Daily News Digest for 08/21/2007

A leading Democrat threatened on Monday to pursue contempt charges against the White House next month over its response to a subpoena for internal documents on the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program. “Time is up,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We’ve waited long enough.” Mr. Leahy’s comments ratcheted up the battle between Congressional Democrats and the White House over access to secret documents on the legal underpinnings of the eavesdropping program, which authorized the N.S.A. to listen in without a court warrant on Americans’ international communications. Nearly two months ago, the Senate voted to subpoena the White House and the Bush administration for access to the documents as part of its investigation into the program.

Reflecting a shift in priorities under the Democratic majority, Congress is moving to spend as much as $6.7 billion next fiscal year to combat global warming, an increase of nearly one-third from the current year. House appropriations bills call for about $2 billion in new spending on initiatives aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and oil dependency, significantly expanding the budgets for numerous federal research initiatives and launching some new ones. While legislation to raise vehicle miles-per-gallon standards and cap emissions from power plants has been slower moving -- because of resistance from some lawmakers -- Democrats have turned to the budget to advance their environmental priorities by increasing spending on a variety of lower-profile programs. That is likely to set up a showdown this fall between Congress and President Bush, who wants to spend less on climate-change initiatives. The White House budget office, which has criticized excessive spending in the overall appropriations bills, noted that the president's proposed budget provides for a 3% increase in spending for climate-change activities.

Democrats in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail are seizing on the turmoil in mortgages to criticize the Bush administration’s laissez-faire approach to what they believe is a spreading crisis. In contrast with the administration’s largely hands-off approach, Democrats are seeking more aggressive, interventionist moves to protect homeowners. Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the chairman of the Banking Committee who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has summoned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the chairman of the Federal Reserve to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss steps to stabilize the markets and stave off home foreclosures.

The Bush administration, engaged in a battle with Congress over whether a popular children's health insurance program should be expanded, has announced new policies that will make it harder for states to insure all but the lowest-income children. New administrative hurdles, which state health officials were told about late last week, are aimed at preventing parents with private insurance for their children from availing of the government-subsidized State Children's Health Insurance Program. But Democrats and children's advocates said that the announcement will jeopardize coverage for children whose parents work at jobs that do not provide employer-paid insurance.

As the State Board of Education writes its ethics policy, members asked Monday for a review of whether board member Bob Schaffer's vote in favor of a campaign donor connected to a charter school constituted a conflict. The board's legal adviser from the state attorney general's office said he was unsure whether Schaffer, a candidate for U.S. Senate, violated any ethics rules. "Off the top of my head, I'm not seeing that as a problem," said attorney Antony Dyl. Board members asked Dyl to investigate and report back to them. Schaffer, who did not attend Monday's meeting, said that political contributions are already publicly disclosed and that board members "need to be careful" because those who accept contributions from teachers unions or even parents also could be accused of conflicts of interest. A liberal activist group is accusing Schaffer, a Republican candidate for Sen. Wayne Allard's seat, of selling his vote to the owner of a charter school company that contributed to his campaigns. ProgressNowAction is calling on Schaffer to return contributions from David Brennan, whose White Hat Management company provides staff and curriculum for the Life Skills Center, a high-school program for dropouts.

Rep. John Salazar remains "hopeful" that his brother, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, will ultimately decide to support a yearlong moratorium on the Army's plans to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site when Congress resumes work in September. "He hasn't told me 'no' and I am hopeful that he will ultimately support our legislation," John Salazar, the 3rd District Democrat, said Monday. "Believe me, I intend to keep working on him. Ken is still hoping there is a middle ground, but I don't think there is." The legislation is the 2008 military construction appropriations bill, which the House approved in June, including an amendment from John Salazar and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., to block the Army from spending any money on the expansion next year, including money for preliminary studies. The 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon site is located in Las Animas County northeast of Trinidad, within the 3rd District. The Army intends to add 414,000 acres to the site, most of it coming from Las Animas County. A coalition of area ranchers and other opponents of the expansion want Ken Salazar to support that same amendment when the Senate takes up the military construction bill next month. Unless Salazar or Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., do that, the House amendment will almost certainly be removed when House and Senate members negotiate a final bill in conference.

Congressional investigators will examine the need for mental health services for members of the National Guard and the Reserves, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar said Monday. The senators said the Government Accountability Office will evaluate information the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs gets through health reassessments of returning National Guard and Reserve members. A GAO spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request to confirm that the study would take place. Allard and Salazar said they were notified last month that the GAO would conduct three other studies regarding mental health in the military.

