RIGHTS FOR HUMAN EGGS COULD BE A BALLOT QUESTION IN COLORADO

Court clears way for egg rights showdown
By P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press WriterTue Nov 13, 9:19 PM ET
The Colorado Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for an anti-abortion group to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg as a person.
The court approved the language of the proposal, rejecting a challenge from abortion-rights supporters who argued it was misleading and dealt with more than one subject in violation of the state constitution.
If approved by voters, the measure would give fertilized eggs the state constitutional protections of inalienable rights, justice and due process.
“Proponents of this initiative have publicly stated that the goal is to make all abortion illegal — but nothing in the language of the initiative or its title even mentions abortion,” Kathryn Wittneben of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado said in a statement. “If that’s not misleading, I don’t know what is.”
Wittneben and others said the measure would have would hamper in-vitro fertilization and stem cell research and would effectively ban birth control.
Proponents of the measure disagree.
“It doesn’t outlaw abortion, it doesn’t regulate birth control,” said Kristi Burton, 20, of Colorado for Equal Rights. “It’s just a constitutional principle. We’re laying a foundation that every life deserves protection.
Burton said the initiative would simply define a human.
“It’s very clearly a single subject,” Burton said. “If it’s a human being, it’s a person, and hey, they deserve equal rights under our law.”
Colorado for Equal Rights must collect 76,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Supporters have six months to gather the necessary signatures — a deadline that began with the collection of the first signatures Tuesday, said Rich Coolidge, a spokesman for the secretary of state.
Anti-abortion activists said similar voter-led initiatives or legislative efforts are under way in five other states, including Montana, Georgia, Oregon, Michigan and South Carolina.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071114/ap_on_re_us/abortion_measure_1

Colorado school sends home obesity notices to parents who have kids that are lard-asses

School sends home obesity notices with students, parent upset
written by: Nelson Garcia , Reporter
posted by: Dan Boniface , Web Producer
created: 10/11/2007 6:15:57 PM
Last updated: 10/11/2007 6:55:10 PM
DENVER – In an effort to combat the problem of childhood obesity, the Denver Public School District is sending home student health reports to keep parents informed. However, one parent says it should not have been sent home in her daughter’s backpack because she read it.
“The part that upset her the most as she started reading it, there it stated that she was overweight and she started to cry saying, ‘Mom, that school tells me I’m fat.’ So, it was very heart wrenching,” said Flaurette Martinez. Her daughter Isabel was sent home from the Centennial K-8 School on Monday with the health notice. It listed her height, weight and body mass index – a measure of body fat. Underneath the listing it had a marking next to the status “overweight.” “My daughter is big boned,” said Martinez. Isabel’s mother does not have a problem with what the schools are trying to do. She says that type of sensitive information should be mailed directly home to parents, because kids are prone to reading letters sent home by the schools. “If she would have dropped this letter, a student may have found it and may have exposed it to other students,” said Martinez. “Anything specific to the child should be mailed. It should not be given to the child.” However, DPS Spokesperson Alex Sanchez says schools do that all the time. Report cards, disciplinary notices and letters from the principal are commonly sent home with students. Sanchez says it is cheaper for the district to send these things home with students instead of by mail. Martinez says that decision is causing her daughter emotional distress. “Most of the information that we get sent to us through the kids is basically newsletters, but nothing this sensitive. This is a sensitive issue for everybody,” she said. “It’s real upsetting for me to see her worried so much about her weight issue when it’s not really that big of a deal. She’s not that overweight.” DPS issued this statement Thursday afternoon: “In an effort to help ensure our students’ health, Denver Public Schools provides parents with their child’s hearing, vision, and body mass index (BMI) results in a sealed envelope that is sent home with the students. DPS feels compelled to inform parents about these very important health screening results and provide information about making healthier choices. The health of our students is very important to us and we wish to be part of the solution, given the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic.” 9NEWS asked Martinez repeatedly if sharing Isabel’s identity and her health information will make things worse. Martinez wanted people to see her picture so they would know Isabel is not that big. She also says the damage was already done when she read the notice and she’s talked to Isabel about addressing this issue of sending the notices home with students. Martinez says her daughter is OK with this information being released.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=78903

