595804
Amid questions about patient neglect and crumbling buildings at Colorado veterans homes, the state House on Wednesday debated proposals to allocate more money for the facilities. "As a nurse and a legislator, I'm appalled at the condition of the facilities housing our own veterans," said Rep. Sara Gagliardi, D-Arvada. "We're going to make sure that those who serve our country will get the quality care they need and deserve." Lawmakers said they were shocked to learn of the problems at state-run veterans nursing homes. A patient fell and died at one facility and 42 residents developed bedsores at another, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press that were filed with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said his department would work with the state to bring the homes up to standard. Nicholson was in Colorado on Wednesday to discuss plans for a new federal veterans hospital.
RELATED: Veterans homes get boost
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465674,00.html
RELATED: Patient care at state veterans homes defended
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175784066/18

Fitz-Gerald expects oil overhaul
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/fitz-gerald-expects-oil-overhaul/
Lawmakers who are looking at revamping the way the state regulates the booming oil and gas business are listening to the industry's concerns, but that won't stop the proposal from moving ahead, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said Wednesday. Industry representatives want some clarification about what the changes will mean for them, she said. "It's energy independence, we do it at home. But we have to do it right," said Fitz-Gerald. The measure (House Bill 1341) would increase the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to nine members from seven by adding the directors of the Natural Resources and Public Health departments. It would also decrease the number of members who must have backgrounds in the industry to three, from five. Two members would have to come from the Western Slope.
RELATED: Legislators seek compromise on rules for drilling industry
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_3a_COGCC.html
RELATED: Senate says reform of gas ‘is not stopping’
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070405_7.htm

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

Blogger says no conspiracy was aimed at Rep. Merrifield
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595802
The right-leaning blogger who uncovered Democratic Rep. Michael Merrifield's e-mail damning charter school supporters says his connection to a website for Senate Republicans is minimal. Brad Jones, a 23-year-old political consultant, helped get ColoradoSenateNews.com online and was the site's registrant - until this week. His name was removed after the left-leaning ColoradoConfidential .org questioned Jones' ties to the Senate minority's communications office. Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, said there is no connection between Senate Republicans and the open-records request Jones filed to get Merrifield's e-mail. "Nobody in this office knew anything about it until after it happened," he said. But, McElhany added, it wouldn't matter if they did.
RELATED: Dems ask if state resources used to expose 'place in hell' e-mail
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465360,00.html

RELATED: Face The Coordination
http://coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1758

COLORADO NEWS

Top

Election

Tancredo confident despite critics
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/tancredo-confident-despite-critics/
Presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo said Wednesday he isn't deterred by the fundraising race, polls that show him trailing or critics saying he's an also-ran. The Colorado representative said he'll emerge from the crowded Republican field a winner because he has a conservative message that's lacking in the race. "I have a built-in constituency of average Americans who are worried the impact of illegal immigration will have on their jobs, their schools, their hospitals, their prisons, their national security and their culture. There are millions of them." Tancredo, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, said his message will help him because he's shown a consistency that none of the other candidates have. "They strain and you can tell. They talk of every imaginable way to address it except head-on."

Easier vote-from-home proposal gains ground
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595801
A bill that would make it easier for voters to cast their ballots by mail passed its first legislative test Wednesday. The Senate state affairs committee on a 3-1 vote endorsed Senate Bill 234 by Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon. The proposal would let voters sign up for permanent absentee status, meaning ballots would automatically be sent to their homes as long as they remain active voters.
RELATED: Bill on mail voting endorsed
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20901&template=article.html

Routt County election fix ordered
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5463526,00.html
Secretary of State Mike Coffman has added Routt County, where voters waited in long lines for hours during November's election, to a "watch list" ordered to fix voting problems. Officials in the northwest Colorado county underestimated the number of electronic voting machines needed for the election, Coffman said. Some voters were turned away from the polls on election day and one vote center remained open past 11 p.m. Coffman said he was encouraged by Clerk Kay Weinland's steps to improve the county's election process.
RELATED: County officials fire back
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/apr/05/county_officials_fire_back/?local_news

'Read the charter,' ex-official says
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070404/NEWS/70405001
A voice for and a voice against home rule spoke out during a televised political debate devoted to the topic Wednesday night in Eagle. Don Cohen, who chaired the Home Rule Charter Commission, spoke in favor of the government reform that will come to a second vote of the people through mail ballot beginning Tuesday. Former County Commissioner Tom Stone represented the opposition to home rule. "I think it was a fair debate,” Stone said. “It gave people a chance to see the other side of home rule that the proponents won’t tell you and are trying to lead you away from.” The debate was also a success in Cohen’s eyes because it gave the issue more public visibility than it had when the initiative was first voted on in November, he said.

Falcon area gets its day of destiny
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20909&template=article.html
Incorporation appears to be contagious in El Paso County, spreading from Black Forest to Falcon. Falcon residents will head to the polls May 29 to vote on forming an 11-square-mile city encompassing an estimated 2,500 to 3,200 residents. Tom Cline, head of the Falcon Incorporation Committee, said it’s the best way for locals to control growth creeping northeast from Colorado Springs.

Mick: 'Really, I'm a capitalist'
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104050059
Joseph McCarthy, where are you now? An initiative aiming to sully Mick Ireland's mayoral bid rolled out this week in the form of a red bumper sticker that declares: "Anybody But Mick For Mayor of Aspen." Worse (unless you're a communist), the sticker features a hammer and sickle superimposed on a faded aspen leaf.
RELATED: Ireland wants the Canary to sing
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104050058

Littleton voters eye Wal-Mart
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5591931
Registered voters in Littleton will mail in ballots about whether to rescind zoning for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on South Sante Fe Drive. The ballots will be counted and results announced on June 19, the City Council decided Tuesday night. The council granted zoning for the new Wal-Mart store in January on a 4-3 vote. Before that meeting, the city planning department had received 1,314 public comments in favor of Wal-Mart and 151 against it. While the Wal-Mart site is in a commercial corridor along South Santa Fe Drive, opponents argue that the 24-hour store is next door to neighborhoods and South Platte Park. The city has pledged a 10-acre buffer between the store and the park.

Summit County trims voting sites
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104050060
In the coming odd-year election this November, there will be 12 fewer polling places where Summit County residents can cast their vote. According to county officials, the current 17 voting precincts will be combined into just five voting centers. Also, county residents will now be able to vote at any location, as opposed to designated polling places. Breckenridge, Frisco, Dillon, Silverthorne and Summit. Cove will be the locations for the centers, it was announced. County elections officials hope that this new approach will make it easier and allow for more people to vote, elections administrator Kathy Neel said.

[Craig] voting goes smoothly
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/26015
Al Martinez has trouble seeing and uses a cane to negotiate his way around town. Still, he had no trouble voting Tuesday, thanks to helpful election judges stationed at the polling place. "Things went smoothly. I used the paper ballot because I'm more comfortable with it," Martinez said after voting. "It took longer to find my identification than it did to vote." The four election judges volunteering for the city election were Ada McArthur, Betsy Peck, Cindell Nielson and Jennifer Riley, all of whom are Craig residents experienced in voting procedures.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Interior flap trickles down
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595522
A one-time Colorado political activist and ex-girlfriend of a convicted Interior Department official has been informed by the Justice Department that there is "substantial evidence" linking her to criminal activity in the Jack Abramoff scandal. In a January 2007 letter obtained by the publication Legal Times, a federal prosecutor urged Italia Federici to hire an attorney to defend against allegations that she used a tax-exempt organization to lobby for Abramoff's clients and lied about its activities to Congress. The letter also recommended Federici meet with prosecutors to negotiate a resolution requiring her to plead guilty to at least one felony charge. "The investigation is focused on the allegedly illegal manner in which you operated the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, commonly known as CREA," a Justice Department tax division attorney wrote to Federici, a former aide to former Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Allard optimistic on Iraq
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15577
U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard believes the situation in Iraq is improving but is concerned about conditions in Iran, he said Tuesday while meeting with the editorial board of the Daily Times-Call. “The reports we’re getting now — things are better,” Allard said of Iraq. While some violence is still occurring, the streets are more liveable, he said. His office consistently gets favorable reports from the men and women who have returned from serving in Iraq, and the National Intelligence Report shows the recent increase in troops is having a positive effect, he said. After the interview with the editorial board, Allard’s chief of staff, Sean Conway, discussed the senator’s optimism in light of recent violence in Iraq.

E-mails contradict lobbyist
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465675,00.html
E-mails contradict a lobbyist's claim that his well-heeled organization had nothing to do with a deceptive phone-call campaign conducted in March. The calls warned voters that a construction-defects bill in the legislature favored trial lawyers and would raise taxes. The e-mails, obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, are between a Virginia company that produced the calls and William Mutch, lobbyist and director of Colorado Concern. "Thank you for the call yesterday regarding the pending legislation that Colorado Concern may want to try and influence in Colorado," the Virginia executive wrote to Mutch. Later e-mails include ideas for scripts for the calls. Mutch last week told the Rocky that Colorado Concern, a consortium of the state's most powerful business leaders, had nothing to do with the calls. He said a developer who is chairman of the group was behind the calls, but was acting independently. Mutch did not return calls or e-mails on Thursday. Both Mutch and Steve Durham, lobbyist for the Colorado Association of Home Builders, have been named in an ethics complaint filed with legislative leaders over the calls.

Citizen Legislator: David Balmer
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465446,00.html
Rep. David Balmer loves to snowshoe with his Hungarian vizslas,Scout and Cooper, and his wife, Karen. The physical activity helped prepare Balmer, a major in the Army Reserve, for a 10-month stint in Afghanistan after 9/11. Balmer is a senior manager with Cherokee Investment Partners, which buys and cleans contaminated properties, including the former Gates Rubber plant on South Broadway in Denver. The Centennial Republican is interested in military, pro-business and environmental issues. Balmer, who turns 45 next week, has a 14-year-old daughter, Laura.

New council sees need for regional cooperation
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050343/1002
One day after Tuesday's election, Fort Collins' new City Council cited the need for cooperation with other regional municipalities and retail developers as the city moves forward on issues surrounding economic redevelopment and transportation. The new governing body comes into office as the city maneuvers toward redeveloping retail areas, seeking smart growth opportunities and strategizing about better access to regional transportation for residents.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

King supporters: Equitable health care overdue
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175784066/4
If he were alive today, Martin Luther King Jr. would be shocked to see that inequalities in health care still exist, the director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center said Wednesday. "Dr. King tried to end all forms of inequality and the health care system was one of the most shocking and inhumane but when he tried to get a bill passed, nobody would listen to him," said Ruth Steele. "Now, 42 years later there is a bill being introduced to do what Dr. King had tried to do years ago." On the 39th anniversary Wednesday of the assassination of King, Steele chose to focus on the civil rights leaders quest to bring equal access to health care for all Americans as that fight continues today.

Flags and tempers flare during 'experiment'
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_1a_flag_burning.html
Almost as quickly as the American flag was consumed with flame, the tempers of downtown denizens flared. No sooner had Fruita Monument High School students Jordan Lister, 17, and Kenny Coles, 18, torched Old Glory outside the Wells Fargo Bank on Main Street than a handful of passersby accosted the teens. Lister, who said the flag burning was part of an experiment for his psychology class, said at least two people rushed across the street from Dolce Vita and questioned their patriotism. “One said his friend got shot in the back in Iraq,” Lister said, describing the most intense post-experiment argument. Shortly after the flag burning, a security guard patrolling the bank held the two boys while police were called to the scene. Lister said the officer remarked that even though they did nothing illegal, “It was still disrespectful.” Jo Holzer, who witnessed the flag burning from the restaurant patio, said she thought it was unfortunate the teens could so freely desecrate the nation’s flag during a time of war.

Talks spawn multicultural effort
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070405_4.htm
The anti-racism group that formed in January aims to put together a multicultural appreciation day in Cortez. If such an event materializes, it would be an outgrowth of four meetings held in the city so far this year to address racial prejudice in the community.

Remarks offend Indians
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/remarks-offend-indians/
H. Mathew Barkhausen III, a media specialist for the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and a freelance writer based in Denver, got word of the radio show through a chain of e-mails. "It's really frustrating to me, for example the casino issue, when people make sweeping moral judgments about something they obviously know nothing about," Barkhausen said. He said Berry "obviously doesn't know anything about the Indian gaming act." "For some reason, there's a ridiculous assumption that the 500-some-odd recognized tribes in the United States have become wealthy through casino money, and that's not the case," he said. Part Tuscarora and part Cherokee, Barkhausen also questioned the notion that American Indians had been "whipped." "The Indian wars never ended, they just changed format," he said. "They're battles that are fought in the courtroom."