Transportation officials have a rough road ahead of them to persuade Colorado voters to raise taxes for roads and bridges, a poll suggests. In the survey of 500 likely voters by the polling firm Rasmussen Reports, 34 percent of respondents said they would be willing to pay higher taxes for bridge repairs and infrastructure improvements, while 46 percent said no. A larger percentage, 69 percent, said they wouldn’t trust government to spend the new money on bridges and other improvements. Sixteen percent said they expected the money to be spent as advertised. The survey was taken a week after the Aug. 1 collapse of a heavily traveled bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis that killed 13 people.

The two former Larimer County prosecutors who sent Tim Masters to prison for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick had social or business ties with another potential suspect - a prominent eye surgeon who was discovered to be a sexual predator yet was never investigated in the murder by Fort Collins authorities, according to Masters' lead counsel. Relationships between the district attorney's team - Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair - and Dr. Richard Hammond surfaced during recent discovery interviews, said David Wymore, attorney for Masters' legal team, which is pressing for his exoneration.

Denver would fire most police officers who break the law, "depart from the truth" during investigations, commit sexual misconduct or improperly use force when they kill a suspect, under a draft proposal to overhaul Denver's discipline system for police. The proposal from Denver's safety manager, Al LaCabe, who oversees the Police Department, would be a big shift in how the city disciplines officers. Officers who have committed those offenses in the past have been able to keep their jobs under the current "comparative discipline" system, which relies on past discipline decisions to guide how misconduct is handled now. Efforts to change the department's system of comparative discipline have been proposed and failed to find consensus at least six other times. LaCabe's new proposal met immediate resistance Monday from the police union, but he remains determined to make the change.

Routt County Sheriff Gary Wall has hired an attorney to aid him in ongoing policy discussions with the Routt County Board of Commissioners and county legal staff. Wall confirmed Friday that he has retained the services of local attorney Mark Fischer, who is reviewing a letter the commissioners and county attorney John Merrill sent to Wall in late July. The letter asks Wall to initial 18 county policies, stating whether he accepts the policy or whether he has his own policy. The letter also asks Wall to explain any policies he is implementing in the sheriff’s department that differ from existing county policies.

A local citizen’s complaint about the way the Delta Police Department handled an incident involving a Wyoming woman who was later found murdered has led to an internal investigation of the department.

Eaton will pay $190,000 in back overtime pay to seven police officers who threatened to bring a lawsuit against the town in February. The police officers alleged they weren't paid for overtime they worked during the past three years. Eaton officials decided to settle the lawsuit because they were worried attorney's fees alone to defend the town would bring more than $150,000 of bills. The officers were asking for more than $258,000. Eaton employs eight police officers, including the police chief; three of the officers who brought the complaint are no longer with the department.

Former Aspen community safety officer and performance artist Rick Magnuson started his first day as a cop Monday, some 10 months after his controversial campaign for Pitkin County sheriff. Aspen Police Department spokesman Bill Linn said he knew the promotion would raise questions and wrote a press release about it in advance. Police Chief Loren Ryerson expressed his happiness with the promotion in the prepared statement, but he would not return calls for comment. "We all went through some soul-searching on his promotion," Linn said. "We knew it was going to be an issue of public interest because of his recent political campaign."

The Colorado Public Employee Retirement Association has made some progress in its long trek back to solvency, according to a financial audit of the government retirement plan released Monday. While at least two of the state's largest public employee retirement plans still aren't considered actuarially sound under state law, PERA has increased its members and net assets, the audit found.

An unfunded liability in Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association that drove legislators into near panic last year is slowly disappearing, and the system does not seem to need more help, members of the Legislative Audit Committee said Monday. An audit on PERA that was released at the committee meeting represented the most positive news yet for the agency that handles retirement plans for 403,129 current or former state and local public employees. State Rep. Victor Mitchell, a Teller County Republican, said PERA has done “a terrific job.”

The proposed buyout of Boulder-based Wild Oats Markets Inc. by Whole Foods Market Inc. hit another snag Monday. A federal appellate court ordered the two natural-foods and organics supermarkets to halt movement on their $760 million merger so that the U.S. Court of Appeals judges could gather more information. The court is weighing a request by the Federal Trade Commission for an injunction on the deal while the agency appeals a U.S. District Court ruling allowing the two companies to merge. The FTC has argued that a merger of the two chains will harm consumers by eliminating competition in the organics market, causing prices to soar. The FTC filed an emergency motion Friday, appealing U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman's ruling that the deal can go through.

A three-judge panel for a federal court of appeals Monday ordered that Whole Foods' acquisition of the Boulder-based Wild Oats be put on hold to give the court more time to review the merits of the Federal Trade Commission's motion for an injunction against the $565 million deal. "We're going to work through this process and hope that we hear a quick decision from the judge so that we can move forward," said Sonja Tuitele, a Wild Oats spokeswoman. The FTC's bid to block the acquisition — something it alleged would hurt competition among "premium natural and organic supermarkets" — was thwarted when federal Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Thursday against the agency. Friedman's 93-page opinion remains under seal, but Wild Oats attorney Clifford H. Aronson has said the judge viewed the FTC's definition of the market as too narrow.

The Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association believes it's fixed its funding problem for most of its employees, thanks to a great 2006 investment return and higher funding coming in the future. Still, the plan remains unable to forecast paying off its liability to state employees, one of the largest groups in PERA. This was the "PERA report card," Executive Director Meredith Williams said. He and PERA staff members presented it at a Monday meeting of the Legislative Audit Committee. Legislators seemed pleased with the outlook, with Vice Chairman James Kerr, R-Littleton, suggesting the pension plan's issues "have been addressed."

The Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association chalked up a healthy return on its investments in 2006, according to an audit released Monday, but the fund is still struggling to raise enough money to pay future benefits to retiring workers. The auditor found that the retirement fund's unfunded liability has increased to $12.8 billion, up from $12.5 billion in 2005. "In other words ... PERA's current contribution rates are not sufficient to support the current benefit structures of the State, School and Judicial Trust Funds," wrote the accounting firm Clifton Gunderson LLP. That firm was hired by the state auditor to review PERA's financial status.

Cheryl Sommers didn't realize just how much it would cost her to convert part of her ranch-style home on Wells Street in Old Town Erie into a coffee shop last year. When she learned what she would have to pay in development impact fees to open the Old Town Coffee Shop — fees Erie charges businesses for impacts on roads and other public infrastructure — she was taken aback. Sommers said the initial amount requested by the town was $13,000. She said she was able to get the impact fees knocked down to $6,000 after she informed town officials that they were trying to charge her for remodeling her entire house rather than just the portion she was turning into a coffee shop. Erie will take up the subject of impact fees at a study session tonight at Town Hall. A consulting company that trustees hired to study the town's fee schedule will present an analysis.

A breakdown Monday in the Qwest Communications network rendered useless some cellular phone, Internet and long-distance services in the region. The problem started around 9 a.m. when local residents and businesses reported they were having trouble with cell phone connections, processing credit card requests or accessing the Web.

For six terrible hours yesterday, we didn’t know how to naturally enhance our sex drive. We missed a Nigerian diplomat’s Urgent Message Of Money Opportunity. We did not learn how to PLEASE OUR PARTNER!! And, OMG! nobody got our txt msgs. Yes, we know. We’re still shaken, too. Much of the Western Slope lost Internet and cellular service from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. yesterday because of problems on Qwest lines. A Qwest spokeswoman said the company was still investigating the outage, but several governments said a critical fiberoptic line near Denver had been cut.

Bob West spent hours trying to find out why his AT&T cell phone wasn’t working Monday. The on-the-go work of a real estate broker requires cell phones to do business, he said. “If we can’t get Internet through our phones and we can’t have phone service I might as well not have my guys at work today,” said West, owner of Hoffman West Real Estate. A problem with Qwest Communications service caused cell phone, Internet and 911 service problems Monday in Western Colorado, authorities said.

If you've had trouble accessing your Wells Fargo bank account during the last couple of days, you're not alone. The bank, the largest in Denver, has been experiencing nationwide computer trouble since Sunday, a Denver-based Wells Fargo spokeswoman said today. The problems have affected nearly all methods for customers to access their accounts: through the Internet, telephone or ATM and at stores or bank branches. Wells Fargo spokeswoman Cristie Drumm said today that Internet and telephone banking was restored quickly Sunday. But she said problems persist with bank-branch, ATM and point-of-sale transactions at stores. The problems are causing long delays in processing those transactions or they are being denied altogether, Drumm said. "We're working as fast as we can," Drumm said, "and we hope to get things up as quickly as possible." The computer problems also are affecting processing for some mortgages, home-equity loans, student loans and remittances, as well as wire transfers and such automated transactions as payroll direct deposits, Drumm said.

The Western Slope town of Palisade will host the state's first wine-themed hotel, expanding in-town lodging options for tourists drawn to the region's vineyards and tasting rooms. Richard and Jean Tally plan to open the 80-room Wine Country Inn next spring. The $8 million project will feature wine-tasting areas, catering facilities, meeting facilities, a health club and an outdoor pool. "It's something we feel is an idea that has come of age," Richard Tally said. "The wine industry in Colorado is growing." The Palisade area hosts 75 percent of the state's premium wine grape vineyards, according to the Palisade Chamber of Commerce.

The city of Craig notched significant gains in sales tax revenue in recent months, a trend local officials credit to increased shopping, hotel lodging and a one-day June visit by the Ride the Rockies bicycle tour.

A federal appeals court said yesterday that it needed more time to consider whether to block Whole Foods Market's takeover of rival Wild Oats Markets. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the $565 million deal on hold until it could hear more arguments. The three-judge panel said, however, the decision "should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits" of the case.

