|
TOP STORIES
Effective and Ethical Government
Transportation and Infrastructure
Effective and Ethical Government
|
NOTE: some news sites require free registration in order to read their stories. Follow these and other news stories at http://www.progressnowaction.org.
To subscribe to the daily news digest, click here.
Today’s digest archive: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/051507.htm
TOP STORIES
Opinion: Where is the outrage over Democrat's conflict?
http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_Norton_edit.html
A Denver-based liberal advocacy group wants a federal investigation into the relationship between Royal Dutch Shell and former Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, now a Shell employee. ProgressNowAction.org accuses Norton of using her influence while Interior secretary to approve oil-shale leases on federal lands in Colorado, thereby assuring herself of a job with Shell when she left her government post last year. Oh, please. If liberal gadfly groups like ProgressNow want a true conflict-of-interest scandal, they should examine the record of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and companies run by her husband, Richard C. Blum.
National
Senators Prepare for Vote On War Funding Legislation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401392.html
The Senate will vote this week on cutting off funding for the Iraq war and on bringing troops home by next spring, but neither outcome will be the final say in the standoff between Congress and the White House. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday that those questions will be tacked on to unrelated water-resources legislation. They may also carry only symbolic value. The votes would allow debate on the issue without tying up a separate $124 billion war funding bill, which Democrats hope to pass before the Memorial Day holiday.
RELATED: Senate to vote on funds for Iraq war in 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-14-senate-iraq_N.htm
RELATED: Details of Iraq benchmarks yet to be decided
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-14-iraq-benchmarks_N.htm
More Iraq war news in NATIONAL/ELECTION, NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL/MILITARY, COLORADO/ELECTION, COLORADO/MILITARY
Justice Dept.'s No. 2 to Resign
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401071.html?hpid=topnews
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty announced his resignation yesterday after 18 months on the job, becoming the fourth senior Justice Department official to quit amid the controversy surrounding the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys last year. In a one-page letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, McNulty said he will leave his post in late summer because of the "financial realities" brought on by "college-age children and two decades of public service."
RELATED: No. 2 at Justice Department resigns
RELATED: Gonzales’s Deputy Quits Justice Department
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15attorney.html
Red Cross report faults Israel on humanitarian law
The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a confidential report about East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, accuses Israel of a "general disregard" for "its obligations under international humanitarian law -- and the law of occupation in particular." The committee, which does not accept Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, says that Israel is using its rights as an occupying power under international law "in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory."
RELATED: Red Cross Report Says Israel Disregards Humanitarian Law
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/world/middleeast/15jerusalem.html?ref=world
More Israel news in NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY
Bush Calls For Cuts In Vehicle Emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400243.html
With gasoline prices spiraling to record highs last week and a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring executive action to restrict global warming gases, President Bush yesterday ordered four federal agencies to draw up regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by the end of his administration. But Democrats, environmentalists and some energy experts said the president was simply delaying measures that he has the power to impose now. During a brief event in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said he was asking for rules to "cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles." The regulations, he said, should be consistent with his previously announced plan to reduce projected gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next decade.
RELATED: Bush calls for rules to reduce emissions
Colorado
Gay adoption is law
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5537407,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter signed bills into law Monday allowing gay couples to adopt and requiring science-based sex education standards at school districts offering human-sexuality courses. Some religious groups, including Catholic Charities, had urged Ritter to veto House Bill 1330, the so-called second-parent adoption bill. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson also called on his Christian radio show listeners to voice opposition to such legislation, saying "liberals have declared war on traditional morality and traditional family values in this state." But in signing a flurry of 26 bills into law Monday, Ritter said the second-parent adoption measure provides more children the emotional and financial security that comes with having two parents.
RELATED: Gay couples OK’d to adopt; abstinence-only sex ed cut
http://www.gazette.com/articles/bill_22409___article.html/children_sex.html
Kids Count report grades Colo. a C
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537438,00.html
Flanked by cardboard dolls made by children, the head of the Colorado Children's Campaign on Monday gave the state a C for how it takes care of its children. "Resources have to be allocated if we want to see improvements in education, early education and health," said Megan Ferland, the campaign's president. "Kids have to be a priority." There's good news and bad in the 14th annual KidsCount report, officially released at the state Capitol. Colorado's immunization rate is improving, and fewer women are smoking during pregnancy. But one in three young people do not graduate from high school, and 14 percent of the state's children lack health insurance coverage. Gov. Bill Ritter said many of his policy goals overlap with issues singled out in the report.
RELATED: KidsCount statistics
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5536195,00.html
RELATED: One in three Colorado kids will not graduate from high school if current course continues
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/NEWS01/705150354/1002/NEWS01
RELATED: State's care of children earns "C"
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896060
RELATED: Teen deaths, pregnancies fall in Weld
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070515/NEWS/105150086
Taylor, White disagree about education tax law
http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/26575
Al White supports a new tax law that will boost local funding for school districts across Colorado even though that position places him at odds with many in his Republican Party. "Most of my party is not on the Joint Budget Committee," White said Saturday in Steamboat Springs. White is a Winter Park resident who has represented Northwest Colorado at the Capitol for seven years. He recently ended his first year as one of two Republicans on the state's powerful, six-member Joint Budget Committee, which oversees Colorado's finances. White said serving on the committee gave him a firsthand look at a dire financial forecast for K-12 education in Colorado. As a result, White disagrees with state Republican leadership about one of the hottest topics to come out of the 2007 legislative session -- the School Finance Act recently signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat.
RELATED: Plan to freeze levies splits lawmakers
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_1B_Leg_event.html
RELATED: Schools expect more funds
Affirmative-action ban proponents refuse questions
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5894323
Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban affirmative-action programs in Colorado government declined today to address several questions posed by nonpartisan legislative legal experts. The amendment, which supporters hope to put on the November 2008 ballot, would prohibit the state from considering race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in employment, education or contracting decisions. Officials from the Legislative Council and the Office of Legislative Legal Services provided four pages of questions seeking more information about terms in the amendment. Specifically, officials suggested that backers define terms, including "preferential treatment," "public education," "public employment," "normal operation" and "federal program." In most cases, amendment backers declined to elaborate. Manuel Klausner, a California lawyer working on behalf of the proponents, told officials, "We don't believe any further clarification is necessary."
Election
Religious right waits to anoint
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5537111,00.html
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, could not be any more clear about the constituency he is courting. On the stump, he often asks audience members to bow their heads as he leads them in Christian prayer - as he did at a conference in Cedar Rapids , Iowa, on Friday. Brownback, along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, is making the most direct appeal to Christian voters who have been such a key component of the Republican base in the past several decades. But still, both men are stuck in the bottom tier of the Republican polls, as Christian conservatives appear to be holding their fire and waiting before picking sides.
Tancredo out to prove he's no 1-trick pony
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896759
Tom Tancredo is talking about taxes. Education. And the war in Iraq. It turns out the Republican presidential candidate, often labeled a one-trick pony for his consuming hard-line stance on illegal immigration, has some other tricks tucked away in his political playbook. During a four-day campaign swing through eastern Iowa this past weekend, the Colorado congressman seemingly talked about everything, including the federal gasoline tax, national health care and school vouchers. A Sunday discussion about religion and its role in why he's running for president against all realistic odds led a church congregation in Bettendorf to circle him in prayer and rename him David for the biblical story of David and Goliath. Although cracking down on illegal immigration remains the bedrock of his campaign - and the one issue he is sure to address at each stop along the way - Tancredo said the other topics help him get people to listen.
Boulder County GOP poll puts Rudy up early
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=16347
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani finished on top in an informal presidential-preference poll of people attending Boulder County Republicans’ Lincoln Dinner on Saturday. Thirty percent of the people filling out the straw-poll ballots picked Giuliani, one of 13 GOP presidential options printed on sheets handed out to the more than 150 people attending Saturday’s fundraiser. However, Boulder County Republican officials did not announce how many of those diners actually participated in the survey or how many votes were cast for any of the individuals on the straw-poll ballots. Tying for second place in the poll were former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, the actor who’s a former U.S. senator from Tennessee.
Former Rep. Schaffer will seek Allard's Senate seat
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896199
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer will run for the U.S. Senate seat that Sen. Wayne Allard is vacating in 2008, a race expected to be one of the nation's most expensive and competitive. Schaffer, 44, said Monday that he wants to rebuild the Republican Party. "I am convinced that the Republican Party lost badly in the last two election cycles for lack of message ... and because it has temporarily lost its credibility." That credibility loss, he said, is partly because Republicans have become "indistinguishable" from Democrats on spending.
RELATED: Schaffer says Republicans need change
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070515/NEWS/105150080
RELATED: Looks like Udall vs. Schaffer for Senate
http://www.gazette.com/articles/schaffer_22406___article.html/colorado_senate.html
Longmont Democrat Shaffer will be in '08 race for 4th
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/NEWS01/705150351/1002
Longmont Democrat and state Sen. Brandon Shaffer announced Monday his plans to enter the 2008 race to challenge Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave for the 4th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Shaffer didn't waste time Monday trying to clear the field of potential primary contenders, including Fort Collins resident Angie Paccione, who narrowly lost to Marilyn Musgrave in 2006. "Angie is a friend of mine, but the Democrats may not have an opportunity to win this seat again, and we need to make sure we have the best possible candidate to go up against Marilyn Musgrave," Shaffer said. "I would hope that Angie would put her personal ambitions aside so the Democrats will have the best shot at the race with the best candidate, and I think that is me." Paccione said Monday that Shaffer's announcement will not change her plans to run again and that she will have more information on her campaign in the coming weeks. Paccione filed paperwork in April with the Federal Election Commission documenting a payment of $6,500 for a political consultant named Gary Chandler.
Candidate's residency could throw wrench into runoff
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070515/NEWS/105150025
The validity of Aspen's runoff election June 5 might be in doubt because of questions about whether City Council candidate Toni Kronberg lives in Aspen. But unless a member of the public formally lodges an objection with the city clerk, challenging Kronberg's claim that she lives in Aspen, officials say no action will be taken. Questions about whether Kronberg has been an Aspen resident for the past 12 months have surfaced after several sources told The Aspen Times they believe she lives outside city limits in Aspen Village, based on her continual presence there.
Effective and Ethical Government
TALK BACK TO THE GUV (EXTRA!, May 15)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537390,00.html
Here's your chance to give Gov. Bill Ritter a piece of your mind. KBDI-Channel 12's The Aaron Harber Show will offer viewers the opportunity to call in during an electronic town-hall forum to let Ritter know how he's doing so far.
