Daily News Digest for 11/02/2007

The fall of once-mighty financial stocks, the biggest sector on Wall Street, is starting to cause major headaches for the broad stock market. The reverberations of the credit crunch that surfaced this summer hit hard again Thursday when an analyst downgraded the nation's largest bank, Citigroup. (C) The report spooked investors because it raised the possibility that the banking behemoth might have to cut its cash dividend to investors in an effort to raise capital. Just the suggestion that Citi's 5%-plus dividend might be in jeopardy — a scenario other analysts said was unlikely — was enough to remind investors that the credit crunch and subprime mortgage meltdown that has caused billions of dollars in losses on Wall Street was not over. It also reinforced the notion that major banks and brokerages will report additional losses in the months ahead. "It raises the question: Is the worst really behind us on the credit side?" says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. Selling was heavy Thursday, with all three major stock indexes falling more than 2%. The Dow Jones industrial average took a big hit, plunging 362 points, or 2.6%, to 13,568. The blue-chip index, which enjoyed a triple-digit gain Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, is still up 8.9% for the year.

President Bush on Thursday raised the stakes in his contest with Senate Democrats over the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general, saying they were subjecting the nominee to a unique and unfair standard and could cause the Justice Department to be left without leadership at a critical juncture. Bush, in his most forceful remarks to date on the troubled nomination, strongly defended Mukasey's refusal to say whether Mukasey believed that an interrogation technique known as water-boarding was illegal torture. The issue has become the defining question for Senate Democrats in advance of Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee vote on whether to confirm the retired federal judge to succeed Alberto R. Gonzales. "If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for attorney general," Bush said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington.

From store clerks selling cigarettes by generator power, to military commanders poring over aerial maps, Iraqis and Americans are striving to understand the sharp decrease in violence over the past several months and what it might herald for the future of Iraq. The number of attacks against U.S. soldiers has fallen to levels not seen since before the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra that touched off waves of sectarian killing, according to U.S. military statistics released Thursday. The death toll for American troops in October fell to 39, the lowest level since March 2006, and the eighth-lowest total in 56 months of fighting, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which tracks military fatalities. An unofficial Health Ministry tally showed that civilian deaths across Iraq rose last month compared with September, but the U.S. military found that such deaths fell from a high this year of about 2,800 in January to about 800 in October. "This trend represents the longest continuous decline in attacks on record and illustrates how our operations have improved security since the surge was emplaced," Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, said at a briefing for reporters. The momentum, Odierno said, was "positive" but "not yet irreversible."

The 64-to-30 vote, coming one week after the House approved the same bill, moves the legislation to Mr. Bush’s desk. The bill differs slightly from one vetoed on Oct. 3, but it faces the same fate. On Thursday, Senate Republican leaders objected to Democratic requests to allow more time for the bipartisan negotiations seeking a compromise. The purpose of the talks was to win over enough House Republicans to override the veto promised by the president. In an interview, Representative Judy Biggert, Republican of Illinois, said, “The talks were making really good progress.” But, she said, “everything changed” after the top two Senate Republicans, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Trent Lott of Mississippi, “objected to postponing a Senate vote” on the bill. Seventeen Republican senators voted for the bill, but Mr. McConnell and Mr. Lott voted against it. Mr. Lott said the bill did not focus enough on “poor kids.”

Both Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. Mark Udall intend to press ahead with getting Congress to adopt the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group as the best way to withdraw U.S. soldiers from the fighting there - despite recent casualty reports showing that violence against American troops has dropped significantly over the past two months. In separate interviews this week, the two Colorado Democrats said the lower U.S. casualties do not affect their intention to put U.S. policy on a different path in Iraq - adopting the Iraq Study Group's call to launch a new diplomatic effort to involve Iraq's neighbors in stabilizing the country and in shifting the role of U.S. troops to training, instead of security. As October drew to a close, only 36 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq during the month, down from 65 in September, which also was a decline from August casualties. President Bush has said those numbers are an indication that his controversial decision to send a "surge" of an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last summer is working in suppressing the insurgency.

Gov. Bill Ritter's $18 billion budget proposal includes the lowest increase for prisons in years, a stark contrast to his predecessor's parting financial plan. Instead of emphasizing prison beds, the governor's proposal released Thursday would pump $5.9 million into programs aimed at reducing recidivism. Ritter said substance-abuse, mental-health and vocational programs for adults and youth could save $17 million in prison costs during the next five years. Republicans, though, countered that the former district attorney is being "irresponsible" and lax about public safety. Ritter's first spending plan - a $927.8 million increase over this year's budget - also includes a 25 percent general-fund boost for green initiatives, including a new $2 million solar-power rebate program. It calls for $1.8 million to help cut in half the achievement gap between white students and their counterparts, and adds $2.3 million to restore the state veterans trust fund for nursing homes and transportation to medical appointments. Ritter's proposal, for the fiscal year that will begin July 1, is now with the legislature's Joint Budget Committee, which will hold hearings this fall before lawmakers approve a budget next spring.

Tax increases, spending limits and city council races top the issues that will be decided in 67 municipal elections across Colorado on Tuesday. Many communities have big needs, and voters appear willing to pay for them, said Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League. "There continues to be needs in our communities and they're asking voters, 'Are you willing to pay for them?'" Mamet said. Since 1993, 68 percent of such questions — 221 of 335 — have been approved. Mamet said 55 regular elections will be held Tuesday with candidates or issues on the ballot. At least 12 other special elections will focus on the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights or term limits.

Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave voted against a bill Tuesday that would force the hard-rock mining industry to pay royalties on minerals extracted from public lands and put new environmental controls on hard-rock mining, set up a cleanup fund for abandoned mines and permanently ban cheap sales of public lands for mining. The bill passed the House 244-166. "I support updating the 1872 (mining) law to better protect public land and to implement some royalty payments by mining companies for minerals they extract from those areas," Musgrave said in a statement. "Yet, it's clear the fees in this bill are set so high that mining companies will either increase operations on private lands, and we see the folly of that near Nunn, or leave the U.S. and employ workers overseas." Musgrave opposes a uranium mining project proposed by Powertech (USA) Inc. west of Nunn in Weld County. "There are better solutions that protect our nation's public lands while not risking good paying American jobs," she said. Congress passed the original law not long after the Gold Rush. It was aimed at settling the West by letting prospectors stake claims and mine gold, silver and other minerals for free. It's survived essentially unchanged for 135 years. Under current law public lands can be sold for mining for as little as $2.50 an acre, although Congress has enacted annual prohibitions on that in recent years.

Television bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman has apologized for repeatedly using a racial slur in a profanity-laced tirade during a private phone conversation with his son that was recorded and posted online. Chapman, star of A&E's hit reality series "Dog the Bounty Hunter," issued a statement Wednesday apologizing for the comments after The National Enquirer posted a clip of the conversation in which he uses the N-word in reference to his son's girlfriend. "We take this matter very seriously," A&E spokesman Michael Feeney said in a statement Thursday. "Pending an investigation, we have suspended production on the series. When the inquiry is concluded, we will take appropriate action." The recording was first posted online by the Enquirer. It was unclear who recorded the conversation or how the tabloid obtained the 1�-minute clip in which Chapman uses the N-word six times.

Boulder police have ticketed an 18-year-old University of Colorado student for false reporting after she admitted that she lied to officers by claiming she was jumped by three men who cut an X into her cheek because she's a lesbian. Alta Merkling told police she was attacked about 5 a.m. Saturday near 30th Street and Colorado Avenue, and that one of her attackers cut her face with a Swiss Army knife while saying, "X marks the faggot," according to a police report. She later told a detective that she cut the X herself, the report says. When Merkling made the initial police report, officers documented her injury and confirmed she had an X on her right cheek. Officer Nicole Faivre wrote in the report that he didn't notice any other injuries, and that the X was made of "two very concise lines." Detective Chuck Heidel followed up on the report Monday, but he had difficulty reconnecting with Merkling. Heidel also said he received a call from the director of CU's GLBT Center, who "wanted the police to know that she and others with the GLBT Center had some doubts about the veracity of the report."

Carlos Eldon Alcon is a one-man petty-crime wave. Since 1975, when he was a 12-year- old busted for shoplifting and underage drinking, Alcon has been arrested more than 90 times. He pulled his pants down in the women's clothing section of a retail store. He smoked marijuana in a park. He refused to leave a bar where he was eighty-sixed. He had sex in broad daylight in downtown Grand Junction. Ten times he failed to show up for court hearings. He's what one officer terms "a full-service offender." He is also one of the under-the-radar problems Gov. Bill Ritter's new criminal justice task force faces as it looks at sentencing laws and the problem of repeat offenders. Criminals like Alcon often fall outside the cross hairs of busy prosecutors. And no one knows how many are out there. There is no database to set off alarm bells when arrests creep into high numbers.

A deeply divided Colorado Springs City Council is leaning toward closing four police substations at night, not keeping them open as previously reported. In a verbal polling rather than an official vote, councilmen Scott Hente, Jerry Heimlicher and Tom Gallagher and Vice Mayor Larry Small said Wednesday they wanted to keep the stations open from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. But a majority agreed with Police Chief Richard Myers’ proposal to save $209,000 by shuttering them. The majority included Mayor Lionel Rivera and council members Jan Martin, Margaret Radford, Darryl Glenn and Randy Purvis. The Gazette reported the results erroneously in its Thursday morning edition. Final approval of next year’s $236 million budget is scheduled Dec. 11. The proposed budget is $6.5 million less than this year because of slumping sales tax revenues.

When it comes to stopping repeat criminals, talk therapy focusing on the past doesn't work. Neither do boot camps or drug education programs. Incarceration, as popular as it is, works only half the time. An alternative solution: teaching specific behavioral changes that offenders can implement immediately. "You have to teach offenders new ways to behave," said Dr. Edward J. Latessa, a nationally known researcher and expert on repeat criminals. That includes getting offenders into jobs, banning their association with troublesome acquaintances, fostering involvement in sober activities, identifying positive mentors and teaching them how to be assertive rather than passive and how to spot the triggers that lead to illegal behavior. "You have to target attitudes, values and beliefs."

Low-income residents face plenty of problems in northern Colorado, and they can find help in various places such as the food bank, social services and other agencies. But when it comes to the law, low-income residents are often in dire straits. On Tuesday, a group of attorneys, judges, service providers and others will discuss those gaps in legal services and evaluate Weld County's needs. A similar meeting was held in Fort Collins last week. The Access to Justice Commission, appointed by the governor, Colorado Supreme Court, the speaker of the House and the Senate president, and the Colorado Bar Association, is working toward policy initiatives that would expand access to legal help for Colorado's poor.

After covering shifts on the streets and handling a 75 percent staff turnover, Silt Police Chief Levy Burris is finally able to take some weekends off. Burris hasn't had one holiday off since he took over in June, but things have been improving, he said. "I've actually had the last couple of weekends off," he said. "It's been nice." The Silt PD is down to six officers from a force of eight, including Burris. One officer is expected to complete a police academy and begin work in December while Burris continues to look for another candidate. But things were tougher before.

