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Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041807.htm
TOP STORIES
Va. Killings Widely Seen as Reflecting a Violent Society
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041701805.html
Officials, newspaper columnists and citizens around the world Tuesday described the Virginia Tech massacre as the tragic reflection of an America that fosters violence at home and abroad, even as it attempts to dictate behavior to the rest of the world. From European countries with strict gun-control laws to war-ravaged Iraq, where dozens of people are killed in shootings and bombings each day, foreigners and their news media used the university attack to condemn what they depicted as U.S. policies to arm friends, attack enemies and rely on violence rather than dialogue to settle disputes. "I'm not saying that it could only happen in the U.S.A.; no one could prevent someone from shooting people in the Sorbonne," said Pierre Chiquet, a 77-year-old retired aerospace engineer, referring to a Paris university. "But violence is more imbued in American society than in ours. The most dramatic aspect is that they even transport their violence to the rest of the world."
RELATED: Campus shootings draw world scrutiny
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-17-virginia-tech-world_N.htm
85 people found dead across Iraq
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/04/18/85_people_found_dead_across_iraq/
Police in Ramadi uncovered 17 bodies buried beneath two schoolyards in a district that until recently was under the control of Al Qaeda fighters. At least 85 people were killed or found dead across the country yesterday.
RELATED: Iraq’s Public Health Services Severely Strained, Group Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/world/middleeast/18health.html
March Inflation Blamed Mostly on Gas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041700342.html
Surging gasoline prices pushed inflation higher last month, the Labor Department reported yesterday, with the increases eating up workers' pay gains. But other government data showed that, outside of fuel costs, prices did not rise much in March, while home construction appeared to stabilize and factories stepped up production.
RELATED: Consumer prices surge as energy prices jump
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-04-17-cpi_N.htm
Flexibility advised in late home mortgages
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-04-17-mortgage-loans_N.htm
Federal regulators Tuesday urged lenders to be flexible with borrowers who are behind on their home payments, as mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) laid out initiatives to help strapped consumers refinance into more affordable loans. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Sheila Bair also told the House Financial Services Committee that lenders and Wall Street firms must "share the pain" of mounting losses from borrowers who took out subprime loans. The loans are aimed at borrowers with impaired credit. "We should hold the (loan) servicers' and investors' feet to the fire," Bair said. "It was clear to investors these were high-risk." The activity is part of a growing effort to aid the crisis in the subprime sector, where 13% of mortgages are in delinquency. Nearly 2 million adjustable-rate subprime mortgages will reset at higher rates this year and next, and many borrowers will be unable to keep up. While that's a small share of the overall mortgage market, the subprime troubles have affected bond and stock prices and credit costs.
Today’s complete national news
Colorado
Ranchers, farmers blast Army plan
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5490642,00.html
Nearly 200 ranchers, farmers and supporters filled a conference room [in Pueblo] Tuesday, sending a resounding message to Army brass that they will fight the Army's attempt to take their lands for an expansion of its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad. A meeting to brief businesspeople on Fort Carson's addition of 8,000 to 10,000 troops in the next three years and the effects of that growth was overshadowed by the fort's pending proposal to triple the size of its maneuver site in southeastern Colorado. "I want to know what in the heck they're going to do and when the heck they're going to do it," said Judy Benevidez, who lives near the current maneuver site in Model.
RELATED: Senate backs fight to save ranchland
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5490448,00.html
RELATED: Senate backs ranchers over Army
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5689932
RELATED: Talking back to the Army
http://www.gazette.com/articles/army_21344___article.html/it?bill_site.html
RELATED: Fort Carson surge on its way to area
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176906196/1
RELATED: Senate delivers Army a message
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1176906196/3
Ritter says adoption bill does 'right by kids'
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5490221,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter said his years as a prosecutor dealing with "fractured families" were key in his decision to support a controversial adoption bill. Some opponents say House Bill 1330 was introduced to give gays the right to adopt, but supporters say the bill is about protecting children. "The world that we all wish we lived in is a world where all families are intact," Ritter said Tuesday. "In fact, what I saw again and again and again were fractured families. "My preference here is to do in a public policy way things that are right by kids. I really do believe that a two-parent adoption bill has the ability to do that." Opponents of the bill include Catholic Charities, which issued a statement Tuesday urging Ritter to veto the measure.
RELATED: Catholic Conference steps up call for veto of gay adoption bill
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070417/NEWS/104170074
Insurance measure spurs anger
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5490222,00.html
The hearing for a controversial health insurance bill was postponed until today after an ugly Senate battle in which both sides traded jabs about breaking the rules. Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, was outraged that the insurance bill was scheduled to be heard Tuesday morning, though it had not been posted on the calendar issued Monday. As a result, he said, rural opponents had little time to travel to the Capitol to testify against House Bill 1355, by Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora. "This is an abuse of politics," Mitchell said. "This is heavy-handed politics." Senate President Joan Fitz- Gerald eventually asked for a "senatorial five" so lawmakers could privately discuss the situation on the side of the floor, but their voices could still be heard. Mitchell said the majority Democrats were abusing their power. "Should I bring up your illegal redistricting where you broke every rule in the book?" Hagedorn demanded to know. "Congratulations," Mitchell shot back. "You have become what you abhorred."
College Republicans sell controversy
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/18/one-for-you-and-another-for-you-college-sell/
The University of Colorado's College Republicans cooked up controversy and cookies Tuesday at an "affirmative action bake sale," where baked goods were priced differently based on the buyer's race and gender. More than 100 protesters — most of them staging a silent demonstration — formed an orbit around the half-dozen College Republicans and their cookie table near the Norlin Quad. The bake sale came a week before the California-based American Civil Rights Coalition announces whether it will launch an initiative in Colorado to ban affirmative action. Colorado is expected to be among the states selected for the next anti-affirmative-action campaign, which would aim to amend the constitution to ban the use of race and gender preferences in university admissions and government hiring. Organizers of CU's bake sale put up a poster with "suggested donations" asking that Asians pay $1.25, whites $1, Hispanics 50 cents and African-Americans 25 cents for cookies.In their second such event since 2004, the College Republicans said they wanted to parody affirmative-action policies, highlighting their "negative effects." Their stance is that affirmative action was designed to end discrimination toward people based on race and gender, but the policies do the opposite.
Today’s complete Colorado news
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041807.htm
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