Levy: as advertised
http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/05/13/news/c_u_and_boulder/news3.txt
You can't win ‘em all, but first-year state Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, helped turn several issues used during her 2006 campaign into viable bills during the 2007 Legislative session. In fact, Gov. Bill Ritter had already signed four bills (as of last Thursday) out of the 11 bearing Levy's name as a primary sponsor, and four more had passed through the Senate and House of Representatives but awaited Ritter's signature or veto. But the bills sponsored only represent part of what a Representative must do during the course of a 115-day session. For example, Levy also served on the House Judiciary committee and its Transportation and Energy committee, while hundreds of pieces of legislation, including House or Senate bills and resolutions, were formally introduced in 2007. In other words, Levy moved from what she called a “grueling” year of campaigning in the three Colorado counties that she represents into more work - but she also said in her last newsletter that the experience was “tremendously thrilling.”
Gibbs reflects on first session
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070514/NEWS/70515001
Fearing his bill to help communities pay for restoration projects to repair mountain pine beetle damage was on track for a certain death in March, Rep. Dan Gibbs came up with a creative funding idea: Add an amendment to Senate Bill 122, which pays for state water projects with loan money, that would devote $1 million to his bill. Only problem was he had just 30 hectic minutes during a House Agriculture Committee meeting on Senate Bill 122 to get the consent he needed to propose the amendment before the committee voted on the measure. “I wish there was a camera (there) because the committee meeting was going on and I was going in and out, constantly talking to people in the hallway, working out this negotiation and getting the buy in from Department of Natural Resources that they’d be willing to fund this,” Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, said during a recent interview to discuss his first legislative session.
RELATED: Bryan Sullivant memorialized at Capitol
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070514/NEWS/70515002
Paschall judge urges case to move forward
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5536273,00.html
Former Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall’s arraignment on charges of attempted felony theft and attempting to profit from past office has been postponed until June 1. Paschall, who is accused of soliciting thousands of dollars from a bonus he offered his former top aide before he left office, could face up to three years in prison if convicted. Monday’s postponement was accompanied by a warning that the case needs to move forward. "This would be the third or fourth time it has been continued," District Court Judge Randall Arp said, urging the defense and the prosecution to get moving on motions and other issues in the case. Arp last week denied a motion from Paschall’s attorney, David Lane, to dismiss the case for lack of probable cause.
RELATED: Ex-Jeffco treasurer's hearing delayed
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5893902
Arizona punished new Castle Rock official
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537127,00.html
A new Castle Rock council member had his law license suspended in Arizona for skimming money from the checking account of a group promoting legal ethics. Hank Lacey, elected last month by a 22-vote margin, admitted taking the money but said his plans to pay it back were derailed by a "memory lapse" brought on by his wife's bout with the flu, his daughter's catching the croup and his efforts to care for a dog dying of cancer. Lacey offered that explanation in a February 2005 e-mail after he was confronted about withdrawing $565.99 from a checking account of a foundation of which he was a member. Lacey did not return calls for comment Monday.
Boulder councilman, restaurateur dies at 69
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537420,00.html
Thomas E. Eldridge, Boulder restaurateur and civic leader, died at Frasier Meadows Retirement Community on Sunday morning. He was 69. Mr. Eldridge, who had served as a Boulder city councilman since 1997, founded Tom's Tavern at the corner of 11th and Pearl streets in 1962 and created the tavern's trademark burger five years later. Just this month, he was inducted into the Boulder County Business Hall of Fame.
RELATED: Eldridge bettered Boulder
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896792
RELATED: Boulder sets special election
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/15/boulder-sets-special-election/
Survey: Basalt divided over growth
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070515/NEWS/105150023
Residents of booming Basalt are divided on how to deal with growth, and they won't provide any clear-cut answers for officials trying to set policy this summer, a survey the town released Monday shows. Almost 27 percent of respondents to a town survey said they want to contain growth within the existing growth boundary - an area deemed appropriate for growth. Imagine that growth boundary as an invisible line around town that defines where growth can occur. But significant minorities cloud the picture. Twenty-three percent of respondents would allow "small adjustments" to the growth boundary. However, the survey doesn't define what that means.
Civil Liberties and Equality
Chief works to soothe relations with activists
http://www.gazette.com/articles/myers_22407___article.html/police_told.html
Colorado Springs police and war protesters haven’t found much common ground lately, but Monday they got friendly enough to talk about favorite TV shows. Police Chief Richard Myers confessed he doesn’t watch cop shows but loves “ER,” “The Office” and “My Name is Earl.” The TV question was the last one posed at a Colorado College forum hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Colorado Springs chapter. In addition to Myers, several of the “St. Paddy’s Day Seven” — activists arrested after trying to march in the parade March 17 — attended. The protesters have accused police of using unnecessary force in removing them from the parade route and have told City Council members there is little chance for reconciliation. But reconciliation appeared to begin Monday.
Race relations meeting to be held
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_Race_relations.html
A community meeting on race relations in Rifle tonight is not a direct result of a recent assault at Rifle High School involving a Hispanic girl and a white girl, but the incident has increased interest, an organizer said Monday. “There’s no way we can say there are not racial tensions in Rifle,” said Irene Goergen, director of religious education and Hispanic liaison for St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rifle. “We just want to see if the community thinks it’s worse or better here than other places and what should be done about it.”
Photo widens rift at school
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896758
Two weeks ago, five Centauri High School friends could collectively claim they were honor students, Falcon athletes, Eagle Scouts, senior class vice president, last year's Outstanding Junior Boy, and nominees for homecoming and prom royalty. Now, at 18, they have left Centauri, accused of being racist and suspected of being dangerous after a 6-month- old photo of four of them with guns and stiff-armed Nazi salutes surfaced on the Web recently. Their classmates blamed them for a one-day school closure May 4 and a missed prom. Even when classes resumed, parents pulled their kids from school, saying they feared what the boys might do. At the center of this storm with the boys is the school's basketball coach, Larry Joe Hunt, one of the few African-Americans in the community from which Centauri draws its 320-plus students. The high school is just over 50 percent Anglo and 47 percent Latino - and less than 1 percent black. Trouble between the coach and the boys had been festering for more than a year.
Slavery speech tonight at CSU-Pueblo
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179196855/9
A well-known American author and historian on slavery will speak tonight at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Ira Berlin's talk, the "History of Slavery in America," is open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m. in the Occhiato University Center West Ballroom. On Wednesday, Berlin will conduct a workshop for kindergarten through 12th-grade American history teachers from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in CSU-Pueblo's Occhiato Ballroom. The workshop is titled "Teaching about Slavery in the Classroom."
Immigration
Need for Greeley ICE office challenged (Briefs)
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896793
A Latino activist group is asking for an independent investigation into whether an immigration enforcement office is needed in Greeley, despite the claims of U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard. Latinos Unidos of Northern Colorado already has told Colorado's other U.S. senator - Ken Salazar - that it opposes the relocation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office to Greeley. ICE investigates criminal activities of illegal immigrants and often assists in their deportation.
RELATED: Latino group to oppose ICE office
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070515/NEWS/70515004
Health Care and Public Safety
Boy, 2, lost in S. Platte
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537437,00.html
Dive teams with Denver Fire were conducting a search in the South Platte River Monday night for the body of a 2-year-old boy whose stroller got swept away by rising waters after a storm hit the area. "We're going to wait until the river subsides and do a pole search," fire spokesman Phil Champagne said. "We're not optimistic at this point. That child can be miles downstream." The incident started at 7:30 p.m. when a 28-year-old woman was walking her son in a stroller along a bike path beside a creek near Rude Park, close to Decatur Street. When the storm hit, "it was like a freak flash flood in the gulch," Champagne said. "She lost control of the stroller."
RELATED: Man swept away; cop saved
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537436,00.html
RELATED: Severe storms prompt tornado warnings; up to 4 inches of hail
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5536871,00.html
RELATED: Toddler, teen lost in torrent
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896136
Fountain Creek flooding tops council session
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179196855/4
The Pueblo City Council renewed its call to begin a series of meetings with communities along Fountain Creek to address flooding solutions, but property owners who've spent the last week cleaning their homes and businesses are asking who will take responsibility for the flood.
'What if' guys face reality
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5537025,00.html
Harry Rhulen and Don Huggins dwell on an ugly side of life, calamities most people would rather not consider. They talk about avian flu, deadly storms, school violence and terrorism, often citing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Rhulen, a former insurance executive, believes the public tends to suffer from "disaster denial." Huggins, a longtime Secret Service agent, says he has "lived on a daily basis" with the prospect of something bad happening. The two are not exactly the life of the party. But their gloomy and pessimistic - they'd say realistic - outlook has a point. They're part of a team that helps schools, companies and other groups identify serious threats and prepare for the worst. Catastrophes are inevitable, they say, but the impact can be lessened with planning.
Health department takes precautions against mosquitoes
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179196855/2
Just like that, the weather has turned hot and occasionally muggy, and mosquitoes have started buzzing around us. Add a little instant swampland from last week's flooding of Fountain Creek, and it's prime territory for the stinging pests. Fortunately, the City-County Health Department started treating standing water for mosquitoes on May 1, using larvicides to kill them where they breed. In June, the department will start spraying for mosquitoes in parks and other public gathering places, or by request at other places.
No charges for man in train incident
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537408,00.html
An Amtrak passenger detained outside Denver after other passengers said he made "threatening statements" about a bomb or a knife was released Monday without criminal charges. Authorities determined that the man, whose name was not released, was not a threat and had done nothing criminal, FBI spokeswoman Rene VonderHaar said. The crew of the eastbound California Zephyr had alerted local police about 9:45 p.m. Sunday, after passengers reported that the man's actions were "troubling," Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.
Crime and Penal Reform
Victims: Rudolph taunting from Supermax
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5536305,00.html
Victims of Eric Rudolph, the anti-abortion extremist who pulled off a series of bombings across the South, say he is taunting them from deep within the nation's most secure federal prison, and authorities say there is little they can do to stop him. Rudolph, who was captured after a five-year manhunt and pleaded guilty in deadly bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and a Birmingham abortion clinic, is serving life in prison at the "Supermax" penitentiary in Florence, Colo. Housed in the most secure part of the prison, he has no computer and little contact with the outside world aside from writing letters. But Rudolph's long essays have been posted on the Internet by a supporter who maintains an Army of God Web site. The Army of God is the same loose-knit group that Rudolph claimed to represent in letters sent after the blasts.
Death penalty upheld for killer of 4 at pizzeria
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537403,00.html
The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the death penalty verdict Monday for Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of the 1993 murders of four people at a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant. "We're happy that the victims are one step closer to having this resolved," said Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers. Dunlap's attorney, Philip Cherner, has 14 days to request the Colorado Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling. "We will also seek relief in the federal courts if necessary," Cherner said in a release. Such an appeal could delay execution by several years.
