Daily News Digest for 08/20/2007

Hillary Clinton, who emphasized her experience as first lady and as a US senator representing New York, dismissed comments by Karl Rove, the outgoing Bush administration senior adviser, who said Republicans would welcome Clinton as the Democratic nominee because of her high negative ratings in polls. "I don't think Karl Rove's going to endorse me," Clinton said to laughter. "But I find it interesting he's so obsessed with me. And I think the reason is because we know how to win." Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, who joked that he prepared for the debate by riding in "bumper cars at the state fair," defended himself again over his statement that he would meet with adversarial foreign leaders as presi dent. He also said he believed he was the candidate who best represented new leadership in Washington.

U.S. media reporting of the war in Iraq fell sharply in the second quarter of 2007, largely due to a drop in coverage of the Washington-based policy debate, a study released Monday said. Taken together, the war's three major story lines -- the U.S. policy debate, events in Iraq and their impact on the U.S. homefront -- slipped roughly a third, to 15 percent of an index of total news coverage, down from 22 percent in the first three months of the year. The study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism examined 18,010 stories that appeared between April 1 and June 29. Its "News Coverage Index" encompasses 48 outlets, including newspapers, radio, online, cable and network television. The project is a research group studying and evaluating press performance. It describes itself as nonpartisan, nonideological and nonpolitical. The index is designed as an audit of a broad cross-section of U.S. news media.

Worries about the deepening housing slump and an intensifying credit crunch consumed an increasingly anxious Wall Street last week, but President Bush barely broke stride. Bush went mountain biking and cleared a trail on his ranch here as the stock market gyrated Thursday. When asked whether the president was concerned, Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, responded with confidence: "As President Bush has said, the U.S. economy is fundamentally sound, and so we expect to see continued economic growth." A day later, the Federal Reserve lowered a key interest rate, triggering a sharp upturn in the stock market. The White House had little to say about that, as well. "We have full confidence in the Federal Reserve and respect their independence, but we don't comment on their specific policy announcements," Johndroe told reporters. Such restraint -- in both style and substance -- has prompted criticism in financial circles that the Bush administration appears out of touch economically.

In a television tour of three Sunday morning shows as his departure from the White House nears, Mr. Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser, complained that Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were Captain Ahabs relentlessly pursuing him as the big white whale. “Let’s face it, I mean, I’m a myth,” Mr. Rove told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” when asked about his critics. “You know, I’m Beowulf, you know, I’m Grendel. I don’t know who I am. But they’re after me.” In the spirited hunt for White House culprits, Mr. Rove is certainly a favorite target, though many Republicans are also inclined to blame him for the sinking popularity of the president and his party. Mr. Rove, who is leaving the White House at the end of the month, didn’t cut an especially heroic or villainous figure. The strategist who looms in the public imagination as a political mastermind and West Wing Svengali used a rare appearance on camera to deliver an exiting White House aide’s most time-honored Washington message: mistakes were not made, and it’s not my fault.

Denver officials say the large drop in the number of chronically homeless on the streets is saving the city enough money to fund new housing for those who remain homeless. On Monday, the Denver City Council will consider a $20 million proposal to build 200 housing units for the chronically homeless. To pay off the loan used to finance the new housing, Denver says it will use money saved from a reduced caseload at the city detox center and from other services heavily used by the homeless. "It's now time to take those cost savings and invest them in housing," said Roxane White, manager of the Denver Department of Human Services. However, the plan will face opposition from at least one council member.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, someone once said. Especially if you almost, almost succeeded last time. That's why, after a brief hiatus from the spotlight, Angie Paccione is back and hoping once again to topple U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave from her seat in the 4th Congressional District. After last fall's bruising campaign with Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, Paccione took six months off to lick her wounds, re-evaluate her strategies and determine whether another run would be viable. She sat and crunched the numbers. She realized she got more votes than any Democrat ever had in Longmont and Larimer County. She examined national trends about third-term incumbents losing, and she thought all the analysis pointed to a greater chance to win after a second try. "Armed with all that, and people who said, 'I hope you run again,' that's when I made a decision to get back in the race," she said in an interview last week.

The Denver police force includes an officer found to have held a cocked gun to his wife's head, another who pushed a pregnant teen into concrete stairs, then placed his knee on her belly, and another with 21 disciplinary actions against him and 50 total complaints. A review of court and Police Department records, some of which have never before been made accessible to the public, also shows the city has allowed officers convicted of drunken driving to remain on the force. At least 25 officers remained on the force from January 1997 through September 2006 after they were punished for what the department calls "departure from the truth." In some other police departments, such a complaint, if sustained, can lead to immediate dismissal because it can be used by defense lawyers in criminal cases to challenge an officer's court testimony. And the force also has persistent repeat offenders. Of 16 officers with 10 or more sustained complaints against them in the time period, only one has been fired. Three of those repeat offenders resigned, and one retired during that time.

Lawmakers say they’ll consider tougher legislation following a state audit and interviews with fire officials that showed many Colorado public schools have never received fire and building inspections. “The one building you have that should be the safest is the one that our children are at. The laws they’re fighting over involve the lives of our children. Let’s move forward with legislation and be done with it,” said House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker. “The bottom line is that we have our kids safe. We need fire and building codes that protect lives,” said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden. Any change could take months. Most legislators contacted said they might not consider the issue until January, during the next session. And they’ve addressed the issue before, to little effect.

