Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

2004 Presidential Election
According to the Wall Street Journal, Zogby International has released 16 polls for the Battleground States.
Update: Taegan Goddard: "New polls. The latest Rasmussen Tracking Poll shows Sen. John Kerry leading President Bush, 48% to 45%. Today's results 'are identical' to the results just before Kerry gave his Convention speech and 'up a couple of points from before the Convention began.' This is more evidence that Kerry received little 'bounce' coming out of the convention. Here are the latest state polls: Arizona - Bush 48%, Kerry 45% (Arizona Republic); Virginia - Bush 49%, Kerry 46% (Rasmussen); North Carolina - Bush 50%, Kerry 45% (Rasmussen); California- Kerry 55%, Bush 37% (Rasmussen); Missouri - Bush 50%, Kerry 46% (Rasmussen)."
8:14:40 AM

Colorado Water
Ed Quillen discusses Colorado Water issues in his column in today's Denver Post [August 3, 2004, "Sobering thoughts on water"]. From the column, "But some years are drier than others, and our 2000-03 drought ranks only 16th in dry spells since 1437. The 1953-55 drought was 12th, and the worst droughts were in the 1840s and 1580s. We know this from tree-ring research conducted by the Paleoclimatology Branch of the National Climatic Data Center and the University of Colorado in Boulder. In wet years, trees grow more, so the rings are more widely spaced. Some evergreens - Douglas fir, ponderosa and piñon - can live for centuries (one fir on the South Platte drainage dates back to 894, or 1,110 years ago)...The records available during the negotiation of the compact showed an average annual flow of about 18 million acre-feet in the Colorado River. Thus there appeared to be ample water for the provisions of the compact, which are simplified here: 7.5 million for the Upper Basin (Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah), 7.5 million for the Lower Basin (Arizona, Nevada, California) plus an extra million if available, and 1.5 million for Mexico (half from each basin). A 1948 agreement gave Colorado 51.75 percent of the Upper Basin share - in theory, 3.88 million acre-feet. But the long-term data show that the Colorado River can reliably produce, on average, somewhere between 13.3 million and 15 million acre-feet a year. Take the lower number, subtract the 8.25 million owed to the Lower Basin and Mexico, and there's 5 million for the Upper Basin; Colorado's share is about 2.6 million. And we may already be using 2.8 million acre-feet a year from the Colorado River (there aren't many solid numbers for this). This means that no matter what you hear from politicians who say Colorado needs to develop its unused share of Colorado River water, we might well have already developed our share, and perhaps a little more."
7:44:16 AM

Denver November 2004 Election
Here's an article from DenverGov with all the details about early voting in Denver County.
The candidates running in the August 10th primary for U.S. Senate are trying to get voters to the polls, according to the Denver Post [August 3, 2004, "Senate hopefuls blitz voters"].
Beth McCann is angry about a Mitch Morrisey poll taken over the weekend, according to the Rocky Mountain News [August 3, 2004, "Morrissey poll infuriates McCann"]. From the article, "The poll was conducted by Fako & Associates of Lemont, Ill. About 300 Denver residents were asked if they planned to vote in the DA's race and if so, for whom. They were then asked a question that ignored Walsh, touted Morrissey and panned McCann. The unnamed charity mentioned in the poll is Seats for Kids, a nonprofit organization that provides car seats for low-income families. McCann served as president of the board from 1977 to 1999. A state Department of Human Services employee who served as an adviser to the group was indicted in 2002 on charges of forgery and theft, according to Denver court records. Hansen said McCann signed several blank checks when she was stepping down from the board so the group could pay its bills until incoming officers took charge. The adviser made out two of the blank checks to herself and forged McCann's signature on a number of other checks, according to the arrest affidavit. The loss totaled at least $25,000." Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [August 3, 2004, "DA candidate decries foe's ethics, claims 'push poll'"
7:20:13 AM

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