Posts tagged Colorado

Scorched Earth Policy

4
1 day ago
by dcpetterson in
Acceptable damage?

Accept­able damage?

The most destruc­tive wild­fire in state his­tory is rag­ing in Col­orado. It has already destroyed 473 homes and dam­aged an addi­tional 17. The second-​​most destruc­tive fire was a year ago, the Waldo Canyon Fire, which raged from June 23, 2012 until it was declared con­tained on July 10. That blaze destroyed 346 homes.

This year’s mas­sive fire is one of about 19,000 wild­fires that have destroyed over 700 square miles this sea­son. Five fire­fight­ers have died so far this year, and the num­ber of fires in Col­orado has increased forty five per­cent over last year.

It is pos­si­ble that the sever­ity of recent wild­fire sea­sons has been wors­ened by global cli­mate change. Even though that’s a favorite topic of mine, that won’t be the focus of today’s arti­cle. The dam­age caused by these fires is also being increased by the effects of the Repub­li­can sequester cuts.

Fifty mil­lion dol­lars has been cut from the bud­get of fed­eral fire­fight­ers because of the sequester. This has forced the For­est Ser­vice to cut 500 fire­fight­ers and 50 engines. They are fac­ing more fires, and larger ones, with fewer peo­ple and fewer resources. (more…)

Ballot Watch: Mountain States

23
8 months ago
by Monotreme in

This is Bal­lot Watch. Today is the tenth in the series of arti­cles on the upcom­ing bal­lot ini­tia­tives and some key local elec­tions. In this arti­cle, we return to our geography-​​based col­lec­tions of states, taken roughly eight at a time. Along with the Moun­tain States of Col­orado, Idaho, Mon­tana, New Mex­ico, Utah and Wyoming, we’re includ­ing the north­ern Plains states of North and South Dakota.

For many years, this region has been reli­ably Repub­li­can. How­ever, demo­graphic changes have made some of the states a lot more inter­est­ing. New Mex­ico voted for the Repub­li­can from 1968 (Pres­i­dent Richard Nixon) to 1988 (Pres­i­dent George H. W. Bush). Since 1992 (Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton), how­ever, New Mex­ico has voted for the Demo­c­ra­tic Pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, with a slight excur­sion to the red col­umn for Pres­i­dent George W. Bush’s reëlec­tion in 2004.

Col­orado was once solidly red in Pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. Since 1952 (Pres­i­dent Dwight Eisen­hower), Col­orado has voted for the Demo­c­ra­tic can­di­date for Pres­i­dent only three times: 1964 (Pres­i­dent Lyn­don John­son), 1992 and 2008 (Pres­i­dent Barack Obama). How­ever, chang­ing Demo-​​graphics have made Col­orado a swing state. Also, pop­u­la­tion growth has made it a medium-​​large prize: nine elec­toral votes. Look to Jef­fer­son County (Monotreme’s home) as the bell­wether county. This county includes the west­ern Den­ver sub­urbs, and like the state and the coun­try, is almost evenly split between Yangs and Kohms. Most of Jef­fer­son County (in terms of pop­u­la­tion) is in Colorado’s 7th Con­gres­sional Dis­trict (see below) with the less densely pop­u­lated moun­tain regions in the 2nd, which is a Safe Demo­c­ra­tic seat.

Idaho has voted for the Repub­li­can since the 1968 elec­tion. Mon­tana also turned red in 1968 and only voted for the Demo­c­rat in 1992. North and South Dakota have both voted for the Repub­li­can since Wen­dell Willkie lost to Pres­i­dent Franklin Roo­sevelt in 1940, with the excep­tion of giv­ing their eight elec­toral votes to John­son in 1964. Utah and Wyoming have an almost solid streak of vot­ing Repub­li­can in Pres­i­den­tial elec­tions as well, start­ing in 1952, but like many other West­ern states both took a brief walk on the blue side in 1964. (more…)

Hemp of Your Garment

24
1 year ago
by Monotreme in

Matthew David Stewart

On Jan­u­ary 4, 2012, mem­bers of the Weber-​​Morgan [Coun­ties, Utah] Nar­cotics Strike Force attempted to arrest Matthew David Stew­art, 37, a for­mer Army sergeant and Iraq war vet­eran. Hold­ing a valid “knock and announce” war­rant, they broke down Stewart’s door in a quiet neigh­bor­hood of Ogden, Utah and a shootout ensued. Stew­art allegedly shot six police offi­cers and killed one of them, Offi­cer Jared Francom.

Accord­ing to the war­rant for Stewart’s arrest on mur­der and attempted mur­der charges that ensued, Stew­art fired on Strike Force offi­cers from a

con­cealed posi­tion at close range with a Beretta 9 mm semi-​​automatic pis­tol … Agent Gro­gan was struck in the face and went to the floor. Agent Derek Draper returned fire as he was fired upon … Agent Kasey Bur­rell [was hit] at least twice and [Stew­art] mor­tally wounded Agent Jared Fran­com who was struck six times. … Stew­art shot Sergeant Nate Hutchin­son sev­eral times as he engaged the sus­pect and helped wounded offi­cers evac­u­ate … the sus­pect also shot Agent James Van­der­warf … Stew­art advanced on offi­cers as they were try­ing to evac­u­ate … and con­tin­ued fir­ing at offi­cers as they moved away from the home … the sus­pect shot Offi­cer Roun­kles twice as he entered the home … Stew­art moved to the front door of the res­i­dence and con­tin­ued shoot­ing into the street and front yard at the already wounded agents and fel­low agents … Police returned fire caus­ing the sus­pect to retreat … and exit the north­east bed­room win­dow into the back­yard … entered a small stor­age shed.

The cause of all this car­nage? Allegedly, home-​​grown marijuana.

Stew­art was suf­fer­ing from post-​​traumatic stress dis­or­der and was attempt­ing to self-​​medicate with pot he grew him­self, his father claims. (more…)

Ron Paul’s Secret Victories

3
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Who won Col­orado and Min­nesota this week? If you look at the tal­lies of cau­cus votes, the answer is “Rick San­to­rum”. But those two states have non-​​binding cau­cuses, so the answer may not be as obvi­ous as it seems. There are two sep­a­rate, but loosely-​​related activ­i­ties at play here.

In terms of the momen­tum story, which dri­ves much of the dis­cus­sion in the media, the cau­cus votes are the ones that mat­ter. San­to­rum won that story.

But there’s a sec­ond story, one that is much qui­eter, but more mean­ing­ful in terms of the ulti­mate nom­i­na­tion. (more…)

Santorum Trifecta

138
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Well, this was unex­pected. While there was lit­tle doubt that for­mer Sen­a­tor Rick San­to­rum (R-​​PA) would win Mis­souri, and all zero of its eli­gi­ble del­e­gates, Min­nesota looked like a tossup just yes­ter­day. And Col­orado? That was a sure win for for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Mitt Rom­ney just a cou­ple of days ago.

And then… (more…)

Primary Caucuses: Colorado and Minnesota

35
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Today, in addi­tion to the Mis­souri Beauty Con­test, the states of Col­orado and Min­nesota hold their non-​​binding cau­cuses for 36 and 40 del­e­gates, respectively.

The states are com­ing thick and fast now, and the polling firms find them­selves stretched thin try­ing to get the nec­es­sary breadth and fre­quency in each state, given the rapidly-​​changing for­tunes of the remain­ing four can­di­dates. (more…)

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