A diversity festival here that had a controversial beginning ended up more of a typical street fair. But it is still a starting point to change this city's conservative, white image, attendees said. "We are normally the butt-end of sound bites," Jay Patel, a co-chair of Colorado Springs Diversity Forum, said of the city's reputation. "Today, I am hoping that the media will find us doing something right." Patel has lived here for 28 years after fleeing the civil war in Zimbabwe in the 1970s. The Springs population is far more diverse than its reputation as a white, conservative stronghold would indicate, he said. And diversity and acceptance of different cultures helps attract global business, he added. When the festival was first proposed this spring, some City Council members objected to waiving costs for park rental, police service and barricades. They were concerned that gay and lesbian groups would make it a forum to tout a political agenda.

The following statement was released on August 17, 2007 by the Purple Martini nightclub in Greenwood Village, after the general manager was accused of discriminating against black patrons

Crime in Denver has gone down 11.4 percent through July of this year, compared with last year. Friday, Denver police released statistics showing decreases in every crime category for the first seven months of 2007, compared with the same period in 2006. Major crimes against persons and property dropped 13.3 percent overall, while lesser offenses dipped 7.7 percent.

The number of phones secretly wiretapped by Colorado law enforcement hit a 10-year high last year, leading to large drug busts statewide while raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people. The increase in the court-authorized wiretaps was led by the U.S. Attorney's Office, which used 108 wiretaps in its first year under U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid. That's four times the number used in the 12 months prior to Eid's August 2006 arrival, according to data from his office. State prosecutors, meanwhile, got permission to use 43 wiretaps in 2006 - more than in the previous nine years combined, according to an annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. For Eid, the reason to rely on wiretaps is simple. "The wiretap does not lie," he said. Eid, an appointee of President Bush, also said using wiretaps is safer than sending an undercover agent or informant to buy drugs.

Crime in Denver declined 11 percent for the first seven months of the year compared with last year, officials reported. Violent crimes - such as murder, robbery and rape - and property crimes, including burglary, dropped by 13 percent in each category, said Sonny Jackson, Denver police spokesman. Disorderly conduct, fraud and prostitution arrests all increased, the report said. Stolen property incidents decreased the most, with a 51 percent fall, but there were only 43 of that category in 2006 because it was separate from auto thefts, burglaries and larceny. All of those crimes decreased between 14 percent and 20 percent, the report says. The Denver Police Department and the Office of the Manager of Safety are pleased to see crime continuing to decline through 2007, Jackson said.

Community activist Alvertis Simmons launched a campaign Saturday to combat the "stop snitching" message he says is prevalent in rap music - he calls it "Start Talking." "It's OK to tell," he told about 25 community members attending a rally at Aurora's Del Mar Park. Youth are often reluctant to come forward when they witness a crime, and a lot of it has to do with rappers ostracizing those who go to authorities, he added. Simmons hopes to roll out T-shirts and buttons, and eventually spread his message to Denver and Aurora grade-school students. Gerald Muhammad, the Nation of Islam's state representative, said there needs to be an increase in leadership in the community. He criticized black leaders who denounced radio shock-jock Don Imus when he used derogatory language to describe black female basketball players but remain quiet when rappers use the same or worse epithets. "We jump on a white man, but we don't jump on a black man," he said.

Troops training for and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing more than 1 billion bullets a year, contributing to ammunition shortages at police departments nationwide and preventing some officers from training with the weapons they carry on patrol. An Associated Press review of dozens of police and sheriff's departments found that many are struggling with delays of as long as a year for both handgun and rifle ammunition, and the situation is no different at the Durango Police Department. "We have to choose our vendors very carefully, and we've been scrambling," Capt. Micki Browning said. She said the .223-caliber rifle round is generally the hardest to find, which is typical at departments nationwide. Even though rounds used by the military are not exactly the same as those sold to police, they are made from the same metals and often use the same equipment. Browning said the shortage does not extend to the .40 caliber ammunition officers use in their sidearms, but the .223 bullets are critical in training operations requiring AR-15 or M-16 rifles. Unlike troops in an active war zone, patrol officers rarely fire those weapons in the line of duty.

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid spends weekends outside on his deck, at times smoking a cigar, while reviewing a stack of investigations and pre-indictments that his prosecutors have prepared. "I want to know exactly what they are working on - not to meddle - but to support them when problems arise," Eid said. "I wanted to run the office well, the way I ran state governments and the way I ran departments in business. I wanted to encourage (prosecutors) and shield them from criticism." Colorado's 43-year-old chief federal law enforcement officer says that even a year after moving into the office he wanted for 20 years, he still relishes every aspect of the job. Eid, former legal counsel to Gov. Bill Owens and an environmental and tribal law attorney, was sworn in a year ago. Eid's predecessor says it's too early to tell whether his term has been a success.

Willie Clark is what the cops call a "person of interest" in the slaying of Denver Bronco Darrent Williams in the early-morning hours of New Year's Day. Lester Ralph Jones and Rob Dixon are "persons of interest" in the case of Paige Birgfeld, who disappeared in Grand Junction on June 28. And longtime businessman Omar Ahmad Duwaik, of Aurora, is a "person of interest" in his ex- wife's slaying in 1997. Yet none of the four has been charged with a related offense or even named a suspect. So what exactly is a "person of interest" in a crime?

