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Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041707.htm
TOP STORIES
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/
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
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.
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
Today’s complete national news
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.
Today’s complete Colorado news
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041707.htm
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