City Park West Neighborhood

Reminder that CPW's next neighborhood meeting is tomorrow.

CPW is having our monthly meeting THIS WEDNESDAY, the 21st, at Harry's @ Vine St Pub, 6:30pm.  Address: 1700 Vine St, Denver, CO 80206

How is a “reusable” bag defined?

from Dave Felice:

City Council Members:

These are comments prepared for the Health and Safety Committee meeting.

I appreciate the intention of this (shopping bag fee) proposed ordinance.  I generally support the principle, but there are too many questions which need to be answered before moving forward.  I hope you’ll see my physical presence here as a neighborhood representative is indicative of the high level of public interest.

I will present my comments as questions:

 

-          Why does this proposal apply only to grocery and convenience stores instead of all stores which provide merchandise in bags?

-          Why does this proposal apply to paper bags, since paper is readily compostable and recyclable?

-          Is the fee enough to cover merchants’ costs, and what prevents a merchant from hiking overall prices to cover “administrative” costs?

-          How is the fee to be enforced?  Does the collection use the same process as tax remittance?  When and how does the merchant pay the fee?

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Udall plays both sides of the fence

By Bob Ewegen

TRINIDAD, Colorado - U.S. Senator Mark Udall, D-Colo., came down firmly on both sides of the fence this week on one of Southern Colorado's hottest political issues -  expansion of the controversial Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, an already ravaged 235,896-acre facility now operated by the Department of Defense.

"Sen. Udall needs to stop bobbing and weaving and legislate a ban on expansion," Jean Aguerre, president of the Watchdog Group Not 1 More Acre!, said Wednesday after reading newspaper accounts of a Udall-sponsored closed-door meeting in Pueblo that featured Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment. 

Udall spokesman Mike Soccone Monday told an Associated Press reporter that Udall would not support a permanent ban on expansion funding, "because it's possible at some point in the future there could be a need for it [expansion of PCMS]."

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Billy Whitfield and Wes McKinley at Merle's in Littleton this Friday, Aug. 18, 2013

My favorite cowboys, McKinley and Whitfield, will be making a rare appearance at Merle's Restaurant in Littleton, Colorado this Friday at 7:30 for some old-school singing and cowboy poetry. You may recall that Wes McKinley was a Colorado State Representative (D-Walsh) for 8 years until he was term-limited out in 2012.  If you are really old, or a historian, or an environmental activist, you may remember that he was the Grand Jury Foreman in the Justice Department's investigation of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant (1989), still a source of nuclear contamination and contention near Denver. The complete story is told in The Ambushed Grand Jury, co-authored by McKinley.

Well, the times have changed, but McKinley and Whitfield, not so much. Come by for eats, drinks, and to shake the hand of Wes McKinley, a true American hero. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Merle's Restaurant is located at 2609 W. Main St, Littleton, Colorado. Go here for more information and a map.

Stop the Greed

In an e-mail to CenturyLink Chief Executive Officer Glen Post, a company employee in Denver candidly presents his/her opinion of the proposed labor contract:

  

Dear Mr. Post

 

The contract offering to the rank & file is an affront to all the values the company claims to profess.

 

You & your bargaining team show disdain & disrespect for our union.  Although you are a member in good standing of the most ominous union in these great United States. The fraternity of "good old boys"!

 

You sit on each other boards & determine your compensation under the guise of "free market", lavishing yourselves with obscene pay packages.  You then have the unmitigated gall to offer substandard compensation & benefits packages to the working class under the premise of remaining competitive!

 

In my 35+ year tenure with the company my wages have increased exactly 10 times.  My benefits package has been reduced 25%.  

 

One of the company's guiding principles is fairness.  Is this why in the last 35 years CEO compensation has increased by a multiple of 60?

 

This contract offering is a disgrace!  It will be soundly rejected by the rank & file. A strike will most surely follow.  The COMPETITION will move quickly to cherry pick attractive company assets.  Management & labor will needlessly suffer.

 

Stop the greed.  Offer a contract to the fine working people of this company based on the values you claim to embrace!

  

Sincerely

(Name Withheld on Request)

Denver, Co.       

Udall excludes Piñon Canyon critics from closed-door 'pep rally' boosting Army plans

By Bob Ewegen

TRINIDAD, Colorado - U.S. Senator Mark Udall, D-Colo., has called a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Aug. 13, at the controversial Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southern Colorado aimed at winning what a top Army official calls "the support of our community stakeholders to ensure we preserve and sustain our ability to train at Piñon Canyon over the long term."

Udall deliberately excluded representatives of the major groups that have been critical of the Army's plans at Piñon Canyon, including both Not 1 More Acre! and the Piñon Canyon Opposition Coalition.  A person who was invited to the closed-door meeting sent a copy of the invitation to N1MA! President Jean Aguerre, who then asked Gloria Gutierrez, Udall's Regional Director in Pueblo, if Not 1 More Acre! could attend the meeting with Udall, Assistant Army Secretary Katherine Hammack and Army officials from Fort Carson.  Gutierrez refused, replying in full: 

Jean,

Thank you for your email.   Due to limited space available invitations are limited to elected officials and business community leaders.  Invitations are non-transferable.   

Gloria

 "Sen. Udall can't even get his story straight," Aguerre said. "First he says critics of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site weren't invited 'due to limited space available.' But then, just to ensure that no critics do slip in, he adds that 'invitations are non-transferable' so that somebody interested in fair play couldn't give his or her invitation to the watchdogs."

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Where are the free schools for Colorado kids 18 - 21?

From the Colorado Constitution:
Section 2.  Establishment and maintenance of public schools. The general assembly shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment and maintenance of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state, wherein all residents of the state, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, may be educated gratuitously. One or more public schools shall be maintained in each school district within the state, at least three months in each year; any school district failing to have such school shall not be entitled to receive any portion of the school fund for that year.
I must be missing something. Has this been amended out of existence or what? If you know the answer, please comment. 

Earth Mountain Farm hippies annual festival near Trinidad

2013 National Night Out Events (Tonight Aug.6, 2013)

2013 National Night Out Events DENVER, CO – The Mayor’s Office, City Council and the Department of Public Safety are working with neighborhoods, local businesses, civic organizations, and non-profit groups to assist Denver’s communities in hosting National Night Out (NNO) events today, Tuesday, August 6, 2013.

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Forest fires a result of cloud-seeding?

As received from Rep. McKinley
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diane MacMillan <dmacmillan@evcohs.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Subject: Colorado Wildfire
To: wes.mckinley.house@state.co.us

Dear Representative Mc Kinley -

It is well known that ponderosa trees will not burn if they have enough winter moisture.

The fire in the Black Forest  in Colorado Springs is proof that all the reasonable mitigation efforts, outside of cutting all the trees within 100 feet of your home, killing all the grasses within 100 feet, will not prevent a fire from destroying 502 Homes and 14,280 Acres with two deaths.

Many of these families will receive some gratuity for their former home.  That is just a portion of their losses.   It will never be the same.  If they didn’t die in their fires, they have nothing but memories.  They have lost their pets, horses, cattle, their neighbors.  Most will never rebuild in that neighborhood.  Who would want to.

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