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TOP STORIES

ProgressNow in the news

Filmmaker Moore presides at Colorado health care rally

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5601416,00.html

Sonji Wilkes worries about how she will continue to pay for her young son's medical bills, which are approaching $1 million a year. Thomas, now 3, was diagnosed at birth with a severe type of hemophilia that has required up to $750,000 annually in treatment. Already, Thomas has been kicked off of their private insurance company's policy after reaching the $1 million lifetime limit, his mother said. He has since been approved for CoverColorado, a last-resort insurance plan from the state for people who do not qualify for private insurance. However, CoverColorado has a $1 million limit as well - a figure Thomas likely will reach in a year. On Sunday evening, Wilkes, along with her husband and three children, were at the state Capitol with hundreds of others to spread the word about health care reform and hear more about Michael Moore's new film Sicko. The movie, due to be released Friday, is an examination of the country's health insurance industry and Moore's view of what should be done to change it.

RELATED: Michael Moore, nurses to tout film 'Sicko' at state Capitol

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599710,00.html

RELATED: Moore urges universal health care

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221485

RELATED: Rally for "Sicko" may give a healthy PR boost to film

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214483

More Michael Moore news in NATIONAL/MEDIA

Top

National

Angler: Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/index.html

Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheney's lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby. The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, 'We're going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees'" if interrogators confined themselves to humane techniques allowed by the Geneva Conventions. From that moment, well before previous accounts have suggested, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist. The vice president's office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration has since portrayed as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials.

RELATED: 'A Different Understanding With the President'

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/

More Cheney news in NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT

More detainee policy news in NATIONAL/CIVIL LIBERTIES

Ex-Surveillance Judge Criticizes Warrantless Taps

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301125.html

A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorism and espionage cases criticized yesterday President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "We have to understand you can fight the war [on terrorism] and lose everything if you have no civil liberties left when you get through fighting the war," said Royce C. Lamberth, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington and a former presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, speaking at the American Library Association's annual convention. Lamberth, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan, expressed his opposition to letting the executive branch decide on its own which people to spy on in national security cases.

More domestic surveillance news in NATIONAL/CIVIL LIBERTIES

Iraq Push Revives Criticism of Force Size

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202013.html

The major U.S. offensive launched last weekend against insurgents in and around Baghdad has significantly expanded the military's battleground in Iraq -- "a surge of operations," and no longer just of troops, as the second-ranking U.S. commander there said yesterday -- but it has renewed concerns about whether even the bigger U.S. troop presence there is large enough. As the U.S. offensive, code-named Phantom Thunder, has been greeted with a week of intensified fighting in areas outside the capital -- areas that the U.S. military has largely left untouched for as long as three years -- the push raised fears from security experts and officers in the field that the new attacks might simply propel the enemy from one area to another where there are not as many U.S. troops.

RELATED: Ten U.S. Deaths in Iraq Bring June Toll to 80

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300427.html

More Iraq war news in NATIONAL/GOVERNMENT, NATIONAL/FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL/MILITARY, COLORADO/CIVIL LIBERTIES, COLORADO/MILITARY

Fundraising Gap Likely to Persist For Campaigns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202190.html

Twelve weeks ago, after raising less money than two other Republican candidates in the first three months of 2007, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the early favorite for his party's presidential nomination, declared that it was his fault, said he hoped "to get better" at it and reorganized his finance team. This week he said it hasn't worked out too well, acknowledging that raising money is "very tough" and allowing that "we weren't going to win this campaign on money anyway." On the Democratic side, former senator John Edwards of North Carolina had vowed that he, too, would improve on a weak first-quarter showing. But this week, Joe Trippi, a senior aide, e-mailed supporters with news that the campaign is only two-thirds of the way to its relatively modest fundraising goal.

RELATED: New presidential fundraising reports due soon

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-apfundraising23jun23,1,2883949.story?coll=la-politics-campaign

More 2008 presidential race news in NATIONAL/ELECTION, COLORADO/ELECTION

Top

Colorado

Ex-Interior chief urges light sentence for aide

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_6220538

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton is urging a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to show leniency in sentencing her former top deputy, but leaders of Indian and environmental organizations want J. Steven Griles to be given a stiff sentence for his crimes. Once described by Jack Abramoff as "our guy" at the Interior Department, Griles pleaded guilty in March to lying to Senate investigators as they looked into the scandal surrounding Abramoff, the convicted Republican lobbyist. Griles, who had been a coal- mining executive before serving as Norton's chief deputy from 2001 to 2005, admitted that he lied when he told Senate investigators and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 that Abramoff had no special access to his office. In reality, after being introduced to Griles, Abramoff had "instant and continued access to Griles," according to court documents, and forcefully sought assistance from the Interior Department for the tribes he represented. Griles also admitted he failed to fully disclose his romantic relationship with Italia Federici, a Republican environmental lobbyist who worked for Abramoff and introduced him to Griles. The 59-year-old Virginia resident is to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle on Tuesday and faces a maximum term of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

State GOP plots revival, but in 2010

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221081

Nearly three years after losing both chambers of the legislature to the Democrats, Colorado Republicans are plotting a comeback - but not until 2010. Divisive primaries, campaign-finance reform and the inability to financially keep pace with Democrats have seriously weakened the party's muscle, GOP leaders say. And that can't be fixed in time for next year's election. "It's a challenge to win back either the House or Senate next year," state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams said. "We hope to make inroads in 2008, but we've been on a four-year plan." Still, Wadhams confidently predicted that Bob Schaffer, currently the only Republican running for U.S. Senate, would win against Democrat Mark Udall, and that the eventual Republican presidential nominee will carry the state. Both Udall and the Democrats' nominee will be "too liberal" to win Colorado, he said. Wadhams' crystal ball gazing amused Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak, who said that voters on both sides of the aisle are continually disillusioned by events in Iraq and blame Republicans.

Income from Roan Plateau oil, gas leases uncertain

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5601237,00.html

Supporters of oil and gas leasing on the scenic Roan Plateau say the leases could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars needed to deal with impacts already being felt from the industry's expansion. "If that gets dropped in our lap, it could solve a lot of problems," said Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, of the revenues. He said if current lease rates were paid, up to $1 billion could be generated. But the industry says that does not seem likely. And Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, said the projections are not a sure thing. "The dollar numbers are coming from the industry and are based on a fairly high number per acre, so the dollar amounts aren't really known," she told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Curry added that even if the dollar amount hit $1 billion, it probably would not change her views on Roan leasing.

RELATED: Roan could net state up to $1 billion from leases

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/24/6_24_1A_Roan_Windfall.html

RELATED: New dirt road to plateau's top cuts time, costs

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/25/6_25_1a_Gas_roads.html

More energy policy news in NATIONAL/ENERGY, COLORADO/HOUSING, COLORADO/ENERGY, COLORADO/ENVIRONMENT

Media, DA decried in Manzanares death

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5601527,00.html

The death of Larry Manzanares has raised several sharp ethical questions about the news media and prosecutors for the way the case against the former Denver judge and city attorney was filed and covered. Several friends and colleagues of Manzanares blamed the media in general, and the Rocky Mountain News in particular, for what they felt was sensational treatment of the fact that pornography was discovered on a stolen state court laptop computer found in his possession. Others were critical of Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey, special prosecutor in the case, for including the pornography allegations in an affidavit filed to support charges of theft, embezzlement, evidence tampering, computer crime and official misconduct against Manzanares.

RELATED: Colleagues decry actions of prosecution

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214602

RELATED: Family, friends mourn lawyer

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221084

RELATED: Judge's death rocks colleagues

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214432

RELATED: Ex-city attorney kills himself

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6210627

COLORADO NEWS

Top

Election

Buoyed by humor, resume, Richardson keeps looking up

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599383,00.html

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is a man in motion. His hands never stop moving when he makes a point about Iraq. His body sways as he talks about energy policy. His face contorts with each mention of President Bush. Now Richardson is trying to move in a different direction: up - as in up from fourth place in most of the Democratic polls. Richardson is trying to do that by taking the toughest stand for withdrawing troops from Iraq, by pitching his international résumé, by touting his environmental record and by running humorous ads. "I'm moving up," he tells reporters as he leaves an event in Des Moines on Friday. "You'll hear about it. I'm moving up." For now, Richardson is still behind front-runners Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards in most national surveys. But he has broken into double-digits in the first caucus state, Iowa, where Edwards leads, and a new survey shows him gaining on Edwards in the first primary state, New Hampshire.

Campaign yard signs discarded: Several candidates going for recycled alternatives

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/23/campaign-yard-signs-discarded/

Campaign season in Boulder typically brings a bumper crop of colorful signs sprouting from medians, front lawns and any other surface where they'll stick. But during this summer's race, a six-week mail ballot vacancy election that concludes July 10, signs have been few and far between, especially considering 14 candidates are vying for a seat. Charlie Peterson, who owns the Boulder SignCo., said of candidates coming into his business, he "hasn't seen a one." "I would have to say it's definitely less than campaigns in the past," he said. Several candidates said it's not worth the time and expense to get signs made, particularly given the unusually short campaign season. Instead, they're using cardboard, recycled paper and their artist friends to get their names out.

Court to settle Mountain Village vote

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/25/6_25_3a_MV_vote_controversy.html

When Mountain Village residents cast their votes May 22 to approve or reject a new 500,000-square-foot building to house condominiums and a public recreation center, it was a tie: 293 to 293. A recount a few days later gave those in favor of the project an edge of 294-292, Town Clerk Bernadette Ervin said, but now votes cast by 18 nonresidents are being challenged by Telluride residents Richard Child and Brian Eaton. Mayor Rube Felicelli explained that second homeowners can vote in Mountain Village elections provided they have real property in their name and own at least 50 percent of it.

Alamosa ponders jail expansion

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182780601/9

Alamosa County may soon ask voters to help expand the county's jail, thanks to a bill signed by the governor last month. Alamosa County Commissioners pulled out of talks with the city of Alamosa earlier this week over a proposal that would have had the city collecting sales tax on the county's behalf. Now the county intends to take advantage of HB1344, which allows counties to seek an additional 2 percent sales tax so long as the revenues are put toward public safety. The county's existing sales tax rate is 2 percent. The county has yet to settle on the final figures for a proposal and is waiting to hear back from its architect.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Musgrave announces earmarks in 2007

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070624/NEWS/106230097/-1/NEWS

Greeley and Weld County received several million dollars this year from special funding requests by U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo. Musgrave's office released a list Friday of all Musgrave's spending requests this year, which are commonly called earmarks. Such appropriations have come under fire from critics who say Congress spends too much money on individual lawmakers' pet projects. Recently, less than 40 members of the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives disclosed their funding requests. Musgrave and U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., were among those who released their earmarks. Musgrave said she was proud to announce her requests for Weld County. "The secrecy of this process has allowed too many lawmakers to fleece taxpayers and funnel large sums of money to a special few," she said in a press release.

Legislative focus again on revenue woes, Ref C

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182780601/8

Referendum C stopped the bleeding, but it didn't heal the state's financial wounds. But that's only because the 2005 ballot question that temporarily suspended some of the provisions of the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights never was meant to fix all the state's financial woes, state legislators said. As a result, many of those same lawmakers who supported the five-year time-out are talking again about making other changes to the way the state's finances are handled, and, in one case, they've already made a change: Gov. Bill Ritter and the Legislature approved freezing property tax mill rates statewide during this year's session as a way to shore up funding for K-12 education.

Lesiglators want scrutiny of campaign finance

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070624/NEWS/70622032

Legislators are hoping one of the toughest laws in the nation requiring political organizations to disclose their contributions and spending will cut down on some of the anonymous bombast in campaign ads, but they’re not under any illusions. “When you build a better mousetrap, they build a better mouse,” said Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, who sponsored the Clean Campaign Act of 2007. The law is one of dozens that go into effect in Colorado on July 1. Others include a law requiring juveniles on motorcycles to wear helmets and another that requires schools offering sex education to teach courses based on scientific research and include instruction on the health benefits and possible side effects of contraception. Tupa said campaign finance reform was high on his list of priorities this year because of questionable and misleading campaign ads last year by so-called 527 groups that do not have to identify their sponsors.

The revolution will be televised

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070624/NEWS/106230099/-1/NEWS

In a country that seems to vote more consistently for "American Idol" contestants than elected officials, government on television may not be a ratings grabber. I'm talking about real government TV, the actual gavel-banging and speechifying, not the punditocracy that dissects it on the popular cable news shows. Boring or not, some political wonks deeply interested in state government action are often in the dark about what's going on in Denver. The Internet is useful, but it's difficult, if not impossible, to really grasp what happens in the House of Representatives unless you're there. So Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff wants to put it on TV. Romanoff last week proposed a live telecast of Colorado House of Representatives floor action starting in January, when the next session of the Legislature begins.

From policy to preparedness: Rep. Gibbs - wildland firefighter

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070624/NEWS/106240062

Despite the 45-pound black vest hanging from their shoulders, they made the fast paced three-mile trek along the bike path by Dillon Dam Road appear effortless. Rep. Dan Gibbs and Brandon Williams, Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue public information officer, took the lead with long strides under the beating sun to complete the test in less than 45 minutes. It was the final piece they needed to receive a Red Card, certifying them in wildland firefighting. "I've always thought I'm only as effective as I know the issues locally," said Gibbs, D-Silverthorne. "I can champion the need if I have practical experience."

Commissioner claims he’s target of e-mail 'fishing’ probe

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/24/6_24_3A_Commissioner_e_mails.html

San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes says he’s the target of a “fishing expedition” into his e-mails by a Republican group. A letter from Republican Study Committee of Colorado Director Lucius O’Dell, asking for more than five years of Goodtimes’ e-mails, was sent to San Miguel County earlier this month, he said. Gunnison and Garfield counties received similar letters from O’Dell, requesting commissioners’ e-mails, which is unprecedented, they all said, and screening thousands of e-mails has cost hundreds of hours of work. “It’s taking a huge amount of time and cost and money that the county citizens are having to pay for,” Goodtimes said. O’Dell asked for three years of e-mails from Gunnison County’s three Democratic commissioners, said Gunnison County attorney David Baumgarten. And O’Dell requested Garfield County Commissioner Tresi Houpt’s e-mails from the last three years as well as county financial records, Houpt said. Goodtimes, a member of the Green Party, suspects O’Dell’s requests may be related to oil and gas interests.

County crisis taxes its workers

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070624_2.htm

The financial downturn in Archuleta County, whose county seat is Pagosa Springs, has dozens of workers on edge, fearing for their jobs every day. So far, 35 employees have been laid off, and four more are expected to lose their jobs this week. Archuleta County has overspent every year since 1999 except for one. It was facing a $2.6 million deficit this year, but the problems run deeper. Accounting irregularities have left county officials uncertain as to how much money they have and how much money they can expect from property taxes and sales taxes. A forensic audit set to begin in a couple of weeks is expected to provide some answers. For Archuleta County residents, the budget crisis has not affected their daily lives, but it has raised questions about where their tax dollars went.

