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TOP STORIES
Effective and Ethical Government
Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability
Transportation and Infrastructure
Effective and Ethical Government
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Today’s digest archive: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041707.htm
TOP STORIES
National
2-Hour Gap Leaves Room For Questions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601873.html
A single question stood out yesterday at Virginia Tech: Would more students be alive if the university had stopped them from going to class after a shooting occurred in a campus dorm? The first shooting was reported at 7:15 a.m. in a dormitory, West Ambler Johnston Hall, where police found two people fatally wounded. But the first e-mail message from the Virginia Tech administration to students did not go out until more than two hours later, at 9:26 a.m., stating that a shooting had occurred but with no mention of staying indoors or staying off campus or canceling classes. About 9:45, the shootings began in Norris Hall, a classroom building at the other end of the sprawling campus. Police said the gunman killed 30 people at Norris and wounded about 30 before killing himself.
RELATED: Shock, Sympathy And Denunciation Of U.S. Gun Laws
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601871.html
RELATED: Most victims killed 2 hours after 1st attack
RELATED: Reporting from the scene, witnesses act as journalists
RELATED: Questions on security follow shootings at Virginia Tech
RELATED: Gun control debate resumes, on one side
RELATED: 'The worst thing I've ever seen'
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/04/17/the_worst_thing_ive_ever_seen/
More Virginia Tech shooting news in NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT, COLORADO/ELECTION, COLORADO/CRIME
Final War Funding Bill in Works
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601099.html
Congress and the White House will move this week toward a final showdown over a contested war funding bill, with most Americans trusting Democrats over President Bush to set Iraq policy but with sentiment deeply divided over Congress's push to set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces. Democratic leaders will formally convene House and Senate negotiators tomorrow to hammer out a final version of the bill, hoping to have the compromise on Bush's desk by the end of next week. The president and Democratic leaders again exchanged verbal fire yesterday.
RELATED: Surrounded by troops' kin, Bush presses Congress on Iraq funds
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-bush-iraq_N.htm
RELATED: Bush Leans on Democrats With Talk of Troops Suffering
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/washington/17prexy.html?ref=washington
More Iraq war news in NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL/CIVIL LIBERTIES, NATIONAL/MILITARY, COLORADO/MILITARY
Surveillance bill gets Hill hearing
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-FISA_N.htm
FBI agents and other federal investigators would have greater leeway to eavesdrop on foreigners in the USA suspected of having information on terrorism or national security threats, under a Bush administration proposal. The bill has the backing of the Justice Department and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. It would allow the telephone calls, e-mails and other activities of persons who are not U.S. citizens or legal residents to be secretly monitored if they are thought to "possess significant foreign intelligence information." Individuals and groups who deal in "weapons of mass destruction" would also become surveillance targets, under the proposed law. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires that a surveillance target be an agent of a foreign power or connected to a terrorist group before a secret FISA court authorizes monitoring. The proposed law, a copy of which was furnished to USA TODAY by McConnell's office, would amend that requirement. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to conduct hearings on the bill today.
More domestic surveillance news in NATIONAL/CIVIL LIBERTIES
Warming Predicted to Take Severe Toll on U.S.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601546.html
Climate change will exact a major cost on North America's timber industry and could drive as much as 40 percent of its plant and animal species to extinction in a matter of decades, according to a new report from an international panel. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which released its summary report on global warming's overall impact earlier this month, provided a more detailed assessment yesterday of the effects on North America. The report, written and edited by dozens of scientists, looks at how global warming has begun to transform the continent and how it is likely to affect it in the future. The 67-page report, which examines everything from freshwater ecosystems to tourism, said North America has suffered severe environmental and economic damage because of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves and forest fires. Without "increased investments in countermeasures," the authors wrote that they are at least 90 percent sure that "hot temperatures and extreme weather are likely to cause increased adverse health impacts from heat-related mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries, and infectious diseases."
RELATED: Global Warming May Put U.S. in Hot Water
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041700239.html
More climate change news in NATIONAL/ENVIRONMENT, COLORADO/TOP STORIES, COLORADO/ENERGY, COLORADO/ENVIRONMENT
Colorado
Colorado paints itself green
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5487941,00.html
Colorado is going green, and the state government is leading the charge. Gov. Bill Ritter on Monday signed an executive order and four energy-related bills designed not only to transform the state into one of the greenest in the nation, but also to save hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in lower electric, natural gas, water and paper-product bills. "Through this executive order, we will have a state that we can be proud of," Ritter said after the ceremony at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment office at 251 E. 12th Ave. The labor department office is the state's first LEED-certified energy-efficient public building. The state has 31 LEED-certified buildings. LEED stands for Leadership for Energy Environmental Design.
RELATED: Governor turns on green fuel
RELATED: Point person for warming named
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5683497
Bill to protect gays gets initial approval
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488015,00.html
A bill to protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination won the Senate's initial backing Monday after a bruising partisan battle. Senate Republicans said the measure seeks to make gays and lesbians a protected class of citizens. "I don't think this bill should be foisted on the citizens of Colorado," said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch. Senate Bill 25, by Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, would make it illegal for employers to hire, fire, promote and compensate workers based on sexual orientation. Democrats approved the bill on a 20-15 party-line vote. It marks the fifth straight year Democrats have tried to extend workplace discrimination laws to include sexual orientation.
RELATED: Senate backs gay-bias ban in workplace
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682181
RELATED: Bill to bar gay bias at work gets initial OK
http://www.gazette.com/articles/bill_21303___article.html/senate_democrats.html
RELATED: Anti-discrimination bill passes in Senate
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/14
Group slams GOP Web site
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488219,00.html
A government watchdog group filed a complaint Monday accusing Senate Republicans of breaking the law by using campaign funds to pay for their official Web site. The complaint, filed with the governor's office and Denver district attorney, also alleges that a state-paid worker in the Senate GOP office committed official misconduct by grilling a watchdog critic on state time for a story on the GOP site blasting the group as "left-leaning." "Members of the Senate minority and their staffers have shown callous disregard for Colorado laws and have abused their public positions to advance a purely partisan agenda," said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government. "Coloradans pay legislators to represent people, not parties." But Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, called it a baseless complaint by a politically motivated group that refuses to reveal its own contributors. "They are doing exactly what I would expect a shadowy, secretive, left-wing front group to do when their mask has been ripped off and they've been exposed for who they really are," McElhany said. "If they're for fairness and openness in government, shouldn't they set the example?" Taylor replied that McElhany was "just trying to distract from the issue that we've raised."
Obama tops in Colo. cash
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682628
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama raised more early money in Colorado than any other candidate, with residents of Boulder and Denver first in line to support the Illinois senator, an analysis of federal records shows. The $565,087 amassed by Obama dwarfed the amounts raised by other top-tier Democrats in Colorado. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton netted only $84,535, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards raised $78,350. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson garnered $151,950. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney was the big Colorado fundraiser, collecting $374,575. Trailing Romney was former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani with $102,101 and Arizona Sen. John McCain with $76,865.
More 2008 presidential race news in NATIONAL/ELECTION, COLORADO/ELECTION
Election
Giuliani event off because of killings
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5488180,00.html
Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani canceled a private fundraiser Monday at the home of former Denver Nuggets General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe because of the Virginia Tech shootings. Giuliani spokesman Jarrod Agen said the former New York mayor was in Denver but likely would leave by this morning and that two events in Virginia and Maryland scheduled for today were canceled as well. The Giuliani campaign issued a statement late in the afternoon. "On this day of national tragedy, when we lost some of our finest to this senseless act, we stand together as a country to mourn those who lost their lives."
Home state boosts Tancredo's candidacy
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682750
Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, received a big financial boost for his presidential campaign from his home state, but also took in tens of thousands of dollars from Texas and California, according to federal election records. Tancredo, who officially announced he was running for president two weeks ago, raised nearly $1.2 million from Jan. 1 through March 31. He has $575,078 remaining. "Watch out, big guys, here comes the little guy!" said Tancredo, who campaigned in Iowa over the weekend. Seventy-five percent of Tancredo's contributions were under $200, indicating a strong grassroots effort. The campaign is not legally required to itemize those donors but said the average contribution was $61.
Romney receives Allard's backing
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5488627,00.html
Colorado's senior U.S. senator has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, touted Romney as someone who could come from outside Washington and bring needed change. "After reviewing Governor Romney's impressive résumé and having the opportunity to visit one-on-one with him about his vision of innovation and change for America, I am proud to announce my endorsement of him," Allard said in a release. "Governor Romney will bring a much needed breath of fresh air to Washington, something the country really deserves." Allard's endorsement comes at a time when fellow candidates continue to take shots at Romney, accusing him of being a flip-flopper or recent convert to conservative causes. Allard, who is retiring at the end of 2008, is known as a conservative - one who authored the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage - and his voting record shows him as one of the most consistent supporters of President Bush.
Udall files Senate papers
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5488630,00.html
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Udall on Monday filed federal paperwork to run for the Senate and announced he has raised $1.5 million for the campaign. Udall has made no secret of his intention to run next year for the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Wayne Allard, who is retiring, but Udall has yet to formally announce. Udall said Monday he raised $340,000 for a Senate campaign in the first three months of the year, bringing his total cash on hand to $1.5 million. He does not expect a primary opponent, he said, but the general election campaign is expected to be fierce because it could help determine which party controls the Senate. "There's a lot of focus on this race," Udall said. Analysts say candidates could spend a total of $20 million, which would make it the most expensive in state history. Udall said Democrat Ken Salazar spent $10 million to win his seat two years ago and he expects to spend at least that much. "It's too much money. It's a shame Congress costs that much," Udall said.
RELATED: Udall edges closer to possible Senate bid
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682751
RELATED: Udall makes Senate run official
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/17/2008-election-udall-makes-senate-run-official/
RELATED: Rep. Udall plans run to replace Allard
http://www.gazette.com/articles/udall_21310___article.html/schaffer_race.html
Filling the till
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_5682173
First-quarter fundraising by members of Colorado's U.S. House delegation.
RELATED: Lamborn posts $75,000
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_5679656
RELATED: John Salazar reports $194,000
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_5679253
RELATED: Musgrave reports $247,000
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_5679045
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave raised almost $247,000 in the first quarter of this year and ended March with more than $267,000 in her campaign fund, federal election filings show. Those amounts put the Fort Morgan Republican, in her second term representing the 4th Congressional District, behind her fundraising pace for the 2006 election cycle.
7 run to revitalize district
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5681997
Graffiti and housing foreclosures have become so prevalent in west Denver that candidates for the District 3 City Council seat say theirs is a race for revitalization. Seven people are running to fill the seat left open when Rosemary Rodriguez was appointed to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Each candidate hopes to be an advocate for change in the area. "West Denver has just been skipped," said candidate Paul Lopez, a union organizer and community advocate. "You walk into District 3, and you begin to ask yourself, 'What's going on?"'