The Huerfano County Correctional Center received its accreditation this month, passing with a score of 100 percent for the second audit in a row. Assistant warden Arlene Hickson said she credits the staff for meeting all 140 mandatory standards required by the American Correctional Association, as well as 100 percent of the approximate 400 additional standards, including kitchen cleanliness and inmate services. The prison undergoes a performance audit every three years. Along with reviewing extensive prison records, auditors talked with inmates and staff.

Things have slowed down for Gary Darling. Larimer County's new criminal justice planning manager is beginning a job where strategies are long-term, attacking a problem takes meetings, meetings and more meetings, and solutions are systemic. Walking through the second-floor offices of Larimer County's large and comfortable Oak Street building -- sharing space with the county commissioners and the county manager -- Darling notes how quiet it is, how slow. For the past 30 years, Darling has called the Larimer County Detention Center home. Most recently, he served as the jail's administrator.

Shadoe worked his first day on the job, learning his way around the kitchen, placing tomato and lemon slices on the Greek salads awaiting the approval of the masses. The 18-year-old hopes to one day open his own restaurant, create his own culinary masterpieces. For now, Shadoe is locked up at Platte Valley Youth Services Center, Weld's juvenile jail. He can only be identified by his first name because he's an inmate. But thanks to the work of three chefs who teach a culinary arts program at Platte Valley, Shadoe has something to look forward to on the outside.

The city of Steamboat Springs on Thursday gave Routt County officials a temporary certificate of occupancy for the new Routt County Justice Center on Shield Drive. Despite lacking such a permit, the $18 million Justice Center has been open and in use by the state’s 14th Judicial District since mid-September. No county employees work at the Justice Center, which houses judicial district employees and facilities including attorneys, clerks and courts.

Inmates incarcerated at the medium-security Fremont Correctional Facility were placed on lock down for a few hours Thursday after a white powdery substance was found inside a parcel in the prison mailroom. According to Katherine Sanguinetti, Colorado Department of Corrections spokesperson, a parcel likely intended for an inmate was opened in the mailroom Thursday morning and found to contain a white powdery substance. There was just one employee in the mailroom at the time, she said.

Frontier’s reported decision to build a maintenance hangar in Colorado Springs was a bright spot amid Thursday’s sobering economic news: Home prices dropped at the steepest rate yet, and city and county governments considered service reductions. Nationally, the Fed came to the rescue of tight credit markets, but Wall Street punished investors and factories cooled off. The local housing market continued to suffer in October, with lagging sales, swelling numbers of foreclosures and fewer new homes under construction. Home prices fell 4 percent last month, the biggest drop in 14 years of record-keeping by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors and the third straight month of falling prices.

The next wave of Asian imports expected to flood the U.S. market? Free-spending tourists. With more and more Chinese and Korean travelers expected to venture overseas, Colorado tourism officials have been laying the groundwork to steer some of the potential visitors here. A predicted surge in U.S. visits, fueled by economic growth and visa waivers, has even prodded Vail Resorts Inc. and Aspen Skiing Co. to join forces as they attempt to lure more international skiers to their upscale resorts. "It makes sense for us to pool our resources trying to get the Colorado name out there," said Vail's Tony Lyle, who spoke by phone from South Korea before heading to a travel show this week in Kunming, China. Lyle joined a delegation from the state's tourism office that convened in Seoul for a sales and training mission. Other representatives from the ski industry, the Colorado Tourism Office and the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors bureau were among those making the trek.

Coloradans — especially those living in Boulder County — have reason to be optimistic about the economy in the year ahead, Patty Silverstein, chief economist for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., said Thursday. Looking at a broad range of economic indicators, she said the Denver metro economy will likely continue its slow and steady growth, with Boulder County leading the way. The county should see job growth of about 3 percent in the coming year, outpacing job growth both statewide and nationally. She wasn’t ready to paint all things rosy, however. “The greatest level of uncertainty is what’s happening on a national level,” Silverstein said in her economic forecast during the Longmont Area Economic Council’s Investor Series Breakfast meeting.

When you're new on the job, one of the smartest things you can do is keep your ears open and your mouth shut. This sage advice, however, does not seem to be working for Qwest's new chief executive, Ed Mueller. Eleven weeks into the job and Mueller hasn't declared his plans for the stagnant Denver-based phone company. He wants another seven weeks to figure them out. "It's in my nature to be responsible, not fast," he told me Thursday. I called Mueller after seeing the market's violent reaction to his first earnings call Tuesday. Mueller told stock analysts he was working hard on his "strategic review" of Qwest's opportunities and that he would not have his plan together until mid-December.

High-flying shares of Crocs Inc. suffered their largest fall ever Thursday, even as analysts uniformly maintained high expectations for the maker of distinctive footwear. The shares dropped $27.01 to $47.74 in heavy trading, resulting in a 36 percent loss, a day after Crocs reported rising inventories and sales projections slightly below analysts' estimates. Despite the major fall Thursday, shares of Niwot-based Crocs are up 123 percent this year. The maker of colorful, rubbery clogs with holes in them went public in February 2006. Of the five major equity analysts that issued research reports Thursday on Crocs, each gave the firm the equivalent of a "buy" recommendation. "This is not a slowing fad," JP Morgan apparel analyst Robert Samuels said in a report. "Demand for the brand remains robust."