RELATED: State limited in its ability to offer help

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070624_3.htm

Crowded field for county vacancy

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/25/showing-interest-crowded-field-for-county/

Five Democrats — a mayor, a city council member, a pair of county officials and a Superior resident — have expressed interest in the Boulder County commissioner seat held by Tom Mayer, who died Friday after an eight-month fight with cancer. Deb Gardner, chairwoman of the Boulder County Democratic Party, said Sunday she has received inquiries from Boulder County Assessor Cindy Domenico, Boulder County Planning Commissioner Barbara Connors, Lafayette Mayor Chris Berry, Louisville City Councilman Don Brown and Superior resident Gladys Forshee about the seat. According to Colorado statutes, the political party the departing commissioner belongs to has 10 days to choose a replacement once the seat is vacated. That means county Democrats will need to name someone to the seat by July 2.

RELATED: County commissioner succumbs to cancer

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/county-commissioner-succumbs-to-cancer/

RELATED: Dems face July 2 deadline for naming Mayer’s successor

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=17077

A full plate for City Council

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070625/NEWS/106250042

With only a few hours of experience in the public review process, the newly-elected Aspen City Council members certainly will have their work cut out for them Monday evening. And how the council eventually votes on a few development proposals could change the makeup of Aspen for decades to come.

RELATED: Kronberg's residency still an issue

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070623/NEWS/106230048

A town on the edge

http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=7322

“This town is hopeless.” That inauspicious statement was made by a Williamsburg resident during a March 28 Town Hall meeting during which the town’s mayor at the time, Oscar Turley, was reprimanded by the board of trustees for recent unruly behavior. Turley had said to a municipal judge, “Bite me,” after the judge had found him to be in violation of disregarding a subpoena and ordered to pay a fine. Turley, appointed mayor by the board in April 2005, resigned in a meeting that followed. But, Turley’s departure was just the beginning — or, perhaps latest — in a series of problems the town has had in keeping its officials in office.

Fruita City Council asks for raise for its members

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/24/6_24_8B_Fruita_council.html

The Fruita City Council is asking for a double-digit percentage pay raise for its members, effective in 2008. The ordinance, which would go into effect after the next City Council election, was approved on first reading last week. A final version of the ordinance will be discussed and voted on by the City Council during a public meeting July 17. The last pay increase for Fruita’s elected officials was in 2002. According to Clint Kinney, Fruita city manager, the proposed raise would boost Fruita City Council members’ pay by 20 percent, from $250 a month to $300. The mayor pro tem’s pay would increase by almost 17 percent, from $300 a month to $350; and the mayor’s monthly pay would increase by nearly 19 percent, from $400 a month to $475.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Thousands show colors at PrideFest

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5601551,00.html

It was a good day to be gay. Thousands of people came to Civic Center on Sunday for the 32nd Denver PrideFest. They came to socialize, to dance, to eat, to become more politically active, to learn. But mostly, they came to be part of something bigger than themselves. "It's the one day for everybody to get together and represent numbers and show support," said Lori McNeill, 26, of Colorado Springs, who is engaged to her partner. Organizers were expecting an increase over last year's crowd of 200,000, but the numbers for the two-day festival had not been tallied as of Sunday night. Saturday featured family entertainment, including a first-ever children's parade that drew about 40 kids, festival spokeswoman Debra Pollock said. The main event featured a new youth zone for teens. Pollock said a record number of 240 business vendors set up tents. In Sunday's PrideFest parade, the Denver City Council served as the grand marshal. As always, the parade became a vehicle for politicians and businesses trying to drum up voters and consumers.

Area churches display their pride

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221042

Three people stood in the shade along Colfax Avenue during Denver's gay-pride parade Sunday, holding plain white signs with the message, "Forgive us." On a day when many Christians were in church, the three of them were deep in the heart of this year's PrideFest, trying to undo damage they say has been done by members of their own faith. "We think the way that the church has treated (gays and lesbians) is just wrong," said Mandy Scheller of Northglenn, whose hand-drawn sign, in full, read: "Forgive us for judging you." Scheller and the other two, Jeff Mullis and Jill McClaine, are straight and members of Hope Chapel in Northglenn. They were among dozens of Christians and members of other faiths who took part in the weekend festival.

Peace march marches on

http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/27141

Two teenagers, traveling by foot across the country in opposition of global violence, arrived in Craig on Saturday afternoon, bringing with them a message of peace. Michael Israel, 18, of Jackson, Calif., and Ashley Casale, 19, of Connecticut, began the approximately 3,000-mile "March for Peace" journey May 21 in San Francisco. The trip is scheduled to conclude Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C. The two student marchers are both pacifists, they said, and are making the journey in protest to the war in Iraq specifically, and to all war efforts globally in general.

Juneteenth festival canceled

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6209511

Denver's Juneteenth festival scheduled for [Saturday] in City Park was canceled by event organizers. Juneteenth annually honors June 19, 1865, the day Texas slaves were freed by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which he signed two years earlier. Last year, Juneteenth celebrations were held in the Five Points neighborhood and at the nearby Kingdom of Glory Church. Turnout was reported lighter than it had been in previous years, when it had grown into one of the country's largest African-American celebrations.

Top

Immigration

Two-state sweep nets 38

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599396,00.html

Federal immigration agents in Colorado and Wyoming this week captured 38 immigrants who were fugitives and convicted criminals. The operation began Wednesday in Summit County when agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 17 wanted immigrants. On Thursday and Friday, agents arrested 11 more in Summit County and five in Moffat and Routt counties. Authorities caught five more in Sweetwater and Carbon counties in Wyoming, an ICE spokesman said. The immigrants, who hailed from five countries, were arrested at their homes or places of work.

RELATED: Illegal immigrants detained in Hayden

http://craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/27135

RELATED: 28 arrested in recent Summit County immigration sweep

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070623/NEWS/106230076

ICE uses jail visits as part of citizen checks

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/NEWS01/706240353/1002/NEWS17

There might be agreement by parties on both sides of the immigration debate that reform is needed, but there is disagreement over whether increased monitoring of inmates at the Larimer County Detention Center is the way to go. Since May 22, 2006, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been making almost daily trips to the jail to check the citizenship status of inmates. If inmates are found to be in the country illegally, a hold is placed on them and they are sent to deportation proceedings once they complete their jail sentence or criminal case. Through June 11, immigration holds had been placed on 261 inmates at the jail since the program started, said Sheriff's Maj. Gary Darling. Of those, 90 holds had been placed this year and 26 current inmates have immigration holds.

Convicted felon sent to prison for re-entry into country

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/14

A Mexican citizen with a criminal record in Pueblo has been sent to federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States after being deported.

Resort makes use of J1 Visa program

http://postindependent.com/article/20070624/VALLEYNEWS/106240032

Ken Murphy's Irish accent pops out every so often. Like when he says his last name. "It's a good old Irish name," he says with a grin. Nearly 20 years ago, Murphy, the general manager at Glenwood Canyon Resort, came to America from Ireland as part of the J1 Visa work program. With a seasonal workforce of around 60, the resort and its rafting business, Rock Gardens Rafting, needed to find workers who would stay with them throughout the summer. Murphy said the Irish workforce that started this year at the resort is the perfect fit. The resort offers affordable housing on site, they get a stable group of workers for more than three months and the foreign students get a slice of American culture.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

Transit safety a job for Pueblo

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221069

The rail industry and federal security officials hope to construct an above-ground tunnel complex at the Transportation Technology Center here to test ways of protecting trains and subway stations from terrorist attacks and accidents. Top scientists and engineers from the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies toured the center last week to assess the technical challenges of developing full-scale rail safety and security tests. "I'm concerned about trains and tunnels; I'm concerned about bridges; I'm concerned about the cars and the people," said Mary Ellen Hynes, director of research for Homeland Security's infrastructure geophysical division in Washington, D.C., as she visited the site.

Morrison works to insure more Coloradans

http://www.gazette.com/articles/insurance_24046___article.html/morrison_division.html

When Gov. Bill Ritter asked Marcy Morrison to head the Division of Insurance after promising to concentrate on health care reform, the 71-year-old former head of the Consumer Insurance Council was speechless. Once she considered the position — for which she never applied — she felt she could make a difference. Now, 5½ months later, the only El Paso County resident appointed by Ritter to head a state division is focusing on two goals. One is carrying out directives of legislators looking for ways to insure more Coloradans; the other is simply to let more people know that the Division of Insurance is there to help them.

Families in Mesa getting fire help

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599397,00.html

Residents of a small western Colorado town pulled together Friday to help three families who lost their homes to a wind-driven wildfire. One woman had so little time before fleeing that she could only grab her purse and one of her two cats, said Matt Guedes, pastor at Mesa View Bible Church, which is collecting donations for the families. She wasn't sure what happened to the other cat, he said. The fire broke out Thursday night in Mesa, 175 miles west of Denver, and was extinguished by Friday afternoon. Residents of about 45 homes that had been evacuated were allowed to return.

Mental-health push in jail

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214106

Efforts are underway to find ways to keep the mentally ill from stacking up in Denver's jails, and the reverberations could affect surrounding communities as well. The initiatives range from hiring treatment specialists to help the mentally ill in the jails to the creation of a specialized mental health docket at Denver's courthouse. Another effort to create crisis centers in Denver and surrounding suburbs that would intervene and stabilize the mentally ill before they commit a crime has attracted the support of Colorado's first lady Jeannie Ritter, the wife of Gov. Bill Ritter.

RELATED: New [Weld County] program could ease jail crowding, get treatment for addicts and mental health patients

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070624/NEWS/106230100/-1/NEWS

Colorado travelers want to know how to protect against disease

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=17078

Since Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker arrived at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis two weeks ago, phones have been ringing nonstop at the local office of Passport Health. “Questions specifically about TB are up 50 percent. People are anxious about TB, especially if they’re traveling to Third World countries where they can be more exposed to it,” said owner Jamie Reesman. Nurses at the travel medicine clinic that Reesman and his wife, Michelle, opened in Colorado Springs in October have the answers to TB questions and anything else business and leisure travelers want to know about protecting themselves from diseases.

RELATED: Disease sleuths try to stop spread of infection

http://www.gazette.com/articles/health_24045___article.html/people_disease.html

Pueblo hospitals get high marks in fed report

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/2

The federal Department of Health and Human Services has resumed its controversial practice of publishing report cards on the nation's hospitals, based on federal Medicare information and each hospital's own patient information. Pueblo's two hospitals - St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center and Parkview Medical Center - performed well in the report released this week, based on statistics from 2005-06.

Pitco still without its own social services

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070625/NEWS/106250043

For the next six months, Pitkin County residents seeking welfare and food stamps or the help of a social worker will look to neighboring Eagle County, and the change might be permanent. After the loss of its three staff members, social services in Pitkin County was temporarily absorbed by Eagle County, according to Nan Sundeen, director of Health and Human Services. And according to Sundeen it might be a good move and one that sticks.

Businesses rely on phase value

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6209345

After years of work on a promising cancer drug, Allos Therapeutics learned last week that the drug didn't extend survival rates as much as it hoped and canceled its development. A final clinical study, known as Phase 3 testing, revealed that Efaproxyn extended survival rates in women who had developed brain cancer as a result of having breast cancer only by one month. "In our quest to address some of the more pressing health concerns, we don't always have success," said Allos spokeswoman Jennifer Nei man. Westminster-based Allos was one of at least three metro-area biopharmaceutical companies working on Phase 3 trials, which test a drug's effectiveness in the condition it aims to treat and measure the drug's overall safety in patients.

Medical pot user, 47, with AIDS sues state

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599402,00.html

An AIDS patient who says he needs to smoke marijuana every day to ease nausea from his medications is suing the state of Colorado to expand access to marijuana providers. "My medicines are really devastating. The only thing that soothes the nausea is medical marijuana," said Damien LaGoy, 47, of Denver, who is suing the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and hepatitis C a decade later. LaGoy said his cocktail of 11 medications triggers nausea that is as bad as "the worst case of the flu or food poisoning." LaGoy is one of 1,350 users of medical marijuana registered with the state, according to Brian Vicente, head of Sensible Colorado, a group that promotes medical marijuana. But LaGoy says it's a struggle to get it. He and Vicente say Colorado health department leaders met secretly in 2004 and decided to limit providers of medical marijuana to five patients at a time. LaGoy said he found a registered provider, also called a caretaker, only to be turned away because the provider already had a full slate of patients.

RELATED: Medical marijuana user sues over policy

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/medical-marijuana-user-sues-over-policy/

Dust-up over free chew at Greeley Stampede

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599858,00.html

Chewing tobacco and rodeos go together like spurs and boots. So when Weld County Health Department officials tried to break them up, they got busted. Health workers planned to distribute tobacco-education literature outside the gates of the Greeley Independence Stampede, which started Friday. But they scrapped those plans this week. "There was a concern with the activities we had planned," said county health department spokeswoman Gaye Morrison. "With the way it could be perceived, we didn't want to appear to do anything detrimental to the community." One of the rodeo's sponsors is the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.

Elitch's closes Tower of Doom after accident in Ky.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599245,00.html

Elitch Gardens has closed its Tower of Doom ride following an accident at a Kentucky amusement park in which a 13-year-old girl's feet were severed. The girl was on the Superman Tower of Power, a ride on which passengers are raised into the air and dropped. Officials think a cable broke loose and hit the girl above her ankles. Her condition was not released Friday. Bill Clary, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which inspects amusement park rides, said inspectors don't know what caused the cable to break.

RELATED: Ky. accident won't delay Lakeside's new drop ride

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214105

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

House leader names Roberts to commission

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070624_5.htm

State Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, was appointed this week to serve on the newly formed Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission. The commission, formed earlier this year under the Department of Public Safety, is charged with rehabilitating Colorado's criminal and juvenile justice system. The commission became effective earlier this month when Gov. Bill Ritter signed House Bill 07-1538, of which Roberts was a co-sponsor. It will report its findings to the governor, the speaker of the House of Representatives, the president of the Senate, and the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. Roberts was named to the commission by House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker. In a prepared statement, May said, "During her time in the Legislature, Ellen has developed a reputation as one who can generate creative solutions to complex problems. I am certain that this talent, coupled with her legal background, will make her an invaluable member of this commission."

Family of woman who died in Denver jail plan to sue city

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5601576,00.html

The family of a woman who died last year while in the care of Denver sheriff's deputies plans to announce the filing of a lawsuit against the city today. Emily Rae Rice, 24, died in jail on Feb. 19, 2006, of internal injuries suffered in a car accident the day before. The woman's family contends that doctors who treated her before sending her to jail, as well as jail guards and employees, are responsible for her death because they failed to provide her with appropriate medical attention. The family and its lawyers will appear at 11 a.m. at the City and County Building to announce the lawsuit. Doctors treated Rice at Denver Health Medical Center after the accident and then sent her to jail on suspicion of drunken driving. She died 20 hours later after complaining for hours and asking for medical attention, her family said. Her pleas were ignored, they said.

Rise in gang clashes feared

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599400,00.html

The Rev. Leon Kelly, Denver's veteran gang opponent, anticipates an increase in violence that could affect this weekend's jazz concert in City Park. Violence erupted at a concert two weeks ago when rival gang members attacked one another, threatening to undermine Denver's popular summer jazz series. Last Sunday, Father's Day, police and concertgoers filled the park, and no gang violence occurred. But Kelly warned the respite might not last. He said gang members never planned to go to City Park on Father's Day. Instead, Kelly said he saw suspected gang members at a Stapleton park and fears many may migrate back to City Park.