Halloween party dumped at school in Broomfield, Colorado in order not to offend

Halloween party dumped at school in Broomfield
By Kathryn Richert, The Daily Camera October 3, 2007
BROOMFIELD – There won’t be little ghosts and goblins at Kohl Elementary School this Halloween.
In a newsletter sent home to parents, Principal Cindy Kaier wrote that the traditional Halloween party celebrated in classrooms each year will be replaced by a fall party on Friday.
And because the party is focused on fall, not Halloween, children can’t wear costumes.
Parents expressed frustration that they weren’t included in the decision.
Brook Kimber said it’s hard to explain a random Oct. 5 party to a child.
The decision came after a discussion that culminated in an “emotional” meeting with teachers that focused on school holiday parties and how Kohl could continue to celebrate without leaving out anyone.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5713121,00.html

Protesters kept away from ’secret’ North American Union trade meeting

Protesters kept away from ’secret’ trade meeting

Mexican official urged swift movement toward ‘North American Union’
Posted: September 25, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
DENVER – Protesters were kept outside for the third and final day of the Great Plains International Conference – a Denver event on intercontinental trade corridors in which a Mexican official urged swift movement toward a “North American Union.”
Gene Baldock, coordinator of the protest group, told WND, “We just want people to have both sides of the story, and at these secret meetings people aren’t getting both sides.”
Baldock also pointed out the meetings were funded, in part, with taxpayer money.
The conference was sponsored by Texas, Colorado and other member states and communities.
Scott Flukinger, spokesman for the conference, said, “Everyone is welcome here, they just need to pay the registration fees like everyone else.”
“I understand the concerns,” he said, “but once people are informed about what is really happening then those concerns are often minimized.”
Baldock argued “the decisions and planning that occur in these meetings will have an impact on the American economy and will have an effect on everyone.”
He said the protesters tried to enter the meeting each of the three days and were turned away: “We were told it is a private meeting.”
As WND reported, on the first day of the event, which ended Friday, the mayor of Acuna, Mexico, called for the swift formation of a North American Union.
At the conference, David Bradley, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, urged businesses to become “more engaged in border issues.”
“With the American’s decision not to open the southern border, this has allowed standardization to go by the wayside, and instead leaves politicians alone in rooms to try and standardize,” he said.
He contended the result of the controversial trilateral agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico – the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America are “underwhelming and those efforts need a kick start if North American is going to compete with other regions.”
“If the goal is to make the North American trading block a vibrant one that can take on the EU and China, we need to get rid of roadblocks at the borders,” Bradley said. “The biggest challenge is complacency.”
Bradley joked with the audience after sharing news the Canadian dollar was on par with the U.S. dollar for the first time in 30 years.
“Someday, the way things are going, American baseball players will want to be paid in Canadian dollars,” he said.
Another speaker at the trade conference, Ronald Corvais, president of the Americas division for Lockheed Martin praised the SPP.
“The SPP is good, and we need to insure that the SPP remains dynamic and effective,” he said. “The North American private sector is committed to shaping a competitive North America.”
Corvais also told the audience North American integration is supported from the top.
“Today we are looking at three nations working to enhance security and trade, and the efforts are supported at the highest levels of business and government,” he said.
He denied, however, that any secret deals were being made.
Meanwhile, Texas Transportation Commission member Fred Underwood told conferees it’s “time to establish the financial plan so we know exactly what we’re aiming for.”
Our agency will devote the resources to getting this done in partnership with the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition,” he said.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57811

300 at Colorado State University urge firing of editor over anti-Bush profanity "FUCK BUSH"