What would change under home rule?
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070416/NEWS/70416027
Change could be on the horizon if [Eagle County] voters approve sweeping government reform through the adoption of a home-rule charter. Supporters and opponents may disagree on whether home rule is the right thing to do. But one thing is clear: If voters approve the current the home-rule charter, here’s what would change.
Effective and Ethical Government
Sizing up the governor
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488634,00.html
Wednesday marks Democrat Bill Ritter's 100th day as Colorado governor. How's he doing? Colorado's 100 lawmakers - 35 in the Senate and 65 in the House - were asked for a one-word description of Ritter's first 100 days. Their answers varied: "Fabulous." "Odd." "Refreshing." "Struggling." Ritter offered his own assessment: "Exciting." On the campaign trail, he was dubbed the "Energizer Turtle" for his lack of flash while making slow, steady progress. But as governor, Ritter immediately made two bold moves that have Colordans watching.
Plan for rainy day fund resurfaces in Legislature
http://www.gazette.com/articles/fund_21317___article.html/percent_morse.html
The long-discussed idea of Colorado setting aside a rainy-day fund is somewhat akin to a family on a tight budget deciding to save for leaner times. With a big difference: The General Assembly of Colorado is on a $17.8 billion budget. Since former Rep. Daphne Greenwood first proposed the idea in 1991, the state’s financial shape has ranged from riproaring to threadbare, and still no one has done it. Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, is the latest legislator taking a shot at building up the state’s savings account, and his bill goes before the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon. Monday, Morse estimated its chances of survival at no better than 50-50. The controversy is not over where the $71 million in next year’s budget would go to start the process of doubling the general fund reserve from 4 percent to 8 percent. Rather, it is over where the funds would come from — the pot of money that pays for roads and capital construction.
Windels asked to resign over online school comments
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5487125,00.html
The chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee has been asked to resign after saying one reason students choose online schools is the kids are "lazy" and see that path as a "quick, easy" way to get a diploma. Supporters of online schools say Sen. Sue Windels’ comments smack of racism because many of those students are minorities. The Arvada Democrat made her observation in an e-mail sent Friday to the director of one online school, a branch of the Hope Online Learning Academy Co-op. Windels also praised Hope, calling it "truly innovative" and saying it can be "a valuable opportunity for at-risk students who might otherwise drop out of school." But school-choice and online advocates remain livid over her other comments "She negated that praise by calling our kids ‘lazy’ and ‘struggling,’" said Butch Montoya, a co-chairman of Community Coalition to Access and Equality in Education.
RELATED: E-mails fuel charter clash (Under the dome, 4/17)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682182
THERE GOES THE BUNNY VOTE (Roll Call, April 17)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488221,00.html
"How does my dog Buzz tell the difference between a domestic rabbit and the wild rabbit that is out in the backyard?" House Minority Leader Mike May raising a concern with Rep. Debbie Stafford's bill to strengthen animal cruelty laws, including sanctions against dogs that kill "domesticated" rabbits or ferrets "Rep. Stafford, I have a special thank-you from my dog Buzz, who loves to chase rabbits out in our backyard. He says: 'Woof! Woof!' " May R-Parker, after Stafford, R-Aurora, supported an amendment cutting the domestic bunnies reference "All those in favor, please respond by saying 'Woof, Woof.' The 'Woof, Woofs' have it." Rep. Terrance Carroll D-Denver, chairing the House session Monday
Golden sets annual ward meetings
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5487255,00.html
Golden’s annual ward meetings, an informal way to communicate concerns, ideas and ask questions, will be held with ward and district councilors, the mayor and city staff. Each ward Councilor will pre-select topics relevant to their area to update residents, followed by an open discussion, and question-and-answer period.
Planning director to retire at end of month
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/10
After nearly 30 years of service to the city of Pueblo, its chief land use administrator is preparing to retire to pursue opportunities in the private sector. Jim Munch, 57, the city's assistant city manager for community development, confirmed Monday that he intends to retire from the city by the end of April. Munch was first hired by the Pueblo Regional Planning Commission in May 1978.
Civil Liberties and Equality
5 questions for Abraham Foxman
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488313,00.html
Abraham Foxman says he's living his dream job: For 20 years he's led the Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913 to counter anti-Semitism and secure "fair treatment to all." A survivor of the Holocaust in Poland, he joined the ADL after graduating from law school at New York University. Today, Foxman, 67, concludes a two-day trip to Denver talking about -Holocaust awareness and anti-Semitism, which he calls "alive and well and growing throughout the world." Tonight, he will address the ADL's 26th annual Governor's Holocaust Remembrance Program.
RELATED: ADL chief decries muzzling debate
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682709
Student wins split decision on appeal
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488220,00.html
A University of Northern Colorado student investigated for publishing a satirical online journal may be eligible for damages from the assistant district attorney who approved a search warrant for the student's home, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. But the three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said it will not consider whether Colorado's criminal libel statute is unconstitutional because prosecutors announced shortly after searching Thomas Mink's home in Ault that they would not file charges against him. Greeley police went to Mink's home in 2003 and confiscated his computer after receiving a complaint from a UNC professor who was mocked in Mink's publication. Officers told Mink's attorney they were pursuing charges under the state's criminal libel statute. Mink filed a federal lawsuit in early 2004, saying the law violated his constitutional right to free speech and seeking damages for the search and seizure.
RELATED: "Howling Pig" lawsuit sent back to district court
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070416/NEWS/104160076
Survivor's story launches Holocaust observance
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070417/NEWS/104170098
A Holocaust survivor recounted his years in a concentration camp and subsequent liberation by American troops Monday morning at Aims Community College as part of the City of Greeley Holocaust Memorial Observance. "Don't have any sympathy for me when this is done," Benny Hochman told the audience. "I am a rich, fat, capitalist American."
Immigration
Treasurer blasts ID requirements
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15796
State identification requirements meant to keep illegal immigrants from getting public benefits hurt U.S. citizens, Boulder County Treasurer Bob Hullinghorst said. He pointed to Longmont resident Bernie Lopez, a widow and mother of 12. Lopez was born in her parents’ home in New Mexico 73 years ago and has never left the country. Until last year, Lopez’s baptismal records and Colorado ID card had been enough for her to receive a decade’s worth of state benefits. But after Colorado passed House Bill 1023 last year — requiring proof of legal residency from those applying for public benefits — agencies that had long helped her with medicine, pensions and utilities started asking for one piece of paper she’s never had: a birth certificate.
8 DIE IN SUV ROLLOVER (Briefing, April 17)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488621,00.html
A sport utility vehicle believed to be carrying illegal immigrants rolled several times Monday in southeastern Utah's San Juan County, killing eight men, authorities said. Federal immigration agents were investigating it as a possible case of human trafficking. The Chevy Suburban carrying 15 people rolled on U.S. 191.
Marriage and Family Issues
State reproves Moffat agency on child safety
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682630
When a Moffat County 3-year-old was scalded so badly in bath water that the toddler needed skin grafts and the caregivers initially didn't seek help, law enforcement charged them with child abuse. But caseworkers with the Moffat County Department of Social Services found inconclusive evidence the child needed protective services. That was one of the examples the Colorado Department of Human Services cited in a report criticizing the Moffat County department for being out of compliance with state regulations concerning child welfare. The state reviewed Moffat County cases after members of the community, including clients, law enforcement and school authorities, complained cases were improperly handled. "Moffat County Department of Social Services does not assure child safety and is not in compliance with the Colorado Children's Code and corresponding Colorado Department of Human Services rules regarding child safety," the report concluded. Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services, said the review is unusual.
Health Care and Public Safety
Insurers critical of health care rates bill
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/health_care/article/0,2808,DRMN_25396_5487948,00.html
Colorado small businesses couldn't have their health care rates raised because of an employee's health condition under legislation that's drawing the ire of many insurers. The measure, which is in a Senate committee after passing the House last week, would rescind a 2003 law that let insurers use medical claims and pre-existing health conditions to set premiums for companies with 50 or fewer workers. That legislation let insurers offer small businesses as much as a 25 percent discount for healthy groups and charge a maximum of 10 percent more for groups with costlier health care needs. Supporters of the legislation, which include the Service Employees International Union and AARP, argue the current system makes it difficult for small businesses to budget for health insurance expenses. Cindy DeSplinter is an employee whose 5-year-old son, Micah, has cerebral palsy. Premiums at her 11-person interior design firm, Waring Associates, soared 20 percent - $45 a month per employee - when she added her son to the plan.
For health care fixes, the devil is in the dollars
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682712
Fixing Colorado's health care system hinges on one thing - everyone in the state having access to health care coverage, according to most of the proposals submitted to a state commission. The dilemma that the union, business, and consumer group proposals struggle with is paying for that coverage. Private insurance premiums, the proposals estimate, range from $3,600 a year for an individual to more than $10,000 for a family of four. It will now be up to the legislature's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform to sift through the 31 plans to find a solution for the state. The commission is slated to give an update on its work today.
City Council gets emergency management mini-course
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/8
On the evening of the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history, City Council met for two hours to discuss its roles and responsibilities when a major catastrophe strikes a community. The meeting topic was not a direct response to Monday's shooting on the Virginia Tech campus, but the mounting death toll in Blacksburg served as sober backdrop to the presentation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Kelly Casias gave council a somewhat abbreviated version of a larger set of classes used to instruct community firefighters, police, public works and public health officials in how to implement an incident command system.
Mom in child abuse to get psychiatric test
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488311,00.html
Ghanaian mom will receive a psychiatric evaluation because she is too distraught to defend herself against charges she abused her 3-year- old daughter, who died. Arapahoe County District Court Judge Anne Ollada ruled Monday that Susie Ida Quartey will return to court June 15 if authorities at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo determine she is healthy enough to cope with proceedings.
A look at tragedy: Windsor students get a feel of the impact of drunken driving
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070417/NEWS/104170093
Windsor High School students were rocked with tragedy Monday morning -- or so they thought. By the time they arrived at school, three of their classmates died in a car accident nearby and another classmate was arrested for drinking and driving -- or so they were told. All they knew was that football and track athlete Luke Brough, 17, was arrested shortly after the accident that supposedly took the lives of FFA member Curtis Sipola, 17; girls soccer player Stefanie Wagner, 17; and state-qualifying wrestler Josh Larson, 17. But the three victims did not really die.
RELATED: Mock crash prompts parental concern
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070417/NEWS/104170099
Riverside middle-schooler invited to speak at medical conference
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20070417/VALLEYNEWS/104170040
Sixth-grader Tanner Zimmerman stuck sterile swabs in his classmates' nostrils and discovered something. The Riverside Middle School student's research for a science fair project found a higher than average rate of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in his classmates. He swabbed nostrils because he learned that the nostrils are where the bacteria cultivates. He said he incubated his samples in chrome agar for 48 hours. Chrome agar prevents other bacteria from growing and turns color to indicate if MRSA is present, he said.
