Archbishop Charles Chaput supports healthcare reform -- but his mind could be changed.
Archbishop Charles Chaput supports healthcare reform -- but his mind could be changed.Although Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput is seen as an arch-conservative in many quarters, he's actually supported a number of measures considered progressive, including immigration reform. He's backed an overhaul of the healthcare system, too -- but this weekend, he's telling members of his flock that there remains one obstacle to his enthusiastic endorsement of any plan. You guessed it: abortion.
This weekend, a letter by Chaput will be read at area masses making it clear that federal funding for abortion is a deal-breaker for him. He lays out his thinking in the current Denver Catholic Register, declaring that if dollars for abortion aren't excluded -- "I mean really excluding it and not sneaking it in under the cover of some bureaucratic shell game" -- he'll reverse field. "To put it bluntly," he writes, "all of the healthcare reform solutions currently facing Congress violate human dignity in potentially grievous ways. Unless these proposals are immediately changed to reflect the concerns of Congressman [Bart] Stupak, other like-minded members of Congress, and leaders of the national Catholic community, Catholics need to vigorously oppose and help defeat this dangerous legislation."
The italics above are in the original, emphasizing Chaput's seriousness -- a tone that will no doubt be reflected on altars all over Denver this Sunday.
"Next year, kids, there could be twice as many of you."
At 4:30 p.m., Governor Bill Ritter has scheduled a news conference to talk about the rest of his budget proposal for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, following his Monday submission of digits relating to the Public Health and Environment, Agriculture and Transportation departments. And according to a piece in this morning's Denver Post, state funding for public schools could be sliced by as much as 6 percent in 2010-2011.
That number is worrisome to Henry Roman, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. After all, he says, "1.93 percent has already been set aside by all the school districts" for the 2009-2010 school year. "They were mandated by the legislature to set aside that amount of money in case the economic forecast would not show evidence of an economic recovery." If there's an additional 6 percent cut for the next year, Roman notes, "it would have a compounding effect."
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter.
Whenever there's a mass shooting of the sort that burst out at the Fort Hood military base in Texas yesterday, the vast majority of people who lived in the Denver area in 1999 immediately flash back to what happened at Columbine High School that April. It's not a choice. It's an involuntary response that lingers whether or not there are parallels between the new incident and Columbine -- which, in this case, there are.
A similar number of dead (thirteen thus far in Texas, thirteen not counting the shooters at Columbine). A similar number of wounded (news outlets report 31 in Texas; 24 at Columbine). An institutional setting that seemed extremely safe. Early confusion about additional conspirators (at Fort Hood, two soldiers thought to have possibly been in cahoots with suspect Major Nidal Malik Hasan -- originally said to be dead, although he's still alive at this writing -- were reported to have been taken into custody; Hasan's now being identified as the lone gunman). Warning signs that were ignored (this morning, NPR told about a Hasan lecture on the Koran a few years back that left attendees wondering if he might freak out and kill a lot of people). Suspicious Internet posts (perhaps including one by Hasan that seemed to praise Islamist suicide bombers).
Yes, these are coincidences -- but that doesn't make the emotions they spark any less profound. Ten years after Columbine, I've still been unable to make myself read a book about the shootings by Dave Cullen, an acquaintance of mine. And the first report I heard about Fort Hood instantly transported me back to that terrible time. I suspect I'm not alone.
During the emergency Colorado Board of Health hearing Tuesday that struck from state rules what, exactly, it means to be a marijuana caregiver and sent the state's medical marijuana community into turmoil, prominent pot lawyer Rob Corry told board chairman Glenn Schlabs that "I'll see you in court" when Schlabs wouldn't let him or other members or the public speak. Turns out Corry wasn't joking.
According to a press release sent out by the Boulder-based Cannabis Therapy Institute, Corry, along with his colleagues Lauren Davis, Brian Vicente and Sean McAllister (the later two fresh from their recent victory at the polls in Breckenridge) filed a petition in Denver District Court this afternoon to throw out the Board of Health's recent decision. Noting that the meeting was not sufficiently open to the public and that the board misinterpreted a recent Court of Appeals decision that triggered the emergency board meeting, the thirteen-page motion demands that the state health department "cease and desist from enforcement of the regulatory change."