Thirty-three years from now, the school year will be year-round, the primary track at CU-Boulder will be a four-year bachelor/masters program, everyone will undertake “experiential learning” like studying abroad, and the distinction between “home” and “classroom” will be hazy. At least, that's the future as CU-Boulder Chancellor Bud Peterson sees it. CU has to start preparing now to meet the needs of students who aren't born yet, Peterson said, because they'll compete in a wired, dynamic era of super-information and global markets. “There are more honors students in China than there are students in the United States,” Peterson told the CU Board of Regents last week as he presented his vision for CU-Boulder three decades down the road - the “Flagship 2030” plan.

The University of Colorado is not a party school. Or at least it was not officially ranked as one by the Princeton Review in its annual college guidebook published Monday. This was the third year in a row CU did not make it in the top 20 after being ranked No. 1 in 2003 and No. 9 in 2004. That's the good news for university officials. The bad news is CU's appearance in a different category — the school was ranked 15th for "reefer madness," or marijuana use.

Eight down, seven to go. That's the scorecard for financial reforms in the University of Colorado's athletic department, where officials have made a lot of progress but still have some work to do to clean up spending problems identified in a highly critical audit completed in fall 2005. That audit found numerous problems, from lax accounting of expenditures that saw the university pay for baby cribs at a bowl game to financial disarray in the records of football camps operated by former head coach Gary Barnett. Monday morning, CU President Hank Brown, Boulder campus Chancellor Bud Peterson and other officials were back before the Legislative Audit Committee, and this time the news was better.

Local colleges are seeing a slight increase in growth as they make unofficial student enrollment counts for the start of classes Monday. Mesa State College as a whole saw an increase of around 1.5 percent in this year’s enrollment with Monday morning’s count at 5,761 students, said Dana Nunn, spokeswoman at Grand Junction’s campus. “It’s always a moving target,” Nunn said. She estimates the count will increase to over 6,000 students when more classes begin Oct. 17.

An audit that criticized most aspects of the University of Colorado's athletic department and private foundation was "enormously beneficial" and led to changes that will help the school for years to come, university president Hank Brown told lawmakers Monday. Brown and his leadership team went before the Legislative Audit Committee to talk about changes CU has made since a 2005 state investigation found money and management problems within the athletic department and the CU Foundation. Since then, both entities have mostly scrubbed themselves of major shortcomings that thrust the school into hot water among lawmakers, donors and alumni.

Students will return to classes with a sound track, Colorado State University-Pueblo President Joe Garcia told the school’s convocation Monday morning. It will be a noisy one thanks to construction on a number of projects around campus.

The state agency in charge of inspecting public-school construction projects is seeking legal changes to improve its performance after a scathing audit found widespread failures to ensure safe school buildings. The Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety on Monday asked lawmakers to make it easier to delegate inspection authority to local inspectors and building officials. Dick Piper, director of the division, proposed two key changes to state law to address the issues raised by state auditors in June. One proposal would create a certification program for building inspectors so local school districts could hire officials preapproved by the state. "We thought that was the most cost- effective way," Piper said in a meeting with the Legislative Audit Committee on Monday. "It still means we need additional resources for quality control." The other legal change would let the state delegate authority to local building-department officials to oversee school-construction projects.

Principal Dan Villescas says the first day of school always fills him with a sense of anticipation - an excitement about the possibilities of the new year. But Villescas could not share in those feelings while the rest of the city started school Monday. At Del Pueblo Elementary School in downtown Denver, where Villescas is principal, no students walked through the doors. Instead, about three dozen students arrived outside Del Pueblo to take buses to other Denver schools - Greenlee, Valdez and Knight Academy. Villescas said only one student arrived Monday thinking Del Pueblo was open.

Moments before classes began Monday morning at Manual High after the school was closed for a year, nervous freshmen learned their first lesson. The school insignia on the Commons floor is sacred and should never be stepped on, principal Rob Stein told the 180 students. "Walk around it," Stein said. "Treat it with pride." Thus began the new chapter of Manual - one in which administrators will try to build respect for a school the district closed a year ago because of academic and enrollment problems. Manual reopened with a freshman class only, a new principal, new teachers and characteristics lifted from successful private and charter schools.

The CSU bookstore each year gives away $400 worth of textbooks to 20 students, a program paid for by one of the bookstore's used book vendors. It costs students nothing, Parry said. Knighton's books on Monday would have cost several hundred dollars. And the cost of the books bought on his mother's credit card earlier was refunded. The first day of fall classes is actually only the third- or fourth-busiest day at the bookstore, Parry said, because many students have already gotten their books. The start of spring semester, when almost every student returns to campus simultaneously, is usually the busiest, he said. Parry said the high cost of textbooks is a concern for CSU administrators and students. He said about 40 percent of the bookstore’s book sales are used books, but there’s a much higher demand than his store can fill. Nationally, comparable university bookstores only offer about 27 percent used books, he said. The average student spends about $400 on required texts each semester, Parry said.