A healthy bit of everything
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=6703
Ellen Chase paid $400 for blood tests the last time she had the chemistry panel performed. Saturday, she paid a mere $30 — and had a host of other tests thrown in for free. “I don’t have insurance,” Chase said at the 9Health Fair, sponsored by St. Thomas More Hospital at the Evangelical Free Church. “I thought it would be a good idea to come down here for that.” Chase also checked her bone density, blood pressure, balance and coordination and opted for a colon cancer screening, as well. And she still was working her way through the crowded event.
Bill signing a hairy experience for governor
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488222,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter ended up with dog hair on his dark suit Monday after signing a pet therapy bill into law. But Ritter - a cat owner - didn't seem to mind. In fact, Ritter joked that had an equestrian bill passed, it would have been tough fitting the horse into his office for the signing. House Bill 1126, which would allow licensed physical therapists to perform therapy on animals, was one of seven bills the governor signed Monday.
Bill adds bestiality to animal cruelty law
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682180
Dog owners whose animals attack or kill someone's pet could face criminal charges under a proposal advanced Monday by the House. The legislation - aimed at putting more teeth into animal cruelty laws - also would make bestiality a crime and force animal abusers to submit DNA samples for a criminal database. After objection from ranchers, lawmakers struck a provision that would have banned dogs from riding unrestrained in the back of pickup trucks.
RELATED: Law given stronger bite (Did you know? 4/17)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682179
Crime and Penal Reform
Columbine families share Va. Tech's sorrow
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-17-virginia-tech-columbine_N.htm
When the topic turns to school violence, Tom Mauser usually lectures about guns. Mauser became a national advocate of gun control after his 15-year-old son, Daniel, was among those slain in the April 20, 1999, shootings at Columbine High School. But resignation punctuated Mauser's remarks Monday when he learned of the killings at Virginia Tech. "I am not going to just say gun laws are going to take care of this," he said. "I think my primary thought is about anger. Anger and suicide. Why do we have so many people who think they have to take others' (lives) with them when they take their own?"
RELATED: 'Devastating' news gave principal 'cold chills'
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488139,00.html
RELATED: Experts: No shield ironclad
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682639
RELATED: CU hopes to learn from Va. Tech shooting
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/17/cu-hopes-to-learn-from-va-tech-shooting/
RELATED: Rocky grad absent from class in Norris Hall because of an illness
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/NEWS01/704170322/1002
RELATED: Former Puebloans close to Virginia Tech tragedy
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/1
RELATED: Local grad escapes college shooting
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070416/NEWS/70416028
RELATED: Salazar and Tancredo respond to Virginia Tech. shootings
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070417/NEWS/104170097
For 38 inmates, tent jail is now home
http://www.gazette.com/articles/tent_21312___article.html/inmates_jail.html
Thirty-eight inmates camped outside in the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center parking lot Monday night. They slept on bunk beds inside a 12,000-square-foot canvas tent — the newest inmate accommodations set up by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. Since they’re work-release inmates classified as low-level nonviolent offenders, they spend the day at their jobs, then return to the tent at night to hit the sack, said sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Clif Northam. “They only come to sleep,” he said. Sheriff Terry Maketa hopes the tent will alleviate crowded conditions at the CJC, which hit record inmate numbers in January.
Road-rage driver offers blame at sentencing
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488641,00.html
Jason Reynolds' voice trembled, but his words seemed to convey more self-pity than remorse. The 34-year-old said the crash that killed two men whose families sat in the courtroom Monday wasn't his fault, and he put the blame for his conviction on "media whores," prosecutors and what he said was a misled jury. Reynolds' comments drew a quick rebuke from Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour, who handed two life sentences to the first person in Colorado's history to be convicted of first-degree murder for deaths resulting from road rage. "Mr. Reynolds, you might as well have been standing in the middle of the highway with a gun pointed at people," Samour told Reynolds. "You used your car as a weapon, and you played Russian roulette." Reynolds tailgated Kelvin Norman then cut in front of Norman's Toyota 4Runner and slammed on the brakes, setting in motion the carnage on E-470 east of Parker Road on Nov. 8, 2005.
RELATED: Road-rage killer unrepentant
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682631
Council OKs deal to pay $30,000 to shoplifting suspect hurt by cop
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488624,00.html
A suspected shoplifter who was run over twice by a Denver policeman chasing him in his patrol car is pocketing $30,000 from the city. Leonard Trujillo, who was pinned beneath the patrol car until a tow truck arrived, suffered severe injuries June 23, 2003, court documents state. The City Council approved a $30,000 settlement with Trujillo on first reading Monday. He had sued the city in district court.
Lyons trustees decide against rule
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5683498
The town's board of trustees decided Monday night not to place limits on where sex offenders can live in the small foothills town, ending the unexpected controversy that had ensnared the panel. "Our initial proposal, while it is emotionally appealing, it gives a false sense of security," said Trustee Brian Donnell. "I do believe it would tie up law enforcement resources with what is not an effective sort of law." Trustee Kris Hicar brought up the idea of placing residency restrictions on sex offenders at a meeting last month. The proposed ordinance would have limited how close sex offenders could live to schools, parks and other areas where children congregate.
RELATED: Lyons won't restrict sex offenders
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/17/lyons-wont-restrict-sex-offenders/
Economy
Store gas discounts back
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5487947,00.html
Safeway and King Soopers reintroduced promotional programs for cut-rate gasoline in Colorado after Gov. Bill Ritter signed a new law allowing such deals. Under Safeway's program, Club Card customers who buy at least $50 in groceries in a single transaction can receive a 10-cent-per-gallon fuel discount at the grocer's fuel centers. The normal Safeway Club Card discount is 3 cents per gallon. King Soopers and City Market customers can get a 10-cent- per-gallon discount for every $100 they accumulate in grocery purchases using their SooperCards. "With fuel prices on the rise, the timing could not have been better, and customers recognize and appreciate the value we're offering," Safeway spokeswoman Kris Staaf said in a statement. Both retailers halted their discount programs after a small gas station in Montrose won a $1.4 million court judgment last year against King Soopers for selling gas at 40 cents below cost for more than a year and passing on the discount to customers who bought groceries.
RELATED: Colo. grocers reinstate gasoline discounts
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5682239
RELATED: Gas-discount bill signed, easing pump pain
http://www.gazette.com/articles/bill_21297___article.html/discount_gasoline.html
RELATED: Governor gives grocers go-ahead on gas discounts
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1a_gas_discounts.html
Stern's tales help Nacchios fill time
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5488570,00.html
Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio and his family have filled time in part by listening to stories from one of the defense attorneys as they await the verdict in his insider-trading case. Nacchio's attorneys have continued to work as well, arguing in motions that Judge Edward Nottingham's rulings thwarted their ability to put on their much- vaunted classified information defense asserting Qwest was poised to win secret government contracts. Criminal defendants have different ways to keep busy as they anxiously wait the outcome that could decide whether they'll be sent to prison. Nacchio faces up to 10 years of prison.
RELATED: Nacchio jury dismissed for day
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5678986
State adds to 'Fortune'
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/money/article/0,2777,DRMN_23908_5488580,00.html
With the split of First Data and Western Union and revenue growth at Level 3, Colorado has placed a dozen companies in the Fortune 500, its largest number in years. Fortune magazine's list, now in its 53rd year, is the best-known corporate evaluation in America. It ranks companies on the basis of annual revenue. The state had 10 companies in the Fortune 500 in 2006, but lost its third-ranked member, TransMontaigne, when it went private later in the year.
DON'T TELL US YOU WAITED UNTIL THE LAST DAY . . . (EXTRA!, April 17)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488642,00.html
If you're a low- to moderate- income filer who has put off this annual event until "Crunch Day," some helpful people have got your back.
RELATED: Last-minute tax filers have few minutes left
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_8b_Tax_deadline.html
RELATED: Colo. ZIPs show income disparity
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5682211
Scam victim offers a warning
http://www.gazette.com/articles/sweepstakes_21298___article.html/hammel_phone.html
For years, Patti Hammel said, she dreamed of the prize patrol knocking on her door. She’d spend the sweepstakes millions not on herself but on her family, church and charity, spreading her good luck to those whose luck had run out. So when the phone rang on March 23, bringing the news that she was a winner, it seemed like her dream was coming true. Four days later, the 56-year-old had to be stopped by police from taking a tearful plunge into traffic on South Circle Drive. Several days in a mental health facility followed. Hers is a story of silvertongued foreigners with false promises, of a grandmother who believed them and lost $7,000, of hope turned to desperation to suicidal grief.
Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability
Ski resort employee’s death nets hefty OSHA fine
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_3a_Resort_fined.html
Crested Butte Mountain Resort may have to pay a fine of $67,500 because of a recent citation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the death of a snow-grooming-machine operator in January. The ski company was fined $63,000 for a “willful” violation because safety switches for automatic braking had been altered on the Bombardier BR 350 snow-grooming machine that ran over and killed 23-year-old Christopher Mikesell on Jan. 21.
Trial set for wrongful firing case
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20070417/VALLEYNEWS/104170038
A former town utility worker's wrongful termination lawsuit against the town of Carbondale and his ex-boss has been set for an April 2008 trial in Garfield County District Court. Tom McClelland, a water and wastewater department supervisor from November 2005 until he was let go in January 2006, filed a lawsuit in July of last year against the town and Carbondale Utilities Director Ed Fortner. McClelland, through his Denver attorney Richard Dally, claims he was fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on Fortner over an illegal deer poaching incident the previous fall, and use of public resources to get rid of the deer carcass.
Housing and Homelessness
FasTracks affordable housing urged
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488177,00.html
A group working for more affordable housing urged Denver on Monday to include lower-income households near new FasTracks transit stations. FasTracks will add about 60 rail stations to the current 36 already standing, but the Enterprise Foundation is concerned that high demand for housing near transit stops will drive up prices and leave lower-income households out of the mix. Access to transit is especially helpful to lower-income families, according to a study commissioned by the foundation and released last month by the Center for Transit Oriented Development. Such access expands access to jobs and educational opportunities for them, the study said.
DHA announces finalists for executive director position
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_5487184,00.html
Following a national search and an initial round of interviews, the Board of Commissioners of the Denver Housing Authority (DHA) today announced the final candidates for the Authority’s new Executive Director.