Top

Immigration

Travelers sweat out logjam in passports
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595987
In exactly one week, Theresa and Jeffrey Lopez should be boarding a plane to begin their Cancun vacation. So far, only one thing stands in the way of their beach lounging: Jeffrey has not yet received his passport. The Eaton couple applied Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 for their passports, specifically for this trip. It's now been almost nine weeks, and Theresa is in a panic. "We waited until after we applied to book our trip because I wanted to make sure we wouldn't run into these problems," Theresa Lopez said. "I'm nervous and worried because we didn't buy any kind of insurance in case something interrupted this trip." After trying and failing to get through to the passport hotline, she called the office of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and has been assured the passport will arrive in time. The Lopezes are not alone in their anxious wait. Passport offices around the county have been inundated with applications after new laws requiring passports for air and boat travel to Mexico and Canada went into effect Jan. 23. Driving travelers don't need passports until June 1, 2009.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

DeGette's stem-cell bill heads for vote
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595520
Rep. Diana DeGette's bill lifting restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research is slated for a Senate vote next week, packaged with items aimed at preventing a repeat presidential veto. Republicans and Democrats have reached an agreement that allows a vote on the bill without any chance of a filibuster, backers said Tuesday. It's the second time in two years that Congress has considered the bill. It passed both chambers last year before President Bush vetoed it. "It shows that this issue is not going away," said Brandon MacGillis, spokesman for DeGette, a Denver Democrat. In an attempt win Bush's support, the new bill will include language pushing for intensified research into ways of developing stem-cell lines without destroying embryos.

Immunization database for children draws fire
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465355,00.html
The state wants to create a database containing the immunization records of every child in Colorado, but parent Kristin Hoffman doesn't like the idea. The Littleton resident doesn't fully trust the state to manage the database. Hoffman was among a handful of parents who testified against a bill Wednesday that calls for expanding the current database - which includes immunization records of newborns - to include children of all ages. "I didn't even know it (the infant registry) existed," she said.
RELATED: New vaccines before next school year
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=6589

Grieving the life a tornado took
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595986
Survivors of a tornado that left a wake of heartache and destruction have in recent days come to the Rev. William Doll with a question. "Father," they have asked, "do you see anything good in all of this?" The wicked wind that came without warning in the Eastern Plains town of Holly pitched homes off their foundations, juggled cars like toy balls and threw a mother of two children into a tree, killing her. The Catholic priest had seen good in the humanity that enveloped the town when the wind died. "People help one another in an hour like this," Doll said. "We see neighbor helping neighbor, whether they know each other or not."
RELATED: Briefs: Gov. Ritter asks SBA to offer tornado loans
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595999
RELATED: State frees up $1 million for tornado aid
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465655,00.html
RELATED: Twister victim is laid to rest
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465654,00.html
RELATED: Holly grieves as family buries storm victim
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175784066/1

2nd ex-worker named in tax-fraud scheme
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5596295
A former health care technician at the state mental hospital is among those indicted in a federal tax-fraud scheme that includes patients at the hospital. Jenice Melonas, 26, of Colorado Springs, who resigned from her job at the institute in February, is charged in a racketeering enterprise that netted about $25,000 a month. If convicted, she could face up to 24 years in prison. Melonas is the second former staffer at the Colorado Mental Health Institute implicated in the March 16 indictment by a Pueblo grand jury.

Joining forces in war on bugs
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/joining-forces-in-war-on-bugs/
Boulder County is expected to vote today to partner with Boulder in the city's attempt to control nuisance mosquitoes, a decision that could lead to reduced pesticide spraying throughout the county. Under the partnership, the city would seed mosquito habitat with a bacteria called bacillus thuringiensis, or Bti, to kill larvae of nuisance mosquitoes on 11 parcels of land, including Boulder Reservoir, Stazio Ball Fields, Valmont City Park and Sombrero Marsh.

Medical clinic scheduled to open May 1
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070405_2.htm
The medical clinic scheduled to temporarily plug part of the hole left by the departure of Valley-Wide Health Systems is scheduled to open May 1. The clinic, called the Health Services Cooperative, will be operated by Mercy Regional Medical Center at its former location on East Third Avenue, with funding from La Plata County and the city of Durango. Staffing will consist of a triage nurse, two nurse practitioners, a nurse assistant and a part-time physician. Services at the cooperative will be limited and are considered a short-term solution to a shortage of primary care created by the departure of Valley-Wide. The new clinic will not provide emergency, urgent or primary care, but a limited number of lesser services.

AIDS patient's pot trial delayed
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5596000
The trial of an AIDS patient accused of flaunting Colorado's medical-marijuana law was delayed Wednesday because of the unavailability of a key defense witness. The attorney for Jack Branson, 39, wants Dr. Cynthia Firnhaber to testify that she verbally recommended in 2002 that Branson use medical marijuana. The drug helps Branson deal with nausea and loss of appetite caused by HIV. But attorney Robert Corry said Wednesday that it's nearly impossible for Firnhaber to come to Colorado since she is working in South Africa fighting AIDS. "We looked for months, and we were finally able to locate her," Corry told Adams County District Judge C. Scott Crabtree. "It's quite a hardship." Corry asked that Firnhaber be allowed to testify by telephone. Crabtree set a July 20 hearing to decide and scheduled a Aug. 27 jury trial.

"Last-drink" plan targets Boulder DUIs
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595962
In Boulder, a city where liquor establishments are plentiful and alcohol abuse ranks among the chief concerns, police are now asking drunken-driving suspects where they had their last drink. Those answers are providing a window into the city's problem spots for booze. And bar owners and managers say they are cautiously optimistic that the data can be used to help establishments determine whether their existing programs to combat drunken driving are doing any good. "We're just trying to really make it positive," said Mark Karpowich, the owner of Harpo's Sports Grill and the head of the city's Responsible Hospitality Group. "Nobody wants to be associated with DUIs and having their name on a list." Indeed, the new effort, known as the "last drink" program, may represent something of a truce between the city and its alcohol establishments.

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

Lyons’ plan is turning heads
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15578
Colorado cities may have an easier time than state legislators in restricting where sex offenders may live, a state lawmaker said Tuesday. Lyons trustees are considering an ordinance that would make it the second Colorado municipality to ban sex offenders from living near parks, day cares, schools and playgrounds. Town leaders may vote on the measure as soon as April 16. Greenwood Village in July became Colorado’s first municipality to zone sex offenders out of areas frequented by children. That city ordinance has never been challenged in court. However, State Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, saw the House Judiciary Committee kill his bill in February that would have made it illegal statewide for registered sex offenders to live within 1,500 feet of a school, day care center or “places where children congregate.”

Year-old law cracks down on Internet luring
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050344/1002
The Internet is a vast place, full of information, entertainment, human contact and more. But it also has become a hunting ground for those who wish to exploit some of society's most vulnerable. It was not until last year that the Colorado Legislature passed a law making it illegal to use the Internet to attempt to set up meetings with, have sexually explicit conversations with or send sexually inappropriate material to minors under the age of 15. Since the law went into effect on July 1, Fort Collins police have arrested 11 people on suspicion of Internet luring or sexual exploitation of a child, with nine of those arrests coming this year. Charges have been filed against seven suspects in the past few weeks, following a two-week undercover investigation.

Documents on slaying to stay sealed
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5464970,00.html
A Weld County judge refused to unseal new documents that were sealed last week in the case of Shawna Nelson, the woman accused of killing the wife of her police officer lover. The search warrants and affidavits will remain under seal until at least April 26. Judge Roger Klein made the ruling after the Greeley Tribune filed a motion to have the documents unsealed. The judge held a 10-minute meeting with prosecutors in his chambers before issuing his decision.
RELATED: Search warrants will remain sealed in Nelson case
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104050096

Prearranged calls can nab crucial evidence
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050341/1002
The practice of recording phone calls made by alleged victims to their alleged attackers, known as pretext phone calls, has been around for years and is used to gather additional information in all manner of cases, not just sexual assaults, said Loveland Sgt. Rae Bontz. These types of calls are made by the alleged victims but have been pre-arranged by police and the course of the discussion has been previously determined. No false names or information are used by the alleged victim during the conversation. The calls are a tool to gather additional information from a suspect using an alleged victim, accomplice or anyone the suspect might have discussed the crime with, Bontz said.

JAIL INMATE DIES (Briefing, April 6)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465937,00.html
An inmate in Denver County Jail died after he was hanged Tuesday night in his cell, police said. Detectives have not yet determined if it was suicide or murder, said Sonny Jackson, spokesman for Denver police. The inmate has not been identified.

16-year-old takes deal in Lafayette murder case
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595972
One of four teens charged in the stabbing death of a Lafayette woman pleaded guilty Wednesday. Jared Smith, 16, admitted to being an accessory to a crime. He was sentenced to two years in the Department of Youth Corrections, followed by six months of parole, according to a court document. Smith was the first of the teens to plead guilty in the death of 52-year-old Linda Damm, whose body was found in late February in the trunk of her Subaru at her Lafayette home. Damm's daughter, 15-year-old Tess, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, and Tess' boyfriend, 17-year-old Bryan Grove, is charged with murder. In interviews with police, Smith said he and Tess drove around while Grove killed Damm, then said he helped Grove carry Damm's body downstairs and put it in the car, according to court documents.
RELATED: Teen receives two years in woman's Feb. slaying
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5464953,00.html

Zoning assurances sought for [Montrose] corrections facility
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/04/04/local_news/3.txt
The Justice Center could be getting a new neighbor, if plans to build a Community Corrections facility on nearby property come to fruition. To be resolved: zoning questions and potential community fears, the latter of which scuttled earlier plans for a ComCor facility on North Cascade.

Man held in SUV sabotage
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5596001
Authorities are holding a man they believe attempted to set off firebombs under seven SUVs in Cherry Creek over a four-day span last month. Found in the car of Grant Barnes, 24, were seven improvised incendiary devices similar to those found under the vehicles. Also found were gas cans, a box of long matches, a face mask and disposable gloves, a newly released search-warrant affidavit says. Barnes was pulled over shortly after 11:30 p.m. March 22 by Denver police Officer Jarrod Foust, a member of a "saturation patrol" that sought the person who placed firebombs under the sport utility vehicles March 18 to 21.

Public to be heard on growing graffiti problem
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5464908,00.html
Should Denver residents and business owners be responsible for cleaning up graffiti on their property? Do you think the city should feature "graffiti art" exhibitions at urban festivals and other community events as a prevention measure? How about doubling fines for graffiti vandals? Now is your chance to weigh in on these and other proposed solutions to a persistent problem across the city. Denver's Graffiti Task Force is holding a meeting tonight to "make sure citizens in Denver are heard," Regina Huerter, executive director of the Crime Prevention and Control Commission, said Wednesday.

Top

Economy

Population change in states' top urban areas
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2007-04-04-metro-area-table_N.htm
The population of Denver's metropolitan area has topped that of Pittsburgh's, and Houston's has passed Miami's, according to population estimates Thursday by the Census Bureau. The figures are pegged to last July 1. Metros can include dozens of suburban counties or just a single county.
RELATED: In fast U.S. growth, all is Weld
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465358,00.html
RELATED: Frederick goes from tractors to tracts
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465147,00.html
RELATED: Feast or Famine: Some areas experienced growth boom while Greeley slows down
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104040124

Allard to host money panel
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/allard-to-host-money-panel/
A message from U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard: Happy "financial literacy month!" Allard, R-Loveland, is launching a nationwide money-management campaign, he said, as an effort to curb the soaring amounts of personal debt and a record-high number of bankruptcies. His first stop: The University of Colorado campus, where the average debt-load for in-state graduates with student loans is about $25,000. That figure combines the debt that graduates and their parents took on for a bachelor's degree. It's $57,000 for out-of-state graduates and their families. Allard said he wants to target young adults in the financial literacy campaign. "They are the ones that are starting to make large consumer purchases, buying new cars and new homes," he said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "They need to read the fine print on credit card applications."

Musgrave to hear Farm Bill concerns next week
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104040123
U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., has scheduled a 2007 Farm Bill listening session next week in Greeley. The hearing will be 2-4 p.m. Tuesday at Island Grove Regional Park, 14th Avenue and A Street. Several representatives of agricultural organizations are scheduled to make presentations, including the Colorado Farm Bureau, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Blue Sun Biodiesel, Colorado Cattlemen's Association, Colorado Livestock Association, Colorado Association of Wheat Growers, Colorado Sugarbeet Growers Association and the Colorado Corn Growers.

Metals registry sought to thwart thefts (Under the dome, 4/5)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595803
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to crack down on the increased theft of metals, especially copper. House Bill 1141, by Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, and Rep. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, would create a registry for anyone buying and selling commodity metals. "Copper, brass and aluminum have been the target of thieves who have been attracted by the increased price of these metals," Williams said. "This bill is designed to allow law enforcement to work better with the purchasers and sellers of commodity metal. Under current law, it is very difficult to catch these thieves." The bill now goes to the Senate floor for consideration.

Anschutz to testify today
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5595984
Prosecutors made a strong case during 10 days of testimony that former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio knew Qwest was in financial trouble when he sold $100.8 million in company shares from January to May 2001, according to legal experts. But it was light on evidence showing Nacchio's state of mind when he made the trades, an important piece of the case. Critical to the government's insider-trading case against Nacchio, which it rested Wednesday, was testimony from high-ranking former Qwest executives who said they warned Nacchio about the company's looming financial problems, and from industry analysts who said they were unaware of the issues.
RELATED: Defense on stage today as feds rest
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5595619
RELATED: Anschutz to testify today
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5465673,00.html
RELATED: Experts agree it's risky business to allow defendant to take stand
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5465665,00.html
RELATED: Former Qwest attorney would take the Fifth
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5465663,00.html
RELATED: Special coverage: Nacchio on trial
http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/business/nacchio/

Level 3 acquires some AT&T assets
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5592356
Fiber-optic network operator Level 3 Communications Inc. today said it had acquired some assets that AT&T Corp. was ordered to divest when it was purchased by SBC Communications. No financial details were available. Level 3 said it acquired indefeasible rights of use for dark fiber connections to more than 200 buildings and more than 1,600 metro fiber route-miles in Detroit, Hartford, Conn., Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Francisco and St. Louis. Under the agreement, Level 3 retains intermediate splice rights, enabling it to add new buildings to the newly acquired lines.

