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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Paonia boys rally past Rocky Ford
PUEBLO — The Paonia High School boys basketball team rallied from an 11-point deficit to defeat Rocky Ford 43-41 in today’s opening round of the Class 2A state basketball tournament.
The Eagles worked the ball inside to outscore the Meloneers 9-4 in the fourth quarter.
Brad Todd scored 18 points for the Eagles, who play in the semifinal game at 8:30 tonight against Sanford.
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Paonia girls lose in OT
PUEBLO — The Paonia High School girls basketball team couldn’t get the defensive stops it needed in overtime today as the Eagles lost to Rocky Ford 49-42 in the first round of the Class 2A state tournament at Massari Arena.
Jordyn Rienks sent the game into overtime for the Eagles, hitting a 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining in regulation.
Rebecca Apodaca and Dara Dillon hit 3-pointers to provide a big lift for the Meloneers in the overtime.
Paonia was led by Rienks with 16 points.
The Eagles play in the consolation round at 8:45 this morning.
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Mesa State investment bill passes Senate committee
A Senate panel endorsed a plan today to allow Mesa State College and Colorado State University to independently invest their own assets.
House Bill 1002 would give Colorado State University and Mesa State College the abilities to invest their own assets and receive a higher rate of return.
State Treasurer Cary Kennedy told the Senate Education Committee the bill will allow Mesa State to withdraw all or part of the $25 million it currently keeps in the state treasury and invest the money as it sees fit.
“The general consensus among my team is there won’t be a negative impact on the state,” Kennedy said.
The committee voted 6-1 to pass the bill to the full Senate.
The bill’s sponsors include Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, and Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction.
Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada, said she had concerns about allowing Mesa State to invest its assets when other similarly situated four-year colleges and universities are not allowed the same authority under the bill.
“If you start with Mesa, why not the other four-year institutions?” she said.
House Bill 1002 marks the third time lawmakers have pushed to allow Mesa State more control over its money.
Gov. Bill Owens vetoed the most recent attempt in 2006.
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Lawmakers trying to bring back earned income tax credit
DENVER (AP) — Colorado lawmakers are trying to bring back the state earned income tax credit for low-income families, which evaporated in 2002 when the economy tanked.
Democratic Rep. John Kefalas of Fort Collins said Thursday the credit would be based on a percentage of the federal earned income tax credit.
Kefalas estimates eligible Colorado families would get an average of about $450 next year and the following year under his bill.
Previously, the program was funded by tax-surplus refunds, but those refunds are on hold under a voter-approved plan to help state government recover from the downturn.
Kefalas is proposing that the state finance the tax credit with unused federal aid for needy families and with funds from the unemployment insurance program until 2011.
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Georgetown man accused of Internet solicitation
A Georgetown man has been arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex over the Internet from a police investigator posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Joseph M. Singer II, 49, was booked into the Mesa County Jail on Wednesday and made his first appearance in court this afternoon on possible charges including enticement of a child, Internet luring of a child and Internet sexual enticement of a child.
According to an arrest affidavit, Singer began chatting online in March 2007 with an investigator who identified himself as a 14-year-old girl. Singer used the screen name “bebad4dad” and talked about performing sexual acts on the girl and told her he wanted to meet her in Grand Junction for a sexual encounter.
Police later applied for a court order and learned that Singer, who works as a materials manager for a surgical center in Frisco, used both his home and work computer to log on and chat with the girl, the affidavit said.
Singer is being held on $75,000 bond. Prosecutors are expected to file charges on Monday.
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BLM rejects most of Ritter proposal for developing the Roan Plateau
The Bureau of Land Management today rejected most of Gov. Bill Ritter’s proposal to restrict energy development atop the Roan Plateau.
In a letter to the governor, Interior Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Stephen Allred said he appreciates the state’s input, but will not abide by its request to set aside 36,000 acres as sensitive wildlife areas.
The BLM proposed only setting aside roughly 21,000 acres of sensitive areas in its original development plan for the Roan Plateau, which is north of Interstate 70 between Parachute and Rifle.
“It is important to BLM and the Department of the Interior that we continue to have the state’s involvement in this on-going process,” Allred wrote in his letter. “The BLM will continue to work closely with the State of Colorado on implementing the plan. Also, we continue our offer to fund state employees to be co-located with our employees to provide implementation oversight in these processes.”
Ritter said he was glad to hear the BLM wants to continue conversations about developing the Roan but is discouraged to hear they have rejected most of his plan.
“I strongly disagree with and am disappointed in the department’s decision not to pursue phased leasing and not to expand areas that would be off-limits to energy development on the Roan Plateau,” Ritter said in a statement. “We proposed a uniquely Colorado solution that struck a good balance and would benefit our economy, communities and energy industry while minimizing the impact to our environment. It allowed for phased leasing, staged development, extensive environmental protections, local economic prosperity and maximum financial benefits to the state.”
