FORT COLLINS - WHAT: Colorado State University, 9News and the Fort Collins Coloradoan present the first of three 4th congressional district debates between Marilyn Musgrave and Betsy Markey.
WHEN: 8-9 p.m. Oct. 9, 2008.
WHERE: The Organ Recital Hall in CSU's University Center for the Arts, 1400 Remington St., Fort Collins, Colo., 80523.
DETAILS: Adam Schrager, 9News political reporter and host of "Your Show," will be the moderator. The debate will be broadcast live on My20 and C-SPAN. It will also be streamed live online at www.9News.com and www.Coloradoan.com. KUNC 91.5 FM will broadcast the debate live for radio listeners.
Residents of the 4th Congressional District can send suggested debate questions to
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The Denver Public Schools will ask voters for nearly $1 billion dollars in November in the state’s largest-ever school bond issue. (Despite the frequently reported $454 million figure, the ballot language tells the whole story— $990 million)
It’s the wrong package at the wrong time.
The economy is a wreck, even if you can follow John McCain’s reasoning. Alan Greenspan says this is the worst economy of his lifetime, and he’s right. Unemployment is spiking, along with the basic costs of food and energy. Property taxes for many Denver residents have doubled in just three years, a combination of rising valuations and new taxes. And the fact that property taxes fall most heavily on businesses in Colorado means that this is the wrong time to go to the tax well.
BOULDER — University of Colorado Athletic Director Mike Bohn announced Friday that CU would exercise the option, specified in the contract signed by the University of Colorado and Colorado State University in 2006, of hosting the 2009 CU-CSU football game at Folsom Field in Boulder.
“Today I notified CSU Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk that we would exercise this option,” said Bohn. “We will continue a dialogue with our colleagues at CSU on the future of this great series beyond 2010, but it is very important that we host a sixth home game next year to live up to our commitment to our fans, and to remain consistent with the standards of our Big 12 Conference.”
Were CU to play in Denver next year, it would mean the program would have only five home games in Folsom Field, plus the game versus CSU. The national standard for Bowl Championship Series (BCS) programs is becoming seven home games, Bohn said.
“Forty-four of the 66 BCS schools are playing at least a seven-game home schedule this season,” Bohn said. “And four of those teams are playing eight home games, including Nebraska from our own conference.”
Every team in the Big 12 Conference will play a minimum of six home games in 2008. Seven conference schools — Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech — will play seven home games; while CU, Iowa State, Missouri and Oklahoma all have six.
Missouri also has two neutral site games, while Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas have one apiece.
CU has been in negotiations with CSU over the past several weeks to extend the CU-CSU series in a way that would meet CU's minimum home game commitment while continuing a strong presence for the game in Denver beyond 2010. He said his intention is to complete that process by Oct. 1.
Colorado State has the option to host the game in either Denver or Fort Collins in 2010. The contract stipulated that CU notify CSU of its desired location for the 2009 game prior to the playing of this year’s contest at Invesco Field.
With the Colorado State game now set for Boulder as the 2009 opener on Sept. 5, CU’s home schedule is complete with Wyoming (Sept. 19), Kansas (Oct. 17), Missouri (Oct. 31), Texas A & M (Nov. 7) and Nebraska (Nov. 27) also visiting Folsom Field. If the CSU game remained in Denver, the Buffaloes would have had just the one true home contest -- against Wyoming – the first six weeks of the season.
BOULDER — The University of Colorado is sending three athletes to the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by the University of Arkansas this Friday and Saturday, March 14-15 in Fayetteville, Ark. Junior Sara Vaughn will represent the women’s team in the mile while freshman Matt Tebo and junior Bradley Harkrader will race in the 5,000-meter run for the Buffs.
All three are making their first trip to the indoor NCAA track meet. Vaughn advanced to the outdoor championship last year for the first time in the 1,500-meter run.
Vaughn kicks off the competition for the Buffs on Friday with the preliminaries of the mile at 7:05 p.m. (CST). The finals are set for 6:25 p.m. on Saturday. Vaughn ranks 10th out of 16 competitors in the race. She set the school record of 4:40.02 last Saturday, March 8, at the Alex Wilson Invite. Vaughn broke a six-year old record of 4:40.35, which had been set by former Buff great Sara (Gorton) Slattery.