Residents of the Peppersauce Bottoms neighborhood were celebrating in relative quiet Thursday when an industrial operation set at the back fences of some of their homes stood silent. Margaret Montano Mora, director of the Southern Colorado chapter of the Colorado Progressive Coalition, announced to a small crowd of residents that L.B. Foster has decided to close its prefabricated rail facility. Mora said she received the call from Steve Hart, an official with the company in Pittsburgh, that the facility will close by the end of the year. The facility's closure will cost the community about a dozen good-paying jobs. Mora said that was one of the heartbreaking aspects of the decision. However, she added that if L.B. Foster first put its facility in an appropriate spot and not along the back fences of a neighborhood that had been established for generations, there wouldn't have been a problem.

Those who splurged on a Rocky Mountain Ultimate Pass bought themselves 26 extra days of skiing this season. Those days begin today with the opening of Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Summit County.

The Colorado Commission on Higher Education patted Gov. Bill Ritter on the back and took him to task at the same time Thursday in preparing its 2008-09 budget request. The agency, which oversees Colorado’s public institutions of higher education, is seeking about $60 million in new spending, up from the current $746 million to $805.5 million. That’s an 8 percent increase, which David Skaggs, the commission’s executive director, said was “a striking demonstration of the governor’s commitment” to put money back into higher education. The commission agreed, but said in a separate resolution approved Thursday in a meeting at Mesa State College that the funding “is not sufficient to cover the institutions’ mandated costs and the initiatives essential for pubic higher education in Colorado.” The resolution followed on the heels of state Senate Republicans’ criticism that Ritter had offered only modest funding increases.

Colorado colleges and universities could see a substantial increase in funding next year if the Colorado Commission on Higher Education gets its way. The CCHE on Thursday unanimously approved the recommendation of increasing the 2008-09 budget for higher education by $59.5 million. The board met at Mesa State College in Grand Junction. CCHE's total budget request of $805.5 million for the 2008-09 school year must still be reviewed and approved by the Joint Budget Committee during the 2008 legislative session. CCHE can and likely will amend that budget before it is approved, but Thursday's action is a first step toward getting additional money for higher education. The additional $59.5 million request includes $1.7 million to restore funding to the student work-study program and $800,000 for pre-collegiate scholarships.

On Thursday night the final draft of CU-Boulder's Flagship 2030 plan - an ambitious vision for how the university will operate when today's toddlers reach voting age - went live on CU-Boulder's Web site. CU is now poised to begin the next phase: putting together task forces that will prioritize the 18 initiatives outlined in the plan. “It's very important to realize Flagship 2030's real work is only now beginning,” CU physics professor Uriel Nauenberg said at the annual meeting of the CU-Boulder Faculty Senate on Thursday night. Flagship 2030 lists a total of eight “core” initiatives - like increasing the graduate student population from 15 percent to 20 percent of the overall student body, investing in technology and libraries, and doubling financial aid - and 10 “transformational” initiatives, like emphasizing a concurrent bachelors/masters degree as the primary track, moving to a year-round three semester schedule, and building a research triangle with state laboratories and businesses.

Traditional public schools, charter schools and online schools should cooperate to improve education, Colorado Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones told charter school supporters Thursday. “We ought to be partners, not adversaries,” Jones said at the Colorado League of Charter Schools conference. Approximately 59,000 students attend more than 140 charter schools in the state, he said. “I believe quality choice is good for public education,” Jones said. “Educating kids is a tough business.” When Edison Schools, an education management company, began operating charter schools in Wichita, Kan. — where Jones was a public school principal — he was upset but couldn’t specifically explain why, he said.

Two Colorado State University scientists were honored Thursday at the White House, recognized by President George Bush as emerging leaders in science and engineering. Amy J. Pruden-Bagchi and Jacob Roberts received the Presidential Early Career awards at the White House, the only two researchers from Colorado universities honored this year. Pruden-Bagchi, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is being recognized for her work in using molecular biology to investigate antibiotic-resistant genes in the environment. She was nominated by the National Science Foundation. Roberts, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, investigates ways to cool super-cold gasses of atoms, permitting more accurate study of quantum objects' size, shape and behavior. He was nominated by the Department of Defense.

While Pine Creek High School Principal Todd Morse introduced the dignitaries seated on the stage at Thursday’s assembly, teacher Michael Arsenault talked with a student and helped run the soundboard behind the stage. He had no idea the assembly was in honor of him. The Academy School District 20 math teacher and student council co-sponsor was honored with a Milken Educator Award, a national recognition that comes with a $25,000 check.

Robert Cuevas says he was one of two Hispanic kids in his entire fourth grade at Eagle Valley Elementary School. Cuevas, who is now the principal at Berry Creek Middle School, says things have obviously changed since the 1980s and 1990s, when he was an Eagle County student and Hispanics were a small minority. “Back then it was sink or swim — there weren’t many people to speak Spanish with,” Cuevas said. “If you wanted to interact with people, you had to know English.” For the first time in the district’s history, Hispanic students outnumber white students in the school district. Officials say 50 percent of the study body this year is Hispanic, and white students make up 48 percent.

CU’s research shows the learning assistant program improves student achievement in large, introductory physics classes and helps develop top students into physics teachers. Two-thirds of high school physics teachers did not major or minor in the science, according to a 2003 report from the American Institute of Physics. Political reports and national studies have decried the lack of qualified science teachers, but science professors need to encourage their students to consider teaching careers, according to Valerie Otero, an assistant professor in the School of Education. “We’re transforming the culture of physics to ... value education (as a career),” said Noah Finkelstein, an assistant physics professor at CU.

Parents of high school students at Bruce Randolph School who want free transportation for their children partly got their wish during a community meeting Thursday night. Since the beginning of the school year, some parents of Bruce Randolph students have been concerned about their children's safety while walking to school. "Our children have to overcome a lot of obstacles walking to and from school," said Holly Hudson, 39, a parent. "There are no buses for high school students." Hudson noted that many students who live in the Elyria, Swansea and Globeville neighborhoods have to cross railroad tracks, go under the underpass for Interstate 70, deal with truck traffic in industrial areas and cope with vehicles going on and off I-70. In many areas, students also have to go through gang territory.