A proposal to build a new judicial complex for Pueblo County could include one more tenant: the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, said he is pushing to include a new CBI crime lab to the proposed complex not only because its current facility in town is antiquated, but also to give any new county judicial center just one more funding stream to help finally get it built. "I don't think anyone has actually approached them yet to say, ‘Hey, what about this?’�” Tapia said. "The timing could be perfect because they could actually just move into a spot. I've put out feelers on this already, and so far everybody seems pretty excited about the idea." Currently, CBI operates a 20-person forensic laboratory and field office in a 40-year-old building on North Elizabeth Street.

With more than three months left in the year, Pueblo County already has surpassed last year's gunshot-wound death total. Twelve lives were lost to guns in 2006. A murder-suicide last week and a suspected homicide Sunday raised the total in the county this year to 15. Seventeen gunshot deaths occurred here in 2005. In keeping with past years, most of the gun-related deaths in the county this year have been suicides.

A proposal this week to enact an initiative that would make adult possession of less than an ounce of pot the "lowest law enforcement priority" left some people wondering: What are Denver's elected officials smoking? But it was actually a proposed strategy to let the city's legal team immediately start to prove that the initiative is legally flawed, as city attorneys say it is, so a court will toss it out. The council will consider the strategy and other legal options in a closed-door meeting Monday. Mason Tvert, spokesman for Citizens for a Safer Denver, the pro-pot group campaigning for the initiative, said Friday that city officials are wasting their time. "Every court ruling and every judicial body that's ever considered issues like this has ruled that this would be legal," he said. "Our elected officials should recognize they're not judges. They're simply supposed to represent the people," Tvert said. "They shouldn't be going out of their way to derail a citizen initiative."

As Mayor Doug Hutchinson sat down Tuesday night to discuss understaffed police services at a City Council study session, car thieves were busy joyriding in his 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee, stolen four days before. Snatched from the front of Hutchinson's house sometime between 11 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, the car was recovered Thursday afternoon, beaten, bruised and abandoned after an accident with an unknown vehicle.

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday didn't give up in its bid to quash Whole Foods' acquisition of Boulder-based Wild Oats. The agency appealed a Thursday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman that allowed the two natural foods grocers' $565 million buyout. The deal, first announced in February, fell into a state of limbo when the FTC filed a complaint alleging the combination would stifle competition.

CH2M Hill, the Douglas County-based engineering and construction company, has been picked to manage a $5.25 billion project to widen and deepen the Panama Canal. "We're thrilled. This is the Panama Canal. People have been reading about this in history books for 100 years," CH2M Hill executive Garry Higdem said Friday in a telephone interview. The effort to build new locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific ends and to excavate and dredge will take seven years. The Panama Canal Authority hopes to allow the first "Post Panamax" ship - a vessel that does not fit in the original canal - to pass through the expanded canal in August 2014, the 100th anniversary. As program manager, CH2M Hill will help the authority handle all contracts and work with design and construction teams. For CH2M Hill, this is one of its highest-profile projects, along with the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Higdem said. CH2M Hill last year was selected to be part of a three-member team overseeing the planning and construction of sports venues for the Olympics.

Since 1980, the Federal Trade Commission has celebrated more victories than losses in its efforts to prevent corporate mergers it believed would create illegal monopolies. Of the 24 merger cases the agency challenged on antitrust grounds over the past 27 years, it was successful in 16, according to FTC spokesman Mitch Katz. Still, legal experts say, the federal agency faces an uphill battle in seeking a reversal of a U.S. District Court judge's decision to allow Whole Foods Market Inc. to buy out its Boulder-based rival, Wild Oats Markets Inc. The agency Friday filed an appeal of the decision and asked the courts for a temporary injunction pending the outcome of the appeal.

Qwest's recent selection of Ed Mueller as chairman and chief executive won praise from analysts focused on steady profits and free cash flow, but left others wondering if the board of directors is a bit gun shy. Instead of picking an aggressive, up-and-coming executive like Motorola's Greg Brown to take the company to another level, the board went with a more conservative, old-school telecommunications veteran. Perhaps the effects of the Joe Nacchio era still exist. Nacchio, a relentless visionary who nearly ran Qwest into bankruptcy amid his pursuit of breakneck growth, was sentenced to six years in prison last month for illegal insider trading. "Maybe from the board's perspective, they don't want to be visionary," said Eric Paulak, a Boulder-based telecom analyst with market research firm Gartner. "They see a nice turnaround story, they like the steady returns."

Richard T. O'Brien has wasted no time in creating a plan to rebuild the sagging fortunes of Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. Only five days into his new job, O'Brien last month surprised analysts by launching a series of steps intended to stem financial losses and restore investor confidence at the world's second-largest gold-mining company. The changes - a proposed sale of assets, cancellation of gold hedges and new executive appointments - came in response to sluggish production growth, rising costs and a devastating 36 percent fall in its stock over the past year and a half, despite gold prices approaching the highest level in 27 years. "We lack credibility," the 53-year-old O'Brien said in an interview Friday. "There has been underperformance. The company has failed to deliver on what we advertised." O'Brien said he expects Newmont to spend one year fine-tuning its turnaround plan and another year to begin seeing results. "It's going to take some time," he said. "It will not happen tomorrow."

An index of economic activity increased in May, reversing course after an April decline. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce/Rocky Mountain News historic index increased to 132.8 in May from 131.4 in the prior month. May's reading was 1.4 percent higher than the May 2006 level of 131.0. The two components of the historic index, employment and retail sales, both improved in the month.

