Ernest Luning

Salazar could be considered in push to name Hispanic Supreme Court justice

While Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar’s prospects for a cabinet position dim — he says he’s not interested — Hispanic legal advocates says it’s time the U.S. Supreme Court included a Hispanic justice, and the Democratic congressman’s name makes the short list. “What more unifying appointment could there be than a Hispanic justice?” former Hispanic National Bar Association President Carlos Ortiz asks the Legal Times’ Tony Mauro. “It’s not just the right thing to do, but we deserve it. I can’t imagine that the next appointment will go to someone other than a Hispanic.”

Musgrave finally concedes election — in robocall to 200,000 Georgians

Soon-to-be-former U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, neither seen nor heard in the four weeks since her thumping loss to Democratic challenger Betsy Markey, finally made that phone call. Thing is, it wasn’t a concession call to Markey, and it wasn’t a call to thank her supporters. No, the lame duck Republican lent her voice to a robocall for the Georgia Senate run-off election on Tuesday, blaming “leftist special interests” for her defeat.

Critics question plans to deploy 20,000 troops in U.S. for domestic security

Civil libertarians and plain old libertarians are sounding the alarm over Pentagon plans to station 20,000 uniformed troops stateside to respond to domestic “catastrophes,”including nuclear, chemical or biological attacks, the Washington Post reports. The deployment, reported by The Colorado Independent’s Erin Rosa a month ago, includes a 4,700-troop combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., under the command of the U.S. Northern Command’s Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., in Colorado Springs.

Local TV stations ax well-paid anchors as viewers decline, revenue shrivels

Veteran Denver TV anchorman Ernie Bjorkman will get the chance to move into his next career as a veterinary assistant a few years sooner than planned after getting a pink slip a few weeks after signing a quarter-million-dollar contract in October. The New York Times wistfully reported Sunday the decline of big-money local anchors as the economy socks an industry already hit with big drops in viewers.

School safety proposal could run up against tight state budget

With an eye toward the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, a Grand Junction Republican plans to introduce legislation that would make Colorado the first state in the nation to require that every school — from preschools through universities — develop a plan and conduct training to prepare for disasters. “If you haven’t thought about it, we want you to think about it,” state Rep. Steve King told 9News, but the incoming speaker of the House, state Rep. Terrance Carroll, cautioned that a statewide lockdown procedure could be too expensive during a tight budget year.

White House press secretary doesn’t read blogs, but her dad talks to them

Colorado progeny Dana Perino — in the waning days of her latest stint as White House press secretary — admits it was tough speaking for President George W. Bush as his approval ratings tanked and his administration came under fire from both sides in a bruising presidential campaign. “I stopped reading blogs about me and [...]

Unit of delay, ‘Where’s Marilyn?’ family game spawned by Musgrave antics

This started out as the latest installment of the Marilyn Musgrave Concession Watch — we’re approaching 21 days since the Colorado Republican lost her 4th District congressional seat to Democrat Betsy Markey, and she still hasn’t conceded the race or even thanked her supporters — but at some point that just feels like piling on. So we’ll turn to Denver Post columnist Ed Quillen and the Greeley Tribune’s Mike Peters, who did some piling on of their own this weekend.

Bush pardons biggest turkey of all

With all the feather-ruffling this year about Thanksgiving turkey pardons — and Thanksgiving week presidential pardons — it’s easy to miss the true spirit of the holiday. The Onion News Network takes a giblet-eyed view of this year’s presidential turkey pardon

More than 300 voters purged by Coffman cast provisional ballots

Remember all those voters purged from the rolls by Secretary of State Mike Coffman, many in defiance of a federal court order? Coffman maintained he was well within the law, merely removing voters who had died, moved or filed duplicate registrations, but U.S. District Court Judge John Kane blasted the “obdurate” Coffman at an emergency hearing called four days before the election when reports surfaced that voters were still being purged after an earlier settlement ordered a halt.

Credit crisis bailout ‘largest outlay in American history,’ author says

It’s enough to make your head spin. Seems like every time we turn around, someone’s proposing another multi-hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out this, shore up that or rebuild something or other. Remember in the distant past of September, when the $700 billion rescue plan shocked everyone from Wall Street to Main Street? That was just the beginning.