During busy lunch hours on the University of Colorado's campus, Shruti Reddy runs a cashier station in a cafeteria named after Colorado's infamous cannibal. Her part-time job at CU's Alferd Packer Grill is a coveted one. Reddy, a graduate telecommunications student, is among 2,075 students on the Boulder campus with a "work-study" job — a highly sought-after financial-aid program that has a wait list. Under a proposal by Gov. Bill Ritter, the squeezed program could receive some extra money next year, freeing up more jobs and shifts for students. Annual state funding for the work-study program at CU reached $1.5 million in 2002-03 but then dropped to $1.3 million the following year, where it has remained ever since, according to CU's financial-aid office. Meanwhile, tuition has continually climbed, with 14.6 percent hikes this year for the majority of in-state undergraduates. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education on Thursday reviewed Ritter's proposal to give a $59.5 million, or 8 percent, boost to the state's colleges and universities next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The governor's plan includes an extra $1.7 million for the work-study program, which helps financially needy students offset the costs of their education. Ritter said work-study is among programs scaled back during the state's recession.

The contract stalemate between the teachers union and Greeley-Evans School District 6 drags on as the two groups could not agree after three days of mediated talks this week. A mediator from the Denver office of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service led all-day negotiations on Monday and Tuesday. Talks between teams from the Greeley Education Association, representing 1,100 teachers, and the district continued throughout Thursday without a resolution. The main sticking point is teacher salaries, according to district officials.

Michael Arsenault estimates his heart rate spiked to about 210 beats a minute when he found out during a Pine Creek High School assembly Thursday that he was one of two Colorado teachers to win the prestigious Milken National Educator Award. Arsenault, 37, a math teacher at Pine Creek in Academy District 20, and Danny Uyechi, a math teacher at Sierra Middle School in Douglas County Schools, each received $25,000 from the Milken Family Foundation, based in Santa Monica, Calif. Uyechi, 36, who teaches seventh- and eighth-graders, accepted his award at a surprise assembly before 1,250 students. He received a bachelor's degree in math and kinesiology from Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, in 1996. He taught in Fort Worth before joining the staff at Sierra six years ago.

An Otero Junior College math and science professor will give a presentation at a national science conference in San Francisco next month. Leo Maslov, who teaches algebra, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics, will attend the American Geophysical Union fall conference Dec. 10-14. Maslov will chair two sessions. He will also give a presentation, Solid Planetary Tides and Differential Motion of Deep Layers in the Earth-Moon Binary Planet System, at the oral session Earth and Moon as a Binary Planet System I.

Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday released his proposed budget for the next fiscal year, including additional funds for higher education, veterans groups and mental health treatment. Approximately 90 percent of the $7.1 billion general fund budget - the total budget is expected to exceed $18 billion - will go to the state's five largest departments: education, health-care policy, higher education, prisons and human services. It includes 442 new jobs, 955 replacement state vehicles (448 of which will be ethanol burning and 91 hybrids) and about $180 million in capital construction, including several projects in Southern Colorado. "This budget is both frugal and proactive in the services and programs it will fund," Ritter said. "It addresses high-priority needs in education, public safety, child services, health care, energy and natural resources. It also allows us to modernize operations, offer services to rural Colorado and enhance funding to Colorado's military veterans."

Gov. Bill Ritter’s priorities — reducing prison recidivism, promoting renewable energy and closing the educational achievement gap — took center stage in the firstyear Democrat’s $18 billion 2008-09 budget proposal Thursday. Ritter, putting forth the first state financial plan of his term, proposes adding $900 million to the overall budget and spending the maximum amount allowed under law without having to seek a tax increase. He recommends a $7.5 billion general fund appropriation, a 6 percent increase from this year’s $7.1 billion. K-12 and higher education are two big beneficiaries, and the Corrections Department’s budget would increase just 6 percent, its smallest increase in years. Ritter, who will pitch his plan to the Joint Budget Committee before it begins assembling a proposal of its own, said he took advantage of a positive economy to help people who are most in need while also saving money in the long term. As an example of his strategy, he pointed to a $3 million increase for mental health services for the indigent. “We spend those dollars in the right way, we save money in other places,” Ritter said. “You end up returning those people to society, where they can be productive taxpayers.”

Higher education would win big and children's health care and crime prevention would fare well under Gov. Bill Ritter's first comprehensive budget proposal, submitted Thursday. Ritter said his spending plan achieves its goal as a "moral document" through such things as helping the mentally ill and disabled and continuing to reward Coloradans who clean up the environment. If approved by the legislature's Joint Budget Committee, the plan, which proposes a $900 million increase in total state spending, would take effect July 1. It recommends spending $7.5 billion on basic government operations, a 6 percent increase from this year's $7.1 billion, the maximum increase allowed by the state Constitution. The higher education general fund would get a $59.5 million infusion, some of which would increase student financial aid and hopefully slow the pace of tuition increases. Five of the state's colleges and universities would get $88.8 million for construction.

Gov. Bill Ritter released the first budget of his administration Thursday, asking for increases for colleges and children's health insurance. Locally, Ritter is asking for $11.6 million to rebuild Berndt Hall at Fort Lewis College. He also wants nine new inspectors for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The budget is Ritter's first chance to put money behind the goals he has talked about all year. Last year's budget was largely the work of former Gov. Bill Owens' administration. "A lot of the money we are able to devote to new things comes from Referendum C having passed. But it's not a lot of new money," Ritter said. Voters approved Ref. C in 2005. It suspends tax rebates for five years and lets the state keep an estimated $6.1 billion by 2010. Colleges got the biggest share of this year's new money. The $59.5 million increase is an 8 percent jump in state support compared to last year. However, state colleges say they need an extra $832 million to catch up to the U.S. average for college funding.