300 at CSU urge firing of editor over anti-Bush profanity
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain NewsOriginally published 06:44 a.m., September 25, 2007Updated 06:44 a.m., September 25, 2007
FORT COLLINS — The student newspaper that stirred up a hornet’s nest when it dropped the F-bomb last week drew more fire Monday.
It also sparked thoughtful debate.
College Republicans at Colorado State University collected more than 300 signatures calling on CSU’s Board of Student Communications to fire Editor in Chief David McSwane.
“It was very unprofessional,” College Republicans chairwoman Chelsey Penoyer said at a tent her group had set up next to the Lory Student Center.
“The nation is looking at us as a bunch of uneducated children. It reflects horribly on CSU.”
But senior journalism major Rachael Martin defended the paper. “I agree that he didn’t need to use the f-word,” said Martin, who described herself as a Republican.
“But look at what it’s done. It’s had college students all around the nation talking about freedom of speech for the first time. By no means should he be fired.”
What got it all started
On Friday, The Rocky Mountain Collegian ran a four-word editorial that read: “Taser this . . . F— Bush.” National radio talk shows, CNN and MSNBC have since buzzed with debate about free-speech rights and the bounds of propriety.
The profane editorial was a response to last week’s Tasering of a University of Florida student who disrupted a forum with Sen. John Kerry.
At the center of the firestorm is McSwane.
Asked by CNN if the editorial could be characterized as vulgar or sophomoric, McSwane said he “wouldn’t entirely disagree.”
“We wanted people to understand that free speech is something we should talk about,” he told CNN. “We felt that this campus, for one reason or another, has been really apathetic. Too quiet. We felt that the best way to spark that dialogue was to exercise it ourselves.”
McSwane will get a chance to defend himself again Wednesday evening before CSU’s Board of Student Communications.
His staff wasn’t entirely supportive Monday. Thomas Andrews, a senior music performance major, said he was laid off from The Collegian on Monday because the newspaper had lost about $30,000 of advertising revenues from businesses that didn’t like the editorial.
“I find it embarrassing that the paper says it’s the student voice of Colorado State University,” said Andrews, who is a blogger for the paper and who said he and all other ‘non-essential’ employees were laid off.
“That they have to resort to bumper-sticker trash for an editorial piece is really disgusting.”
Most of those offended by the profanity said it wasn’t so much a matter of free speech as a matter of the newspaper showing poor judgment and immaturity.
“The word is disrespectful and should never be used with the president’s name,” said Cody Bart-lett, a junior agriculture business major.
‘Uncivilized’
“I’m not going to say I’ve never used that word,” senior history major Greg Wilson said. “But I try to limit its use. It’s uncivilized.”
Holly Loucks, a sophomore Republican, said, “The Collegian has been so biased. Endorsing same-sex marriage, legalization of marijuana – it’s ridiculous.”
“I’ve tried to understand where they’re coming from, but I just don’t get it. It’s like, ‘Hello? Are you dead in there?’ “
Students who supported the newspaper’s right to use the word said the vulgarity can be forgiven.
Graduate biochemistry student Kristopher Hite noted that in 2004 Vice President Dick Cheney aimed the F-word at U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on the Senate floor.
“Should the rest of us be held to any higher standard?
“This has promoted more discussion than any other editorial,” said Hite, who sported a T-shirt with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt about the importance of being able to criticize the president.
“If they had used an F and some asterisks, it wouldn’t have promoted the same kind of discussion. You can’t always use kid gloves.”
Earlier attention
McSwane had made national news before, Hite noted. As a senior at Arvada High School, McSwane posed as a pot-smoking dropout trying to enlist in the Army for an investigative story on unethical recruitment practices. He taped conversations with a recruiter who encouraged him to manufacture a high school diploma and buy a detox kit to lick his drug habit
“My best friend is about to go to Iraq, and he told me a recruiter tried the same thing with him,” Hite said.
“Sometimes it takes a person like McSwane to put important issues right in people’s faces, rather than pretending everything is fine.”
In an editorial Monday, the Collegian said it didn’t disagree that that the Friday editorial was “immature, unnecessary and offensive.”
But it then said that editorials had been bashing Bush all year, but that no one seemed to notice until the profanity appeared in large letters on Friday. “It’s interesting and scary that the use of the F-word garners more attention than an intelligent, well-researched editorial.”
The editorial said the risky path was taken to tell readers that college students “should wake up and start asking questions, demanding answers and challenging norms.”

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/sep/25/300-csu-urge-firing-editor-over-anti-bush-profanit/