Grand River bemoans lack of affordable housing
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20070417/VALLEYNEWS/104170034
Lack of affordable housing in the area is a growing problem for the Grand River Hospital District. Human resources director Michael Weerts told the Garfield County commissioners Monday that employees are leaving because they can't find a place to live or rent, and that could affect the organization's ability to provide quality care. The district, which employs 300 people in the Grand River Medical Center and E. Dene Moore Nursing Home, has between a 5 and 15 percent vacancy rate at a given time, Weerts said. "The key to having quality people (is keeping them) over time" so they gain experience, he said. People come to the valley to take jobs offered by the hospital district only to leave because they cannot find an affordable place to own or rent.
‘A historic document’
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/apr/17/historic_document/?local_news
Tonight is one of the last chances for Steamboat Springs residents to comment on proposed revisions to the city’s affordable housing policies, which could increase financial requirements for developers and regulate how the city provides housing for its growing workforce.
Habitat closing in on home completion
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/26170
Moffat County Habitat for Humanity volunteers are readying the group's first project home at 745 Yampa Ave. for a tour this weekend by public officials. The tour, which will be open to the Craig City Council, mayor, county commissioners and other public officials, is scheduled for Saturday and corresponds with Habitat Builds Colorado Day.
Media
Rocky expands Yahoo alliance
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5487945,00.html
A dozen newspaper companies including Rocky Mountain News parent E.W. Scripps have broadened their partnership with Internet giant Yahoo in an effort to expand their reach on the Web.
Education
School funding talks proposed
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488017,00.html
Republican lawmakers on Monday offered to sit down with Gov. Bill Ritter to hammer out a solution to Colorado's school funding problem. In a letter to Ritter signed by all but one member of the House and Senate GOP caucuses, Republicans rejected Ritter's proposal to cancel scheduled property tax cuts next year to bolster the state education fund, which could show a deficit within five years. They agree funding is a problem but call Ritter's strategy a "property tax increase," a description Ritter rejects. House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, declined to say what solutions Republicans would offer. He has scheduled a news conference for this morning.
Forum links economy to education reform
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5682234
Colorado's private sector needs to take a larger role in promoting education reform in order to keep the state's economy healthy, according to John H. Stevens, executive director of the Texas Business and Education Coalition. "Education reform needs to be more directly connected to workforce needs and economic development," he said Monday. Stevens was a panelist at the Colorado Business and Education Forum, an event held at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
DPS losing 12 percent to private
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5480458,00.html
Erik and Mandy Koskinen did not plan to join the nearly 30 percent of families in their Congress Park neighborhood who enroll their children in private schools. They tried two different Denver public schools. They agonized over what to do. But in December, the couple decided they had to look outside the city school district for Jack, 8, and Sam, 5. "We believe that a thriving society depends on a strong and well-functioning public school system," Mandy Koskinen wrote in an application to a local private school where tuition tops $10,000 per child. "But simply, our children do not have time to wait."
RELATED: Parents prompt change
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5480459,00.html
DeVincentis recall proceeds
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/apr/17/devincentis_recall_proceeds/?local_news
A group of Steamboat residents announced Monday it will proceed with plans to try to recall Steamboat Springs School Board member John DeVincentis. The committee is made up of former School Board members and former DeVincentis supporters. DeVincentis said he had no comment on the group’s plans.
6 administrative jobs posted by city schools
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/9
Six administrative jobs, four of them new positions under a reorganization approved last week, were posted Monday by Pueblo City Schools on the district’s Web site. The four new titles are associate superintendent, chief academic officer of instructional support and educational accountability, chief financial officer for business and fiscal affairs and chief officer of student support and community services. The associate superintendent job replaces a deputy superintendent post that has been vacant for almost two years.
Roaring Fork High School plans Wednesday accountability meeting
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20070417/VALLEYNEWS/104170039
Roaring Fork High School has scheduled a public meeting for Wednesday evening to address recent parent and teacher concerns about the academic climate at the school.
Party poopers?
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/04/16/news/c_u_and_boulder/news3.txt
This year's CU student government candidates are split along the student body's traditional party lines - broadly speaking, this year's race features a “diversity” ticket and a “Greek” ticket. The legislative and executive candidates say that's glib. The diversity ticket has Greeks; the Greek ticket has diversity.
CSU student pleads guilty in sex case
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5487538,00.html
A Colorado State University graduate student accused of trying to lure an investigator posing as a 13-year-old girl into an online sexual relationship pleaded guilty Monday in Jefferson County.
Copper daycare center shut down following abuse allegations
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070416/NEWS/70416019
Allegations of photographs with a baby in a sexually suggestive pose and smoking a cigarette led to an investigation and the closing of Pumpkin Patch Day Care Center, according to an Order of Summary Suspension by the Colorado Department of Human Services.
Police probe high school official’s use of Internet
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1a_Walker_Follow.html
Grand Junction Police Chief Bill Gardner confirmed Monday that police are investigating Grand Junction High School Athletics Director John Walker for “Internet improprieties.” Gardner declined to comment on the details, but said he hopes to resolve the investigation by the end of the week. Meanwhile, Perverted Justice, a group that investigates online sexual predators, collected chat logs during March that show Walker or someone posing as him repeatedly sent sexually charged messages to “pink_polka_dotzzz,” a Perverted Justice volunteer posing as a 14-year-old girl, according to chat logs obtained by The Daily Sentinel.
Military
Allard: Don't second-guess Army's needs
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/5
A core belief among opponents of the Army's planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site is that the Defense Department has adequate training acreage - more than 20 million acres - around the nation to satisfy its current and future needs. That's not a belief shared by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. In a telephone press conference with reporters Monday, Allard was asked if he intended to make the Army demonstrate why its other training lands were not adequate to serve Fort Carson, rather than adding an extra 418,000 acres to to its site southwest of La Junta. "I don't think we ought to try and second-guess the Army," Allard said, referring to an Army report saying it needs significant larger training areas. "They said they need the additional training facilities. We have closed other bases in the country that were underutilized. That's what the (Base Realignment and Closure Commission) was all about. That's how we ended up with 10,000 more soldiers coming to Fort Carson." Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, was disappointed at Allard's comments.
Town hall meeting on Fort Carson scheduled tonight
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/6
Area residents interested in what effect the planned expansion of Fort Carson will have on Pueblo and Southern Colorado are invited to a town hall meeting today at the Pueblo Convention Center, from 4 to 7 p.m. The meeting will focus on the Pentagon's decision to station an additional 10,000 soldiers at the Mountain Post over the next two years and what impact that will have on housing, schools, transportation and other sectors. Also included will be a session on the controversial expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site southwest of La Junta.
VA plans 2nd Springs clinic
http://www.gazette.com/articles/clinic_21291___article.html/care_health.html
The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to build a second outpatient clinic in Colorado Springs to accommodate a growing patient load. The clinic could be open by late summer or early fall if a suitable location is found in or near downtown, said Marcie Sardinta, spokeswoman for the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, based in Denver. Sardinta said an average of 337 new patients per month have been registering for VA health care services in Colorado Springs, roughly a 7 percent increase from last year’s registration numbers. Demands for primary care are expected to grow by more than 100 percent by 2013, she said.
Religion
Lawsuit filed against priest
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488138,00.html
An Ohio man known as John Doe 10 on Monday became the first person to file a civil lawsuit against priest Timothy Evans, a convicted sex offender, and the Archdiocese of Denver. Within the past three weeks, Evans has been convicted twice of sexual assault while serving as a priest. One of the cases involved a Fort Collins parish and a victim who now lives in Ohio. Zachary Warzel, one of the attorneys for John Doe 10, said he could not comment on whether that was the same man who filed Monday's civil suit.
Energy Policy
Govs: Renewable, traditional energy essential to future
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1b_Utah_energy_summit.html
Coal, natural gas and renewable energy sources should all be on the table in a nationwide, unified effort to achieve energy independence in a time of climate change. That was the rallying cry of the Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Nevada governors Monday at the Utah Energy Summit, where they gathered for a transcontinental teleconference of governors and energy industry officials. Nevada’s governor participated via videoconference. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter was invited to the summit, but was unable to fit it into his schedule, spokesman Evan Dreyer said.
RELATED: Industry touts coal, natural gas as integral
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1b_coal_and_gas.html
Senate panel clears oil-gas regulatory bill
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5488179,00.html
More people from outside the oil-and-gas business - including the state's top health official - would help regulate the industry under a proposal unanimously backed by a Senate committee Monday. Harris Sherman, the state's natural resources chief, helped negotiate changes to the original proposal - a main goal of Gov. Bill Ritter this year - that led the industry to drop its opposition. The measure would keep Ritter's main objective of broadening the makeup of the regulatory commission, but many of the nuts and bolts of how health and environmental concerns could stop or slow production would be worked out later.
RELATED: Compromise strips oil and gas reform of controversy
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1b_COGCC_bill.html
RELATED: Oil-commission revamp gains
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682183
Lines approved
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176818242/17
The Colorado Senate gave final approval to a measure that would help rural parts of the state erect high-voltage transmission lines for renewable energy. HB1150, introduced by Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, and Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, would create the Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority.
Officials push for energy advisory board
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1b_Genesis_plan.html
A meeting Monday to discuss details of a plan to drill for natural gas on Grand Mesa focused instead on broader efforts to monitor energy development throughout Mesa County. Some Grand Valley municipal administrators and elected officials pushed for the formation of an energy advisory board similar to that in Garfield County to facilitate communication and resolve conflicts between energy developers, local governments and private citizens. “As people are faced with (energy development), they need to have some forum to get their questions answered, to express their concerns, and that seems like a good way to go about it,” Grand Junction City Councilman Jim Spehar said.
What's that? Xcel to argue against coal
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5487943,00.html
It will be an odd day Wednesday at the Public Utilities Commission, the state agency that regulates utilities. Xcel Energy, which largely depends on coal for electricity, will argue against coal as the cheapest fuel for future power needs. The PUC staff will counter that the utility could be wrong. "From the staff perspective, there will be two things," explained PUC spokesman Terry Bote. "They are requesting a hearing before the commission that will affirm that Xcel is right, and that coal is not the least-cost resource. "But if it is found that Xcel is wrong, then the PUC staff will ask the commission for remedies, and that could include asking Xcel to negotiate a contract with a bidder to build a coal-fired power plant." The PUC staff's position has many critics, including consumer group Ratepayers United of Colorado, which supports Xcel's decision not to build another coal-fired plant. The group is concerned about emissions from coal-fired plants, believed to cause global warming.
RELATED: PUC may act vs. Xcel
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5682207
Transportation and Infrastructure
RTA committee still working on project list
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/NEWS01/70417001/1002/NEWS01
A citizens’ committee working on the framework for a regional transportation authority needs more time to hash out what projects an authority would fund. The committee was expected to release a list of potential road and transit projects following a daylong meeting Saturday in Windsor. But committee members found they had too many details to pin down before distributing a list, said Gary Thomas, member of the steering committee.