Final push for Valley Floor
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/04/04/local_news/2.txt
The Valley Floor Preservation Partners announced May 14 as their third and final deadline for raising $50 million to buy the 570-acre Valley Floor at a Telluride Town Council meeting Tuesday. “If the money is not available by then, the condemnation will be abandoned,” VFPP spokesman Terry Tice said. “But I can assure you at VFPP, failure is not an option.” Since a Delta jury appraised the land at $50 million on Feb. 16, fundraisers have scrambled to gather about $21.5 million of the roughly $24 million needed to make up the difference from what the town expected the price to be. Entering the eminent domain trial, the town had appraised the Valley Floor at about $26 million. The San Miguel Valley Corporation, the landowners, appraised it at $50 million.
RELATED: Nonprofits fret over a VF fallout
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/04/05/news/news02.txt

Judge unfreezes debt firms' assets
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/judge-unfreezes-debt-firms-assets/
Two Boulder debt-reduction firms accused of misleading their customers won a reprieve Wednesday when a federal judge unfroze the companies' assets. But it's not expected to be business as usual for Debt-Set and Resolve Credit Counseling Inc. The two firms will operate under a list of stipulations and the watchful eye of a court-appointed monitor until the conclusion of the civil case brought by the Federal Trade Commission. Wednesday's order, from U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch, came a day after the FTC presented its evidence against the companies and some of their executives, and supersedes the March 23 temporary restraining order that froze assets, limited business functions and put the control of the business in the hands of a temporary receiver.

Commerce City election may put brakes on NASCAR
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465359,00.html
A group of homeowners thinks it may have successfully wrecked plans for a NASCAR super speedway in Commerce City by electing a new anti-track mayor and several City Council members this week. "We made NASCAR an issue in the election, and our candidates won," said Jason McEldowney, who heads the new Commerce City Citizens and Business Alliance. "This was a victory for Commerce City, and our way of life in Commerce City." Whether or not he is right remains to be seen.

Top

Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Wage gold rush powered by change
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5595620
Mindy Hew, a legal assistant from Westminster, has seen her salary jump 8 to 10 percent over the past two years because of a new job and a rapid promotion. "You have to look for a new job every two to three years in order to get that increase," Hew said. Allemreh Stoker, a banking employee from Aurora, has had raises totaling 11.5 percent in the past five years - but still lags what she was making before the recession of 2001. "I was making more five years ago in telecommunications than I'm making today," Stoker said. "I'm trying to get back to that level." These are some of the real people behind a Bureau of Economic Analysis report that shows that compensation in Colorado has risen by 21.8 percent over the past five years and increased by 7.4 percent last year. The 2001 recession led to many job losses and relatively flat compensation growth in 2002 and 2003. Since then, the state has gained jobs in abundance - and compensation has begun to rise steadily.

Intel may end work at plant by August
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20882&template=article.html
Intel Corp. could end production by August at its 900-employee Colorado Springs computer-chip plant, the first timeline the company has offered since it put the plant up for sale in January. The August date is “tentative, has changed several times and may change again,” Judy Cara, an Intel spokeswoman in Colorado Springs, said Wednesday. Company officials have said they will close the plant if they can’t find a buyer, but they are not ready to give up on their search for a buyer. The 1.4 million-square-foot plant at 1575 Garden of the Gods Road now employs about 900, down nearly 100 people since January. About 75 percent of those employees are transferring to jobs at other Intel plants, she said.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

Senate to consider homeowner bill; changes unlikely
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_5464900,00.html
The Colorado Senate on Monday is scheduled to consider the Homeowner Protection Act, which could put it on Gov. Bill Ritter's desk for signature later next week. Officials on Wednesday afternoon privately admitted that there appears to be little chance a compromise will be reached, which would make the law more palatable to home builders. Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, who is sponsoring House Bill 1338, said late Tuesday afternoon that she has had a "number of discussions about the possibility of amending it" but noted that time was running out. She couldn't be reached Wednesday afternoon but earlier said she had not seen a "middle ground" solution "we can all buy into." Some critics say the act could have unintended consequences. Veiga said she doesn't think that is true. HB 1338 prevents builders from inserting waivers into warranty contracts that remove buyers' rights to sue or arbitrate over shoddy construction issues, a provision in the four-year-old HB 1161, which builders supported.

Foreclosure hotline helps spare homes
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5595530
Meeting with housing counselors has helped at least four of every five callers to the state's foreclosure hotline avoid losing their homes. Since it was established five months ago, the hotline (1-877- 601-HOPE) has received more than 11,000 calls from people in jeopardy of foreclosure, said Zachary Urban, director of housing counseling for Brothers Redevelopment Inc. and the administrator of the hotline. "The majority of people don't even know what kind of loan they have," Urban said. "That in itself is scary." Brothers conducted a survey of 1,500 hotline callers to measure the counseling success for the Colorado Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, a consortium of nonprofits, real-estate professionals and state agencies.
RELATED: Hotline answers call to stop foreclosures
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_5464899,00.html

Top

Education

GOP feels snub on sex ed
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595965
Senate Republicans lost a dogged fight Wednesday to smother a proposal requiring schools to include information about emergency contraception and condoms in sex-education courses. Sen. Shawn Mitchell of Broomfield said the measure imposes a curriculum of "condoms, consummation and copulation." And Sen. Nancy Spence of Centennial warned that kids will have to see "condoms on bananas." Democrats killed Republican amendments to the bill one after the other, including one requiring schools to teach "when conception begins." "For me, this bill is really a pro-life bill," said Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont. "It's about reducing unintended pregnancy and abortion." House Bill 1292 won initial passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate and will get a final vote as early as today. The measure already has passed the House. The bill says school districts should emphasize abstinence in sex-ed courses but must include science-based facts about sexually transmitted diseases and birth control.
RELATED: Bill would create sex-ed standards
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465357,00.html
RELATED: X-RATED FLOOR ACTION (Roll Call, April 5)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5465444,00.html
RELATED: Sex education bill moves forward in Legislature
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104050097
RELATED: Bill for scientific sex ed advances
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20888&template=article.html

It's Charter Schools Week (On the side, 4/5)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595605
House Joint Resolution 1030, sponsored by Rep. Ken Summers, R-Lakewood, and Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, was introduced to proclaim this week as Colorado Charter Schools Week. This year is the 14th anniversary of the passage of the Charter Schools Act in Colorado. The resolution says "through innovation and a focus on quality education, charter schools contribute to the statewide efforts to improve education in Colorado." The resolution was introduced one week after Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, came under fire for controversial comments about charter schools.

Audit challenges state aid payments to online school
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5464955,00.html
Colorado Education Department auditors are questioning $2 million in state aid payments to the Hope Co-Op Online Learning Academy. Hope, however, is contesting the amount, and Education Commissioner William Moloney cautioned that the final figures from such audits are often far lower than initial estimates. State aid is distributed based on enrollment. At issue for Hope is how many students attended the online charter school during the 2005-06 school year.

Penley stresses budget crisis to students
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/CSUZONE01/704050342/1002/NEWS01
Colorado State University President Larry Penley spent Wednesday night reiterating the severity of the institution's budget crisis while explaining a failed legislative amendment he pushed in Denver last week. "It's been an interesting week or two for all of us," Penley said to student government leaders at the Lory Student Center. Last week, CSU pushed a failed Senate amendment to the state's budget that would have allowed the university to collect an additional $34 million in tuition.

Departing Hank Brown says changes needed
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5592337
The snow settles on the spindly tree branches on the still University of Boulder campus this February morning, while inside the Wolf Law building, Hank Brown drills the five students who have braved the previous night's storm to attend his legislative law class. Despite barraging his students with questions, Brown doesn't employ the Socratic method. He never bullies, never belittles them if they don't know the answer. Brown is too accomplished a communicator for that. He cajoles, but if the answer isn't forthcoming, he supplies it himself and always ends each topic with a teaching thought. And frequently, there's that Hank Brown moment, the wry grin and smiling eyes that signal the humorous zinger he's about to deliver, filled with irony and a slight hint of the sardonic, to make a simple statement loaded with meaning. It is the same smile he used with a special Republican joint Senate-House caucus on Capitol Hill earlier that month, when in lobbying for increased money for higher education, he admitted, "I'm not too comfortable bringing this message to this group."

D-11 pauses power changes
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20905&template=article.html
An initiative to give Colorado Springs School District 11 principals and staffs more power could be scaled back. Board President John Gudvangen said Wednesday it’s up to Superintendent Terry Bishop how a proposal for site-based management will proceed. Bishop must show “he’s got a program and a plan that will actually make a difference,” Gudvangen said. Bishop will bring something forward at the next board meeting, April 11, said district spokeswoman Elaine Naleski. A committee of administrators will meet Monday afternoon to discuss the site-based management project. The school board asked administrators last May to create a pilot program for site-based management and have some schools try it out during the 2007-08 school year. Last August, the board approved spending up to $250,000 to hire a consulting firm and up to $50,000 for a project manager to get the system running. That board, however, included three people who have since left their positions.

DPS middle schools subtracting kids
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595964
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet and school board members will today begin a series of discussions about the state of the city's 18 traditional middle schools - most of which wrestle with low student achievement and falling enrollment. It is the first time in four years the school board will take on middle-grades education, said board president Theresa Peña. Some schools have half-empty buildings with principals struggling to keep students and parents from walking away. "We're not making academic gains," Peña said. "We're not getting one year's worth of learning in one year's worth of teaching. ... We're not doing a good job."

Three instructors hired for Manual
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5465653,00.html
The new principal at Manual High School said Wednesday that he has hired three instructors from within the Denver Public School District to begin teaching when the school reopens in the fall, after being shut down for a year. Robert Stein made the announcement to about 40 people who had gathered at the campus to ask questions under a community meeting format - the second one since he was hired from his post as principal at the privately run Graland Country Day School. He also said he hopes that most of the hires would come from within the district, with "a handful coming from far away."

Gleason resigns from Board
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/apr/05/gleason_resigns_board/?local_news
Steamboat Springs School Board member Pat Gleason resigned Wednesday. His resignation is effective immediately. The District 4 representative since 2002, Gleason wrote to School Board President Denise Connelly on Wed-nesday that he did not agree with the direction of the current School Board and could “no longer serve on this board in good conscience.”

Group advises 4-year high school
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050340/1002
Poudre School District ninth-graders should be moved to high schools and sixth-graders should be placed in junior highs, according to recommendations from an advisory group. The Grade Configuration Design Team, composed of about 20 administrators, teachers and parents from across the district, recommended reconfiguring the district's elementary, junior high and high schools into a kindergarten through fifth-grade, sixth- through eighth-grade and ninth- through 12th-grade alignment.

Measurement of a student
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/26012
Some students scrunch up their noses upon mention of CSAP. "We don't like CSAPs," said Lauren Schneegas, a Ridgeview Elementary School third-grader. "They're hard." Others say the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests give them a chance to shine. "It's easy because I'm good at reading, good at writing and good at math," Ridgeview third-grader Angelica Hester said. Either way, it seems students, teachers and administrators are breathing a sigh of relief as testing comes to an end.

MAOISTS JOIN FIGHT (EXTRA!, April 5)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465670,00.html
The Maoist Internationalist Movement has organized four rallies to "Stop the Witch-Hunt against Ward Churchill," the embattled University of Colorado professor who is "facing firing . . . for a speech he made about 9/11." Speech, essay, whatever. Rallies will be in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Cambridge, Mass.; and, well, Huntington, Ind. - where it will not be held at the United States Vice Presidential Museum at the Dan Quayle Center.

Teen documents lunch-line horrors
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/teen-documents-lunch-line-horrors/
Daniel Haarburger isn't a fan of school lunches. As a seventh-grader at Boulder's Summit Middle School, he said he sometimes felt sick after eating or would crash because of sugary snacks that held more appeal than the processed hot-lunch food. And when he brought salad from home, friends would steal bites — proving they wanted healthier, fresher food. Looking to raise awareness, he applied for a $300 grant from Boulder County's Community Foundation to make a short documentary film on "the true horrors of the lunch line." Foundation President Josie Heath said Daniel, at 12, is probably the youngest grant recipient. His project was approved by a 20-person committee.

2 students held in threat to "shoot the place up"
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5596308
Adams County sheriff's deputies have arrested two students from Ranum High School after they made what authorities called credible threats to "shoot the place up." The teens - a girl and a boy whose names and ages were not released - reportedly made the threats Friday at the high school, 2401 W. 80th Ave. in Adams County. Deputies learned of the threats Tuesday, said Sheriff Doug Darr. Ranum, in Adams County School District 50, is closed for spring break this week. District officials declined to comment.

East High employee faces sex charges
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5464927,00.html
Denver police Wednesday arrested a social worker at East High School on charges of sexual assault against a child by a person in a position of trust. Officers in the police department's fugitive unit, assisted by school security officers, arrested Eugene Summers, 47, at East High about 9 a.m., a police spokesman said. Summers was booked into Denver City Jail on $30,000 bail.