Democratic Colorado Congressmen John Salazar and Mark Udall also said they were discouraged to hear of the BLM’s letter to Ritter.
“The governor had made a reasonable effort to resolve the leasing issue in a way that accommodated the concerns and interests of the local communities with those of the oil and gas industry,” Salazar said in a statement. “The administration claims that it has met the governor’s objections, but it is clear that it has not.”
Ritter submitted his plan for the Roan, which included provisions for phased leasing of the gas-rich land atop the Roan, in late December.
The plan, at the time, was widely praised by Republican and Democratic officials, including Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction.
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Official says manmade Grand Canyon flood had immediate results
PHOENIX (AP) — The Grand Canyon National Park’s superintendent says the results of a manmade flood last week were immediate and substantial.
Steve Martin says the flood has added football field-sized areas of sediment in parts of the Grand Canyon.
Martin returned this week from a trip down the Colorado River to see the initial impacts of the three-day flood.
The flood was designed to redistribute and add sediment to the river in the Grand Canyon. The ecosystem there has been drastically altered since the Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963.
The dam blocked nutrient-rich sediment from the river downstream, turning the once muddy and warm Colorado into a cool, clear environment.
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Mesa State tuition increase could be capped at 7 percent
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education gave approval Wednesday for four-year institutions in Denver to raise tuition by up to 9 percent. Under the recommendation, the state would cap Mesa State College at a tuition increase of 7 percent, and community colleges at 5 percent.
“Over the last few years our tuition increases have ranged between 2 and 5 percent,” said Dana Nunn, Mesa State spokeswoman. “This is just a recommendation of the maximum increase. It’s saying, ‘We don’t want you to raise your tuition by any more than that.’”
Mesa State Board of Trustees meeting notes for March 5 indicated a possible proposed housing increase for the 2009 budget of between 4 percent and 6 percent and a possible increase on food services of between 3.8 percent and 4.8 percent based on an increase in Sodexho services. Parking pay lot and permit costs are being evaluated with a survey of other institutions.
The CCHE recommendation goes to the joint budget committee of the Legislature. From there it will be decided if it will be included in the Long Bill to come up at the end of the legislative session.
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Grand Valley boys upset in state tourney
PUEBLO — The Grand Valley High School boys basketball team went cold in the second half as Sedgwick County overtook the defending Class 2A state champions 41-39 in today’s first round of the state tournament at Massari Arena.
Grand Valley led by as many as 14 points in the first half made only 5 of 26 field goals in the second half as the Cougars outscored the Cardinals 15-10 in the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals play in the consolation semifinals at 1:15 Friday afternoon.
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GOP concerned about use of mill levy freeze revenues
Republican state lawmakers are raising concerns the governor’s office might be diverting $25 million in excess education funds created by the governor’s mill levy freeze into health care.
Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, said he is concerned Gov. Bill Ritter is funding his $25 million plan to expand public health care access for low-income children with money, in part, raised by 2007’s mill levy freeze.
“I personally did not vote for the mill levy freeze for that purpose to free up $25 million for new programming,” White said during a recent Joint Budget Committee hearing.
Ritter’s “Building Blocks to Health Care Reform” program expands eligibility requirements for public health care programs to cover more than 55,000 Colorado children over the next three years. The proposal also aims to increase the quality and efficiency of health care in Colorado.
White was the only Republican lawmaker last year to support the governor’s mill levy freeze, which prevents declines in local school district property tax revenues and allows the state to taper its financial obligations to local schools.
Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said he is not surprised to hear freeze funds are being funneled into health care.
“It was always cloaked as education funding, but in truth it never ways,” Penry said.
Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, said he understands his peers’ complaints, but the mill levy freeze revenues are like any other revenues stream used to fund state projects and programs.
Evan Dreyer, spokesman for the governor, said contrary to the lawmakers’ concerns, the governor’s health care proposal does not draw upon the governor’s mill levy freeze.
“It is coming from lower than projected student enrollments,” Dreyer said.
Since the governor submitted his budget requests to the Legislature in November, Dreyer said the state has projected fewer students statewide will be enrolled in public schools. As a result, he said, the state found itself with a surplus in revenues previously earmarked for K-12 education.
Republican lawmakers, however, swore this week to fight the use of mill levy freeze revenues for any purpose other than education.
“We’ll just try and remind our colleagues in the Legislature and Colorado taxpayers what they were promised when the governor changed their property taxes,” said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield. “They were promised that this was badly needed support for public schools, and now they learn Bill Ritter is playing Santa Claus with their property taxes.”
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Grand Valley girls win quarterfinal game
PUEBLO — Erin Vanderpool scored 20 points and Lauren Schubert added 16 as the Grand Valley girls basketball team claimed a 61-50 victory over Holyoke this morning in the quarterfinals of the Class 2A state basketball tournament at Massari Arena.