RELATED: State court upholds death sentence
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896253
Lafayette police defend extending curfew laws
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537415,00.html
Lafayette's curfew is at least an hour earlier than those in Boulder, Louisville and Longmont - places many teens hang out with friends or go for their after-school jobs. The youth curfew in Lafayette is similar to the law in neighboring Erie, but Lafayette police appear to enforce the rule more heavily. "We've had more of a focus on it lately," said Lafayette police Sgt. Fred Palmer. The city issued 88 tickets for curfew violations in 2006, compared with four in Boulder, three in Louisville and 11 in Erie. In Lafayette, the typical punishment for a first-time curfew offender is 10 hours of community service.
Economy
Appeals difficult vs. Nacchio judge
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5537026,00.html
The federal judge in the Joe Nacchio insider trading case has been reversed only 14 times out of 108 appeals during his 17-year career on the bench. And in the cases where U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham was reversed, most aren't relevant to a possible appeal of the Nacchio conviction, said John Holcomb, University of Denver associate professor of business ethics and legal studies, who examined Nottingham's record.
Supreme Court declines to rule on Qwest case
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5536257,00.html
The Supreme Court Monday turned down an appeal from an Iowa telecommunications company that claimed Qwest Communications International Inc. owed it money for wireless phone calls that Qwest connected to its network. At issue in the case, which was brought by Iowa Network Services Inc., is whether federal regulators have the final say on telecom rates or whether local call rates can be set by state officials.
Investing umbrella folds
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5537053,00.html
The umbrella group for a Cherry Creek business holding money for tax-deferred real estate exchanges filed for bankruptcy Monday, raising questions about the status of hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to investors here and across the country. The Richmond, Va.-based 1031 Tax Group filed for Chapter 11 protection less than a year after acquiring Denver's Investment Exchange Group and five other companies around the United States that serve as intermediaries for so-called 1031 transactions.
NASCAR proposal may be non-starter
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537424,00.html
There's a new sheriff in town. And he's had it up to his white goatee with NASCAR. In a sign that the political winds have shifted against building a superspeedway in Commerce City, new Mayor Paul -Natale and a majority of new council members poked some nails into the International Speedway Corp.'s tires Monday. "This is a call-out to ISC," he said. "If you think Commerce City is going to do business the way it has in the past, in back rooms and in secret, that is not how we are going to do business anymore."
GJ sales tax revenue jumps by 12 percent
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_Sales_Tax.html
Sales tax revenue in Grand Junction jumped about 12 percent in April, when compared with the same period last year, in part because of continued strength in department and super stores, a financial report found Monday. Sales tax revenue climbed to $4.1 million in April, up from $3.66 million in April 2006, according to the city’s Department of Administrative Services. The data reflects sales tax activity in March that was collected through April.
Molson Coors to take charge over end of Foster's accord
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5896466
Molson Coors Brewing Co. said Monday it will take a noncash charge in the second quarter after a court ruled Foster's Group Ltd. gave proper notice of its intent to terminate an agreement with Molson Coors. The licensing agreement allowed Molson Coors, one of the world's largest brewers, to manufacture Foster's beer for the U.S. market.
Housing and Homelessness
City wants homeless inside for convention
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537389,00.html
Denver plans to clear downtown streets of the homeless during the Democratic National Convention here in 2008. The city will open an emergency shelter normally used during winter deep freezes, and keep other shelters in the city open 24 hours during the August gathering. In addition, an army of outreach workers will fan out across downtown to persuade the homeless to come inside during the convention. "Shelters will be open the entire time to make certain everyone can go inside and that the outreach folks have a place to take any person from the streets," said Roxane White, Denver's manager of human services. White said the effort is motivated by security concerns and is not just an effort to spruce up Denver's image at a time when the city will be under a media spotlight. Special attention will be paid to the "security zone" around the Pepsi Center, which includes the South Platte River, a favorite campground for the homeless.
Colorado forclosures second in nation for April
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_Foreclosure_Brief.html
Colorado had one foreclosure filing per every 314 households last month to rank second in the nation, a survey found Monday. At the same time, Mesa County’s rate was unchanged. Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last month with one per every 232 households, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based firm that monitors such activity.
Guerrero replaces Carpio at DHA
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_5530485,00.html
The Denver Housing Authority today announced it named Ismael Guerrero as the authority's executive director. Guerrero replaces Sal Carpio, who announced last spring that he is retiring, after more than 12 years at the helm of the authority, which has a $129 million annual budget and more than 300 employees. Guerrero, currently a Business Development Officer for U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., was chosen following a national search and interview process.
Feds limit money for housing group
A reduction in federal funding is cramping the style of Colorado Housing Inc., the largest provider of self-help housing in Southwest Colorado, according to the agency's board president. Nevertheless, CHI received $559,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural-development arm to build 23 single-family houses in Archuleta, La Plata and Montezuma counties in the next two years, Julie Jessen said Monday. "They've told us not to count on full funding for this cycle," said Jessen, who also is special projects coordinator for the town of Pagosa Springs. "So we'll be building fewer houses."
Big profit on Lakewood land
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537409,00.html
The Lakewood Housing Authority bought land next to a planned FasTracks' West Corridor light-rail stop for $1.1 million from private investors who paid $650,000 for the parcel eight days earlier. The value of the 2.5 acres rose 69 percent between Dec. 12, 2006, when the investors, Black Creek Communities and MGL Partners, bought the land and Dec. 20, 2006, when they sold the parcel to the housing authority, records show. "We are completely thrilled to own the parcel," said Bill Luns- ford, the housing authority's development manager. The Lakewood Housing Authority, a quasi-government entity, used funds generated by other affordable-housing units to buy the land to build more affordable housing, he said.
Duplex issue divides
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/NEWS01/705150333/1002/NEWS01
What makes a home a duplex? That is the question before City Council tonight as it hears complaints from local residents upset about neighboring homes that have transformed into duplexes to accommodate more paying renters.
Education
Delay school closing vote, panel urges
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5537404,00.html
A citizens panel recommending the closing of some Denver Public Schools wants to delay a school board vote until at least November, which could push the controversial decision into the election spotlight. Federico Peña, the former Denver mayor leading the A+ Denver Commission, said Monday that closing schools - as many as 30 - would be the biggest challenge facing DPS since mandated busing for integration. To do it right, he urged, DPS must provide as much information as possible about where students displaced by the changes can go. That's unlikely to be completed by July or August, when a vote was expected.
Poudre expelling junior highs
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896063
The Poudre School District is abandoning junior high schools in favor of the middle-school approach, a move 98 percent of Colorado's 178 school districts have already made. So with declining enrollment and worries about a dropout rate that flares among students before high school, the 23,000-enrollment district decided the time was right to make the change. Starting with the 2009-10 school year, ninth-graders will be moved to high school and most sixth-graders will say goodbye to elementary school and hello to middle schools filled with seventh- and eighth-graders. Middle-school conversion has been studied in Poudre for 14 months, with many school officials and parents backing the idea despite the lack of definitive proof middle schools boost academic achievement.
Union’s use of funds in question
http://www.gazette.com/articles/investigation_22411___article.html/district_gustafson.html
Colorado Springs School District 11 is investigating the president of the teacher’s union and other teachers for allegedly misusing public funds. D-11 Chief Financial Officer Glenn Gustafson said the investigation involves the possible improper reimbursement of $1,000 from a district fund for teacher training. The $42,000 fund provided by the district is managed by teachers. The money was paid back to the district, Gustafson said, but a handful of people are being investigated over whether the disbursement was proper. He declined to elaborate because the investigation is ongoing. Irma Valerio, president of the Colorado Springs Education Association, confirmed she is a subject of the investigation for an expense she turned in for a teachers union presidents conference last June.
CMC searches for new president
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/may/15/cmc_searches_new_president/?local_news
For the first time in nearly five years, Colorado Mountain College is searching for a new president. Robert Spuhler has announced plans to retire after five years as president and nearly 20 years working for CMC. His contract officially expires June 30, 2008, but the CMC Board of Trustees voted earlier this month to begin the national search for Spuhler’s replacement. “We are putting together a search committee with representation from all of our constituencies,” said Doris Dewton, chair of the college system’s Board of Trustees. “I look forward to seeing this group come together on the important task of determining the future of our college’s leadership.”
CU 101 course required in dorm
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/15/boulder-campus-cu-101-course-required-in-dorm/
The University of Colorado has sent letters to the 400 students signed up to live next year in the Cheyenne Arapaho dorm — saying they must take a 101 course, or move to another hall. The wide-ranging course explores the history of higher education, and touches on topics including diversity, binge-drinking and the psychology of going away to college. Students in 2005, following a series of racist episodes and bias-motivated crimes on the campus and in Boulder, demanded the course eventually be required for all undergraduates.
RELATED: Letter sent to incoming freshmen regarding CU 101
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/15/letter-sent-incoming-freshmen-regarding-cu-101/
Cops: 2 teens planned massacre at Harrison
http://www.gazette.com/articles/boy_22378___article.html/strickland_students.html
A Harrison High School student arrested earlier this month after police say he planned a massacre of classmates at a pep rally has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The 17-year-old boy is accused of plotting with a 16-year-old girl to shoot as many students as possible in the gymnasium, with the boy attacking from the right side of the gym and the girl from the left.
Military
Colo. Guard still equipped to help
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896197
The Colorado National Guard has a long-standing equipment shortage, but its ability to respond to emergencies has not been hampered by the assignment of equipment to Iraq, officials said. Col. Ken Sanchez, spokesman for the Guard, said Colorado is not facing the wartime equipment shortage that cuts as deeply into force readiness as in neighboring Kansas. "If there's an emergency in Colorado, can we respond?" Sanchez said. "The answer is 'Yes. Absolutely."' Based on current staffing levels of about 5,000 troops, the Colorado National Guard has equipment levels that match about 60 percent of the need, Sanchez said.
Carson hosts meeting about PTSD
http://www.gazette.com/articles/carson_22408___article.html/ptsd_fort.html
A group of congressional staffers met with about two dozen soldiers, spouses and former troops Monday afternoon to begin two days of closeddoor fact-finding meetings at Fort Carson, sources at the post confirmed. The gathering follows a call from nine senators to investigate whether Fort Carson has mishandled or ignored soldier complaints of post-traumatic stress disorder, and whether troops with PTSD were improperly discharged for bad behavior. Prime players in the meeting include veterans activists Steve Robinson and Andrew Pogany. Pogany, a former Fort Carson soldier who was charged with cowardice after he had a mental breakdown in Iraq, has been investigating soldier complaints at Fort Carson since his discharge from the Army.
Soldiers train little for being captured
http://www.gazette.com/articles/soldiers_22400___article.html/iraq_three.html
During Fort Carson training last summer, soldiers in the Baghdad-bound 2nd Brigade Combat Team talked about the possibility of capture in Iraq the same way cavalry troopers discussed capture by warring Indian tribes. “Save the last round for yourself,” one said. They have talked about the prospect of being abducted in Iraq more than they have trained for it.