Look at the growth of the town of Erie and the dilemma in which it might find itself, and you could say the town already has taken baby steps down the slippery slope to municipal ruin. Look at growth in Erie another way, and the town is on the glide path to success, a path smoothed by the town's construction of a new library and a recreation center. Some say that, in view of Erie's losing hand in local annexation wars, efforts to woo commercial developers are too little too late. Erie will become a kind of downscale Aspen, with service and construction workers forced to commute into Erie while upscale residents commute to work in Boulder or Denver. "It's certainly not sustainable to be so heavily reliant on construction to pay the bills. That obviously can't continue forever," says Brendan Ruiz, president of Sustainable Erie Inc., a nonprofit interest group.

Two Florida men have been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for their roles in the collapse of a Boulder bank. Douglas Baetz and Glenn Gallant were sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Each was also ordered to forfeit more than $11.5 million. They were convicted of fraud in 2005. Their company, Century Financial, operated BestBank, which was declared insolvent in 1998. Prosecutors said the bank issued about 500,000 subprime credit cards to high-risk borrowers with poor credit histories and claimed a portfolio worth more than $200 million.

Want to know what's hot in the Colorado contruction world? Our friends at Colorado Construction magazine and The McGraw-Hill Cos. surveyed the movers and shakers in real estate construction on the area's top projects. They gave us the top projects, the top future projects and we have added top green, public, and hospitality and resort projects. Some are familiar, others less-known, but all are impressive in size and impact. For instance, Pueblo's new cement plant is not terribly sexy, but is still significant in terms of cost and presence.

They're back! While classes at the University of Colorado don't begin until Aug. 27, students — and, in many cases, their parents — are descending on Boulder in full force for the traditional, if unofficial, move-in week. For local businesses, that means full shelves, larger staffs and big profits. While many stores depend heavily on revenue generated from CU students nine to 12 months out of the year — the campus' nearly 30,000 students pump more than $370 million into Boulder's economy each year — the week prior to the beginning of the fall semester provides the year's biggest bump to some businesses' bottom line. Case in point: The Target department store at 28th and Pearl streets, long a magnet for Boulder's incoming student population, will become one of the busiest Targets in the country this week, according to Walter Seidel, who works in management at the Boulder outlet.

Abby Anthony climbs her way to the top of the counter, where she casually sits down and begins talking to the customer on the other side. "It's cloudy outside today," she says. Even at 2, the fifth-generation Manweiler protege is already displaying what her family believes is the single most important ingredient in the success of their downtown Windsor businesses -- customer service. As the town has watched store after store close along Colo. 392 in downtown, Manweiler's has weathered the storm. For nearly 70 years, the general merchandise and appliance stores have been constants in Windsor.

Antitrust enforcers yesterday appealed a judge's ruling that would allow Whole Foods to purchase rival Wild Oats in a $565 million deal that would herald a major expansion of the natural and organic food chain. The Federal Trade Commission filed court papers seeking an emergency halt to the sale, which is set to close as early as Monday afternoon. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman cleared the way for the deal Thursday, denying regulators' request for a preliminary injunction to block the transaction.

More than 100 years after her grandfather Mike Mikita Sr., an immigrant from Slovakia, laid the first stone for a home on this land outside Colorado Springs, the Mikita Family Ranch is one of 19 ranches and farms that will be designated a Colorado Centennial Farm on Friday at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo. Properties awarded the designation have been owned and operated by the same families for at least 100 years. Started in 1986, the program is sponsored by the Colorado Historical Society, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, the Colorado State Fair and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Two defendants in the BestBank case were sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison. Douglas Baetz and Glenn Gallant were the co-owners of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Century Financial. The company created a telemarketing campaign that allowed Boulder-based BestBank to sign up 600,000 customers for a combination travel club/credit-card account in the late 1990s. The troubled portfolio pulled down the entire bank.

Colorado State University officials say they're on the way to reversing two years of declining enrollment. The number of incoming freshmen will likely set a new enrollment record at CSU this year, an increase attributed to a stronger focus on the "undergraduate experience," officials say. Fall classes start Monday at CSU, and while specific numbers are not yet available, CSU officials say this year's freshman class is bigger than last year's, which was the school's largest at 4,093. Officials expect between 4,300 and 4,400 students in this year's freshman class. "All of the indicators tell us that's pretty accurate. It's awesome," said Mary Ontiveros, executive director of admissions for CSU.

Colorado State University maintained its ranking as a top-tier university in the annual America's Best Colleges list from U.S. News & World Report. CSU tied for the 124th slot with six other schools to round out the top 130 in the magazine's America's Best Colleges 2008 rankings, which was released Thursday night. CSU was the 62nd-ranked public university. Princeton, Harvard and Yale topped the overall list, while University of California-Berkeley was ranked the top public university.

Colorado School of Mines is the state's top university, according to a prominent college-rankings survey expected to hit newsstands later this month. Three other state schools — University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Denver and Colorado State University — also made the list of U.S. News & World Report's rankings of top national schools. The School of Mines, an engineering college in Golden, didn't make the magazine's 2007 list but leapfrogged the state's other schools to get the top spot in Colorado at 75th nationally.

Many college-bound students are taking a detour after high school — spending a year finding their talents, taking on internships, volunteering, studying in another country or working to sock away money for tuition. Gap years that have long been commonplace for students in the United Kingdom are picking up in popularity among U.S. high-school graduates. College admissions officers, who are granting more deferred enrollment requests, say that when used wisely, the year off tends to make students more focused. And consulting companies looking to capitalize on the trend are charging students hundreds of dollars to help them make the most of their time away from school.

