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TOP STORIES
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Daily news digest 5/12-14/2007
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Today’s digest archive: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/051407.htm
TOP STORIES
National
Ret. Gen: Iraq straining National Guard
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-12-democrats-address_N.htm
The National Guard isn't as strong as it should be because of the war in Iraq and American communities will suffer as a result, retired Air Force Gen. Melvyn Montano said Saturday. Delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address, Montano said the strain means it will take longer for Greensburg, Kan., to recover from a devastating tornado that leveled the town a week ago. "Crucial equipment used by the Guard for disaster relief is now in Iraq instead of standing ready to respond to crises here at home," said Montano, who was once adjutant general of the New Mexico National Guard. "When the tornado struck Kansas last week, the Guard had half the number of Humvees and large trucks they usually would have at their disposal," Montano said. "The recovery process now will take longer."
RELATED: Many Lessons in Disaster Drill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301134.html
More Iraq war news in NATIONAL/ELECTION, NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT, NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL/MILITARY, COLORADO/MILITARY
In Gulf, Cheney Pointedly Warns Iran
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051100572.html
Aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf 150 miles off Iran's coast, Vice President Cheney warned Tehran yesterday that the United States and its allies will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, close off vital sea lanes for oil supplies, or control the Middle East. Cheney issued the blunt warning during his Middle East tour, and just two days before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes his own trip to the Gulf. The two visits reflect the growing rivalry between Washington and Tehran for influence in the region.
RELLATED: U.S., Iran Plan Talks on Pacifying Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051300304.html
RELATED: U.S., Iran to hold talks on Iraq
More Iran news in NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY
Katrina Aid Program Is $2.9 Billion Short
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102366.html
The massive federally funded program for rebuilding Louisiana homes is short nearly $3 billion, administrators told a state legislative panel here today, leaving uncertain for now how the owners of roughly 100,000 flood-wrecked houses here will be compensated. The report represented the latest crisis for the aid effort initially created to distribute $6.9 billion in federal money to the owners of homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina who lacked enough insurance money to rebuild.
RELATED: Victims of Katrina File Rash of Lawsuits
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201186.html
Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301106.html
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering to replace U.S. attorneys viewed as weak on voter fraud, from state Republican parties to the White House, is one element of a nationwide partisan brawl over voting rights in recent years. Ever since the contested 2000 presidential election, which ended in a Florida recount and intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, both political parties have attempted to use election law to tip close contests to their advantage. Through legislation and litigation, Republicans have pressed for voter-identification requirements and other rules to clamp down on what they assert is widespread fraud by ineligible voters. Starting early in the Bush administration, the Justice Department has emphasized increasing prosecutions of fraudulent voting. Democrats counter that such fraud is rare and that GOP efforts are designed to suppress legitimate votes by minorities, the elderly and recent immigrants, who are likely to support Democratic candidates.
More DOJ scandal news in NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT
Colorado
Former Rep. Schaffer says he'll run for Allard's seat
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5535957,00.html
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer said he plans to seek the GOP nomination for the seat held by retiring U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. Schaffer, 45, of Fort Collins, made the announcement Saturday to more than 150 people attending a Boulder County Republican Lincoln dinner. "After considerable assessment," Schaffer said, "I've decided I'm going to begin putting a campaign together to run for the United States Senate." Schaffer filed his official statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, according to the FEC's Web site. He said he expected to kick off his campaign next year. In late April, he told the Teller County Republicans' annual Lincoln dinner that he would be a candidate, people who attended the event said. Schaffer declined to confirm those reports.
RELATED: Schaffer makes campaign official
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS01/705130349/1002/NEWS17
RELATED: Schaffer making bid for Senate
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=16329
RELATED: State GOP chairman fires up [Routt] Lincoln Day Dinner crowd
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/26570
House approves aid money for struggling farmers
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/12/house-approves-aid-money-for-struggling-farmers/
The House has passed legislation that would provide billions of dollars for farmers and ranchers hurt by weather-related disasters — the third time that chamber has approved the farm money in the last two months. Farm-state lawmakers are struggling to find a way to help farmers who have been hurt by flooding, drought and Colorado's devastating blizzards. They are attempting to include the aid money as part of a must-pass war spending bill in an effort to get President Bush to sign it. "That's likely the only way we are going to get it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees spending measures. While increasing the bill's chances of success, linking the farm aid with the controversial war funding measure has also complicated its passage.
RELATED: House OKs disaster aid plan despite veto threat
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/3
Mother Nature kind to farmers, but farmers say legislators weren't.
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070514/NEWS/105130150
It's a good thing Mother Nature showed some kindness early this spring because Colorado legislators didn't. That's the feeling of most northern Colorado farmers faced with their irrigation well being shut down, and some of those battles are tied up in a court action that won't be decided soon enough to do any good this year. Others are restricted in the amount of water they will be able to pump to grow their crops this season. David Dechant, who farms between Fort Lupton and Hudson, said he is keeping his fingers crossed that he'll have enough surface water to get through the growing season, but he also realizes he and his brother will have only enough water to get one cutting of alfalfa, instead of three or four, unless spring and summer rains help. He was among the individual farmers and farm organizations who called on Gov. Bill Ritter and the legislature to put a moratorium on the well shutdown last fall to allow those farmers more time to develop water replacement plans for or to directly address the shutdown of some 2,000-3,000 wells since 2002 along the South Platte River. Neither happened, although Ritter did appoint a study group to look at the problem, which does not help farmers needing to pump those wells this spring and summer.
RELATED: South Platte a ‘free river’ -- at least for now
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=16326
More water policy/rights news in COLORADO/ENVIRONMENT
Coffman eyes rules for staff
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5533876,00.html
Secretary of State Mike Coffman launched an internal review Friday of policies dealing with the moonlighting and outside political activities of employees within his department. Coffman said he plans to make it "crystal clear" what activities his workers can engage in outside the office and that the policy would include some of the toughest standards in the nation. Coffman demoted an elections worker and longtime political ally this week who operated a side business selling voter information for mainly Republican interests. The worker, Dan Kopelman, was reassigned from election operations to a job where he will not have access to voter data. His $85,000 annual salary was cut by $9,240.
RELATED: Coffman to eye employee policies
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5874061
Election
Dean: 1-way campaigns days over
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5532183,00.html
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Thursday the days of the $60 million political convention coronations are numbered and he's studying ways to make them more relevant to average people. Dean said politicians need to find more ways to connect with voters, going door to door, instead of depending on television to deliver their messages. He said next year's convention in Denver will be different.
WOPBURGER, WOPBURGER, WOPBURGER - NO COKE, PEPSI (Extra!, May 14)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535908,00.html
"I think they should have hung in there. It's just giving in to the politically correct crowd, that's all it is." Rep. Tom Tancredo, commenting on Louisville's Blue Parrot caving in to pressure to change the name of its famous wopburger. The restaurant says it will offer the menu item under the name Italian burger instead.
RELATED: Tancredo plays name aim in Iowa
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533966,00.html
RELATED: Burger's name stirs a beef
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/14/serving-up-political-correctness-burgers-name-a/
Owners: Bid for Congress won't slow firm's efforts
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/13/5_13_8b_Maxtera.html
A congressional bid by the president of a prominent Utah advertising and media consulting company will not derail any of the firm’s involvement in Western Slope political campaigns, the business’ owners said this week. Jason Chaffetz, president of Maxtera, an Alpine, Utah-based media-consulting firm, said his bid for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District seat should not affect his former firm’s activities in Colorado. Chaffetz, a former chief of staff and campaign manager for Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., filed paperwork for an exploratory committee earlier this year. “It was by and large my brother Alex (Chaffetz) that ran the operations there in Colorado,” Chaffetz said. “And with the prospect of my running, I’ve personally separated myself from that operation.” According to Colorado campaign-finance filings, Western Slope candidates including Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, and Bob Caskey, have paid the company nearly $106,000 since 2003.
Douglas County taps teens as election judges
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533497,00.html
Douglas County will use high school students as election judges in next year's presidential election to help avoid a disaster like the one the county suffered in 2006. County officials made the announcement Friday. Secretary of State Mike Coffman praised the idea. "I'm really excited to see the results of this and I really think this is a model for the rest of the state," he said. Coffman said the law allows 16-year-olds to work as election judges under adult supervision, but it's rare to have teens giving adults voting directions.
Dem faces uphill slog to county commission
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/13/5_13_Democrat_commissioners.html
Democrat and School District 51 Board member Dan Robinson said he has had his eye on joining the Mesa County Board of Commissioners for some time, but according to former commissioners and the board’s roster since the late 1960s, he likely will experience an uphill battle to get there. Former Democratic county commissioners said the 63-year-old former prosecutor and current youth correctional facility director needs to start early and build a base of support to overcome the county’s predisposition toward electing Republicans. Since the late 1960s, five of the county’s 22 county commissioners have been Democrats, according to county records. Of those five, only one — Doralyn Genova — has succeeded in remaining on the commission for more than a single term.
Council candidate insists she lives in Aspen
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070514/NEWS/105140057/-1/news
City Council candidate Toni Kronberg's constant presence at a neighborhood on the outskirts of Aspen has cast doubt on whether she lives within city limits, a requirement to run for city office. Several residents at Aspen Village, outside the city limits, say Kronberg makes her home there, but the City Council candidate claims it's where she keeps an office. She has rented the basement of Ken Bartle's home for a few months and uses it primarily as an office and for storage.
Bond-issue wishes swell
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5878117
A year-long effort that identified more than $540 million in infrastructure improvements does not include nearly $90 million worth of work on the [Denver] City Council's wish list. And council members believe many projects from that list will be needed to entice voters to approve a tax increase in November. Councilman Charlie Brown noted that for all the planning and discussion of new funding mechanisms, voters will have the same questions they always have: "What's in it for me and what's in it for my wallet?" Brown said.
Effective and Ethical Government
Capitol newcomers showed no hesitation in getting in the game
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5535711,00.html
The largest freshman class since statehood set off alarms that the 2007 session might be a little rocky, but instead it finished a record five days early. Capitol veterans described the new lawmakers as bright and bold. "The term freshman may be a little misleading because a lot of freshmen bring experience," said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. "The joke at the Capitol is it takes the first two years to find the bathroom, but this freshman class - on both sides of the aisle - plunged in." Nearly one-third, or 33, of the 100 lawmakers were freshmen. In the Senate, nine of the 35 lawmakers were freshman, although three of the newcomers had served in the House. Of the 65 House members, 24 were rookies.
RELATED: 2007 Legislature: Bipartisan and green
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105120143
RELATED: Lawmakers still plan on working after session wraps up
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105120146
RELATED: Final Business
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?id=6946
Mothers and political leaders: a rare combination in northern Colorado
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105120139
Read a roster of northern Colorado elected leaders, and it sounds like it could be the field at The Masters. Female names are almost nonexistent. Women have plenty of things to worry about aside from local government and politics, and they often don't have time to spare for town board meetings or a four-month stint at the state Capitol. A few area mothers are notable exceptions, however. The most notable is U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. Another woman in office, former state Rep. Angie Paccione, fought Musgrave for her seat in last year's election. But for the most part, women are not widely represented in local government.
Tax theft suspect caught on security tape
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533432,00.html
A key suspect in the $10 million state tax agency theft was caught on a surveillance camera last month at a Lone Tree FedEx Kinkos arranging to transfer $710,000 to an Ohio bank. The man on the surveillance tape, Hysear Don Randell, a self-described "multimillionaire" hip-hop and sports entertainment entrepreneur, has been arrested. So has his girlfriend, Michelle Cawthra, a supervisor at the state Department of Revenue accused of funneling bogus tax refunds to Randell's bank accounts for more than a year.
Accused fire chief abruptly resigns
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533885,00.html
Aurora Fire Chief Casey Jones retired abruptly Friday, cutting short an investigation into allegations he had an affair with his legal adviser and golfed on city time. Jones, who has led the 300-member department since 2002, was put on administrative leave April 27, a month after the allegations surfaced online. In a personal blog, Aurora Assistant City Attorney Rob Werking accused the married man of having an affair with Werking's estranged wife, Julie, who was the fire department's legal adviser. Rob Werking also accused the chief of playing golf on city time and abusing city resources.
RELATED: Facing probe, Aurora's fire chief retires
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5879046
Wheat Ridge councilman accused of making harassing phone call
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533496,00.html
A Wheat Ridge city councilman faces harassment charges for calling another council member's employer to complain about her work, the Jefferson County district attorney's office said Friday. Councilman Terry Womble used a fake name when he called Councilwoman Karen Berry's supervisor at the Colorado Geological Survey, said Pam Russell, spokeswoman for the district attorney. The caller, who identified himself as Tom Baldy, left a voice message for Berry's supervisor, state geologist Vince Matthews. In the message he said he had tried to call Berry for three months, but she didn't return calls.
Home values worth a fight
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5883237
This year, assessors along the Front Range are bracing for a big jump in appeals from property owners. That's because most home appraisals are rising in the notices homeowners receive, even as a well-publicized real estate slump saps sales and prices. "We have a basically eight-month period right now where sales may have dropped. These are not reflected in the values we are giving you," said Doug Kamery, president of the Colorado Assessors' Association. Assessors across the state mailed out statements updating home values this month. Homeowners have until June 1 to challenge these valuations.