According to the press release, the plaintiffs expect a court hearing on the matter in one to two days. In other words, let the pot wars begin.
Could the Land of Enchantment magically solve Colorado's pot problems?
As a recent Court of Appeals decision and a Board of Health brouhaha made clear, Colorado's medical marijuana is in desperate need of an overhaul. While officials and dispensary owners tussle over ridiculously vague pot laws, the state's marijuana patients are stuck in between -- a population that continues to grow by leaps and bounds.
So how do we fix this mess? One option might be to copy New Mexico's new medical marijuana system, in which state-licensed nonprofit dispensaries grow and distribute pot to card-carrying marijuana patients. Rhode Island launched a similar model, and Maine voters followed suit this week, voting to expand their ten-year-old marijuana law to include state-regulated dispensaries.
Could the New Mexico model work here? Possibly -- or possibly not.
Chief Rick Holman is talking to a lot of confused people these days. Even more than usual.
Yesterday, Sensible Breckenridge's Sean McAllister, speaking about the passage of ballot initiative 2F, a marijuana decriminalization measure in his hometown, bristled at a media claim that the action was mostly "symbolic," adding, "The police chief in Breckenridge has said he'll take it as direction about how the voters want to go." Later, he maintained that "all arrests and convictions in the town of Breckenridge will stop. No one can be charged, prosecuted and have a criminal conviction paid for through the taxpayer dollars in Breckenridge. If someone is arrested there, they could be sent over to the county, which is funded by state tax dollars, but we don't expect that to happen."
When asked about these statements, Breckenridge Police Chief Rick Holman echoes some of them but contradicts a number of others -- including the notion that City of Breckenridge prosecutions for weed are officially a thing of the past. "I actually think the violations will increase," he says, "because people will think they can walk up and down Main Street smoking marijuana. And that's not what 2F did."
Frederick Purvis had a date with destiny. And the FBI.
We've all heard about suicide-bombers wearing woman's burkas in Iraq and Afghanistan, but who knew dressing in drag would catch on with wannabe bombers in the U.S. as well?
Frederick Purvis of Hamilton, Ohio, was sentenced to thirty months in prison yesterday for sending at least ten e-mails to federal agencies and media outlets in which he threatened to blow up various Cincinnati landmarks and kill then-President Bush. He was also apparently fixated on Denver International Airport and sent similar e-mail threats against the airport to Denver television stations.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Purvis wrote: "I will shoot myself in the ladies bathroom at 3:30 p.m. because I do not wish to live any longer... If I live I will kill President Bush."
This morning, gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis' responded to critics of his decision not to debate his fellow Republican rivals with a Denver Post op-ed in which he argued that while "GOP candidate forums" are fine, direct faceoffs will do more harm than good. "Republicans aren't afraid of differing views," he writes. "We must, however, be committed to unity and civility."
Andrew Cole, Josh Penry's press secretary, avoids replying to this assertion with a sarcastic "Ha!" -- but he makes it plain that McInnis' arguments against intra-party debates, which he described as "circular firing squads" a few weeks back, are the opposite of persuasive. "Above anything else, Republican primary voters want a candidate who can beat Bill Ritter," Cole says. "And if, at the end of the day, you can't stand up in front of a friendly audience and debate a fellow Republican, why should those voters think you can stand up and debate Bill Ritter when it really matters?"
There's been a lot of ballot-casting taking place in these parts lately. But the general public didn't participate in a vote being touted by the Downtown Denver Partnership. Instead, it involved businesspeople who've decided to dip into their wallets to help renovate a key stretch of 14th Street, as seen in the elaborate animations on view above.