Top

Military

Late to join the Army, he gave his all
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465668,00.html
Stephen Kowalczyk lived in the world. From Hawaii, where he worked on a pineapple plantation and surfed; to Europe and Israel, where he made a grand tour on his savings; to Iraq, where, as a soldier, he befriended schoolchildren with writing tablets, pencils and chocolate bars. In death, he was brought back to Boulder on Wednesday for his funeral. Army Spc. Stephen Kowalczyk, 32, was killed in combat March 14 in Muqdadiyah, Iraq.
RELATED: Fallen U.S. soldier returned to family
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/fallen-us-soldier-returned-to-family/

Snipers and diapers: Soldier killed in Iraq was at ease with both
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465671,00.html
There were two sides to Shane Becker. One Shane Becker was an Army sniper who tracked down insurgents in Iraq. The other was a loving father who doted on his daughter. "He was devoted to the Army when he was with them," said his stepfather, Bob Jorgensen, "and to his family when he was at home." Early Tuesday, Staff Sgt. Shane Becker, 35, was killed in a firefight south of Baghdad while he and his team searched for enemy mortars, Jorgensen said.
RELATED: Second Greeley West grad killed in Iraq
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104040125

It's official: VA to build hospital at Fitzsimons
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595966
After years of fits and starts, and on-again, off-again deals, work on a new hospital for Colorado's veterans is finally set to begin. U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson - joined by an array of Colorado elected officials - announced Wednesday that the VA will build the hospital on 31 acres north of East Colfax Avenue on the site of the former Fitzsimons Army hospital. As of last week, the VA has obtained the land and is ready to begin work, said Paul Sherbo, regional VA spokesman. VA officials say that by 2025, when they hope to have the new hospital completed, it will serve about 70,000 veterans each year. The new facility will cost $523 million, according to U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Golden Democrat.
RELATED: New VA hospital a reality
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5465672,00.html

Disabled veterans soak up life during national sports clinic
http://postindependent.com/article/20070405/VALLEYNEWS/104050036
Jeff Snover and Scott Winkler lowered themselves from their wheelchairs and into the world's largest hot springs pool Wednesday. Life is good. The day before, the disabled Army veterans were skiing with adaptive equipment. "You feel free, because you've been in chairs all day," Snover said of the skiing. The pair are two of around 365 participants staying in Snowmass for the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic from April 1 to April 6. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are skiing. On the other days, alternate activities are available like soaking in the hot springs, sled hockey, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, scuba diving, rock climbing and other activities.

Audit agency denies support of NORAD move
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=20893&template=article.html
The government’s audit agency disputes statements by Adm. Timothy Keating last month that it supports the move out of Cheyenne Mountain. “That’s not true,” said Davi D’Agostino, director of the Government Accountability Office’s Defense Capabilities and Management team. At issue are Keating’s comments made March 22 during a news briefing at the headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base. Keating said his decision to place the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center on “warm standby” was backed by the GAO’s review. The GAO was asked to review the move several months ago by the House Armed Services Committee after Keating didn’t provide a written report about the change last summer, a committee spokeswoman said.

Hero's statue spurs unease
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595985
A group of Littleton parents is opposing the design and location of a memorial to a fallen local Navy SEAL, Danny Dietz, who died in combat in Afghanistan two years ago. They say the statue, depicting Dietz clutching an automatic rifle, glorifies violence. In Berry Park, it would be within blocks of three schools and two playgrounds. "I don't think young children should be exposed to that in that way - unsupervised by their parents or any adults," said Emily Cassidy, one of the mothers. The parents have circulated fliers opposing the design and location of the statue at the southeast corner of South Lowell Boulevard and West Berry Avenue, in a triangle formed by Goddard Middle School, Community School for the Gifted and Centennial Elementary School.

Top

Energy Policy

BLM opens 125,000 acres in Colo. to drilling, roads
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5464879,00.html
The federal government on Wednesday opened up oil and gas drilling in thousands of acres of ponderosa pine-dotted foothills in the northern San Juan basin, sidestepping years of objections from activists and local residents. The decision by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service comes after more than five years of public debate and analysis. It allows the drilling of 127 wells and construction of 93 miles of roads and pipelines in an area straddling La Plata and Archuleta counties. The 125,000-acre area includes portions of the environmentally sensitive HD Mountains, prompting criticism from local communities. The federal agencies say they have controls in place to reduce the impact from drilling.
RELATED: Feds approve drilling in HD mountains; enviros, residents object
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070405/NEWS/70405001
RELATED: Agencies approve drilling plan in HDs
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070405_1.htm

Citizens' plan calls for tighter regulation of BLM drilling
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_Little_Snake_gas_plan.html
An alternative plan for federal lands in Moffat and Routt counties calls for stricter enforcement and requirements by the Bureau of Land Management to protect the land from intense natural-gas development, area citizens and conservation groups said Wednesday. The plan, called A Conservation Vision for the Little Snake Resource Area, was developed after the BLM on Feb. 9 released its draft resource management plan revision, which could allow 3,000 gas wells over all but 160,870 of the area’s 1.3 million acres. Comments can be submitted to the BLM through May 16. The alternative plan would add another 100,000 acres to those the BLM proposed protecting, and other recommendations would control the rate of gas drilling, said Luke Schaefer, Colorado Environmental Coalition Northwest Colorado organizer. “This plan really pushes the BLM to make things like best-management practices and best available technology a requirement instead of a voluntary approach” by the industry, he said.

Mesa County braces for huge energy impacts
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_1a_energy_impacts.html
Mesa County will incur nearly $2.5 billion in direct and indirect energy-impact costs over the next two decades, according to an internal Department of Local Affairs report. The March 5 draft document, circulated by Department of Local Affairs Director Susan Kirkpatrick, lays out projected capital-improvement and infrastructure needs in 40 counties, 57 cities and towns, and eight special districts, totaling $23.5 billion. Kirkpatrick wrote in the draft’s cover letter that her department compiled the report to respond to “conversations about alternative uses for severance tax and federal mineral lease revenues” at the Legislature. She pledged to use the information “to forcefully argue the state has a continuing obligation to address the sizeable impacts of mineral productions at the local level.”
REALTED: PDF of DOLA Executive Director Susan Kirkpatrick's cover letter
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/gjsentinel/pdf/Coverpage_Kirkpatrick.pdf

Grand Mesa drilling pact mandates extra care
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5595971
Energy drilling in the Grand Mesa slopes that supply the drinking water for Palisade and Grand Junction will be done with extra care to lessen the chance of spills, track water quality, keep out of sensitive spring areas and minimize well-pad areas. This is according to a 58-page draft watershed plan released Wednesday after six months of haggling between Genesis Gas & Oil, public entities and a private landowner. The plan had barely been disseminated through a website when it drew kudos and brickbats over an area where many officials and members of the public have said they would prefer no drilling. "This was the second-best option the BLM could give us," said Grand Junction Mayor Jim Doody. "The best option would have been: 'You can't drill in the watershed."'
RELATED: Watershed drilling plan unveiled; critics skeptical of non-binding clause
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_1b_watershed_plan.html

Club 20 to examine future of Western Colorado agriculture
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_Club_20_advance.html
Western Colorado’s agricultural heritage is horses and cows. Its future could be biodiesel and ethanol.

Landowner, gas producer reach agreement
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175784066/14
A Las Animas County landowner reportedly will pay to end a legal fight, which involved an armed confrontation, with a large oil and gas producer in the county. An attorney for the land owner said the owner will pay Pioneer Natural Resources Co. "a sum of money earmarked for education" of landowners to prevent similar fights between them and oil and gas producers. Attorney Joseph Hambright said Pioneer and the land owner, the Gatza family, recently agreed to drop their U.S. District Court lawsuits against each other in a settlement that included the payment, the amount of which he did not disclose.

Erie ready to restart drilling
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/erie-ready-to-restart-drilling/
The silence that has settled over this town, in the wake of noisy natural-gas drilling operations that went on for much of the fall, could soon be broken again. Wednesday, the Erie Planning Commission approved special-use permits for three new drilling sites within town limits. All three rigs will be run by EnCana Oil & Gas USA, which set up two similar drilling operations near residential neighborhoods in Erie last fall. Those projects prompted criticism from neighbors who claimed that the noise and lights from the around-the-clock rigs kept them awake at night. This time, two of the proposed drill sites — near Vista Parkway and east of County Line Road — would be farther away from homes. But a third site would be on the east side of the Grandview neighborhood and about 500 feet from houses on Bonanza Drive. Just a few months ago, residents on the west side of the neighborhood had to deal with a nearby drilling operation in town open space land.

Area engineer explains benefits of solar-thermal energy
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/04/04/local_news/6.txt
Solar energy is not yet a commodity, but more and more people are looking toward this alternative energy. One of the least expensive forms of alternative energy is solar-thermal, and electronic engineer Dave Congour is getting the word out.

W.Va. firm told to stop dealing in Colorado
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5464902,00.html
Colorado regulators have leveled fraud allegations against a company that said it developed equipment for the oil and gas industry and took out a newspaper advertisement in Denver seeking venture capital dollars. West Virginia-based Jacobs Invention Group failed to disclose financial risks to potential investors and to register the investments with the state, according to the Division of Securities. The company, led by Herman Jacobs, called itself in its promotional material a "multimillion- dollar business" that was "entering an uncultivated market" and said it expected to make a profit of $4.2 million in 2007, according to the office of Colorado Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph. Jacobs, who says he's an inventor, also projected that profits would rise sharply over the next few years, hitting $56.4 million in 2010, the cease-and-desist order against the company said.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Lyons cement plant breached Clean Air Act, EPA says
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5464971,00.html
A cement plant near Lyons considered a major source of acid rain- and smog-forming pollutants failed to add emission controls during the past decade in violation of state and federal clean air laws, the EPA has charged. The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a "notice of violation" to the Cemex plant, the first step in a formal enforcement action that could result in financial penalties against the Mexico- based company. Since 1997, Cemex has modified the Lyons plant without first obtaining necessary permits and installing pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act, resulting in "unpermitted" releases of nitrogen oxides, the EPA said.
RELATED: EPA puts Cemex on notice
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/epa-puts-cemex-on-notice/

It's so cool, it's bad
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/04/04/news/c_u_and_boulder/news2.txt
In an era consumed with talk of global warming, aerosols responsible for climate cooling seem the perfect balancing agent - with a consequence. For nearly five years Joost de Gouw, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and two graduate students from the University of Colorado have studied the organic compounds responsible for the infamous metropolitan “brown cloud.” “They (aerosols) are micro-sized particles suspended in the air that scatter light, giving off a milky (hazy) appearance,” Gouw said. “While aerosols are important in climate-system cooling, as they reflect light back to space limiting greenhouse heating, when inhaled (regularly) however, they can negatively affect lung health.”

Aurora deal firm, unless . . .
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175784066/2
A “substantial” change in a proposed action or information overlooked in the initial study would be reasons to stop or delay a proposed federal contract following release of the final environmental study. A proposed 40-year contract to allow Aurora to store and exchange water in Lake Pueblo is now in final review by the Bureau of Reclamation. If new information is brought forward to suggest the finding of no significant impact issued in the environmental assessment is in error, the contract would be stopped until a new environmental review is complete, said Kara Lamb, Reclamation spokeswoman. Reclamation conducts reviews under the National Environmental Protection Act of 1969, and in the environmental assessment outlines its compliance with several federal policies. It found no impact in areas like endangered species, wildlife habitat, economics and cultural resources.

Plan for Colorado grasslands in limbo
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/plan-for-colorado-grasslands-in-limbo/
The fate of a management plan for national grasslands in Colorado, the first in the country written under new federal rules, is in question now that a court has thrown out those rules. Environmentalists are calling on the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw the plan for the Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands in southern Colorado and western Kansas after last week's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco.
RELATED: GMUG plan, comments on hold
http://montrosepress.com/articles/2007/04/04/local_news/4.txt

Local leaders work to get air monitoring here
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_3a_air_quality.html
Western Colorado likely will receive an air quality monitoring station, following moves by two Western Slope lawmakers Wednesday to shift $380,000 in the 2007-2008 state budget. Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, said the funding diversion will help the Western Slope “get ahead of the curve” on tracking air quality on the Western Slope. “We do need these stations,” Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, told the House. The measure passed 51-14, despite the best efforts of Joint Budget Committee Vice Chairman Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, to strip the measure out of the Long Bill. Buescher said the Department of Natural Resources already has committed to devoting more resources to Western Slope air-quality monitoring, making the amendment unnecessary.

Rivers forecast to rage in spring but slow to a ripple by summer
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/05/4_5_1b_Runoff_forecast.html
Rivers are running high early this year, but expect them to drop quickly as the Western Slope heads once again into drought. Snowpack in the high country is well below average statewide, and rivers are expected to flow extremely low through July, according to the National Weather Service’s April-July river basin forecasts. The numbers should give water users pause and encourage them to look at the big picture, said Chris Treese, external affairs officer for the Colorado River Conservation District.

Wetlands set for inclusion in density transfer program
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070404/NEWS/70404010
The transfer of development rights (TDR) program that has prevented development on scores of mining claims in the backcountry around Breckenridge will be expanded to include sensitive wetlands. Both the town council and the Board of County Commissioners will likely approve a new agreement next week that will make wetlands in the Upper Blue eligible to be sending areas under the TDR program.

