Coyote Gulch

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Katrina
The Cherry Creek News is spreading the word about an effort to build a volunteer network in Denver's theatre community to help with the recovery from Katrina. They write, "When the Saints Come Marching In, is brain child of theatre enthusiast Dana Miller and Sara Rutstein, former managing director of the Curious Theatre. The idea is to create a City Wide volunteer effort through the Theatre Community for Hurricane Relief. The performance will highlight scenes from local theatre companies performed by top named actors. The line up includes Jamie Horton, Best Season by an Actor (Denver Post 2004); Karen Slack, Nominee Best Season by an Actor (Denver Post 2004), Erin Rollman, Best Actress in a Comedy (Denver Post 2004); along with local favorites, Leonard Barrett, Jr., Hugo John Sayles, Jenny Hecht, Pamela Clifton and Erik Sandvold among many others...
"For ticket reservations call the Aurora Fox Box Office at 303/739-1970. For more information regarding this performance contact producer, Sara Rutstein at 303-522-3175 or send an e-mail to sararutstein@yahoo.com."
10:14:51 AM

Beltway vs. the Blogosphere?
Howard Fineman writes, "If I am hearing Simon Rosenberg right (and he is worth listening to), a nasty civil war is brewing within the Democratic Party, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - the party's presumptive 2008 nominee - needs to avoid getting caught in the middle of it. 'It's not a fight between liberals and conservatives,' Rosenberg told me the other day. 'It's between our 'governing class' here and activists everywhere else.' In other words, it's The Beltway versus The Blogosphere."
Thanks to Oval Office 2008 for the link. Daniel Owens: "Blogs are great at bringing together communities of interest. They are a great way of communicating with the people who are already inclined to support you - which is why it is still perfecly sensible for Hillary and other candidates to be making contact with major bloggers. But I think they take converts, not make them. Winning votes requires communicating to the unconverted. For that, the traditional air-and-ground war remain the only effective tools."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
9:51:12 AM

Procomp?
Here's some background on ProComp from the Rocky Mountain News [September 17, 2005, "Statements filed for, against DPS pay plan"]. From the article, "The new pay plan, known as ProComp, would pay teachers based on factors such as improving student achievement and working in challenging schools. It is supported by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and others including Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Kim Ursetta, president of the teachers' union, disagreed with (Abrán) Sandoval's statement. She pointed to a four-year pilot program that found teachers who wrote clear learning objectives for their students saw improvement. She also said incentives for teachers are based on objective data. For example, factors such as poverty rates are used to define hard-to-staff schools, and any teacher agreeing to work in such schools gets the extra pay."
State Senator Ken Gordon: "There is a provision in Colorado's Constitution that limits the state's ability to provide needed services following a recession. Our spending on services declines during a recession, as it must, but this provision, called the 'ratchet,' will not let us recover after the recession is over. During the last legislative session, Democratic legislative leaders and Republican Gov. Bill Owens reached an agreement on how best to continue providing services such as education, a health-care safety net and roads and bridges. That agreement resulted in Referendums C and D." [Rocky Mountain News, September 17, 2005, "Speakout: Proponents walk state to stress importance of passing Refs C, D"].
Bob Ewegen: "The tide of battle is turning in favor of Referendums C and D on the Nov. 1 ballot. That's due at least as much to the divided and vainglorious opposition than to the supporters of the campaign...C and D are rising in the polls, though the numbers remain close. My secret source, a posting by Dan Willis at Coloradopols.com, reports the numbers are now 48-44 in favor of C and D. That's far from a lock but clear progress over the tiny 43-42 lead Referendum C enjoyed in The Post's August poll."
Peter Blake has some background on mixing campaigning and opposition to Referendum C in his column in today's Rocky [September 17, 2005, "Blake: Is Holtzman skirting campaign rules in ad against Ref C?"].
Category: Denver November 2005 Election
9:12:44 AM

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