State high court to rule on Lincoln

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/23/6_23_1B_Lincoln_decision.html

The Colorado Supreme Court will rule Monday whether the Mesa County District Attorney’s office can prosecute suspected attempted murderer Samuel Lincoln, according to a court spokesman. Rob McCallum, spokesman for the Colorado Judicial Branch, said Friday the justices plan to issue their opinion Monday. The question of whether prosecutors Rich Tuttle and Tammy Eret could try the Lincoln case due to competing ethical obligations wound its way to the state high court following a March decision by Judge Thomas Deister.

Security expert calls for police efficiency

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/security-expert-calls-for-police-efficiency/

Homemade explosives — like those a Longmont man is suspected of making — could be "the wave of the future" in the United States, meaning authorities must become better prepared, according to a Homeland Security expert. "We are going to see more and more improvised explosive devices," said Edward Clark, who served as director of the Homeland Security Threats Office and conducts national vulnerability assessments. "So police have to be more efficient in their response." Longmont police have defended their handling last weekend of a raid at 2404 Sunset Drive, where they discovered a cache of about 400 chemicals and weapons and eventually arrested the man who lived there, Ronald Swerlein. But many neighbors — who report-ed hearing explosions for more than a year before the house was searched — said they're concerned nothing was done earlier.

RELATED: Swerlein armory baffles neighbors

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/swerlein-armory-baffles-neighbors/

Top

Economy

Worth their weight?

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/money/article/0,2777,DRMN_23908_5599681,00.html

First Data's Henry 'Ric' Duques took home $98 million in 2006 -an astonishing number given his company's underwhelming year. Did the other 49 top-paid CEOs earn their millions? The titans of Colorado industry move markets and can make millions for people who own stock in their companies. For this, they take home supersized paychecks - in salary, stock options and perks. Most Colorado companies saw their stock prices rise yet again in 2006. So did executive compensation. It sounds exactly like pay for performance. Yet even those whose companies are missing the mark are highly paid.

RELATED: Execs get fit selling options

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/money/article/0,2777,DRMN_23908_5599685,00.html

Exec: Store compelled to speak out against FTC

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5599588,00.html

Whole Foods' decision to publicly counterattack federal regulators might spoil chances for a settlement, but it was a risk the nation's largest natural foods store had to take, the company's co-president said Friday. "The (Federal Trade Commission) was selectively pulling things out of context to show a case that's not there," said Walter Robb, Whole Foods' co-president and chief operating officer. "You have to tell your own side." If those statements went unexplained, it could "undermine customers' trust in our company," he said.

RELATED: Whole Foods chief still has faith in merger

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/23/organic-conference-whole-foods-chief-still-has/

In region, only Denver permits increase

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6221067

Denver is the only county in the metropolitan area that has seen an increase in the number of building permits issued in the first four months of the year, compared with last year, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Permits were issued for 1,649 residential units in Denver through April, up more than 20 percent compared with the same period last year. "There's still fairly strong demand for that higher-priced, higher-density product downtown," said Jeff Willis, president of the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver.

Moosehead taps Boulder for U.S. headquarters

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5599586,00.html

Moosehead Breweries Ltd., Canada's No. 3 brewer, has chosen Boulder as the headquarters for its new U.S. operations. "We are opening an office the first week of July," said Glenn McDonald, president of Moosehead USA. "We'll be running the national operations out of Boulder." Moosehead USA has a sales and marketing staff of about 20 in the United States, with a half-dozen in Boulder. McDonald said he wants to add staffers as the company ramps up its U.S. sales and perhaps distributes beer on behalf of other brewers.

Briefs: NASA contract awarded to Colo. Springs company

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6209362

NASA announced its launch services program awarded a contract to Spaceport Systems International in Colorado Springs for payload processing facilities for NASA missions launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Spaceport Systems contract and a similar one awarded to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., are worth up to $35 million over four years combined, including two one-year options. Spaceport Systems is in partnership with ITT Corp.

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Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Mine workers remember Ludlow victims

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182780601/2

Members of the United Mine Workers of America gathered Sunday with family, friends and supporters at the Ludlow Massacre Memorial, as they have every year since the memorial was erected in 1918, to pay tribute to those who died while fighting for basic rights for American laborers. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, spoke tearfully to the crowd of 125 about the historical event that paved the way for workers rights in the United States, highlighting the need to keep up the fight for safe conditions for modern workers. “In 2005 in the U.S., 16 workers were fatally injured every day. That’s 16 families who sent a husband, wife, or father off to work in the morning, never to return.” McFadyen blamed softer regulations for the increase in worker deaths in recent years. She told the crowd that deaths for miners doubled in 2006.

Good Fridays for some employees

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6221066

At the end of every other week, Lockheed Martin systems engineer Cindy Schulz is especially thankful it's Friday. Instead of sitting in the office all day, she's out running personal errands, getting an early start on a weekend trip to the mountains or otherwise taking a day off. It's a perk called a 9/80 workweek that's standard at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which has its headquarters at Waterton Canyon facilities in Jefferson County and employs about 3,800 in the Denver area. Employees get every other Friday off, working 80 hours over nine days in a two-week period. Aerospace executives say this alternate work schedule helps in recruiting and retention, particularly when competition for the best employees is fierce.

800 Intel workers unlikely to get aid

http://www.gazette.com/articles/intel_23986___article.html/workers_help.html

About 800 Intel Corp. workers about to lose their jobs in Colorado Springs aren’t likely to get retraining, job hunting or moving help from the U.S. Labor Department. Intel officials told the plant’s remaining employees Thursday that the department had rejected Intel’s request for aid. Company officials plan to appeal the decision, said Judy Cara, a local Intel spokeswoman. But officials also told employees Thursday they don’t expect an appeal to be successful.

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Housing and Homelessness

State probe irks area appraisers

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/1

Southern Colorado real estate appraisers weren't at all happy to learn the state agency that oversees them is planning a full-scale investigation of how their work has impacted Pueblo foreclosure rates. The appraisers say that while some in their profession may be overvaluing residential property in the city, that isn't why Pueblo continues to have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state. "There is another reason, and it's not the appraisers," said Mike Garrett, president of the Colorado Association of Real Estate Appraisers. "I think most of that foreclosure problem is the result of lenders making sub-prime loans without any regard to the person's credit, with no requirements for down payments. When they do that, what happens is the person gets into a property that they have no equity. So they have no compunction about walking."

County asked to merge green and size requirements

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=17059

County officials alarmed at the potential environmental impact of huge homes in unincorporated Boulder County should focus on promoting “green” building standards rather than trying to restrict house sizes. That was one of the arguments from several of the people at this week’s Planning Commission hearing to criticize a proposal to require applicants to buy development rights before building houses that would exceed structure-size thresholds.

RELATED: Planning Commision favors tiered system for house sizes

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=17060

Top

Media

Rocky columnists No. 1 and 2 in nation

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5601239,00.html

The Rocky Mountain News' Bill Johnson and Tina Griego were named top and second- best columnist in national awards announced over the weekend. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists honored Johnson and Griego in the general-interest category for newspapers with more than 100,000 circulation. That the two top winners came from the same paper, when there were about 150 entrants nationwide, was "quite a feat," one conference official said. Johnson's winning column was written about the bittersweet homecoming of a Fort Carson combat squadron.

20 and counting for urban newspaper

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6220173

Rosalind "Bee" Harris, publisher of Denver Urban Spectrum, had a simple goal when she started the free monthly newspaper in 1987: to fill a need. For 20 years, the Spectrum has catered to the local African-American community, focusing on events and issues that Harris says are overlooked at larger newspapers. "It was something new," Harris said. "We had a vision, and we hang in there every year because the readers keep coming back." The Spectrum will mark its anniversary with a three-day celebration in August. The Spectrum's seventh annual youth journalism workshop began earlier this month.

Top

Education

Former District 70 board member named to CCHE

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/7

A former District 70 school board member has been appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter to serve on the Colorado Commission of Higher Education. Jill Brake, a Democrat, was appointed last week to fill the position that had been held by Judy Weaver, a former District 60 school board member and now president of the Pueblo City Council. Weaver was appointed to the commission in 2002 to represent the 3rd Congressional District. Weaver's term expires this month. Brake will begin serving her four-year term on the board in July. Her appointment must be approved by the Colorado Senate when it returns to session in January.

RELATED: Western State official named to governor’s education panel

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/24/6_24_3A_Western_appointee.html

Pension debt huge threat to DPS budget

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5601577,00.html

Savings from the expected closure of dozens of Denver schools could be consumed by the district's failure to deal with its escalating debt to the teacher retirement fund. That means the ongoing and painful process of deciding which city schools should be shuttered could, ultimately, do little to resolve DPS' precarious financial state. A citizens' group studying the district budget repeats this warning four times in a little-seen 10-page report: "Failure to address the . . . pension plan presents significant risks to the budget; further substantial losses could eliminate all savings created through school closures." Ten years ago, DPS made Wall Street history by using a unique financing tool to fully pay off its then $375 million pension fund shortfall. Today, however, the debt is back up to $395 million and rising.

Manual may host DPS staff

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221040

A tentative plan to move about 300 Denver Public Schools administrators to space in Manual High School has been put on hold to gather community input. School board member Kevin Patterson, who represents the Manual neighborhood in northeastern Denver, said plans to sell the administration building and plans to move to the historic high school should be separate conversations. "There's the issue of selling 900 Grant St., and the issue of what happens with Manual," said Patterson, who has been talking to neighborhood residents about what they think of the idea. "I think there's a conversation about what happens with two of those things, but it may not happen together." After being closed for a year, Manual High School will reopen this fall as a small school with only ninth-graders. It will add a grade each year. Principal Rob Stein said he prefers a cozier environment and wants fewer than 1,000 students in the building - even with all four grades.

On to a new challenge: UNC Provost will leave Greeley to become president of a college

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070625/NEWS/106240144

For Allen Huang, nothing beats being on the front lines of "the silent revolution." That's his term for education -- the springboard to a better life for all. Huang, 64, jumped into the revolution early on. In 1971 he left his home country of Taiwan. He'd been a middle-school teacher for five years, but he wanted to learn more about special education, and the best programs were in the United States. He came to the University of Northern Colorado in 1978 as a one-year term assistant professor in the school of special education.

CSU labors to make minorities welcome

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/CSUZONE01/706240354/1002/NEWS17

Jesse Ramirez graduated from a diverse Catholic high school in Denver, so when he hit the grounds of Colorado State University as a freshman six years ago, it came as a shock to see that he was often one of the only minorities in his classes. Like other minority students, Ramirez said he often experienced subtle discrimination and occasionally even overt racism at the campus, though perhaps the hardest part was the isolation of being one of a small number of minority students at a predominately white university.

CSU considers online degrees

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/NEWS01/706250336/1002

The Colorado State University Board of Governors is reviewing plans to create a distance learning program that would help bring in dollars while offering college degrees to those who otherwise might miss out. If approved, the system would provide undergraduate and professional graduate degrees through online classes to Coloradans who can't get to or afford the cost of on-campus education, said Lou Swanson, vice president for outreach and strategic partnerships.

CSU-Pueblo looks for enrollment growth in 2008

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/6

Colorado State University-Pueblo officials are predicting little, if any, enrollment gains this fall. But they expect that to change next year, as a result of increased efforts to help recruit, retain and graduate students from the university. "We are projecting flat enrollment for this fall," CSU-Pueblo Provost Russ Meyer told members of the Board of Governors of the CSU System at a meeting earlier this week. "Given the ambitious stretch goals that we have, it doesn't seem like flat enrollment should be good," Meyer said. "But most of what we are doing is trying to correct that flat enrollment."

Mapleton schools splinter in move for choice

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6209747

A story of sweeping education reform is partly told in tall letters covering a brick wall of what was once Skyview High School. Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts. Skyview Academy. Highland Montessori School. Where one big high school with some 1,400 students once stood, three small schools coexist. Another 14 schools in the Mapleton School District also are recent creations, all now small schools with different missions and different ways of teaching. The educators and families who founded them call it a "Reinvention Campaign." Education experts call it one of the most radical reforms in public-school choice in the nation.

Salary workshop planned

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/jun/25/salary_workshop_planned/

The Steamboat Springs School Board will review the salaries and benefits of the district’s administrators during a special meeting Wednesday. School Board President Denise Connelly said the board has gathered data on administrative salaries and benefits from 11 other school districts to compare with Steamboat. “What we need to do as an employer, we need to attract quality, good people and part of that is supply and demand,” she said. “Part of that is looking at what other people are paying.”

Voiding valedictorians?

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/25/voiding-valedictorians/

The Boulder Valley School District's tradition of naming a single high school valedictorian may be on its way out. A district committee plans to recommend that high schools stop naming salutatorians and valedictorians because schools will no longer calculate class rank. The school board voted a year ago to eliminate class rank starting with the class of 2010, or this fall's incoming sophomores.

RELATED: The anxiety that comes with an 'A': College counselors, wellness coordinators notice increased stress levels

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/23/de-stress-101-the-anxiety-that-comes-with-an-a/

Survey: Not all PSD students feel safe in class

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/NEWS01/706250335/1002

Students in Poudre School District's junior highs and high schools feel less safe in school than parents and administrators view them as being, according to a recent survey. The survey by Colorado State University students, staff, parents and community members associated with Poudre School District shows an overall high level of satisfaction with the district, though opinions split in some key areas, including safety.

Top

Military

Families of lost soldiers find TAPS lifeline

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599868,00.html

The Washington, D.C.-based Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors is a nonprofit organization that offers assistance to those who need it from those who can provide empathetic counsel and understanding. It also provides families with help in remedying gaps in government support after the official casualty case file has been closed. Today through Monday, local organizers are asking Front Range residents to provide TAPS with a little help of their own by supporting a fundraising golf tournament, concert and comedy show in Colorado Springs. The money raised will go toward a Good Grief Camp scheduled later this summer for the children of servicemen and women who died for their country. It is often children - particularly teenagers - who feel the tumult of loss "worst of all," said Brad Gallup, a TAPS grief facilitator.

VA hospital, clinics open longer

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214154

A surge of soldiers returning from combat led veterans' facilities in Colorado to extend their hours.

Son returns home

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/NEWS01/706250334/1002

" My boy is home!" These words came from a father who's endured four years of anxiety, wondering if his son was going to come home from serving with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. U.S. Marine Cpl. T.J. Cruz, 22, arrived home in Fort Collins on Sunday nightto a street full of family and friends, all who've been waiting for his safe return.

Bound for war, set to blog

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599882,00.html

Maj. Andrew Olmsted has had to grow a mustache. He has learned to take off his sunglasses when speaking to Iraqis. But he knows that, despite his training, he'll face the unexpected in Iraq - and he plans to write about it. It's the last day of training before he's deployed to Iraq and Maj. Andrew Olmsted is rubbing where the bright red blood is pooling in his short, bristly hair. There was a small accident. It's made him mad, self-deprecating and pragmatic all at the same time. Olmsted was climbing up a Humvee when he slammed his skull into the hard, black metal of the .50-caliber machine gun mounted on the roof. The Fort Carson-based soldier is miffed because he wasn't wearing his battle helmet. He made fun of his awkwardness. And he saw an opportunity for his medic to get in some real-world work.

