Click here to read the full report: http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/ALEC_Competitiveness_Index.pdf
Click here to read about Colorado’s economy: http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/richpoor/colorado.pdf

By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Colorado has the second best fiscal and economic policies in the nation, according to a conservative-leaning national think tank.
The American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual economic outlook report ranks Colorado second because of its gross state product growth, personal income growth, personal income per capita growth and population growth.
The report states that Colorado is positioned better than other states because of its limits on spending and low taxes.
“The historical evidence is clear: States that keep spending and taxes low exhibit the best economic results, while states that follow the tax-and-spend path lag far behind,” states the report. “Colorado, for example, was able to restrain government spending and tax burdens through the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, creating one of the strongest economies in the nation.”
Republicans, however, are concerned that Democrats are headed in the opposite direction, which they say would leave Colorado in a more precarious financial situation.
Rep. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, pointed to a measure pushed by Democratic Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. Backed on a party-line vote and signed by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, Senate Bill 228 eliminated the 6 percent general fund spending limitation known as Arveschoug-Bird.
Morse and fellow Democrats argue that the restriction presented a “knot of conflicting fiscal mandates.” Proponents said the spending cap limited government from recuperating losses after severe cuts, such as during a recession.
But Republicans are concerned that Colorado could be headed the way of New York, which ranked last in the nation for fiscal and economic policies, according to the ALEC report.
“The reason why Colorado is doing so well is because it has constitutional guidelines that keeps the legislature — both Republicans and Democrats — from spending on projects that are not necessary at this time,” said Harvey.
Republican Sen. Greg Brophy, of Wray, says he is convinced Democrats will immediately begin looking into repealing or amending many TABOR restrictions. He is most concerned about the Interim Commission to Study Long-Term Fiscal Stability, a 16-member bipartisan committee on which he sits, that has begun meeting to develop budget and long-term fiscal recommendations.
Meanwhile, Harvey says TABOR is the reason Colorado is faring better than other states through the economic downturn.
“(Democrats) are doing everything they can to setup the rationale for doing away with TABOR, when in all actuality, TABOR is the reason why we are as fiscally sound as we are this year,” he said.

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By Joshua Wolpe, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Josephine Sciacca’s life ended at the age of 84 in a haze of over-medication, malnutrition, dehydration and infection as a result of her treatment at the Trinidad State Nursing Home, according to a lawsuit filed last week by Sciacca’s husband, Frank, and her two sons, Jerry and Michael.
In addition to the nursing home, which is part of the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS), the lawsuit names several parties including CDHS, the Nursing Home Administrator, the Director of Nursing, the Nursing Supervisor and two social workers.
When reached for comment, CDHS said the fact that litigation is ongoing prevents them from commenting fully.
“We are obviously in the midst of litigation and it is difficult to provide comment,” said Liz McDonough, the public information officer for CDHS. “We take the care of our residents very, very seriously, and we provide a very high quality of care.”

‘Taking innocent to slaughter’
According to Chip Portales, the plaintiff’s attorney, the nursing home is only interested in receiving their monthly Medicaid reimbursement payment, which he estimates at $5,500 per resident.
“You almost get the picture in your mind of Nazi death camps when people were getting led off,” said Portales. “Obviously, it’s not that extreme, but you get that sense. It’s like taking the innocent to slaughter — and the attitude of the nursing home is that we’re not accountable. The people that ran the death camps had that attitude also, somewhat of a ‘you can’t touch us.’ Even the government has to be accountable for what they do.”
Josephine was a patient at Trinidad for a year-and-a-half until Sept. 20, 2007.
She died at Lutheran Hospital in Denver on Oct. 24, 2007.

Lawsuit claims
The lawsuit makes several accusations against the nursing home relating to mistreatment of Josephine Sciacca, including their failure to heal and prevent the reopening of a pressure ulcer, failure to encourage feeding and hydration, failure to treat and prevent stomach pain, and failure to maintain and accurately document medical records that were free of tampering and fraudulent documentation.
According to the lawsuit, the “knowing and/or intentional actions” by “Trinidad State Nursing Home and its agents and employees caused Josephine Sciacca to suffer and die.”