Manual High School officially reopened Monday when 157 ninth-graders and their teachers walked into the school together, kicking off the school's first community meeting. "It was nice symbolism," Principal Rob Stein said. The community meetings, which will begin the school day three times a week, are part of the reformed Manual under Stein and his teachers, all new to the school. Manual, which first opened in 1894 at East 28th Avenue and Franklin Street, was closed for a year because of poor student achievement and declining enrollment.

The proposal to build a larger learning center at Pueblo Community College received the top ranking by the state's community college system board for projects to be funded with future state money. At a special board meeting last week, the State Board for Community College and Occupational Education approved a list of priority projects for potential capital construction funding in 2008-09.

Pueblo Community College President J.D. Garvin unveiled a "strategic leadership" plan Monday morning that realigns the administrative ranks in a way that will allow him to spend more time seeking resources for the college. In his inaugural fall kickoff address to faculty and staff, Garvin announced that he was abolishing the position of executive vice president and replacing it with a system of three vice presidents. The three positions include the existing vice president for administration and finance. The two new positions of vice president are for student services and vice president for learning.

The University of Colorado's reputation as a party school has gone up in smoke. Once ranked the nation's No. 1 party school, CU-Boulder failed for the third year to earn a spot on the Princeton Review's annual list of top party schools. With the exception of one year, the campus made the Top 10 list of party schools from 1997 to 2004. The school, however, made its first appearance in two years in the "reefer madness" category, ranking 15th for marijuana usage. CU officials don't put much stock in the rankings, which are based on responses from 120,000 students at 366 colleges and universities nationwide. The Princeton Review, an educational preparation company, publishes an annual guide to colleges, among other publications.

A financial collapse has closed the Boulder Arts Academy, according to a Louisville man planning to take over the school's space, hire its teachers and recruit its students. Travis LaBerge, executive director of the Parlando School for the Arts, said his organization has agreed to give lessons to students whose families have pre-paid fall tuition at the Boulder Arts Academy. "They wouldn't be able to get their music lessons with (the academy) out of business," LaBerge said. And, he said, students wouldn't have been able to get refunds because the money's gone. In return for providing the lessons, LaBerge said he has received a student list from the academy as well as curriculum materials.

In the race to improve Denver Public Schools, every minute counts - even time spent on bathroom breaks. Monday, when thousands of students returned to DPS, the district's chief academic officer walked into Schmitt Elementary in southwest Denver and saw children idly waiting outside lavatories for their classmates to finish. "By the end of the week, you'll see them bring poems or something to work on," Principal Anne Dalton later told Jaime Aquino. "I've told the teachers, that's too much down time." If concern about lost seconds of school time seems excessive, consider that few people in DPS are under more pressure to improve test scores than Aquino, 42. Recruited away from his beloved New York City to boost student achievement that had flat-lined for years, the bilingual former teacher saw historic reading gains in his first year, 2005-06. But last year, the first full year of implementation of an academic plan he helped create, test results stayed stubbornly flat.

An end to months of negotiations between District 70 and the Pueblo County Teachers Association could come to an end tonight as the school board is expected to vote on a contract. The board meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the Administrative Services Center, 24951 U.S. 50 East. A work session is set for immediately after the regular meeting. The PCTA and District 70 administrators reached an impasse in early June after beginning negotiations in the spring.

Haley Hull expects the new Allied Health and Sciences building at Aims Community College to usher in a top-flight place in which to dive into nursing. "I think it will make the program better," said Hull, who has waited two years to get into the program, which offers an associate's degree in nursing. "I hope they teach us to be trained in the necessary technology that's available today." Aims officials say that's exactly what the $13.9 million building, which opens next week, will provide.

An adjunct professor at Colorado State University and Poudre School District parent announced her plans to run for the PSD Board of Directors this November. Trena Anastasia is planning to run for the District A seat. This year, PSD voters will be electing candidates into four board district seats. Three directors are up for re-election, Anne Yeldell in District A, Nancy Tellez in District F and M.L. Johnson in District G. Ross Cunniff is term limited in his District B seat.

Some students fear going back to school, but teachers are already there. About 65 Roaring Fork School District Re-1 teachers volunteered to take summer classes to practice teaching skills. It's an RFSD professional development program in its third year. Teachers also attend outside training programs. One emphasis this year is number sense. It's an understanding of the relationship between numbers and their actual quantity, going beyond just the symbols and names associated with them.

Charter-school students in the St. Vrain Valley School District are discovering new classes, new principals or even new playground equipment this fall.