RELATED: Options abound to contest valuation
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5883255
RELATED: SLV property tax values released
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/18
Civil Liberties and Equality
Hot job, cool hires
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889339
Capt. Kevin Duncan smiled broadly as he eyed two of the Denver Fire Department's newest firefighters. "I'm so proud of these men, let me tell you," Duncan said outside his firehouse, Station No. 10, in northeast Denver. Kendry Jackson and La Don Williams are the first African- American firefighters hired by the city in the past seven years. Duncan, a 25-year department veteran, serves as president of the Colorado Black Professional Fire Fighters. He acted as a mentor for the two rookies, known throughout the ranks as "probies." The pair are among 21 Denver firefighters who graduated from the academy this month.
On special day, mothers act up
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535796,00.html
Margrith Muhlheim told her family to skip the flowers and candy for Mother's Day. Instead, she wanted to march with her daughter and granddaughter in Boulder for better neighborhoods and access to quality education for children, not only in Colorado but across the globe. Muhlheim, 78, said she wants her 13-year-old granddaughter, Margrith Mooney, to grow up in a safe neighborhood where people look after each other, like the neighborhood where she grew up. "People now don't help each other. Everybody is closed and just wants to keep to themselves. That's not good for the community," she said. "Coming here can hopefully make a little difference." On Sunday, Muhlheim was among the many in Colorado and across the country who spent Mother's Day advocating on behalf of the world's children by raising awareness of social injustices as part of a Boulder- based group called Mothers Acting Up.
Immigration
Arrested Dec. 12, some workers remain in custody
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533879,00.html
Fifteen to 20 workers arrested Dec. 12 at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley remain in custody at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora, said Christina Fiflis, a Boulder immigration attorney who has represented scores of Swift workers. Most of the workers have been deported. Five are serving, or have completed, sentences for having false identifications.
RELATED: Impact of Swift raid still being felt
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533884,00.html
RELATED: Swift rehires workers, but still in the red from raids
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070512/NEWS/105110101
RELATED: Swift fills jobs lost in raid
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5874427
City mulls immigration statement
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/14/local-city-mulls-immigration-statement/
A group of Lafayette residents is asking the City Council to proclaim support for local immigrants and comprehensive immigration reform at the national level. On May 1, eight people presented a proclamation concerning immigration and asked that it be considered at the council's meeting this week. The document has since undergone major changes and is less controversial, but it's still raising questions about whether local elected officials should tackle the hot-button issue. It's on the council's agenda for Tuesday. "I don't believe that we're elected to do this. I think the voters want us to focus on the city of Lafayette," said City Councilman Kerry Bensman. "In the end, it doesn't mean anything — it's window dressing." Bensman said he's concerned that passing a proclamation that shows support for immigrants could create backlash, and that some residents told him they think it would send a message that Lafayette is a safe haven for illegal aliens. There is no scheduled public hearing for proclamations, and Bensman said that is also a concern.
Immigrant marchers see little progress
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070513/NEWS/70511030
Immigrants who took to the streets of Eagle County en masse last May to push for greater rights say not much has changed in the last year. “The only think I’ve seen that’s happened is they stepped up their enforcement,” said Alonso Varela, referring to raids such as the one at the Swift and Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley in December. Varela is an Eagle-Vail resident who helped organize local marches last year. Thousands of immigrants marched from Avon to Edwards last May 1. The demonstrations coincided with marches across the nation.
Marriage and Family Issues
Foster care offers safe, loving homes
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070512/NEWS/105120052
During the first 10 days of the month, Terese Keil is on call to offer a temporary, safe loving home for a child in need. She is one of the three foster care families in Summit County - and more are needed. "Some of the kids are so precious you hate to see them go," she said, adding that the recent 15-month-old she took in for a day was one of them. Keil, a single mom with a teenager, got involved with the program 10 years ago after hearing about the need. And through being a foster parent, "I think I've learned a little bit of everything," she said.
Health Care and Public Safety
Amtrak train evacuated after bomb threat
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889049
An Amtrak train carrying nearly 140 passengers was evacuated near Denver after a passenger threatened the crew and others onboard, claiming he had a weapon and bomb, an Amtrak spokeswoman said early Monday. Police met the California Zephyr train about 22 miles west of Denver late Sunday after the crew alerted authorities about the unidentified passenger's threats, Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said. Authorities detained the man for questioning and did a sweep of the baggage car and the passenger car where he was sitting. The man was carrying a knife, and a bomb-sniffing dog focused on his bag, Romero said.
Health care forum focuses on costs
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179032400/3
Members of the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform got a healthy dose of input Saturday at a Pueblo public forum. Of the 30-plus citizens that attended the morning meeting at the Pueblo Convention Center, a good number expressed health care concerns about mental health services; diabetes, prevention and wellness programs; lack of medical professionals; medical insurance coverage; and more. The purpose of the Blue Ribbon Commission, formed by the state legislature in 2006, is to field Coloradans' concerns and make recommendations for comprehensive health care reform.
RELATED: [Durango] Residents offer health-care solutions
Time major health obstacle for minorities
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/13/5_13_7A_minority_health_issues.html
Time taken to see a doctor is time away from work, and that’s time some minorities in Grand Junction don’t think they can afford. And the No. 1 time-waster often is travel, as people who don’t have vehicles or licenses have to rely on public transportation, which may be inexpensive but isn’t time-efficient. “The transportation issue is really in crisis mode here in the valley,” Teresa Coons, a research scientist and a member of the Grand Junction City Council, said Friday during a four-hour meeting with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Minority Health Care and Advisory Commission. The meeting was held to get a sense of the health care issues minorities face in Mesa County.
Minorities fighting HIV odds
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889743
While the rates of HIV and AIDS infections among whites have decreased since the epidemic began, the rate of infection in communities of color continues to climb. Lack of awareness about HIV infection, denial about risky behaviors, homophobia, substance abuse and lack of health care contribute to higher rates among Latinos and African-Americans, health department officials say. "We have noted that people of color wait to be tested longer than other people do," said Bob Bongiovanni, who oversees HIV/AIDS programs for the state Department of Health. "It's built into the larger issue of being shut out of health care much more than other people."
RELATED: Nonprofits, congregations address the spiritual side of HIV/AIDS
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=16310
RELATED: Woman shares story of her father’s AIDS battle and promise to God
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=16311
Insurance low priority for most grads: Youth less worried about health care
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105120141
People aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to be uninsured in the state, making up 31.5 percent of all uninsured Coloradans, according to information collected by the Urban Institute used in the Healthy Colorado 2010 report. Nationally, in the same age group, 31.4 percent of people are uninsured, according to insurance statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. The next older age group didn't fair much better; among 25- to 34-year-olds 25.9 percent of their population is uninsured.
5 Questions for Julie Shaw, executive director of the Urgent Action Fund
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/14/5-questions-for-julie-shaw-executive-director-of/
The Urgent Action Fund, as its name suggests, moves quickly to help women in situations that could be life-threatening. The Boulder-based fund gives out more than $1.5 million in grants yearly to help women who are doing human rights work in high-risk areas.
City Council to hear update on flood
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179154927/8
The Pueblo City Council will get an update tonight from City Manager David Galli on last week's Fountain Creek flood. The update is scheduled for council's regular meeting, prior to the public forum. City Council president Judy Weaver said she asked Galli to provide an update on the creek last week, days after the creek overwhelmed a railroad embankment and flooded a small neighborhood north of the Pueblo Mall.
RELATED: Committee discusses ‘meandering’ Fountain
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/2
GarCo gears up for meth battle
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/14/5_14_GarCo_meth.html
Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cheney heads up the task force and called last fall’s gunshot wounding of Colorado State Patrol Trooper Brian Koch by meth user Steven Appl outside Rifle “a voice in the wilderness. That really showed us that meth is here.” Koch said his ordeal “woke up a sleeping community that this scourge is out there.” Koch, a trained drug recognition expert, said he was “quite certain” Appl was on meth at the time. Cheney said the task force was formed in hopes Garfield County can avoid the crisis that has hit Mesa County. Mesa State College Professor of Criminal Justice and Political Science Michael Gizzi heads the Western Colorado Methamphetamine Research Center at the college. His students reviewed 244 felony drug case files from 2003 to this year at the Garfield County courthouse.
License suspended for wilderness youth camp
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/12/5_12_1A_dead_boy_folo.html
The Colorado Department of Human Services determined a 15-year-old boy who died in a wilderness camp for troubled youths showed “observable signs of infection” and suspended the group’s license this week. Caleb Jensen of Salt Lake City died of a serious bacterial infection, according to the results of an autopsy by the Mesa County Coroner’s Office. Initial reports by the coroner’s office indicated the boy had died of natural causes. Human Services spokeswoman Liz McDonough said all 26 Colorado youths enrolled in the outdoor-based Alternative Youth Adventures program have been placed in other facilities.
Residents asked to report dead animals
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070512/NEWS/105120133
Weld County residents are asked to report dead squirrels, prairie dogs, other rodents, rabbits and birds by calling the CO-HELP hotline at 1-877-462-2911. Reporting the dead animals can help give health officials an indication if plague is in the area, said Sara Evans, environmental health manager for the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment. Dead birds can also be an indication of Avian Flu. Plague was recently found in dead squirrels in metro Denver and is commonly found in rodents in rural Colorado. No confirmed cases have been found in Weld County this year.
Pets' allies tackle legal hurdle
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889745
More than 100 people in Colorado have committed to join a class-action lawsuit against the maker of pet food that was tainted and led to the deaths of pets nationwide. Denver lawyer Jennifer Thomaidis, who filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Denver last month, said she has received about 200 inquiries from Coloradans whose pets have either died or suffered permanent damage from the tainted pet food. She said she is seeking $5 million in damages, which would be an unprecedented award anywhere. Most laws, including those in Colorado, consider pets property, meaning owners may not be entitled to damages for emotional pain and suffering.
Liquor grows in Vail's weeds
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535602,00.html
The plant that produces absinthe, the subject of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh and a favorite of Mark Twain, grows like a weed in this resort. Traditional absinthe is banned in the U.S. because it contains the chemical thujone, a purported hallucinogen. "We sure do have it in . . . Vail, and we have a lot of it," Gregg Barrie, who directs the town's weed program, said of the plant nicknamed "Green Fairy." Recent studies indicate the modern-day absinthe liquor contains little thujone, whose hallucinogenic effects remain in dispute. Absinthe's biggest health threat appears to be alcoholism.
Crime and Penal Reform
Woman freed in cop killing speaks for juveniles in prison
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535931,00.html
On May 14, 2001, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson staged a rally on the state Capitol steps to call for freedom for convicted cop killer Lisl Auman. Notables such as rocker Warren Zevon were there, too. On Sunday - a day short of six years later - a happy-looking Auman stood on those same steps a free woman. "Lisl would not be out and none of this would have happened without Hunter S. Thompson," said Mary Ellen Johnson of the Pendulum Foundation. "We never want to forget that." The Pendulum Foundation, a nonprofit organization established to oppose the trend of juveniles being sentenced as adults, organized this year's rally not only to commemorate Thompson but to remember the "forgotten 45" - the 45 people sentenced as juveniles to life without parole in Colorado. Organizers, who called for an examination of juvenile sentencing laws, released 45 red balloons - each one carrying the name of one of the "forgotten 45."
RELATED: Rally planned to focus attention on 45 teens with life sentences
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5882054
Officials divided on federal court expansion
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179154927/2
The top federal prosecutor in Colorado and the U.S. District Court judges are split over whether federal judges should be located permanently in Southern Colorado and other parts of the state. U.S. Attorney Troy Eid contends the limited use of federal court outside of Denver "is perhaps the single greatest impediment to ensuring that all Coloradans receive fair and equal access to the federal justice system." "If I paid federal taxes in Pueblo, I'd be upset about it," Eid said in a recent interview.
RELATED: DA: Pueblo should house federal court
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179154927/3
RELATED: Federal judge derides plan for [Durango] courthouse
1994 abuse trial spawned law used in charging pair
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5878430
A law used in charging the couple accused in the death of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner had its genesis in the 1993 death of 8-year-old Robert Spencer in Denver at the hands of his father. The law — first-degree murder of a child under 12 by a person in a position of trust — was enacted in 1995 by the Colorado legislature as a result of Robert's death. Prosecutors say it makes it easier to convict parents, guardians and babysitters of first-degree murder in especially bad cases of child abuse. The sentence carries a possible sentence of life in prison without parole. "It was just felt that first-degree murder and life in prison was more appropriate" for crimes like Robert Spencer's death, said Karen Steinhauser, a former Denver prosecutor who handled child-abuse cases.
Opinions mixed on guns on campus
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS01/705130347/1002/NEWS17
Police at the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Colorado say allowing concealed weapons on campus is more trouble than its worth, but Colorado State University is sticking to its policy that allows permit-holders to carry their guns. CSU doesn't allow guns in its dormitories, instead forcing students to store their weapons at the police department, but three years ago reaffirmed its concealed-carry policy. The university will review the policy because of the Virginia Tech shootings, though there's no timeline for the review.
Police honor standout personnel, citizens
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179032400/8
For "extraordinary heroism" and "courage," five Pueblo police officers were awarded the Medal of Valor Friday night at the 12th annual Police Memorial and Awards Banquet. In total, 38 awards were handed to 36 people at the banquet, held at the Pueblo Convention Center, where state Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D-Pueblo, was the keynote speaker.
El Paso deputy's firing revealed
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535947,00.html
An El Paso County sheriff's deputy has been fired after two internal affairs investigations in seven months, The (Colorado Springs) Gazette reported in Sunday editions. The dismissal of Shawn Moncalieri on March 6 was revealed during a court hearing for Edward Johnson, a burglary suspect whom Moncalieri said he shot when the suspect tried to run him over. Sheriff's officials denied that Moncalieri's departure was related to the shooting but would not say why Moncalieri left or discuss the internal investigations, the newspaper reported.