Elderly sometimes forgotten
Wrongful death lawsuits against the state in Colorado are fairly rare due to the relatively low cap on potential damages.
“The maximum you can get on a wrongful death suit against the state is $150,000, a relative pittance when you are talking about a human being’s life,” said Portales. “This lawsuit is about accountability and exposing the Trinidad nursing home. Colorado doesn’t have a statute that protects the elderly — we should have something. If this occurred in a day care, they’d be locked up.”

Seeking a system change
Jerry Sciacca said his goal is to change the system.
“Elder abuse is rampant,” he said. “People get away with it so much. I’m doing this to avenge my mother’s death and to take a stand against elder abuse. I want to see things change at the home.”

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
As details are still being sorted in the case of President Obama’s friend Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a group of local citizens Monday asked state officials to stop police brutality and racial profiling.
Speaking at an at-times emotional Civil Rights Forum hosted by the Department of Regulatory Agencies, about 80 citizens told stories of abuse by police, state officials, lawyers, lenders, insurance brokers and the overall “machine,” as citizens put it.
Eight years ago, Shelia, who declined to give her last name, and her family, moved into a new home in Green Valley Ranch. She described a situation her son, who is black, experienced, an experience eerily similar to the one experienced by Gates when Cambridge, Mass., police arrested him last week for disorderly conduct. A neighbor had reported a possible break-in at Gates’ home. It turned out that he and his driver were forcing their way into the house after Gates returned from a trip to China and found the door jammed.
Shelia said when she and her family were moving into their new Green Valley Ranch home, her then-20-year-old son experienced a similar situation. The son was moving stereo equipment from his car into the house when he became distracted by a group of girls.
Ditching the stereo for the girls, Shelia’s son soon noticed two police cars in the area. He thought, “Someone’s going to jail today.”
It turned out that someone was almost him. The police officers questioned him about the stereo, wondering if he had recently broke into a house in the neighborhood. Shelia’s son offered to let the officers into his new home, to show them pictures of him from childhood, utility bills and mail that would have proven that he lived there and was simply moving in.
The officers continued their line of questioning for several minutes, despite being offered proof of innocence, according to Shelia.
They finally left. But they only did so because her son was extra cautious with them, she said.
“My son was very intelligent, patient and understanding. But he could have gone to jail if he wasn’t careful about how he chose his words with the cops,” she said.
“I’m literally shocked,” continued Shelia.
Steven Chavez, director of the Division of Civil Rights for the Department of Regulatory Agencies, said at the meeting Monday that the entire purpose of the meeting was to gather comments such as Shelia’s to develop policies that would alleviate some of the group’s concerns.
“What we’re hoping to do is gain information from citizens across the state to find out what’s on people’s minds,” he said. “It may drive policy.”
The last time a state-sponsored report was conducted on the state of civil rights was 10 years ago. D. Rico Munn, executive director of the Department of Regulatory Agencies, said Gov. Bill Ritter has ordered the agency to put together a fresh report.
The report is expected to be released at the end of October.

Stimulus money
Much of the concern Monday was also raised over money flowing in from Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package, of which Colorado is expected to receive more than $7 billion in direct funding and tax relief.
Speakers said they want means to ensure that the money flows to projects that benefit low-income and minority communities, as well as to put minority citizens to work.
Some spoke of the recession hitting minority communities the hardest, with employers downsizing by firing black and Hispanic workers before white colleagues.
Others told stories of lenders discriminating against minority borrowers by setting them up with sub-prime and risky loans that have left thousands facing foreclosure.
But the subject, over and over again, came back to race relations with police and state officials.
Community activist Alvertis Simmons, an outspoken critic of racial profiling, said he hopes the Division of Civil Rights takes a hard look at police mentalities and policies.
“They’ll kill you, they’ll shoot you, they’ll beat you,” he said. “Their mantra is, ‘They’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six.’”
“I tell people every day you’ve got to respect the police, and to do what you’re told,” he continued. “But at the end of the day, the police, they’ve got to respect us too.”
A second Civil Rights Forum will be held on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the Berkeley Recreation Center, 5031 West 46th Ave.