RELATED: BLOGGING FROM IRAQ (Extra!, June 23)

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5599870,00.html

Local twins head to Middle East

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/local-twins-head-to-middle-east/

When they were toddlers, they worked together to stack benches tall enough so they could toss their toys in the family's aquarium. When they were boys, their backyard was a battlefield of G.I. Joes and dirt holes they dug with neighborhood friends. Trips to the emergency room from stunts gone awry were times two. No matter which brother came up with the mission, "They always had help" from the other, said their father, John Turpen. On Saturday, the brothers left on a different kind of mission, one that will take them to the Middle East in the 29th Infantry of the U.S. Army.

Army touts chem demil milestone

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/13

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency on Thursday said that it had destroyed 45 percent of the nation’s chemical stockpile, a milestone it said was well ahead of the other signatory nations in the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty with major stockpiles. Dale Ormond, CMA acting director, said, “We successfully met the 1, 20 and 45 percent destruction milestones specified by the treaty while maintaining an outstanding safety record. It is a tribute to the United States’ leadership in developing and implementing chemical demilitarization technology.” The United States successfully petitioned to have the original deadline of April 2007 extended to April 2012 but projections for the program in Pueblo reach to 2020.

Medics deliver hard-to-get treatment

http://www.gazette.com/articles/medics_24054___article.html/cameron_force.html

They would line up, some of them the night before, and by the time medics from the 10th Medical Group arrived at the clinic around 7:30 a.m., hundreds of Bolivians were waiting. An Air Force Academybased group of 17 medics saw more than 4,500 patients during a recent nine-day trip to the villages of tropical east Bolivia. The office of the surgeon general of the Air Force reports that Air Force medics treated more than 25,000 people last year around the world. Many of the people they treated in Bolivia, mission commander Lt. Col. Dr. Chris Mc-Nulty said, “very rarely” received health care, and the medics’ work had to be limited.

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Energy Policy

Wind power comes of age

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5599650,00.html

More than electricity filled the air at the American Wind Energy Association conference and exhibition in Los Angeles earlier this month. It was closer to the excitement of a coronation, where the real king of renewable energy was crowned and his ascension to the throne celebrated. Indisputable was the fact that wind power has come of age and that the United States has become the fertile crescent of that (r)evolution. A "Growing the Wind Business" theme was passionately diffused among the vendor displays, turbine makers, wind development principals and operators, with frenzied deal-making activity taking place in every cavity of the Bradley Convention Center. In a red carpet sideshow to main events, Iowa competed with the Lone Star State seeking a TKO by example, inviting international wind interests to capitalize on its proximity to wind corridors, location and ready labor forces. Even venerable John Deere weighed in with new ideas on harvesting the nation's wind as well as its grain. Make no mistake about it, wind power has arrived with a whoosh!

RELATED: Skies may power state's surge

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6221068

Alternative energy idea met with skepticism, enthusiasm

http://postindependent.com/article/20070625/VALLEYNEWS/106250051

Imagine this: On remote land near New Castle, wind turbines spin, helping power a plant that produces ethanol, perhaps also with the help of electricity from solar panels. The plant also could tap methane from the coal-rich Grand Hogback and convert it to ethanol. In addition, the plant would make ethanol from biodegradable materials at area landfills, from solid waste from municipalities and septic service companies, and from switchgrass grown by local ranchers. The windmills even could be used to pump water into a nearby reservoir, essentially storing energy that could be tapped through hydroelectric turbines when the water later is released downstream. These are among some ideas being floated by a mix of local investors and out-of-state companies seeking to capitalize on a growing demand for alternative sources of energy. They're being met with good measures of both enthusiasm and skepticism by locals, some of whom wonder if the proponents may just be tilting at windmills.

Yampa Valley Electric Association goes green one bulb at a time

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/jun/24/yampa_valley_electric_association_goes_green_one_b/

“Going green” is second nature to Richard Levy, so when the local Sierra Club chairman purchased his home three years ago, he installed 12 compact fluorescent light bulbs. The energy-efficient light bulbs, known as CFLs, use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, last up to 10 times longer and save about $30 in electricity costs in a bulb’s lifetime, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. “Energy costs go down, impact on the environment goes down — it’s a win-win situation,” Levy said.

Kremmling pellet plant gets OK

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070623/NEWS/70623002

The cost of thinning beetle-afflicted forests could drop considerably in coming years with the opening of a wood-pellet plant that could swallow up as much as 100,000 to 150,000 tons of dead and dying trees each year. “We are pleased to have the support of Kremmling’s Planning and Zoning Board and the community at large,” said Confluence Energy president Mark Mathes, after the Kremmling planning and zoning commission approved the $7 million plant. Mathes said his company is still seeking a needed air quality permit, but doesn't anticipate any problems.
“Confluence Energy is proud to be part of a solution that will benefit the local economy, and remove unwanted materials from the forest,” Mathes said. Production is expected to begin in December 2007.

Up on the roof in San Fran

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6220171

Douglas County-based CH2M Hill, a company best known for engineering work, has designed a Web portal for the city of San Francisco that lets users determine the costs and savings of installing solar panels on local buildings. Users can type in an address and see a satellite image of the rooftop along with data compiled by the city. The data includes the roof size, an estimate of the electricity a solar panel system could produce and the savings it would yield, along with links to a list of solar providers and other information. "They gathered all this great data, but they didn't have the expertise to take that and put it into a technology solution," said Brad Jones, CH2M Hill communications manager.

Explosion kills 2 teens

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2007/jun/25/explosion_kills_2_teens/

Two South Routt teenagers are dead after an oil storage tank they were jumping on in the Routt National Forest exploded, the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office reported. The incident occurred late Saturday night at a well site off Rio Blanco County Road 8 near Chapman Reservoir. Killed were 17-year-old Samuel Hedemark of Phippsburg and 19-year-old Christopher King Fuller of Yampa. Rio Blanco County Undersheriff Michael Joos said the teens were among more than a dozen who were partying at the site some 68 miles northeast of Meeker. Joos said witness statements indicated the teens were jumping up and down on the tank when it exploded. Their bodies were found about 150 yards from the tank.

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Transportation and Infrastructure

5 questions for Alfred LaGasse, president of Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5599161,00.html

The taxi industry took center stage this week. Several times. A state legislative committee met Tuesday with cab drivers, taxi companies, consumers and regulators as it considers changing the industry's structure. Two days later, officials from the Public Utilities Commission held a similar meeting as they look to craft a strategy to audit cab companies. That same day - and a block away - Denver's three cab companies and a City Council member held a news conference to talk about a proposed ordinance that would allow taxis to stop in traffic to pick up passengers looking to hail a ride.

CDOT director: Mass transit a must

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/23/6_23_Russ_George.html

Colorado Department of Transportation Director Russ George wants to see an “absolute, irrevocable” start to a mass transit system along Interstate 70 to come out of an ongoing transportation needs study. George told a seminar Friday he hopes a blue-ribbon panel on which he sits will ask lawmakers to allow his department to use mass transportation to confront the state’s transportation needs.

RELATED: George calls for advanced transportation solutions

http://postindependent.com/article/20070623/VALLEYNEWS/106230053

New plans for 36 revealed: Businesses along U.S. 36 corridor get glimpse Tues.

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/new-plans-for-36-revealed/

Businesses along the U.S. 36 corridor will get a glimpse Tuesday of a long-awaited plan to speed travel on the aging highway. After four years of scrutinizing possible ways to make the Denver-Boulder commute along the former tollway quicker and more ecologically sound, project managers narrowed options to three packages, which include features such as rapid-transit bus stations and toll and carpool lanes.

2,681 take advantage of free transit rides

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/25/6_25_5a_Free_bus_numbers.html

Grand Valley Transit’s “Dump the Pump” day furnished a free ride for 2,681 people Thursday, said Tom Fisher, director of the Regional Transportation Planning office, which oversees GVT. “The basic idea was to get some more people on that weren’t regular riders and get them to see the system. And I think we achieved that,” he said. The free ride day “equals a 22.5 percent increase over last week and an 11.2 percent increase over the previous year,” he said. “What it is showing us, compared to last year, we are still down on certain routes.”

Edwards eyes buses, transit hub

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070624/NEWS/70622043

Jason Carraro doesn’t have to set his alarm in the mornings — the bus wakes him up. He’s one of several Miller Ranch residents who are tired of noxious fumes, grumbling diesel engines and rattling windows. It all comes from the ECO Transit buses that drive in from Miller Ranch Road and turn around in the subdivision. It’s just one part of the Edwards bus line that residents and leaders want to see improved. In the long line of ECO bus stops from Gypsum to Vail — Edwards is the missing link, officials say.

City recycles asphalt for a quick finish

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/NEWS01/706240355/1002/NEWS17

Continuing its push to be more eco-friendly and reduce waste, the city of Fort Collins is using a road-paving technology that uses recycled asphalt when repaving city streets. The process, called "hot-in-place recycling," uses specially designed equipment in a simultaneous, multi-step process that removes asphalt, recycles it with a rejuvenating agent, then puts it back on the surface along with an additional inch of new asphalt, city officials said.

City wheels in bike map site: Web site helps cyclists get from point A to point B

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/city-wheels-in-bike-map-site/

Cyclists preparing to hit the streets in Boulder can now check a city-run Web site that shows the most bike-friendly route to any destination in the city. After a year in development, GoBikeBoulder.net is live and giving out automated directions to two-wheeled travelers. Boulder spent $45,000 on the site, much of that in staff time, said Martha Roskowski, project manager for the Go Boulder transit program. The federal government chipped in $105,000 as well, she said.

RELATED: Web site knows the way

http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2007/06/24/news/c_u_and_boulder/news2.txt

Growing numbers start day on bikes

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS01/706230345/1002/NEWS17

Before arriving in Fort Collins in July of 2003 from Plano, Texas, Jerry Hoemann estimated he had not ridden a bicycle in 20 to 25 years. Hoemann, though, bought a bike a month after moving to town and quickly began making up for lost time. Last year, the Hewlett-Packard software engineer biked approximately 5,000 miles.

Modified trails grant approved

http://postindependent.com/article/20070625/VALLEYNEWS/106250046

A last roadblock to a long-awaited trail beginning at West Glenwood along Interstate 70 was removed Thursday, when Great Outdoors Colorado approved a modification to a $1.2 million grant to the Lower Valley Trails Group (LOVA). Because of sharply rising construction costs, the group could not meet the cost of a trail from West Glenwood to Canyon Creek. Although it had planned for about $1.5 million, by the time the project went out to bid, the cost had risen to $3.9 million.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Warming a hot topic at ski shindig

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070624/NEWS/70624001

Global warming may not be all bad news for the Colorado ski industry, at least in the short term, according to a climate report presented as part of the recent Colorado Ski Country USA’s annual meeting at Copper Mountain. “I think if you plan carefully and market yourselves in a smart way you can position yourselves really well,” meteorologist Robert Henson said, while outlining data on how climbing global temperatures could play out across Colorado’s mountains. Most of Henson’s information wasn’t new. Predictions of shorter seasons and more droughts have been circulating for years, and 2007 is on track to be the warmest year ever for the globe. But putting the issue front and center at CSCUSA’s confab reflects the general increase in awareness about climate issues, according Copper Mountain environmental manager Jen Schenk.

State parks will increase pass fees starting Sept. 1

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6214188

Nature lovers will have to dig deeper starting this fall as the result of a Colorado State Parks Board across- the-board fee increase. Starting Sept. 1, the high-season daily vehicle pass fee goes from $6 to $7 to get into Cherry Creek, Chatfield, Boyd Lake and Eldorado Canyon state parks. That fee will be in effect for all of September, then revert to $6 for the winter before rising again May 1. All other state parks will increase their daily fee from $5 to $6. The charge for an annual pass will rise from $55 to $60, starting Nov. 15. And, while annual passes currently are purchased for a calendar year, the passes will become effective for a year from the date of purchase.

RELATED: State park fees going up

http://coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS01/706230352/1002/NEWS17

Parks to rebuild visitor centers

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/25/6_25_5a_Dinosaur_center.html

If seeing the dinosaur bones at Dinosaur National Monument’s famed Dinosaur Quarry was on your agenda for this summer — or next — you’re still out of luck. The monument’s Quarry Visitor Center near Jensen, Utah, remains closed into the foreseeable future because the National Park Service last year deemed it unsafe to occupy because shifting soil beneath the building threatened its collapse.

Group calls for conservation area status

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/24/6_24_1A_Gateway_Enviros.html

The red-rock canyons around Gateway aren’t quite as rugged as those around Moab, but they’re ripe for a good adventure and a lot of protection anyway, San Juan Citizens Alliance Executive Director Mark Pearson said, standing with his back to the Dolores River roaring into Utah over Stateline Rapids. Compared to the Moab area, fewer people frequent these remote gorges. The slickrock isn’t quite as bare, and the streets of Gateway aren’t lined with businesses hawking Hummer tours and adventures awash in adrenaline.

Forest grant applications available

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070624/NEWS/70624005

State funding for local forest health projects is on the way, with grant applications available on the Colorado State Forest Service (CFS) website (http://csfs.colostate.edu/) as of Monday, June 25. The completed applications will be due back by the third week in July, said the CSF's Joe Duda. After review by a technical committee, the grants will be awarded by mid-August, Duda said. House Bill 1130 authorized up to $1 million per year for the next five years. The state funds will pay up to 60 percent of the cost of a project. The remaining funds can come from any other source, including in-kind contributions, Duda said.

Berthoud pulls out of reservoir project

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=17063

Town officials have cut themselves free from the growing price tag of the Northern Integrated Supply Project and will look at other areas where the money is needed more. The Board of Trustees voted unanimously June 12 to remove the town of Berthoud from the water-storage project, which plans to build two major reservoirs in northern Colorado. “The costs were going to be extremely high in the coming years,” Mayor Pro Tem Don Ashcraft said. In 2007, the annual payment was projected at $73,000. The cost would jump to $163,000 in 2008 and $8.743 million in 2009.

Going for the long haul

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182780601/1

With plans to look at enlarging Lake Pueblo shelved for the foreseeable future, other options are moving ahead. Slowly. Just as no one has ever been sure that Lake Pueblo can be safely enlarged, the alternatives to enlargement are equally uncertain. Water projects take years to plan and complete. Planners are moving more cautiously than ever in a time when water quality, recreational and environmental concerns must be considered. “We’re looking at our options,” said Gary Bostrom, water supply general manager for Colorado Springs Utilities.

State rules have cut use of groundwater

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/18

Well pumping in the Arkansas Valley has been reduced by a significant amount as a result of changes in regulations that began more than 40 years ago and were accelerated by an interstate lawsuit in 1985. At the same time, smaller wells exempt from regulation are growing in numbers. Although the volume pumped in those wells is small, there’s a lot of them and their impact could add up.

Salazar suggests study of Fountain Creek dam

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182664800/2

A dam on Fountain Creek would be studied alongside enlarging existing reservoirs under a proposal made Saturday by U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. Salazar met at Colorado State University-Pueblo with area water providers and districts who have been negotiating the Preferred Storage Options Plan for more than two years. The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, PSOP sponsor, last week consented to a committee’s recommendation to shelve the part of the plan dealing with enlargement to let other water efforts progress if the idea does not violate a series of agreements that surrounds PSOP. Salazar suggested a new approach Saturday that would allow a feasibility study of enlargement of Lake Pueblo and Turquoise Lake, as proposed by PSOP, but without any of the intergovernmental agreements attached. Additionally, he wants to study the feasibility of building a multipurpose flood control, recreation and water supply dam on Fountain Creek.