Calm follows storm in DA's office
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070514/NEWS/105140051/-1/news
Martin Beeson can take solace in the fact that the public isn't calling for his head. Beeson assumed the 9th Judicial District attorney's office in January 2006 after voters selected him and deposed Colleen Truden in a recall election. Beeson's tenure in office has been as calm as Truden's was rough. The staffing of the office has stabilized; there are no allegations of unprofessional management practices; complaints have been reduced to a few rumblings by defense attorneys.
A legal bind
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533863,00.html
The money Linville stole was enough to drain most of the funds from a Colorado program aimed at protecting unsuspecting clients from dishonest attorneys. Of the more than $1.3 million the fund reimbursed in 2006, almost all of it went to Linville's victims. Now, the Attorneys' Fund for Client Protection is struggling to cover the losses created by Linville and other crooked lawyers. "He was a catastrophic hit on the fund," said John Gleason, who heads the state Supreme Court's Attorney Regulation Counsel, an agency that investigates lawyer misconduct.
Officers cleared in two shootings
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533281,00.html
No criminal charges will be filed against two police officers who shot and wounded suspects in separate incidents, the Denver district attorney decided this week. One of the nonfatal shootings involved a Denver officer who answered a call with his partner Tuesday afternoon about a man at a downtown YMCA exhibiting bizarre behavior. It turned out that the man, John Balestrieri, was off his medications and had barricaded himself in a room. Officer John Akins shot Balestrieri, who allegedly had been wielding a knife once officers broke through the door. The other officer, Bill Challans, used his Taser on Balestrieri but reported that it didn't appear to be working. Akins said that the knife was inches from him at the time of the shooting.
Denver police shoot female suspect
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535388,00.html
A woman shot by a police officer responding to a report of felony menacing was in critical condition Saturday night, police said. Officers were investigating the report of menacing just before 9 p.m. when the suspect arrived with a knife, police spokesman John White said. She was shot once in the torso during a confrontation, White said.
RELATED: Woman shot by cops not believed to reside in area
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889376
More complaints on missing attorney
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533970,00.html
More people who believe they may have been victimized by missing Breckenridge lawyer Royal "Scoop" Daniel have surfaced, Assistant Breckenridge Police Chief Greg Morrison said Friday.
Economy
Jeffco envisions a Tech Center West
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889341
Development is poised for the last wide-open unprotected piece of Jefferson County - the Rooney Valley - and it promises to change the west side forever. Lakewood has begun building houses on its share of the 2,200-acre valley, which straddles C-470 as it sweeps south along the Dakota Hogback from Interstate 70 to Morrison Road. Commercial lease/sale signs have sprung up just weeks after Jefferson County rezoned 112 acres at the future West Alameda Parkway/C-470 interchange and created a special district to pay for infrastructure.
Asian casino plan looks to Colo.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5888848
Colorado businesses could help shape the development of a $10 million casino and resort project in Vietnam, one of a number of countries in Asia looking to expand their gambling operations. The chairman of a Vietnamese development company was in town last week to drum up potential partners for his project in Phan Rang, Vietnam, about 210 miles from Ho Chi Minh City. Thong Ngoc Huynh, founder and chairman of Paven Co. Ltd. in Ho Chi Minh City, met with local businesses such as Dye Designs, a golf course designer, RNL Designs, an architecture firm, and Western Union, the money-transfer giant. Huynh's visit was arranged by Kip Cheroutes, a local public relations veteran who is friends with an associate of Huynh's.
State places no money on table for gambling addicts
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889744
Larry, now a 41-year-old member of the recovery group Gamblers Anonymous, continued gambling hard for a decade more - from dog tracks to Powerball to Colorado's mountain casinos to Vegas to the Internet. He nearly lost everything, including his marriage, before confronting his problem. His ordeal offers a glimpse of the collateral damage from legalized gambling in a state that reaps hundreds of millions of dollars from the increasingly popular pastime. But Colorado, which approved a lottery in 1982 and opened the doors to limited-stakes gambling eight years later, remains among a handful of states that don't dedicate public money to address problem gambling. "People can convincingly argue that gambling is a nice, fun thing for most people to do - that's OK," says J. Michael Fara gher of the Problem Gambling Treatment and Research Center at the University of Denver. "What isn't OK is to ignore the destruction in its wake. Our state is not putting back anything toward the solution to the problems, and a certain percentage of lives are destroyed."
Housing and Homelessness
City’s median home price dips slightly
The median price for an in-town Durango home slipped in the first quarter to $388,250, according to statistics released Friday by the Durango Area Association of Realtors. That's down 1 percent from the first quarter of 2006. The median price of all homes sold in La Plata County also dropped slightly, from $345,000 to $328,000. The figures apply only to homes sold by real-estate agents. Homes that have been listed but not sold or sales that have not closed are not included, and neither are homes sold by their owners. The statistics cover Jan. 1 to March 31.
Media
Qwest to accelerate cable franchise talks
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5533390,00.html
Qwest Communications said it plans to accelerate cable-TV franchise negotiations with municipalities, perhaps even putting some on a 90-day clock this year. The Denver telco's bid for a statewide franchise met a quick death in the state legislature this year, but Qwest could get more leverage in the wake of a federal order designed to stimulate competition. Comcast is the sole cable-TV provider in many metro-area communities. The Federal Communications Commission order prevents municipalities from imposing "unreasonable" buildout requirements. It also would require a municipality to approve or reject a formal video franchise application within 90 days, although that part of the order won't take effect until July at the earliest.
Education
4 questions for state higher-education director David Skaggs
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5533498,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter named former U.S. Rep. David Skaggs to head the Colorado Department of Higher Education at a time when the state's colleges and universities are in financial distress. Ritter and Skaggs will host a higher education "summit meeting" June 8-9 in Colorado Springs to discuss how to increase funding. They will be joined by college officials and lawmakers.
State may not raise bar for college
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5533495,00.html
The state higher-education department may back away from college admission requirements opposed by many public school officials. Two of the more controversial requirements - a fourth year of math and two years of a foreign language - probably will be eliminated in revised admission standards being drafted now, state higher education director David Skaggs said Friday. The revised standards will go before the Colorado Commission on Higher Education at a special meeting July 10, Skaggs said. Any change must be approved by the panel.
Gov. Ritter stresses honesty, integrity to CU law school grads
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/12/gov-ritter-stresses-honesty-integrity-to-cu-law/
Gov. Bill Ritter urged more than 150 University of Colorado law graduates Friday to enter their professions with "uncompromising integrity." "To paraphrase Mark Twain, do the right thing," said Ritter, an alumnus of the law school, in delivering a commencement speech. "You will gratify some and surprise the rest."
Success isn't a clear course, golfer Irwin tells CU grads
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5533280,00.html
PGA legend Hale Irwin kept golf tips to himself Friday as commencement speaker at the University of Colorado. But he more than filled the bill as a success story. A 1967 CU graduate and star athlete, Irwin entered the job market swinging a club at a pockmarked ball, and has won more than $23 million during his career. "Having been where you are now, I was definitely looking at an uncertain future," he told thousands of graduates at Folsom Field in Boulder. "There was no defined path that had my name on it, no concise direction on how to move forward."
RELATED: Grads sing, decorate outfits for ceremony
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/12/cu-celebration-grads-sing-decorate-outfits-for/
RELATED: High security for CU ceremonies
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5873208
To Mom and alma mater
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5535910,00.html
LeBlanc was among a record 1,380 students who graduated from Metro State on Sunday, a 13.5 percent increase over last spring's total. Commencement speaker Gov. Bill Ritter congratulated the students, noting that many were working jobs and/or raising children while pursuing degrees. Ritter also noted the diversity of the Class of 2007, which included about 19 percent minority students and whose ages ranged from 20 to 65. "You are America, you really are," Ritter told graduates and the standing-room-only crowd lining the walls of the Colorado Convention Center. "You represent the face of America. You represent the promise of America."
RELATED: Bittersweet degree at Metro State
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889337
RELATED: Indomitable mom
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5883246
Author urges Naropa grads to extend compassion to all
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889767
Author Alice Walker urged compassion, even for the most reviled acts, at a commencement ceremony Saturday for about 350 students at the Buddhist-inspired Naropa University. "Compassion does not stop at right and wrong," Walker said at Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado campus. She mentioned the shootings at Virginia Tech and also said dictators like Adolf Hitler deserve the "human expression of warmth" that compassion extends. Without that compassion, she said, "How are we ever to see these same shadowy parts of ourselves and do the real work of change?"
RELATED: Alice Walker addresses Naropa
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/13/alice-walker-addresses-naropa/
Salazar urges ASC graduates to help others
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179032400/9
The 110 graduates who received their diplomas during the commencement for Trinidad State Junior College-Valley Campus heard the importance of a commitment to service. U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colorado, told the graduates to use their degrees as a tool to help themselves and others during a 15-minute commencement speech Saturday on the Adams State College campus.
Thousands graduate from UNC, Aims
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105120148
Graduates from Aims Community College and the University of the Northern Colorado couldn't have asked for a better to day celebrate commencement exercises with temperatures that reached in the upper 80s. As graduates from UNC collected their diplomas, family and friends laid out on the lawn at Nottingham Field on campus to cheer them on.
RELATED: Students leave behind lots of trash, some valuable items, when they leave UNC
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070514/NEWS/105130152
CMC begins the search for a new president
http://postindependent.com/article/20070512/VALLEYNEWS/105120046
Colorado Mountain College is looking for a new college president. Dr. Robert Spuhler's contract expires June 30, 2008. He plans to retire at that time. The Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees unanimously approved Monday the decision to start a national search for a new college president.
District and teachers head for mediation -- again
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070512/NEWS/105120118
Greeley-Evans School District 6 teachers want a pay raise of about 5 percent on top of their standard salary steps, but district officials say they can offer 1.45 percent above the steps and other expenses. The result is an impasse after six negotiation sessions that began in March. Talks ended after 12 hours on Thursday when representatives of the Greeley Education Association, the teachers union, broke them off.
Parents, students protest Belmont principal's move
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/7
Shouting “One more year!” more than 120 students from Belmont Elementary School and a few parents marched around the campus Friday morning to protest the transfer of their principal, Jose Duarte. At Tuesday’s Pueblo City Schools Board of Education meeting, the board approved a number of new appointments and transfers for the next school year, including moving Duarte to the principal’s job across town at Irving Elementary School.
Lewis-Palmer struggles with growth
http://www.gazette.com/articles/school_22363___article.html/board_district.html
Lewis-Palmer School District 38 is a kind of family, some say. After all, people move to this affluent area north of Colorado Springs for good schools and small-town living. That has meant informal business and uneventful elections. Perhaps because it’s easiest to give cash to kin, this close-knit school system never had a problem getting voters to approve new taxes.
Education Fund Board gifts $3 million
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/may/14/education_fund_board_gifts_3_million/?local_news
The Education Fund Board has approved the gifting of more than $3 million to help the Steamboat Springs School District preserve small-class size and to revamp its aging technology system.
Exclusive charter authority denied
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070512/NEWS01/705120344/1002/NEWS17
Poudre School District Board of Education lost yet another battle in its three-year fight to gain sole control over the formation of new charter schools within district boundaries. By a 5-1 vote, the Colorado State Board of Education on Thursday denied PSD's request for "exclusive chartering authority" thereby continuing the ability of charter school applicants to bypass the PSD Board instead opting to apply through the state's Charter School Institute.
33-year teacher gave her pupils a healthy space
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5535710,00.html
Nancy Peterson never had any children of her own - just 700 or so of other people's. For 33 years, first- and second- graders at Highland Elementary School have come and gone and come back again - and again and again - to see Mrs. Peterson. They return to ask her advice, to invite her to their graduations and weddings, to show off their new babies. They come back because Peterson was that once-in-a-lifetime teacher who made a once-in-a- lifetime difference. On Tuesday, some of them will come see Peterson again - maybe for the last time - at her retirement party. "I've had a career that I really love to get up in the morning and come to," says Peterson, 54.
Few BHS students stay home for safety
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/12/security-scare-few-bhs-students-stay-home-for/
One day after police barricaded Boulder High School and armed SWAT teams scoured the building for two suspicious "kids" — one of whom was seen in camouflage and a ski mask — most students were back in class.
Police: Racial threat aimed [at] 'whites'
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070512/NEWS/105120059/-1/news
A racially directed threat scrawled on a portable bathroom wall at the Aspen Middle School construction site this week was directed at Anglos - not Latinos - authorities said Friday. And, authorities emphasized, there have been no threats of bombings or other violence directed against local schools or the Latino community as a whole, although there is evidence of rumors sweeping through Latino neighborhoods in response to the school closures. Sheriff Bob Braudis, paraphrasing in order to not give away investigative secrets, said the message read "something like, 'at 8:46 a.m. I'm going to start shooting whites.'"
High school teacher arrested after brawl
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/12/5_12_1b_teacher.html
School District 51 is working with police in investigating allegations that a Grand Junction High School business teacher assaulted a man and yelled racial slurs at him during a bar brawl in late April.
Military
Carson soldier killed in Iraq
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533967,00.html
A Fort Carson soldier died from wounds he suffered this week in Iraq, the Department of Defense said Friday. Pfc. Roy L. Jones III, 21, of Houston, died Thursday of wounds from small-arms fire, defense officials said. Jones was hit by gunfire in Diwaniyah, which is about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Jones was assigned to the 984th Military Police Company, the 759th Military Police Battalion at Fort Carson, the defense department said. At least 201 soldiers from Fort Carson have died since the war began in March 2003.