Nominations sought for Summit County's green heroes
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070404/NEWS/104040068
To honor the 37th Earth Day, High Country Conservation Center and the Blue River Group have teamed together to present the annual Green Scene Awards. Nominations are currently being sought for the awards that recognize Summit County's greenest. Categories for the awards include: Lisa Simpson Outstanding Youth (presented to a local youth); Organic Fertilizer (presented to a local teacher); Essential Earthy Employee (presented to someone instituting environmental programs at work); Greener Summit Business (presented to a local business); Green Machine Public Works/Government (presented to a government agency or official in our area); Julia Butterfly Individual Achievement (presented to a local citizen); Wild Wilderness Wonder (presented to someone trying to protect our wild places).

Report: Killing of bison justified
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5464328,00.html
Lakewood police acted properly and followed procedure in killing a young bison that had escaped its enclosure in the southwestern reaches of the city nearly a month ago a follow-up report on the incident said. "It didn’t find any violations of policy and procedure," police spokesman Steve Davis said today. "It mentions, obviously that the owner of the buffalo was there and asked that (shooting the animal) be done. It was felt that after three hours that we had tried to contain it and we had tried to find someone with a tranquilizer and the means to administer it," he said.

Spring brings bruins out and around Durango
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=earth&article_path=/earth/earth070405_1.htm
While black bears emerging from hibernation are one of the harbingers of spring in Southwest Colorado, they're not supposed to appear the last week of March as they did this year - about a month early.

Here come the tamarisk munchers
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070404/NEWS/70403006
Beetles are chewing up tamarisk trees at some sites near Moab, Utah, “like crazy,” said Dan Bean, who oversees a Colorado project in which the bugs will be unleashed to eat the so-called “noxious weeds.” The tamarisk has spread up the Colorado River all the way to Eagle County. The beetles may be chowing down in Grand Junction later this year.

Preservation group tries new tack for granary
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050345/1002
Efforts to preserve the historic Loveland Feed & Grain are headed in a new direction. A group of local residents that has been fighting to save the building for more than a year has declined a $200,000 grant from the State Historical Fund earmarked to buy the granary. Instead, the group will work with the building's owner to develop a public/private partnership that would renovate the downtown landmark, said Erin McLaughlin of Novo Restoration Inc., a nonprofit organization formed to save the building from demolition.

Spud cellar won't block highway plan
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070405/NEWS/104050055
State historical officials mashed an Aspen group's effort to use an old potato cellar to block the straight-shot highway entrance into town.

Top

Opinion

Gag order sends wrong message
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5464876,00.html
The first and so far only Guantanamo detainee to be tried and convicted by President Bush's military tribunal will shortly be on his way to Australia to serve out his sentence. David Hicks, 31, was sentenced to seven years, with all but nine months suspended, and that to be served in a prison in his hometown of Adelaide. Hicks got caught up in some bad stuff - he apparently trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan - and it's no wonder that after his capture he was detained by the U.S. But there is controversy over his treatment.

Facing another goodbye
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070405/TRIBEDIT/104050105/-1/TRIBEDIT
To say that Weld County has been lucky because we've only lost two of our own in the fighting in Iraq, also seems harsh and cruel. But this also is true.

Legislature should block robocalls
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5595279
There are few political tactics sleazier than the robocall that targets citizens in their homes with computerized attack ads. We believe it should be illegal to send these automated smears to citizens who try to protect their privacy by opting into the state's no-call list. State Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver, filed an ethics complaint Tuesday against lobbyists William Mutch of Colorado Concern and Steve Durham of the Colorado Association of Homebuilders, in relation to a recent robocall assault. In our view, her criticism of Colorado Concern seems justified, but we aren't aware of any evidence that Durham played a role in the robocalls. Borodkin said she and Rep. Alice Todd, D-Aurora, each received about a dozen calls from constituents angry after receiving robocalls that accused the two legislators of sponsoring a bill that would raise taxes on homes. No one has yet produced a transcript of the calls, but if that's what they said, Borodkin is right to denounce them.

Littwin: I smell a scandal! Nope, that's a lawmaker's lunch
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5465356,00.html
And then I got my break. This is what pounding the shoe leather will do - if you walk around long enough, you run into Lynn Bartels, a real reporter. Bartels told me about a report on Colorado Confidential which made the connection between Brad Jones, a 23-year- old who broke the Merrifield e-mail case on his facethestate.com, and Senate Republicans. Apparently, Jones, in his spare time, also built coloradosenate news.com, which is the Senate Republican press site. Suddenly, questions. Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald was happy to ask, "Is someone using staff for partisan gain on the state dime? Is that what happened here? If it did, is that OK?" I asked Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany about a possible connection. He said he didn't see one. He said of those who obtained the Merrifield-Windels e-mails: "I think they wanted to keep us in the dark intentionally, and probably for our own good. And I'm glad they did." So, here's where we stand: We had a minor scandal that could either blow up in the faces of those who exposed it - always fun - or, conversely, it won't. Got it? It's still not Baker/Foley/Welker. But it's almost enough to make me want to come back and find out the rest.

Verifiably fair elections
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/05/verifiably-fair-elections/
Despite troubling indications of electoral inconsistencies — which include at least one allegation of voter fraud — the city of Lafayette has refused to allow citizens and election watchdogs to inspect public documents related to the city's recent annexation election. Lafayette's stealth is capricious and very likely illegal. And it underscores the need for state legislators to emphasize that certain electoral records — those that do not reveal how individuals voted — must be open to public scrutiny.

Kamau: An end to slavery
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5595281
Two hundred years ago, in 1807, Parliament abolished slavery in Britain. In 1833, all slaves in the British Empire were set free. It took a civil war, Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, to end slavery in America. Even though the British have been commemorating this auspicious occasion, there's little remembrance of it in the places where African slaves came from: Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, etc. Sadly, the African tribal enmities that made the slave trade possible have not disappeared. The tribes' children, sold to the British, Americans and Portuguese slavers, are not commemorated in the lands where they were seized and forced into bondage. Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888 and a little later in other South American countries. But more than a century later, blacks still live in slave-like conditions all across South America or - at best - as second-class citizens.

Help for Holly
http://pueblochieftain.com/editorial/1175784066/2
WE WERE heartened by the news that Gov. Bill Ritter has ordered the release of $1 million in emergency funds to help victims of last week’s killer tornado in Holly. The money will help cover emergency costs for temporary housing, mental health services, infrastructure repair and other needs. “We will continue to do all we can to help the people of Holly,” he said. “I have been impressed beyond words with their resiliency and strength.” The governor’s office, the Department of Local Affairs and the Division of Emergency Management also are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get 50 mobile homes from the Hurricane Katrina relief zone to Holly. State lawmakers from both parties applauded the governor’s leadership in meeting the needs of Holly and its citizens. We join in that praise. And we remind those who wish to make private donations can arrange to find out what’s needed by phoning 719-537-6047, or they can make cash donations to the Red Cross, 4104 Outlook Blvd., No. 135D, Pueblo 81008.

Carlisle: We wait ... as Iran negotiates with Britain
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070404/COLUMNS/104040061
There's no crisis as yet, and the only country using the word "hostage" is the United States which, despite its egomania, is not a part of this dark comedy. It's certainly true that Iran is upset with the United States over our insistence that Iran put an end to its nuclear program. But if Iran wanted to "send a message" to Washington, they wouldn't do it indirectly via Britain. There are thousands of American citizens, teachers, students, nurses, doctors, businessmen and spies operating in Iran, as well as a fleet of American warships led by two aircraft carrier task forces, that offer inviting targets for an attack or a hostage situation. But that's not likely to happen, since Iran believes they have America on its knees anyway.

NATIONAL NEWS

Top

Election

Early ’08 Fund-Raising Has Clear Blue Tint
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05assess.html?ref=washington
For anyone looking for a sign of the health of the Democratic Party going into the 2008 presidential campaign, it came Wednesday with the last of the fund-raising figures reported by the major presidential candidates. With the $25 million reported by Senator Barack Obama’s campaign, closing in on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s $26 million, the Democratic presidential candidates collectively outperformed the Republicans, and by a substantial amount: Democrats raised a total of about $78 million, compared with just over $51 million by their rivals, according to preliminary first-quarter figures provided by the campaigns. That is remarkable because Republicans have historically proved better at collecting contributions. In every presidential primary season since 1976, the top fund-raiser was a Republican.
RELATED: Newcomers' Fundraising Shakes Up Field
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401707.html

Obama's Campaign Takes In $25 Million
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040400989.html
Sen. Barack Obama raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of the year, nearly matching Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's record-setting total and making it all but certain that Democrats will face a costly and protracted battle for their party's nomination. Collectively, the Democratic candidates raised nearly $80 million in the first quarter, outpacing the Republican field for the first time since the Federal Election Commission began closely tracking such figures in the 1970s. Republicans took in just over $50 million in that same time frame, suggesting that a restive electorate and creative Internet strategies have fundamentally shifted the fundraising landscape for both parties.
RELATED: Obama fundraising shakes up Dems' race
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704041178apr05,1,7098538.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Fundraising shows Dem race shaping up as 'battle of titans'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-fundraising-battle_N.htm
RELATED: Obama Shows His Strength in a Fund-Raising Feat on Par With Clinton
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05obama.html?ref=washington

A Shoo-In For 'Regular Person'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402588.html
Elizabeth Edwards has reigned supreme over the news cycle in recent weeks. On March 22 the couple announced that cancer not only had returned to her body but had spread, making recovery through surgery impossible. The news created a pundit-blogger-morning show-talk radio frenzy of Anna Nicole-Howard K. Stern proportions. The Edwardses gamely waded through the ranks of cable news yappers. They did their time on "60 Minutes" and survived the anointment of New York Times columnist Frank Rich, whose Sunday opus was titled "Elizabeth Edwards for President." Now it was time to get back to the business of running for the Democratic nomination. "I am an Internet junkie and a news junkie," she said in an interview after the final campaign event Monday. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I have a Google alert on every member of my family. That includes my brother who teaches film, my sister, my daughter. I have a Google alert on me. Honestly."
RELATED: Elizabeth Edwards: I failed to get mammogram
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704041100apr05,1,741531.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Romney talks taxes in Iowa
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-romney-iowa_N.htm
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in Iowa Wednesday he would propose eliminating taxes on savings for middle-class Americans if he is elected president, but he would not overhaul the U.S. tax code. "I'm probably not going to be recommending throwing out the code and starting over," the Republican said during a meeting with Des Moines Register editors and reporters. "We all can dream about a much simpler, fairer, flatter system. "I look to say, Can we make the tax rates lower for all Americans?" he added. "Can we make the tax on savings, particularly on middle-income Americans, disappear?" The message resonated with the image Romney hoped to project in an ad that began airing Wednesday in which he pledges to ensure that federal spending on programs other than defense grows more slowly than the inflation rate.

Giuliani Urges Compromise on Iraq Legislation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402543.html
Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani accused Democrats of throwing up a flag of surrender in Iraq but urged President Bush to seek a negotiated solution with Congress before vetoing legislation that would impose a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from the conflict. Giuliani offered his views on Iraq in an interview late Tuesday during his first campaign trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate, and sought to respond to many of the questions opponents have raised about his long-term viability as a contender.

Thompson shares Iraq plans
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-thompson-iowa_N.htm
Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson said Wednesday he wants to let the Iraq government decide whether U.S. troops should remain in the war-torn country. During his official presidential campaign announcement in Clive, Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor, said the vote would be the first part of a three-step plan to ensure "our troops can leave sooner rather than later." "We should ask those leaders to decide whether or not they want America in their country," he said. "I'm confident they'll vote yes ... but if that government votes we should pull out, we should pull out." Furthermore, Thompson proposed a federal government for Iraq and its 18 provinces, each of which would be controlled by one of the three prominent Muslim sects in the country: the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis.

N.M. Voters Divided Over Spaceport Tax
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401491.html
The unusual Spaceport America referendum-- believed to be the first of its kind in the nation -- would raise about $49 million toward the $200 million cost of building the facility. Richard Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, has agreed to sign a long-term lease for the spaceport if the referendum passes. The vote yesterdaytook place only in Dona Ana County, although the spaceport would be built in neighboring Sierra County. Officials in both Sierra and nearby Otero counties have said they will hold an elections in the near future if the Dona Ana referendum passes.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Lawmakers bicker over phrase 'global war on terrorism'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-global-war-terrorism_N.htm
Democrats and Republicans are at odds on whether to use President Bush's catchall phrase "global war on terrorism" when talking about the billions of dollars spent each year in Iraq and elsewhere. A new internal memo by a senior Democratic staff member urged aides to drop the term from their legislative dictionaries because it was too broad. The directive quickly led to a linguistic dispute between the parties. "The attempt by Democrats to erase the words 'global' and 'terror' from our current war is an absurd effort to deny the fact that America is battling terrorism on a global scale," said House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "How do Democrats expect America to fight and win a war they deny is even taking place?"

Gonzales Prepares to Fight for His Job in Testimony
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402614.html
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has retreated from public view this week in an intensive effort to save his job, spending hours practicing testimony and phoning lawmakers for support in preparation for pivotal appearances in the Senate this month, according to administration officials. After struggling for weeks to explain the extent of his involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, Gonzales and his aides are viewing the Senate testimony on April 12 and April 17 as seriously as if it were a confirmation proceeding for a Supreme Court or a Cabinet appointment, officials said.
RELATED: Attorneys for Gonzales Aide Criticize Congressional Democrats
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401760.html
RELATED: Bush team built on foundation of loyalty
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-bush-team_N.htm

White House posts earmarks on website
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-earmarks5apr05,1,2841409.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Pet spending projects that lawmakers put in the 2005 budget are listed. The administration's requests aren't.