Colorado highway checkpoint asks drivers for blood, saliva

Highway checkpoint asks drivers for blood, saliva

Travelers outraged by private research group’s request
Posted: September 20, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Motorists in Colorado are expressing outrage over a weekend stunt in Gilpin County, about an hour’s drive west of Denver, where highway checkpoints were set up so a private organization could ask for samples of blood and saliva.
“I don’t think they’re authorized to do what they’re doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol,” Roberto Sequeira, 51, told reporters for the Denver Post.
He said he and his wife were “detained” for about 15 minutes even after they protested they wanted to get home because of a sleepy child in their car.
Sheriff’s officials were apologizing after they helped set up and run five separate checkpoints over the weekend.
They said workers for the Institute for Research and Evaluation were overly persistent in their demands of innocent travelers.
“It was like a telemarketer that you couldn’t hang up on,” Undersheriff John Bayne told the newspaper.
Sgt. Bob Enney said the deputies’ assistance to the organization involved stopping motorists at the sites along Colorado Highway 119 for “surveys” on any drug or alcohol use. Surveyors also requested that motorists submit to breath, blood and saliva tests.
Enney said several hundred motorists were tested, and some later complained.
Sequeira said he repeatedly asked if the questioners were law enforcement officials and said he was not interested in participating in the study, but still was not given clearance to leave.
He told the newspaper that he and his family were approached by two researchers, and even after his repeated refusals, officials offered his wife, who was driving, $100 to get the couple to take part in a breath test.
“I think it’s very dangerous,” he told the newspaper. “Sometimes at checkpoints, unfortunate things happen.”
PIRE spokeswoman Michelle Blackston told WND the deputies “did not stop” any drivers. “It was a voluntary survey. … Nobody approached them. There were signs saying that a survey was taking place. Nobody waved them down.”
She said she was unaware whether the private organization reimbursed the county for the expense of having the deputies at the traffic sites. The organization’s own researchers get the results of the work, she said.
Also to the newspaper, PIRE officials defended their actions. They said such statistics are important to gauge the impact of laws and enforcement policy. Their questions began over the summer and will continue at other locations around the nation through November, they said.
“We’ve been literally surveying thousands of people,” John Lacey, of the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center, said. It’s through that organization PIRE is doing its research.
He said researchers push a few of those who initially refuse to participate to reconsider – even offering incentives.
“If we don’t do that, the criticism will come out that we had so many who were refusers,” Lacey told the newspaper.
Bayne said a similar study was done in the county several years ago, with no complaints, but he admitted last weekend’s effort was aggressive.
“The people were too persistent,” he told the Post. “Some people didn’t feel it was voluntary.”
Officials with the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the fact that sheriff’s deputies were on the scene, and surveyors wore blue jumpsuits, could have confused drivers.
Sequeira said his family was directed by sheriff’s officials to pull over and he and his wife were greeted by “youthful, college” surveyors.
“We had a 10-year-old in the back who’s tired, we tell them thanks but no thanks, we have to get this child back home to bed,” he told the paper. But the workers persisted, telling them they would be provided help driving home if needed. Then they offered the $100.
“We say, ‘No thank you, we have to get our child home,’” he recalled. “At this point, both clones start chortling at us and ridiculing us.”
On a newspaper forum, the opinion was running fairly close to unison:
“The very act of pulling a motorist over subjects him/her and their vehicle (at very least) to a visual search. This means if the motorist was pulled over without suspicion of violating a law, than (sic) they have been subjected to an unlawful search…,” wrote Warren Gregory.
“For the record the proper response to ANY such incursion into privacy is to ask the question, Am I under Arrest? If the answer is no ask if you are free to go. If you are told no demand to be arrested or you will leave and then leave,” added Frank Vicek.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57733