Salazar stands by subdistricts water plan

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182664800/10

The congressman who helped hash out Colorado's law creating groundwater management subdistricts when he was in the state Legislature hopes surface rights users in the San Luis Valley will give the subdistricts a chance to work. John Salazar, a Democrat from Manassa, helped pass the subdistrict measure when he was in the Statehouse in 2004. He's also the owner of a potato seed farm and ranch that's irrigated by a combination of surface and groundwater. "We were hoping that people could come together," Salazar, now a U.S. representative for the state's 3rd District, said Thursday.

District’s consumers now water at their own risk

http://www.gazette.com/articles/water_23987___article.html/cherokee_district.html

The water police are out in force in the Cherokee Metropolitan District. They’re taking mug shots of violators and fining customers who water their lawns or wash their cars. The troubled water district is asking the 17,000 people it serves not to do either, blaming hot, dry weather and customers’ overuse for the situation. Cherokee provides municipal services, including water, to about 7,000 homes and 400 businesses in an unincorporated area east of Powers Boulevard, north of Platte Avenue, west of U.S. Highway 24 and south of Barnes Road. Cherokee residents’ water privileges have been limited to twice a week for two hours each day. But high water use forced the district to take the step of forbidding most outdoor water use.

Insect's reduced numbers threaten home gardeners' summer crops

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/25/bee-decline-might-sting-insects-reduced-numbers/

Home gardens could see the first agricultural casualties from the declining bee population if their squash, cucumbers and melons don't get visited by members of the local hive. Call it cucurbit sex. That's what has to happen if the usual buckets of zucchini and some other vegetables are to materialize for home gardeners this year. Home gardens could see the first agricultural casualties from the declining bee population if their squash, cucumbers and melons don't get visited by members of the local hive. Call it cucurbit sex. That's what has to happen if the usual buckets of zucchini and some other vegetables are to materialize for home gardeners this year.

DOW presses Garco to lock up trash

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070624/NEWS/106240099

The Colorado Division of Wildlife is asking Garfield County for at least the third time to consider passing an ordinance to reduce bear temptations around homes and businesses. DOW district wildlife manager Sonia Marzec said she e-mailed County Manager Ed Green on Thursday, asking for another meeting with county officials to discuss the idea. She made the request the same day DOW officers ended up shooting and killing a bear outside Glenwood Springs city limits after reports of people feeding and petting it.

RELATED: Bear feeding charges unlikely

http://postindependent.com/article/20070623/VALLEYNEWS/106230055

Inmates help reclaim tailings dump

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/22

A nuisance legacy of yesteryear's gold mining heyday is being neutralized this summer in an effort to save a watershed that has dumped silt into Four Mile Creek and eventually the Arkansas River. A huge pile of tailings, mostly fine sand, was piled up in Millsap Gulch two miles south of Victor between 1893 and the 1930s, coming predominately from the Independence Mine which was one of Victor's deepest gold mines. The massive mound of tailings was supposed to be rendered harmless by two earthen dams that would hold them in place, but the dams failed 15 years ago.

$1M more for preserving Ophir open space

http://telluridegateway.com/articles/2007/06/25/news/news01.txt

The Ophir valley just hangs, suspending disbelief. Dogs roam, cars rest. The pitiless ridges serrate azure skies, and, most of the time, nothing moves. At all. It’s fantastically, impossibly, beautiful, and locals and Capitol Hill politicians hope it can stay that way. Conservation groups and politicos have been working together for years in hopes of purchasing some 1,200 acres of mining claims that dot the land in patchwork, a testament to the region’s mining history that’s fallen away. The valley got a bit of a boost last week, when U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and related agencies, announced he had secured $1 million in the 2008 Interior Appropriations bill, a tap on the Land And Water Conservation Fund.

Habitat conservation areas

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/habitat-conservation-areas/

When Boulder's Open Space Visitor Master Plan passed two years ago, it designated the following "habitat conservation areas," making habitat protection the primary management concern in each.

Christos answer criticism, acclaim in meeting

http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1182578400/20

A group that ranged from the adoring to avid opponents to the just plain baffled filled the Steam Plant Theater Thursday to hear an "Over the River" update from New York-based artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Bulgarian-born artist Christo and his partner-wife Jeanne-Claude, both 72, talked during a slide show about their projects and a proposal to hang about seven miles of translucent fabric panels over eight segments of the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida. The "Over the River" artwork, if approved, would hang for 14 days, sometime between mid-July and mid-August in 2011, at the earliest.

Top

Opinion

Griego: Sadness, anger reflect enormity of this loss

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5601528,00.html

In the aftermath of the suicide of former Denver District Court Judge and City Attorney Larry Manzanares, there are the perceptions of those who knew him and those who did not. Those who knew him, even if it was only in passing, gathered Sunday afternoon in the park across the street from West High School. In the crowd were law students and 17th Street lawyers, judges, City Council members and city employees, members of the organizations he supported and prominent Latino leaders. His neighbors were there. So was his older brother, Stan. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar stood at the makeshift podium and offered a prayer. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace . . . The enormity of their loss was evident in their tears and shaky voices and in the regret with which so many shook their heads and wondered aloud if they could have done something to help Manzanares. They told each other that they did not reach out to him because they did not know what to say or because they feared their attentions might be unwelcome or because they could not reconcile the story of the man whose police mug shot appeared in the papers with the story of the man they knew.

RELATED: Salzman: Porn angle overblown

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5599915,00.html

Schoettler: Peace must come

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6198404

Walk through Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, and you'll see the reason for Israel's continued existence and its ferocious protection of its nationhood. Talk to a Palestinian and you'll understand the rage of feeling constantly humiliated and harassed, the pain of having no nation and no real home. Both Israelis and Palestinians live with harrowing histories and constant fear, anger and bitterness. While many world leaders have sought peace here, all have failed, partly because of the intense distrust and hatred. Nonetheless, it is long past time to try again. A couple of stories may illustrate the difficulties. Yad Vashem documents the rise of Hitler and the Nazis' degradation and slaughter of European Jews. It provides some sense of the immensity of the Holocaust and the utter despair it brought, as too many in the world stood silently by.

Congress should examine Bush's signing statements

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6220169

President Bush has gotten into a bad habit of using his executive powers to distance himself from laws passed by Congress that contain provisions he doesn't like. Rather than veto bills outright, he routinely signs statements taking exception to all or parts of the measures - in essence giving executive agencies permission to ignore the law. Bush isn't the first president to issue a signing statement - that honor, if honor it be, falls to James Monroe. But until the 1980s, such statements were mostly rhetorical tributes to the sponsors or beneficiaries of such bills, such as honoring "our brave veterans." Only 75 such statements were issued before Ronald Reagan became President. But Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton produced 247 signing statements among them, some of them quite substantive.

In the camera's eye

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5601184,00.html

We welcome the news that Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff wants to take up Comcast on its offer of two cable channels to televise proceedings from the House floor. And congratulations to Comcast for making the offer, too. Romanoff hopes to have cameras in place before the next legislative session begins in January. Not that Colorado will be in the forefront of the movement toward wider exposure of its legislative process; the Bell Policy Center, which advocated taking this step in a report last year, says that 34 other states already provide some televised coverage of their legislature's activities. Now that Romanoff has shown the way, we hope Senate leaders also recognize that it's good policy to let the public see how the legislature works. If the House can be ready by January, surely the Senate can be too.

RELATED: Televise work of Colorado legislators

http://www.longmontfyi.com/opinion.asp

Martinez: State GOP strapped but not broke

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6220167

The state Republican Party is hurting for cash. Federal financial disclosures as of April 30 showed the party was $261,907 in debt. A filing with the secretary of state a month earlier showed $11,310.51 in the bank. Republican insiders said party officials are trying to renegotiate payment on contracts and searching for cheaper offices. New party chairman Dick Wadhams acknowledged that he inherited debt when he took office in March and "is taking a look at other places" for party offices. The next financial filings will reflect the party's ongoing fiscal problems, he said, but declined to give details.

Ozone compliance is worth the effort

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6220168

Colorado would not be alone in finding it difficult to meet tougher smog rules proposed last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If lower ozone levels are approved, non-compliance rates nationwide would soar. Now, only 16 percent of the areas monitored by the EPA fail to meet prescribed levels. The new rules would boost it to between 62 percent and 83 percent. Getting into compliance would mean a lot of work and political wrangling at the regional level. It's clear, however, that it's a battle worth fighting. Ozone irritates the respiratory system and reduces lung function. Studies have shown it's particularly problematic for asthmatics and the elderly. But there also is evidence it can cause permanent damage in the developing lungs of healthy children.

Tosches: Talk about winds of change

http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_6209736

Tomorrow has arrived right here on this parched and wind-thrashed land, a place of prickly shrubs and jackrabbits some 50 miles from where Colorado gives way to the slender panhandle of Oklahoma. The next big step by humans has already left a footprint where the dry bed of Two Butte Creek slides past a smooth rock ridge the locals - and there aren't a whole bunch of them - call Gobbler Knob. The future sounds like this: Whump-whump-whump. It's the Colorado Green wind-power project, 108 towering turbines spinning with the relentless wind of this lonely land. Each has a three-bladed rotor with a stunning 231-foot diameter that hacks through the air with that steady whump. The rotors sit atop 328-foot steel towers. On this one farm, the turbines generate enough electricity to power 52,000 homes along Colorado's Front Range.

Congress catching up with landscape protection

http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/06/24/6_24_Conservation_edit.html

The National Landscape Conservation System — which includes areas such as McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area west of Fruita, Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area near Montrose and Canyon of the Ancients National Monument in the Four Corners region — was created administratively by the Clinton administration seven years ago. Now Congress is considering giving this unique conglomeration of 866 Bureau of Land Management properties its official imprimatur. That would be a decidedly welcome action because it would give more permanent protective status to many of the areas in question. Equally important, congressional recognition of these areas under one management system makes it more likely that additional financial resources will be available to manage them.

Rescued and billed: A bad combination

http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/jun/24/rescued-and-billed/

David Seals fell and hurt himself, but professional rescuers bailed him out. For a fee. Seals isn't the only one who stumbled.

Secrecy and judges

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5600448,00.html

So the executive director and general counsel of the state Commission on Judicial Discipline thinks it's good policy to keep investigations of judicial misconduct secret. "The nice thing about Colorado is that the judges choose to go away if they misbehave," said Rick Wehmhoefer. Well, yes, it may be nice that they go away without a fight if they think that the commission will uphold a complaint against them, although we don't see why a judge who believes a complaint is unfounded should hesitate to contest it if the commission disagrees. But it is not nice at all that they are able to leave without the public ever finding out that they were being investigated for misconduct or whether the nature of the misconduct might be relevant to the cases that have come before them. Only if the commission recommends that the Colorado Supreme Court discipline a judge are its findings public, and the last time that happened was in 1986. The commission was established in 1966, and in 41 years it has never recommended that a judge be removed for misconduct.

Big box rebuke

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5600450,00.html

Wal-Mart's recent loss in Littleton shows that that old saw about real estate - location, location, location - still means a lot. By a 60-40 margin in a mail-ballot election, voters overturned a planning decision by the Littleton City Council that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build a Supercenter on the west side of South Santa Fe Drive near the South Platte Park. From what we can tell, opponents prevailed because the site didn't seem appropriate. Wal-Mart's foes did not have to highlight their normal objections (the company's purported anti-union stance, or its alleged "predation" of local retailers, for instance) to win.

Chamber training will aid in positive business climate

http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=opin&article_path=/opinion/opin070623_1.htm

Kudos to the Cortez Chamber for taking on the task of educating local business owners about anti-discrimination laws.

Haley: Our space is your space

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6198440

For 61 years, we've been Colorado's chatroom. Long before the Internet, people in the Rocky Mountain West turned to The Denver Post's editorial pages for a sense of community. Here they could find a strong voice on issues that mattered to them, along with insightful commentary and well-crafted opinions. Through your letters to the editor and guest commentaries, a town hall of sorts was created, where ideas could be debated and sometimes even settled. When Palmer Hoyt took the helm of The Denver Post in 1946 and re-created its editorial pages, he likely never dreamed that someday they could be beamed around the world in mere seconds. Or that our commentary could be supplemented with video.

RELATED: Tatum: Ensuring an informed citizenry

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6198405

Swain: Gay pride needs new direction

http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_6198394

Denver's gay pride parade is heading from Cheesman Park down Colfax Avenue to the Civic Center today. But, honestly, I think the whole event is heading in the wrong direction. Don't get me wrong. I am, and have been all my life, a supporter of the gay rights movement. As a gay man, how could I not be? I fully support the movement's belief that we all have the right to live free from government interference and organized social oppression. But one of the greatest tools of the movement, pride marches (and maybe even the movement itself) have been hijacked by the "sex" in sexual orientation. Originally, the intent of the gay civil rights movement was pretty simple: It was wrong to be treated any differently than the rest of the citizenry because one was different - be it skin color, religious choice, or sexual orientation. But over the years, that simplicity has grown complex, through a loving yet misguided attempt at non-judgmental inclusion. As a result, the current "community" is now a growing cluster of people with virtually nothing in common other than being part of a sexual minority.

Littwin: Is America ready for a 'first'?

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5599394,00.html

The way for the Democrats to win, I say, is to follow the JFK model - in which a young, apparently idealistic and relentlessly forward-looking candidate offsets a tired (or, in the case of George W. Bush, wearisome) Republican administration. This is how Bill Clinton won. It's, of course, how Kennedy won. And nobody at this point wants to be associated with Bush - not even Dick Cheney, who has now gone so far as to claim his office is not in the executive branch. I wonder if that means they'll take away his keys to the White House gym.

Time to lift Castro-era sanctions

http://www.gazette.com/opinion/trade_24041___article.html/cuba_sanctions.html

Frederic Bastiat is credited with saying, “If goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will.” He knew the best way to keep nations on speaking terms with one another was trade. It’s difficult for a nation to foment distrust of and anger with another nation when the people of both rely on one another to provide products they use in their everyday lives. It’s in everyone’s interest to keep trade free, so products can flow from producers to consumers. Trade restrictions stifle that flow, and usually for little benefit to the restricting nation. That’s one of the reasons economic sanctions have such a poor record of prompting change in targeted countries.

NATIONAL NEWS

Top

Election

Romney Gains Credibility In Early Primary States

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401632.html

When former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney began airing television ads in a handful of states last winter, his opponents paid little notice. Early advertising in presidential campaigns -- particularly commercials broadcast almost 11 months before the first contests -- seemed a classic waste of resources. Four months and more than $4 million later, Romney's ads are still running, and the GOP presidential candidate is reaping the dividends. Although he remains well behind former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona in most national polls, his standing in the states that will kick off the nominating process has risen dramatically. In New Hampshire, Romney leads both McCain, who won there in 2000, and Giuliani, who leads virtually all the national polls. In Iowa, his campaign's organizational depth recently drove Giuliani and McCain to drop out of an August GOP presidential straw poll -- seen as a trial run for next year's first-in-the-nation caucuses -- rather than risk a costly and embarrassing defeat at the hands of their lesser-known rival.