Carson soldier killed in combat
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537432,00.html
A Fort Carson soldier on his first tour of duty in Iraq was killed last week, Army officials reported. Pfc. Roy L. Jones III, 21, of Houston, died of wounds from small arms fire in Diwaniyah, Iraq, on Friday. Jones was assigned to the 984th Military Police Company, 759th Military Police Battalion, based at Fort Carson. He had enlisted on March 13, 2006, and joined the 984th on Aug. 26, 2006. He was deployed to Iraq on Sept. 16.
VA gets top evaluation in system
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_1B_VA_award.html
Patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Grand Junction tend to be treated better and more quickly than at other centers in the system, and they seem to know it. The Grand Junction center on North Avenue rated tops among the 162 centers around the nation, a ranking that officials said compares favorably with other hospitals. The center’s score of 88.7 for the 2006 fiscal year was a full percentage point higher than any other center in the Department of Veterans Affairs in the aggregate ratings on access to care, quality and patient satisfaction.
Veteran's kids want dad disinterred
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896061
Offspring of veteran Harley Eugene Blackwell, tormented by revelations that their late father was a child abuser, are seeking to have his body exhumed and removed from Fort Logan National Cemetery. But the unusual crusade appears to be stalled, and perhaps doomed, by military regulations. "Gene" Blackwell, an Air Force mechanic who died Sept. 1, 2005, was buried at Fort Logan with military honors because he received an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1963.
Religion
Shredding allegations fly in Episcopal split
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896802
The Rev. Don Armstrong, pastor of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish, shredded financial documents as an auditor swooped in to investigate alleged theft by the minister, according to allegations made in court documents. "So great was the amount of shredding that one shredding machine broke and was replaced and a second shredding machine was required," according to documents filed in litigation over control of the Tejon Street property occupied by a congregation that has seceded from the Episcopal Diocese. "It's incredible," said Alan Crippen, spokesman for Grace Church. "I don't know what we would have had that would have been shredded, and this is completely ungermaine to the dispute about the property."
Energy Policy
Congressmen: No leases for Roan Plateau
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/14/5_15_1a_Roan.html
Cut the money flowing to the Bureau of Land Management to lease the Roan Plateau for energy development, and buy more time for conservationists to save the plateau from bulldozers and drilling rigs. That’s what Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall, D-Colo., on May 9, asked a congressional subcommittee to do as part of a 2008 Interior appropriations bill. The congressmen requested that the committee include in its bill a BLM funding limitation to preclude mineral leasing on the Roan Plateau. BLM spokesman David Boyd said it would cost the agency about $125,000 to lease the entire plateau. Leasing on the plateau may be imminent because of a plan that would open the area to oil and gas development. That plan could be approved at any time. If Udall and Salazar’s request is granted, it would cut off money to the BLM for leasing the Roan between October 2007 and October 2008, giving Congress and conservationists “a one-year breather” to try to find a way to protect the Roan Plateau, Salazar spokeswoman Tara Trujillo said.
Green fuel: On the bio
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5896259
They're cleaner-burning. They're renewable. And now there's another attribute for biofuels. They're a competitive tool against "big box" fuel sellers. Roger Guzman saw sales steadily decline at his Evergreen Mountain Market filling station after a nearby Safeway installed gas pumps and began selling discounted fuel. "I was really bitter at first," he said. "But then I realized that the public wants cheap gas. So I had to swallow hard and figure out how to compete with them." The revelation hit Guzman like a ton of fermented corn. Give the customers something they can't get at Safeway, he decided. Namely the alternative fuels E85, a corn-based ethanol product, and B20, a blend of conventional diesel and biodiesel made from crop oils. As part of the initiative by Gov. Bill Ritter to increase the number of biofuel outlets in Colorado, Guzman installed E85 and B20 pumps in March. He has been impressed with the results. Total fuel sales at his station were up 66 percent in April compared with the same month last year.
Gas-out unlikely to have impact
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/NEWS01/705150352/1002
Local gas station owners and experts predict little damage will be done during a gas boycott scheduled to take place throughout the nation today. Using the Internet to spread the message, consumers fed up with soaring gas prices, which average $3.18 per gallon locally, according to www.coloradogasprices.com, have been asking drivers to not gas up today.
RELATED: Can driver protest cut gas prices?
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070514/NEWS/70514023
Energy firms go hire and hire
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/14/5_15_1a_energy.html
Two of Colorado’s major energy companies, EnCana and Williams, and their contractors are reporting a 73 percent increase from 2006 to 2007 in the number of their employees. The 73 percent rise — from 2,513 employees in 2006 to 4,344 employees in 2007 — was because of a variety of factors, including energy contractors expanding their operations and more aggressive efforts to have companies accurately report their work force totals. “I’m not surprised that it is growing, that it is growing in the double digits, but because it was that high I was surprised,” said Mesa County Administrator Jon Peacock. “And I was expecting a large number.”
Transportation and Infrastructure
TransPort hub nears deal for link to UP rail service
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/airlines/article/0,2777,DRMN_23912_5537024,00.html
Developers planning a multibillion-dollar transportation hub east of Denver are close to finalizing a major agreement to bring rail service to the area. The deal would connect the so-called TransPort development to Union Pacific Railroad's KP line, which links Denver with Kansas City. The Schuck Corp. - TransPort's lead developer - and Union Pacific still are working out details. But tentative plans call for a logistics center that could connect up to 100 businesses to the KP line. The center would be located east of Front Range Airport and less than a quarter mile from the line.
City seeks land to revitalize rail stop
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537411,00.html
The Denver City Council on Monday night approved spending $1 million to buy a key parcel of land adjacent to the light- rail station at 10th Avenue and Osage Street. The city is hoping to use the land to jump-start transit-oriented development in the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood. Denver will work with a private developer to create a mixed-use project that likely will include housing, retail and other uses, officials say.
Environment and Conservation
Compromise unveiled to protect national park
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5537402,00.html
It was an unusual site for an unusual moment: Four members of Colorado's congressional delegation, two Republicans and two Democrats, gathered at a campground amphitheater to announce a compromise on a major environmental matter. On Monday, with the meadows of Moraine Park behind them, the foursome announced proposed legislation to designate 95 percent of Rocky Mountain National Park, nearly 250,000 acres, as a wilderness area, cementing its protected status into law and preventing further development. U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, a Democrat who has been pushing for the legislation since arriving in Congress in 1999, called preserving the park an "obligation."
RELATED: Wild deal to protect RMNP
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5896255
RELATED: Park protection plan unveiled
http://greeleytribune.com/article/20070515/NEWS/105150081
RELATED: A call for wilderness
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/NEWS01/705150350/1002
Lamborn backs bill to study storage
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179196855/1
A bill that revives the Preferred Storage Options Plan has been introduced in Congress. U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, late last week introduced a bill that includes provisions from an unsuccessful 2004 version of PSOP. Lamborn’s bill would authorize $4 million for study of excess-capacity contracts for Lake Pueblo storage to users within the basin and Aurora, as well as the enlargement of Lake Pueblo and Turquoise Lake. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is the co-sponsor. “Growth in Colorado, while positive, can strain availability of critical resources like water,” Lamborn said. “It is imperative that we find common-sense, broad-based solutions to address the growth impacts we face, including taking a serious and thoughtful look at expanding and improving storage facilities that already exist.” The Lamborn bill is substantially different from Fryingpan-Arkansas legislation introduced earlier this year by U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo.
EPA grants $200,000 each to two metro-area projects
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5896460
Two projects in the metro area are getting a total of $400,000 in brownfield grants from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up contaminated property. The city of Denver will receive a $200,000 grant to clean up 3 acres of contaminated land it's buying from the Regional Transportation District at West 10th Avenue and Osage Street. Ultimately, it will seek proposals for the property.
Government seeks terrorist label for arsonists
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070514/NEWS/105140066
Chelsea Gerlach was 16 when she attended an Earth First! gathering in Idaho, where she met an instructor in monkey wrenching - sabotage in the name of protecting the environment - who called himself Avalon. According to federal prosecutors, she developed a crush on William C. Rodgers, and joined his cell of the Earth Liberation Front in Eugene known as The Family, which later became responsible for 20 arsons around the West that did $40 million in damage, including the 1998 fire that destroyed a restaurant and other facilities at the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado.
Breck steps up beetle battle
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070514/NEWS/70514007
As an epochal wave of mountain pine beetles sweeps south through Summit County, officials in Breckenridge hope to reduce the loss of trees by taking the battle door to door. “If I had known it was going to go this fast, I would have tried to do it sooner,” said Dan Dahlberg, watching as Breckenridge beetle inspector Chip Buttrick marked trees on his forested lot with orange spray paint. Dahlberg was referring to the startling speed with which the voracious bugs have chewed their way through local lodgepole pine forests. When he first had his property surveyed for beetles last year, he found 10 infested trees. By mid-May of this year, that number had climbed to 38.
City, Ute Water push for water conservation
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/05/15/5_15_1B_Water_Conservation.html
Officials with the Grand Valley’s largest domestic water provider and the city of Grand Junction said Monday they want to see a more concerted effort to conserve water, pitching everything from requirements placed on new housing developments to changes in the city’s landscaping code. Such measures, particularly those aimed at preserving treated water, gain importance as drought conditions linger or resurface and demands on water increase across the West, Ute Water Conservancy District managers and City Council members said during a joint meeting at Tiara Rado Golf Course. Local governments and water providers created the Drought Response Information Project in 2005 to ask citizens to voluntarily reduce water consumption, but officials made it clear they want to do better.
Early, average spring runoff expected
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1179196855/3
An early runoff is expected as warm spring temperatures melt the snowpack in the Arkansas Basin ahead of schedule. “We’re looking at an early peak runoff in the next one or two weeks,” said Pete Juba, water resources supervisor for the Pueblo Board of Water Works. “I’d say it’s about two weeks early, depending on how cold it gets up there.”
Operator of wildlife center near Silt not concerned about state proposal
http://postindependent.com/article/20070515/VALLEYNEWS/105150030
Proposed new state rules that have concerned major wildlife sanctuaries should not be a problem for a Silt-area facility, its operator said Monday. Some sanctuaries worry whether they can meet the bonding obligations to cover expenses arising if they closed. But Nanci Limbach, of the Pauline S. Schneegas Wildlife Foundation near Silt, said most of her facility's operations wouldn't be affected because she doesn't do much sanctuary work. Limbach also said her center has a contingency plan that would go into effect if it closed and would use foundation money to pay for her animals' care. Even if the foundation had no money, the animals would remain the responsibility of the center's board of directors, she said.