Some 1,400 years later, their handprints are still visible in El Salvador's soil. The people of Ceren had just harvested their crops of manioc, also known as cassava, a calorie- rich tuber with 10 times the per-acre energy content of rice and beans. The beds had been replanted with manioc stalks to regenerate bushes for the next growth cycle when the Loma Caldera volcano erupted, destroying the village and burying the manioc field 10 feet deep. The volcanic ash actually made images of hand-shaped dirt, indicating the stalks were planted "just hours before the eruption," said Payson Sheets, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado. It's the first time an archaeology team has ever found evidence of cassava cultivation in the New World. "Finding this field was sort of a jackpot for us," said Sheets, who led the team of CU researchers and students.

For 35 years, Douglas Bruce has carried a pocket-size copy of the U.S. Constitution. He calls the Constitution “America’s political bible” and considers it the linchpin of civic life. This year, Bruce, an El Paso County commissioner and author of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, decided it’d be an appropriate graduation present for high school students in El Paso County. He ordered 5,500 of them through his nonprofit, Active Citizens Together, to which he contributes his salary as a county commissioner. But not every school district sees value in the gift. Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 and Lewis-Palmer School District 38 said thanks but no thanks to the offer. Bruce has accused them of turning a motherhood-and-apple-pie issue into a political one, pointing out that he distanced his name and politics from the giveaway, and there were no strings attached.

Mesa County Commissioners decided Monday to refund the county’s nearly $3 million in 2006 TABOR surplus through a temporary mill levy reduction. The reduction will appear on residents’ 2008 property tax bills. While announcing the temporary mill levy reduction, the commissioners also took a swipe at Gov. Bill Ritter’s recently passed education-funding mechanism: Senate Bill 199.

Members of the Pueblo City Council continue to appear split on whether the city will maintain funding levels for nonprofits or cut its contribution by $100,000. If public funding provided through the Community Services Advisory Commission stays at current levels, it would account for about 4 percent of the total budgets of 40 agencies. Last year, the city and county both contributed $900,000 to the process, for a total of $1.8 million in local government funding. The agencies claim they generate about $51 million in revenue.

Steamboat Springs City Council President Susan Dellinger said Monday that the city’s governing body is doing too much, too fast.

It's taken some time, but it seems the town of Silt is slowly restoring its staff, which has seen a big turnover in the past six months.

The city of Denver is holding a series of meetings, starting tomorrow, to give residents a progress report on the zoning code update. A new zoning approach to protecting established neighborhood character in so-called areas of stability will be among the topics of discussion at the meetings. The city is studying its neighborhoods and developing zoning standards that "match up more with the patterns of neighborhoods that we already have," said Peter Park, manager of Community Planning and Development. "If there's going to be change, it's more sensitive to the existing desired pattern that we have in our established neighborhoods," he said.

Longtime County Commissioner Elaine T. Valente, extolled as "the heart and soul of Adams County," died Sunday after a long illness. She was 66. Mrs. Valente was the first woman to serve on the Board of County Commissioners, and the only woman on the board during the first 100 years. A Democrat, she served for 16 years, from 1989 to 2005. She is credited with negotiating tough deals with Denver over the land that would become Denver International Airport, deals that have netted Adams County some $50 million in noise-abatement fees and other revenues.

The board asked for help after the head of a liberal advocacy group accused board member Bob Schaffer, who also is a GOP Senate candidate, of hypocrisy for advice he gave his fellow members of the state Board of Education on disclosing contributions. ProgressNowAction executive director Michael Huttner said Schaffer told board members they should disclose donations from people doing business with the board and then accepted contributions to his Senate campaign from a board consultant. Huttner said Schaffer cast the deciding vote to award a contract to a company owned by David Brennan, which provides programs for charter schools, and accepted $3,600 in contributions from Brennan for his Senate campaign. Huttner said Schaffer told fellow board members in December that government grant-making was ‘‘the most corrupt aspect of civil government in America’’ and then agreed to draft a conflict-of-interest policy for the board. Schaffer did not attend Monday’s meeting to work on a draft ethics policy.