Vaughn’s mark not only passed Slattery’s, but was just the second mark to better Mary Decker’s time of 4:41.21, which was set over 30 years ago on Feb. 19, 1978 in Lincoln, Neb.
Tebo and Harkrader will be competing at 7:50 p.m. on Friday night. Tebo ran a time of 13:53.60 in his debut of the 5,000-meter run on March 8. It was the fastest debut in CU history and his time ranks third on the all-time freshman 5k list; he is second only to Dathan Ritzenhein. Tebo is the first true freshman since Ritzenhein to compete at indoor nationals for the Buffs in 2002.
Harkrader was just behind Tebo last Saturday; finishing in a time of 13:54.53. Tebo ranks ninth and Harkrader is 10th on the entry list.
All three Buffs are in the middle of the pack in their respective events.
“I would definitely like to come away from the meet feeling that they competed well and I don’t necessarily think the stop watch is the best determinate of that,” head coach Mark Wetmore said. “This track that we are going to is a slightly different format than the track they ran on to get here and so I think a finish position, who they beat, is a better determinate of how they perform.
“I think they would all like to be All-American, score points for the team and get as high on the podium as they can. I have the same aspirations for everybody.”
2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship Randal Tyson Track Center, Fayetteville, Ark. Schedule Friday, March 14 7:05 p.m. (CST): Women’s Mile run prelims 7:50 p.m. (CST): Men’s 5,000-meter run finals Saturday, March 15 6:25 p.m. (CST): Women’s Mile run finals
Primrose School at Stapleton, Denver metro area’s most innovative and Nationally Accredited early learning school for children between the ages of 6 weeks and 12 years old will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’ 51st Birthday and National Read Across America Day Monday, March 3rd, from 9:00 am – 11:00 am. The students will enjoy a traditional green eggs and ham snack along with a birthday parade of Dr. Suess hats as the children sing Happy Birthday. The words of Dr. Seuss will be an important part of the National Read-Aloud from our special guest readers. Children will also be participating in Project 236 and will be making and sending Birthday cards to Dr. Seuss.
On February 20, 2008 at 1:15 AM, Shannon Helmlinger, age 37 of Boulder, Colorado was seriously injured when walking eastbound on the north frontage road of Highway 14 in Larimer County. An unknown vehicle was westbound on the north frontage road of Highway 14 east of the intersection with Summit View Drive when it collided with Helmlinger. Helmlinger was thrown for an unknown distance and landed in the ditch, north of the frontage road. The vehicle fled the scene.
Helmlinger was transported to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins with serious injuries and remains in the hospital on this date.
Alcohol or drugs are being investigated as contributing factors.
The crash remains under investigation.
Anyone who may have witnessed this incident or has any information that will lead to the arrest of the driver that was involved is encouraged to contact the Colorado State Patrol at 303-239-4501.
You'd never want to compound your loved ones' misery should you become seriously ill or die, but that's exactly what might happen if you haven't adequately planned for your future care and the distribution of your possessions.
Fewer than half of Americans have drafted a will, and fewer still possess a living will or durable powers of attorney for health care and finances. Do you think you haven't enough money to worry about a will or other end-of-life documents? Think again. Even those with very modest assets need to plan in advance or risk leaving their family and friends with a legal nightmare to sort out.
Here are several documents to consider, depending on your age, health, financial situation and family status:
A will. This document states how your assets should be distributed after death. Without a valid will, everything usually goes to your surviving spouse, children or other relatives, while friends, charities or other organizations will get nothing. Basically, the state will decide, despite your preferences.
Do-it-yourself will kits are available, though if trusts, complex estates or large amounts of money are involved, consider using an attorney who specializes in estate law to draw up the will.
Spanning some 72 acres between Monaco and Quebec, First and Bayaud, plans to redevelop the area adjacent to Lowry known as the Buckley Annex have stalled under public pressure for more responsible development. The annex is currently to a Department of Defense accounting facility.