The bears are back in town
http://postindependent.com/article/20070515/VALLEYNEWS/105150021
Edith Gonzalez went looking for juice Monday and got a jolt of excitement instead. The 12-year-old Glenwood Springs resident had gone to grab a drink for her sister and spotted a bear on the balcony of her Midland Avenue home, which backs up to prime bear habitat on Red Mountain. Edith said she worried the bear might have been young enough that its mother might be around, so she and her sister tried to remain quiet and not disturb it. She then spoke to her mom, Sylvia, who had taken a trip to the grocery store, and the family contacted police. Glenwood Springs police Lt. Bill Kimminau said the bear "looked like a little 1-year-old working his way down Midland."
Opinion
Udall vs. Schaffer, a choice not an echo
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5894666
It will start as one of 2008's most closely watched U.S. Senate races, cast as left versus right in a state where the middle makes all the difference. Mark Udall versus Bob Schaffer. Finally, Colorado Republicans have a candidate. The Democrats have had a pretty good idea who their candidate would be since 2005, when Udall announced his intentions. Republicans have been mostly without a standard-bearer since Sen. Wayne Allard announced his retirement in January. (We say "mostly" because former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis jumped in and out of the race earlier this year faster than you could say "lingering ethics issues.") Schaffer is hardly a consensus favorite of Colorado Republicans. He lost his party's 2004 Senate nomination when GOP leaders went out looking for a more viable alternative. They came up with better-known but totally inexperienced Pete Coors, who nonetheless walloped Schaffer in the primary.
Juniper: Wind power on the move in Colorado
http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/speakout/2007/05/post_60.html
Peter Blake makes an overly general, undocumented and largely erroneous leap with his blanket statement that “renewables cost more.” He probably hasn’t seen the study that chastised Xcel for costing consumers millions of dollars in unnecessary charges by buying natural gas plants instead of wind in recent years (conducted by a Boulder group and published in North American Windpower in August, 2006). Nor has he probably done the research to learn that a good estimate of the external costs (carbon dioxide and other forms of pollution, mined lands, health/injuries, etc.) of coal-fired electricity could be up to $.16 per kilowatt hour....which if internalized through a truthful marketplace would very quickly make that supposedly cheapest option the most-expensive...by a long-shot.
Park may go wild, and it's about time
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/15/park-may-go-wild/
When Rocky Mountain National Park was first recommended for wilderness protection, Watergate was in the headlines. More than three decades later, a bipartisan congressional compromise appears likely to realize the vision of 1974. Finally.
RELATED: People push designation for RMNP
http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/OPINION01/705150323/1014/CUSTOMERSERVICE02
Overseas deployments not just a political issue
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, is outraged that her concerns about the state National Guard have been used by Republicans to suggest that she is using a recent tornado as political fodder to protest the Iraq war. Got that? After Greensburg, in the southwest corner of the state, was destroyed by a tornado, Sebelius said that National Guard troops and equipment that could have been sent quickly were unavailable because they had been deployed to Iraq. A satellite radio station alleged that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean had called Sebelius to coach her on how to blame the war and the Bush administration for limiting her state's ability to respond to a natural disaster. Then a poster on a conservative Web site alleged that Sebelius had phoned Sen. Sam Brownback (who, coincidentally, is a Republican candidate for president) and confessed that her party's leadership had urged her to use the tornado to make some political hay. The DNC, in turn, fired off two cease-and-desist letters, and Sebelius publicly claimed to be outraged. Amid all of that rhetoric is a fact that should not be ignored: Portions of the Kansas National Guard were not available to respond to Greensburg.
Fighting fire with funding
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5894665
The restoration of $2 million in U.S. Forest Service funding for Colorado fire management projects this year is welcome and potentially lifesaving news. Until Colorado's congressional delegation intervened, the money was set to be diverted to other forestry programs as a midyear effort to balance the books at the service, which manages federal forests, recreation and wilderness areas. The restored Colorado money is intended to thin forest land of easily ignitable tinder that can turn a manageable fire into an inferno. That the administration even considered diverting the money to pay for other expenses points out a systemic problem with the agency's budgeting that ought to be addressed.
Lewis: Private takeovers leave firms vulnerable
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5896260
Financiers are taking the world private. Whether it's radio-station conglomerate Clear Channel Communications, hospital operator HCA Inc., credit-card processor First Data Corp., utility giant TXU Corp. or automaker Chrysler, private equity is out to conquer. Large pension funds and other institutional investors have increasingly poured money into buyout firms, chasing better returns than the stock market can offer.
Carroll: Seeing Imus everywhere
Finally, the indefensible. Last week “Gunny” Bob Newman said he wants “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. And the FBI and the NSA should monitor their phones and their e-mails ... as well as bug their places of work and their residences. If they don’t like the idea, or if they refuse, throw their asses out of this country.” Newman’s extremist tirade on behalf of the unconstitutional monitoring of an entire class of citizens based upon their religion is, of course, vile — and that is the kindest thing that can be said for it. If Newman were more influential, maybe I’d be more alarmed. The best protection against such bilge is the radio dial. Turn it to sports talk. Turn it to music. Turn it to any island of sanity and let Gunny Bob rant to his heart’s content. The great thing about the “public airwaves,” after all, is that there are so many of them.
Clark: Revitalizing the American Dream
http://postindependent.com/article/20070515/COLUMNISTS/105150017
I've been thinking about the American Dream lately.And I'm not talking about Matthew McConaughey. I'm referring to the idea "that through hard work, courage and determination one could achieve prosperity," as defined by Wikipedia.
Campos: The weight of evidence
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5537069,00.html
Gina Kolata's new book Rethinking Thin is a welcome addition to a series of recent publications that have taken on the daunting task of trying to get Americans to think more rationally about the relationship between body weight, dieting and health.
Quillen: Call me a skeptic
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_5894671
In grade school, I learned about the marvels of modern science, among them DDT, a chemical which would soon eliminate insect-borne disease from our planet with no adverse side-effects. Then came Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring," as well as the discovery of resistant mosquitoes. We're a lot more careful about pesticides these days, and few if any scientists promote any chemical as a panacea. Another memory from grade school concerns swamps. Back then, the science textbooks assured us they were nothing but useless breeding grounds for pestilence. Today we call those swamps "wetlands," and we protect them rather than fill them. So to say that a vast majority of scientists agrees on something doesn't make it true, whether it's luminiferous ether or anthropogenic global warming. The scientific process means our understandings will change as a result of experiment, criticism, discussion and analysis. Anthropogenic global warming may be our best explanation at the moment, but that doesn't mean it's true, and it should be questioned and criticized, not taken on faith. In the meantime, the things we're supposed to do to combat global warming - reduce emissions, use more renewable energy like wind and solar, improve efficiency, grow more food close to home, walk more and drive less - are all things that would make us a more prosperous, secure and healthy society. In other words, they're things we should do anyway, whether global warming results from our emissions or variations in solar radiation. So why can't we just do them?
Election
Presidential candidates divided on Iraq exit
In Congress and among the American public, debate is growing over how — and how soon — U.S. combat troops can be extricated from the war in Iraq. But among the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, the debate is not only about bringing troops home, but over how many should stay behind.
Top GOP Hopefuls Keep Distance on Immigration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401356.html?hpid=topnews
Less than a year ago, Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the most visible Republican in the fight for immigration reform, having joined forces with Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to clamp down on border security and create a guest-worker program for the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants. Now, a renewed effort is underway, but this time without McCain as Kennedy's co-star. As he stumps in Iowa and New Hampshire, McCain has handed off day-to-day negotiations on immigration to his staff and to fellow Senate Republicans Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). In his formal presidential announcement speech in New Hampshire last month, he made no mention of the issue.
Republican presidential candidates stick to the playbook
Scholars and strategists question whether the time-tested tactic -- stressing small government, traditional values and a strong military -- will work in the 2008 race.
Debate Spotlight Is Giuliani's -- to Use or Lose
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401437.html?hpid=topnews
Ten Republican presidential candidates will gather in South Carolina tonight for their second debate of the month, with much of the focus likely to be on former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and his continuing effort to extricate himself from a controversy over his position on abortion. Giuliani, the putative front-runner for the GOP nomination, has struggled for the past two weeks after declaring at the first GOP debate in California that it would be "okay" if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, but then added that it would also be "okay" if the justices upheld that ruling.
RELATED: Abortion stances pose risks for Romney, Giuliani
Gingrich sends out teaser on GOP presidential bid
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday there is a very good chance he will get into the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but he won't decide until after September. "I think right now that it is a great possibility," he said. "I don't want to get into all this stuff. I want to focus on what we have to do to make America successful."
Clinton courting non-voters
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton includes a biographical section on her campaign Web site titled "Mother and Advocate." On the issues she is called "A Champion for Women." She also has a calculator for women to enter their age, race, education level and home state to learn how much money they are losing for want of an equal-pay law. Those are but a few of the campaign's small tips of the hat to women, the largest segment of the electorate and a crucial component of Clinton's strategy to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency. "A big piece of what we're working on is finding ways to reach women," said Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to the campaign.
Obama doesn't toe line at labor forum
Sen. Barack Obama served up some unusual rhetoric for a tough union audience here Monday, at one point even finding something nice to say about Wal-Mart, the classic target of the labor movement. Obama said Wal-Mart's business model for managing its inventory efficiently is something "we should admire," though he quickly added that, "as profitable as they are, there's no reason they can't afford to pay" their workers a living wage. And, he said, "I won't shop there," though he left it unclear whether he boycotts the retailer along with many union members or just dislikes their merchandise. The remarks were sprinkled -- with a few other comments atypical of the venue -- into Obama's mostly labor-friendly comments at a lengthy town hall meeting with the AFL-CIO, after which some members gave the Illinois Democrat credit for departing from the usual union hall script.
Presidential Candidates to File Financial Disclosure Forms Today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401439.html
Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph W. Giuliani scooped up roughly $11 million on the speaking circuit last year, while potential first spouse Bill Clinton trailed close behind with about $10 million in speech fees, according to sources familiar with financial disclosure forms that will be filed today. The former New York mayor was a popular draw for his hour-long talks about leadership and the lessons learned in the ashes of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Clinton's speeches -- mostly focused on the impact that a global economy will have on the future -- have been a consistent source of income for the former president and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
19 file for Millender-McDonald seat
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-house15may15,1,2096120.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
Nineteen candidates have filed nomination papers to be on the ballot in a June 26 special election in the 37th [California] Congressional District. The seat was left vacant last month by the death of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, a Democrat.
Effective and Ethical Government
Democrats Under Scrutiny As They Shape Lobbying Bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051402086.html
House Democratic leaders yesterday discussed key elements of a long-awaited lobbying reform bill, which has been seen as a signal test of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge to bring unprecedented transparency to the Democratic-led institution. While the legislation would open congressional lobbying to greater public scrutiny, its contours hint at a behind-the-scenes battle by the leadership to retain its most sweeping new measures.