When Terry Bishop took the helm of the area’s largest district more than a year ago, he laid out a detailed plan for improving Colorado Springs School District 11. His 25 initiatives include providing home computers for students and evaluating and changing summer school to make sure students get what they need. Bishop plugged away at the projects as two board members were recalled and a third resigned. New board members — with the power to hire, fire and assess the superintendent — were elected and appointed. The board likely will hear a report about the 25 initiatives as its Aug. 29 board meeting.

A critical year in Denver's ambitious school-reform effort begins Monday when 68,000 students begin returning to class. Denver Public Schools has taken on an education overhaul that has garnered national attention and will intensify this year with the closing of more schools. School board President Theresa Pena said this year could be the toughest in the district's 105-year-old history. And Superintendent Michael Bennet said it would be a critical year for the district. "I'm very optimistic about where we are headed," he said. "The key is getting through it intact and with momentum."

As Fort Collins grows, neighborhoods age and the population shifts. That shift and the accompanying enrollment declines at some elementary and junior high schools have Poudre School District officials taking notice.

Extra cash for hitting performance measures. It's common in the business world, and now it's getting a trial run for teachers in the Fort Lupton Re-8 School District.

CU regent Steve Bosley said a professor once told him something that made his hair stand on end. “The grade I give is where we start the negotiations,” Bosley recalled a professor saying. The CU Board of Regents on Wednesday discussed how to improve academic rigor, as measured by grades and by the number of hours students spend studying each week. Bosley wanted to know how the regents could protect professors from being “badgered” into negotiating better grades.

The first challenger to three incumbent members of the Pueblo City Schools Board of Education entered the race Saturday night at a gathering of more than 250 family members and friends. At a retirement party honoring long-time school music teacher Rocky DeNiro, his sister, Kathy, who also retired this year after a long career as an educator, said she would run for one of the three seats open in this year’s election. Voters will cast ballots by mail to fill the seats now held by Dan Comden, Shawn Yoxey and Phyllis Sanchez, all of whom have said they are running for re-election.

University of Colorado officials step back before the state's Legislative Audit Committee today to answer questions about reforms put in place since a 2005 examination found numerous problems in spending within the athletic department. Among a number of shortcomings, the audit found that records for former football coach Gary Barnett's summer camps were in such disarray that nobody could account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and expenses. Auditors also found no records explaining what approximately $6,000 in checks written from the football camps were used for. They also found expenditures that violated state spending rules, including money spent to fly five baby sitters to bowl games to care for the children of CU employees.

Teachers new to the St. Vrain Valley School District have a lot to learn. After all, they could not have learned in college or a previous job what the district’s standards are, what resources are available or who to call when they have questions. So the school district makes them attend three half-days of classes at Coal Ridge Middle School, where they learn from experienced teachers in their subject or grade level; find out what books, handouts and assessments are available; and meet other teachers and district personnel. This year, 160 teachers with an average of four years’ experience are starting work for the St. Vrain district. About 60 are first-year teachers, said Lyndy Lubbers, who works in the district’s office of professional development.

Casey Shoemaker graduated from Douglas County High School in May. She is a recipient of the Margo Ginger Green Memorial Scholarship. The five-year scholarship is given annually to two Colorado high school students to commemorate a Douglas County woman killed by her estranged husband in 1991. Casey was involved in a range of academic clubs in high school and participated in sports and extracurricular activities such as soccer, skiing, running, Key Club, Amnesty International, Spanish Club and Biology Club. She was captain of the competitive soccer team. Casey was co-president of National Honor Society her senior year as well as a member of the International Baccalaureate Leadership Council. Her academic honors include letters in academics and NHS.

Two Moffat County High School students have been cleared of misdemeanor charges stemming from allegations they made threats against other students and school staff in April. The students’ bench trial — a trial decided upon by a judge rather than a jury — was Tuesday. Judge Michael O’Hara, chief judge of the 14th Judicial District Court, dismissed charges against one of the students after the prosecution presented its case, and later found the second student not guilty. The names of the students, a 17 year old and a 15 year old, are not public record because of their age, court clerks said.

State Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, talked about successes, challenges and legislation that is making a difference during a talk Friday at the Doerr-Hosier Center at Aspen Meadows. Schwartz addressed an audience of 30 as part of the “Exploring the Future” speaker series sponsored by Aspen’s Community Development Department to train and educate city employees and open dialogue with the community. “I wake up every morning because I believe so much we have an obligation to preserve Colorado as we know it,” Schwartz said.

San Miguel County spent $2,300 researching a request for Green Party Commissioner Art Goodtimes’ e-mail correspondence and wants cash from a Republican operative before it hands the e-mails over. Another county, however, turned over three years’ worth of e-mails with no fee. Gunnison County Attorney David Baumgarten said he has no reason to dispute the request under the Colorado Open Records Act, calling it a “great law.” The GOP operative, Luke O’Dell, wrote that San Miguel county’s actions “lead me to believe that your county government is trying to hide something” and threatened to take San Miguel County to court. O’Dell made a third open records request to Garfield County. Garfield wants him to pay $3,700 before O’Dell can get copies of the e-mail correspondence of Democrat Commissioner Tresi Houpt. O’Dell was the spokesman for the Republican Study Committee of Colorado during the legislative session. O’Dell “was not associated in any way with the Republican Study Committee at the time he requested the documents,” state Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said in an e-mail.