Recess Appointments Granted to 'Swift Boat' Donor, 2 Other Nominees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402405.html
President Bush, defying Senate Democrats, gave recess appointments yesterday to three controversial nominees, including, as ambassador to Belgium, Republican donor Sam Fox, who had contributed to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group whose ads helped doom Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. Kerry (D-Mass.), who grilled Fox about his $50,000 contribution to the group during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February, had complained that Fox never disavowed his actions and that he should not be confirmed. "It's sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate," Kerry said in a statement yesterday. The committee was about to vote on Fox's nomination last week -- and was almost certain to reject it -- when Bush pulled it back. Since the nomination was not before the Senate, the White House said Fox, who is a wealthy developer in St. Louis, will serve without pay in his post, although some Democrats had suggested that may not be permissible. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said yesterday that he will ask the Government Accountability Office for a ruling on the legality of the unusual appointment, which he called "an abuse of executive authority."
RELATED: Swift Boat donor named ambassador
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704040962apr05,1,7884970.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
RELATED: Bush outflanks Congress to name Fox ambassador
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-bush-sam-fox_N.htm

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Release of 'American Taliban' is urged
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lindh5apr05,1,3978530.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
The parents of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the country's toughest federal prison, stepped up their request for his release Wednesday by noting that the first U.S. war crimes tribunal in Guantanamo Bay recently resulted in a sentence of nine months for an Australian detainee held in U.S. custody since late 2001. "John has been in prison for more than five years," said his mother, Marilyn Walker. "It's time for him to come home." Lindh's lead lawyer, James J. Brosnahan of San Francisco, called the effort "a simple cry for justice."

Top

Foreign Policy

No Record of Arrest of Former FBI Agent, Iranian Official Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402483.html
A senior Iranian official said Wednesday that an initial investigation by the Iranian Foreign Ministry into the fate of former FBI agent Robert A. Levinson had found no record of his arrest, although an Iranian news organization reported that he was picked up by Iranian security forces on March 9. Iran's PressTV reported on its English language Web site Wednesday that Levinson was on Iran's Kish Island to "make contact with persons who could help him make representations to official Iranian bodies responsible for suppressing trade in pirated products, which is a major concern of his company."
RELATED: Iran to aid search for missing American
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing5apr05,1,2834486.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Iraq security sweep to be extended to Mosul
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-iraq5apr05,0,2557604.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Assailants opened fire on a minivan carrying power plant workers near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, killing 11 of them in the second lethal assault on laborers in the area in five days. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi officials said a 7-week-old security crackdown in the capital, helped along by an infusion of American troops, would be extended to the northern city of Mosul and other outlying areas, but provided few details. In a sign of opposition to the sweep, a U.S.-Iraqi security center in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim stronghold in Baghdad, came under attack by mortars and a suicide car bomb. Two security officers and two civilians were hurt. The car bomber was halted by blast barriers at the front gate and detonated his payload about 350 yards from the center's main building. A mortar round struck inside the compound about the same time.

Explosion Strikes Oil Pipeline in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040500361.html
A bomb struck an oil pipeline Thursday, cutting off supplies and causing a huge fire in southern Iraq near the border with Kuwait, an official said. The pipeline carries oil from surrounding fields to storage tanks in Basra for export to the Gulf region, according to the official with the South Oil Co. But he said the tanks were full and export supplies had not yet been affected. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, said the explosion occurred about midnight and the fire raged for hours before it was extinguished in the afternoon. He said oil had stopped flowing from the fields to the storage tanks but supplies were sufficient and exports were not affected.
RELATED: Iraq accounting is still a muddle
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-04-corruption-probe_N.htm

Al-Sadr fires 2 for meeting U.S. general
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-04-al-sadr-firings_N.htm
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday fired two senior members of his movement after they met with the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, a lawmaker close to the anti-American cleric said. Salam al-Maliki and Qusay Abdul-Wahab, members of parliament in al-Sadr's bloc, were having dinner at the home of former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday when Gen. David Petraeus, arrived, the legislator said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Al-Maliki and Abdul-Wahab did not leave the room when Petraeus walked in, he said. Al-Sadr has decreed that lawmakers from his bloc must not speak with U.S. officials and sacked the men when he heard of the infraction, the lawmaker told The Associated Press.

Israel's protests said to stall arms sale
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/04/05/israels_protests_said_to_stall_arms_sale/
A major arms-sale package that the Bush administration is planning to offer Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to deter Iran has been delayed because of objections from Israel, which says that the advanced weaponry would erode its military advantage over its regional rivals, according to senior US officials. Israeli officials, including the former defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, have come to Washington in recent months to argue against elements of the planned sales. In particular, the Israelis are concerned about the possible transfer of precision-guided weapons that would give Saudi warplanes much more accurate ability to strike targets, officials said. The United States has made few, if any, sales of satellite-guided ordnance to gulf countries, several officials said. Israel has been supplied with such weapons since the 1990s and used them extensively in its war against Hezbollah last summer.

U.S. tries new strategy with Somalia
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-04-somalia-us-strategy_N.htm
The United States is using surrogate nations and financial aid in an effort to prevent Somalia from slipping further into chaos as militias battle in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. The United States has vowed to support an African Union peacekeeping force arriving in Somalia and has trained elements of the Ethiopian army, which toppled Somalia's anti-American Islamic government. About 1,300 African Union peacekeepers, mostly Ugandans, have had problems getting established, however. Two cargo planes supplying the peacekeepers crashed, possibly because of enemy fire, in recent weeks. "When you have two aircraft that get shot down that makes things tenuous," said U.S. Rear Adm. James Hart, commander of the Horn of Africa task force, which is based on a former French Foreign Legion base in this tiny country squeezed between Somalia and Ethiopia.

Malaysian Pledges to Defy Ban on His Return to Politics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402608.html
Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's former deputy prime minister who served a six-year prison term widely seen as politically motivated, is reentering the fray in his country, saying he intends to defy a ban against him leading his party or running for office. In an interview in Washington last week, Ibrahim said that instead of waiting for the five-year ban to expire next April, he will move to become party head and challenge the ban in court. The goal is to position his People's Justice Party to win a significant number of seats in Malaysia's next general election.

Thailand insurgency grows brutal
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-04-thailand-insurgency_N.htm
A Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand has grown more violent in the six months since Thai military officers seized power in a coup and promised to end the conflict. Muslim separatists' attacks on Buddhists in the south have increased in recent months, testing the new government's decision to try a less forceful approach there.

Diarrhea strikes tsunami survivors
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704040949apr05,1,1719990.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Diarrhea has broken out among children huddled in camps of tsunami survivors in the Solomon Islands, a Red Cross official said Wednesday -- the first worrying sign that thousands of people who lost their homes in the waves may be at risk of disease. International aid was slow to reach survivors, particularly in the hardest-hit town of Gizo in the western Solomons. At least 2,000 people spent a third unsheltered night on a hillside near Gizo following Monday's earthquake and ocean surge.
RELATED: Tsunami survivors' needs overwhelm medical staffs
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tsunami5apr05,1,2502212.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Protestant leader shakes prime minister's hand
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704040950apr05,1,6639783.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Protestant leader Ian Paisley shook hands with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in public for the first time Wednesday, marking another small step on the path to peace in Northern Ireland. Ahern and Paisley smiled and slapped each other on the shoulder before their meeting. "I better shake hands with this man and give you a firm grip," Paisley boomed. Ahern's office confirmed that it was the first public handshake, but said there had been previous handshakes in private. After their meeting, Paisley accepted Ahern's invitation to visit the site of the Battle of the Boyne, a decisive moment in Irish history when the forces of the Protestant King William III defeated the army of the Catholic King James II.

Chechnya installs former rebel as president
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040500253.html
Chechnya inaugurated on Thursday as its new president a 30-year-old amateur boxer praised by allies for restoring order to the troubled region and accused by rights groups of murdering and kidnapping civilians. Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel turned Moscow ally who has his own militia force, swore to uphold Chechen laws during a lavish ceremony in the town of Gudermes, his clan stronghold 30 km (20 miles) east of the regional capital Grozny. "My father often said to me power is not an end in itself but is a tool to achieve something else," he said in reference to Akhmad Kadyrov, the Russian-installed Chechen president assassinated in Grozny in 2004. "And I want to achieve a peaceful Chechnya within the Russian federation," Kadyrov, presented with the Chechen flag and coat of arms, told hundreds of high-profile guests gathered in a glass pavilion of his Gudermes villa.

Thousands march on presidency in Ukraine
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704041040apr05,1,2052254.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Thousands of supporters of Ukraine's Russian-leaning prime minister marched to the gates of the pro-Western president's office Wednesday, vowing not to back down in a standoff between the two leaders. Dozens of supporters of President Viktor Yushchenko tried to stop more than 7,000 supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych from coming closer to the presidential office. Police in riot gear separated the sides.

War crimes tribunal sentences Serb
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-serb5apr05,1,2052652.story?coll=la-headlines-world
The U.N. war crimes tribunal on Wednesday sentenced former Bosnian Serb police officer Dragan Zelenovic to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the rape and torture of Muslims during Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1992-95 war. Zelenovic, a 46-year-old former paramilitary leader, was indicted in 1996 in connection with atrocities committed against non-Serbs in his native Foca region, southeast of Sarajevo, including a gang rape of a 15-year-old girl. After Serb forces took control of Foca, whose population at the time was 52% Muslim and 45% Serb, they unlawfully detained thousands of Muslims and Croats.

War child who 'disappeared' finds her way back
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/articles/2007/04/05/war_child_who_disappeared_finds_her_way_back/
Hundreds of reunions have taken place in El Salvador over the past decade, aided by advances in DNA matching and an intensifying campaign to bring closure to victimized families, if not justice to those who violated them long ago.

Guyana: Kerik's security job delayed
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-04-guyana-kerik_N.htm
Former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernard Kerik has apparently postponed plans to work as a security consultant for two Caribbean countries because of unresolved legal troubles, Guyana's interior minister said Wednesday. Kerik was expected to begin a one-year contract as Guyana's national security adviser in February. He was also hired as a consultant by Trinidad, although it was unclear when that job would begin. But Guyanese Interior Minister Clement Rohee said that Kerik sent a statement to Trinidadian authorities saying he could not travel while U.S. prosecutors were investigating him.

Top

Immigration

Firms urge more visas for skilled foreign workers
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-visas5apr05,1,1610055.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
High-tech firms and other businesses are urging Congress to increase the number of visas available for skilled foreign workers after immigration officials announced this week that the 65,000 visa cap was reached within hours. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received more than 150,000 H-1B petitions Monday, the first day companies could submit applications for potential workers. Applications received Tuesday have not been tallied. Officials will conduct a computerized lottery of the applications from both days and inform the applicants of results. Because of the high number of petitions, the drawing will not be held for several weeks, officials said.
RELATED: Quota Quickly Filled on Visas for High-Tech Guest Workers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05visa.html

Rights Groups Hail Arrests of 3 by U.S. in War Crimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/americas/05latin.html
Latin American human rights groups have reacted with satisfaction and muted surprise to the arrest in the United States of three Argentine and Peruvian former military officers accused of human rights abuses who had fled their home countries to avoid prosecution there. Of the three men detained over the weekend in Virginia, Maryland and Florida and charged with violating immigration laws, the most notorious is Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro of Argentina. During the so-called Dirty War of the late 1970s, he was the chief interrogator at La Perla, a clandestine prison in Córdoba, Argentina’s second largest city, where more than 2,000 prisoners were tortured or killed.

Feds to bolster war on gangs
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gangs5apr05,0,4405847.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Suspected gang members who are in the country illegally and are arrested for even minor crimes could face quicker deportation under new policies unveiled Wednesday by the top two prosecutors in Los Angeles. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said they are partnering more closely with federal immigration officials and attorneys to identify the gang members for deportation, adding that illegal immigrants appear to make up a significant portion of the gang population. The partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement marks a departure for local law enforcement, which generally keeps federal immigration officials at arm's length and largely prohibits Los Angeles police officers from asking the immigration status of either crime victims or suspects. Inquiring about immigration, authorities have long argued, would spread fear across immigrant communities and make it difficult for police to investigate crimes. But Delgadillo and Cooley said they are now working with federal officials to deport some gang suspects before they are convicted of new crimes.

Officials take aim at giant border weed
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-04-border-weed_N.htm
A giant, aggressive weed growing along the border with Mexico is draining massive quantities of water, overrunning roads and bridges and providing cover for illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and anyone else trying to sneak into the country, the Homeland Security Department says. Called Carrizo cane, the invasive, non-native plant grows stalks up to 18 feet tall and can get so dense it makes roads impassable. "It's like a big spider web" that stretches for hundreds of miles along the Rio Grande, says Hilario Leal, a Border Patrol agent in Del Rio, Texas.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

Utah governor's parents fund vaccine effort
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cancer5apr05,1,2263023.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
The bill's backers had high hopes. They proposed that Utah spend $1 million for a public education campaign about the risks of cervical cancer and a new vaccine that can prevent it, as well as fund vaccinations for poor, uninsured patients. But conservatives in the Legislature objected, partly because cervical cancer is spread sexually and they feared that making vaccines available would encourage children to be promiscuous. The program was withdrawn from consideration in early February. On Wednesday, the billionaire philanthropist parents of the state's Republican governor announced they would pay for the program with a donation to Utah's Department of Health.