Trail Ridge Road: cone zone in the sky
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5487087,00.html
It's 75 years old this year, so naturally it is going to need a bit of patching up. Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, billed as the highest continuous paved road in the continental United States, needs long overdue work that is scheduled to begin this spring and run into summer. The project will focus on resurfacing from Deer Ridge Junction to Rainbow Curve, and include six roadway slump repairs between Forest Canyon Overlook and the Colorado River Trailhead. It will be a good idea to check at a park visitor center or entrance station for up-to-date information on road delays.
The dirty side of Vail’s snowless streets
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070416/NEWS/70416026
Ron Reichel said heating the streets is the best thing Vail could have done. “I fell years back and screwed up my knee on the streets here,” said Reichel, a Palm Harbor, Fla., who has visited Vail for 30 years. Snowless streets don’t take away from the alpine ambiance, Reichel said. Not to me it doesn’t, believe me,” he said. Vail’s heating system has been slowly expanding under the town’s pedestrian streets over the last few years. Some, like Reichel, say the heated streets are good for safety. Others have warmed to the idea. Still, some say it’s not necessary.
Environment and Conservation
Fake snow ices climate sting
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682629
Colorado's snowmaking power - developed to attract holiday skiers and blanket terrain parks - may also protect the state's slopes from climate change for a few extra decades, according to a United Nations report. "We're not looking at the obliteration of the ski industry this century, which is what some others have said in the past," said Daniel Scott, a geographer at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a co-author of the report. Past studies didn't consider snowmaking, which lets ski resorts cover bald spots, open early and close late, Scott said. New fan-type snowblowers also can produce snow at relatively high temperatures, close to freezing, he said.
Half of Colo. land protected
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5488136,00.html
Nearly 30 million acres in Colorado - about half of the state - are protected from most development by a combination of federal, state, local and private conservation plans, according to a study released Monday. Even so, activities such as oil- and-gas drilling and military maneuvers are permitted on some of that land. The statewide inventory of open space is Colorado's first to include detailed mapping, researchers said. It also found that since 2000, the number of acres protected by conservation easements - private agreements in which landowners give up the right to develop the property but not the property itself - has more than doubled.
RELATED: 44% of state land is open space
http://www.gazette.com/articles/land_21314___article.html/acres_conservation.html
Experts discuss impact of bark beetles in state
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/CSUZONE01/704170325/1002/NEWS01
An enormous outbreak of bark beetles killed more than 5 million trees in Colorado in 2006 and left researchers pondering future issues that might arise because of extensive tree mortality. The outbreak, part of a natural cycle of increases and decreases in beetle population, began around 2001, said Jose Negron, research entomologist for the Rocky Mountain Research Station.
State AG moves to gut Black Canyon accord
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/17/4_17_1a_Black_Canyon_water.html
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has filed papers in state court that would gut agreements between the federal government and more than 100 Gunnison River Basin water users. The agreements were reached as part of an effort to settle a lawsuit aimed at determining how much water the federal government can demand for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. “I’m disappointed an objection was filed,” said state Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, who described herself as supportive of the stipulations.
PACE open house planned
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15798
An open house to discuss the future of Boulder County’s Partnership for a Clean Environment program is scheduled for Tuesday night in Longmont. “What we’re hoping is to find out what people know about the program,” said Sarah Van Pelt, PACE coordinator for the city of Boulder. “We’d like citizens to tell us if they make choices about what service providers or companies they use based on environmental performance.”
Ranch struck with strangles
http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/apr/17/ranch_struck_strangles/?local_news
A contagious horse disease known as “strangles” is lingering at Sidney Peak Ranch, a month after most of the unusually large outbreak subsided. Rod Hanna, president and chief executive officer of Sidney Peak Ranch, said Monday that strangles infected 15 of the 61 horses at the ranch from late December through early March. The ranch is a horse-boarding facility that includes an indoor riding arena, outdoor pastures and 32 adjacent home-sites on Routt County Road 14, south of Steamboat Springs off Colorado Highway 131. At least one horse at the ranch still has the disease, which is also known as “horse distemper.” Strangles is characterized by a swelling of lymph nodes beneath a horse’s chin and in the throatlatch area, possibly affecting a horse’s ability to breathe. The disease is a bacterial infection that most often runs its course in about 10 days and is rarely fatal, but it can spread rapidly among horses in close proximity to one another.
Opinion
Wolfowitz deserves the hook
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5487821,00.html
When Paul Wolfowitz was nominated for president of the World Bank in early 2005, we called him a "strong choice." That's not what we'd say today if we had it to do over again. It's time for him to go.
RELATED: Wolfowitz's bank misjudgment
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5680596
Stem-cell research could save lives
http://www.longmontfyi.com/opinion.asp
With passage in the Senate on Wednesday, a bill that would lift some of the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research heads to President Bush’s desk and an almost certain veto. Both people with degenerative diseases and the scientists who want to help them — who anticipate that stem cell research could hold the potential for a cure — are waiting now to see what the president will do. The bill’s approval by the Senate and earlier approval by the House puts the ball in the president’s court.
Eidsness: It's up to Congress to end game in Iraq
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/OPINION04/704170301/1014/CUSTOMERSERVICE02
President Bush has a credibility problem with respect to Iraq. Most of us don't believe that he has a plan that will work - that America can win a 21st-Century war against terrorists with conventional 20th-Century military tactics. The president has not made the case that an orderly withdrawal from Iraq will result in chaos - only sweeping admonitions. Consequently, the 2006 midterm elections resulted in the Democrats gaining a slim majority in both Houses of Congress. But it may not be a veto-proof Congress. Accordingly, Congress is saying to the president, "Give us a credible plan that changes course following the Baker Hamilton Work Group recommendations." I don't believe for a minute the allegation that Congress wants to micro-manage our military.
Quillen: Fixing school finance
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5680567
The minority Republicans in our General Assembly raised a good point recently. Majority Democrats have pushed a bill requiring local school districts to provide more than just "abstinence only" in their sex-education classes. Birth control and sexually transmitted diseases should also be addressed. Meanwhile, there have been bills to require that high-school graduates attain certain levels of proficiency in science, math and English - and those bills have died. Granted, sex education can be a matter of life and death these days, but just what are schools for if not to teach science, math and English? It's not quite as simple as that, of course, since there are complications. One is the myth of "local control." I used to believe in such a thing, until I went to local school board meetings for about a decade.
Campos: Blacksburg times 35
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5487820,00.html
As I write these words, news reports out of Blacksburg, Va., say that more than 30 people have been shot to death on the campus of Virginia Tech, and that the toll could go higher. The university's president describes the incident as a "tragedy of monumental proportions," and of course he's right. For the next few days the media will be full of stories about why such things happen, what can be done to avoid them, if "we're really safe," etc. Stalin is supposed to have remarked that while one death is a tragedy, a million is merely a statistic. That is a brutal and morally revolting claim, but like many such observations it has a grain of truth. Consider the Blacksburg massacre in the context of what happens every day in Iraq. The United Nations reports about 100 civilians a day were shot, blown up, tortured to death or otherwise murdered in Iraqi civil war violence in 2006. A Johns Hopkins study estimates the true toll in civilian killings may be three or four times higher.
The shootings at Va. Tech
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5487819,00.html
The news of another lethal rampage on a school campus has a special poignancy to Coloradans, eight years after the Columbine shootings. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the residents of Blacksburg, Va., the students, staff and alumni of Virginia Tech, and the loved ones of the victims. With at least 33 confirmed deaths, Monday's tragedy marks the deadliest civilian shooting in American history. Yet despite the inevitable comparsons that will be made with Columbine, Monday's tragedy is in some ways profoundly different.
RELATED: Eight Years After Columbine
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/opinion/17tue1.html
RELATED: Carroll: an echo of sadness
RELATED: Spencer: Safety a casualty in plague of U.S. violence
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5682836
RELATED: More campus carnage: Analysis begins too soon after tragedy
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/17/more-campus-carnage/
RELATED: Massacre nets unwanted lessons
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/OPINION01/70417005/1014/CUSTOMERSERVICE02
RELATED: Campus heartache, haunting questions
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5680594
Election
New Loyalties for Old Fundraising Networks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601713.html
The two most dominant political fundraising networks of the past quarter-century have splintered during the wide-open 2008 presidential race, newly released campaign finance records show. Large numbers of the Rangers and Pioneers who fueled President Bush's campaign machinery are staying on the sidelines for now, while many of President Bill Clinton's biggest donors and fundraisers have migrated away from the campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Hundreds are hedging their bets by donating to multiple candidates. Those who have made the jump say it was inevitable that the Clinton and Bush money machines would scatter as donors face a race with an array of potentially historic choices.
RELATED: Fundraising Totals Challenge Early Campaign Assumptions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601705.html
RELATED: Democrats eclipse GOP fundraising
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-demsmoney_N.htm
Obama's 2006 income drops
Barack Obama's income took a big nose dive last year, but nobody's going to be holding a bake sale for the Democratic presidential contender. The senator from Illinois released his 2006 federal tax return Monday, a day ahead of Tuesday's tax filing deadline. Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported taxable income of $983,826, down from $1.6 million in 2005. The big difference involves two lucrative book deals Obama signed before entering the Senate in 2005, one involving advances for three volumes Obama agreed to write for Random House and the other paying residuals for the rerelease of his 1995 autobiography, "Dreams from My Father."
Democratic hair apparent?
Former Sen. John Edwards, whose wind-swept look has drawn its share of comment in the presidential race, evidently took time out from his campaign to stop for a haircut. But this wasn't your basic barber shop. Rather, Edwards apparently visited Torrenueva Hair Designs in Beverly Hills, owned by celebrity stylist Joseph Torrenueva. And he paid Rodeo Drive prices. Twice. According to his campaign finance report, Edwards' campaign spent $400 at the salon on Feb. 20. Two weeks later, it spent another $400.
McCain Says Fellow Republicans Spent Too Much While Running Congress
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/politics/17mccain.html?ref=washington
Senator John McCain of Arizona acknowledged Monday that his fellow Republicans “forgot who we were” in recent years by spending too much, and said that as president he would rely on low taxes, greater fiscal restraint and free trade to lift the nation’s economy. Mr. McCain, whose presidential campaign has been viewed with suspicion by some conservatives because of his initial opposition to the Bush administration’s tax cuts, used the first major economic address of his campaign to reaffirm his commitment to the free market but said he would move to overhaul the nation’s unemployment programs to help people find jobs in the new economy. And he had some strong words for the way his fellow Republicans governed when they controlled Congress.
Effective and Ethical Government
Senate Delays Gonzales Testimony on Firings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601077.html
The Senate Judiciary Committee canceled testimony scheduled for today from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales after concluding that the hearing would be inappropriate in the wake of yesterday's mass slayings at Virginia Tech. Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said he postponed the hearing, which will focus on the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, until Thursday after conferring with Gonzales and the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.). "I'm sure that he will want to be dealing with the matters of the shooting," Leahy said of Gonzales.
