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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Salazar says proposed federal cuts would hurt Colo. hospitals
DENVER (AP) — Proposed federal cuts could cost Colorado hospitals $150 million a year and end preventive care for uninsured patients, Sen. Ken Salazar and health-care officials said today.
“We have a huge issue that is facing health care in Colorado that requires the urgent attention of our president and Congress,” Salazar said. “My hope is we are able to fight back.”
Salazar, D-Colorado, discussed the cuts with Colorado Hospital Association and hospital officials.
He said new rules proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and supported by President Bush would cut nearly $5 billion from the federal portion of the Medicaid program over the next five years.
Salazar said the rules would have “a significant and immediate impact” on Colorado, hurting 25 “safety net” hospitals for low-income patients.
Hardest hit would be Denver Health, which would lose $81 million a year, and the University of Colorado Hospital, which would lose $40 million. The University of Colorado said the hospital would be forced to stop providing any non-emergency care for uninsured patients.
Other states have responded by forming quasi-governmental agencies to get around the new rules, but Salazar said the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights makes that all but impossible in Colorado.
Steven Summers, president of the hospital association, said the change puts the state’s most vulnerable citizens — women and children — at risk.
“There is no doubt it would have a drastic impact,” Summers said.
Patricia Gabow, chief of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority, said her hospital would be forced to cut back on preventive medicine and focus on emergency treatment, which will raise health care costs.
“You do the opposite of trying to prevent the need for health care,” she said.
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Ritter, lawmakers want to use energy money for college buildings
DENVER (AP) — Gov. Bill Ritter and some state lawmakers said today they want to use an estimated $30 million in oil and gas revenue to pay for construction projects at the state’s colleges and universities, including a new science building on the Auraria campus.
The plan to tap into federal mineral lease payments would provide about $30 million over three years, which lawmakers could leverage to pay for an estimated $150 million worth of projects. About $60 million is needed to finish a science building. Lawmakers cut off funding for the building last week after learning that state revenue was expected to drop next year.
Currently, natural gas producers pay a 12.5 percent tax to the federal government, which in turn gives 6.25 percent to Colorado, amounting to about $165 million a year. About half of the state’s share of the mineral lease revenue goes to communities affected by oil and gas development and the other half goes into a savings account for kindergarten through 12th grade schools.
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River group adds oil shale comments
GLENWOOD SPRINGS — The federal government may be too confident in its assumption that there’s enough water to accommodate oil shale development, the Colorado River Water Conservation District believes.
The Glenwood Springs-based district has submitted comments to the BLM about its draft study on oil shale development. The district questions the BLM’s conclusion that the interstate compact governing use of Colorado River water would provide ample water for oil shale projects.
“Considering vagaries of climate and climate change and full use of existing water supply and delivery systems, that may not be the case,” the district said.
The district also raises concerns about existing agricultural and instream flow uses being converted to oil shale uses if energy companies take advantage of their existing conditional water rights. “We have suggested to industry representatives that they consider meeting multiple purposes and objectives when planning for their water infrastructure needs and not only offset impact but also strive to make improvements,” the district says.
Dan Birch, deputy general manager of the river district, said an example of that would be enlarging a reservoir or building a new one to supply not only oil shale needs, but agricultural and instream flow purposes. The White River in northwest Colorado currently has no water storage for agriculture, and farmers and ranchers ran short of water during the drought of 2002, Birch said.
The BLM is studying alternatives for allocating lands for possible commercial oil shale leasing. Its preferred alternative would make about 2 million acres available in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
Birch said the BLM’s draft study predicted about 50,000 acre feet of water would be needed each year for oil shale development in Colorado, but previous projections have forecast the need for much more water.
He said it’s hard to predict water needs when there’s still so much uncertainty about how much oil shale development might occur. The federal government has projected that full production could reach 2 million barrels per day, which would require a lot of water, Birch said. Estimates are that each barrel of oil would take one to three barrels of water to produce.
The river district neither advocates for or opposes energy development, Birch said.
“But we want to try and make sure some good planning gets done,” he said.
