Coyote Gulch

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Colorado Water
From today's Rocky Mountain News: "Winter storms continue to boost mountain snow packs, although regions critical to Front Range water supplies remain dry. Colorado's statewide snowpack, an important indicator of annual water supplies, registered 103 percent of average Friday, slightly lower than the 109 percent reading March 1. Mountain water sheds crucial to the Front Range, such as the South Platte and upper Colorado River basins, remain well below average, registering just 83 percent to 92 percent of normal."
7:57:16 AM

Denver November 2006 Election
Colorado Pols: "Congressman Bob Beauprez has registered his exploratory committee to run for governor. The registered agent is developer Lee Kunz, while the listed phone number is registered to Janice Sinden, a former staffer for Senator Wayne Allard."
From email from the Aaron Harber show:
"PRESS INVITATION FOR MONDAY, MARCH 21ST, TAPING OF 'THE AARON HARBER SHOW' AT KBDI-TV CHANNEL 12.
* DENVER JAIL VOTE DEBATE AT 10:45 AM.
* TABOR COMPROMISE AT 11:45 AM.
* SCOTT MCINNIS GUBERNATORIAL RUN AT 12:15 PM.
"The next taping of 2005 for "The Aaron Harber Show" will be this Monday, March 21st, at KBDI-TV Channel 12 (Colorado Public Television) -- 2900 Welton Street, Denver, CO 80205 (the northeast corner of 29th & Welton on the first floor).
7:39:27 AM

Iraq
Hellchild and her pals should be in New York this morning reminding the President that there has been an awful cost associated with his policy in Iraq. She's hanging with a bus full of protesters. They left the midwest early yesterday to take part in the protest.
Oliver Willis: "Operation Iraqi Freedom - 2 years later."
Update: TalkLeft: "Have we just become immune to the injustice of Bush's war on Iraq? In Europe, tens of thousands turned out to protest today on the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In London alone, 45,000 protested as they marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square."
7:30:02 AM

Weblogs
Wow, the Rocky Mountain News editorial staff comes out in support of shield-laws for citizen journalists (those who write weblogs and other types of online work) [March 19, 2005, "Protect state's bloggers"]. Thanks Rocky!
They write, "In the California case, computer maker Apple sought to discover the sources of leaked information about new Apple products that was published on several Web blogs. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled last week that because the leak involved 'trade secrets,' emails to the bloggers aren't protected by California's shield law, which allows journalists to keep sources confidential."
"The problems here are self-evident. First, of course, is that companies could hang the 'trade secret' label on almost any material they didn't want published, including, for example, internal memos detailing everything from product flaws to accounting fraud. The media's responsibility is to publish accurate information of broad public interest, not protect the business interests of private corporations."
"Second is Kleinberg's suggestion that he is the best judge of what constitutes legitimate news. That is simply not true. In a free country, news is what consumers and journalists say it is."
"The danger is the precedent, which is one reason why some states are contemplating expanding their shield laws to include bloggers. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have shield laws that give varying degrees of confidentiality to the sources, notes and other materials gathered in the course of work by journalists, as variously defined..."
"An increasing number of blogs gather and report news - some of which appears in newspapers or on TV. The most successful enjoy audiences bigger than a large majority of newspapers. As such, they deserve no less protection than their colleagues in traditional media."
Coyote Gulch is miffed that he missed the announcement for BlogFest. Mt. Virtus is a regular read but I must not have been paying attention. Here's his take on the festivities.
7:11:57 AM

Denver November 2005 Election
Here's an early look at who is for and against the Colorado budget compromise from the Rocky Mountain News [March 19, 2005, "Push for budget deal to mirror FasTracks"]. From the article, "Business leaders figure to lead - and largely finance - the charge to pass the budget measure, which would ask voters to give up five years of tax refunds to help programs such as higher education and health care. They'll be joined by Gov. Bill Owens, top legislative Democrats and, proponents hope, crews of civic leaders statewide. A similar coalition pumped about $3.5 million into the FasTracks campaign, including $500,000 from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber will get involved heavily in the budget campaign, too, its president said this week. Colorado's taxpayers-rights activists will lead the opposition, including Independence Institute President Jon Caldara and the state chapter of the Club for Growth."
7:00:54 AM

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