RELATED: Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600422.html
RELATED: Ex-aide contradicts Gonzales
Lobbyist linked to Abramoff case resigns
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-abramoff-lobbyist_N.htm
lobbyist tied to the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal has resigned from the law firm where he worked, company officials said Monday. Kevin Ring worked with Abramoff until early 2005 and previously was an aide to California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, whose ties to the convicted GOP lobbyist are under investigation in the ongoing corruption probe. Ring resigned effective last Friday from Barnes & Thornburg LLP, said managing partner Alan A. Levin. Ring joined Barnes & Thornburg after leaving Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP. Barnes & Thornburg is based in Indianapolis and has offices throughout the Midwest and in Washington. Ring worked in the Washington office and focused on legislative issues.
Civil Liberties and Equality
Justices reject case of firing after slur complaint
The Supreme Court refused Monday to put stricter limits on racial slurs in the workplace, turning away an appeal from a black computer technician who was fired shortly after complaining that a white co-worker loudly described a pair of crime suspects as "two black monkeys in a cage." Robert Jordan was dismissed from his contract job for IBM in suburban Maryland a month after his complaint and was told that he was "being disruptive." Jordan said he found the comment shocking and disgusting and believed his supervisors should reprimand the employee who said it. But his race-bias lawsuit against IBM exposed the fact that the nation's civil rights laws did not necessarily protect an employee from a racist or sexist slur by a co-worker. Even if Jordan was fired simply for complaining about the racist comment, his employer did not violate civil rights law, a federal judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals said in dismissing his lawsuit. That's because "an isolated racial slur" does not create a "hostile work environment," the lower court said.
Bush Allies in Congress Block Bill That Would Require Intelligence Disclosures
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/washington/17intel.html
The Bush administration’s allies in Congress on Monday blocked a bill that would require the White House to disclose the locations of secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency and to reveal the amount spent annually by American intelligence agencies. The vote on the intelligence bill was a blow to Senate Democrats, newly in control of Congress, who had hoped that they would be able to extract more details from the White House about some of the most widely debated intelligence programs begun after the Sept. 11 attacks. Opponents of the legislation, led by Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, won enough support on Monday to prevent the bill from going to the Senate floor for a final vote. But Congressional officials said that negotiations over the measure would continue Tuesday, and Democrats said they were still hopeful the bill could eventually pass.
Marine's mom arrested at Pelosi's office
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-marine-mom_N.htm
The mother of a Marine who tried to kill himself after two tours of duty in Iraq was arrested Monday while protesting the war outside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Tina Richards of Salem, Ore., was charged with disorderly conduct, said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman. Schneider said Richards would be issued a citation and released. Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, D-Calif., said Richards was with a group of 15 to 20 protesters when she was arrested in the hallway outside the speaker's office. Gael Murphy, a spokesman for Codepink, an anti-war group that helped organize the protest at Pelosi's office, said Richards was arrested after chanting anti-war statements. "I have been trying to meet with Speaker Pelosi since November because she needs to listen to the moms and other women affected by the war," Richards said in a statement.
Data on black men show crisis
Citing bleak data on incarceration, joblessness and AIDS, the National Urban League said Monday that problems facing black men represent America's most serious social crisis and proposed an aggressive campaign to provide them with more opportunities. The group called for universal early-childhood education, more second-chance programs for dropouts and former felons, and expanded use of all-male schools emphasizing mentoring and longer class hours.
Potential Padilla jurors questioned
The toughest questions were about Islam. Did potential jurors view it as a violent religion? Did they think Muslims were more prone to commit crimes? Could potential jurors distinguish between religious devotion and support for terrorism? U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke's probing questions came on the first day of jury selection in the trial of accused Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla. They were meant to ensure that jurors reach a verdict based on evidence, not biases or stereotypes.
RELATED: Trial Opens in Florida for Padilla and 2 Others
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17padilla.html?ref=us
Detainee Denies Membership in Al Qaeda
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17gitmo.html
A man who has sometimes been described by American officials as a top logistics chief for Osama bin Laden said at a closed hearing last month at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that he was not a member of Al Qaeda and differed with its approach to holy war, according to a transcript released yesterday.
Foreign Policy
CIA Chief Complains About Agency's Critics in Europe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601550.html
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has taken the unusual step of complaining privately to European diplomats about officials in their countries criticizing U.S. intelligence programs that involve renditions, detentions and interrogations of terrorism suspects. At a luncheon last month at the German Embassy in Washington, Hayden gave a frank report on the controversial counterterrorism programs and spoke of his concern about the inaccurate information surrounding them and the "unbounded criticism" directed at them, particularly from the European Parliament, according to Western diplomats and officials aware of his remarks. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. Word of Hayden's protest came on the eve of testimony by members of the European Parliament who investigated the U.S. programs, scheduled for this afternoon before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.
A U.S.-Italy dispute behind murder trial
That U.S. soldier Mario Lozano killed one of Italy's most valued intelligence agents is a matter of little dispute. The parties involved in the 2005 shooting agree that Lozano opened fire on a car carrying the agent, Nicola Calipari, as it approached a checkpoint on a darkened road to the Baghdad airport. Calipari was escorting an Italian journalist whom he had just liberated from Iraqi kidnappers. Beyond those basic facts, there is deep disagreement over what happened that night and, more important, whether anyone should be held accountable.
In Mideast, Gates Pushes Support for Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601597.html
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived Monday in Jordan on a Middle East trip aimed at bolstering regional support for the Iraqi government and countering Iranian "meddling," according to a senior defense official. Gates, who will stop in Egypt and Israel, also will focus on using potential U.S. arms sales and other military assistance to shape the forces of key American allies against "emerging threats" such as Iran and regional militant groups, said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. Gates will reassure leaders he meets that the U.S. military commitment to the Middle East is enduring, with "common concerns about Persian hegemony in the region," the official said. "For perhaps the first time in this region we have shared interests, shared enemies. . . . I think the secretary alluded to 'the enemy of my enemy [is my friend],' " the official said.
RELATED: Gates travels to Jordan, seeking support on Iraq
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-gates-mideast_N.htm
Six Sadr Loyalists Quit Cabinet in Challenge to Iraqi Premier
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600638.html
In the first major shake-up of Iraq's fragile coalition government, six ministers loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr pulled out of the cabinet on Monday over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for an American troop withdrawal from Iraq. The action frees Maliki to pick qualified people to fill ministries that are widely seen as ineffective, corrupt and sectarian. Yet it could also deepen tensions with Sadr within the government and on the streets, which could thwart U.S. and Iraqi efforts to bring about political reconciliation and stability, Iraqi officials and analysts said.
RELATED: Shiite Cleric Has Six Quit Cabinet in Iraq Shake-Up
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?ref=world
Truck overturns en route to chemical attack, U.S. says
truck laden with nitric acid and explosives overturned before the driver could attack a joint security station operated by U.S. and Iraqi troops north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said today. The use of nitric acid in bomb attacks could mark another shift in tactics by insurgents, who in recent months have rigged nearly a dozen truck bombs with chlorine gas, mainly in Al Anbar province.
17 die in clashes with Kurd rebels
Sixteen Kurdish separatist guerrillas and a soldier have been killed in clashes in Turkey's restive southeast, security forces said Monday. The fatalities occurred Sunday and Monday in separate incidents during a military offensive in the mainly Kurdish region that involved 10,000 troops against the rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Thirteen of the PKK militants were killed in the province of Tunceli, two in Hakkari and one in Siirt. They were the latest in a series of clashes in recent weeks. Spring usually sees an increase in violence, as the mountain snows melt and more rebels cross into Turkish territory from hide-outs in northern Iraq.
Insurgent Attacks Kill More Afghan Civilians
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601595.html
Taliban and other anti-government fighters were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan last year because of their use of improvised bombs, suicide attacks and targeted shootings, a significant increase over previous years of the war there, according to a Human Rights Watch report released yesterday. The 116-page document, titled "The Human Cost: The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan," assails Taliban tactics of attacking foreign troops with imprecise bombs in crowded civilian areas and disguising themselves as civilians to blend in with their surroundings before attacks. The New York-based human rights group connects at least 669 civilian deaths to about 350 separate armed attacks.
RELATED: Bomb hits U.N. vehicle in Afghanistan
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-17-bomb-un-afghanistan_N.htm
N. Korea may shut reactor soon
North Korea may be preparing to shut down its main nuclear reactor, news reports said today, renewing hopes that Pyongyang will comply with a disarmament agreement days after it missed a deadline to shutter the facility. The reports came a day after a South Korean official said his government might suspend rice shipments to North Korea to ratchet up pressure on the North to comply with its nuclear disarmament pledges. The Yongbyon reactor was still in operation, but there was a high possibility that movement of cars and people seen in satellite photos could be linked to a shutdown, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified intelligence official. The Dong-A Ilbo daily carried a similar report.
Sudan To Allow U.N. Force In Darfur
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601508.html
Sudan agreed on Monday to allow more than 3,000 heavily armed U.N. and African peacekeepers in Darfur to reinforce a beleaguered African Union force of 7,000 that has struggled to prevent the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians during the past four years. But U.N. officials said it could be more than six months before foreign troops land in the region. Still, the agreement marked a critical new phase in a plan to gradually expand the United Nations' presence and power in Darfur, where government-backed militia stand accused of killing 200,000 to 400,000 civilians and driving more than 2.5 million from their homes. The United Nations ultimately hopes to oversee a joint force with the African Union with more than 20,000 troops, police and civil servants.
RELATED: Sudan Drops Objections to U.N. Aid in Darfur
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/africa/17nations.html?ref=world
Nigerian Court Overturns Ban on Accused Candidate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600738.html
Nigeria's Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Vice President Atiku Abubakar to run in this weekend's presidential election, adding more uncertainty to an election season already marred by violence, logistical hitches and allegations of rigging. The ruling by the court, which said the nation's electoral commission had no power to disqualify Abubakar because of corruption allegations, vindicated the candidate's struggle to regain a spot on the ballot.
Mexican police find 17 corpses dumped in cars, garbage bags
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-16-mexico-drug-violence_N.htm
Police found 17 corpses stuffed in cars or dumped on streets in garbage bags across Mexico on Monday in what appeared to be the latest wave of violence by drug gangs.