Thousands of new homes being proposed at Lowry have some residents worried about the impact on their neighborhoods. Two projects that could add as many as 2,000 homes were not part of the original Lowry redevelopment plan created in the 1990s. Several others in the works, which were included in the plan, will add at least another 1,000 units. Residents such as Gail Bell are questioning the need for so much housing. Bell says the projects will increase traffic and tax the school system. "Denver is so overbuilt as it is," she said. "When does it stop? When do you start thinking about the quality of life for the people who live here?" Lowry resident Joyce Evans, who publishes The Lowry News, agrees. "We're landlocked, and we don't have adequate transportation, and no matter what they did, we still wouldn't have adequate transportation," she said. "There's no corridor to go down." But with signs throughout Lowry touting the community as a "Landmark Urban Neighborhood" - and the implication of density that accompanies the moniker - some wonder what all the fuss is about. "I'm impacted," said Betty Jean Dayoub, a Lowry resident and broker associate with the Kentwood Co. in Cherry Creek. "But progress trumps history."

The town of Parachute has begun working on a proposed master plan that would double its land mass via annexation, according to a town official.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama weren't just participants in the latest Democratic presidential debate Sunday. They were the two top issues. There were eight candidates on stage for an early morning forum at Drake University in Des Moines. Still, much of the focus was on whether Obama has enough experience to be president, and whether Clinton might be too polarizing to win.

Former Congressman and 2008 U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer told the Mesa County Republican Party the state party has to rebuild itself before it can take on the Democrats next year. Schaffer, who addressed the county party’s monthly luncheon, said the Colorado Republican Party has to figure out where it parted company with mainstream voters. “Frankly, friends, Republicans, we need to have a candid conversation among ourselves about what it is our party is for and what we exist to do,” Schaffer told onlookers. He said in light of the Republican Party’s defeats in 2004’s U.S. Senate race between Pete Coors and Democrat Ken Salazar and 2006’s gubernatorial race between Bob Beauprez and Democrat Bill Ritter, some rebuilding is in order. Schaffer, of Fort Collins, said he plans to travel Colorado over the next several months, “building the base … trying to get our party back up on its feet.” “That’s a hard thing to say, but I believe it’s true,” Schaffer added. “And I think that even before we get to the point of proposing to take on Democrats, we’ve got to do a good job of getting our own house in line.” Schaffer called himself “the Dr. Phil of the Republican Party,” referring to the popular television psychologist.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson was wading through a sea of people at the Iowa State Fair on Friday when a man stopped in his path with a pointed question. The man wanted to know, once and for all, when would Thompson go "off the deep end" and finally declare an official run for president? "I'm in the deep end," Thompson quipped. "The waters feel pretty good." There were no official proclamations during Thompson's first foray into the first-in-the- nation caucus state since rumors of his candidacy began.

Now that presidential candidates are rolling out their TV ads, we thought it was appropriate to check who is winning the money race for the White House in Colorado and the West. The numbers are interesting in that they challenge the conventional wisdom that Sen. Hillary Clinton and ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are the front-runners of their parties. Colorado, for example, is Barack Obama country. Fueled by financial support in Boulder, the senator from Illinois has raised almost twice as much money in the Rocky Mountain State as any other presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat, according to federal election data. And true to the state’s growing reputation as a “purple” state in play in 2008, two Republicans and one Democrat round out the top four in Colorado’s fundraising race.

A rancher, physician and former Republican has joined the race for the state House of Representatives' district that includes the San Luis Valley and parts of the East Side and Bessemer in Pueblo. Rocky White announced Saturday that he'll take on incumbent, Rep. Rafael Gallegos of Antonito, for the Democratic nomination for House District 62. Gallegos, a former mayor of Antonito who has held his seat since 2004, issued a statement late Saturday, in which he said he would make a determination to run for re-election "sometime in the future." White, who made his announcement alongside his wife, two daughters and about 20 well-wishers at Adams State College, emphasized the need for the state to improve its infrastructure, education and health care. The physician, who works at the San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, has been active in tackling the state's health care problems.

With less than three months to go, Larimer County officials are not sure how they are going to count ballots cast in the November election. Election officials across the state are anxiously waiting for the Secretary of State's Office to recertify the electronic election systems that may be used in Colorado. The systems include touch-screen voting equipment as well as optical scanners used to count paper ballots. The recertification process isn't expected to be finished until Oct. 1, putting clerks in a tough spot if they need to buy new equipment or make modifications to what they own in time for the election, said Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle. Larimer County used touch-screen equipment at vote centers in 2006, but this year plans to go with a mail-in ballot. Nevertheless, timing is a worry, Doyle said.

If you're a "Mile High" donor and give $52,800 to help Denver host the 2008 Democratic National Convention, you get invited to the biggest parties and are granted multiple advertising opportunities. If you're "Presidential" and donate $1 million or more, you also get VIP access and credentials to the coveted Pepsi Center convention hall, choice hotel reservations, invites to private meetings with the mayor, the governor, Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. Diana DeGette - and loads of other perks. "In general, the higher the level of sponsorship, the more prominence and better visibility for preconvention marketing and onsite signage and product display," the Denver host committee's donor brochure says.