RELATED: Centered in faith, a family emerges

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part2_main/

RELATED: Privilege, tragedy, and a young leader

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part1_main/

Giuliani’s Views on Abortion Upset Catholic Leaders

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/us/politics/25rudy.html

At first glance, Rudolph W. Giuliani should be an appealing presidential candidate for observant Roman Catholics. The grandchild of Italian immigrants, Mr. Giuliani went to Catholic schools, considered joining the priesthood, and as mayor of New York battled a museum that exhibited a painting of the Virgin Mary adorned in elephant dung. But church leaders say they are frustrated by prominent Catholic politicians like Mr. Giuliani who argue that while they are personally opposed to abortion, they do not want to impose their beliefs on others. One American bishop, Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, R.I., recently wrote a caustic column for his Catholic newspaper calling Mr. Giuliani’s position “pathetic,” “confusing” and “hypocritical.” Other bishops said that they would not criticize a candidate by name but would not hesitate to declare Mr. Giuliani’s stance contrary to Catholic teaching.

Democrats Cautious on Gay Rights Issues

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301348.html

After Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly declared in March that homosexuality was immoral, gay supporters of Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York were furious when neither presidential candidate was very critical of Pace. They let both campaigns know it, and the next day Clinton and Obama said they do not consider homosexuality immoral. The tentative reactions suggest the caution with which the two leading Democratic contenders approach gay rights issues when they are publicly debated. "The antenna goes up," acknowledges Ethan Geto, an informal adviser to Clinton on gay rights issues. "It's a measure of how volatile gay rights issues are in national politics." Yet, however skittish they can sometimes be -- especially on same-sex marriage -- Democratic candidates as a group have taken stances in the 2008 campaign that only a few years ago would have been far out of the party's mainstream.

Unions keep '08 options open

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-06-23-unionsprimary_N.htm

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's position as a frontrunner in early polling among Democratic presidential candidates won't be enough to capture an early endorsement from either of the two umbrella organizations representing most labor unions, top labor officials agree. That assessment underscores the wide-open nature of the race for the Democratic nomination among the three leading candidates — Clinton, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. In fact, organized labor officials interviewed by Gannett News Service say it may benefit them to delay an endorsement to maximize their ability to influence issues the candidates talk about.

Edwards's Wife Says She Backs Gay Marriage

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401460.html

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband over support for legalized same-sex marriage. "I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage." Edwards made the remark almost offhandedly in answering a question from reporters. The topic arose after she delivered a standard campaign stump speech during a breakfast hosted by the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, an influential San Francisco political organization.

Coal Fuels A Debate Over Obama

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301424.html

In 2004, as a state legislator running for the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama came to this small town 300 miles from Chicago to pledge support for southern Illinois' struggling coal country. More than just an obligatory visit to the more conservative and rural part of the state, it was a chance for Obama to affirm his reputation as the rare politician who could see both sides of an issue and form alliances across traditional divides. "It doesn't matter if you are a Republican or Democrat, you've got to be able to work with people to accomplish some common-sense policies and make people's lives a little bit better," he said from the steps of the county courthouse. Three years later, with Obama now a candidate for president, his embrace of southern Illinois and its dominant industry is showing signs of strain. Obama finds himself caught between his advocacy of huge federal subsidies for liquefied coal for transportation fuel, a technology that the Illinois coal industry views as a salvation, and environmental groups that reject it as a boondoggle that would set back efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the fight against global warming.

RELATED: Obama Pledges Stronger Lobbying Reforms

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201019.html

'Sopranos,' Hillary and more highlights from the politics blog

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-ticket24jun24,1,6859586.story?coll=la-politics-campaign

The phone rang late last Saturday night in Johnny Sack's home. The caller wanted a sit-down the next morning at a diner in Mount Kisco, N.Y. But this was no mob hit. Johnny had already died of lung cancer in prison. And the actor who played him on "The Sopranos," Vince Curatola, is just fine, thank you. The caller wanted him to play a cameo in a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign video that spoofed the long-running HBO gangster series to announce her new theme song. Curatola, a Republican who voted twice for Bill Clinton, was only too happy to oblige. And for no fee, just a round-trip car ride. Curatola told the New York Post, "I like a lot about her. Guts, first of all. A lot of guts, a lot of staying power." But no endorsement just yet. Curatola, who's on the board of the Hackensack University Medical Center, tells the Washington Post, "If I see her platform leaning more and more toward a national healthcare plan, I would be very interested in her for president." In the video, Curatola is sitting at the diner counter malevolently eyeing Bill and Hillary in their booth. According to the actor, neither Clinton was a natural performer, missing their marks often during the shoot and apologizing each time.

RELATED: Not many votes for this Hillary Clinton bio

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-clintonbios23jun23,1,5733006.story

Bloomberg Is a Wild Card for the Nation

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/us/politics/24bloomberg.html

He no longer brags about his dating exploits or shows off his impolitic side. He has largely reined in his temper with reporters and loosened his manner with voters. But Michael R. Bloomberg, New York’s once-improbable mayor, would still be a highly unlikely presidential contender.

Top

Effective and Ethical Government

Bush aides consider Iraq truce at Capitol

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iraqdeal25jun25,1,2194059.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

The Bush administration has begun exploring ways of offering Congress a compromise deal on Iraq policy to avert bruising battles in coming months, U.S. officials said. With public support of the war dropping, President Bush has authorized an internal policy review to find a plan that could satisfy opponents without sacrificing his top goals, the officials said. The president and senior officials "realize they can't keep fighting this over and over," said one administration official, who along with others declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly or because decisions were pending. The Republican White House has not opened formal negotiations with the Democratic-controlled Congress. But some senior administration officials — including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and U.N. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad — have been quietly talking with lawmakers about how to adjust policy in the months ahead. Among other ideas, they have discussed whether the United States should advocate a sharply decentralized Iraq, a notion that has seen a resurgence on Capitol Hill.

White House Defends Cheney's Refusal of Oversight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201809.html

The White House defended Vice President Cheney yesterday in a dispute over his office's refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified information as Democrats and other critics assailed him for disregarding rules that others follow. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. Cheney's office has contended that it does not have to comply because the vice president serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch." "This is a little bit of a nonissue," Perino said at a briefing dominated by the issue. Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should." Democratic critics said Cheney is distorting the plain meaning of the executive order. "Vice President Cheney is expanding the administration's policy on torture to include tortured logic," said Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). "In the end, neither Mr. Cheney or his staff is above the law or the Constitution."

RELATED: Lawmaker challenges Cheney on executive order

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-24-cheney_N.htm

Third-in-Command at Justice Dept. Resigns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201291.html

The Justice Department's third-in-command announced his resignation yesterday, becoming the sixth aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to leave amid the political uproar over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year. William W. Mercer -- who had been acting associate attorney general since September -- withdrew his nomination for the job just days before he was scheduled to appear at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday. Mercer said he will return to his regular assignment as the U.S. attorney in Montana, writing in a letter to Gonzales that there was "no end in sight" to his nomination because of opposition from Senate Democrats.

Wyoming Governor Picks Surgeon for Senate Seat

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062200851.html

Wyoming's governor yesterday appointed John A. Barrasso, a Republican legislator from Casper, to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Craig Thomas (R). The choice of Barrasso, 54, an orthopedic surgeon who was elected to the Wyoming Senate in 2002, will not change the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. He will bring the same conservative approach to the job that Thomas practiced. "I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense," he wrote in his application for the Senate seat. "In the State Senate, in addition to receiving an 'A' rating from the [National Rifle Association], I have voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life."

Ex-Atlanta official, broken by prison, dies homeless

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/06/23/0624methomeless.html

The homeless man's head rested on his backpack, his yellow prescription glasses still on his face. To the railroad detective, who spotted the rag-tag man loitering in the tree-shaded lot by the tracks the day before, it looked like he was taking a nap. But the man wasn't sleeping. He was dead, covered in ants. Investigators found pennies and denture adhesive in the pockets, insulin and syringes in his backpack and a MARTA card and a Six Flags Over Georgia contract employee ID in his wallet. Fulton County Medical Examiner's case 07-0989 appeared to be open and shut: Life expectancy is not good for 63-year-old alcoholic diabetics on the street. But the life and death of the former Atlanta city official, who worked for Mayor Andrew Young in the 1980s and was known by two other future mayors, was anything but simple. Robert F. Sumbry apparently never recovered from a hard, notorious fall that sent him to federal prison and forever altered his life.

Top

Civil Liberties and Equality

Trove of F.B.I. Files on Lawyers Guild Shows Scope of Secret Surveillance

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/nyregion/25archives.html

One entry, dated April 14, 1954, was about I. F. Stone, who was described as being a writer from New York. Mr. Stone, it was noted, condemned Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s “persecution of innocent citizens” and likewise the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate’s corresponding committee. Another on Oct. 24, 1966, noted that as a result of a F.B.I.-approved counterintelligence operation, Richard Lawrence Davis, who was running for a seat on the state committee of the Michigan District Communist Party, was cast under a cloud of suspicion as part of an effort to sow division in the group. And an entry on Feb. 20, 1974, described how a source had penetrated the Revolutionary Union in Baltimore and had been able to participate in forming a new chapter of the party in Washington, D.C. The source, it said, also had a close personal relationship with Dana Beal, a leader of the Yippies, and provided information on their activities. From 1940 to 1975, thousands of reports like these were part of extensive files compiled by the F.B.I. while it carried out a clandestine surveillance campaign on the National Lawyers Guild, an organization founded in New York in 1937 and associated with the labor movement and liberal causes.

An Ex-Member Calls Detainee Panels Unfair

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202230.html

A military officer and former member of a Pentagon unit that decided to indefinitely imprison some detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq has said in a sworn affidavit that the process of reviewing their cases was "fundamentally flawed" and that the results were influenced by pressure from superiors rather than based on concrete evidence. Stephen Abraham, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and a lawyer, said the military placed too much weight on unsubstantiated statements by intelligence agencies in deciding that the detainees were enemy combatants, according to his affidavit. That conclusion meant that the detainees could be kept in a prison in Guantanamo as long as the U.S. military wished.

Vigil Raises 'Voices Against Terror'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301129.html

In 1996, Ortiz founded the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International, which brings together survivors and advocates for human rights issues, and she began to travel across the country to tell her story. Participants at this weekend's vigil, the coalition's 10th, included 75 survivors from some of the 150 countries the organization cites for practicing and condoning torture. "We're not just telling it -- we're reliving it," Ortiz said. "We feel like we are back in our cell." This year, survivors and activists had a specific mission: demanding the repeal of the Military Commissions Act, which President Bush signed in October. Coalition members say they think the act is unconstitutional, is a severe violation of human rights and essentially legalizes acts of torture, she said.

Top

Foreign Policy

Commission to Report to Congress on Iraqi Security Forces

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201853.html

An independent commission, headed by retired Gen. James L. Jones, and including former D.C. police chief Charles H. Ramsey, will assess the capabilities of the Iraqi military and police forces for Congress and offer a report in October, a statement by the newly formed group said yesterday. The commission, funded in last month's war appropriation, will "examine the training, equipping, command, control and intelligence capabilities and the logistic capacity" of the Iraqi forces, the statement said.

RELATED: U.S. Generals Doubt Ability of Iraqi Army to Hold Gains

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/world/middleeast/25iraq.html?ref=world

'Chemical Ali' Sentenced to Hang for Genocide of Kurds

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062400269.html

Three senior aides to Saddam Hussein were found guilty on Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Iraqi High Tribunal and sentenced to death by hanging for their roles in the slaughter of as many as 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s. The most notorious of the defendants, Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- a former general known as "Chemical Ali" -- received five death sentences for ordering the use of deadly mustard gas and nerve agents against the Kurds during the so-called Anfal campaign. Majeed and Hussein were cousins.

RELATED: Hussein's cousin sentenced to die

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq25jun25,1,5880174.story?coll=la-headlines-world

After 4 years, electricity still luxury

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-electricity_jun25,1,5068598.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Under pressure to find an endgame for American involvement in Iraq, U.S. officials ordered a surge of troops to open the broad offensive last week against insurgents. At the same time, officials are wrapping up once-ambitious efforts to restore Iraq's electricity, far short of original goals. The U.S. is within months of exhausting its $4 billion reconstruction fund for Iraq's electrical sector, meaning the end of American efforts to underwrite what had been the signature reconstruction mission of the initial occupation.

Karzai Decries Civilian Deaths

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300355.html

Afghan President Hamid Karzai chastised U.S. and NATO-led troops Saturday for their "careless operations" and accused them of killing more than 90 civilians in the past 10 days, as fresh reports emerged of more noncombatant deaths. Using some of his strongest language yet against the foreign forces that occupy his country, Karzai asserted that "Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such."

RELATED: Taliban seize, threaten Afghan mine specialists

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/06/25/taliban_seize_threaten_afghan_mine_specialists/

NATO Says Attack Killed Civilians in Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/world/asia/25afghan.html

The NATO force in Afghanistan said Sunday that its soldiers, in pursuing Taliban insurgents on Saturday, had unintentionally chased them across the border into Pakistan, and it confirmed that NATO bombing and helicopter fire caused the deaths of several Pakistani civilians. Pakistani military authorities had earlier placed the civilian death toll at 10. NATO did not confirm or deny that total. But Maj. John Thomas, a NATO spokesman, said it appeared that the alliance’s forces had hit a “way station or house” that contained civilians. “We regret the loss of life, and we certainly want to make it clear that we did not knowingly operate across the Pakistani border,” he said.

Israelis, Arabs Meeting to Shore Up Abbas

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062400398.html

Israel and its Arab neighbors readied for a summit Monday to explore restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in an attempt to shore up the emergency government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert headed to the meeting at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with a message that his government would support Abbas, whose administration now appears limited to the West Bank. The Palestinian leader swore in a new cabinet on June 17 after fighting in the Gaza Strip in which the rival Hamas movement overwhelmed security forces loyal to Abbas's Fatah party and effectively severed political links between the two Palestinian territories.

RELATED: Israel to unfreeze Palestinian tax funds

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mideast25jun25,1,4035947.story?coll=la-headlines-world

RELATED: New Video Shows Captive Reporter

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Palestinians-Kidnapped-Journalist.html

Six U.N. Peacekeepers Die in Lebanon Bombing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401603.html

A bomb attack in southern Lebanon killed six U.N. peacekeepers Sunday, the first fatalities among the U.N. force since it was reinforced after the war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for the attack, which realized long-standing fears among Lebanese and U.N. officials that peacekeepers would be targeted in violence that has flared in recent months. Several unsolved bombings, along with four weeks of fighting in the north between Sunni Muslim extremists and Lebanese security forces, have heightened concerns that the country might be drifting back into a civil war.