"The property owners along 14th Street voted to pay approximately $4 million out of $14 million to make improvements," says DDP spokeswoman Sarah Neumann. "We call 14th Street 'Ambassador Street,' because it's home to many of the buildings visitors to our city use: the Convention Center, hotels, the DCPA. And it's needed a makeover. It's not a street people like to walk down; it's not inviting. We've been wanting to make some improvements for a while now. And now, we'll be able to do it."
Former Colorado Independent staffer Wendy Norris launches Western Citizen, her new online news project, with a story about the tough financial times being faced by backers of the latest personhood amendment. Fetus don't fail them now.
John Reidy at South Stands Denver interviews ESPN's Dave Demshek in anticipation of the Broncos' Monday night matchup against Pittsburgh. Be warned: Dave's a Steelers fan.
Colorado Pols notes that Jared Polis is now an official supporter of the House's healthcare reform bill "after months of spoon-feeding Republicans their talking points." Guess it helped the medicine go down.
Chris Nevitt feels better about the safety of a Starbucks coffee than a marijuana brownie.
Denver councilman Charlie Brown plans to share his ideas for proposed medical-marijuana regulations on November 18 -- and his already-expressed interest in taxing the stuff has been endorsed by fellow councilman Chris Nevitt. "Both of us strongly believe it should be taxed -- and I think that position is almost universally shared across the council," he says.
When it comes to other aspects of medical marijuana, however, Nevitt's views diverge from Brown's. "I don't think we should be anticipating outcomes out of fear," Nevitt says. "I think we should be dealing with the reality of the situation." With that in mind, he'd like the council to tackle the medical-marijuana issue in an orderly, business-like way, rather than reacting in knee-jerk fashion to questions about crime and the like that are mainly theoretical at this point. Moreover, he hopes officials will go beyond taxation to look at zoning issues and even the possibility of applying food-safety notions to edible ganja goods.
Update.: Several hours after this blog was published, Douglas County Republican Party chairman John Ransom gave me a shout after all. Look below to read about the events that preceded his call as well as his subsequent comments...
Original post: Some guys are sore winners.
In an October 26 blog, we told you about the Douglas County Republican Party's decision to back a slate of candidates in a typically nonpartisan school-board election -- a move promoted by DCRP chairman John Ransom via a remarkable e-mail that made the situation seem much like Red Dawn, except with Douglas County as the United States and outsider liberals playing the role of the invading Soviet hordes. Well, the approach appears to have worked: Unofficial but pretty convincing results from last night show the Republicans' choices winning amid a huge turnout by school-board election standards.
Colorado Springs Republican state senator Dave Schultheis, whose untenable positions and fabulously xenophobic quotes made him one of Westword's favorite Shmucks of the Week, has announced that he won't seek reelection in 2010.
A champion of small-minded racists, Schultheis wasn't just vilified by Democrats; he was also shunned by many in his own party, who couldn't get behind his hard-line beliefs.
If true, these results would leave us feeling even more nervous and anxious than we already are. But fortunately, the assertion strikes us as a steaming load of goat clusters. In case the APA hadn't noticed, Denver is among the most beautiful cities in the U.S., and its proximity to so many natural wonders offers a wide array of recreational opportunities that burn stress, not cause it. I mean, I haven't seen a single photo from On the Edge, our new sports-and-rec blog, featuring a skier who's crying.
Besides, people in plenty of other cities have more reasons to be stressed than Denverities. Here's our top ten:
"I've alphabetized the drama section for the last time."
At about 6:30 p.m. on Monday night, Aaron Siebers reported that he'd been stabbed in Edgewater by "three skinheads or Hispanic males dressed in black" who tried to rob him. Trouble is, a surveillance video from a business where this alleged attack supposedly took place didn't show anything like what Siebers described. So the cops interviewed him again -- and this time, he reportedly admitted that he stabbed himself rather than go to work at a Sheridan Boulevard Blockbuster.
An insanity defense wouldn't seem like the best way to go for Siebers when fighting the false-reporting charge he faces, since everyone with a job at Blockbuster probably dreams of stabbing himself on occasion, making it a totally logical impulse. Then again, maybe Siebers could argue that a sane man would have turned a blade on himself a lot sooner than he did. Either way, we're pulling for him. We've all been there, Aaron!