Civil Liberties and Equality
White House Edits to Privacy Board's Report Spur Resignation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051402198.html
The Bush administration made more than 200 revisions to the first report of a civilian board that oversees government protection of personal privacy, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials deemed "potentially problematic" intrusions on civil liberties, according to a draft of the report obtained by The Washington Post. One of the panel's five members, Democrat Lanny J. Davis, resigned in protest Monday over deletions ordered by White House lawyers and aides. The changes came after the congressionally created Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board had unanimously approved the final draft of its first report to lawmakers, renewing an internal debate over the board's independence and investigative power.
Guantánamo Detainees’ Suit Challenges Fairness of Military’s Repeat Hearings
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15gitmo.html?ref=washington
The military system of determining whether detainees are properly held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, includes an unusual practice: If Pentagon officials disagree with the result of a hearing, they order a second one, or even a third, until they approve of the finding. These “do-overs,” as some critics call them, are among the most controversial parts of the military’s system of determining whether detainees are enemy combatants, and the fairness of the repeat hearings is at the center of a pivotal federal appeals court case. On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit begins consideration of the first of what are expected to be scores of challenges to the military panels’ decisions that detainees are enemy combatants and are properly held.
Al-Qaeda Cited Often As Padilla's Trial Opens
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400006.html
After Jose Padilla was arrested five years ago as the "dirty bomber," his mug shot, tanned and glowering, became the face of domestic U.S. terrorism. But as his trial on charges of participating in a "conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim" opened here Monday, the case against the former Taco Bell worker and convert to Islam has shifted and shrunk, reflecting the Bush administration's difficulties in pursuing terrorism suspects. In the case presented to the jury, Padilla is no longer alleged to have plotted to set off a radioactive, or "dirty," bomb. Nor is he alleged to have played a role in any other specific violent plots, in the United States or anywhere else.
RELATED: Padilla trial is shaded by the specter of Al Qaeda
RELATED: After 5 Years, Padilla Goes on Trial in Terror Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15padilla.html
Fla. doctor said he'd treat anti-U.S. forces
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-14-florida-doctor_N.htm
A Florida doctor accused of pledging his life to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden testified Monday that he promised to treat Iraqis who fought Americans while he worked at a military hospital in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir said that he had pledged to treat those who were injured in Iraq defending their homes, but that he did not expect any of them to be taken hundreds of miles from Iraq to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was working at a military hospital in 2004 and 2005. Sabir said he believed that his promise to give medical attention to injured Iraqis was consistent with his oath as a physician to treat anyone who needs it.
Prosecutor: A valentine held names of detainees
A Navy lawyer sent a human rights lawyer a Valentine's Day card with Guantanamo Bay detainees' names and intelligence about them tucked inside, prosecutors said Monday. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz's actions endangered the lives of the detainees and American troops on the front line in the war on terrorism, prosecutor Lt. James Hoffman said during opening statements in Diaz's court-martial at Norfolk Naval Station. Diaz is charged with failing to obey a lawful general regulation, engaging in conduct unbecoming an officer by wrongfully transmitting classified documents to an unauthorized person, and turning over to an unauthorized person secret information related to national defense.
Bills Would Affirm Anti-Bias Laws Cover Sexual Orientation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401333.html
In an effort to clear up conflicting interpretations of civil service law, legislation has been introduced to provide protection for federal employees against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Bills sponsored by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) would affirm that the government's gay employees may appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board and that the Office of Special Counsel may prosecute cases in which employees believe they have encountered bias, such as a supervisor who fires a worker because of his or her sexual orientation.
Foreign Policy
Cheney Says Middle East Tour Yields Pledges of Support
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400070.html
Vice President Cheney, returning to Washington from a Middle East tour, said today he received pledges of support from Arab countries to help stabilize Iraq but that it was also important to make progress "simultaneously" on Arab-Israeli peace. In a brief question-and-answer session with pool reporters on his plane after leaving Jordan, Cheney also dismissed the notion that there was any contradiction between his tough talk about Iran during the trip and White House plans for the U.S. ambassador to Iraq to meet with Iranian officials in Baghdad.
Search for Troops Is 'in Vain,' Insurgents Declare
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400009.html
As a massive hunt for three missing American soldiers continued into its third day on Monday, a front group for al-Qaeda in Iraq that claims to have captured them warned the U.S. military to stop searching, calling it "a venture in vain." The group suggested the abductions were to avenge the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl in the same area and abuses committed by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib and other prisons. "We say to you that what search for your soldiers you may do will not lead you to anything except fatigue, and setbacks for you. Your soldiers are firmly in our hands," the Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement posted on insurgent Web sites.
RELATED: U.S.: Insurgents likely seized missing troops
Baghdad market reopens after latest bombing
The Sadriya market has been cleaned of the pools of blood and the scattered flesh. It looked almost normal Monday as Kumail Ali Mussa stood in his car accessory shop on the street where 16 people had been killed the day before. It was 2:30 p.m. and the market, which once stayed open until sunset, was shutting down. The fact that it had opened at all was a minor miracle. This was the fourth major bombing there. The previous ones, in December, February and April, killed more than 320 people. Mussa resigned himself to coming back to the decades-old commercial center. He had gone home in shock the previous night and awakened in the morning afraid he would not survive the next attack. But with a wife, children and parents to feed, he didn't have the luxury of shutting down.
New Detainees Strain Iraq's Jails
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051402265.html
The capture of thousands of new suspects under the three-month-old Baghdad security plan has overwhelmed the Iraqi government's detention system, forcing hundreds of people into overcrowded facilities, according to Iraqi and Western officials. Nearly 20,000 people were in Iraqi-run prisons, detention camps, police stations and other holding cells as of the end of March, according to a U.N. report issued last month, an increase of more than 3,500 from the end of January. The U.S. military said late last week that it was holding about 19,500 detainees, up more than 3,000 since the U.S. and Iraqi governments began implementing the security plan in mid-February.
Tehran Both Warns And Reassures U.S.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400189.html
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned yesterday that Iran would retaliate against any U.S. strike on his country and urged U.S. troops to "pack their bags" and leave the Persian Gulf region. But during a visit yesterday to the United Arab Emirates, he also acknowledged that Tehran is "ready and prepared" to hold talks with the United States. The first U.S.-Iran bilateral talks are tentatively set for May 28 or earlier in Baghdad, say U.S. and Iranian officials. Ahmadinejad's comments reflect a tempered tone from the hard-line leader, who said the decision was made in order to "support the Iraqi people."
RELATED: Husband of U.S. Scholar Refutes Claim that Wife Is Spy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400231.html
RELATED: Inspectors Cite Big Gain by Iran on Nuclear Fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/world/middleeast/15iran.html?ref=world
Pakistani blast kills 24; uproar in parliament
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500262.html
A bomb killed 24 people in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, while in the capital opposition politicians walked out of parliament, forcing the house to postpone a debate on weekend violence in Karachi. No one claimed responsibility for the suspected suicide blast in the lobby of a hotel popular with Afghans in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, where militants opposed to government support for the United States have launched attacks. There was no indication the blast was linked to weekend violence between pro-government and opposition activists in the southern city of Karachi which killed nearly 40 people.
RELATED: Gunmen kill U.S., Pakistani soldiers
Palestinian interior minister calls it quits
The Palestinian interior minister quit in frustration Monday over a surge in factional violence in the Gaza Strip that has cast the future of the Palestinian power-sharing government into doubt. After less than two months on the job, Hani Kawasmeh said he was stepping down because neither side of the factional divide, Fatah or Hamas, would give him the power necessary to integrate competing security agencies into a unified force capable of reestablishing order in the increasingly lawless Gaza Strip.
Somalia Agrees to U.N. Probe On Abuses
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401282.html
Somalia's transitional government will allow a top U.N. human rights official to visit the country to investigate widespread allegations of war crimes, disappearances, illegal detentions and other abuses, the United Nations' chief aid officer said Monday after a visit to Somalia's beleaguered capital, Mogadishu. John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the transitional government did not accept any of the accusations leveled against it but had agreed to allow an independent investigation.
Japan to Vote on Modifying Pacifist Charter Written by U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/world/asia/15japan.html
The Japanese Parliament passed a bill on Monday calling for a national referendum on amendments to the country’s pacifist Constitution. The government will be able to hold the referendum as early as 2010, but experts say it may take far longer than three years to persuade voters and opposition lawmakers to back constitutional change. Polls show that Japanese remain split, especially on the Constitution’s Article 9, which renounces war and forbids Japan to have a full-fledged military.
Philippine vote marred by violence
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-05-14-philippines-vote_N.htm
Eight people died Monday during midterm elections to replace the entire House of Representatives, half of the Senate and nearly 17,500 governors, mayors and other local officials. The fatalities brought the nationwide death toll to at least 121 since campaigning began four months ago. The 2004 election left 189 dead.
Rice begins Russian visit as tensions rise with U.S.
Amid the worst chill in U.S.-Russian relations since the Soviet era, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Monday for talks aimed at persuading the Kremlin that a U.S.-planned missile shield in Eastern Europe poses no threat to Russia. Wariness of Washington's bid for an anti-ballistic missile defense system based in the Czech Republic and Poland has spread throughout Europe, but opposition to the plan is fiercest in Russia, where leaders remain convinced the shield could one day provide the infrastructure for offensive weapons. The Bush administration says that the shield is needed to defend European and U.S. troops based there against a potential attack from Iran. Tehran does not have long-range ballistic missile capability, but it could develop that ability by 2015, U.S. officials say.
Sarkozy considering leftist as foreign minister
Right-wing president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy has asked a popular leftist politician and prominent human rights campaigner to be his foreign minister, political sources said yesterday. Bernard Kouchner is a former Socialist health minister who cofounded the relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, and it was not clear if he would accept the proposal. His appointment would represent a major surprise and could have a profound consequence on France's foreign policy.
Colombian Lawmakers Arrested
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051402239.html
The Colombian Supreme Court on Monday ordered the arrest of five more congressmen for alleged links with illegal paramilitary groups, bringing to 14 the number of lawmakers charged in the widening "para-politics" scandal that has shaken this Andean country and its conservative government. Four of the five have been taken into custody. The attorney general's office also ordered the arrest of six former members of Congress, including Eleonora Pineda, who is well-known for her open friendship with paramilitary commanders. Authorities have accused the lawmakers -- as well as several local officials -- of meeting with paramilitary commanders in 2001 in Santa Fe de Ralito, a town the government had set aside as a haven for negotiations with paramilitary groups, and of signing a document in which they pledged to "refound the fatherland" and "build a new Colombia."
Toll of drug war rises in Mexico
The newly appointed head of a drug intelligence unit in the attorney general's office was shot and killed Monday in a street ambush here that dealt a new blow to President Felipe Calderon's campaign against this nation's drug traffickers. Officials said several assailants waited for Jose Nemesio Lugo Felix, director of the attorney general's "Information Against Delinquency" unit, trapping his SUV on a narrow street. Such assassinations have become common in many border and port cities of Mexico but are rare in the nation's capital.