New drug surprises AIDS experts with its effectiveness
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-aids5apr05,1,893739.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
A new AIDS drug that received accelerated federal approval last summer is significantly better at attacking highly resistant HIV than existing drugs, according to a study of 230 patients published Wednesday. Darunavir, part of the decade-old class of drugs known as protease inhibitors, lowered virus levels to the undetectable range in 45% of patients after 48 weeks. By comparison, 10% of patients on other drug regimens showed similar declines. "The results were very, very good — in many ways, perhaps, better than anyone would've expected," said Dr. Rodger D. MacArthur, an infectious disease specialist at Wayne State University in Detroit, who was not affiliated with the study.

New Mexico Bars Drug Charge When Overdose Is Reported
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05drugs.html
Struggling with an epidemic of drug fatalities, New Mexico has enacted a groundbreaking law providing immunity from prosecution for people who come forward to help drug users suffering overdoses. The act, signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Bill Richardson, prevents the authorities from prosecuting on the basis of evidence “gained as a result of the seeking of medical assistance.” It also protects drug users themselves from prosecution if the process of seeking help for an overdose provides the only evidence against them.

Mammogram scan technology faulted
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/05/mammogram_scan_technology_faulted/
An increasingly popular technology that uses computers to scan mammograms actually produces worse results than human reviewers using their eyes and experience, according to a new study yesterday.

Eritrea bans female circumcision
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-04-05-eritrea_N.htm
Eritrea has abolished the arcane custom of female circumcision, the government said, describing it as threatening the lives of women. Anyone who requests, incites, promotes or witnesses female circumcision is subject to a fine and imprisonment, Eritrea's information ministry said late Wednesday. The ban was imposed on March 31. "Female circumcision is a procedure that seriously endangers the health of women, causes them considerable pain and suffering besides threatening their lives," the government proclamation said.

Maker of Tainted Pet Food Is Sued
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05brfs-MAKEROFTAINT_BRF.html
Lawyers who filed a class-action lawsuit against Menu Foods, which recalled more than 90 brands of pet food last month, are alleging that the company knew the food was tainted but waited to recall it.

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

In Texas, Scandals Rock Juvenile Justice System
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402400.html
Joseph Galloway is days away from walking out of a Texas juvenile detention center where he has been held for years beyond his original sentence -- and where at age 15, he said, he endured sexual assaults by a corrections officer and a fellow inmate. The 19-year-old never intended to tell this story, out of shame and fear of retaliation from his jailers. But he recently revealed the details to his mother, Genger, to investigators of the Texas Rangers, and now he is sharing his experiences with the public for one reason. "I'd rather be a witness to what happened than have kids come in here and have them experience what I've experienced," Galloway said in a telephone interview from the Crockett State School in East Texas. "Nobody deserves to go through the things I went through."

Senior justice has leading role at key time
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-john-paul-stevens_N.htm
The opinions of Justice John Paul Stevens in this week's disputes over global warming and Guantanamo Bay prisoners reveal his increasing leadership on the Supreme Court and illustrate how his role has evolved in 31 years on the bench. During his first two decades on the court, Stevens was known for his quirky independence. This made him unpredictable and unattached to anyideological camp. Today, he is squarely at the helm of the liberal bloc that faces a newly energized conservative coalition. Stevens, who will turn 87 on April 20, recently became the 10th-longest-serving justice in history. "There's no question that on the post-O'Connor court, Stevens has come to play a leading role," says human rights lawyer Deborah Pearlstein, referring to the 2006 retirement of the influential Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Unusual Allies in a Legal Battle Over Texas Drivers’ Gun Rights
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05guns.html?ref=us
The arrest might have been routine elsewhere, but this is Texas, where a code rooted in the days of the highwayman recognizes the right of travelers to be armed, and the Legislature has repeatedly endorsed that principle. Defiant police officers and prosecutors, however, saying they retain law enforcement discretion, have continued arresting and bringing cases against motorists like Mr. Patton found with unlicensed handguns. The conflict has led to a legal standoff and a new effort by legislators to resolve the issue. It has also inspired an unlikely alliance between the gun lobby, which has long drawn support from the political right, and civil liberties advocates, long identified with the left, in defense of pistol-packing travelers.

Top

Economy

SEC Votes to Ease Sarbanes-Oxley Rules
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402554.html
The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday approved a framework for changes to rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley anti-fraud law that would ease requirements for companies and the auditors who pore over their books. The vote by the five SEC commissioners was unanimous in support of building more leeway into the rules, especially those being written by the independent board that oversees the accounting industry. The commissioners debated the changes, proposed by the SEC staff, at a public meeting at which differences were aired over a crucial part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The law, enacted in 2002 in response to a number of corporate and accounting scandals, requires companies to assess the strength of their internal checks and balances to guard against fraud.

Service sector slows; factory orders rise modestly
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-04-04-services-orders_N.htm
The service sector of the economy expanded at a slower rate in March, a trade group said Thursday, and factory orders grew less than expected in February. Orders placed with factories for a range of manufactured goods rose a disappointing 1% in February, a sign companies remain wary of bulking up spending as the economy slows. The increase in factory orders reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday did mark an improvement from the jarring 5.7% plunge in orders reported in January, a figure that contributed to a Wall Street swoon in late February when the report was released.

IRS Found Lax in Protecting Taxpayer Data
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402603.html
Thousands of taxpayers could be at risk of identity theft or other financial fraud because the Internal Revenue Service has failed to adequately protect information on its 52,000 laptop computers and other storage systems, a new government report concludes. The IRS did not begin to adequately correct the security problems until the second half of 2006, despite being warned about them in 2003 and again in February 2006, according to a report by the inspector general of the IRS, J. Russell George.
RELATED: Personal data at risk in lost IRS laptops
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2007-04-05-irs-usat_N.htm

NYSE Euronext Opens Transatlantic Trading
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402556.html
NYSE Euronext made its market debut as the first transatlantic stock exchange on Wednesday, and company executives have already begun to feel pressure about their next move. Top executives attended morning ceremonies at the Paris Bourse and later flew to the United States to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Daimler’s Chief Confirms Talks to Sell Chrysler
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/automobiles/05auto.html?ref=business
DaimlerChrysler insists it is keeping all options open for the future of the Chrysler Group. But judging by its tense annual meeting here on Wednesday, Daimler’s marriage to Chrysler is already finished — except for the ink on the divorce papers.

Google’s Chief Gets $1 in Pay; His Security Costs $532,755
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/technology/05google.html
It is not common for the salary of an American chief executive to be dwarfed by the cost of keeping that executive safe. But then, Google is an unconventional company.

Circuit City Tumbles as TV Prices Tank
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402561.html
Circuit City of Richmond lost $12.2 million during its fourth quarter, losing ground to rival Best Buy, which reported an 18 percent jump in profit. Both consumer electronics retailers cited flat-panel television sales in discussing their results. Circuit City, which fired 3,400 workers last week, blamed an unexpected drop in the retail price of the televisions in recent months along with increased competition from other retailers for its bleak results. But Best Buy credited flat-panel TVs for a boost in sales at stores open at least a year, a key measure in retail. The differences in perspective -- not to mention financial results -- reflect the two companies' divergent business models. Circuit City has traditionally focused on big-ticket items such as TVs, home audio systems and computers to drive sales, making it more vulnerable to falling prices in those categories. Best Buy, meanwhile, has diversified its assortment to also emphasize accessories and services, such as the Geek Squad.

Top

Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

At Wal-Mart, Lessons in Self-Help
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05improve.html?ref=business
Employees at a Wal-Mart near Saratoga, Fla., have started an aerobics class twice a week in their break room. Wal-Mart workers in Denver are reimbursed for taking public transportation to and from work. And the staff at a Sam’s Club in Indianapolis now takes a daily walk around the perimeter of the store. The chain that promises “always low prices” seems to be adding the mantra of nonstop self-improvement. In the last year, Wal-Mart has quietly introduced an ambitious program in the United States — in equal parts self-help class, corporate retreat and tent revival — that tries to turn its 1.3 million workers into a model for its 200 million customers on issues ranging from personal health to the environment.

Top

Housing and Homelessness

L.A. plan could raise stakes for condo projects
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-condos5apr05,0,3350431.story?coll=la-home-headlines
After hearing from a nearly packed chamber of feisty tenants and anxious landlords, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to dramatically raise the relocation fees that condominium developers must pay before kicking out residents of rent-controlled apartments. The move, which doubled some and nearly tripled other current fees, marked a significant escalation in the condo conversion wars that have swept the city over the last five years — particularly on the pricey Westside — as a dwindling stock of affordable housing has been rapidly outpaced by a growing middle-class population.

Top

Media

Zell in Talks With Geffen On Deal for L.A. Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402591.html
Chicago real estate mogul Samuel Zell, whose $13.2 billion bid for the Tribune Co. media empire was accepted Monday, has already talked to entertainment mogul David Geffen about a possible deal for the Los Angeles Times and dismissed a pair of rival bidders as backstabbers. Zell said Eli Broad and Ronald Burkle, Southern California billionaires who also bid on Tribune, approached him late in the process about forming a partnership to buy the company. Zell said in yesterday's Chicago Tribune that he put them off until his bid was accepted.

Top

Education

College Officers Profited by Sale of Lender Stock
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/education/05loans.html?ref=us
The directors of financial aid at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California held shares in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to student borrowers, and in at least two cases profited handsomely.

Software's Benefits On Tests In Doubt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402715.html
Educational software, a $2 billion-a-year industry that has become the darling of school systems across the country, has no significant impact on student performance, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Education. The long-awaited report amounts to a rebuke of educational technology, a business whose growth has been spurred by schools desperate for ways to meet the testing mandates of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The technology -- ranging from snazzy video-game-like programs played on Sony PlayStations to more rigorous drilling exercises used on computers -- has been embraced by low-performing schools as an easy way to boost student test scores. But the industry has also been plagued by doubts over the technology's effectiveness as well as high-profile bribery scandals, including one that led to the resignation of the Prince George's County schools chief in 2005.

Law eased for special ed pupils
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704040960apr05,1,7098536.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
The Bush administration is letting more children with disabilities take simplified tests under the No Child Left Behind education law. The change, outlined in final regulations Wednesday, would mean about 30 percent of special education students can take simplified, alternative tests and have the results count toward a school's annual progress.

Protesters target Rove at university
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-rove-protest_N.htm
White House adviser Karl Rove was confronted by more than a dozen protesters who blocked his car and threw things as he tried to leave a speaking engagement at American University, officials said. Rove was attending a guests-only discussion of electoral politics Tuesday night sponsored by the American University College Republicans.

Top

Military

'Friendly fire' may have killed 2 GIs
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-deaths5apr05,0,1091485.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Two soldiers killed Feb. 2 in Iraq may have been hit by "friendly fire," Army officials said Wednesday. Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson were killed in the western city of Ramadi. The families of the two were initially told that the soldiers were killed by hostile fire. According to Army Col. Daniel Baggio, unit commanders in Iraq did not initially suspect that the two service members were killed by U.S. forces, but an investigation by the unit uncovered the possibility. A supplemental report filed Feb. 28 suggested that the initial reports might be wrong but said an investigation was still underway, Baggio said. It was another month before the families of the two soldiers were told, on Saturday, that friendly fire was suspected.
RELATED: Army Is Investigating 2 Soldiers’ Deaths
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/middleeast/05casualties.html

Program to Improve Care for Service Members Begins
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402473.html
The U.S. Marine Corps this week started its "Wounded Warrior Regiment" to help injured Marines and sailors through their recovery and an often difficult bureaucracy -- one of several new military initiatives to improve care for service members after the revelations of poor treatment and conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Marine officials said yesterday that Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, ordered the establishment of the program in November in an effort to streamline benefits for Marines and sailors injured in ongoing wars and to help them transfer back to duty or into civilian life. The new regiment -- with battalions on each coast -- will reach out to service members to ensure that they are getting what they need and that they are successfully navigating the benefits bureaucracy.

VA care under fire again
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704050012apr05,1,1527965.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Benjamin Houghton had fewer reasons than most to fear the surgery he had scheduled at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center here to remove his potentially cancerous left testicle. For one thing, the 47-year-old Air Force veteran and father of four already knew that he could function with a single healthy testicle. For another, he was undergoing surgery in a system that prides itself on pioneering efforts to prevent medical errors. But in Houghton's case, the VA hospital missed the mark. Last June 14, doctors mistakenly removed the right testicle instead of the left, according to medical records and a claim filed by Houghton and his wife, Monica, 39. Now the couple are seeking about $200,000 for future health-care costs outside the VA system and an undisclosed amount in damages. Their claim is pending.

Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05VET.html?ref=us
Blinded and disabled on the 54th day of the war in Iraq, Sam Ross returned home to a rousing parade that outdid anything this small, depressed Appalachian town had ever seen. “Sam’s parade put Dunbar on the map,” his grandfather said. That was then. Now Mr. Ross, 24, faces charges of attempted homicide, assault and arson in the burning of a family trailer in February. Nobody in the trailer was hurt, but Mr. Ross fought the assistant fire chief who reported to the scene, and later threatened a state trooper with his prosthetic leg, which was taken away from him, according to the police. The police locked up Mr. Ross in the Fayette County prison. In his cell, he tried to hang himself with a sheet. After he was cut down, Mr. Ross was committed to a state psychiatric hospital, where, he said in a recent interview there, he is finally getting — and accepting — the help he needs, having spiraled downward in the years since the welcoming fanfare faded.