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By Stephen C. Fehr, STATELINE.ORG
Whether they welcomed or snubbed the federal economic stimulus package, state lawmakers took advantage of the bailout dollars this year to help patch their state’s shaky finances.
Now, as they start thinking ahead to next year’s budget and the 2010 elections, lawmakers are increasingly apprehensive about what will happen when the stimulus money dries up. They predict even deeper cuts in services, higher taxes and raids on rainy day funds to balance budgets.
“What’s the exit strategy when this is over?” asked state Rep. Steven Costantino, a Democrat from Rhode Island who heads the House Finance Committee. “The stimulus is really a one-shot infusion that at some point ends.”
Most of the $275 billion that states will receive from the $787 billion package will be spent in fiscal 2009, 2010 and 2011 budgets, with fewer dollars available in fiscal 2012.
Colorado’s share of stimulus spending is relatively mild: It’s using 28.6 percent of stimulus funds to plug budget holes, which makes it sixth best of 25 states surveyed by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The role of stimulus funds in helping soften the recession’s blow on state budgets this year is clear from the NCSL survey. All of the 25 states surveyed said they used federal stimulus dollars for more than 20 percent of their gap-closing solution. The survey also shows how vulnerable states are as many start preparing for fiscal 2011 budgets.
Texas lawmakers, for example, have pointed with pride to the fact they kept taxes low, made modest spending cuts and built up a rainy day fund this year. But that was possible, the survey showed, because Texas used nearly all (96.7 percent) of its stimulus dollars to close its budget shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the highest percentage of the 25 states.
Nebraska (88 percent), Kentucky (68.4 percent), South Carolina (64.3 percent), Vermont (62 percent) and New Mexico (61.4 percent) also used a large percentage of stimulus dollars to balance their budgets. Alaska used only 3 percent of its stimulus money to cover its budget gap, the lowest percentage of the 25 states.
Because of the federal money, Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota avoided a year-over-year decline in spending between fiscal 2009 and 2010, according to the survey and a recent NCSL report. Had there been less money to spend, those states would have had to make more severe cuts and or raise taxes. In Alabama, spending between the 2009 and 2010 budget years would have dipped 15.1 percent but, because of the stimulus, it went up 7.6 percent. South Carolina was facing a 3.2 percent decrease in spending but came out ahead by 10.6 percent.
The stimulus funds also helped keep at least four states — Alabama, Kentucky, Washington and Wisconsin — in fiscal 2009 from having to live on fewer operating funds than the year before. In Alabama, fiscal 2009 spending would have fallen 4.8 percent without stimulus money but instead rose 8 percent — a 12.8 percent swing.
But states probably cannot avoid a drop in spending money when the stimulus money stops coming, the survey said, because the growth in tax revenue will be too slow. “State revenue performance is not expected to rebound strongly enough to make up for lost (stimulus) funds,” said the survey, which was presented July 22 at NCSL’s annual legislative summit in Philadelphia by NCSL fiscal specialist Corina Eckl. She said she hopes the completed survey, with results from all 50 states, will be finished this summer.
Standard & Poor’s chief economist David Wyss told the summit that although the economy is improving slightly, states won’t feel it for several years because of the lag time between a recovery and increases in state tax revenue.
“The good news is we’re not in a free fall anymore,” Wyss said of the overall economy. “The parachute is open. It doesn’t mean we’re on the ground yet.”
Some states will take longer than others to grow revenue. The drop in revenue in Michigan between fiscal 2008 and 2010 is “unprecedented in modern times,” according to the state’s most recent economic outlook.
Many state officials told NCSL that they are forecasting shortfalls in fiscal 2011 and 2012 even if the economy rebounds.
The survey, which is the first to canvass state officials about how they used the federal bailout to shore up their budgets, warned that states will “face a cliff” if tax revenues do not start growing significantly by the time the stimulus money stops flowing next year. Economists and other tax and budget experts are predicting several more years of flat or declining revenues for states.
“We are definitely one of the ‘cliff’ states,” said Maryland Del. Sheila Hixon, a Democrat from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. “I don’t know what we’re going to do when the federal funds leave.”