2008 defense bill spells out projects
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/19
The House Armed Services Committee approved a 2008 Defense Department authorization bill last week that spells out a list of projects for Fort Carson, the Pueblo Chemical Depot and even the new Air Force flight screening program at Pueblo Memorial Airport. Rep. Mark Udall, a Democrat and the only Colorado lawmaker on the House panel, added specific language to the bill that urges the Army to continue its demilitarization work at the Pueblo depot, including disposing of all waste by-products on site. Specifically, the bill authorizes $35 million to continue the work on building a demilitarization plant.
The War at Home: Part 1 of a three-part series
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105130059
"You have volunteered to be on the pointy end of the spear. You have volunteered not just to go into harm's way, but you have volunteered to live in harm's way." Tim Gurule gets emotional when he reads those words, taken from a speech by retired Brigadier Gen. Mark Brennan, given at U.S. Army Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP) graduation earlier this year. Gurule was there - proudly so - to watch his son, Timothy, take another step toward joining the world's most elite fighting force, the Rangers. Remembering the powerful speech, Tim's voice cracks with emotion.
12 cadets commissioned as second lieutenants
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/13/rotc-graduates-12-cadets-commissioned-as-second/
Friday was a special day for Army ROTC cadets at Colorado State University.
RELATED: Five [Pueblo] County JROTC cadets awarded scholarships
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/15
NORAD move hits a snag
http://www.gazette.com/articles/committee_22289___article.html/move_gao.html
A House committee wants to halt moving homeland defense agencies out of Cheyenne Mountain until questions about cost savings and security have been answered. The U.S. House Armed Services Committee attached a provision to the $504 billion defense authorization bill it approved Wednesday that would give the committee power over whether to vacate the nation’s most fortified military installation.
Army daughter helps Carson kids cope
http://www.gazette.com/articles/army_22362___article.html/helps_stories.html
Jo Jo Nemec knows what it’s like to be a scared kid. Her dad’s Army career kept the family on the move. She worried about him during his deployments. She wondered why he always had to leave. Now, she helps other children cope with the fear and confusion of war. “They take it in a different way than the wives or husbands of soldiers,” she said. “I’ve been there and can relate.” She also benefits from the weekly Sunday school lessons she teaches to children of Fort Carson soldiers. “It is good for me to share with them what I was going through.”
Defense secretary tickets fail to take off for academy
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/12/defense-secretary-tickets-fail-to-take-off-for/
Only about 100 people have picked up free tickets so far to see Defense Secretary Robert Gates speak at the Air Force Academy graduation on May 30. The tickets have been available for more than a week at the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. When presidents are invited as graduation speakers, all available tickets are gone within hours.
Motorcyclists to honor vets, active troops
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179154927/5
The American Legion Riders will honor America's fallen soldiers and those still fighting in harm's way on Armed Forces Day, which is Saturday. The third annual ceremony will start with a 12:30 p.m. motorcycle run through Pueblo to the Vietnam Memorial, 26th and Elizabeth streets, where a wreath-laying service and ceremony are scheduled for 1 p.m. Motorcyclists are asked to meet at noon at the Pueblo Convention Center.
Handling a fall from space
http://www.gazette.com/articles/work_22360___article.html/academy_oravetz.html
Research by cadets at the Air Force Academy this year has helped NASA learn how its planned Orion manned space capsule will handle the fall from space.
Religion
Diocese says rector had shredding frenzy
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535600,00.html
As the Episcopal Diocese closed in on alleged financial wrongdoings, the Rev. Don Armstrong shredded documents and records so furiously that a shredder broke down, according to one of the accusations made in a countersuit filed last week in El Paso County District Court. With the lawsuit, the diocese formally entered the fray to regain control of the historic Grace Church and St. Stephen's parish in Colorado Springs. The property is currently under the control of Armstrong, its rector of 20 years, and a majority of the church's governing board. In March, they voted with Armstrong to break from the Episcopal Church, which they believe has strayed far from its Christian roots in matters of sexuality and scriptural authority.
RELATED: Episcopal Diocese enters battle over parish property
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533762,00.html
Energy Policy
Uranium worries in Weld County
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535876,00.html
When the letters arrived in the mail last fall, they came as the oddest kind of surprise to the horse-and-livestock types in the wide-open country of western Weld County. They announced that a company called Powertech (USA) Inc. owned mineral rights under more than 5,700 acres - including the properties of those receiving the notice - and planned to begin mining uranium in the area. When Daryl Burkhart received his letter in October, he was unimpressed. "Yeah, OK," he said, and forgot about it. But the uranium miners didn't forget about him. "This fellow drove into our yard around Christmas. He was telling me they're out here, they're going to be considering drilling for uranium," Burkhart recalled. "That's when I knew this was probably going to be happening." In the months since, opponents of the proposal have banded together to fight what they see as a threat to their water by a company using a technology that has created contamination problems elsewhere.
Enviros accused of 'backdoor approach' to saving Roan
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/12/5_12_1A_Roan_Plateau.html
A final decision on whether the Roan Plateau may be leased for natural gas development is imminent, and five environmental groups and the mayors of four Garfield County towns want Congress to act now to stop it. The groups asked Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., in March to try to insert language in an appropriations bill that would prevent the U.S. Department of the Interior from spending money on leasing the Roan Plateau for energy development. The mayors of Rifle, Glenwood Springs, New Castle and Carbondale sent a letter to Salazar May 7 imploring him to “act quickly” to stop potential leasing there. The Bureau of Land Management issued a final plan last year that opened the Roan to restricted energy development. Agency spokeswoman Jaime Gardner said a final decision on the plan could come anytime now. “We wanted to get a timeout here, some breathing space,” said Ken Neubecker, Vice President of Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Chapter.
Colorado not banking on extended review of oil shale plan
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5874438
Despite a lobbying trip to Washington, state officials aren't optimistic they'll get more time to study a federal plan for wide-scale oil shale development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal had asked the Interior Department for more than two weeks to evaluate the federal plan. That period was set aside for certain agencies before the plan is made public. Colorado state officials lobbied the Interior Department on Monday and Tuesday to support Ritter and Freudenthal's written requests. "We weren't given a lot of reason to be hopeful," Mike King, deputy director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said Friday.
One in a Vermillion
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/may/13/one_vermillion/?local_news
“Even though the current Resource Management Plan says it’s open, it’s been placed temporarily off-limits to leasing, pending the resolution of this planning process,” said John Husband, BLM field manager of the Little Snake Field Office in Craig. But the oil and gas boom in southern Wyoming and eastern Utah only puts increased pressure on the basin lands. Last year, Vermillion Basin was placed on the Wilderness Society’s national “Too Wild to Drill” list with 17 other areas. Schafer and Lee-Ann Hill, the CEC’s West Slope wilderness organizer, had secured permission in advance from the Colorado State Land Board to take a small group into Vermillion Canyon for a guided hike Wednesday. The canyon is surrounded on all sides by BLM land, but public access is restricted to the steepest one-mile section of the canyon, which contains at least eight petroglyph panels.
Hogback protections proposed for acreage leased for drilling
http://postindependent.com/article/20070514/VALLEYNEWS/105140037
A push to provide special protections to Bureau of Land Management acreage in the region mostly likely will have to be balanced against energy development interests in the case of an area north of Rifle. Environmental groups have proposed that the BLM create a 12,340-acre Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) on the Grand Hogback from Rifle Gap to Piceance Creek Road in Garfield County. The area is one of several the groups are proposing for protection in the region, with other local ones including the Thompson Creek area south of Carbondale and Deep Creek east of Glenwood Springs.
Xcel may build first U.S. plant to store emissions in ground
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5878309
Xcel Energy could break ground by 2010 on the nation's first power plant that converts coal to gas and captures carbon emissions for underground storage. In proposing that time frame, Xcel chief executive Dick Kelly said Friday that the utility hasn't decided to proceed with a plant, which would take five years to complete. Xcel is moving ahead with feasibility studies and negotiations with potential partners, Kelly said. Two other power plants in the U.S. successfully use coal-gasification technology, but Xcel's proposal would be the first to capture produced carbon and bury it in a process known as sequestration.
Xcel works to limit summer outages
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5533203,00.html
Xcel Energy plans to spend $28 million to keep power up and running during peak electricity use this summer. The bulk of the work will involve replacing more than 70 miles of underground and overhead power lines, said Tom Henley, a spokesman for Xcel. Most of the work should be done by June. Xcel's peak demand forecast for Colorado this summer is 6,870 megawatts, higher than the historical peak of 6,785 megawatts in July 2005. This summer's higher estimate accounts for the growing population along the Front Range and increasing demand for electricity. One megawatt serves the needs of about 1,000 households.
How much will you pay for gas?
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS01/705140324/1002
Gas prices have reached an all-time high and Coloradans are paying an average of $3.126 a gallon, according to AAA, but there are some simple things people can do to help keep those costs down. "The main thing we encourage is to take care of routine car maintenance," said Eric Escudero, manager of public relations and public affairs for Colorado AAA.
RELATED: Gas prices up; city funds down
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178946000/1
RELATED: Gas prices keep up steady climb
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/12/5_12_1b_Gas_Prices.html
RELATED: Gas prices soar
Private resort promises dark skies
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070512/NEWS/70511024
Fred Haslee appreciates that the company that wants to build a private ski resort south of town will try to avoid light pollution and maintain the area’s dark skies. Haslee laments that he sees bright lights shining from Vail’s Adventure Ridge — where tubing, snow biking and other activities take place — toward his home on winter nights, and he hopes the Ginn Development Co. will avoid using similar bright lights, he said. Ginn has pledged to maintain the quality of the area’s night sky if it is allowed to build 1,700 homes, ski slopes and a golf course south of Minturn, Ginn officials say. Lighting experts say the goal of maintaining the area’s dark sky is possible, but caution that Ginn would have to plan ahead and hire good lighting experts to fulfill its promise.
Mining nuggets of history
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179032400/4
The long-dormant memories of coal dust and hard-working miners will rise again Saturday during the third annual Coal Camp Excursion across Huerfano and Las Animas counties. The Bessemer Historical Society is hosting the excursion Saturday for 65 to 70 people who will journey back in time to the birth of the industrial economy and to the source of the fire that fueled a new way of life for the entire country.
Transportation and Infrastructure
Union Station: A new day dawns for Denver's historic train depot
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5878082
For more than a century, Union Station has been a symbol of mobility. In the early days, Denver residents relied on its trains to connect them with the rest of the nation. Once highways took over that function, the depot was left to decay in a tangle of freight lines. Now it comes to life only twice a day when Amtrak's California Zephyr passes through, the station's cavernous waiting room silent otherwise. All that will change, as work starts on a regional transportation project connecting metro residents to points far beyond.
Rail line cuts opposed
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5533881,00.html
Jefferson County is resisting an RTD proposal to shrink the FasTracks line to Golden to a single track, a move the transit agency says it needs to save $33 million on the over-budget West Corridor light rail. But building only one track saddles the west side with limited growth potential and makes the Golden area absorb a reduction in what taxpayers were promised - transit service, said Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky, who spoke at a meeting of elected officials and RTD on Friday. He complained that other parts of the metro area are taking more cosmetic rather than service budget cuts. "We believe we're the only community that is getting a service cut as part of RTD's plan to save money and come in on budget," McCasky said. RTD is holding off deciding about the rail line to get public input.
RELATED: RTD eyeing cuts to G line
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5883731
Runway project on schedule
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/airlines/article/0,2777,DRMN_23912_5533360,00.html
The grumble of bulldozers and tractors has replaced the roar of jet engines at Aspen/Pitkin County Airport. Sardy Field, as it's also known, closed in mid-April as part of a long-planned project to replace its aging runway. Officials say the project is on schedule and that the airport will reopen June 7. When complete, the airport "will be positioned tremendously for the future," said Jim Elwood, director of the airport. "We'll be a much-improved airport."
Environment and Conservation
Colo. River pact updated
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889766
A proposal to give Colorado and other upper-basin states that use the Colorado River more flexibility during droughts can be traced back to 2002 when the waters of Lake Powell were dwindling. "Lake Powell in 2002 was literally within a couple of years of going dry," said James Lochhead, an Aspen attorney who represents several Colorado water districts and users. That scenario could have led to disaster for the four upper-basin states that use the river's waters - Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. Under the Colorado River Compact, lower-basin states - California, Nevada and Arizona - could issue a basin call, shutting off water rights in the upper basin awarded after 1922. That would have meant the Western Slope, Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs would have seen their use of the basin go dry.
RELATED: Is there enough water in the Colorado River?
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070511/NEWS/105110063
College declines funds from mining company
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/13/5_13_3a_Funds_refused.html
Because of continuing controversy over proposed molybdenum mining by Kobex Resources on Mount Emmons, Western State College has decided not to let Kobex sponsor its annual sports hall of fame banquet. Larry Meredith, college spokesman, said the college decided instead to let Community Bank sponsor its banquet, held each fall to honor Western State sports stars of the past. The college still is accepting money for sports scholarships from Kobex, he said, but he did not know the exact amount. By refusing Kobex’ offer to underwrite the banquet, Meredith said, the college hopes to stay out of local opposition to the proposed mine.