Immigration
U.N. Official Says He’s Been Denied Access to U.S. Immigrant Jails
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/15deny.html
A United Nations human rights official said he was barred from visiting an immigration detention center in New Jersey yesterday. It was the second time he was denied access to an American immigration jail on a weeklong monitoring tour. The official, Jorge Bustamante, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said he was informed over the weekend that his visit to detained immigrants in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold, scheduled for yesterday, had been canceled. Mr. Bustamante said he had received no explanation. Mr. Bustamante was barred from a May 7 visit to the T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center in Taylor, Tex., where illegal immigrant families, including children, are held. Officials of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency in charge of that center, said they canceled the visit because of a pending lawsuit over conditions there by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Marriage and Family Issues
Seeking gay marriage, not civil unions
The state Supreme Court took up the issue of same-sex marriage. Connecticut is the first state in the nation to pass a civil-unions law without court intervention. Eight gay and lesbian couples, considering civil unions inferior, are suing over the state's refusal to grant them marriage licenses. They want the court to rule that the state's marriage law is unconstitutional because it applies only to heterosexual couples and denies same-sex couples the financial, social and emotional benefits of marriage. The state argues that Connecticut's 2005 civil unions law gives the couples the equality they seek.
Health Care and Public Safety
Oklahoma Chides Insurer in Medicare Marketing Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15medicare.html?ref=washington
In the first major investigation of Medicare marketing, the Oklahoma insurance commissioner has documented widespread misconduct by agents working for Humana and has ordered the company to take corrective action to protect consumers against high-pressure sales tactics. The commissioner, Kim Holland, said some agents had enrolled Medicare recipients in Humana products that “they did not understand and did not want.” At least 68 agents did not have the licenses needed to sell insurance in Oklahoma, Ms. Holland said Monday in an interview.
Sports Leagues Team Up to Battle Drugs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401650.html?hpid=topnews
Representatives of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the U.S. Olympic Committee have begun discussions with the White House and key federal agencies to explore possible information-sharing and other forms of cooperation to address the problem of performance-enhancing drugs in sport. Although the scale and form of the cooperation is still taking shape, officials from the sports bodies and federal agencies say trading information about drug distribution networks could potentially help sports leagues and governing Olympic bodies more effectively monitor athletes while providing federal investigators with tips and leads.
FDA Review Finds FluMist Vaccine To Be Effective in Young Patients
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401309.html
MedImmune's nasal flu vaccine is effective at preventing influenza in children younger than 5, according to a Food and Drug Administration review of the company's clinical testing results on the product. Details of the agency's review were released yesterday in preparation for an FDA advisory panel meeting tomorrow on whether FluMist should be approved for the children. The vaccine is already approved for people ages 5 to 49, leaving the Gaithersburg company unable to tap a key market interested in avoiding needles.
Development Rises on St. Louis Area Flood Plains
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/15flood.html?ref=us
Miles and miles of bigger and stronger levees have been built along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers since the deadly floods of 1993, and millions of dollars have been spent on drainage improvements. Yet as the rush of water that caused the Missouri River to overflow its banks and submerge dozens of towns last week rolled toward St. Louis on Monday, attention was turned to a metropolitan region that since 1993 has seen runaway residential and commercial development in the rivers’ flood paths.
Justices Turn Down Drug Patent Dispute
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/business/15amgen.html
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a patent dispute between the biotechnology drug producer Amgen and two other companies involving the Amgen anemia drug Epogen. Despite passing on this case, the justices have recently shown heightened interest in patent law, taking up half a dozen cases in the last two years and issuing two decisions in April. Amgen began the dispute in 1997 when it accused Aventis Pharmaceuticals, now a unit of Sanofi-Aventis of Paris, and Shire Human Genetic Therapies, a division of the British drug developer Shire, of infringing its patents on Epogen.
Supreme Court orders review of award in Ford rollover case
Moving again to rein in large verdicts that punish companies, the Supreme Court on Monday set aside a San Diego jury's award of $55 million against Ford Motor Co. for a rollover accident involving its popular Explorer. In a one-line order, the justices told a California appeals court to reconsider the amount of the punitive verdict. The ruling does not affect the $27.6 million in compensatory damages that were awarded to a 51-year-old mother of two who was paralyzed after her Explorer rolled over in 2002. Juries may award damages to compensate victims for wrongful injuries, and they can award additional money to punish the offenders. In the 1990s, the Supreme Court concluded that unrestrained punitive verdicts might violate the Constitution; since then, the justices have searched for a way to limit such damages.
Crime and Penal Reform
Justices Deny New Hearing in Death Row Case
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400232.html
A split Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a death row inmate who had told his attorney not to present evidence that could spare his life does not deserve a new hearing now that he has changed his mind. The court said that Jeffrey Timothy Landrigan did not deserve a hearing to determine whether his lawyer was ineffective because Landrigan had forbidden counsel to present testimony at his sentencing that might have mitigated the jury's decision that he deserved the death penalty. "The district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Landrigan could not establish prejudice based on his counsel's failure to present the evidence he now wishes to offer," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority. "Landrigan's mitigation evidence was weak."
RELATED: Justices’ Vote in Death Case Is Close Again, but Differing
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15scotus.html?ref=washington
Thomas memoir to get large first printing
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-14-thomas-memoir_N.htm
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' autobiography, My Grandfather's Son, will be out on Oct. 16, according to publisher HarperCollins. The announced first printing for the memoir, for which Thomas signed a $1 million-plus contract in 2003, is 250,000 copies. "It's a sizeable commitment," says Charlotte Abbott, a senior editor at Publishers Weekly, which reported fall printing figures last week. Abbott says that publishers' figures tend to be inflated but that the estimate for Thomas' book suggests something more: "They expect it to be a best seller. This is enough copies to get out and make a splash." Since his tumultuous confirmation hearings in 1991, Thomas has remained the most controversial justice.
MySpace is asked to reveal names of sex offenders
Top law enforcement officers from eight states asked MySpace.com on Monday to turn over the names of registered sex offenders using the social networking website. In a letter, the attorneys general asked MySpace how many registered sex offenders were using the site and where they lived. North Carolina Atty. Gen. Roy Cooper signed the letter, along with attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Cooper's office said media outlets in 2006 "reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children."
Economy
Mixed Results on Eve of Inflation Numbers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/business/15stox.html
Wall Street closed narrowly mixed yesterday as investors, uneasy about the government’s coming inflation data, cashed in some of their gains from the market’s months of rallying. Blue chip stocks managed a modest increase after DaimlerChrysler said that it would sell 80.1 percent of its money-losing Chrysler Group to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity group, for $7.4 billion. But the overall stock market dipped, with many investors wary ahead of today’s release of the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, a crucial measure of inflation.
Bank Rebukes Wolfowitz On Ethics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401624.html?hpid=topnews
A World Bank investigating committee sharply rebuked President Paul D. Wolfowitz, concluding that he broke ethics rules and undermined the integrity of the institution in engineering a hefty pay raise for his girlfriend. "These actions manifest a lack of understanding for and a disregard for the institution as a public international organization," declared the committee's report, which was distributed to the bank's executive directors yesterday and released publicly last night. It calls on the executive board to assess "whether Mr. Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible."
RELATED: World Bank panel finds Wolfowitz broke rules
RELATED: Cheney: Wolfowitz should remain chief
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-14-wolfowitz-cheney_N.htm
Cerberus's Sharp-Toothed Ways
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401492.html?hpid=topnews
In more than a decade of buying into down-and-out companies across three continents, Cerberus Capital Management has applied a similar strategy to most of its targets: cut, cut and cut some more. Now Chrysler is set to join a list of acquisitions that includes long-haul trucker Fruehauf, Air Canada and lingerie maker Frederick's of Hollywood. Many of those companies have experienced turnarounds under Cerberus's slashing ways, but not without pain. New York's Cerberus bought more than 600 struggling Albertsons supermarkets last year and laid off nearly 1,000 workers within months. Last fall, the firm bought the on-the-brink Blue Bird school bus manufacturer; earlier this month, Cerberus closed its Canadian bus plant and let go 130 workers. Cerberus bought a North Carolina textile company out of bankruptcy in 2004 and closed two mills within the year. It bought the Alamo and National car rental chains out of bankruptcy in 2004 and moved them from high-rent South Florida to more-affordable Tulsa.
RELATED: Daimler to Split With Chrysler, At a Cost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400004.html
RELATED: How Chrysler marriage failed
RELATED: '98 Daimler pact held promise for great cars, but few materialized
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/05/15/uncoupling_a_merger_that_missed/
RELATED: In Deal, a Test for the U.A.W.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/business/15Auto.html?ref=business
A Corporate Overhaul at Procter & Gamble
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/business/15procter.html
Procter & Gamble announced an overhaul of its corporate structure yesterday, dividing it into three new global units and breaking up the Gillette business that it acquired in 2005. As part of the revamping, the company will promote Susan E. Arnold to president, global business units, and Robert A. McDonald to the new post of chief operating officer.
Media
Thomson, Reuters Agree on Merger Terms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500229.html
Reuters Group PLC and Thomson Corp. said Tuesday they agreed on terms for a merger to create one of the world's largest financial news providers. The cash and stock transaction values Reuters at $17.2 billion. Holders of each Reuters share will be paid $6.99 in cash and 0.16 Thomson-Reuters PLC shares.
In Letter, Murdoch Offers a Seat On Board to Dow Jones Owners
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400801.html
Rupert Murdoch is stepping up his campaign to woo the controlling shareholders of Dow Jones, the Bancroft family, promising them a board seat on his media conglomerate, News Corp., as well as measures to ensure the independence of the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch, in a letter to the Bancrofts dated May 11, promised to set up an independent board for the Journal, as he did with the Times of London, that would arbitrate any disputes between the editors and management. The board would also have to sign off on any decision to hire or fire the top two editors at the paper. The Journal reported news of Murdoch's overture to the Bancrofts on its Web site Monday and also posted a text of the letter. A spokesman for the Bancroft family declined to comment.
Magazine group sells for $1.2B
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2007-05-14-magazine-deal_N.htm
Bonita Springs, Fla.-based Source Interlink will purchase Enthusiast Media, which publishes 70 special-interest magazines, including Soap Opera Digest and Hot Rod. It also operates 90 associated websites. The unit posted 2006 revenue of $524.8 million.
Education
University of Texas Fires Financial Aid Chief Over Stock Buy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401308.html
The University of Texas at Austin said it fired its director of student financial aid after an internal investigation found he violated school standards of conduct. Lawrence Burt bought 1,500 shares of stock in a private sale from an executive of Education Lending Group, now part of CIT Group Inc., the university said. The same executive also sold stock to financial aid directors at Columbia University and the University of Southern California as well as to Matteo Fontana, who became a manager at the Education Department, investigators have said.