State Rep. Phillip Owens, a Republican from South Carolina, said the stimulus money helped the state avoid having to close four prisons and lay off hundreds of schoolteachers. “The consensus is that in two years, if we’re no better off than we are today, we gave ourselves a two-year window for the economy to try to recover,” he said.
Wyss and other economists, lawmakers and policymakers attending the conference said it is too early to talk about a second stimulus package. MIT economist Simon Johnson told the lawmakers that the stimulus was not targeted enough to states. “If there is going to be a second stimulus, it has to be better targeted.”
Wyss said the money was targeted well to states, but too much of it is going to rural areas instead of urban areas that need to create jobs. “I would say we don’t need another one,” he said. “We need to get this one spent.”
G. Edward DeSeve, the Obama administration’s chief adviser on implementing the stimulus package, said the money is being spent at the rates that Congress required in the legislation. About 30 percent of the $787 billion has been spent in about 25 percent of the days that the program will be in effect, he said. “This is the way the spending was designed,” he said.
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By Aaron Cole, THE AURORA SENTINEL
Brand loyalty, one discovers, goes hand-in-hand with insanity.
For instance, I’d walk barefoot through the Gobi to pay thousands of dollars for an obscure, small, German camera made by Leica. Panasonic makes them (pah!) though I’d never buy one, and probably bested in every respect by Nikon or Canon (ha!), to which I’d rather gulp down Drano than own either.
See what I mean?
To wit, Lincoln makes automobiles to a similarly deranged audience.
First, one must navigate a brutal assault of letters to decipher the true model. Lincoln makes the MKS, MKZ, MKX and MKT. Don’t look for any ascendancy of size to letters; the MKZ is smaller than MKX, which is smaller than the MKS, which are all bested by the MKT — all of which mean nothing to buyers who aren’t loyal Lincoln fanatics or naval cryptologists.
Second, one must pass every other dealership to find a small, crusty corner in a crowded Ford and Mercury lot, to gander at a handful of Lincoln cars. Spotting D.B. Cooper is easier some days than finding a Lincoln lot.
Lastly, one must disregard nearly every printed or spoken word about Lincolns — the same is true for Sarah Palin fans — and go with blind brand loyalty to drive a purchase decision like the 2010 Lincoln MKZ.
Squat, stout and every bit a Ford Fusion, the redesigned MKZ takes over where the Lincoln Zephyr left off. To be brutally honest, I had never heard of the Zephyr prior to driving the MKZ, so its discontinuance is met with little sadness on my part.
For your $35,000, Lincoln promises to give you more than the other guy at the entry-level luxury market. Sights set on Cadillac, Acura, Infiniti and Lexus, the Lincoln MKZ delivers indulgent Bridge of Weir leather seats all the way from Renfrewshire, Scotland, wood trim all the way from Hermasillo, Mexico, and backup assistance all the way from Volvo.
What you don’t get is speed (Cadillac), comfort (Lexus) or superior interior (Acura). You know, the things that matter.
(Hiding quietly is the comparison Lincoln doesn’t want to make with the Audi A4 Quattro, which, by all accounts is a better car.)
Where the MKZ makes its play is on people who are looking for its brothers — the Ford Fusion and Mercury Whoknowsit — but want a softer feel in the seat of their pants.
The V6 engine, shared with the sport version of the Ford Fusion, is standard in the MKZ and powers the sedan nicely on roads. Though not overpowering, and not class-leading despite some strange claims by Lincoln (the Cadillac CTS blows past it every day of the week), it’s agreeable and slightly surprising.
The redesigned grille is eye-catching and the interior is spacious is whisper quiet.
However, it’s in the details — overlooked by every brand loyal true believer — that the Lincoln makes a move to the middle.
The dash is made of the same plastic used in a Ford Focus. The knobs and interior are borrowed from a 1995 Ford Taurus, and the handling is something out of a Ford F-150.
It’s hard to overlook that when you’re not hopelessly devoted to Lincoln in the first place.
Nonetheless, Lincoln, in their small corners of small Ford lots, is still in business, which means someone is still buying.
And it’s people like me who search out these uncommon brands in dingy corners of specialty stores that keep devotion synonymous with conservative mediocrity.
FINAL VERDICT: Two and a quarter stars out of four. The 2010 Lincoln MKZ aims for distinction in a crowded field of entry-level luxury, but lands squarely in the milquetoast middle. The MKZ isn’t the right car for everybody, but with a handful of standard options the other guy doesn’t have, it’s a good car for somebody.