RELATED: Supreme Court won't hear Red Lady case
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/13/5_13_3a_Molybdenum_mine.html
Mine waste cleanup gets thumbs-up
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070513/NEWS/70510017
A controversial plan to move several thousand cubic yards of tainted mine waste to a managed storage site in French Gulch got a conditional thumbs-up from the town council Tuesday. Several mine waste piles on the national forest Claimjumper parcel — some with concentrations of lead as high as 5 percent — will be removed this summer and piled atop similarly polluted material near the abandoned Wellington-Oro mine, then capped, re-vegetated and monitored.
Governor appoints Montrose commissioner
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/14/5_14_Gov__appointment.html
Gov. Bill Ritter recently appointed Montrose County Commissioner Bill Patterson to the Solid and Hazardous Waste Water Commission, making Patterson the only Western Slope representative on the commission. The Senate confirmed Patterson’s appointment shortly before adjourning May 4. The commission has the authority to adopt rules that are stronger than federal requirements and to give a wider definition of what constitutes hazardous waste, if necessary, to protect public health and environment. Patterson said he appreciates the opportunity to represent Western Slope interests in Denver.
Hot shots in cool job
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/26550
Spring is in the air. And for some young men and women, thoughts turn to fighting fires across the nation. That is the mission of the wildland firefighters known as Hot Shots, a firefighting contingency that shows up each summer to battle fires across the country. Hot Shots crews are made up of highly trained and physically fit men and women who are on call. They get a one-hour notice before leaving town for an extended period of time. They fall under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Interior. The Craig Hot Shots have been back together for two weeks, going through 80 hours of training in fire suppression and standard operation guidelines before they officially go on call Sunday evening.
City waking up to conservation
http://www.gazette.com/articles/water_22329___article.html/use_gallons.html
With shortages looming in Colorado and the rest of the West,
businesses and individuals are scrambling to find ways to curtail water use.
But conservation isn’t a silver bullet. Scientists studying the Colorado River and the seven states it supplies recently concluded that demand outstrips
supply so significantly that conservation, while useful, won’t solve the
problem. Colorado Springs gets plenty of water from the Colorado Basin, and the same message is clear: Rivers can deliver only so much. City officials want a
pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir to bring new supplies to the Springs. But new
supplies won’t last forever, so city officials want people to live by the mantra
that every drop counts.
One tough summer for Roaring Fork
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070513/NEWS/105130084/-1/news
The Roaring Fork River, one of Colorado's top quality streams, has a tough summer ahead of it. Winter snowfall, it appears, was below average, pointing toward another year of drought. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, below-average snowpack this winter will lead to below-average runoff this spring. We can look for a warm summer and dry conditions from May through July, Roaring Fork Conservancy executive director Rick Lofaro told a gathering of water users and officials Wednesday in Basalt. The Fryingpan River and Ruedi Reservoir are forecast to have 78 percent below normal flows this year. The Roaring Fork River will be 70 percent below average.
$1.5 million water bill doesn't float
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5535701,00.html
By mistaking the digit 8 for a 5 on a water meter, a Boulder city employee started a chain of events that led to a customer getting overcharged by $1.5 million in March. Before it was discovered, the error led utility officials to think briefly that their revenues were up by more than 50 percent for the first quarter, and it led some critics to question whether the city's new water billing system was faulty.
Bike paths, camping and other VF dreams
http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/05/14/news/news01.txt
What can be done with Telluride's new 570-acre park?
Great birds enjoy local friendly skies
http://postindependent.com/article/20070512/VALLEYNEWS/105120047
Rick Lofaro peered into the sunset at the confluence of Cattle Creek and the Roaring Fork River Thursday, watchful for takeoffs and landings. "It literally looks like an airport around here all the time," he said.
Housing options affect wildlife
Clustered-housing developments have been touted as one solution for managed growth that allows for development while preserving open space in rural areas. But some wildlife experts believe that unless new developments are properly planned and managed, clustered housing is no more effective at preserving wildlife habitat than farms or suburban neighborhoods.
Opinion
Udall and Piñon Canyon
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5533098,00.html
Calm down there, fellow opponents of expanding the Army's Piñon Canyon training site in southeastern Colorado, who have been denouncing congressman Mark Udall. He hasn't betrayed anyone with a measure he inserted in the National Defense Authorization Act that would impose preconditions on the Army's plans. True, the 2nd District Democrat didn't go as far as we'd have liked. He didn't announce his categorical opposition to the plan to add 418,000 acres to the already gargantuan 238,000-acre training site. But that's because, as Udall will frankly tell you, he hasn't made a decision on the project yet. Nor is that fact quite as scandalous as some suggest. Udall's district northwest of Denver is not exactly cheek-by-jowl with the Piñon Canyon site, after all. But the issue is suddenly unavoidable for a man planning to run statewide next year for the Senate - especially given the fact that the legislature passed a resolution, which the governor signed, opposing federal condemnation of land for the project. On top of that, Udall is the only Coloradan on the House Armed Services Committee. He'd be a key player in this drama even if he weren't going to run statewide.
RELATED: House right to offer Piñon requirements
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5888834
On war, clock ticking toward September
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5535427,00.html
It may be overstating matters only slightly to say that how long the United States stays is now in Petraeus' hands.
Littwin: Property-tax freeze heated
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5533546,00.html
The people behind Ritter include many Democratic state legislators. They are all clapping. They are on the stage with Ritter, and maybe on board, too. Republicans brought back Wadhams to Colorado - this time to be their state chairman - because, as you might have noticed, the party is in a little slump. And there's nothing Wadhams does like getting on message. Here's his message this time - that this bill, like Ref C, should have gone to a popular vote. "What are you afraid of, Mr. Ritter?" Wadhams says, channeling himself through the telephone line. I can envision the smile through the phone wire. It's political theater. As one Democrat pointed out to me, "Gays and immigrants didn't work for the Republicans. They had to try something else." Jon Caldara has, of course, joined in, calling the law "fiscal date rape." Sure, it's offensive. Sure, the metaphor doesn't quite work. But it leaves me wondering about Caldara, who brought dildos and lesbian sheep to the Ref C debate. Dr. Freud, call your service.
RELATED: Salzman: GOP flip-flop overlooked
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5533096,00.html
Brown: Capitol contentment
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5867236
The Colorado statehouse witnessed a historic legislative session this year, one that also served as a prelude to what may be a more charged meeting in 2008, when election-year politics will be in the air and the tricky, costly issues of health care and transportation will be on the front burner. By the time the 2007 Colorado General Assembly adjourned on May 4, the Capitol had emptied. The legislators were there, of course, and the obligatory cluster of reporters. But the lobbyists began drifting out of the building before lunch. Tourists and schoolchildren had moved on to other, more interesting sights.
RELATED: House members get a grade
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070514/TRIBEDIT/105140090/-1/TRIBEDIT
RELATED: Boyle: Reflect on legislature's efforts
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070513/TRIBEDIT/105130121/-1/TRIBEDIT
Kreck: "Gunny Bob" assails Muslims after Fort Dix attack
http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_5881824
Don Imus paid the price for his crude remark about Rutgers female basketball players, but "Gunny Bob" Newman has defamed an entire religion and, so far, gotten away with it. Newman, whose conservative talk show airs on KOA 850-AM, is a man to whom rash, rude and inflammatory statements are common. But he unleashed a scabrous beauty last week. Here's what he said on the air after the alleged terrorist plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey was uncovered: "I want every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen to be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times." He also proposed that the government "bug their places of work and their residences" and "monitor all mosques and community centers. If they don't like the idea ... throw their (expletive) out." He would have given the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II a standing ovation. He won't get a spanking, says his Clear Channel boss, Kris Olinger. "I think 'Gunny' was expressing an opinion, an extreme one, but his opinion. (Hosts) are paid to express opinions. That's the nature of what we do."
Schoettler: Women in their places
http://www.denverpost.com/schoettler/ci_5867256
This Mother's Day, women are more prominent than ever. They are mothers and activists, leaders of countries, political parties, businesses, non-profit organizations - and families. They march for their children and human rights. They work for better health care and an end to hunger, war and violence against women. In France, Segolene Royal just lost her race for president. Sen. Hillary Clinton is running a strong campaign for president of the United States. Women have been leaders in congresses, parliaments and state legislatures for decades. So it's surprising to see that misogynists are still out there, spewing contempt for women.
Lewis: Slowdown nailing homebuilders
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5878310
The nation's top homebuilders are missing earnings forecasts, reporting losses and warning that the worst may still be ahead. The housing market has been slowing for more than a year, but many big homebuilders have been completing work on contracts signed during the now-fading housing boom. They haven't shown significant signs of strain until recently. Last week, Denver-based MDC Holdings, builder of Richmond American Homes, reported a $94.4 million loss for the first quarter versus a $95.4 million gain last year. MDC said it closed 2,001 home sales during the first quarter compared with 3,198 last year. The company blamed the decline on reduced consumer confidence, unstable home prices and concerns over higher-risk mortgages - such as sub-prime loans - which are leading to tighter underwriting criteria. Additionally, MDC said prospective homebuyers are having a more difficult time selling their homes so they can buy new homes. MDC is hardly alone. Other large, national developers that build homes in Colorado made similar reports.
Telluride meets challenge
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5888835
Residents and friends of tony Telluride were stunned last February when a Delta jury decided the town would have to pay $50 million to condemn 570 acres that citizens wanted to protect from development. Last week, their dismay turned to triumph as they met a seemingly impossible fundraising goal.
Roshto-Smith: Federal distrust in Breckenridge is understandable
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070513/COLUMNS/105130055
Don't worry about the toxic waste ground that's in the French Creek area. Your government has your back! The same government that has managed the Iraq civil war so well. The same government that's doing so well rebuilding post-apocalyptic New Orleans after Katrina. The same government that has assaulted the clean air act for the last six years. The same government that has cleaned up corruption in Washington like they promised to do in the "Contract with America" in 1994. Our government can be trusted!
Spencer: Schools may be cheating on graduation rates
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5889255
Colorado seems quiet, even though guys like Van Schoales, an urban education expert at the Piton Foundation, have brought graduation discrepancies to the attention of the General Assembly. This year, the legislature finally passed a law to change the dropout formula. Denver is not the only Colorado school district whose website graduation rates don't add up with the new national database. Pueblo City District 60 lists a 2005 graduation rate of 78.4 percent. The new database says that in 2003, the graduation rate in Pueblo 60 was 57 percent. "Telling people that half the kids who start school don't graduate is like saying half the airplanes you get on are going to crash," Schoales said. That's over-the-top. But Schoales' point is not. Dropping out of school "destines you to a life of poverty."
What education chief faces
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5875000
Dwight Jones, superintendent of the Fountain-Fort Carson School District, emerged this past week as the sole finalist to become the state's new education commissioner. If Jones does come on board - because of procedural rules, the State Board of Education must wait two weeks before it can make an offer - he would do well to etch these three numbers into his new desk.
Trudging toward diversity
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/14/trudging-toward-diversity/
Empowering Leadership Alliance, led by Rice University, also includes Boston University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Texas, Austin; and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Nationwide, only 3 percent of doctoral degrees in computer science and engineering went to minorities in 2004-05. We hope that close attention from the alliance will increase that number substantially.
Carman: Helpless at helping our kids
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5884764
In Washington state, if a doctor notices a child is not thriving, calls social services and sees no action being taken, he or she can call children's ombudsman Mary Meinig and get results. In Rhode Island, if a day-care worker sees suspicious bruises on a child, even after reporting them to police, he or she can call child advocate Jametta Alston, and an investigation is launched immediately. Meinig and Alston do not work for state departments of social services, the courts, the schools or the cops. They work for the children, and they accept no excuses. If Colorado had an independent ombudsman or children's advocate, it may or may not have saved the life of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner. Meinig and Alston admit it's not easy to stop parents who are determined to kill a child. But at least the little boy might have had a fighting chance.
Martinez: GPS devices may aid social workers
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5888838
Denver's Department of Human Services is among the first agencies in Colorado to consider using Global Positioning System tracking devices to protect social workers on the job. The need to extend greater protections became more evident last year in Kentucky, when a social worker was beaten and stabbed to death while taking a baby for a final visit to the child's mother, who had been found guilty of neglect. Alabama and Mississippi are already using GPS to keep a protective eye on social workers. Mississippi started after Hurricane Katrina. The tracking devices are embedded in cellphones equipped with panic buttons. The social worker can press the button to summon help and the GPS device alerts authorities to their location.
Johnson: Caught in an affordable housing catch-22
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5533547,00.html
"When I moved here," she said, "I thought I would be here for the rest of my life. It was a block from the bus, near the grocery, my doctor is a block away. I never intended to sell." Life intervened. She and Bruce put it up for sale in March 2006. She had purchased it for $179,000 in October 2003. Now, having dropped the price three times, it is on the market for $170,000. The problem? Deed restrictions. To buy Vicki Moore's condo, you cannot earn more than $40,150 a year, $46,000 for couples and $51,000 for a family of three. "I've had 65 people come through in 15 months," a frustrated Dan Braun says. "I had one person, a teacher, come in who made $500 over the $40,000, and the city told her no. "This is really hurting the people the city still insists it wants to help."
Water plan could cool East-West feud
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5867258
The struggle between the parched Front Range region and the Western Slope that is home to most of Colorado's water has been one of the most bitter issues in state politics for more than half a century. Now, interest is growing in a plan to pipe in water from Wyoming's Flaming Gorge Reservoir - an innovative notion that might bring a cease-fire in our water wars.
The oil shale industry's unanswered questions
http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/05/14/5_14_oil_shale_edit.html
Will the technology that has been successful for Shell on a small scale work “on a sustainable basis” for a full-scale commercial project? Can the company’s “freeze wall” technology protect groundwater in the region from contamination by the oil recovery process?