I've been looking for a second stamp for a week so that I could mail in my ballot in today's election. I had one stamp, which I affixed to the large yellow-brown ballot I got in the mail. But then I saw the note that said mailing the ballot would cost 61 cents. I can't find another stamp.
Why does it have to cost 61 cents? It's not like there are a lot of initiatives on this ballot. It's not like they couldn't have fit the whole damn thing on an index card! There's a school board election and one measure, I-300. Do they really need us all to pay 61 cents to mail it in? My only option now is to drive my ballot to the Wellington Webb Building on West Colfax Avenue and drop it off in person.
But that will cost me too. If -- and that's a big IF -- I can find a parking spot, I have to pay 25 cents at least to park at a meter. A free society: It's an expensive proposition.
"There's no deadline" on a decision about whether to clear Alderden, or push for charges, Garnett says, "but obviously, it's in nobody's interest to let it linger." As for when he might make his views known, "I think my press person's been saying a couple of weeks. But I'd like it to be sooner than that."
Update, 3:23 p.m. Joel Warner here, back from the kerfuffle emergency Board of Health hearing. To make a long story short, the board voted 9-0 this morning to strike language stating that a marijuana caregiver has to have "significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient."
Vance Fulkerson, showing off his ear-to-ear carpeting in a photo from his old Facebook page.
Oh, the can of wriggling, worm-like items the Vance Fulkerson case has opened. Fulkerson, you'll recall, is a former University of Northern Colorado drama instructor accused earlier this year of secretly filming children in his bathroom; in September, he learned of nine additional charges against him, including four felony sexual exploitation of a child allegations and five misdemeanor unlawful sexual contact beefs. Shudder.
Now, a report about UNC's handling of the Fulkerson matter (on view here and below) is out, and it goes beyond specifics about his case to look at interactions between School of Theatre Arts and Dance students and the faculty as a whole. Among the revelations: Information about student-instructor parties at which marijuana was smoked and booze was consumed (presumably by underage attendees as well as those old enough to do so legally), as well as at least a couple of other dubious student-faculty sexual relationships in years past. The result, writes the document's author, Karin Ranta-Curran, was a "blurring" of "student-faculty boundaries."
It's been at least a week since our fair state made it on any Most Livable, Charming, Fittest or Drunkest list. So thank heavens for the folks at ForbesTraveler, the "luxury travel authority from inspiration to reservation." Its latest ingenious and largely predictable compilation of "America's Prettiest Towns" does not snub our picturesque state.
The folks at Rocky Mountain Right are launching the Red Dawn Project, described as "a new initiative to help promote viable, conservative challengers seeking offices currently held by Democrats in Colorado." For the love of Swayze!
Because of the Nuggets' disinterest in defense, Jeremy at Roundball Mining Company thinks the team's win over the Grizzlies last night was "less than satisfying." He's got a point, but 3-0 is still mighty tasty.
A Colorado Pols readers' survey asks visitors if they're "Liberal, and proud of it!," "Moderate," "Conservative," "Really, really, seriously freaking liberal" or "Wing-nut bat-shit crazy right wing." What about "All of the above"?
Stan Garnett isn't having to spend a lot of time weighing the differences between indecent exposure and public indecency.
We still don't know all the particulars about the Halloween festivities on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall on Saturday; at this writing, the Boulder Police Department is still gathering information about total citations and arrests. But it's clear that the low level of participation (and actual nudity) in the annual Naked Pumpkin Run means Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett won't be dealing with an influx of complicated new cases. "We had a team of lawyers available to help the police in case there was a lot of activity," Garnett says. "But there wasn't really anything unusual."