Some Colorado Board of Education members were split Monday over whether fellow board member Bob Schaffer's vote on a charter school issue posed a possible conflict of interest. Some Democrats criticized Schaffer, a Republican, last spring when he voted to require the Denver Public Schools Board of Education to reconsider a vote to terminate the Life Skills Center of Denver, a fledgling charter school. Subsequently, it was learned that David Brennan and his wife had each given the maximum allowable donation ($2,300) to Schaffer's 2008 U.S. Senate campaign a month after Schaffer's tiebreaking vote. Brennan runs Ohio-based White Hat Management, which operates several Life Skills charter schools, including the one in Denver. Brennan also contributed to Schaffer's failed U.S. Senate campaign in 2004

Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo is urging the families of three young murder victims to consider suing the city of Newark for negligence, saying its lax immigration policy is at least partially to blame for the execution-style slayings. The conservative Republican congressman from Colorado brought his immigration-themed campaign to the steps of Newark City Hall today, where he denounced the city's policy of not involving itself in immigration matters. "I am encouraging the families of the victims to pursue the option of a lawsuit, in light of this culpability," Tancredo said, criticizing Newark's status as a so-called "sanctuary city" for immigrants. Newark, like many other cities including Los Angeles and Chicago, does not require police officers to check the immigration status of those they arrest or to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said today that immigration officials are typically notified when an illegal immigrant is convicted.

The devil is in the details when it comes to democracy in Aspen. City Council members on Monday spent more than an hour racking their brains on whether to let voters decide this fall if they want to change the way they elect people into office. The change would come in the form of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), also known as ranked-choice voting. It would eliminate runoff elections because voters would pick their second-choice candidate in the May election. But the system is confusing to some council members, who were leery to bring the changes to voters this fall without fully understanding the concept themselves.

A question about changing term limits for the sheriff will be put to Mesa County voters this fall, but what will be asked remains in question. Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey wants to rid his office of term limits, which would force him out of office at the end of his second four-year term. The Mesa County Commission, on the other hand, may ask voters to merely extend the limit to three four-year terms.

For six months, citizens worked out possible solutions to the county’s funding shortfall. Now, the ball’s in the commissioners’ court and they will decide Sept. 4 whether to approve a resolution that would put tax measures on the ballot. The Montrose County Citizens Committee for Funding Our Future was convened months ago to look at options for funding critical public safety and road issues. The committee operated independently of the county commission. Monday, committee chair Dave Laursen announced the final recommendation: a 0.75-percent sales tax for public safety and 1-percent sales and use taxes.

Paul Hughes, the former city manager who was fired by the Steamboat Springs City Council nearly two years ago, confirmed Monday that he will run for a seat on the City Council this fall. Hughes served as Steamboat’s city manager from 1998 to December 2005. He was fired in a surprising action at the end of a late-night City Council meeting. Hughes already had announced his plans to retire and had offered to continue working until his replacement was found. Councilman Towny Anderson later publicly apologized for the way Hughes’ termination was handled.

The Denver City Council on Monday backed off from intervening in a ballot initiative that would make possession of a small amount of marijuana the lowest priority for police. The council had considered passing the measure as an ordinance in hopes that the courts would quickly throw it out. Instead, council members unanimously opted to let voters decide in November. "I don't think any of us wants to subvert the will of the voters," said council member Doug Linkhart. "I don't think it's the role of the city to tell police which laws to enforce." The council will hold a public hearing on the measure at its meeting at 5:15 p.m. next Monday.

Voters will decide this fall on a ballot initiative that would make possession of small amounts of marijuana the "lowest law enforcement priority" of Denver police, the City Council decided Monday night. Most council members oppose the measure, but a pro-marijuana group forced their hand after gathering enough signatures to put it to a vote. "A number of us will be voting to put something on the ballot we won't be supporting ourselves," said Councilwoman Jeanne Robb. Earlier this month the council considered enacting the ordinance, rather than referring it to voters, as part of a legal maneuver to get it thrown out by the courts. Council members decided not to do that, but they say the initiative, if approved by voters, still could be overturned by a judge.

The council votes tonight on sending residents a measure that would let immigrants get spots on government boards.

Co-founder of the AFL-CIO, Dolores Huerta will speak at the Jesus Rodarte Center Saturday to encourage Latinos to register, vote and consider running for office. Huerta is a longtime activist for farm workers' rights and worked with Cesar Chavez to co-found the National Farm Workers Association. Huerta will speak about why Latinos are intimidated by the election process and why every vote matters, said organizer Rhonda Solis. The event entitled "Our Presence" is presented by The Hispanic Women of Weld County and local sponsors. Former state senator Polly Baca, the first Latino elected to Colorado's General Assembly, also will make a special appearance.

Anyone with an opinion on Xcel Energy’s controversial application for a coal supply rail spur to Hayden Station has until Thursday to submit comments to the Routt County Planning Department. On Sept. 6, the county Planning Commission will hold a hearing on Xcel’s special-use permit for the rail line. Planning Director Chad Phillips said few comments have been received. “We’ve only got a couple in so far, which is scary,” Phillips said. “Hopefully, we’ll get a few more.” Phillips said the comments he has received oppose the rail spur or request that the project be reconsidered.