Idaho shooters target National Guard
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-05-idaho-guard_N.htm
For years, ATV-riding, gun-toting sport shooters have flouted gun laws in part of Idaho's high desert by taking pot shots at ground squirrels and other animals. Now, officials say, they're also setting their sights on National Guard tanks that train in the area. Rifles and pistols have been banned in a 68,000-acre area of the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area since 1996. But the federal Bureau of Land Management is considering expanding the gun-restricted area by 41,000 acres to try to limit shootings at Idaho Army National Guard troops who report slugs bouncing off their tanks on a regular basis.

Top

Religion

Mexican bishop threatens excommunication
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-04-mexico-abortion_N.htm
The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico said Wednesday that legislators who vote in favor of a proposed bill to legalize abortion in Mexico City would automatically be excommunicated when the first procedure was performed under the law. Bishop Marcelino Hernandez said that, rather than any specific canonical procedure, that lawmakers who back the bill would automatically separate themselves from the church.

Top

Energy Policy

2 Dems soften tone on $10B oil loophole
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-dems-oil-loophole_N.htm
In January, as part of their "100 hours agenda," House Democrats passed a measure designed to fix a $10 billion mistake that gave huge royalty breaks to oil companies that drill on federal land. Now, two key Democrats with political ties to the oil and gas industry are contemplating a gentler approach to correcting what the Interior Department's Inspector General has called "a jaw-dropping example of bureaucratic bungling." Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Jeff Bingaman, who both represent energy-producing states, say worries over a possible lawsuit from the oil industry have led them to consider other alternatives, including an industry-supported plan that would offer three-year lease extensions to companies that agree to begin paying royalties.

Shell Expects Full Output From Nigeria
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/worldbusiness/05shell.html?ref=business
A year after being forced to shut more than half of its oil operations in Nigeria because of militant violence, Royal Dutch Shell says that it has reached an agreement with local communities allowing it to return safely to the Niger Delta and that it expects to resume full production within five to six months.

Castro Again Chides U.S. on Ethanol Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/americas/05cuba.html
The ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro returned to the public debate — if not view — for the second time in less than a week on Wednesday with a column in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. Mr. Castro, 80, chided the Bush administration for its support of ethanol production for automobiles, a move that he said would leave the world’s poor hungry. It was his second article on the issue in less than a week, indicating that he is increasingly eager to have his voice heard on international matters, eight months after stepping down as Cuba’s president because of illness.

Top

Environment and Conservation

US lags on plans for climate change
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/05/us_lags_on_plans_for_climate_change/
Countries and cities around the world are beginning to use a new strategy to confront climate change: preparing for its consequences. Toronto has installed an emergency system that will alert public health officials 60 hours before the start of potentially lethal heat waves, which are expected to increase as the world warms. New Zealand is pairing engineers with local governments to strengthen infrastructure such as city drainage systems to withstand more intense rainstorms. Tiny Burkina Faso in Western Africa is researching new drought-resistant millet and sorghum to grow as rainfall decreases. But the United States is lagging well behind.

Climate Panel Confident Warming Is Underway
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402815.html
The newest international assessment of the consequences of Earth's warming climate has concluded with "high confidence" that human-generated greenhouse gases are already triggering changes in ecosystems on land and sea across the globe. The second working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was charged with tracking the impact of global warming on specific regions and species, plans to release its final report tomorrow in Brussels. The Washington Post obtained a near-final draft of the report yesterday.
RELATED: U.N. Draft Cites Humans in Recent Climate Shifts
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/science/earth/05climate.html?ref=world

CO2 ruling heats up debate on emissions
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704050198apr05,1,81587.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
In the coming years everything from cars to dishwashers to steel mills is likely to be required to consume energy more efficiently as a result of stricter environmental regulations expected to come on line to combat greenhouse gases. The eventual benefits and costs of these cleaner machines are being debated this week in the wake of a significant ruling by the Supreme Court that says the Environmental Protection Agency has the power to regulate carbon dioxide, a gas implicated in global warming.

Boys contaminate W.Va. town with mercury
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-04-mercury-exposure_N.htm
A group of boys playing with mercury swiped from a dental office created an environmental headache after tracking it into their school, homes and church and up the steps of the public library. Five of the 25 students who handled the poisonous substance showed high levels of exposure, but none suffered serious health risk, health officials said Wednesday. "It was shiny and made interesting patterns when you drop it," said Dr. Kerry Gateley, director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. "From a 10-year-old's standpoint, that is fascinating stuff." The fourth- and fifth-graders took about 4 pounds of mercury, used in some dental fillings, from the vacant and apparently unlocked office early last week, authorities said.

Top

Opinion

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

James Baker: A Path to Common Ground
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402252.html
I wholeheartedly agree with a point Lee Hamilton made in his March 25 op-ed, " A Partnership on Iraq," regarding the need for a unity of effort in Iraq. He is correct that the United States will probably falter unless President Bush and Congress reach a bipartisan consensus in the coming months. Unfortunately, more than 100 days after the Iraq Study Group released its report, we are further than ever from a consensus. Recent narrow votes in the House and Senate, largely along partisan lines, illustrate our country's continuing division on this critical issue. The best, and perhaps only, way to build national agreement on the path forward is for the president and Congress to embrace the only set of recommendations that has generated bipartisan support: the Iraq Study Group report. The Iraq Study Group was composed of five Democrats and five Republicans. Each of us has strong wills and views. But we managed to find consensus for 79 recommendations that we suggested be carried out in concert. Our leaders could still use this report to unite the country behind a common approach to our most difficult foreign policy problem.

Robert Novak: Missed Opportunity for Peace
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402317.html
Haaretz political columnist and editorial writer Akiva Eldar, a speaker at Tuesday's conference, wrote in Monday's newspaper: "As a rare and historic opportunity appears on the horizon, a leadership of different dimensions is needed." He was talking about Olmert, but he could have been referring to Bush.

Pelosi's balancing act overseas
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/04/05/pelosis_balancing_act_overseas/
EVEN AS a matter of political self-interest, President Bush made himself look bad by carping about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit yesterday in Damascus with Syria's president, Bashar Assad. Bush's complaint that Pelosi and the bipartisan congressional delegation were sending "mixed signals" made it appear that Bush either resents or refuses to accept the Constitution's unambiguous granting of extensive powers in foreign policy to the legislative branch. Pelosi and her colleagues were doing what innumerable delegations of senators and representatives have done in the past: traveling abroad to consult with foreign leaders, gather information, and enhance their ability to fulfill their obligations to advise, consent, and appropriate funds. Republican congressmen met with Assad last week. If the American system of checks and balances is to function properly, the co-equal legislative branch must exercise its powers to check and balance the actions of the executive branch.

Froomkin: Blame It on the Democrats
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/04/BL2007040401518.html
President Bush's Iraq strategy may be coming straight from Vice President Cheney, but his political attacks on Democrats who dare to demand a pullout are pure Karl Rove. When the president is on the defensive, Rove's signature move is to disdain the quaint constraints of reality and attack the critics where they are strongest -- ideally, by tarring them with Bush's own weakness. The ultimate example, of course, came during the 2004 campaign when Rove was marketing a man who had ducked service in Vietnam against a war hero. Somehow, Rove managed to make John Kerry look like the guy with the problem. Rove's approach was very much on display yesterday at Bush's Rose Garden news conference.

Wizner: The real crime in the David Hicks case
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-wizner5apr05,0,2217965.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
I traveled to Guantanamo to observe the Hicks proceedings, and to say that they lacked the dignity and gravitas of Nuremberg is to engage in colossal understatement. The military commissions have been a profoundly unserious legal exercise from the start. The prison at Guantanamo was fashioned as an island outside the reach of U.S. law, and the commissions were devised to provide an illusion of legal process. If that sounds extreme, consider the Hicks case. The defendant traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, joined with extremists and was captured in December 2001. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld later said he was among the world's most dangerous terrorists. Hicks was first charged by a military tribunal in 2004 — accused of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, attempted murder and aiding the enemy — but the executive order creating those tribunals was declared illegal by the Supreme Court last year. So Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, and Hicks was charged again, this time solely with providing "material support" to a designated terrorist organization. He struck a plea bargain. Last Friday night, after a jury of senior military officers sentenced Hicks to seven years in prison, we all learned the details of that agreement: Hicks will serve a mere nine months — a sentence more in keeping with a misdemeanor than with a grave terrorist offense.

Chapman: Hope, experience and North Korea
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0704050160apr05,0,4354012.column?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed
There are some jobs you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Joke writer for Vladimir Putin, say, or literary agent for O.J. Simpson. But it would be hard to find a more onerous assignment than the one inflicted on Christopher Hill: chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea.

Compromise on White House testimony
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-rove05apr05,0,3895340.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
THE BUSH administration is understandably wary of Democrats bearing gifts, especially when the Democrat is Charles E. Schumer. The New York senator is not only the party's point man in savaging the administration for the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, he is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But the administration still would be wise to embrace a compromise that Schumer floated this week about terms under which current and former White House officials, such as Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers, could testify to Congress about whatever roles they may have played in the firings. President Bush had previously insisted, unreasonably, that White House aides brief Congress in private, without a transcript. The Senate has authorized — but not issued — congressional subpoenas requiring Rove and Miers to testify under oath.

Ogletree, Wald: The lessons of Dred Scott
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/04/05/the_lessons_of_dred_scott/
The questions at the heart of the Dred Scott case -- about citizenship, belonging, and participation -- remain unresolved. As we stand at a crossroads, challenged by threats abroad and within, we, like the Supreme Court in 1857, risk being blinded by our own cultural assumptions. These threaten the admirable gains we have made during the past century and a half. We must not lose sight of the context that not only enabled the Dred Scott decision in 1857, but led far too many members of the public to view the decision as sensible and right. The civil rights era demonstrated that we are a nation strong enough to withstand harsh self-examination and to correct our mistakes. With the lessons learned from Dred Scott, we must invoke that spirit of reflection now and reawaken the America that embraces change, diversity, and progress.

The Money Chase
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402314.html
Presidential fundraising for 2008 begins at a breathtaking pace. How to apply the brakes?
RELATED: Running for Dollars
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05thu1.html

O'Neil: Will we have enough workers?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-oneil5apr05,0,6699639.story?coll=la-opinion-center
AS MANY IN Congress, in the media and in homes across the country debate the best way to stem the flow of undocumented workers across the Rio Grande, they don't seem to be aware that this perceived problem is becoming increasingly irrelevant. In fact, the immigration concern of the future could well be how to entice Mexicans and other Latin Americans to cross into the U.S. in the numbers we need.

The Consequences of Corn
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05thu3.html
By now most farmers know what they’ll be planting this spring. And all across the country the answer is the same: corn, corn, corn. The numbers are surprising. Farmers will plant some 90.5 million acres of corn this year — 12 million more than last year and the most since 1944. Soybean acres are down by more than 10 percent, and there are similar decreases in wheat and cotton. The reason for this enormous shift is, of course, the ethanol boom and the corn rush it has created. If it were just a matter of shifting the balance in already planted acreage — more corn, less wheat — a point of economic equilibrium might be found soon enough. The real trouble comes at the edges.

Brinker: Battling Cancer: Are We Still in the Fight?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402228.html
The disheartening news that Elizabeth Edwards and White House spokesman Tony Snow are each battling a recurrence of cancer has sparked a much-needed national discussion about this devastating disease and its toll on patients, survivors and their families. Like millions of Americans, I come to this topic with deep, personal experience. My sister, Susan G. Komen, died in 1980 from advanced, or metastatic, breast cancer. As an advocate and a 23-year breast cancer survivor myself, I am constantly asked a key question that's been largely overlooked in recent days: Where do we stand in the fight against cancer?

Allow assisted suicide
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-death05apr05,0,4094266.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
California's lawmakers should pass a bill to give the terminally ill control over their lives.

Kass: Lack of video keeps lid on brutal case
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0704040957apr05,1,4581707.column?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
There is no video of what happened to Christina Eilman, no video of how she was abandoned by Chicago police to fall from the seventh-floor window of a Chicago housing project, a pretty California blond landing on a patch of South Side grass and stone. If there were a video of her fall, this town would get sick on itself. But I'm told there isn't any. If there were, officials would tremble, the tape bouncing across the Internet and broadcast news cycles, like that of the drunken cop who beat that petite Northwest Side bartender half to death. Unlike the bartender story, there is no tape of Eilman. Without tape, official Chicago will stay quiet, TV news will continue to ignore her and unwitting taxpayers will pay her family off in a settlement, with City Hall praying this all goes away.

PAPERS REVIEWED TODAY

COLORADO

Rocky Mountain News

Denver Post

Boulder Daily Camera

Colorado Daily

Greeley Tribune

Fort Collins Coloradoan

Colorado Springs Gazette

Pueblo Chieftain

Grand Junction Sentinel

Craig Daily Press

Aspen Times

Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Vail Daily

Steamboat Pilot

Montrose Press

Durango Herald

Cortez Journal

Telluride Daily Planet

Canon City Daily Record

Top

NATIONAL

New York Times

USA Today

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Boston Globe

Washington Post

Los Angeles Times

Chicago Tribune

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

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