Garnett was among those who heard (apparently unfounded) rumors that the Naked Pumpkin Run would be moved to another location to avoid a confrontation with the Boulder Police Department -- which would have undermined the concept in his mind. "I thought part of the point of the Naked Pumpkin Run was doing it on the Mall, where everyone could see it," he notes. "It's like of like, 'If a tree falls in a forest and nobody's there to hear it, did it make a sound?' This is, 'If you're running around naked with a pumpkin on your head and nobody's around to see it, does it count?'"
The caption on this photo from the "Don't Taze Me, Br09" Facebook page reads: "Ladies and Germs, I give you the destroyer of the Naked Pumpkin Run, Mr Mark Beckner, our lovely Chief of Police :)"
Over the past few years, no one had to wonder if Boulder's Naked Pumpkin Run had taken place -- but it was a different story this Halloween. The Colorado Dailycaught sight of two or three runners -- a far cry from last year, when around a hundred people took part. Moreover, the 2009 participants weren't displaying any of their naughty bits -- generally a prerequisite to being considered naked.
Of course, there were considerably more than three people on the Pearl Street Mall who looked ready to run -- a fact confirmed by Alan O'Hashi, who took the photo atop a roundup of Mall Crawl and Naked Pumpkin Run festivites published earlier today. O'Hashi was on hand from about 9:30 p.m. until approximately 1 a.m. on Halloween night, and during that span, he saw plenty of people who looked like they might take part in the event. However, none of the ones he eyeballed actually did. According to O'Hashi, "I mostly just saw a bunch of people in pumpkin-head regalia milling about" in the vicinity of cops. Lots and lots of cops. "They were all over the place," he says. "It was like martial law was in effect. You couldn't swing a black cat without running into a police officer."
As photog Alan O'Hashi writes, "These are the most daring Naked Pumpkin runners -- they created lawful prosthetic devices to emulate nudity."
Looks like the Boulder Police Department largely succeeded at preventing a full-scale revival of the Boulder Mall Crawl and throwing a towel over the annual Naked Pumpkin Run. BPD reps haven't returned multiple interview requests this morning -- but in the wee hours of November 1, the department issued a press release boasting that a crowd estimated at 4,000 had been generally well-behaved, leading to no major disturbances.
Jonathan Sackheim, one of the two men behind an aborted Facebook campaign to kickstart the Mall Crawl, seems pleased as well. He hasn't responded to interview requests, either, but on the aforementioned Facebook page, now dubbed "Don't Taze Me, Br09," he writes, "Halloween night on Pearl St. was a big, fat, fantastic success. Life is good and see you again next year."
The photos on the page certainly look as if everyone had a great time. Check out some highlights below:
Last week, we told you about a $1,000 fine levied against the organizer of the annual Zombie Crawl -- for cleaning up fake blood. At the time, chief crawler Daniel Newman said he was eager to sit down with representatives of the city and/or the Downtown Denver Partnership to make sure participants weren't being charged for cleanup that would have been done on any night, and to see if there might be some way of moderating the cost. And at this writing, he's still waiting. Newman says he's exchanged e-mails with the powers that be, but he's still trying to coordinate a face-to-face in order to clear up any confusion before moving forward with planning for Zombie Crawl 2010. If he has anything to say about it, the chat will take place this week, but nothing's scheduled thus far.
The Colorado Supreme Court's disciplinary judge has finally issued a ruling in the long-running saga of Mark Brennan, the pugnacious attorney who won a $1.2 million judgment against the City of Denver in 2006 -- only to see it thrown out by Judge Robert Blackburn, who denounced Brennan for "boorish and unprofessional behavior" during the case, the subject of my 2007 feature "Blackburned."
Presiding disciplinary judge William Lucero has suspended Brennan's license to practice law for a year, finding that he intentionally disrupted the trial and engaged in "obstreperous behavior" in violation of attorney rules of conduct.
Nate Timmons at Denver Stiffs points out that last night's Nuggets win over the Blazers was sloppy, but at least it had a happy ending. After reading over this last sentence, I find myself getting strangely aroused.
Over at the Colorado Independent, David O. Williams writes about Colorado firms that have criticized the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its alleged desire to have a "Scopes monkey trial" on global warming. How evolutionary.
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