Democrat Colorado Governor wants Planned Parenthood in state budget

Gov wants Planned Parenthood in state budget

But Christian alliance says constitution forbids it
Posted: September 7, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Gov. Bill Ritter
A Christian organization in Colorado is launching a campaign to “rally the troops” because Gov. Bill Ritter repeatedly has promised to restore state funding to Planned Parenthood, a move that could violate the state constitution’s ban on “direct” or “indirect” taxpayer funding for abortions.
Ritter made the promise on his 2006 campaign website, and in various speeches since, to have Colorado taxpayers pay for expenses for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, despite two votes by the people in 1984 and 1988 banning that support.
“We will restore the Planned Parenthood money that Gov. [Bill] Owens cut. Every woman in Colorado will have access to emergency contraception. And we will not turn women or their doctors into criminals,” he said.
Owens, a Republican, had eliminated funding for Planned Parenthood from the state budget because of the constitutional provision that bans taxpayer funding in Colorado for abortions, either through a “direct” route, or an “indirect” route, and a legal opinion that not even dividing Planned Parenthood into two separate corporations, one to provide abortions and another to pay other expenses, would satisfy the constitution’s requirements.
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“The reality is that Bill Ritter has never backed down from his promise to put money into Planned Parenthood,” Mark Hotaling, the director of the Christian Family Alliance, told WND.
He explained that the budget the state currently is operating on was established mostly by the former governor before he left office. Especially, he noted the state’s “family planning” money was committed to other organizations that are operating under contracts already in existence.
Ritter, when he made the statements about having taxpayers support Planned Parenthood’s operations financially, meant it, and he still means it, Hotaling said.
“The governor had to appease the radical left of his party, and made certain promises. One of them he made repeatedly was to restore money to Planned Parenthood,” Hotaling said.
“The reason he couldn’t to do last legislative session was the timing of grants and the lack of funds in the state family planning fund,” he said. “But there’s nothing to prohibit him from doing it in the next session, when more money can be put into the fund.”
He said the public needs to rise up and let the governor know of its opposition to taxpayer funding for the abortion industry.
A spokesman for Ritter’s office told WND that it’s a “misnomer” to call it funding for Planned Parenthood, because the state money actually would go to “family planning.”
There are a variety of organizations, from non-profits to county health clinics, that provide “family planning” information and are recipients of the state funding, he said.
The spokesman acknowledged that the previous governor essentially “disqualified” Planned Parenthood from getting state funding. “We are trying to ascertain exactly what policies were instituted under the former administration and what would be necessary to address those the way the governor has expressed a desire to do that.”
Hotaling said that’s enough.
“It we don’t have the pressure on now, we’ll be trying to get that money back later,” he said. The chances for that to happen, he told WND, are “along the lines of snowballs in Hades.”
“The way government happens, as soon as they dole the money out it’s not coming back,” he said. “We need to nip this thing in the bud right now. Our membership is relying on us to do the right thing and not wait around for the money to be doled out. If it gets paid out, it will be against the law, and it’s going to cost us twice as much to try and stop then.”
Joining in the Colorado Family Alliance campaign is state Sen. Scott Renfroe, who told WND that he’s “gravely concerned” about Ritter’s announced plans.
He said he’s asked the governor, “How are you going to do this, and uphold the constitution and the will of the people?”
“I guess time will tell if he does do something,” he said. Renfroe told WND that a campaign letter has been sent to constituents seeking support.
“I am saddened and appalled that Gov. Ritter assumes that part of our tax money already belongs to Colorado’s largest abortionist,” he wrote. “And with pro-abortion liberals in control of the State Legislature, our only hope is to turn to the good sense and actions of citizens … to help stop this injustice.”
When Ritter made his promises, Kate Horle, of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said she was “thrilled.”
“Gov. Ritter really recognizes that the best way to reduce abortion is by reducing the unintended pregnancy rate,” she said.
But national Christian ministries, such as the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, were worried.
“The voters of Colorado voted that no public funding would go to abortion,” said Carrie Gorden Earll, an analyst with the ministry. Funding Planned Parenthood would raise concerns. “We’re not sure if you can adequately separate their abortion business from their family planning business.”
An editorial in the Fort Collins Coloradoan noted the issue. Under the headline “Ritter trying to ’sneak in’ abortion view,” editorial writer Erik Rush concluded that more and more Americans are recognizing that abortion “is about the lucrative industry of killing babies in nauseatingly brutal and inhuman fashion…”
“Colorado Constitution Article 5, Section 50, was passed via ballot measure by the people of the State of Colorado to ensure that our tax dollars would never be used for the ‘direct or indirect’ support of abortion mills,” he wrote. “It recently came to my attention (and to that of Colorado pro-life organizations) that Gov. Bill Ritter, in an effort to pay back some of the far-left supporters who helped get him elected, intends to circumvent this law and ‘indirectly’ funnel Colorado taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
“It should be no surprise: ‘I will restore the funding to Planned Parenthood and other agencies,’ Ritter stated on his campaign website. How, one wonders — without doing it illegally? Depending on how familiar one is with the machinations of politics, this process can be likened to the laundering of money by organized crime. When dollars change hands enough times and no one is paying attention to the paper trail, when the government cuts a check, all looks to be above board,” Rush wrote.
One writer, “wiseone,” on a forum following Rush’s column was brutal in his assessment of the situation.
“Its (sic) good to increase funding for PP. Abortions are usually done simply for convenience, (remember the abortionists told everyone it was to help those who were raped, incest, etc…actually only about 2% are for that reason) and the vast majority are no doubt Democrats, since this was their agenda. The net result is their killing a vast number of future Democrats. I think this is a good thing for conservatives.”
But a “progressive” Media Matters organization immediately jumped to the defense of Ritter and Planned Parenthood.
“Ritter in his January 11 State of the State address announced his intention to fulfill a campaign promise to restore state funding for ‘pregnancy prevention and family planning programs.’ Consistent with the Colorado Constitution, Ritter has stated his plan would not fund abortions, as Colorado Media Matters has noted,” the critique said.
The criticism supported the argument that providing funding to Planned Parenthood for “family planning” does not, in fact, support Planned Parenthood’s abortion business.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57508