'Rest of story' suffers with Rocky gone

Just in the first week since the Rocky shut down, think about the state and local stories that were covered less robustly in the absence of a competing metro daily. Three for starters would be: ** Senate Dems seek to bust the 6% constitutional spending limit.

** Senate Dems endorse college subsidies for illegal aliens.

** CU students welcome plagiarist Ward Churchill and terrorist Bill Ayers.

Nothing against the solid reporting and commentary we've read in the Denver Post about these events, but they contain so many deeper levels and cross-currents that no single newspaper can possibly do them justice.

There's a reason people have two eyes and ears; a reason we say two heads are better than one; a reason Scripture says wisdom needs many counselors.

At 90, Paul Harvey, the founding father of opinion radio, was going to leave us one of these days. But how fitting that we lost him on the same weekend when Coloradans lost some of our access to "the rest of the story" with the Rocky's demise.

Prosecutor outrages the Left

Action from 2/22 Radio: For breaking an ID theft ring of over 1300 illegal aliens, DA Ken Buck finds himself sued by ACLU and pilloried by the New York Times. The Weld County prosecutor and his colleague, Sheriff John Cooke, must be doing something right. Here is a partial archive of web links for state and national news coverage of the story since it broke in November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/us/02greeley.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Ken%20Buck&st=cse

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081120/NEWS/811199888/1001&title=Allard%20talks%20%27Number%20Games%27%20on%20Senate%20floor

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081120/NEWS/811199886/1001&title=%27Number%20Games%27%20suspect%27s%20family%20confused%20by%20arrest

http://www.noco5.com/index.aspx

Greeley Tribune

11/16/08

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081116/NEWS/811159876/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Farmers%2C%20business%20owners%20concerned%20about%20finding%20workers

Editorial

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081116/TRIBEDIT/811159936/1029/NONE&parentprofile=1025&title=Immigration%20reform%20long%20overdue

11/15/08

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081115/NEWS/811159958/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Officials%20hope%20arrests%20lead%20to%20widespread%20change

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081115/NEWS/811159994/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ANALYSIS%3A%20Federal%20policies%20hinder%20immigration%20enforcement

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081115/NEWS/811159996/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=New%20immigration%20rift

11/14/08

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811139961/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Weld%20cracks%20down%20on%201%2C300%20ID%20theft%20cases

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149962/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20Arrested%20so%20far

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149949/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20Understanding%20the%20tax%20ID%20number

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149947/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20Examples%20of%20returns

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149974/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=ID%20THEFT%3A%20By%20the%20numbers

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811149942/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001&title=Woman%20finds%20herself%20a%20victim%20

Television

11/14/08

Channel 5

http://www.noco5.com/story.aspx?ID=471&Cat=2

Channel 9

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=103992

http://www.9news.com/news/investigative/article.aspx?storyid=103852&catid=207

Channel 7

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17992968/detail.html

Channel 4

http://cbs4denver.com/local/illegal.immigration.greeley.2.864743.html

Channel 2

http://www.kwgn.com/pages/news_local_landing/?Weld-Co-probe-focuses-on-illegal-tax-ref=1&blockID=134747&feedID=202

Longmont Times-Call

http://www.timescall.com/print.asp?ID=12168

Boulder Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/nov/16/1300-could-be-arrested-in-immigrants-tax-scam/

CNN LOU DOBBS

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/11/14/wian.bb.identity.theft.scheme.cnn

KKTV

http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/34456909.html

NFIB: The Voice of Small Business

http://nfibelection2008.illumen.org/newsArticle.jsf?documentId=2c9e4f691d9ef3f3011da0d0a75f01eb

Free Republic

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2133235/posts

Americans for Legal Immigration

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=138238

Colorado Springs Gazette

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CO_IMMIGRATION_TAXES_COOL-?SITE=COCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10989583

Rocky Mountain News

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/weld-county-investigating-1330-tax-files-for/

MSNBC Message Board

http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=193977&boardsparam=Page%3D3277

Minuteman HQ Forum

http://forum.minutemanhq.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18525&sid=c3696ee1597ff3a87e94ad5fedf4c425

AARP Bulletin Today

http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/co/articles/analysis_federal_policies_hinder_immigration_enforcement.html

United for A Sovereign American

http://immigrationbuzz.com/

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=103852&catid=188

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17979255/detail.html

http://cbs4denver.com/local/illegal.immigration.greeley.2.864743.html

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/weld-county-investigating-1330-tax-files-for/

Init. 100 shows potency of immigration issue

Illegal immigration, though it hasn't been in the news much lately, is always a major vote changer. This week voters in Denver -- you know, liberal Denver, that keeps sending Diana DeGette to Washington, and Pat Schroeder before that -- approved Initiative 100, which allows Denver police to seize cars driven by illegal immigrants. The margin was 54% - 46%; imagine what it jwould have been in the rest of the state (not including the People's Republic of Boulder). Below is a short analysis of some things that happened in the state legislature this past spring. How about sending this information to everyone you know? Or copying it and spreading it around? Or bringing the subject up at your next neighborhood barbecue? Or at work?

I believe that if the voters of Colorado knew these things, they would change the composition of the legislature, which last year had a large Democrat majority.

Who wants to do something about illegal immigration?

During the 2008 session of the Colorado Legislature, the following bills were introduced:

1. HCR 1013 would let citizens vote on a measure that would deny bail to persons if they are "in this country illegally" and evidence showed that they had "committed a serious felony or offense involving driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs."

2. SCR 4 would let citizens vote on a measure that would prohibit a court from accepting a plea bargain "from a defendant who is illegally present in the country if the result of the plea would be to permit the defendant to avoid removal from this country."

3. SB 74 would make it a crime for a person who is a citizen of another country to be in the state while in violation of federal immigration law.

4. SB 87 would double the number of officers in the Colorado State Patrol immigration enforcement unit from 24 to 48.

5. HB 1177 would require that a person who applies to register to vote must provide proof of citizenship and would direct county clerks not to register a person as a voter who completes a provisional ballot affidavit until the person provides proof of citizenship.

6. HB 1039 would require that the identification used for elections must contain a photograph of the eligible elector.

The sponsor of each of those six bills was a Republican. And when each of those bills was voted on in committee, every Republican voted FOR the bill, but every Democrat voted AGAINST the bill. And since the Democrats are the majority party, all those bills were killed.

Also during the 2008 session, when the legislators were discussing the 2009 budget bill (HB 1375), an amendment was offered by a Republican Representative that said that "no state funds shall be expended to provide higher education services . . . for persons who do not legally reside in the United States." All 25 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted in favor of that amendment. They were joined by six Democrats, but that was not enough to overcome the negative votes of 33 other Democrats, and the amendment was killed by a vote of 33-31.

On April 28, Democrat Governor Bill Ritter signed the state budget. In doing so, however, he vetoed three specific items that were in the budget, one of them being a provision that would deny state funds to communities that provide state services to illegal immigrants.

So here’s the original question again: Who wants to do something about illegal immigration?