Denver Councilwoman Carol Boigon said she has secured the seven votes she needs to pass a $2.6 million budget amendment for employee raises next year. But Boigon doesn't know whether she has the nine votes needed to override a veto by Mayor John Hickenlooper, who opposes her proposal. "I think there are people who are looking at it really hard and still doing their study," she said Thursday. Kelly Brough, Hickenlooper's chief of staff, said in an e-mail that "nothing is more important" than paying city employees fairly. But Boigon's "amendment delivers across-the-board pay increases and doesn't honor our commitments to our workers and the public to fund performance-based compensation and bonuses while being fiscally responsible," she wrote.

A dollar here. A dollar there. Pretty soon you’re talking about real money, as colleague Perry Swanson, a data whiz and government watchdog, pondered this week after reviewing recently released census data. That coupled with IRS data shows how much money Coloradans send to Washington and how much the Beltway sends back through federal flumes, such as military installations, Social Security and health care for the elderly. The data came out as local agencies are figuring how to spend your money in 2008. Colorado Springs is budgeting $236 million; the town of Monument, some $4.4 million; and the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, $123 million. Chump change to Uncle Sam. Next year, federal agencies will run through $2.9 trillion — 4,400 times the amount the country spent in 1908, according to the Office of Management and Budget. (Inflation accounts for a 21-fold increase.) But that was before the government got into protecting hoot owls, surveilling from space and deposing despots.

Mandatory and unpaid vacations for El Paso County employees are a small but controversial part of the county’s proposed eleventhhour cuts to this year’s budget. County commissioners listened to a five-hour presentation by department heads Thursday outlining what they said are the only cuts that can be made to address a $4.1 million budget shortfall after the county collected less sales tax revenues and fees than expected. “We’re barely getting there so it is not like we could provide $8 million (in budget cut options) and say pick from the list,” said Nicola Sapp, financial services director. While Thursday’s discussion was only a work session, Commission Chairman Dennis Hisey said short of any brilliant ideas in the next week, the commission will approve all of the recommended budget cuts Thursday. Shutting down most county offices for one day a week for the last two months of the year and the Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks will equal a utilities savings of $100,000. It will also mean staff will have to work four 10-hour days during nonholiday weeks and use any remaining personal, vacation or sick time in order to be paid for the holiday weeks offices would be closed.

Garfield County administrator Ed Green has coined a nickname for a county that is seeing explosive growth: Mt. Garsuvious. Trying to keep pace with that volcanic population increase is causing the county's budget to explode as well. It is expected to total nearly $100 million for next year. Green has submitted a budget proposal to county commissioners that exceeds $99 million. Commissioners are scheduled to approve a final budget on Dec. 10. The budget is up from probably about $60 million five years ago, Green said. Helping to pay for that growth has been about a five-fold increase in county property tax revenues during this decade. Those dollars have grown from $7.7 million in 2000 to a projected $34.8 million this year, and are anticipated to reach $39 million next year.

Neighbors opposed to a co-housing development in north Boulder are starting an effort to collect more than 7,000 signatures for a petition that would require the City Council — after a new majority is elected — to reverse the project's approval or put it before city voters. Opponents of the project at the site of the former Washington Elementary School will start collecting signatures today, organizer John Gless said. The group has until Nov. 23 to gather the signatures. "We're still not happy, and there's really no reason for us to be happy, so we're just going to keep doing whatever we have to do," Gless said. The City Council last week gave the go-ahead to a proposal put forward by developer Jim Leach to build six houses and 34 condominiums, which would make up a co-housing community on the grounds of the century-old school. Neighbors said it's too large, too dense and doesn't fit into their neighborhood.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney drew some mild boos and hisses on Thursday over his stand against gay marriage. From the students' section of his event at Luther College in Decorah, that wasn't so surprising. Romney faced a more pointed confrontation on the same topic during a question-and-answer session at the University of Denver last month. But on Thursday, it was noteworthy how Romney didn't feel like sharing the boos and hisses with a Republican rival who's starting to nip at his heels. Asked a generic question about the gay marriage issue, Romney went out of his way to say he was the only leading national candidate to support the federal constitutional amendment. That's true, but only if Romney ignores former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who runs second or third to Romney in the Iowa polls and slipped past him - just barely - in one national survey released last week.

City officials told an anti-abortion group Thursday it was too early to apply for permits to demonstrate at several parks during next year's Democratic Convention, setting up a possible lawsuit against the city. The Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Pro-Life Coalition said he was told it could be months before Denver issues permits to groups wishing to reserve parks for demonstrations. Mahoney has said he expected to be turned down. He said he went through the process to lay the groundwork for a lawsuit alleging the city is denying his group its free-speech rights. Denver typically issues event permits for the following year beginning the first business day in November. But officials are withholding permits for events at 14 city parks, including Civic Center downtown, until they devise a new system.

Colorado Republicans have essentially cast Wayne Wolf from the race to replace Sen. Wayne Allard, leaving the Delta County commissioner to consider a possible congressional bid instead. "We already have a de facto nominee, and I've told that to Commissioner Wolf," said GOP party chairman Dick Wadhams, referring to former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer. "Until someone shows me that they have as credible a campaign as Bob Schaffer, we only have one candidate." The national party, as well the GOP senatorial campaign arm, are backing Schaffer, which gives him the opportunity for fundraising help before the August primary. The GOP nominee is expected to face U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, a Democrat from Eldorado Springs. Wolf said he isn't talking the party snub personally. "I think I was not aware of how strong the support for Bob Schaffer is," Wolf said. "I'm re-evaluating what I want to do."