Lado: A transit system for all
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5533157,00.html
As we watch the FasTracks buildout over the coming decade, one fact is inescapable: development around transit stations will fundamentally reshape communities throughout the metro area. We have made an unprecedented investment in our future, and we have the opportunity - and the responsibility - to ensure that our citizens realize the full benefit of this investment. FasTracks has terrific potential to deliver on its promises of reduced congestion, livable neighborhoods and greater economic competitiveness, but its success hinges on the type of development that grows up around transit stations. A crucial factor is ensuring that housing built within walking distance of transit offers opportunities to a broad spectrum of income levels, including low- and moderate-income households (i.e., those earning less than 80 percent of area median income, or approximately $50,000 for a three-person family in metro Denver in 2006). This is known as "mixed-income transit-oriented development."
Lane: State Senate worse than kindergarten
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/13/guest-column-state-senate-worse-than/
The time: Boulder High School spring break 2007. The place: the Colorado State Capitol Building. While other BHS students were in Mexico or hitting the slopes an hour away, I found myself sitting in the observation balcony overlooking our state Senate. A sign on the door announced that the Senate was indeed in session, and like the politically active nerd that I am, this announcement excited me. I was soon going to see our great democratic ideals, which I am well acquainted with because I am currently taking government in action.
Blake: State Rep. Doug Bruce?
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5533126,00.html
Could anti-tax campaigner Douglas Bruce finally make it to the state Capitol as a member of the Colorado legislature? It's quite possible under a scenario being discussed by Republican insiders. Bruce twice tried to get elected to the state Senate. In 1996 he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Ray Powers in the GOP primary; four years later Rep. Ron May beat him by a mere 112 votes in the primary for the seat Powers was vacating.
Election
Edwards Campaigns To Make Memorial Day An Antiwar Statement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201512.html
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on his supporters to turn this year's Memorial Day into a day of antiwar activism, saying that the best way to honor the troops is to demand an end to the Iraq war. "Each of us has a responsibility as Americans, a duty to our troops and to each other, to do all we can to support the troops and end this war," the former senator from North Carolina said yesterday during a commencement address at New England College in Henniker, N.H.
RELATED: Democrats war against anti-military image
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-troops13may13,1,4027760.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
Tiny Irish Village Is Latest Place to Claim Obama as Its Own
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201551.html
Here they call him O'Bama. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Democratic candidate for president, is the talk of this village because recently unearthed records indicate that he is a son of Moneygall. Stephen Neill, a local Anglican rector, said church documents he has found, along with census, immigration and other records tracked down by U.S. genealogists, appear to show that Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, was reared in Moneygall, then left for America in 1850, when he was 19.
RELATED: Obama Says He’d Roll Back Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/us/politics/14talk.html?ref=washington
Her money is on Obama. His? Clinton.
As sister and brother, Penny Pritzker and Jay Robert "J.B." Pritzker have fought over everything from toys to how to divide a family fortune worth billions. Now they are going head-to-head in politics, with the Democratic presidential nomination as their battleground. One is leading the fundraising for Sen. Barack Obama, while the other has a new alliance with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Chelsea Clinton faces decision in mother's '08 bid
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-05-12-chelseaclinton_N.htm
First impressions sometimes create lasting images, and so it is with Chelsea Clinton. For many, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's daughter is still a curly-haired 12-year-old with braces and a shy smile — the first "first kid" since Amy Carter to spend her formative years in the White House. Chelsea Clinton now is a 27-year-old single woman working in the financial sector in New York City. With her mother's trailblazing quest to win the presidency in 2008, the nation could see Chelsea Clinton return to the White House in a very different role, as an occasional visitor or perhaps even a bride at a White House wedding.
RELATED: In New Role, Senator Clinton’s Strategist in Chief
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/us/politics/13bill.html
Giuliani Explains Nuanced Position on Abortion
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301083.html
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who leads the field of Republican presidential candidates in national polls, said that he supports a woman's right to an abortion, then added that he "might be able" to appoint antiabortion justices to the Supreme Court. Giuliani said he hates abortion and would advise against it. "That's a principle I've held forever, and I'll hold it forever," he said on "Fox News Sunday." But he added that he does not think he should impose his view on women.
RELATED: In Private Sector, Giuliani Parlayed Fame Into Wealth
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201270.html
RELATED: Ground Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani’s Legacy
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/nyregion/14giuliani.html
Romney's Wealth May Top $200 Million
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102183.html
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, has amassed assets of between $190 million and $250 million, a campaign adviser said, but has received permission to delay filing required disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission for 45 days past the May 15 deadline. Romney, a Harvard Business School graduate who acquired much of his wealth as a corporate consultant at Bain & Co. and its affiliated private equity firm, also has a blind trust for his children and grandchildren valued at between $70 million and $100 million.
RELATED: Romney: We're all God's kids
Hagel ‘Not Happy’ With Republican Party
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/us/politics/14hagel.html
Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said Sunday that his party had “been hijacked by a group of single-minded, almost isolationist insulationists, power-projectors.” “I am not happy with the Republican Party today,” Mr. Hagel said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “It has drifted from the party of Eisenhower, of Goldwater, of Reagan, the party that I joined. It isn’t the same party.” Senator Hagel, who said “a credible third-party candidate” for president would benefit the United States, said he planned to decide by late summer whether to run for president. “I think it shakes the system up,” he said of a third-party or independent candidacy. “The system needs to be shaken up.”
In This Race, There's No Starting Gun
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201192.html
Conventional political wisdom dictates that early political advertising campaigns are akin to flushing cash down the toilet, based on the idea that voters aren't paying enough attention for commercials to change the dynamic of a race. Three candidates for president -- former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- are placing big bets that the conventional wisdom is wrong and launching a series of ads in early caucus and primary states in hopes of getting the jump on their rivals. And a fourth, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), has started to check into advertising rates in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Effective and Ethical Government
Bush's Relations With Capitol Hill Chilly
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201436.html
Every few weeks, President Bush invites House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and their GOP counterparts to the White House for a discussion of Iraq and other issues of the day. By the accounts of those in the room, the meetings are gracious, formal -- and rarely productive. Sitting at a table in the Cabinet Room, Bush generally offers an opening statement, turns to Pelosi and then Reid for their views, and usually gives Republicans the last word. Vice President Cheney often sits in, saying nothing. There is usually little genuine back-and-forth before the leaders emerge for a media stakeout outside the West Wing. The meetings underscore the chasm that continues to divide the White House and Congress, even as the president has tried to reach out more aggressively to a branch of government he seemed to disdain for much of his first six years in office. Despite months of forced bonhomie -- prompted by the GOP loss of Congress last fall -- little trust has grown between Bush and the congressional Democrats, according to officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Iraqi officials discourage U.S. pullout
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-12-us-iraq-involvement_N.htm
Worried Congress' support for Iraq is deteriorating rapidly, Baghdad dispatched senior officials to Capitol Hill this week to warn members one-on-one that pulling out U.S. troops would have disastrous consequences. The lobbying push targeted Republicans and Democrats alike, but focused primarily on those considered influential on the war debate. On Thursday, hours before the House voted to limit funds for the war, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh met with more than 30 House Republicans and more than a half-dozen senators, including Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., John Warner, R-Va., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
Judge Gives Immunity to Gonzales Aide
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102111.html
A federal judge yesterday paved the way for a former aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to testify in Congress about the firings of U.S. attorneys, granting her limited immunity from prosecution so she can tell the House Judiciary Committee what she knows. Under the order from Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, Monica M. Goodling "may not refuse to testify, and may not refuse to provide other information" if asked by Congress. The ruling allows Goodling's testimony on the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys last year, which has sparked a furor in Congress over senior Justice officials' shifting explanations for the firings.
Congress Gets Warning On Budget
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102164.html
The White House threatened yesterday to use the president's veto to prevent Democrats from increasing spending on education, health care and other domestic programs. In a letter to lawmakers, the president's budget director, Rob Portman, said the administration opposed a spending blueprint nearing completion on Capitol Hill that is expected to authorize about $20 billion more for the fiscal year that begins in October than the White House has requested.
RELATED: White House takes hard line on spending
Lawmakers Warn Watchdog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301014.html
Republicans and Democrats often bicker about the focus of congressional oversight. But the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigation of the Commerce Department's internal watchdog has elicited some rare bipartisan unity. That unanimity was on display again last Thursday when the committee sent a stern letter to Commerce Inspector General Johnnie E. Frazier and his deputies. It warned that lawmakers will not tolerate the "harassment and mistreatment" of subordinates in the office who are cooperating with the investigation. The letter was signed by the panel's Democratic chairman, John Dingell of Michigan, and his Republican counterpart, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, as well as Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), the two lawmakers who oversee the committee's investigative arm. The lawmakers, as well as two federal agencies, are investigating allegations that Frazier -- whose job it is to root out waste, fraud and abuse at the Commerce Department -- has himself misspent money, abused government travel and retaliated against employees who raised concerns.
Pa. Legislature considers downsizing
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-13-pa-legislature-downsizing_N.htm
Under voter pressure to change politics as usual, the Pennsylvania Legislature may put some of its 253 members out of jobs. A proposal to cut by 20% the size of the Legislature, the nation's largest after New Hampshire, is advancing in the state Senate. Other branches of government have been asked to shrink, says Sen. John Pippy, a suburban Pittsburgh Republican who sponsored the bill. "Why don't we in the Legislature follow the same path?" Proposals to trim a state's Legislature aren't uncommon, especially in Pennsylvania, where voters last year booted 24 legislators who supported a 2005 pay raise that increased lawmakers' salaries by 18% or more. Only four states — Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and North Dakota — have done it in the past three decades. In Pennsylvania, it would require a constitutional amendment passed by two successive legislative sessions and then a statewide vote.
Civil Liberties and Equality
U.S. Asks Europe to Ensure Continued Access to Air Passenger Data
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/world/europe/14security.html
In order to reduce the odds that terrorists will enter the United States, the Bush administration is asking the European Union to lift its objections to the sharing of airline passenger information with American intelligence agencies, said the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff. On the fringes of a meeting of European interior ministers here Saturday, Mr. Chertoff argued that other countries, no matter how friendly, could not decide who entered the United States. He plans to repeat the message before a European Parliament panel in Brussels on Monday. “While we reassure Europe, we have to insist that we can’t tie our hands in keeping dangerous people out of the United States,” Mr. Chertoff said in an interview here.
Opening Statements Preview Months of Evidence in Padilla Trial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301216.html
After months of investigation, legal maneuvering and jury selection, federal prosecutors and attorneys for alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla finally get to present their cases in a trial expected to last into August. Opening statements are scheduled Monday in the terrorism support trial of Padilla, a U.S. citizen, and two co-defendants. "It is the single most important part of the trial in federal court," said Milton Hirsch, a prominent Miami defense lawyer not involved in the Padilla case. "If we expect people to understand days if not weeks of evidence, some of it obscure, we had better give them a conceptual basis in opening statements for doing so."
RELATED: Document is crucial in Padilla case
RELATED: Padilla trial to begin, minus the 'dirty bomb' talk
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-13-padilla_N.htm
Terrorism suspects often seem far from al-Qaeda's 'A' team
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-13-homegrown-inside_N.htm
U.S.-based terror cells that operate outside the direct control of al-Qaeda now pose the most immediate threat to carry out attacks within the USA, say congressional representatives and security officials. But reviews of court records in 12 cases of American-based terrorism made public since 9/11 suggest the alleged plotters sometimes are a hapless lot.
Foreign Policy
Pentagon Hopes to Expand Aid Program
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201494.html
The Pentagon is seeking to make permanent and expand to other countries some security and foreign assistance programs underway in Iraq and Afghanistan that traditionally have been supervised by the State Department and the Agency for International Development. Legislation sent to Capitol Hill -- under the title of Building Global Partnerships Act of 2007 -- would allow the secretary of defense, "with the concurrence of the secretary of state," to spend up to $750 million to help foreign governments build up not only their military forces, but also police and other "security forces" to "combat terrorism and enhance stability."
Shi'ite cleric gains sway across border
Iran's ruling clerics have long prided themselves on running the world's only Shi'ite Muslim state -- a state that imposes religion, dictating what imams can preach, what the media can report, and what people can wear. So some Iranians are intrigued by the more freewheeling experiment in Shi'ite empowerment taking place across the border in Iraq, where -- Iraq's myriad problems aside -- imams can say whatever they want in political Friday sermons, newspapers and satellite channels regularly slam the government, and religious observance is respected and encouraged but not required.
RELATED: Iran is a hot destination for Iraqis seeking calm
Iraq Insurgents Boast of Ambush
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051300288.html
The insurgent coalition that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq asserted responsibility on Sunday for the ambush south of Baghdad that left four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter dead and three other American soldiers missing. A brief statement purporting to be from the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organization that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, appeared on insurgent Web sites a day after the fiery attack in the rural terrain near Mahmudiyah. The statement praised the insurgents for their "blessed operation" involving a "clash with a convoy of crusaders in Mahmudiyah," but offered few details and no evidence, such as photographs or video, to verify the claims. "We will give you the full details about this blessed operation as soon as it comes," the statement said.