RELATED: Lebanon bombing kills 6 U.N. troops

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-lebanon25jun25,1,6268764.story?coll=la-headlines-world

North Africa Reluctant to Host U.S. Command

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301318.html

A U.S. delegation seeking a home for a new military command in Africa got a chilly reception during a tour of the northern half of the continent this month, running into opposition even in countries that enjoy friendly relations with the Pentagon. Algeria and Libya separately ruled out hosting the Defense Department's planned Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, and said they were firmly against any of their neighbors doing so either. U.S. diplomats said they were disappointed by the depth of opposition, given that the Bush administration has bolstered ties with both countries on security matters in recent years. Morocco, which has been mentioned as a possible site for the new command and is one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region, didn't roll out the welcome mat, either. After the U.S. delegation visited Rabat, the capital, on June 11, the Moroccan foreign ministry strongly denied a claim by an opposition political party that the kingdom had already offered to host AFRICOM. A ministry statement called the claim "baseless information."

Rice: Nations shirking responsibility on Darfur

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-darfur_25jun25,1,133660.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

The world has fallen down on the job of ending the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday as she welcomed the fresh energy that France's new conservative-led government has put into the cause. She called the 4-year-old conflict "one of the true humanitarian disasters that we face in international politics, and one the international community has simply got to act more quickly and more responsibly to stop." The chief U.S. diplomat was in Paris for two days of get-acquainted meetings with the new French government and a strategy session on Darfur.

Lagos: 'The New York of Nigeria'

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-lagos25jun25,1,5101814.story?coll=la-headlines-world

It is among the world's fastest-growing cities, at once a chaotic megalopolis and a thriving center of entrepreneurship.

U.S., Critic of N. Korea Payments, Also Sends Millions

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300292.html

Over the past six months, the Bush administration has repeatedly criticized the U.N. Development Program for channeling millions of dollars in hard currency into North Korea to finance the agency's programs, warning that the money might be diverted to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. But the United States also has funneled dollars to Kim Jong Il's regime over the past decade, financing travel for North Korean diplomats and paying more than $20 million in cash for the remains of 229 U.S. soldiers from the Korean War. And in a bid to advance nuclear talks, the Bush administration recently transferred back to North Korea about $25 million in cash that the Treasury Department had frozen at Banco Delta Asia, a Macao-based bank that the United States had accused of laundering counterfeit U.S. currency on behalf of North Korea.

Bush Prods Vietnamese President On Human Rights and Openness

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201217.html

President Bush pressed Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday to address human rights abuses and open up his communist nation's autocratic system, during the first White House visit by a head of state from Hanoi since the countries were at war. Bush hailed the growing trade ties between the two former enemies and the signing of a new agreement that could lead to formal free-trade talks. But as flag-waving Vietnamese American protesters demonstrated outside the White House gates, Bush used the opportunity to urge Triet to permit opposition and end crackdowns on religious minorities.

Questions Remain on Massacre in Sri Lanka

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/world/asia/24lanka.html

The victims had been ordered to lie face down, arms outstretched, all in a row in the front yard of a white bungalow. Two lay next to a parked van, interrupted perhaps in a bid to escape. Most of the dead wore T-shirts bearing the name of the aid group that employed them: the Paris-based Action Contre La Faim, or Action Against Hunger.

Britain's Next Leader Pledges to Battle for 'Hearts and Minds'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062400426.html

Gordon Brown, Britain's next prime minister, on Sunday promised a foreign policy that recognizes that defeating terrorism is as much a struggle of ideas as a military battle -- a lesson he said was drawn from Iraq. As he took control of the governing Labor Party from Tony Blair, Brown said Britain would "learn lessons that need to be learned." Britain's future foreign policy will "reflect the truth that to isolate and defeat terrorist extremism now involves more than military force," Brown said at a conference of party members in Manchester, northern England. "It is also a struggle of ideas and ideals that in the coming years will be waged and won for hearts and minds here at home and round the world." The unpopularity of the Iraq war, and Britain's role in it, have dogged Blair through the last years of his leadership. The woman elected Sunday as Brown's deputy, Harriet Harman, has called for the government to apologize for mistakes made over the Iraq war.

RELATED: Blair Hands Over Leadership of Labor Party

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/world/europe/25brown.html?ref=world

Moscow considers Putin successor talk

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/06/25/moscow_considers_putin_successor_talk/

President Vladimir Putin seems to quietly delight in stoking the fevered speculation about who will succeed him when he steps down, as he has promised to do, following presidential elections in March. Now Moscow is suddenly chattering about a new, unnamed prospect -- the loyal place holder. Under that scenario, which Putin recently toyed with publicly, a new leader would keep his seat warm until 2012 -- or even sooner, as some have suggested, if Russia's next president were suddenly afflicted with nervous exhaustion or some other condition that forced him -- or her -- to resign.

E.U. Decides to Offer Treaty in Place of Constitution

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300456.html

A squabbling European Union has given up hope for a constitution, agreeing instead Saturday to peddle a watered-down treaty to its 27 capitals in hopes of ending a two-year stalemate that has hobbled one of the world's most potent economic and diplomatic blocs. "We have avoided a crisis," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in an interview to be published Sunday in the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "Uncertainty about our future treaty has cast a shadow of doubt over our ability to act. Now those doubts have been removed." Even so, the details of the treaty must still be negotiated and the final document ratified by all 27 E.U. members to become effective. E.U. leaders set a goal of 2009 for winning approval of the treaty.

Top

Immigration

Pressure builds anew on immigration bill

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig25jun25,1,1939917.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Senators seeking to overhaul the nation's immigration laws urged fellow lawmakers Sunday to move forward this week with a plan that would strengthen enforcement along U.S. borders and then launch provisions for undocumented workers to stay legally in this country. "There has to be detention of people coming across the border," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a supporter of the bill. "So there will be border enforcement, 3,500 additional border patrol, before any other part of the bill goes into place. People don't understand that." Feinstein's remarks came as the Senate prepares for a possible showdown this week on the fiercely contested effort to overhaul U.S. immigration policy. On Sunday, lawmakers made various predictions of the outcome.

RELATED: Senate renews debate on immigration

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-24-immigration_N.htm

RELATED: In Immigration Debate, Menendez Sees Opportunity

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/nyregion/25menendez.html?ref=washington

High-Tech Titans Strike Out on Immigration Bill

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/technology/25tech.html

Bill Gates and Steven A. Ballmer of Microsoft have led a parade of high-tech executives to Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to provide more visas for temporary foreign workers and permanent immigrants who can fill critical jobs. Google has reminded senators that one of its founders, Sergey Brin, came from the Soviet Union as a young boy. To stay competitive in a “knowledge-based economy,” company officials have said, Google needs to hire many more immigrants as software engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists. The top executives of these and other high-tech companies have been making a huge effort to reshape the Senate immigration bill to meet their demand for more foreign workers. But they have had only limited success, as is often the case when strong-willed corporate leaders confront powerful members of Congress.

Illegal Immigrants Targeted By States

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401662.html

Frustrated with Congress's inability to pass an immigration overhaul bill, state legislatures are considering or enacting a record number of strongly worded proposals targeting illegal immigrants. By the time most legislatures adjourned in May, at least 1,100 immigration bills had been submitted by lawmakers, more than double last year's record total, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This year's total is expected to grow as the issue continues to dominate debate in statehouses still in session. These laws limit illegal immigrants' ability to obtain jobs, find housing, get driver's licenses and receive many government services. They also empower state law enforcement agencies to inquire into an immigrant's legal status and hold for deportation those deemed to be here illegally. The idea is to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will leave the state -- if not the country.

Schools call roll at a border crossing

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-schools25jun25,1,2714909.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Students routinely walk from homes in Mexico to attend public institutions in the U.S. In Arizona, one district has chosen not to ignore the violation.

Top

Health Care and Public Safety

Drug-Resistant Breast Cancer Afflicts Blacks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201902.html

Lorie Williams thought for months that she might have a lump in her breast. But when the doctor said it was cancer, she was still stunned. After all, she was just 29 years old, no one in her family had ever had breast cancer, and she had never heard of anyone getting the disease so young. "I was just numb," said Williams, who lives in Holly Springs, N.C. "I couldn't believe it was really happening. Then I just became hysterical." Women such as Williams have become the focus of an intense effort to solve one of the most pressing mysteries about breast cancer: Why are black women, who are less likely to get the disease than white women, more likely to get it when they are young -- and much more likely to die from it?

Staph infections rampant

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-mrsa25jun25,1,1355761.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

As many as 1.2 million hospital patients are infected with dangerous, drug-resistant staph infections each year, almost 10 times more than previous estimates, based on findings from a major new study. And 48,000 to 119,000 hospital patients a year may be dying from methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, far more than previously thought, the study suggests. The Tribune obtained the results during the weekend from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control & Epidemiology (APIC), which is releasing the report publicly on Monday. The author is Dr. William Jarvis, former acting director of the hospital infections program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

High-stakes trial weighs autism claims

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-autism25jun25,1,6314796.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Theresa and Michael Cedillo, the parents of an autistic child, sat behind their three attorneys on one side of the courtroom. On the other side were three federal lawyers armed with a shelf full of scientific studies and legal briefs. Behind them were more rows of lawyers and scientists, some of them representing the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It was a lopsided gathering, but the Cedillos had been waiting for the confrontation since they came to believe years ago that their daughter's autism may have been triggered by a combination of childhood vaccines and a mercury preservative used in them. "For so long no one wanted to hear," said Theresa, 45. "Now someone wants to listen." The case of Cedillo vs. Secretary of Health and Human Services is the culmination of one of the most wrenching episodes of modern public health.

New doses, devices are eyed for children

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/06/25/new_doses_devices_are_eyed_for_children/

Doctors have long struggled with how best to treat small children with drugs and medical devices that are mostly designed, tested, and approved for use by adults. A Cambridge-based nonprofit that is officially being launched today hopes to change that. The Institute for Pediatric Innovation says it will work with three major children's hospitals in California, Kansas, and Ohio to redesign drugs and devices to better fit children.

FDA Moves To Ensure Safety of Supplements

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201814.html

For the first time, manufacturers of vitamins, herbal pills and other dietary supplements will have to test all of their products' ingredients, the Food and Drug Administration ordered yesterday. The FDA said the new mandate is needed to ensure that products are free of contamination and impurities. Last year, the FDA found that some supplements contained undeclared active ingredients that are used in prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction. In the past, regulators found supplements that did not contain the levels of Vitamin C or Vitamin A that were claimed.

Top

Crime and Penal Reform

In Second Term, Roberts Court Defines Itself

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401367.html

In the final days of the Supreme Court's term, the stage is set for the divisions that narrowly but decisively split the justices on social issues to be on full display. The court has already decided more cases on 5 to 4 votes this term than in all of last term -- some of them favoring the court's liberal wing, more won by the conservatives. This week, the opportunity is there for the court reconstituted under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to make a bold statement. The cases remaining concern some of the most divisive of social and policy questions: the use of race in public school admission programs; the constitutionality of advertising restrictions in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act; whether ordinary taxpayers have the right to sue over what they perceive to be violations of the separation of church and state.

Case puts lethal injection on trial

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/06/24/0625lethal.html

On Monday, a day before his scheduled execution, triple murderer John Washington Hightower is expected to ask a Fulton County judge to spare his life. If Superior Court Judge Stephanie Manis rules that lethal injection, as it is carried out in Georgia, is unconstitutional, she could stop his execution, which would likely put a halt to all executions in the state until the issue is reviewed by the Georgia Supreme Court. Hightower's attorney, Jack Martin, plans to call guards, nurses, a doctor and the state's former medical examiner to the witness stand today to describe what has gone wrong during other executions in Georgia. Michael Mears, a veteran death penalty defense lawyer, said veterinarians are barred from killing unwanted animals with some of the same drugs used to kill humans because the drugs can cause "excessive pain." If the judge doesn't stay the execution, Hightower could become the first prisoner put to death in Georgia in almost two years.

Top

Economy

Economy's pickup could mean Fed holds rates steady

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-06-25-fed-usat_N.htm

Federal Reserve policymakers gather this week amid growing signs the U.S. economy is hitting a sweet spot that will allow them to leave interest rates untouched for months. Recent data on manufacturing, business investment and trade suggest the economy has picked up speed from the extreme slowdown seen early in the year. At the same time, the Fed's favorite inflation measure is moderating, suggesting the economy doesn't need tinkering from the nation's central bank after its two-day meeting ends Thursday. "There's no reason for the Fed to move either way for a while," says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight in Lexington, Mass. Behravesh expects the Fed to stay on hold the rest of the year.

Dollar Bounces Up Against Euro

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062500316.html

The dollar rose against the euro as the British pound toyed with the $2 mark on Monday _ the start of a week heavy on U.S. economic data. The 13-nation euro bought $1.3441 in morning European trading, down from $1.3466 in New York late Friday. The pound rose as high as $1.9999 before settling back to $1.9987 _ slightly below its Friday level of $1.9994.

Stocks plunge on hedge fund, interest rate worries

http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2007-06-22-china-markets_N.htm

Wall Street ended a volatile week with a sharp decline Friday as investors again succumbed to nervousness about souring subprime loans and rising interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 185 points. The steep pullback coming a day after a respectable gain was characteristic of the erratic sessions Wall Street has endured in recent weeks as it dealt with concerns ranging from interest rates to the health of hedge funds to, more recently, the prospects of unfavorable legislation from Washington. Friday's session, unusually devoid of economic or earnings data, began with a focus on the initial public offering of a stake in the management arm of Blackstone Group.

Democrats Propose New Tax Rate on Investment Funds

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201290.html

The proposed legislation would cause the most comprehensive change to the capital gains tax law in decades. It was authored by Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.) and introduced by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the Financial Services Committee. The bill was introduced on the first day of trading of private equity giant Blackstone. Its IPO was one of the reasons Congress became interested in examining how such firms are taxed. The IPO became one of the richest in Wall Street history this morning when it began trading about 18 percent above its offering price of $31 per share. Late in the afternoon, the stock was holding onto those gains and was trading just shy of $36 per share. In a statement, Levin said the proposed legislation "would ensure that investment fund managers who take a share of the funds' profits as compensation for investment management services, known as 'carried interest,' would be taxed at an appropriate ordinary income tax rate."

Once Seen as Too Risky, Commodities Are Attracting Small Investors

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300063.html

You missed the wild ride on Cyclone Gonu? Oil traders rode that financial roller coaster for several days this month when the cyclone briefly pummeled the energy-producing Persian Gulf state of Oman. Crude prices shot above $71 a barrel at Gonu's worst, only to recede to below $69 a barrel over the next three days as the storm weakened. Or maybe you'd rather hitch your fortunes to palm oil prices, which are on the rise. These prices are spurting higher on fears that worldwide production isn't keeping pace with growing appetites in China and India. Then there are gold and silver, whose prices were surging until recent weeks when rising interest rates made bonds a more attractive investment. Traditionally, trading in such volatile commodities was not for those with weak stomachs or cautious investment aims.

Top

Worker's Rights and Corporate Accountability

Minimum wage hikes won't have big impact yet, experts say

http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2007-06-23-minimumwage_N.htm

Experts say the new minimum wage laws will have little impact on major businesses and on the working poor in Kentucky — the sixth poorest state in the nation. Small business owners, such as Thomas, who pay their laborers less than $10 an hour, will be most affected, said Michael Jones, a state economist. About 200,000 Kentucky workers will get a pay raise on Tuesday, according to data compiled by the Governor's Office for Policy Research. These workers, who make less than $5.85, make up 8% of the workforce in Kentucky. Only 8,000 workers actually earn $5.15 an hour. By 2009, another 150,000 will benefit from the "ripple effect" of raising the wage, according to the Kentucky Raise the Wage Coalition. Thomas, who jump-started his sawmill business three years ago in the poorest county in Kentucky, is preparing his wallet.