Immigration
West Urged to Accept More Iraqi Refugees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601585.html
The United States, Britain and other E.U. countries must accept more Iraqi refugees to avert a humanitarian crisis in Middle Eastern countries overwhelmed by tens of thousands fleeing violence each month, human rights groups warned Monday. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Refugee Council singled out Britain as needing to do more. In a joint appeal to the United States and the European Union, the groups asked British Prime Minister Tony Blair to "take the lead in Europe by immediately announcing a program to resettle some of the Iraqi refugees currently living in the most difficult conditions." In the letter, released on the eve of the first global meeting to address the Iraqi refugee crisis, the groups indicated that the United States had taken a step in the right direction by announcing it would accept up to 7,000 Iraqi refugees for resettlement, up from 202 in fiscal 2006.
For Illegal Immigrants, Housing Slump Takes Toll
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/business/17construct.html?ref=us
Some of the casualties of America’s housing bust are easy to spot up and down California’s Central Valley. From Fresno to Sacramento, big tangles of wire and PVC pipes clutter vacant lots in silent subdivisions, waiting for houses to be built — some day. Dozens of “For Sale” signs already dot the lawns across new residential communities. And right next to the ubiquitous billboards from builders are fresh signs offering homeowners help to avoid foreclosure. But another set of losers is less visible: the immigrant workers, mostly illegal, who rode the construction boom while it lasted and now find jobs on building sites few and far between.
Marriage and Family Issues
[Chicago] Catholic Charities dropping foster care
The foster care program run by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the oldest and largest such programs in the state, is shutting down after 90 years, a move that is sending shock waves through the child welfare system. Catholic Charities and state officials confirmed that the program, responsible for more than 900 children in Cook and Lake Counties, will close June 30 after a $12 million lawsuit payout prompted the agency's insurer to drop its coverage. The move comes at a time when the number of children in foster care in Cook County has dropped, giving other agencies a better chance to take over the massive caseload with minimal disruption. State officials vowed that they are "doing everything possible" to keep wards with their current foster parents. But experts said that losing an agency like Catholic Charities, which has a long history of finding foster homes for children around the nation and monitoring their progress, is an ominous sign.
Health Care and Public Safety
Medicare bill would require drug comparisons
Prilosec or Nexium? Allegra or Claritin? Lipitor or Zocor? Americans are the world's leading purchasers of prescription drugs, but most consumers have little idea of how well their pills measure up against other, possibly cheaper, medications. A bill expected to go to the Senate floor this week would seek to begin changing that by having the government compare major kinds of medications and treatments provided to more than 43 million Medicare recipients to see how well they work. The legislation faces an uphill battle because it would also lift the prohibition against the government negotiating lower drug prices for seniors in the Medicare prescription program — a change that President Bush has threatened to veto.
NIH Will Review Contractor's Work On Chemical's Risk
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601548.html
The National Institutes of Health says it will review the work done on a chemical called bisphenol A by a contractor hired to assess its health risks. The agency fired the company because it was also doing work for the chemical industry. The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that first raised alarms about a possible conflict of interest, said the government needs to scrutinize the entire body of work performed by Sciences International Inc. for the federal government since 1998, including analyses of 19 other chemicals.
RELATED: U.S. fires firm over apparent conflict
AARP Says It Will Become Major Medicare Insurer While Remaining a Consumer Lobby
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/health/17insure.html?ref=us
AARP, the lobby for older Americans, announced Monday that it would become a major participant in the nation’s health insurance market, offering a health maintenance organization to Medicare recipients and several other products to people 50 to 64 years old.
FEMA hurricane emergency plan delayed
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-16-fema-emergency-plan_N.htm
A federal government plan for responding to emergencies will not be ready in time for the approaching hurricane season, officials have told Congress. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which bore the brunt of criticism following the 2005 season when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, sent an advisory to Congress last week acknowledging it will not meet its June 1 deadline for issuing a new national response plan.
Imported food rarely inspected
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-16-imported-food_N.htm
Just 1.3% of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption. Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on. Add to that the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall, and you've got a real international pickle. Does the United States have the wherewithal to ensure the food it imports is safe? Food safety experts say no.
Employers grapple with medical marijuana use
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2007-04-16-medical-marijuana-usat_N.htm
Some companies, wary of marijuana's impact on employee performance, continue to fire those who test positive for the drug, even when its use is sanctioned by their state for medical purposes. Those companies include Columbia Forest Products, a manufacturer of hardwoods based in Oregon, one of the states that allows medical marijuana. Even as the company maintains its zero-tolerance policy toward drug use, it has faced legal action because its company rules conflict with Oregon's medical marijuana law. A few companies, such as Newbridge Securities, have embraced the notion of employees using medical marijuana at work. Meanwhile, there are questions about whether medical marijuana laws would offer any protection to employers if a worker who used marijuana to treat pain ended up injuring others or making a mistake on the job. It's unclear whether such an incident has occurred.
Officials: French told CIA of hijacking plot in '01
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-16-france-sept11_N.htm
France's foreign intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al-Qaeda was preparing a hijacking plot likely to involve a U.S. airplane, former intelligence officials said Monday, confirming a report that also said the CIA received the warning.
Crime and Penal Reform
No guns on men shot by Fulton police
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/04/16/0417metshoot.html
A local civil rights activist and the family of a 26-year-old man fatally shot by Fulton County police are calling for a state and federal investigation into the death. The Rev. Markel Hutchins, a spokesman for Ron Pettaway's family, said Monday the case deserves the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Fulton District Attorney's Office. Pettaway was killed and his brother, Roy, was shot and wounded about 1:30 a.m. Sunday when police responded to a call about a fight at the Frozen Palace, a bar at 2395 Flat Shoals Road near College Park. Police confirmed Monday afternoon that neither man had weapons.
Economy
British Pound Breaks Through $2 Mark
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041700341.html
The British pound broke through the $2 mark on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 15 years after new data showed an unexpected surge in inflation, prompting speculation of interest rate increases. The pound rose to $2.0002 after the inflation report was released, its highest level since "Black Wednesday" in September 1992, when Britain crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Despite dropping back to $1.9985 _ up from $1.9900 late Monday in New York _ analysts said the currency was on its way up after breaching the psychological $2 mark and the release of U.S. housing and inflation data later Tuesday could see another spike above that level. "So far the move has proved to be unsustainable, but with U.S. economic data due later in the session, further dollar downside may be seen in due course," said David Jones, chief market analyst with CMC Markets.
Report: Greenspan says world will help U.S. economy
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-04-16-greenspan_N.htm
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted as having played down his earlier concern about a possible U.S. recession, saying the world economy would provide a cushion, Bloomberg reported Monday. Greenspan was speaking via satellite link from Washington to a financial forum in Tokyo and his comments were quoted by a few of the participants, Bloomberg said. Greenspan said growth in the rest of the world is creating demand for services from firms such as Microsoft (MSFT), according to Vaseehar Hassan Abdul Razack, chairman of Kuala Lumpur-based RHB Islamic Bank, who attended the meeting and whose remarks were cited by Bloomberg. Greenspan didn't mention recession on Monday, according to Anne Okko, who works in funding administration at the Nordic Investment Bank, Bloomberg said.
Managers Use Hedge Funds as Big I.R.A.’s
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/business/17hedge.html?ref=business
Many Americans squirrel away as much as they can into retirement investment accounts like 401(k)s and I.R.A.’s that allow them to compound their earnings tax free. The accounts also reduce what they owe when tax day rolls around. For the average person, however, the government strictly limits the contributions to about $20,000 a year. And then there are people who work at hedge funds. A lot of the hedge fund managers earning the astronomical paychecks making headlines these days are able to postpone paying taxes on much of that income for 10 years or more.
Stocks Advance as Earnings Season Begins in Full Swing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601373.html
Wall Street began the week with a strong showing as better-than-expected profits at Citigroup and an increase in consumer spending renewed investors' optimism about the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 100 points. The Dow rose 108.33, or 0.86 percent, to 12,720.46. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 15.62, or 1.08 percent, to 1468.47, a 6 1/2 -year high. The Nasdaq composite index rose 26.39, or 1.06 percent, to 2518.33. Earnings reports begin arriving at a steady clip this week, giving investors fresh indications about companies and the overall economy. Nearly half of the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrials are to report results this week.
Managers Use Hedge Funds as Big I.R.A.’s
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/business/17hedge.html?ref=business
Many Americans squirrel away as much as they can into retirement investment accounts like 401(k)s and I.R.A.’s that allow them to compound their earnings tax free. The accounts also reduce what they owe when tax day rolls around. For the average person, however, the government strictly limits the contributions to about $20,000 a year. And then there are people who work at hedge funds. A lot of the hedge fund managers earning the astronomical paychecks making headlines these days are able to postpone paying taxes on much of that income for 10 years or more.
Tax Credit Seen as Helping More Parents
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17poor.html?ref=washington
More than one in six taxpayers in 2004 received the Earned Income Tax Credit, highlighting its growing role in bolstering the incomes of struggling low-income parents, according to a new report. The federal credit, which offers tax refunds this year of up to $4,716 for a parent with two children who makes $12,000 to $15,000, has emerged as one of the largest aid programs for the working poor. The amount of the credit for such parents gradually declines, reaching zero as their incomes hit $38,000.
Housing and Homelessness
Subprime lenders' big gifts helped lawmakers
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2007-04-17-subprime-usat_N.htm
The nation's top subprime lenders, including New Century Financial (NEWC), which has filed for Chapter 11, have lavished generous donations on homeownership programs sponsored by black or Hispanic members of Congress. The paid sponsorships give lenders an entree to lawmakers and their constituents. Along with New Century, backers include Countrywide Financial (CFC), which settled a New York fair-lending investigation in 2006 by agreeing to compensate black and Latino borrowers for improper loans and set up a $3 million consumer-education program. Another is Ameriquest Mortgage, which in 2006 agreed to a $295 million settlement with state attorneys general who charged it with improper lending practices. Minority homeownership rates rose in the past several years. But the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation today face an imploding market as subprime mortgages — higher-priced loans to consumers with impaired or scanty credit — go bad at an escalating rate. Federal regulators are tightening up on the lenders. The non-profit groups, founded by lawmakers, run education and outreach programs. Still, a key lawmaker and caucus officials say subprime lenders remain important options.
Allstate hit with $2.8 million verdict in Katrina case
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/insurance/2007-04-16-allstate-katrina-lawsuit_N.htm
Allstate Insurance must pay a Louisiana man who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina more than $2.8 million in damages and penalties, a federal jury decided Monday in a case that hinged largely on whether it was wind or storm surge that wiped out his house. The jury found Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate — which claimed most of the damage was due to storm surge, an event not covered in its policy — did not pay Robert Weiss enough money to cover wind damage to his home. The verdict included a $1.5 million penalty for the company's failure to pay the claim quickly enough. "Our intention was to get what we were owed and to send a message that we would not be intimidated," Robert Weiss said after the verdict was read.