Along with chomping their way through countless acres of lodgepole forests, hungry pine beetles are also taking a big bite out of the local camping scene. The summer-long closure of Heaton Bay and Peak One campgrounds has cost the concessionaire that operates local sites in a big way, said Bessie Lamoreaux, one of the area managers for Thousand Trails, the private company that operates several local National Forest campgrounds. The campgrounds have been closed due to tree removal projects and because of the potential danger posed by dead trees. Heaton Bay was to have been re-opened by the Fourth of July, but the work didn't progress as hoped.

Fort Collins will soon have a better idea of how global warming has impacted the city and how the community can better prepare for increases in drought conditions. As one of four cities taking part in the Climate Resilient Communities pilot program, Fort Collins -- along with Keene, N.H., Miami-Dade, Fla., and Homer, Alaska -- will potentially help communities across the globe to better deal with the impacts of climate change due to global warming. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives' Local Government for Sustainability's program, which is funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will look at economic, health and environmental impacts of drought in Fort Collins and will help create an action plan to address those issues.

The temperature hit 99 degrees in the shade the day Janet Konig and her family herded their cattle off the Pawnee National Grasslands a little more than a week ago. Then Monday, the forest service told Konig she could bring the cattle back. During the summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service monitors the grasslands to assure that grazing doesn't impact the ecosystem or wildlife in drought years. In late July, 19 of 76 allotments were vacated due to low levels of grasses. On Monday, the forest service allowed all but four ranchers in the Crow Valley Livestock Cooperative back on the land. But Konig said she never should have had to take her cattle off. "When we took them off, all the water holes were full. We've really been blessed with rain. We're tickled to have all this grass," she said.

The water coursing down city streets and into storm drains following a summer downpour is likely to be full of substances not fit for human or animal consumption. Keeping in mind the ultimate destination of that water - downstream rivers and lakes - Larimer County officials are considering an ordinance that would give the county more authority to monitor the quality of stormwater and reduce the pollutants it carries.

Tony Zang says he has tried to do all the right things when it comes to conserving water. He limits his sprinklers to 20 minutes three times a week, he waters only at night, he put mulch around his shrubs and tries to cut the grass tall. His efforts have paid off. Zang said he was able to cut his total water consumption by about 14,000 gallons a month between this summer and last summer. But that only made his shock worse when he opened his July water bill and found he owed $445, up from about $300 for the same month last year. That makes his water bill bigger than other monthly bills for utilities, property tax or insurance payments, Zang said.

Backpedaling by Colorado Springs Utilities and a generous benefactor have gotten Les Cole off the hook for a nearly $1,200 water bill. A man who identified himself to The Gazette as “Joe” paid $790 on Monday, while Utilities credited Cole’s account $415 last week because it failed to follow its notification policies when usage skyrockets. Speaking on condition that he not be named, the benefactor said, “I read about it in the paper, and I thought maybe the guy could use a little help. I was happy to help.” Cole’s water bill went through the roof after his toilet malfunctioned and ran continuously while he was away from home for two months from mid-April to late June.

Thousands of gizzard shad, a feeder fish for large-mouth bass, walleye and other game fish, were found Thursday dead and washed up on the shores of Rock Bridge Lake in Windsor's Water Valley subdivision. According to Water Valley developer Martin Lind, it is not uncommon to find dead shad floating in the lake this time of year. "Nobody poisoned the lake," Lind said. "When you see a population like that of shad, that means the game fish are doing phenomenal."

The Downtown Aquarium has asked state health officials to stop their investigation of reported leaks at the popular tourist spot, saying that leaks haven't been documented despite months of examination, and therefore don't warrant further action. In a letter to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment dated Aug. 10, aquarium manager Scot Hulgan said water bills from the city indicate no additional water is being used, an indicator that there is no leak and therefore there is no need for a discharge permit, something the state has asked it to obtain. Instead, he said, it may be that the facility's water measuring technique was flawed and incorrectly suggested water was being lost. But state officials said Monday they will need water samples from monitoring wells before they decide whether to take additional action or whether to call off their investigation.

Aspen officials plan to make it financially painful for people who ignore the city's bear ordinance, which forbids unsecured trash containers. The current fine is $50 for violators. But City Council members will consider upping it to $250 for the first offense; the second offense would be a $1,000 fine and the third will land violators in municipal court, where jail time could be handed down. The bear problem in Aspen is so bad that it has become a public safety issue and an emergency ordinance might be necessary in order to curtail people's bad behavior, Mayor Mick Ireland said on Monday.

The Colorado Rural Health Grant Council, which was created earlier this month through an executive order by Gov. Bill Ritter, is looking for six consumer-health advocates to help distribute $7.5 million primarily to community-based organizations seeking to improve the quality and access to healthcare in rural Colorado. The funds, to be distributed over six years, were donated by insurer United Healthcare. People interested in joining the council have until today to submit an application. To do so, please contact Cody Belzley at cody.belzley@state.co.us