Top

Media

Sale Talks Between News Corp., Dow Jones Hinge on Bancrofts' Buffer Demands

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401560.html

Today is a critical point in negotiations between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Dow Jones over the potential sale of the latter company, as both sides haggle over a proposed editorial board whose aim is to keep Murdoch away from Dow Jones's prized jewel, the Wall Street Journal. Late Friday afternoon, Dow Jones's board of directors delivered a long-awaited, four-page proposal to Murdoch's News Corp. headquarters in New York, according to sources who have seen the document and spoke on condition of anonymity because talks are ongoing.

RELATED: Murdoch Reaches Out for Even More

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/media/25murdoch.html?ref=washington

Documentarians pull a Michael Moore on the master

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-ca-dissent24jun24,1,2963106.story?coll=la-politics-campaign

MICHAEL MOORE earned his celebrity stalking General Motors' chief executive, shaming gun lover Charlton Heston and lampooning President Bush while playing the all-American little guy. That cheeky style so inspired liberal Toronto filmmakers Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine that when their attempts to interview Moore were stonewalled, they Michael Moore-ed the master. They trailed his 2004 tour of college campuses, cornered him at his own film festival, and even faked credentials to get into one of his lectures, antics that got them booted from the event. The result is "Manufacturing Dissent," a "Roger & Me"-style expedition, starring the self-styled champion of the proletariat as an ethically bereft icon of info-tainment. "We agree the bigger message Michael Moore is talking about is great," said Melnyk. "But you have to give your message in an honest way, and that's the debate we wanted to bring out."

Top

Education

School Officials Black Out Photo of a Gay Student’s Kiss

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/education/24yearbook.html

Andre Jackson, a senior at East Side High School, leaned over his boyfriend’s shoulder one day several months ago and kissed him on the lips. He took a picture of the smooch with his digital camera. Like other students, Mr. Jackson later paid $150 to have his own special page of photos in the school yearbook. He decided to include the picture of the kiss, to make not a political statement, but a personal one. “I didn’t intend to say, ‘Oh hey, look at me, I’m gay,’ ” said Mr. Jackson, 18. “It was just a picture showing my emotion, saying that I’m happy, you know, whatever. It was to look back on as a memory.” On Thursday evening, when the seniors gathered at a restaurant here for the Senior Banquet, students received the yearbooks they had bought for around $85. But the picture of Mr. Jackson kissing his boyfriend was gone. School officials had blacked it out. Roughly 250 yearbooks were distributed, and all of them had a black-marker splotch covering every inch of the photo.

Blacks' college enrollment crosses milestone in South

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-colleges_28jun25,1,3187460.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

For the first time ever in the South, blacks are as well-represented on college campuses as they are in the region's population as a whole, something not yet true of the country overall. The milestone is noted in a new fact book to be released Monday by the Southern Regional Education Board, a non-profit organization that promotes education.

Top

Military

Dems criticize GOP plan for veterans' health

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-23-democratsaddress_N.htm

President Bush's congressman said Saturday that the administration and Republicans put a higher priority on tax cuts than on veterans' health care. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, said the House has sent Bush a $64.7 billion spending bill to fund Veterans Affairs. That includes a $6 billion increase for veterans health care, $3.8 billion more than Bush had requested, Edwards said. "For weeks, the White House budget office threatened to veto this bill, because it was above their request," Edwards said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "Fortunately, the president finally backed down on his threat to this historic veterans' bill, but only after it was clear that Congress would override a veto." The Veterans Affairs spending bill passed the House 409-2 last week.

Sharp fall of blacks in military reported

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-recruits_25jun25,1,4615481.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began. Other job prospects are improving, and more relatives of potential recruits are discouraging them from joining the armed services. According to data obtained by The Associated Press, the decline covers all four military services for active duty recruits. The drop is even more dramatic when National Guard and Reserve recruiting is included. Walking past the Army recruiting station in downtown Washington this past week, Sean Glover said he has done all he can to talk black relatives out of joining the military. "I don't think it's a good time. I don't support the government's efforts here and abroad," said Glover, 36. "There's other ways you can pay for college."

Officer: Navy trying to muzzle me

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-24-navyofficer_N.htm

A Navy expert in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder says the service is trying to silence him for criticizing the quality of mental health care in the military. Cmdr. Mark Russell, 47, has filed a complaint with the Pentagon's inspector general claiming his chance for career advancement has been blocked. He says he was isolated from the media after describing in a Jan. 17 USA TODAY article a "perfect storm" looming in the military's mental health system. "If we permit the silencing and maltreatment of military personnel that dare to care and lawfully communicate known public health concerns, what is the message sent up and down the military hierarchy?" Russell asks in his complaint, a copy of which he provided to USA TODAY. The Navy confirmed the authenticity of the complaint.

Audit of KBR Iraq Contract Faults Records For Fuel, Food

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401608.html

KBR, the government contracting firm formerly under Halliburton, did not keep accurate records of gasoline distribution, put its employees in living spaces that may be larger than warranted and served meals that appeared to cost $4.5 million more than necessary under a contract to perform work in Iraq, according to an audit by a government oversight agency. The report, to be released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, addresses a sliver of a $22.5 billion contract that KBR won to provide services for the U.S. military. The inspector general's office focused on four services that KBR was paid to provide in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone: supplying gasoline, food services, and housing and various morale and recreation services.

Top

Religion

Church rejects blessing for gays

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-anglicans25jun25,1,5864085.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Canada's Anglicans narrowly voted Sunday to defeat a resolution to allow their churches to conduct blessing ceremonies for gay couples. The resolution would have enabled priests to bless same-sex couples who had married in civil ceremonies, but would not have allowed priests to marry such couples. Civil marriage for gay couples has been legal in Canada since 2005. The resolution required a majority rule in three orders: the laity, clergy and bishops. It failed only in the order of bishops. Lay delegates voted 78 to 59 in favor and clergy voted 63 to 53 in favor, but the House of Bishops voted 21 to 19 against. The Anglican Church of Canada previously agreed that same-sex blessings do not conflict with its core doctrine. But delegates rejected the idea of allowing individual dioceses the right to decide whether their priests could perform such rites.

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Energy Policy

Report on Amaranth Collapse Is to Be Made Public

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/25amaranth.html?ref=business

After a nine-month investigation, a bipartisan Senate subcommittee is expected to issue a report today detailing how a single hedge fund, Amaranth Advisors, dominated the North American natural gas market last year, causing high prices and extreme volatility that ultimately led to its stunning collapse.

Top

Environment and Conservation

Project Aims To Convert Farmland Into Wetlands

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300611.html

The untested theory, endorsed by a coterie of environmental groups and supporters, holds that restoring wetlands in the Midwest would be a cost-effective way to filter harmful nitrogen and phosphorous that damage ecosystems all the way down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. If it works as intended, the system will also expand habitats for animals and waterfowl by returning farmland to its wilder roots, benefiting nature lovers and hunters. The organizers, led by the Chicago-based Wetlands Initiative, call it nutrient farming. The project's directors, now seeking state and federal permits, recently won a $15 million commitment from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Cook County. "We think it's a good investment. We're confident that it'll work," said Richard Lanyon, the district's general superintendent. "We expect the state of Illinois will adopt water quality standards for nutrients and we will be obligated to meet those standards. We know wetlands remove nutrients."

U.S. Accuses Europe of Overfishing Tuna in Atlantic

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/25tuna.html

Europeans may claim a leadership role in fighting global warming, but they get black marks from environmentalists — and even from Washington — for failing to control their fishing fleets in the Mediterranean and other coastal waters. In particular, United States officials want the European Union to do more to stop the overfishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a highly migratory, warm-blooded species that can grow to nearly a ton. A single fish can fetch tens of thousands of dollars as demand grows for dishes like sushi.

Top

Opinion

Editor’s note: the New York Times has converted to a subscription-based editorial section. We are no longer clipping their op-ed columnists.

Ignatius: Wise Advice: Listen, and Engage

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201708.html

When foreign policy gurus Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft all start saying the same thing, it's time to pay attention. That happened this month in a joint appearance broadcast on " The Charlie Rose Show," and their comments ought to be required reading for presidential candidates in both parties -- not to mention the current occupant of the Oval Office. Their collective message was this: In a radically changing world, America needs to be less arrogant about its use of power and more willing to talk to other nations. That may sound obvious, but the United States has spent much of the past six years doing the opposite. The three former top officials argued for more dialogue not just to improve America's image but so that we can understand the new rules and opportunities in the game of nations.

Taft: Fleeing Our Responsibility

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201716.html

Last month an Iraqi couple working for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad were kidnapped and executed. Their deaths were not acknowledged by the State Department, and the media made little mention of the murders. They are among the most recent of thousands of cases in which Iraqis affiliated with the United States have been forced into hiding, tortured or, often, killed. I found myself thinking of this husband and wife last week, as World Refugee Day passed, and struggling with a terrible contradiction. The United States is the world's most generous contributor to refugee relief, and we have always taken the lead on resettling refugees. Yet our country has done the bare minimum to help these Iraqis facing death and exile. Instead of clearing the way for their resettlement, we have blocked their path to safety with bureaucratic barriers and political hurdles.

No veep is an island

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-cheney23jun23,0,3614881.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney's refusal to comply with a presidential order regulating the handling of classified information might be scary were it not so ludicrous. Cheney's rejection of mandatory inspections required of all federal offices to make sure they are properly protecting top secret documents defies basic standards of good government and common sense. And his argument that he needn't comply because his office isn't part of the executive branch is specious. Moreover, after clashing with the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office, which conducts the routine inspections, Cheney's vindictive staff reportedly tried to abolish the unit. That's like trying to disband the Internal Revenue Service for demanding a tax audit. Has the veep taken leave of his senses?

Democrats step up

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-mileage25jun25,0,2681309.story?coll=la-opinion-center

FIRST GUN CONTROL, now fuel economy. Congressional Democrats still have a lot of work ahead to get their groundbreaking bills past both houses and the president's desk, but you can't say they're not leading a radical change in direction. On June 13, the House passed what could become the first major gun-control law in a decade, a bill aimed at strengthening a federal database used in background checks for gun buyers. A week later, the Senate approved an energy bill that would improve mileage for the nation's automotive fleet for the first time in nearly 20 years. Democrats still haven't forced a troop reduction in Iraq or put their stamp on the nation's backward immigration policies, but their surprising success in other areas is worthy of praise.

Police on the Spot

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401334.html

In the absence of a workable immigration system, state and local officers are forced into a quandary.

Lazarus: What did Brown mean?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-lazarus24jun24,0,5078601.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

The Supreme Court may reinterpret the landmark ruling, threatening racial diversity in schools.

Where Are Our Passports?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/opinion/23sat4.html

This week, Hillary Clinton chose a song by a Canadian, Celine Dion, as the theme for her American presidential bid. Ordinary citizens passing back and forth between the two countries are no longer permitted such an easy blurring of national lines. Since January, Americans have been required to present a passport when flying home from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the rest of the Caribbean — an inconvenient but sensible security requirement. The State Department, which screens passport applications, had two years to prepare, but clearly didn’t prepare well enough. The normal six-week wait has nearly doubled to an average of 10 to 12 weeks. There are nearly three million applications pending.

Sokol: An Apollo Program for Climate Change

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101859.html

In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the nation, by the end of that decade, to landing Americans on the moon and bringing them safely back to Earth. Kennedy identified specific interim goals, such as developing a lunar spacecraft, new rocket booster technologies, and the deployment of satellite communication and weather observation systems. In asking Congress to support his goal, he said that the effort "will last for many years and carry very heavy costs" and that it demanded "a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower." Today, many political leaders say that climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. Unfortunately, they fail to provide Kennedy's understanding of what is required, much less the resources and leadership, to succeed.

RELATED: Some Positive Energy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401331.html

Mallaby: The Next Globalization Backlash

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401375.html

The next globalization battle lurks over the horizon, but you can already guess its contours. It will be shaped by two revolutions in finance and business: the growth of vast government-controlled investment funds abroad and the muddled progress toward shareholder democracy in this country. Taken together, these changes will give foreign governments a say in how corporate America is run. Lou Dobbs is going to love this one.

Tucker: An architect of voter harassment needs no reward

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2007/06/23/0624edtucker.html

Former metro Atlantan Hans von Spakovsky is among the GOP hacks who perverted the U.S. Department of Justice — trashing constitutional principles, rewarding partisanship over competence and converting the entire machinery into an arm of the Republican Party. His specialty was suppressing voting by Americans of color, who are more likely to support Democrats; he played a starring role in a nationwide effort to disenfranchise poor blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. Now, von Spakovsky is seeking Senate approval for a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, which enforces federal campaign finance laws. (President Bush gave von Spakovsky a recess appointment in January 2006, but he must have Senate confirmation for a full term.) The vote ought to be easy: No, no and no way.

Chapman: Confessions of a feral beast

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0624chapmanjun24,0,3416157.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed

In the old joke, two rabbis are sitting in a cafe. One is reading a Jewish newspaper, but the other opens a notorious neo-Nazi rag. The first, stunned, says, "Why would you read that?" The second replies: "In your paper, I read how Jews are being harassed and persecuted and endangered. In this one, I read that Jews are rich! Jews are clever! Jews run the world! I prefer good news." When Tony Blair recently attacked the news media as "a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits," many of those under attack did not take it well. "It's just sour grapes," replied the editor of Britain's Daily Express. "He's criticizing journalists because they found him out." New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd likened Blair to Tony Soprano -- both being "bitter, paranoid and worn down by their enemies and scheming erstwhile allies." But I prefer to see it as good news.

Raising Taxes on Private Equity

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/opinion/25mon1.html

Congress will achieve a significant victory if it ends the breaks that are skewing the tax code in favor of the most advantaged Americans.

Hoagland: For Bush, a Gift From Paris

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201711.html

Skeptics charge that Sarkozy is engaging in window dressing, that he will run the government from the Elysee Palace through his own staff. I tend to take him at his word when he says that only a government that looks like France can succeed in persuading the French to accept profound change. And he may have learned something from the horrendous consequences for the Bush administration of having tried to run every cabinet department from the White House.

RELATED: France's political love triangle

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/06/24/frances_political_love_triangle/

Shake up the education debate

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/06/24/shake_up_the_education_debate/

WHAT WILL get the presidential candidates to think and speak boldly about improving America's public schools? About $60 million. That's the investment being made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, to fund a public awareness campaign called Strong American Schools.

Broder: Ready for Bloomberg?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201715.html

It now looks more and more as if he will have a chance. In what appears to have been a carefully orchestrated series of events, Bloomberg dominated the political news last week. First, he turned up on the cover of Time magazine along with Schwarzenegger. A flattering article suggested that the two men embodied the pragmatic, problem-solving approach that Washington conspicuously lacks in these final dispiriting months of the Bush presidency.

RELATED: Lehigh: A billionaire mayor in the fray

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/06/23/a_billionaire_mayor_in_the_fray/

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