The district is helping lead a study that estimates water demands for all energy sectors, including oil shale, natural gas, coal and uranium, in the Colorado, Yampa and White river basins. The study, the result of state legislation, also considers secondary water demands of that development, including for electrical power and a growing population. The study’s initial results are due in a matter of months, and the district is hoping they will be considered in the BLM’s oil shale decision-making.
Water agencies serving Front Range areas recently joined politicians, conservation groups and others in successfully calling for the BLM to provide more time to comment on its oil shale draft plan. The agencies are worried about oil shale’s potential water impacts on current and future state residents.
Birch said the Front Range agencies’ interest in oil shale development isn’t surprising, in part because some of the water rights that they now use are junior to those of energy developers who could demand use of that water.
“So I would suspect that they would be keenly interested,” he said.
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Groups agree on severance-tax ballot measure
Colorado could end up devoting tax revenues derived from the production of oil and gas on the state’s transportation needs, renewable energy initiatives and higher education, under a ballot measure unveiled today by a coalition of conservation and education advocacy groups.
The ballot measure, negotiated by Gov. Bill Ritter, would eliminate the property tax credit oil and gas companies can claim that essentially allows most producers to write off most of their severance tax bills.
Eliminating the tax credit could garner Colorado up to $200 million in extra revenues each year.
As part of the compromise proposal, the numerous groups who have previously floated severance-tax ballot measures will drop their individual proposals, according to Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.
“Obviously there were a number of potentially competing proposals on the table,” Jones said. “The Governor called us together and asked that we try to work together to develop a joint proposal that would provide the greatest benefit to the state.”
Tony Lewis, director of the Donnell-Kay Foundation, an education-advocacy group, said he was glad the governor worked out a proposal to help the state’s public colleges and universities thrive after the state’s energy boom ends.
The ballot measure, submitted to the Colorado Legislative Council on Monday, also will:
— Devote a portion of the state’s severance tax revenues to higher education spending and renewable energy initiatives; and,
— Set aside some of the tax proceeds to fund a wildlife-preservation grant program run by Great Outdoors Colorado; and,
— Spend part of the energy revenues on transportation projects in areas experiencing energy development.
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Business jet’s door falls off during takeoff, but no one hurt
GRAND JUNCTION (AP) — Aviation officials say the main passenger door fell off a twin-jet business plane as it was taking off from Grand Junction Regional Airport, but no one was hurt.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus says the door tumbled from the Bombardier Challenger CL-60 shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday.
He didn’t know how high the plane was. It returned to the airport and landed safely. Fergus says the cause isn’t known. FAA investigators are expected at the airport Tuesday. Fergus did not know how many people were on the plane, but it can seat about 20 passengers.
The plane’s registered owner is WFP Investments of Snowmass Village. No one answered the company’s phone after business hours Monday.
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Study: One Coloradan dies each day due to no health insurance
DENVER (AP) — A new report by a national health-care advocacy group says one person dies each day in Colorado because they don’t have health insurance.
The report by the New York-based Families USA is based on a national study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
The report says people without health insurance often forgo checkups and other preventive care and are more likely to be diagnosed with a disease in the advanced stages. The study found that between 2000 and 2006, an estimated 2,100 adults in Colorado between 25 and 64 died because they didn’t have health insurance.
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Group sues federal government over elk-culling plan
DENVER (AP) — An environmental group is suing the federal government because it says releasing wolves wasn’t seriously considered as a solution to reducing the elk herd in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Denver by WildEarth Guardians, with help from the University of Denver law school, names the National Park Service.
The lawsuit claims the agencies ignored scientific evidence showing that returning wolves to Yellowstone National Park and other areas has improved the ecosystem by reducing elk and overgrazing of vegetation.
WildEarth Guardians, formerly the Boulder-based Sinapu, also contends the Park Service is obligated to further the conservation of endangered species. Wolves were native to Colorado but were eliminated from the state by the 1930s after ranchers, government agents and others shot, trapped and poisoned the predator.