RELATED: U. of Texas Fires Officer Over Tie to Loan Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/15loans.html?ref=us
School workers suspended in fake attack
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-14-faked-attack_N.htm
Two school employees who staged a fake gun attack on a group of students during a field trip have been suspended, school officials said Monday. During the last night of a week-long trip to a state park, staff members convinced 69 sixth-grade students from Scales Elementary School that there was a gunman on the loose. One official has said the exercise was intended as a teaching tool. The students were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. After the lights went out, some of the children began to cry. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, pulled on locked doors. Teacher Quentin Masters and assistant principal Don Bartch were suspended for unprofessional conduct and neglect of duty because of the staged attack, schools director Marilyn Mathis said Monday.
Science and Technology
A Giant Takes On Physics’ Biggest Questions
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/science/15cern.html?ref=science
Starting sometime next summer if all goes to plan, subatomic particles will begin shooting around a 17-mile underground ring stretching from the European Center for Nuclear Research, or Cern, near Geneva, into France and back again — luckily without having to submit to customs inspections. Crashing together in the bowels of Atlas and similar contraptions spaced around the ring, the particles will produce tiny fireballs of primordial energy, recreating conditions that last prevailed when the universe was less than a trillionth of a second old.
With simplified code, programming becomes child's play
http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2007/05/15/with_simplified_code_programming_becomes_childs_play/
Scratch, a new programming language being released today by the Lifelong
Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, gives novices the ability to create
dynamic programs without wading through a manual.
Military
Son of professor opposed to war is killed in Iraq
Boston University professor Andrew J. Bacevich has been a persistent, vocal critic of the Iraq war, calling the conflict a catastrophic failure. This week, the retired Army lieutenant colonel received the grim news that his son had been killed on patrol there. First Lieutenant Andrew J. Bacevich , 27, of Walpole, died Sunday in Balad of wounds he suffered after a bomb explosion, the military said yesterday. The soldier, who graduated from BU in 2003 with a degree in communications, is the 56th service member from Massachusetts to be killed in Iraq.
A Casualty Of War: MySpace
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400112.html
The Defense Department began blocking access on its computers to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other Web sites yesterday, severing some of the most popular ties linking U.S. troops in combat areas to their far-flung relatives and friends, and depriving soldiers of a favorite diversion from the boredom of overseas duty. The banned Web sites include some of the Internet's most popular destinations for social networking and sharing photographs, videos and audio recordings. Soldiers and their families frequent the sites to exchange notes, swap pictures and share recorded messages -- a form of digital communication that, along with e-mail, has largely replaced the much-anticipated mail call of previous wars. Senior officers said they enacted the worldwide ban out of concern that the rapidly increasing use of these sites threatened to overwhelm the military's private Internet network and risk the disclosure of combat-sensitive material.
RELATED: Pentagon Blocks 13 Web Sites From Military Computers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15block.html
Religion
Scientologists use clip in tiff with BBC
A 40-second rant by a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter, shouting angrily at a Church of Scientology official while researching a documentary, has become fodder for a simmering dispute playing out in Internet video clips. John Sweeney's outburst came as he was interviewing a Scientology spokesman who had objected to Sweeney's use of the word "cult."
Gas hits record, likely to stay high
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-05-14-gas-record_N.htm
The U.S. average gasoline price set a record Monday, eclipsing highs seen following Hurricane Katrina. A number of analysts, including those at Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) and A.G. Edwards, expect the run-up in prices will end soon. But they do not expect prices to fall much this summer and warn another increase at the pump may come later in the season. The U.S. average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.103 Monday, up nearly a nickel from a week ago and nearly 16 cents higher than a year ago, the Energy Department said. The price in the weekly survey topped the previous record of $3.069 set in September 2005 following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused massive damage to pipelines and refineries.
On the Web, an Advanced Carbon Calculator for Personal Use
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/technology/15energy.html?ref=business
A new Internet tool to help individuals and communities curb their role in adding global-warming carbon emissions will be announced today at a conference in New York of mayors from around the world, said a person who built the Web technology. Many environmental groups offer simple carbon calculators on the Web, which allow people to figure the carbon dioxide production from daily routines like driving a car or lighting a house. “But this is serious software, serious quantitative methods and social networking technology brought to the green world,” said Ron Dembo, the chief executive of Zerofootprint, a nonprofit group that provides information and services to combat global warming.
Environmental Groups Join Forces
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401270.html
Some Americans think of the environmental community as a fractious bunch of free thinkers, that if you put two of them together they would generate at least three different opinions. But now two groups -- the Pew Charitable Trusts environmental program and the National Environmental Trust -- are trying to buck that reputation by combining to form the Pew Environment Group. The merger, to be announced today, highlights a shift among green groups toward campaign-oriented advocacy. Rather than having staffers who work on general environmental issues over time, Pew Environment Group will aim to accomplish a few high-profile goals -- such as overhauling the 1872 Mining Law and creating several major overseas marine reserves -- within the next few years.
Chefs angle for sustainability
Barton Seaver has bags under his eyes for a reason: Besides the exhaustive work it takes to get any new restaurant up and running, he spends his nights surfing the Web to determine which fish he can serve his customers with a clean conscience. Seaver, 28, who opened the seafood restaurant Hook several weeks ago, preaches the sustainability mantra with conviction. He has become convinced that at a time when scientists are warning that commercial fish stocks could collapse by 2048, he and other chefs need to prepare meals that do not deplete the world's oceans.
Protest Against Easing of Wolf Protection
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/15brfs-wolf.html
About 225 scientists have signed a letter opposing plans to remove wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, from Endangered Species Act protection. The scientists said wolves in the three states still faced threats because their numbers remained relatively small and because the wolf populations in the Yellowstone area, in central Idaho and in northwest Montana did not intermingle. The letter criticized plans for maintaining at least 300 wolves and 30 breeding pairs across the three states. About 1,300 wolves now roam the area.
Editor’s note: the New York Times has converted to a subscription-based editorial section. We are no longer clipping their op-ed columnists.
Ignatius: Running Out of Time in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401215.html
Driving into the city from the airport, what you see in the faces of the few Iraqis out on the roads is a hollowed-out look of fear. The friendly waves of four years ago are long past; so are the angry shouts of last year. Now the faces suggest exhaustion and despair from the daily toll of sectarian killing. There's an Iraqi army on the streets now, manning checkpoints, but that doesn't mean there is an Iraqi nation.
Madigan: The warriors return
I am worried that as our interest in the Iraq war continues to slide, we will transfer some of that anger, some of that despair, or indifference, onto returning veterans from the war. We shouldn't do that.
Froomkin: Why Karl Rove Cared
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/05/14/BL2007051400488.html
Why would Karl Rove want to fire a bunch of U.S. attorneys? If you think it seems out of character, you don't know Rove -- or more precisely, you don't know the two sides of Rove. President Bush's powerful adviser is one part spreadsheet-carrying, vote-counting political wonk, and one part no-holds-barred, brass-knuckled political operative. Vote-counting Rove knows that -- particularly in battleground states, where a few votes can make all the difference -- every little bit helps. Brass-knuckled Rove has energetically used government power to meet political ends.
RELATED: More stonewalling at Justice
Fix Immigration Now
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401400.html
A MAKE-OR-BREAK point has arrived in this country's effort to enact meaningful immigration reform. After failing last year to devise a way out of the deadlock that has left 12 million illegal immigrants in legal limbo, and the likely future influx of several hundred thousand new workers annually in equally dire straits, Congress is faced with the political calendar's hard reality. If lawmakers fail to hash out a compromise now, the presidential cycle probably will dash any hope for progress until at least 2009. Americans overwhelmingly prefer a workable solution now, and lawmakers owe it to them.
RELATED: Act now on immigration reform
In Divided New Orleans
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/opinion/15tue1.html
When President Bush spoke to the nation soon after Hurricane Katrina, he was resolute that the city would be rebuilt. “We will do what it takes,” he said. We — the federal, state and city governments; elected officials and the citizens who hire them — have failed spectacularly. Homes and schools remain empty or imaginary; evacuees and survivors wait in cramped trailers, unable to return or rebuild. A huge silence still hangs over the Lower Ninth Ward, a place every American should see, to witness firsthand how truckloads of promises have filled New Orleans’s vast devastation with nothing.
The wrong tax loophole
The Senate should shy away from eliminating tax breaks for executives of private equity firms.
Dionne: Rudy Tests the Pro-Lifers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401213.html
Watch what happens when Republicans can no longer evade the abortion issue. After trying to have it all ways and looking silly in the process, Rudy Giuliani finally came out and restated his support for a woman's right to choose. If he sticks with his decision, Giuliani will end the free ride his party has enjoyed on an issue that's supposed to be about morality but has more often been used cynically to harvest votes.
Robinson: A Question Of Race Vs. Class
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401233.html
Barack Obama doesn't think anyone should cut his two daughters any slack when they apply to college -- not because of their race, at least. In the unlikely event that the Obama family goes broke, then maybe. In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Obama waded into the central issue of the affirmative action debate: race vs. class. Perhaps typically, Obama's remarks were more Socratic than declarative. He didn't really answer the question, he rephrased it. Maybe the way he posed it, though, will lead to a discussion that's long overdue.
Lehigh: Joe Biden: 'I am in the game'
THE LAST time I went to New Hampshire to talk with Joe Biden about his presidential hopes it was May . . . of 1987. Back then, Biden was thought of as a different kind of politician, an exciting, inspirational figure with a strong appeal to baby boomers. Two decades later, Barack Obama is seen as the next new thing, Joe Biden the same old thing. To wit: a Capitol Hill fixture engaged, as so many senators are, in a long-term love affair with the sound of his own voice.
Cohen: Politics by the Pound
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401214.html
The sum total of pounds lost in the great cause of democracy has now clearly exceeded 150. Mike Huckabee is down about 110, Bill Richardson is down more than 30, Rudy's looking trim, and, as pundits galore have told us, if Al Gore sheds more than a pound and a half, it will be universally taken as a declaration of candidacy. What Winston Churchill would make of this I cannot say. He might reach for yet another drink. The great American pastime is not baseball but moral crusades. This accounts for why we once made booze illegal, why we continue to make war on drugs and why we have turned our attention to obesity -- morbid obesity, as the worst cases are morbidly called. Town after town is virtually outlawing the overweight -- "Fatty, don't let the sun set on you in this town" -- and schools have changed their lunchroom offerings in response. It is a crusade for health, but it is also one about free choice.
PAPERS REVIEWED TODAY
|
COLORADO
Glenwood Springs Post-Independent
|
NATIONAL
|
ProgressNow.org
You received this mailing because you subscribed to the ProgressNow.org daily news digest list, which is strictly opt-in. We hope you have enjoyed this mailing; but if you have received it in error, or if you prefer not to receive any future news digest mailings, please visit http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/unsubscribe and your address will be removed from the list within 24-48 hours.
|