Betsy Markey recalls her stint as the Larimer County Democratic Party chair, "searching and searching" in 2004 for a candidate to take on Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. It was a tough sell. Musgrave was the incumbent, and Republican incumbents in the 4th Congressional District regularly coasted to sweeping victories. Now, only three years later, Markey is one of three Democrats vying for a chance in 2008 to try to knock off Musgrave, who barely survived in 2006. Three Democrats. In the 4th CD. Against a three-term GOP incumbent. Musgrave's predecessor, U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, didn't even draw a Democratic opponent in 2000 when he ran for his third and what turned out to be final term in Congress. "It is very strange," said Hank Brown, president of the University of Colorado, who in the 1980s represented the district for five terms in Congress.

Teck said his admission to The Daily Sentinel earlier this week that he was mulling a run against the two-term incumbent Democrat forced him to decide whether to run, and he decided to decline. “I need to do that in fairness to people maybe thinking of running, and if there indeed are any that are holding back to see what I’m going to do, then they need to know that I’m not going to be a problem out there for them,” Teck said prior to his announcement. Upon hearing Teck’s announcement, Buescher called his former colleague at the Capitol “a class guy.”

A $1.5 million childhood development program funded partly with county money was the last straw, said supporters of recalling County Commissioner Arn Menconi. When a tax aimed at raising about $3 million a year for early-childhood programs was voted down in November, Menconi showed he did not care about “representing the people” by creating Bright Start, said Don Donnalley, a retired Edwards resident. Though the failed tax originated with Menconi, Bright Start was created by a unanimous vote of the Eagle County Board of Commissioners, which also includes Sara Fisher and Peter Runyon. Bright Start, which received more than $800,000 from the county, also will be funded by grants and contributions form the community. The goal is to raise $1.5 million.

One longtime Tellurider has stepped up to run for mayor while another decided he won’t pursue the job. Terry Tice, a former council member and Valley Floor advocate, started circulating a mayoral petition this weekend.

City residents will head to the polls this fall and vote on a number of issues - everything from changing how people are elected to extending the term of mayor to funding transportation and a stormwater system. The City Council last week gave the go-ahead to hold a special election Sept. 7. Several ballot questions are being considered and two of them are amendments to the charter. The first change would be to institute Instant Runoff Voting at the polls. It would eliminate holding another election a month later if candidates don't receive the majority in the May election.

City of Boulder election officials won't quite be able to send the city's 2007 ballot data to the printers after Tuesday's City Council meeting, but it's getting close. The council will hold several public hearings Tuesday, including one pertaining to a list of proposed City Charter amendments. The Charter is basically the city's Constitution, and voters must approve proposed amendments to alter its text. Only a handful of citizens spoke during an Aug. 7 public hearing on a first-reading introduction of an earlier list of proposed amendments. The council held a lengthy discussion on Aug. 7, and it both dropped several proposals and added a few new ideas that night.

City Council candidate Paul Tiger remained in jail Friday afternoon after a judge declined to reduce the $10,000 bond set in Tiger’s Thursday arrest on suspicion of felony menacing with a gun. Tiger’s attorney, David Harrison, told Boulder District Judge John Stavely on Friday that Tiger is a well-established community member who owns a business and a home in Longmont. Harrison asked for the bond to be lowered or modified. Stavely, however, was unmoved and said the incident was a major concern. Tiger expresses himself in “interesting” ways, Harrison said, but he isn’t a threat. According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Tiger heatedly argued with a construction zone flagger last Saturday outside his business at 1430 Nelson Road. As the argument between the men escalated, according to reports, witnesses said Tiger went to his truck, drove away and returned with a gun on his hip.

Colorado policymakers might never find a way to objectively quantify local communities’ energy impacts, but members of an interim committee’s working group may have found an answer. Rebecca Frank, who co-chairs the mineral revenue interim committee’s working group, said that instead of divvying severance tax revenue to local communities based solely on energy-industry employee counts, the state should look at a variety of factors. Frank said by using a variety of criteria for directly returning severance tax and federal mineral leasing revenue to energy-affected local governments, such as employee counts, road usage or well counts, the dollars more likely will flow where they need to go. “We know what happens when you permit one drilling rig,” Frank said. “There is a whole cascade effect when one well gets drilled. … That is known. From there we can start to quantify what that means.” “Measuring direct impacts … is a difficult thing to do,” Colorado Water Congress Executive Director Doug Kemper said.

One of the heads of the mineral revenue interim committee’s working group said he is concerned state agencies are steering the panel’s work away from touching various parts of Colorado’s mineral revenue receipts. Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis said at the working group’s two most recent meetings in Denver, state agencies have presented them detailed information only on the severance tax and federal mineral leasing revenues directly distributed to energy-affected communities. “We should be talking about all the other stuff, which isn’t going to energy-impacted areas,” Meis said. “I’m getting a little frustrated. We’re talking about the smallest pieces.” Of all severance taxes collected, only 15 percent is handed back to affected communities. The remaining dollars flow to Department of Natural Resources programs and through a Department of Local Affairs grant program. Through Colorado’s trickle-down distribution formula for federal mineral leasing revenues, the Department of Local Affairs distributed $5.9 million — or 4 percent — of the state’s $144 million in revenues last year to local communities.