Park officials didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
“The Park Service should accept that their elk problem stems directly from a lack of wolves in the region,” said Rob Edward of WildEarth Guardians. “It’s time to restore the balance of nature in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The plan approved for culling the elk herd in Rocky Mountain National Park about 70 miles northwest of Denver calls for sharpshooters to kill up to 200 elk annually over 20 years. The number killed each year will depend on the herd’s size, which fluctuates.
The herd, safe from hunters and most predators, has grown up to 3,000 elk. The goal is to have about 1,200 to 1,700 elk.
Overgrazing by the herd has nearly wiped out aspens and willows, prime habitat for beavers and birds. Elk also roam through the yards and gardens of homes outside the park, increasing chances for conflicts with people.
North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park faces a similar dilemma, where the public is pressuring park managers to enlist hunters rather than taxpayer-funded shooters to reduce the elk herd.
The preliminary plan for Rocky Mountain National Park said wolves would best meet environmental objectives and do the least damage, but didn’t recommend that option. Releasing wolves in the park would require separate federal plans and approval.
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Adult charges dropped against boy, 16, in bus bomb scare
Adult charges were reduced to juvenile charges today in the case against a Whitewater teenager accused of saying that he had a bomb while boarding a school bus.
Mesa County District Judge Brian Flynn today dismissed other felony charges against Brett Burke, 16, after a preliminary hearing determined there was not enough evidence for the charges to stick.
Flynn kept Burke’s bond at $75,000, saying the high bond was necessary because of the threat Burke posed to the community. Police said they found bomb-making materials; and fertilizer bombs alongside diagrams for making bombs during a search of Burke’s bedroom, according to Burke’s arrest affidavit.
Burke’s uncle, Clint Burke, said he was relieved that his nephew’s case was reduced to juvenile court.
“He definitely not the kid he’s portrayed to be right now,” Clint Burke said.
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Yellowstone quake
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — A minor earthquake rattled remote northeastern Yellowstone National Park early Tuesday.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., said the magnitude 4.1 quake struck the park at 5:59 a.m.
The quake was centered about 15 miles north of Yellowstone’s east entrance.
People reported feeling the quake as far away as Thermopolis in western Wyoming and Billings in southern Montana.
USGS geophysicist John Bellini said the quake was strong enough to wake people up but it was probably not strong enough to cause much, if any, damage.
Yellowstone is a hotspot of geological activity and very small earthquakes occur in the park regularly.
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Reading the Sentinel good for cops
It pays to read The Daily Sentinel, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department.
Alert deputies spied a story on the front page of the Sentinel and learned a little something something about a woman who was a regular visitor to the Mesa County Jail.
“The article revealed a known female was signing in a juvenile for inmate visitation and saying she was the juveniles mother,” according to Sheriff’s Department reports. “The article stated the juvenile female was not related.”
The Sheriff’s report does not indicate whether the juvenile, who was visiting around 8 a.m. Monday, was arrested for forgery.
Paint ball pot shots
Proprietors along the Interstate 70 Business Loop are notifying the Sheriff’s Department about a upswing in paint ball vandalism.
Ronn Gookin, who lives, oddly enough, at 2264 Paint Brush Court, said his business at 2922 Interstate 70 Business Loop was peppered with paint balls sometime during the dark hours of Sunday night/Monday morning, deputies said.
“There was not any property damaged, but advised this has also happened in the past at this location,” deputies said.
Later that same morning Jeffrey Helbach reported a business at 2948 I-70 B was also a victim of paint balls.
It was the second such incident at this address this year, deputies said.
Clifton burglary
At 9 a.m. Monday James Lee Campbell called deputies to report a burglary that occurred at 546 Autumn Breeze Street.
“Unknown persons entered the residence and caused an estimated $1,045 in damage to the residence,” deputies said.
Cops are investigating.
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Home prices slide
NEW YORK (AP) — The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index shows U.S. home prices fell 11.4 percent in January, its steepest drop since S&P started collecting data in 1987.
The decline reported Tuesday means prices have been growing more slowly or dropping for 19 consecutive months.
The index tracks the prices of single-family homes in 10 major metropolitan areas in the U.S.
The broader 20-city composite index is also down, falling 10.7 percent in January from a year ago. That is the first time both indexes dropped by double-digit percentages.
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