RELATED: U.S. Forces Search Iraq Area for 3 Missing Soldiers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/world/middleeast/14iraq.html?ref=world
Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301165.html
Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq. One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs. The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting the CIA to dispute the validity of Brinkley's work. His transgression? To begin reopening dozens of government-owned factories in Iraq. Brinkley and his colleagues at the Pentagon believe that rehabilitating shuttered, state-run enterprises could reduce violence by employing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Officials at State counter that the initiative is antithetical to free-market reforms the United States should promote in Iraq. The bureaucratic knife fight over the best way to revive Iraq's moribund economy illustrates how the two principal players in the reconstruction of Iraq -- the departments of Defense and State -- remain at odds over basic economic and political measures.
Taliban Military Leader Is Killed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051300226.html
Mullah Dadullah was the face of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan as it used suicide bombings, videotaped beheadings and targeted assassinations to escalate its insurgent campaign over the past two years. Dadullah periodically turned up on television to taunt the Afghan government and U.S.-led international forces with threats of ever more ambitious attacks.
RELATED: Commander's slaying a setback for Taliban
Toll Mounts in Pakistan On Second Day of Clashes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051300499.html
Clashes between government supporters and opposition activists flared for a second day Sunday in the country's largest city, bringing the weekend death toll to about 40. The clashes in the southern city of Karachi were prompted by a judicial crisis that has gripped the country since March 9, when the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, suspended Pakistan's chief justice for alleged abuses of office. Since then, protesters have frequently taken to the streets to rally against what they see as an attempt by Musharraf to snuff out fledgling democratic institutions and ease his way to another term.
RELATED: Court official slain in Pakistan
RELATED: Pakistani, Afghan troops fight at border
RELATED: Violence Puts More Pressure on Musharraf
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/world/asia/14pakistan.html?ref=world
Turks in droves defend 'Ataturk's revolution'
Choking the highways and crammed onto ferries, hundreds of thousands of Turks streamed into this port city on Sunday in an enormous show of opposition to the pro-Islamic ruling party, increasing pressure on the government ahead of early elections. About 1.5 million protesters carried anti-government banners, red-and-white Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular republic in 1923. Turkish flags hung from balconies and windows, as well as buses and fishing boats and yachts bobbing in Izmir's bay. "I am here to defend my country," said Yuksel Uysal, a teacher. "I am here to defend Ataturk's revolution."
Palestinian Interior Minister Resigns
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400047.html
The Palestinian interior minister stepped down Monday, accusing leaders of thwarting his efforts to halt a new wave of violence that is threatening the survival of the new coalition government. The departure of Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh was a major setback for the government, which was formed in March by rival Fatah and Hamas parties to end months of factional violence.
RELATED: In Gaza, 5 die as Palestinian factions clash
African Union Force Low on Money, Supplies and Morale
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201567.html
The beleaguered African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur is on the verge of collapse, a development that is undercutting international efforts to protect civilians and deploy United Nations reinforcements, according to A.U. and U.N. officials. The African Union's first major peacekeeping mission -- once considered the last line of defense for Darfur's civilians -- has been crippled by funding and equipment shortages, government harassment and an upsurge in armed attacks by rebel forces that last month left seven African troops dead.
Ethiopia Defends Record on Rights
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301169.html
Ethiopia's foreign minister dismissed criticism of his country's human rights record as concerns are rising about security there, saying the fight against terrorism is just as momentous in Ethiopia as it is in other nations. "Why should countries like Ethiopia be taken to task? There is no country that has established perfect institutions of democracy or human rights, even countries like the United States," Seyoum Mesfin said recently in response to accusations that his government has carried out arbitrary detentions, used excessive force in dealing with opposition demonstrators and rolled back personal freedoms.
China Builds And Launches A Satellite For Nigeria
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301264.html
China announced Monday that it had launched a Chinese-manufactured communications satellite into orbit on behalf of Nigeria, marking the first time China has built a commercial satellite and put it into orbit on contract for another country. The launch, in Monday's pre-dawn hours from the Xichang space center in southwestern Sichuan province, was viewed as another sign of China's increasing prowess in space and its determination to be among the world's great powers seeking to utilize the reaches of outer space for benefits on Earth.
RELATED: Renewed Violence Limits Oil Production in Nigerian Region
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/business/14oil.html
Brown Sees A New Path For Britain
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051100597.html
Gordon Brown formally announced his candidacy Friday to succeed Tony Blair as British prime minister, immediately distancing himself from the battered Blair and emphasizing his commitment to "governing in a different way" on issues from relations with Parliament to the war in Iraq. "Today there are new priorities, and I offer a new leadership for this new time," Brown said at his announcement in central London, less than 24 hours after Blair said he would step down on June 27. Blair's move opened the way for his longtime partner and rival to succeed him.
Old divides plague Bosnia
Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Nearly 12 years from war, Bosnia-Herzegovina is again flirting with danger. Feuding among Serb, Croat and Muslim leaders has upended a yearlong attempt to write a constitution. Negotiations over a single national police force have bottomed out again. Since February, Muslims and Serbs have been trading barbs over war crimes. European Union monitors who arrived this spring to check the pulse of reforms quickly backed away from serious talks.
In Juarez [MX], Expiring Justice
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301334.html
An Argentine forensics team commissioned to look into the murders, drawing on experience from investigations of Argentina's "dirty war" and the Salvadoran civil war, is expected to release a damning report later this year that will illustrate the almost impossible task faced by prosecutors. The Argentines have found body parts carelessly left for years on the floors of medical examiner's offices, heads with no matching bodies, bodies with no matching heads and a mishmash of unlabeled corpses tossed into mass graves at paupers' cemeteries. "It's basically a huge mess," forensic archaeologist Mercedes Doretti, the team leader, said in an interview.
Immigration
Border case puts U.S. attorney on defensive
Johnny Sutton prosecuted a pair of agents who shot a fleeing Mexican smuggler. Conservatives are up in arms.
Texas Town Approves Ban On Renting to Illegal Migrants
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201191.html
Voters in this Dallas suburb Saturday overwhelmingly approved a measure banning landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants, in the first public vote on any of the more than 90 measures local governments around the country have proposed to crack down on illegal immigration. With two-thirds of precincts reporting, the measure had 68 percent support, with 32 percent opposed. It requires apartment managers to verify that renters are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants before leasing to them, with some exceptions. "It says especially to Congress that we're tired of the out-of-control illegal immigration problem. That if Congress doesn't do something about it, cities will," said Tim O'Hare, a City Council member who was the ordinance's lead proponent.
Reproductive Choice
Genetic Testing + Abortion = ???
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/weekinreview/13harm.html?ref=washington
Abortion rights supporters — who believe that a woman has the right to make decisions about her own body — have had to grapple with the reality that the right to choose may well be used selectively to abort fetuses deemed genetically undesirable. And many are finding that, while they support a woman’s right to have an abortion if she does not want to have a baby, they are less comfortable when abortion is used by women who don’t want to have a particular baby. “How much choice do you really want to give?” asked Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “That’s the challenge of prenatal testing to pro-choicers.” For many women and their partners, the decision to terminate a pregnancy after a prenatal diagnosis of a serious genetic defect can be harrowing, often coming after a painful assessment of their own emotional and financial resources.
Health Care and Public Safety
Costs Grow for Common Medicare Drugs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201330.html
After some initial success containing drug prices, private insurers in the new Medicare prescription drug program may be losing their leverage over drug manufacturers as they try to hold down medicine costs for seniors and the federal government, House investigators have found. Prices for 10 of the most prescribed brand-name medications have shot up an average of 6.8 percent since December under Medicare private insurance plans, while wholesale prices for the same drugs have risen just 3 percent, House Oversight and Government Reform investigators say. The cost of a month's supply of cholesterol-controlling Lipitor had climbed 9.6 percent, to $84.27 in mid-April, from $76.91 in mid-December. Over the same time, list prices climbed 5 percent.
Thousands of Nuclear Arms Workers See Cancer Claims Denied or Delayed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102277.html
Since its inception in 2000, the compensation program has cut more than 20,000 checks and given long-delayed recognition to workers whose illnesses were hidden costs of the Cold War's military buildup. Yet, of the 72,000 cases processed, more than 60 percent have been denied. Thousands of other applicants have been waiting for years for an answer. Overall, only 21 percent of applicants have received checks. Even as the nation continues to close and dismantle many nuclear weapons sites, a growing number of those who helped build the bombs are turning to lawyers and legislators to argue they are being treated unfairly. Many complain that the compensation process is slow, frustrating, even insulting. "You get exposed to something that's so bad you have to leave your clothes behind," McKenzie said, "then they try to tell you it's not their fault that you got sick." Some evidence suggests the government has tried to limit payouts for budget reasons. Internal memos obtained by congressional investigators show the Bush administration chafing over the program's rising costs and fighting to block measures that would increase workers' chances of compensation.
Fewer U.S. Women Get Breast Cancer Test
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301191.html
After rising steadily for decades, the proportion of U.S. women getting mammograms to screen for breast cancer has dropped for the first time, federal researchers are reporting today. The overall rate at which women are undergoing regular mammograms fell 4 percent between 2000 and 2005, marking the first significant decline since use of the breast X-rays started expanding rapidly in 1987, the study by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
RELATED: Common chemicals are linked to breast cancer
Crime and Penal Reform
Justice Kennedy: The Highly Influential Man in the Middle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201586.html
It is easy to define Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's role on the Supreme Court this term, and difficult to exaggerate his importance. To borrow President Bush's self-description, he's "The Decider." He is the only justice to be in the majority in each of the term's unusually high number of 5 to 4 decisions. At this midpoint of the court's rulings, he has been on the losing side in only two of the 40 opinions issued.
Group: Still easy for mentally ill to buy guns
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-13-guns-mentally-ill_N.htm
Information on 90% of mental health records that could disqualify prospective gun buyers has not been supplied to the FBI database used to screen firearm purchases, a report to be released today shows. The report was conducted by Third Way, a Washington think tank founded by several former senior aides to President Clinton to advocate policies for Democrats. It comes weeks after Virginia Tech University shooter Seung Hui Cho — found mentally ill by a Virginia judge prior to buying two handguns — committed the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
'Gun giveaway' aims to blunt Bloomberg
A gun-rights group plans a "gun giveaway" in a Fairfax County government building to protest New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to crack down on illegal gun sales in Virginia. On Thursday at the Mason District Government Center in Annandale, the Virginia Citizens Defense League will hold a drawing for a semiautomatic pistol, a hunting rifle and ammunition to raise money for two gun shops sued by Bloomberg. Some disapproving Fairfax County officials said they can't stop the event because the General Assembly won't allow local governments to ban the possession of guns in public buildings.
New York Plan for DNA Data in Most Crimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/nyregion/14dna.html?ref=science
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is proposing a major expansion of New York’s database of DNA samples to include people convicted of most crimes, while making it easier for prisoners to use DNA to try to establish their innocence. Currently, New York State collects DNA from those convicted of about half of all crimes, typically the most serious. The governor’s proposal would order DNA taken from those found guilty of any misdemeanor, including minor drug offenses, harassment or unauthorized use of a credit card, according to a draft of his bill. It would not cover offenses considered violations, like disorderly conduct.
Economy
Familiar Concerns Greet New Trade Pact
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102088.html
A day after the Bush administration and Democratic leaders celebrated a new bipartisan consensus on trade policy that embraces labor rights, some unions criticized the agreement while suggesting they might continue to oppose trade deals. "The enforcement of labor and environmental standards would be left to the devices of the Bush administration, which refused for more than six years to pursue its first, modest steps to rein in China's violations of our trade rules," the United Steelworkers, which represents 850,000 workers in the United States and Canada, said in a written statement. So long as the Bush administration remains in power, the union said, "we will be hard pressed to support this agreement." Several business groups, while publicly praising the deal, privately fretted about the Bush administration's accommodations -- particularly on labor rights -- to win Democratic votes in Congress for pending trade deals with Peru and Panama.
RELATED: Pelosi must sell her own party on new trade policy
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-trade13may13,1,4136911.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
Rising Exports Putting Dent in Trade Gap
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/business/14dollar.html?ref=washington
Over half of the 9.1 million vehicles General Motors produced last year were sold in foreign countries. More KFC fast food restaurants are opening in China now than in the United States. With the slumping housing market taking a toll on its business at home, Caterpillar is counting on sales of equipment and diesel engines in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to keep growing. American companies have been doing business abroad for a long time, but never before has it been so important. This year, for the first time, Standard & Poor’s expects the 500 companies in its benchmark stock index to generate more than half of their sales in foreign countries.
DaimlerChrysler Nearing Deal to Sell U.S. Auto Unit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400004.html
DaimlerChrysler has agreed to sell its Chrysler unit to a private equity firm for $7.4 billion, a deal that unravels one of the most prominent mega-mergers of the 1990s and highlights the growing influence of private equity on American business. Cerberus Capital Management will get an 80 percent stake in the Detroit automaker, making Chrysler the only one of Detroit's Big Three to be privately owned. Chrysler, which recently slipped to fourth behind Toyota in the U.S. market and is undergoing an extensive round of restructuring and job cuts, manufactures the Dodge and Jeep brands, among others. The new company, Chrysler Holding LLC, will take over about $18 billion in existing employee health and pension obligations, and is not contemplating jobs cuts beyond the roughly 13,000 already announced, according to statements from the company and corporate officials.