Media
Pulitzers scattered among news outlets
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007-04-16-pulitzers_N.htm
With no single event dominating front pages in the manner of Hurricane Katrina or Sept. 11, the Pulitzer Prizes were scattered among 13 news organizations on a variety of subjects, and a jazz composition won in the music category for the first time. Also for the first time, the Pulitzer Prize Board pulled a play — "Rabbit Hole" — out of the hat for the drama award after three finalists approved by the jury in that category failed to attract the necessary majority of board members.
RELATED: Globe writer wins Pulitzer for national reporting
Poll: Race, Gender Divide Americans on Imus' Firing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600361.html
Americans by a narrow margin agree that Don Imus should have lost his nationally syndicated radio show last week, but while whites are evenly divided on the issue a sizeable majority of African Americans support the firing, according to a poll released today. Overall, 51 percent of respondents in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll said Imus should have been fired for making racially insensitive comments about black women basketball players from Rutgers University; 45 percent said he should have kept his job.
Judge Dismisses Libel Case Against The Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17paper.html
A state court judge in Texas dismissed a libel case yesterday filed against The New York Times in response to a series of articles on worker safety at McWane Inc., an Alabama company. The judge, Jerry Calhoon, signed an order granting The Times’s motion for summary judgment after a three-hour hearing in Tyler, Tex., without providing a written opinion, leaving it unclear which argument made by lawyers for The Times proved persuasive. The lawsuit was brought by Mike Adams and the company he owns, Occu-Safe Inc., which provided medical services at McWane’s pipe manufacturing plant in Tyler. Mr. Adams asserted that the articles included false statements about the quality of care provided to McWane employees.
House to Vote on Bill to Ban Web Site Names That Resemble Those of U.S. Agencies
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/technology/17web.html
A Web industry trade group, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, issued a statement last week warning consumers that Web sites like irs.com, irs.org and irs.net “make money by offering services that, in many cases, taxpayers could get for free through the I.R.S.’s official Web site, irs.gov.” Intersearch.com, the firm that owns the irs.com Web site, says that it is fully complying with the law and that it sees no reason to inform shareholders of the pending legislation, said Jennifer Faye Drimmer, its legal counsel.
Education
Private Investors to Buy Sallie Mae for $25 Billion
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600160.html
Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student loan company, announced yesterday that it would be bought by a group of private investors in a $25 billion deal that could reduce public scrutiny of the lender at a time when the student loan industry is under siege. The enormous deal underscores the potential for profit that Wall Street sees in the $85 billion-a-year student loan industry, even as Congress considers slashing billions of dollars in federal loan subsidies and an expanding nationwide probe reveals fresh conflicts of interest in the student lending world.
N.Y. Wants to Bar Lenders From Giving Perks to Colleges
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601542.html
New York lawmakers introduced a bill yesterday that would make New York the first state to ban student loan companies from offering perks to university financial aid officials, the latest fallout from a widening nationwide investigation of the industry. The legislation came as the state's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo (D), announced that a third student loan company had agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement to resolve his probe of its business practices. Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student loan company, and Citibank, the second-largest, have reached similar accords with Cuomo's office.
Science and Technology
Almost Human, and Sometimes Smarter
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17chimp.html?ref=science
Observed in the wild and tested in captivity, chimpanzees invite comparison with humans, their close relatives. They bear a family resemblance that fascinates people, and scientists see increasing evidence of similarities in chimp behavior and skills, making some of them think on the vagaries of evolution. For some time, paleontologists and evolutionary biologists have known that chimp ancestors were the last line of today’s apes to diverge from the branch that led to humans, probably six million, maybe four million years ago. More recent examination shows that despite profound differences in the two species, just a 1.23 percent difference in their genes separates Homo sapiens from chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes.
Military
Unit Ponders the Hard Lessons of Loss
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601510.html
Can a soldier get used to death? That's what the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, out of Fort Hood, Tex., are finding out here in an area of eastern Baghdad teeming with snipers and roadside bombs. They are also learning hard lessons about the consequences of President Bush's troop escalation that other battalions have so far been spared. Since U.S. and Iraqi forces began implementing their new Baghdad security plan Feb. 14, nine soldiers from the battalion have been killed. No battalion has had more. Even harder, after a relatively uneventful deployment that began last November, those nine deaths have occurred in the past 32 days. "It just seems like it's been blow after blow after blow," said the battalion's chaplain, Capt. Roger McCay. "They're sad. Very sad," he said of the battalion's 750 soldiers. "They question, 'Is this how it's going to be from now on out?' "
Coast Guard To Take Over 'Deepwater'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601607.html
The Coast Guard is taking control of its troubled $24 billion modernization program from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman as part of a restructuring of the project, congressional sources confirmed yesterday. The move comes during mounting criticism of the contract for the so-called Deepwater program that made a Lockheed-Northrop consortium "lead systems integrator" and gave it significant management powers. Critics said the contract gave the corporate team too much control and that the Coast Guard was lax in its oversight duties -- a combination they say led to a series of setbacks. Deployment of cutters and patrol boats produced so far has been delayed, the capabilities of some larger ships have been reduced, and costs have increased.
Guards Go on Strike at Nuclear Weapons Plant
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601649.html
More than 500 security guards at the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly plant walked off the job just after midnight yesterday to protest what they said is a steep deterioration in job and retirement security since the government changed fitness standards for weapons-plant guards in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The contractor at the plant, BWXT Pantex in Carson County, Tex., replaced the striking guards with a contingency force that it says will secure the plant's weapons, nuclear materials and explosives as long as necessary. The issue is not confined to Pantex because guard union leaders at other weapons plants also are raising concerns about the new security requirements, which they say will force many older guards out of their jobs.
Religion
Minneapolis airport cabbies who refuse fares face tough penalties
Muslim cabdrivers at Minnesota's biggest airport will face new penalties, including a two-year revocation of their taxi permits, if they refuse to give rides to travelers carrying liquor or accompanied by dogs, the board overseeing operations ruled Monday. The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which was responding to complaints about the liquor issue, voted unanimously to impose the penalties, which take effect in May. A large number of taxi drivers in the area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Muslim Somali immigrants. Many say they believe that the faith's ban on alcohol consumption includes transporting anyone who carries it.
Squeezing diesel out of animal fat
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-04-16-conoco-tyson-fat-biodiesel_N.htm
Oil company ConocoPhillips (COP) and meat producer Tyson Foods (TSN) said Monday they're joining forces to produce diesel fuel for U.S. vehicles using beef, pork and poultry fat. The companies said they have collaborated over the past year on ways to combine Tyson's expertise in protein chemistry and production with ConocoPhillips' processing and marketing knowledge to introduce a renewable diesel fuel with lower carbon emissions than petroleum-based fuels. ConocoPhillips planned to spend about $100 million over several years to produce the fuel, CEO Jim Mulva said at a news conference. It hopes to introduce the fuel at service stations in the Midwest in the fourth quarter of this year.
Chavez aims to undermine ethanol deal
President Hugo Chavez attempted to derail a U.S.-Brazil ethanol agreement as host of an energy summit Monday, offering his own development plans for South America using Venezuela's vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Chavez has pledged to offer an alternative to "overthrow" the ethanol agreement, which he calls a "cartel" that would monopolize arable lands and starve the poor. The pact, signed last month, aims to promote ethanol production.
Mine blast probe: Methane detector was blocked
A methane gas explosion that killed 108 people at a Siberian coal mine was caused by a deliberate blockage of safety equipment, investigators said Monday. Konstantin Pulikovsky, head of industrial watchdog Rostekhnadzor, said the mine's methane detection system had been blocked, allowing the gas to build up to unsafe levels.
Florida may need to tap Everglades, officials say
Even with tough new water-use restrictions and farmers' conservation measures, the Everglades might still need to be tapped to ensure ample drinking water for South Florida, water managers told Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) on Monday. At an emergency meeting on Florida's drought, the political leaders also learned that the state appears to be destined for more than a summer's dry spell and heavy wildfire season. State disaster planners said Florida might be entering a two- or three-year drought cycle that could burden the agricultural industry and pose new challenges for growth in South Florida. More immediately, though, authorities are concerned about a decision over whether and when to lower Everglades water conservation areas beyond current limits that protect wildlife.
Editor’s note: the New York Times has converted to a subscription-based editorial section. We are no longer clipping their op-ed columnists.
Robinson: Are They Serious?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601412.html
Today's topic is credibility -- specifically, recent claims by certain high-ranking present, former and perhaps soon-to-be-former Bush administration officials. The aim is to answer a simple question: Should we believe these three Bush loyalists if they tell us that rain falls down instead of up, or should we look out the window to make sure?
Cohen: The Face of Opportunism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601411.html
If I had my way, Alberto Gonzales would wear a Mike Nifong mask when he testifies before the Senate. Nifong is the rogue prosecutor who indicted three members of the Duke University lacrosse team even though he should have known that they were not guilty. He did this not for cash or some other bribe but because of political pressure. He was up for election. It is really no different with Gonzales. By allowing politics to pollute the Justice Department, by permitting U.S. attorneys to get the impression that politics ought to figure in their investigations, he compares in some minor-league way to the odious Nifong. The mask will remind the Senate of what really is at stake.
RELATED: Podesta: The Truth Congress Is Owed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601409.html
RELATED: Beyond Mr. Gonzales
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601442.html
RELATED: Collins: Prosecutors owe loyalty to the public
Broken Promises to a Broken Gulf
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/opinion/17tue2.html
President Bush has reneged on his promises to Katrina’s victims.
Greenway: The problem that is Paul Wolfowitz
"PAUL WOLFOWITZ is often mentioned as the most brilliant person in government. . . . He is the intellectual force behind a whole new way of looking at US foreign policy. But for all of that [he] should be fired." I wrote those words in July 2003. It was clear by then that the Iraq mission had not been accomplished in the previous May, as the president had said, and that we were in for a long, hard war made worse by Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld's "fatal combination of hubris and incompetence." I could have added corruption.
Microsoft the trust-buster?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-google17apr17,0,6563998.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
It's a fast-changing world when AT&T and Microsoft point fingers at a Google Internet deal.
Dionne: The Ills Behind That Slur
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601410.html
Why is it that I am experiencing a terrible bout of cynicism watching all the post-Imus hand-wringing?
Lehigh: John Edwards's changing tune on the Iraq vote
AS HE runs for president, John Edwards has cast himself as a candidate who puts candor ahead of politics by saying he was wrong to vote for the Iraq war resolution. But candor wasn't what he counseled as John Kerry's vice-presidential nominee, when he argued strongly against admitting error on Iraq, according to veterans of the 2004 campaign.
A Killer in Blacksburg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601441.html
EVEN IN a nation numb to violence and inured to recurrent school shootings, the scale of the human tragedy at Virginia Tech yesterday was heartbreaking.
RELATED: Leaps of faith
RELATED: Too terrible for words
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-shooting17apr17,0,4411759.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
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