Kasi Jensen scored six points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds for the Cardinals (19-4), who move into the state semifinals at 7:30 on Friday night.
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Hautzinger says grand jury could look into Paige Birgfeld case
Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger might ask a grand jury to look into the disappearance of local woman and call girl Paige Birgfeld this year.
“There are ongoing conventional investigations in the case that may yet bear fruit,” Hautzinger said. “I want to give those a chance to work. It’s possible (to have a grand jury probe), but no final decision has been made.”
Birgfeld was last seen June 28. Since then local law enforcement and volunteers have combed the county in search of evidence of her disappearance.
No arrests have been made in the investigation, but local man Lester Ralph Jones has been named a suspect.
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Donuts served for school lunch
At 1:36 p.m. Wednesday, when most students would be digesting lunch if it were not for spring break, a resident called Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputies reporting a car peeling out in the parking lot of Chatfield Elementary School, 3188 D 1/2 Road.
When cops located the car the driver “admitted to peeling out,” deputies said. “There were at least five sets of tire skid marks in the parking lot of the school.”
Out of my way
A deputy did not appreciate the impatience of a motorist.
At 3 p.m. Wednesday, while driving in the area of the Interstate 70 Business Loop and Warrior Way, the deputy noticed a vehicle riding his rear bumper.
The blue Toyota “was not a reasonable distance from my car,” according to the deputy’s report. “At one point I could not see the front of her bumper.”
The Toyota driver was issued a citation, deputies said.
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Club 20 nervous about forthcoming oil and gas rules
Western Slope advocacy group Club 20 has joined the chorus of state lawmakers and energy-industry advocates vocally nervous about a series of forthcoming rules on issuing oil and gas permits.
“Club 20 urges you to be cautious and judicious in proposing new regulations concerning Colorado’s oil and gas industry,” the organization wrote in a letter sent Wednesday. “While we are sensitive to the potential impacts which oil & gas development can have on our natural resources, we also recognize that the State of Colorado ALREADY has some of the strictest regulations of any state concerning oil & gas development.”
Club 20, whose executive committee is headed by oil and gas industry advocate Kathy Hall, warns that unduly burdensome regulations — even in the interest of balancing “the protection of our natural resource values and with appropriate consideration of human health concerns” — could deter the industry from investing in Colorado.
The group’s letter, sent to Gov. Bill Ritter, Department of Natural Resources Director Harris Sherman and Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Director Dave Neslin, mirrors concerns voiced by state lawmakers, including Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, and Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction.
The Ritter administration, however, has told critics of the ongoing rule-making process that it is simply following the wishes of the Legislature, which is 2007 asked the commission to incorporate wildlife and public health concerns into its rules for issuing drilling permits.
“I am optimistic these regulations can be done in a way … to allow the industry to thrive,” Sherman told the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce last week.
The first draft of the commission’s new rules is expected to be released by the end of this month.
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Update: diesel spill contained
A vehicle operated by Bounds Trucking, Co. spilled 45 gallons of diesel fuel in the area of 25 1/2 and Patterson roads this morning, said Mike Page, Grand Junction Fire Department spokesman.
Firefighters arrived at 8:15 a.m. and cleared the scene at 10:15 a.m.
“They were able to contain the diesel spill, which they estimated somewhere around 45 gallons,” Page said.
It is not clear how much of the fuel made its way into the sewers.
A fuel line that connects saddle tanks was caught on something at the construction site and broke free when the truck left the work site, Page said.
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Suicide bomber claims Wyoming soldier on 4th tour
EVANSTON, Wyo. (AP) — A 31-year-old soldier from Evanston has died in Iraq.
David Julian and four other soldiers were killed Monday in Baghdad by a suicide bomber.
He is the first Evanston resident to be killed in action since the beginning of the Iraq war.
Evanston is located in the extreme southwestern corner of Wyoming.
Julian joined the Army after graduating from Evanston High School in 1994.
He was a member of the 222nd Armored Division, Third Infantry, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia.
Marion McLean of the Committee to Support Uinta County Servicemen says Julian was on his fourth tour of duty in Iraq when he was killed.
He is survived by his wife and two-month-old daughter.
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County seeks competition
Each year Mesa County invites several specific nonprofit organizations to submit an offer for government funding, leaving many organizations out in the cold.
“Why aren’t we advertising?” asked County Administrator Jon Peacock. “Why aren’t we inviting that competition?”
The response from the county’s budget director, Eleanor Thomas, was that the county would be too busy reviewing applications to see if they meet a need the county has deemed worthy of funding.
“It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to throw (an application) out,” said Commissioner Craig Meis in response.
He went on to suggest that in future years many county departments could compete against private sector companies. If a private company can do a better job at a lower price than government bureaucrats it would win the bid.
“This is a good start for that,” Meis said.
After the discussion Peacock said the competition will only be among non profits for now and if the system shows promise it could be applied to some county departments like planning or animal control in future years.
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