Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Richardson for president?
New West: "The Albuquerque Journal is reporting this afternoon that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was one of ten Democratic presidential hopefuls who had committed to running in the New Hampshire primary. But just because he signed up, doesn't mean he'll do it, couches Amada Cooper, the Governor's campaign manager for the 2006...race."
"2008 pres"
9:09:11 PM

Ritter or Beauprez or Winkler for governor?

Here's the link for Bob Beauprez's Water Issues paper. We are going through it now to see if his campaign reads Coyote Gulch. We'll report soon. In a clear signal to the rainy side of Colorado, conservation is at the top of the list, where it belongs.

Here's the link to Bill Ritter's Water Issues page. We're also checking up on the Ritter campaign.

Both candidates get points for putting conservation at the top. It's the easy issue that everyone can agree on. Consensus on a water issue is often hard to achieve. (Whiskey is for drinkin' water is for fighting over.) Conservation is the place to start, before more damage is done to basins. Conservation also helps in economic terms. Leave the water in the basins for their future development.

Here's the link to the water issues page for Dawn Winkler. Ms. Winkler is the optimist (Libertarian) in this race, hoping that she'll get a voice in the outcome.
"denver 2006"
6:20:41 PM

Rowland or O'Brien for Lieutenant Governor?
Ed Quillen looks at the job of Lieutenant Governor in his column in yesterday's Denver Post. From the opinion piece, "Rowland later apologized for the bestiality remark. However, she also has issues with the teaching of evolution in schools and the separation of church and state. Some may see her as a drag on the ticket, but actually, she was a smart choice for Beauprez, for several reasons:

"1) The successful Karl Rove method is to fire up the faithful for Election Day, and she looks more than capable of doing that. The more she gets attacked, the more she is admired by that segment of our population.

"2) She brings balance to the ticket: gender balance, of course, and geographic balance because she is from the Western Slope. She also brings a degree of ideological balance, because she makes Beauprez sound somewhat reasonable. He's not the red-meat fire-breather in this campaign, but a practical fellow.

"3) The more attention she gets, the less time people spend thinking about Beauprez and, say, his effort to make the campaign about immigration. Immigration is primarily a federal matter, and he has served two terms as a member of the majority party in Congress, which writes federal laws. And yet he acts as though he'd have more power over immigration policy as a governor rather than as a congressman.

"Without Rowland in the race, Beauprez might have to address that and other issues, such as why he thinks we were stupid for passing Referendum C. Add that up, and Rowland looks like an inspired choice for Beauprez. It must have been difficult to find someone who'd make him look good, at least by comparison."
"denver 2006"
7:08:38 AM

Fall ballot issues
Denver Post: "The Denver City Council modified a proposed revamp of the Denver Election Commission on Monday and agreed to decide Aug. 28 whether it will let voters consider the new proposal in November. The council stripped from the proposal a provision that would have delayed voting for election commissioners by more than two years. The two elected commissioners are scheduled to come up for a vote in May 2007, at the same time as the public chooses a mayor and council members. The council nixed the plan to move voting for the two elected commissioners to the November 2009 elections to coincide with Denver school-board voting. Two election commissioners, Susan Rogers and Sandy Adams, told council members they thought the current schedule worked best because it allowed them to campaign with the council members at a time when the public was focused on municipal issues. The council, on a 7-6 vote, granted initial approval to keeping alive the rest of the package, which emerged from an eight- member task force formed in the wake of revelations that the commission had lost records containing personal information of 150,000 voters. If the council grants final approval Aug. 28, it will forward the issue to the voters for a final say in November. Voters then would get to decide whether to place the Election Commission staff under Career Service Authority protection and whether to clarify that the Election Commission director serves at the will of the three commissioners...

"The council also granted initial approval to a proposed overhaul of the city's financial structure that would create a new chief financial officer. If the council approves the measure next week, voters will have the final say in November."

Here's the coverage from the Rocky Mountain News. They write, "A divided Denver City Council nearly pulled the plug Monday on a proposed ballot measure aimed at reforming the Denver Election Commission. But the council voted 7-6 to republish an amended version of the proposal that removes a requirement that commissioners run for office in November instead of during municipal elections in May. As a result, the council will reconsider the new proposal next week. Election Commissioner Susan Rogers said commission races 'get lost in the shuffle now' and would be all but forgotten if they were switched to November. She testified against the proposal but later said she supports the revamped version."
"denver 2006"
7:02:09 AM

World Water Week

World Water Week opened in Stockholm over the weekend. According to Mongabay.com one third of the world's population is facing water shortages.

From the article, "One in three people is enduring one form or another of water scarcity, according to a new report from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The assessment, carried out by 700 experts from around the world over the last five years, was released at World Water Week in Stockholm, a conference exploring the management of global water resources. The scarcity figures were higher than previous estimates. 'Worrisome predictions in 2000 had forecast that one third of the world population would be affected by water scarcity by 2025. Our findings from the just-concluded research show the situation to be even worse,' says Frank Rijsberman, Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 'Already in 2005, more than a third of the world population is affected by water scarcity. We will have to change business as usual in order to deal with growing scarcity water crisis we see in some countries like India, China, and the Colorado River basin of USA and Mexico.' The report says that about one-quarter of the world's population lives in areas where water is physically scarce, while about one-sixth of humanity -- over a billion people -- live where water is economically scarce, or places where 'water is available in rivers and aquifers, but the infrastructure is lacking to make this water available to people.'[...]

"The report notes that consequences of water scarcity are already evident in some of countries. It says that Egypt imports more than half of its food due to a lack of water to grow, while Australia faces major water scarcity in the Murray-Darling Basin as a result of agricultural diversion. Agriculture is a significant cause of water scarcity in much of the world since crop production requires up to 70 times more water than is used in drinking and other domestic purposes. The report says that a rule of thumb is that each calorie consumed as food requires about one liter of water to produce. While the report argues that 'many difficult choices entailing tradeoffs between city and agriculture users, between food production and the environment, and between fishers and farmers' it says that 'the world is not 'running out' of water' and that there is enough land, water and human capacity to solve the shortages."
"colorado water"
6:44:59 AM

Don't go near the water

Tubers and others are being warned to stay out of Boulder Creek, according to the DenverChannel.com. From the article, "Tubers are being asked by the Health Department to stay out of Boulder Creek because they are concerned about a high level of bacteria in the water. Samples taken from Boulder Creek revealed levels of E. Coli were four times greater than what they should be. County Health officials that monitor the water said swallowing the bacteria-infested water can cause fever, stomach aches and nausea. Open sores can also cause problems."
"colorado water"
6:32:07 AM

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