The sun was up, the sky was clear blue, and the snow-covered Rocky Mountains set a picturesque backdrop for this one-woman show. Harnessed into her wagon-pulling contraption, a ski pole in each hand, Denver native Anna Marchant, 56, trekked south on 95th Street in Boulder County on Thursday. Behind her trailed a red-and-blue homemade wagon promoting statewide support for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Marchant is two weeks into her 450-mile "Crossing Colorado for Kucinich" walk from Wyoming to New Mexico in an attempt to raise awareness about Kucinich's ideas. Averaging about eight miles a day, Marchant plans to reach the southern state border by the end of December. She has already passed through Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont and is on her way to Denver via Boulder. She will be canvassing today on the Pearl Street Mall.

Anti-abortion activists blasted the city of Denver today for thwarting their ability to plan peaceful demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention next August. National groups charged that parks and recreation officials denied their application today for permits to hold prayer vigils and demonstrations at Civic Center and Lincoln parks — several blocks from the Pepsi Center where Democrats will gather to elect their 2008 presidential nominee. Organizers with the Christian Defense Coalition — a group known for graphic posters of aborted fetuses — threatened to file a lawsuit alleging that Denver's actions threatened to violate activists' First Amendment rights.

Democratic state House challenger Crusificio "Cross" Gambino said he was possibly drugged and suffered a "blackout" when he wrote a bad check for a Cadillac Escalade that landed him in Weld County court on felony theft charges in 2005. Gambino pleaded guilty to attempted theft charges last year stemming from the incident as well as other check fraud allegations and was sentenced to three years probation, according to court records. Gambino told the Coloradoan on Thursday that he has no recollection of being at Ghent Motors in Greeley, test driving the car or writing a check for the $76,000 automobile from an account with only a couple of hundred dollars in it. "I have no memory of the entire event, but apparently I went to Ghent and presented a check from my account for payment of the vehicle," Gambino said. "I remember nothing of the entire event. I don't remember being at the bank. I don't remember any of the attempts to buy the car at the dealership. I don't remember any of it." Weld County court documents say Gambino opened a checking account at Key Bank in 2005 with $264 and then attempted to make numerous false deposits at automated teller machines in Greeley and Fort Collins totaling $2.165 million. No currency or money was ever deposited. Gambino then went into the bank and withdrew approximately $1,883 before using his debit card at numerous local businesses despite lacking sufficient funds. In total, Key Bank claimed a net loss of $2,412.26.

Numbers aren't always completely black and white, but Boulder County has sent “Election 2007” ballots to about 144,000 active, registered voters - and as of Thursday afternoon, the County Clerk's office had only received about 23,000 voted ballots back. Sure, about 13,000 un-voted ballots had also been returned as undeliverable, but no matter how one looks at the numbers, it seems as if there are a boat-load of people who haven't voted yet. Time is ticking. Voted ballots must be returned to the County Clerk's office in Boulder at 1750 33rd St., or to branches in Louisville or Longmont, by 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Nov. 6. The 2007 election is primarily being conducted by mail ballot, but voters who want to send their ballot back to the Clerk's office through the mail should consider whether the ballot will make it to the office on time. Ballots received after 7 p.m. on Nov. 6 will not count, even if the envelope has a postmark from an earlier date.

An incorrect form of ballots was sent to as many as 11 voters in one Longmont precinct, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall said Thursday. Those blank ballots included Boulder County’s government’s two tax- extension proposals and the St. Vrain Valley school board contests, Hall said. But the ballots did not also include the mayoral and at-large City Council election contests and three other ballot questions being decided by Longmont voters. Hall plans to meet with the Longmont City Council candidates and City Clerk Valeria Skitt this afternoon to explain what happened and how the clerk’s office is dealing with the issue. Although the errors were not widespread, Skitt said, it’s better to meet with the candidates than “have a panic that the whole process is messed up.”

Tourism Works for Longmont, the ballot-issue committee working to convince voters to pass a proposed 2 percent lodging tax, has spent at least $2,703 on that campaign. POSTR — the Parks, Open Space, Trails and Recreation ballot-issue committee — has spent at least $1,435 to gain voter approval of an extension of Longmont’s 0.2 percent open space sales tax. According to a campaign-finance report filed with the Longmont city clerk’s office this week, Tourism Works for Longmont had received about $5,904 in campaign contributions as of Monday, including $2,400 the committee received between Oct. 15 and Oct. 29. The largest single cash contribution to that committee’s campaign for passage of Longmont ballot Issue 2A was $2,052 from the Longmont Chamber of Commerce, which also donated $175 in postage.

Only about one in five Denver voters had cast a ballot in the city's all-mail election as of midweek. The Denver Elections Division reported Thursday that about 46,000 of the 210,000 ballots mailed to active registered voters had been returned as of Wednesday, putting voter turnout at about 22 percent. The ballot includes three hotly contested school board races, nine initiatives that would increase property taxes and a question to make adult possession of less than an ounce of marijuana the "lowest law enforcement priority." Mason Tvert, a marijuana activist who is pushing the pot initiative, said he was preparing to call voters Thursday afternoon and encourage them to vote. "We're not even telling them to vote 'yes' on our initiative," he said. "We're just trying to make sure that they're voting."