Aaron Cole is the managing editor of The Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or at acole@aurorasentinel.com.

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Rural Colorado doctors say health care reform must include steps to increase access to medical care in such communities.
In a conference call on Friday with U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., doctors and medical professionals from Mancos, Cortez and Alamosa said their patients experience barriers to getting care, including a shortage of primary care doctors.
Concerns also break down into demographics, with women relying on their OB/GYN instead of family practitioners for primary care, as well as Hispanic and other minority groups in rural areas of the state going without any primary medical care.
“It’s the broken health insurance system, because our health programs are intact and they’re strong — primary care, though, is something that, where community health centers are not located, is still a problem,” said Marguerite Salazar, chief executive of Valley-Wide Health Systems in Alamosa.

Residency programs
Doctors in rural areas are calling for reform efforts to include funding for residency programs to train primary care doctors and then retain those doctors in rural communities.
“Our biggest barriers to care here is enough primary care physicians and mid-level providers,” said Dr. Dianna Fury, a family practitioner who works in a rural health clinic in Cortez. “It’s very difficult to get people to move here and to start working here because of our low economic status. Folks who are just out of residency can’t pay their loans back here very easily, and so it takes a very special effort to get physicians to the area to take care of folks.”
Udall said he believes health care reform should include an increase in money for post-MD medical training programs in rural areas, such as opening programs operated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
“We can do better. We want to make sure that any health care reform package doesn’t leave rural America and rural Colorado behind,” said Udall.
Dr. Luke Casias, of Mancos Valley Health Center, said incentives and reimbursement programs need to be established to assist doctors with their primary care training programs and operations.
“It’s pretty simple for me when you look at what’s causing this issue, and that’s access,” he said. “And the reason we have access issues is because reimbursement for primary care is so poor.”
Casias also believes strongly in pumping money into medical training at rural health centers.
“You want to get more individuals to go to rural areas and stay there,” he said.
Udall said the greatest thing lawmakers can do is craft a health care reform package that can sustain itself financially over time.
“My goal of fixing the broken health insurance system and strengthening our health care delivery system certainly is also founded on the concept that we’ve got to ensure that we pay for it, and that’s because it won’t be sustainable if we don’t figure out the right way to pay for it,” he said. “That’s clearly one of the reasons we’re continuing to labor back here … to create the right legislative product to bring to the full Senate.”

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
The race is on for a portion of more than $4 million in federal money set aside for schools.
President Obama on Friday launched a competition for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top grant money to improve schools and student achievement. The money will come from the president’s $787 billion economic stimulus package.
Colorado stands to benefit by millions of dollars if it is one of only a handful of states chosen.
Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien — who co-chairs the governor’s P-20 Education Coordinating Council on education reform — said Friday that she and Education Commissioner Dwight Jones are “rolling up their sleeves” to get to work on the state’s application.
“Colorado is ready to go to work,” said O’Brien.
The application will be drafted through work done in four areas: teacher effectiveness, low-performing schools, standards, and assessments and longitudinal data systems.
The proposal is due sometime around Dec. 1; states will start hearing back in the first quarter of 2010. Money would start flowing into the state four or five months after that.
Concerns have been raised over staying competitive as Gov. Bill Ritter is seeking a waiver from the federal government to cut higher-education funding without losing more than $760 million in federal economic stimulus dollars. Because the state would dip below $555 million in funding for higher education — which is where the state was in 2006 — Colorado would be ineligible for the $760 million in stimulus dollars, including nearly $622 million already received for K-12 and higher education.
But when asked by the Denver Daily News during a conference call with reporters on Friday, O’Brien said she does not believe anticipated education budget cuts would hurt the state’s chances.
“Every state is in the same predicament,” she said. “That is a challenge for every state, and we’ll just have to all work together to figure out how to handle that.”
Officials also point out that Ritter has dedicated $10 million worth of stimulus dollars awarded to the state to restore funding to improve and compensate quality teachers, complete and implement new international standards, and improve quality and access to data.
“Race to the Top is really about how far we can go and how we can demonstrate the capacity to get there,” said Jones.
Optimists also believe the state is better poised than others because of several steps taken in the Legislature.
The Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids redesigned and rewrote content standards from pre-school to college; the Colorado Growth Model has provided an understanding of how individual students and groups of students progress from year to year; districts like Denver Public Schools have introduced performance-based pay incentives for teachers; and several innovative programs have turned around failing schools, to name a few.
Lawmakers this year also passed legislation that allows high school students to earn a diploma while simultaneously completing a college associate’s degree.
Jones added that with or without the Race to the Top dollars, the proposal that comes out of the process will act as a “blueprint for going forward.”
That said, he is hopeful the state will be victorious.
“The energy, enthusiasm and new ideas for Colorado’s education system are exciting,” he said. “The Race to the Top opportunity will provide a boost to the strong reform engine already driving change across the educational landscape in our state.”