Still owned by the Air Force, the Buckley Annex parcel will be sold to an unnamed developer late in 2008 or early in 2009, for an amount that has never been disclosed. In a bid to make the parcel more attractive for development, original plans for the site included twelve-story, 180-foot buildings. After round condemnation from neighbors of the site and demands that the site be developed within the widely-acclaimed Lowry redevelopment guidelines, new plans were presented with four 100-foot high seven-story buildings and two 90-foot high six story-buildings. Comprising some 800 residential units, this plan was unveiled at what was to be the final public comment meeting on November 14.
This reduction in size and scale did little to quite neighborhood concerns - and Crestmoor neighbors overwhelmingly voted against the condo towers. At the public hearing, more than 300 neighbors filled the gymnasium at Montclair Academy, and around 35 of them spoke at the meeting’s close - mostly against the proposal.
Too big to fail was the language, of course, used when the Federal Reserve and big banks stepped in to bail out the hedge fund Long Term Capital (LTC) a decade ago. LTC was viewed as too big, and too entangled with the financial sector of the global economy to be allowed to go belly up. The resulting financial waves would have swamped the economy, or so the argument goes.
Too big? That same logic is now being applied to the United States. The combination of sub-prime mortgage market disaster, and the dollar's weakness against foreign currencies, put the world's economy at grave risk. Renowned money-man Jim Cramer, who likened the foreclosure mess to the Great Depression on Tim Russert's show on MSNBC, is one the few commentators in major media to tell the truth about the risk to the U.S. economy, and frankly, your household. Cramer said that he expected mortgage foreclosures to top two million. Two million empty homes, two million displaced families. That's the entire population of the Denver metro area.
Too big? It seems that way, as the European Central Bank has injected $501 billion to ease credit and liquidity problems (week of December 17).
Pollution and contamination from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal site have been a Denver issue for more than three decades.
As development north of I-70 in Stapleton continues apace, the urgency to get deals done so environmental mitigation can begin grows.
Mayors from three metro Denver communities have urged the Shell Oil Company to quickly finalize settlement negotiations with the State of Colorado regarding compensation for natural resource damage at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, so that restoration efforts may begin.
The action follows the release late last month of a State report detailing environmental damage at the Arsenal. That report, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan (NRDA), describes significant harm to environmental resources on and off the Arsenal site, most notably contaminated groundwater, injured wildlife, and depleted habitat. The assessment plan was issued Oct. 29 by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) Executive Director Jim Martin. The plan is available online at www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/rmaplan.htm.
SUN's purpose is to promote community among Stapleton residents and represent the neighborhood in dealings with the folks who make decisions about Stapleton at the City, Forest City and City-sponsored organizations such as the Stapleton Development Corporation (SDC) and the Stapleton Citizens Advisory Board (CAB). SUN has done a great job promoting community through its annual early summer neighborhood-wide block parties and fall kickball tournament, by reaching out to residents through the block captain communication network and by organizing community forums that provide information on hot topics. SUN also has acquitted itself well in facilitating solutions to a variety of specific issues with the folks who make decisions about Stapleton. Until recently, however, SUN's work on neighborhood issues has been case-by-case based on concerns raised by individual residents in reaction to decisions that have already been made by decision-makers or projects have already been constructed. After many frustrating attempts to change decisions that have already been made or to modify development that has already occurred, in 2007 SUN focused on getting SUN and Stapleton residents involved at the front end of the decision-making process so that resident concerns can be taken into account before decisions are made and before projects are constructed.
SUN/CAB Communications Committee
One of the impediments to influencing the decision-making process at Stapleton is figuring out who makes the decisions and how. Thanks to the Herculean efforts of Mike King, SUN's immediate past-President, Bev Haddon and the Stapleton Foundation, Dick Anderson and SDC, Tom Gleason and Forest City and all around good neighbor Jake Calabrese, a new joint SUN/CAB Communications Committee will soon publish a series of flow charts that will explain the who and how of decision-making at Stapleton in manner that we can all understand.