RELATED: Chrysler Group to Be Sold for $7.4 Billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/automobiles/14cnd-chrysler.html?ref=business
Bank Files May Undercut Wolfowitz, Critics Say
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/washington/14wolfowitz.html
Documents circulating at the World Bank suggest that Paul D. Wolfowitz, the bank president, understood that his role in ordering a pay increase and promotion for his companion in 2005 might be seen as a conflict of interest but insisted on proceeding anyway, bank officials who are critics of Mr. Wolfowitz said Sunday. The officials, speaking on the eve of a fateful week for Mr. Wolfowitz’s efforts to remain head of the bank, said testimony and notes that Xavier Coll, vice president of human resources, provided to a bank committee investigating the matter supported the charge that Mr. Wolfowitz was aware of engaging in favoritism. One said the documents were “devastating” to Mr. Wolfowitz’s case.
Online Sales Shift: Apparel Outpaced Computers in '06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301263.html
Online shoppers spent more money last year on apparel than on computers for the first time, a reflection of the Web's increasingly broad appeal, according to a report to be released today by a leading retail trade group. Consumers spent $18.3 billion on clothes, accessories and shoes in 2006, up 61 percent from the previous year. Computer hardware and software sales totaled $17.2 billion, up 20 percent from the previous year. Total online retail spending, excluding travel, grew 25 percent to $146.5 billion.
Media
Cable news is more than open to political debates
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-fox14may14,1,7778129.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
Back in October, Fox News gleefully announced that it would be presenting the first debate of the 2008 campaign, a face-off between the Republican presidential contenders set to be held this month in Columbia, S.C. In the end, Tuesday's forum at the University of South Carolina will be the third of the season, following on the heels of two debates on MSNBC. (Fox News has now dubbed its event the "First-in-the-South" Republican debate.) "I think it always bothers you a little bit not to be first, but things change so quickly," said Marty Ryan, executive producer of Fox News' political programs. "When we signed the deal with the South Carolina Republican Party, I said to the chairman, 'You know, we've now put a marker on the calendar that everyone is going to be looking at.' " The accelerated pace of the 2008 campaign has not only triggered a race between states eager to host the first primaries. It's also prompted a scramble by the television networks for a part of the political action, leading to a slew of nationally televised debates months before the first ballots are cast.
Education
Chicago Lawsuit Claims Substitute Showed 'Brokeback Mountain' in Class
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301199.html
A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film "Brokeback Mountain" in class. The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her eighth-grade class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year. The film, which won three Oscars, depicts two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair. Turner and her grandparents, Kenneth and LaVerne Richardson, are seeking around $500,000 in damages. "It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this," said Kenneth Richardson, Turner's guardian. "The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this."
Teachers fake gun attack
Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables. The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip. "We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he said. But parents of the 6th-grade students were outraged.
Military
Army Career Behind Him, General Speaks Out on Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/us/13generals.html
John Batiste has traveled a long way in the last four years, from commanding the First Infantry Division in Iraq to quitting the Army after three decades in uniform and, now, from his new life overseeing a steel factory here, to openly challenging President Bush on his management of the war. “Mr. President, you did not listen,” General Batiste says in new television advertisements being broadcast in Republican Congressional districts as part of a $500,000 campaign financed by VoteVets.org. “You continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our great Army and Marine Corps. I left the Army in protest in order to speak out. Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”
Gen. in Iraq: I need more troops
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-11-iraq-troops_N.htm
The U.S. commander in northern Iraq said Friday he doesn't have enough troops for the mission in increasingly violent Diyala province. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon also said that Iraqi government officials are not moving fast enough to provide the "most powerful weapon" against insurgents — a government that works and supplies services for the people. Mixon commands the area that includes Diyala province, north of Baghdad. It was a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency before the start of the Baghdad security crackdown and has worsened since militants fled there to avoid the increased U.S.-led operations started in the capital in February.
Stryker losses in Iraq raise questions
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-05-13-stryker-iraq_N.htm
A string of heavy losses from powerful roadside bombs has raised new questions about the vulnerability of the Stryker, the Army's troop-carrying vehicle hailed by supporters as the key to a leaner, more mobile force. Since the Strykers went into action in violent Diyala province north of Baghdad two months ago, losses of the vehicles have been rising steadily, U.S. officials said.
Troops to lose MySpace, YouTube access
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-14-troops-network_N.htm
Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday. The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular websites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander. The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell. "This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said. The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.
Religion
Religious Groups Reap Federal Aid for Pet Projects
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/business/13lobby.html
Religious organizations have long competed for federal contracts to provide social services, and they have tried to influence Congress on matters of moral and social policy — indeed, most major denominations have a presence in Washington to monitor such legislation. But an analysis of federal records shows that some religious organizations are also hiring professional lobbyists to pursue the narrowly tailored individual appropriations known as earmarks.
Pope Cites Church's Regional Challenges
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051300316.html
Pope Benedict XVI concluded his first visit to Latin America on Sunday by urging a stronger Catholic presence in a region with social problems that he said both Marxism and capitalism had only exacerbated, and he warned against further damage from "authoritarian" governments. The pope opened a 19-day conference of Latin American bishops, aiming to set an agenda to steer the church through regional challenges that Benedict identified during his five-day trip: the loss of thousands of members each day, the rapid expansion of Protestant churches in an area once dominated by Catholicism and a trend toward secularism.
RELATED: The Pope Denounces Capitalism and Marxism
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/world/americas/14pope.html?ref=world
Federal Loans for Coal Plants Clash With Carbon Cuts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301105.html
A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming. The beneficiaries of the government's largesse -- the nation's rural electric cooperatives -- plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time.
Venezuelan Oil Losing Share of Key U.S. Market
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102166.html
When the state oil company recently took over the last privately run oil fields in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez declared it a victory against Washington and a giant leap toward a new energy policy that would diversify the market for Venezuelan crude to include rising powers like China. "Down with the American Empire!" shouted Chávez, who often warns that he'll shut off the oil spigot to the United States if the Bush administration invades Venezuela or hatches an assassination plot against him. But new study of trade and oil consumption data shows that Venezuela appears ever more dependent on selling its oil to the country Chávez calls "the cruelest, most terrible, most cynical, most murderous empire that has existed." And U.S. government energy trade data show the United States is slightly less dependent on Venezuela, which at one time challenged Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia as the No. 1 provider of foreign oil but now tussles with up-and-coming Nigeria for the fourth spot.
Intelligence Chief Backs Climate Study
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102375.html
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell believes it is "appropriate" for global climate change to be considered in a future National Intelligence Estimate, according to a letter he sent Wednesday to Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The letter arrived yesterday, one day after senior Republicans on the House intelligence panel criticized a provision in the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill, co-authored by Eshoo, that requires the production of an NIE dealing with the impact climate change would have on U.S. national security. After a vigorous exchange late Thursday night, the House voted 230 to 185 to defeat a motion to remove the provision from the bill. The motion was offered by Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), ranking minority member and former committee chairman.
RELATED: Spy Chief Backs Study of Impact of Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/washington/12intel.html?ref=science
Editor’s note: the New York Times has converted to a subscription-based editorial section. We are no longer clipping their op-ed columnists.
Mallaby: Endgame at the World Bank
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301122.html
If the World Bank were a company, its share price would have fallen 25 percent amid the current leadership scandal. The board of directors wouldn't care about the scandal's details; it would have replaced the beleaguered CEO with someone who could lead effectively. Justice for the boss would matter less than restoring the company to good health.
RELATED: Naim: Must a Yank Lead the Bank?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102068.html
Froomkin: Bush's Ambiguous Compromise
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/05/11/BL2007051101279.html
Is President Bush finally willing to compromise on an Iraq war-funding bill, under growing pressure even from within his own party? Or is he hoodwinking everyone with a meaningless concession while privately raging at those Republicans who went public about their confrontational meeting with him earlier this week?
Page: Held without charges
Has journalism become a crime in the Bush administration's "war on terror"? We Americans are left to wonder. Our military is holding two journalists without charges or any public evidence that they broke any laws.
Gitmo, Justice--and justice
When it comes to detaining people with suspected links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the burden of proof essentially is on the defense to establish innocence. The Bush administration and Congress consistently have cited national security and the effective prosecution of the war on terror to design a judicial process with rules different from those in most U.S. courts. And not without reason. Many of the detainees are dangerous people who, if freed, could wage war on the U.S. and its allies. However, keeping possibly innocent people locked up without adequate legal representation is un-American. This is a new kind of war, with a new kind of enemy that must be engaged with every resource. But that doesn't justify rejecting a fundamental fairness merely to make life easier for the government. If we're going to call this a judicial process, the least the U.S. can do is give Gitmo detainees legal representation that the Supreme Court has suggested they deserve.
Capehart: Fed Up in Louisiana
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051101984.html
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) went off. Not in a girls fighting, "Hold my earrings!" kind of way. But in a blunt manner befitting a chief executive who endured the worst natural and engineering disaster in U.S. history, who continues to battle Washington for federal assistance, and who is not running for reelection.
RELATED: Barry: Our Coast to Fix -- or Lose
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051101985.html
Klein: Give bigger government a chance
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-klein13may13,0,3813755.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
For too long, we've bought the idea that government has failed us.
A Feeble Performance
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/opinion/12sat1.html
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has reportedly begun telling friends and associates that he has weathered the storm over the firing of nine United States attorneys and that his job is safe despite widespread calls for his resignation. We can only hope he is wrong. Not only is the purge of the attorneys extremely serious, it is part of a long chain of evidence that Mr. Gonzales does not have the ability or the moral compass to do his vitally important job.
Consumers Take a Break
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14mon3.html
Consumer spending has been the powerful and dependable engine of the current economic expansion. Americans have continued to shop through boom-time borrowing, high oil prices, on-and-off job growth, uncontrolled medical costs, rampant trade deficits, hurricanes and war. Until last month, that is.
Ignatius: Ethiopia's Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102114.html
"Get it done quickly and get out." That, says a senior U.S. diplomat here, was the goal of the little-noticed war that Ethiopia has been fighting, with American support, against Islamic extremists in Somalia. But this in-and-out strategy encounters the same real-world obstacles that America is facing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Drozdiak: 4 Myths About America-Bashing in Europe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102069.html
There is scant evidence to suggest that exploiting anti-American attitudes wins elections. During the French campaign, Sarkozy was often derided by his Socialist opponents as "an American neoconservative carrying a French passport." Some critics claimed he would dismantle France's welfare state and replace it with an American-style "law of the jungle." But most voters ignored such rhetoric. If anything, Sarkozy's public endorsement of the United States helped convince voters that he would shake France out of its torpor and put the country back to work.
Protection From Hate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301051.html
THE LOCAL Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (HR 1592) cleared a major hurdle this month when the House of Representatives passed the bill, 237 to 180. Why is this a big deal? Because if it passes the Senate, which could vote on it next month, and gets past a threatened presidential veto, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability would join race, religion and national origin as protected classes under the 1969 federal hate-crimes law.
RELATED: Anti-gay crimes are hate crimes
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-hate13may13,0,3380230.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
Educating the Education Secretary
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14mon4.html
“It’s not our fault.” That’s what Education Secretary Margaret Spellings seemed to say while testifying before Congress last week about her department’s failure to halt the payoffs, kickbacks and general looting of the public treasury by a lending company that collected nearly $300 million in undeserved subsidies. But that doesn’t track with the federal Higher Education Act, which clearly authorizes the secretary to disqualify from federal programs lenders who employ payoffs, kickbacks and unethical practices like those that have been found to be commonplace in the college lending business.
Hooked on the status quo
WHEN DRUG and alcohol abusers end up in jail, the costs to society go well beyond the high price tag of incarceration itself. Prison time can unravel an offender's entire family while rendering him or her all but unemployable upon release. So initiatives that pull addicts back from the brink represent money well spent. Drug courts, which offer nonviolent drug offenders a last chance to avoid prison, hold particular promise, because close supervision by a judge tends to concentrate the minds of offenders and persuade them to seek treatment.
Politicizing Communion
The Vatican wisely backpedaled after Pope Benedict XVI said he agreed with excommunicating pro-choice legislators in Mexico.
A Fresh Start on Energy
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14mon2.html
Congress’s last effort to craft a decent energy strategy, in 2005, was largely disappointing. But at the risk of getting our hopes up once again, we call attention to two promising bills making their way to the Senate floor. Stapled together, they could make a constructive start toward reducing this country’s dependence on oil imports and its emissions of greenhouse gases.
Zuckoff: A robber baron in Barron's house
IN JULY 1907, Clarence Barron stopped by the offices of Dow Jones & Company to join more than 100 people anxiously awaiting the announcement of a dividend from the Southern Pacific Company. Before the news broke, Barron's employees surprised him with a Gorham silver loving cup, to honor both the 20th anniversary of his founding of the Boston News Bureau, which led to his 1902 purchase of Dow Jones, and his status as the company's conscience. Now, 100 years later, a different type of media mogul is seeking control over the house that Barron built, one who shares Barron's appreciation of profits but by all indications respects few of his guiding principles. As Barron's descendants, members of the Bancroft family, consider Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion offer to buy Dow Jones, including The Wall Street Journal, they would do well to remember "The Commodore," as the yacht-loving Barron was known.
Warming Proposals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301050.html
ONE OF THE benefits of being in the second tier of presidential candidates is feeling freer to promote worthy ideas that might seem too risky to a front-runner. That may be the case with Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), whose plan to tackle climate change involves a bold move for any politician: a new tax -- in this case, on carbon emissions. "You cannot be serious about acting on the urgent threat of global warming, about making us less captive to Middle East oil, or investing in renewable energy, unless you have a corporate carbon tax that eliminates the last incentive there is to pollute -- that it's cheaper," Mr. Dodd said in a speech last month.
Grubisich: Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301121.html
Instead of trying to keep bullies from taking over, too many Web sites -- including this one -- become their unwitting enablers.
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