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By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
New car and truck registrations were lower in Colorado than the national average, which itself was at an all-time low, for the second quarter of 2009. However, industry experts say good news isn’t too far down the road thanks to the “Cash for Clunkers” program that rolled into gear on Friday.
The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) announced on Friday that new automobile registrations in Colorado were down 41.4 percent in the second quarter compared to the same time period in 2008. New automobile registrations have dropped nationally 35.4 percent during the same time period.
The new vehicle registration numbers represent the slowest rate for new car sales in a six-month period in modern history, according to CADA president Tim Jackson. But Jackson added that “we have hit rock bottom” and that the CADA report projects a 15-percent increase in 2010.
“We believe the worst is over with regard to the economic downturn and that new car sales are ready to take off due to a huge pent-up demand for new cars and especially fuel efficient cars,” said a statement from Jackson.
The country’s overall economic problems — the housing slump, auto manufacturers’ bankruptcies, higher unemployment and tightened credit markets — caused the downturn in Colorado new car registrations, said Jackson.
While new automobile registrations for a car made by “The Big Three” — GM, Ford and Chrysler — dropped off in Colorado more than cars made overseas, every automobile make and model has suffered in sales this year, said John Medved, owner of multiple auto dealers.
In fact, Medved was forced to cut his staff by over 50 percent because of the downturn.
“I don’t care if you’re import or domestic, it’s been brutal,” he said.
The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) — commonly known as “Cash for Clunkers” — is expected by industry insiders to bump new car sales. The program that went into effect on Friday allows the owners of insured and registered automobiles manufactured since 1984 and getting 18-miles-per-gallon or less to trade the vehicle in for a $3,500 voucher towards the purchase of a new car.
Medved said his dealerships have already started deals with a ton of people because of CARS.
“We feel that (Cash for Clunkers) is going to spark it,” he said. “I think July is going to be a big month.”
The average vehicle in Colorado is 9 years old, much higher than the national average of 6 years old. The old fleet of cars means more Coloradans are due for a new automobile, which auto dealers think will also translate into more business down the road.
“Despite the rough period we’ve just experienced, new car dealers in Colorado are optimistic about the future and the future of their businesses,” Jackson said. “New car dealers have reduced operational costs and are positioned to be more profitable than they were before the economic downturn and when the market starts growing again.”

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Monday Trial Watch: Jury Takes Three Hours To Convict Greeley Man
By Peter Rossi
LAW WEEK COLORADO
Editor’s Note: Statewide trial reporter Peter Rossi rounds up today’s court news.

It took only three hours for a Weld County District Court jury to find Joseph McClendon guilty on seven felony counts including second degree sexual assault. He faces a minimum of 34 years in prison.
http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1226113747/Illegal-Russian-immigrant-arrested-in-racketeering-scheme

Longmont Guilty Of Shaking Baby
Troy Pierce, a 36-year-old Longmont man, pled guilty Friday to a felony charge of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. Pierce allegedly shook his baby nephew causing tremors. Prosecutor Ken Kupfner said the 18-month-old boy is doing well. Pierce will be sentenced Sept. 16 and is expected to receive six to 10 years in prison.
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/24/man-longmont-shaken-baby-case-troy-pierce/

