Coyote Gulch

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Denver Court Finds all Eight Columbus Day Protesters "Not Guilty"
MakesMeRalph: "Congratulations to the Defendants!"
8:11:15 PM

Denver May 2005 Election
Here's an opinion piece from the Denver Post in favor of building the new jail [January 20, 2005, "Powderkeg in Denver's jailhouse"]. From the article, "The Smith Road lockup, built in 1954 to hold 1,300 inmates, often houses more than 2,000, and even though some modern cell pods were added in the 1990s, it's still overcrowded, outmoded and dangerous for staff and inmates alike. None of this is new. Hickenlooper's predecessor, Wellington Webb, got around to the jail almost as an afterthought at the end of a bricks-and- mortar binge. But in 2001, voters rejected a plan to build a $325 million criminal justice center in an industrial area near Sixth Avenue and Interstate 25. Then, in 2002, the city bought the Rocky Mountain News property on West Colfax Avenue as a jail site. The new plan would be a compromise - the courts and part of the county jail would be downtown, and sentenced inmates would do time on Smith Road."
Polls show that the new Justice Center proposal would fail if Denver asks to raise taxes, according to the Rocky Mountain News [January 20. 2005, "Justice center support shaky"]. From the article, "Ciruli polled 1,100 Denver residents in December, asking if they would support a new jail if it would raise property taxes an average of $58 per household. That proposition failed by 15 percentage points. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. Ciruli later asked 300 residents if they would support the facility if it would not increase taxes. Everything changed, with respondents tilting in favor of the proposal 66 percent to 28 percent. The second poll's margin of error was plus or minus 5.4 percentage points."
6:46:27 AM

Colorado Water
"Mountain streams and drinking wells in eastern Colorado showed traces of wastewater pollutants expected only in urban areas, raising questions about how chemicals such as insecticides, perfumes and detergents have entered what should be pristine water sources." [Denver Post, January 20, 2005, "Wells, pristine streams show chemical traces"].
Here's the coverage from the Rocky Mountain News [January 20, 2005, "Chemicals blemish Colorado's water"]. The Rocky also has a link to the South Platte River Basin study, conducted as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program.
Update: For all of you water junkies, check out Water Resources. Lots of links.
Update: Water Resources: "Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr. has provided an excellent backgrounder on Colorado (and in many ways, by extension, western) water law (PDF). First published in '97, the online edition is updated through 2002."
6:32:36 AM

2004 Presidential Transition
Inauguration Day. Congratulations President Bush. Here's to 4 years of consensus and success.
Condoleezza Rice's nomination was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 16-2 yesterday.
Bull Moose: "Surprise us."
Update: Bull Moose: "The Moose observes that the eloquence of the President's address was only matched by its disconnectedness to reality."
6:25:18 AM

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