A working group studying how energy revenue should be allocated says many factors should be considered. Instead of giving the money based entirely on industry employee numbers, the state should look at factors like road usage and well counts, said Rebecca Frank, who co-chairs the mineral revenue interim committee’s working group. It was set up under the Colorado Legislative Council. State law awards the money based on the number of workers in a community. Doug Kemper, Colorado Water Congress executive director, who also is in the working group, said fairly allocating the money is difficult because it is hard to gauge effects on schools and social services. ‘‘Measuring direct impacts is a difficult thing to do,’’ said Kemper.

The tragic news of the trapped miners in Utah raises questions about mine safety in Colorado, which still has several active mines bringing tax revenue to towns such as Marble, Creede and even places in Weld County. One of the most pressing problems is the prevalence of abandoned mines, some of which litter the side of mountains bisected by Interstate 70. According to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, part of the Department of Natural Resources, Colorado has 23,000 inactive and abandoned mines. While they make interesting photographs or tourist stops, they often contain unstable soil, unsafe roofs and ladders, deadly gases and other hazards, the department warns on its Web site. Then there's the problem of mine shafts.

Northern Coloradans worried about a proposed uranium mine near Nunn will meet in Ault this week to discuss their concerns. State regulators recently granted the mine company, Powertech Uranium Corp., permits to drill test wells and core holes at the site. Although residents can see drills and bright lights illuminating the site at night, no mining is taking place yet. Residents have expressed concern about the damage the early testing might do to the area's groundwater. In addition, U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, recently sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking the agency to consider water quality issues as it prepares an environmental impact statement for uranium milling facilities. The Centennial Project, north of Nunn and between that town and Wellington, contains 5,760 acres of land to which Powertech has purchased mineral rights.

State Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, said Saturday that he hopes to push federal lawmakers to consider increasing the amount of federal mineral leasing dollars returned to energy-affected states, including Colorado. Penry said during a news conference in Grand Junction that he would present ideas next week to Gov. Bill Ritter and other lawmakers on trying to increase the state’s share of those dollars. Under current law, all funds derived from mineral leasing on federal lands are split 50-50 between the federal government and the states where the leasing occurs. “I think it’s appropriate that Colorado be compensated and benefit fully from the responsible production in the area,” Penry said during the stop with U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., in a meeting billed as a forum to discuss drilling on the Roan Plateau and Vermillion Basin. “Rather than the state of Colorado getting 50 cents on the dollar back from federal royalties,” Penry said, “we get 60 or 75 cents on the dollar which … over a span of 30 or 40 years in production would be tens and probably hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue that would flow back on top of what’s already projected.” The idea is one of the many being tossed around as the Bureau of Land Management’s plan for leasing on the Roan is being stayed by a 120-day review period that was granted by the Department of the Interior, Penry said. Allard said Saturday that he supports the BLM plan, which allows restricted drilling on top of the plateau. But the senator said he was disappointed about the “top-down” decision of a provision that would restrict drilling on the Roan.

A conversation with Meg Collins, newly appointed president of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association

The U.S. Department of the Interior granted 30 more days to comment on the Desert Rock Energy Project's environmental evaluation Friday, throwing a month-long delay into the approval process for the power plant. The last-minute extension pleased critics and annoyed supporters of Desert Rock. The comment period was scheduled to end Monday. Critics of the proposed power plant had asked for a 60-day extension to carefully read the 1,600-page Environmental Impact Statement. The Interior Department said it was "prepared" to extend the comment period only 30 days. "I am very pleased that the Department of the Interior has decided to allow local communities more time to read and analyze the Desert Rock EIS," said U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa. "The proposed Desert Rock plant is one that concerns many of my constituents," he said. "The possible impacts of the proposed plant to our air, water and health need to be fully understood. This extension will allow more time for the public to read and comment on this proposal." Salazar and his brother, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., had requested a 60-day extension. Both have expressed concerns about Desert Rock while not stating outright opposition to it. Ken Salazar called the extension "a win for residents of the Four Corners area."

A federal mine inspector who died Thursday night in the coal mine in Utah was based out of the Lakewood office of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Gary L. Jensen, 53, and the father of four children, had worked as a mine inspector and volunteer rescue-team member for MSHA since 2001. He worked the past five years as a roof inspector of coal mines, spending much of his time inside the mines to ensure that supports and shoring were safe. Jensen and his family lived in Price, Utah, where he had spent most of his life. Prior to joining the federal agency, he worked as a safety inspector for Southern Utah Fuel Co. in Salina, Utah.

The damaged Shoshone hydroelectric power plant could be back online by the start of next spring, at a cost of $12 million, according to the plant’s owner, Xcel Energy. The 14-megawatt, 98-year-old power plant on the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon suffered heavy damage June 20. One of two penstocks — large pipes that deliver water to the plant — ruptured and flooded the generating station and switching yard with approximately 8 feet of water and tons of rock and soil.

More than 46,000 acres of public lands in Utah that were set to be leased Tuesday for natural gas drilling were removed by federal officials in deference to fears about wildlife habitat. The Bureau of Land Management postponed leasing on 42 parcels because of concerns related to mule deer and sage grouse. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership had filed protests of the leases a month before.

After years raising millions of dollars to pay for condemnation of more than 500 acres of the valley floor — a move upheld in district court — the town of Telluride faces another hurdle: an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. San Miguel Valley Corp., which still claims to own the land, filed a brief Wednesday with the state Supreme Court, according to a court spokeswoman. Tom Ragonetti, attorney for San Miguel Valley Corp. and its owner, Neal Blue, said he could not discuss pending litigation. But Telluride Town Council member Stu Fra