Ault Woman To Serve Three Years For Stealing From Employer
Weld District Court Judge James Hartmann sentenced Tammy Osborne, the former manager of Ault’s Highland Recreation Association, to three years in prison for stealing from her former employer.
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090725/NEWS/907259991/1005/NONE&parentprofile=1001

Elmarr Trial: Day 6
William Taylor, the lover of victim Carol Murphy, told jurors Friday in Boulder District Court he did not kill her. Taylor testified in the Kevin Elmarr murder trial, which is expected to last two more weeks.
http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=17221

Suspect Advised On Internet Luring Charges
Tom Helm appeared in La Plata County Court Thursday on suspicion of using the Internet to attract boys from local high schools. County Judge Martha Minot advised Helm of his rights and set his bond at $250,000.
http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/07/24/Suspect_in_court_for_child_sex_sting/

Palisade Lawyer Busted In Meth Sting
Palisade bankruptcy attorney James Zink was arrested last week for allegedly dealing meth out of his home which doubled as his law office, The James M. Zink Law Firm. He is being held on $100,000 bond and is expected to appear in court this week.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2009/07/23/072409_1a_Zink_arrest.html

Have a trial you want to tell us about? Do you have questions about our future trial coverage? Send your queries to Peter Rossi at prossi@circuitmedia.com.

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By Neela Eyunni, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER—Female attorneys may feel the effects of the current recession more than their male counterparts, but for differing reasons, according to legal observers.
“There are several things in play right now that would make it more risky or lead potentially to more women being impacted by the economy,” said Linda Chanow, director of research for the Project for Attorney Retention based in San Francisco.
One factor is more women are associates rather than partners, noted Alison Thayer, an attorney at the Denver firm Temkin Wielga Hardt & Longenecker and former president of the Colorado Women’s Bar Association.
“Equity partners are fairly safe – other than having their own business downturn, they can’t be let go from a firm,” she said.
Last year Law Week Colorado surveyed the top 100 largest law firms in the state and found that the five biggest firms had a combined 310 male partners and 110 female partners working in Colorado.
Attorneys’ relationships with influential partners can be just as important in keeping one’s job during a recession as holding high-level positions, which could be bad news for female lawyers in a field traditionally dominated by an old-boy network.
“We know that bias flourishes when people are making quick decisions, when they act out of fear and when they don’t know people, and bias not necessarily in a negative way, just you fall back on what is comfortable to you,” said Chanow. “And if women aren’t the people that the partners (who are) making the decisions are the most comfortable with and if they don’t know as much the value that the women are bringing to the organization, it may lead to a disproportional impact on women.”
The solution? Chanow encourages women to not shy from engaging in self-promotion in their firms.
“Ensuring that their contributions are captured and valued is critically important right now,” she said.

Female-dominated areas less hard-hit
By contrast, women are unlikely to be unemployed as a result of their practice areas. Law firm consultant Pete Peterson of Maxfield Peterson in Montrose, Colo., said financially-driven practice areas, such as corporate and real estate transactions, have been hit hardest. However, female-dominated fields, including labor and employment as well as family law, are maintaining a steady book of business.
Observers are split on how part-time and contract employees are being affected by the recession.
Seventy-five percent of part-time attorneys are women, according to the latest data from the National Association of Law Placement.
“There are dangers that firms are only looking at hours as the only indication for the write-offs,” said Chanow.
Peterson, however, said most of the layoffs he has seen have been of full-time employees.
The large number of females who are contract attorneys are also vulnerable because firms tend to cut outside labor costs first, said Thayer.
“They will put the work into employees before they farm it out to contract attorneys,” she said.

Depends on the firm
While female lawyers may be at a higher risk for being laid off due to their positions and work hours, experts said it ultimately depends on their firm.
“We have definitely heard stories suggesting that there are problems, but we have also heard wonderful stories of firms that are not going to, in a time of difficulty, forget that big picture of what they are trying to achieve,” said Chanow.
In the midst of an economic downturn and firm firings, Chanow said she is optimistic about women’s place in the legal field.
“We are living in a time of great opportunity for women lawyers,” she said. “While there are challenges and dangers that we are facing the potential right now for advancement in these areas-I think we are living it.”

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

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