Firefighter unions in Centennial, Englewood and Greeley say their image is being tarnished in bruising political campaigns over payroll deductions. Signs, mailers and other campaign materials feature stock photos of firefighters and police officers to drum up support for Question 200, which would, in essence, prevent the three cities from deducting union dues from paychecks. The firefighter unions oppose the measures. "Everybody I've talked to said, 'Hey, man, we voted for you,"' said Kinny Tasker, president of the south metro firefighters union for Centennial. "I said, 'No, you didn't.' "I think it's actually disgraceful that they would use our image against us." John Andrews, the former state Senate president who is chairing the "Ask First" campaign in Centennial, where he lives, said firefighters and other public-safety employers are central to the issue. "Big deal," he said of the unions' annoyance. "That's the very point, that firefighters and public-safety employees get very little say in how their dues are spent on political campaigns."

Election ballots are trickling back to county clerks in Denver's suburbs, where officials say the return rate is slower than in a typical odd-year November election. With the deadline at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Arapahoe County on Thursday had received just 22 percent of the mailed ballots, "which is pretty darn low," said County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty. Adams County had received 20 percent of the ballots mailed; Douglas County, 23 percent; Jefferson County, 19 percent; and Boulder County, just 14 percent. Almost 57 percent of Jeffco voters participated in the 2005 election, but that off-year election featured the hotly contested Referendum C, a statewide money-raising measure, noted Jeffco elections director Josh Liss. There are no statewide races this year.

Election ballots are trickling back to county clerks in Boulder and Adams counties, where officials say the return rate is far below a typical odd-year November election. With the deadline at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Adams County today had received back just 20 percent of the ballots it mailed; and Boulder County just 14 percent. Adams County usually gets a 40 percent mail-back rate on Election Day, said County Clerk Karen Long. Boulder County usually gets 50 to 60 percent, said Scott Thomas, deputy clerk. Broomfield, which, like Denver, is both a city and a county, is giving voters the option of mailing in a ballot or voting at a booth. The mail-in rate is slightly above expectations, but the walk-in rate is below average, Broomfield Elections Administrator Jim Candelarie said.

When [Aurora] cut hours and days two years ago, it was among the most contentious actions it had taken in recent years. Last year, the city restored most of the cuts, but lean times are predicted for as early as 2009. Yasmeen Watson was at Tallyn's Reach Library in southeast Aurora on Thursday with her 4-year-old son, Nii, catching up on her computer work while Nii picked out books. She supports the creation of a library district because she sees more kids and teens in libraries these days. "It's a great resource for everyone," Watson said. "Some people don't have personal computers at home, and I think it's just great for the community." A library district in Aurora, which has seven libraries throughout the city, would accomplish several goals, said Patti Bateman, Aurora's manager of library service. First, it would provide a steady and independent funding source, one that would likely provide more money, depending on the amount of the tax hike.

On paper it doesn't look like much — a proposal to transfer urban renewal authority from an appointed commission to the City Council. But Issue 2A, which is on the city's ballot this fall, has set off a firestorm of accusations, recriminations, charges and countercharges from people on both sides of the debate.

Pueblo’s political parties likely will be allowed to meet next year at Pueblo City Schools to pick convention delegates after the board of education approves a change in policy at a special meeting today. A strict interpretation of the policy banning political events put in place three years ago would have stopped the traditional practice of holding election-year caucuses in the schools.

The Pueblo city manager has said that an IRS audit of various city departments and functions led to a ballot question this year about who has the authority to hire and fire the city attorney. But the IRS documents provided by the city's finance department make no mention of the city attorney's office nor the IRS' apparent concerns about the office's status as an outside contractor. Tom Jagger has been serving as the city's attorney since 1971. For 22 years, the contract was reviewed and renewed on a regular basis. But in 1993, the city and Jagger formed a contract that has been routinely renewed annually for the past 14 years. But as Jagger recently pointed out, "The City Council or the city manager has the authority to fire me at any time."

The Telluride Town Council passed a resolution in support of ballot question 2A on Tuesday — but not with support from all its members. Council Members Roberta Peterson and Bob Saunders voted against the resolution, which supports a $5 million bond question that proposes to tax property owners to fund a massive public improvement project on Colorado Avenue. Meanwhile, Council Members Andrea Benda, Jill Masters, Stu Fraser and Mayor John Pryor voted yes. Mark Buchsieb was absent.

In a county with a population of close to 50,000, only a few thousand have voted so far for the Nov. 6 election. Garfield County Clerk Jean Alberico said that about 3,000 ballots had been received as of Thursday afternoon, and she estimated the end of the day would see maybe another 500 ballots more.

As guests dined and sipped lemonade at a fundraising dinner to support future voters, kids around Mesa County casted votes online in this year’s election. Kids Voting Mesa County mimics the adult civic voting process by providing exposure, forums and editorial opportunities for students from elementary through high school. Area students, program organizers and local leaders gathered at Two Rivers Convention Center on Thursday night for the third annual fundraiser dinner to celebrate those who have helped the nonprofit. Donna Patton, secretary of the nonprofit board, praised longtime advisor to the program George Orbanek for personally meeting with student reporters and donating funds to the group since its inception in 1997. Orbanek is the publisher of The Daily Sentinel.

Hundreds of millions of dollars would be pumped into higher education and into infrastructure in parts of the state overwhelmed by the energy boom, under compromise legislation envisioned by state lawmakers. The compromise would also create the state's first truly permanent fund as part of the first major overhaul of the state's severance tax system in 30 years, said State Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass. "We have a strong commitment to fund higher education and the creation of a permanent fund," Schwartz said. "This is the long-term solution we are looking at for the next 30 years." Schwartz is chai