Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE - COLORADOANA passing grade CSU volleyball team slips past Wyoming in five games In Sports / Page D1 , Yt CkII tQ ,I 0J I Jewish pyltl'lr iak a holy c-tirink� on In Life / Page B10 FORT C6LLINS A different v International Day bri a new world to Benr elementary studen In Local / Page E Today's weather ti Sunny and mild, breezy it SAM afternoon October 1, 2005 �High today: 86 Low tonight: 48 yyww.COlOradclan.COrT1 Details, Page Al2 A Gannett NewspaperNew school wants to move in Charter to file application with state for spot in southeast Fort Collins :By COURTNEY`LINGLE eighth grade, with four 'CourtneyLingle@coloradoan.com specialized study tracks A new public charter emphasizing visual arts, school dedicated to educa- creative writing, music and :lion and the arts is seeking drama. tL home in southeast Fort The school's founders Collins. said they intend to file their The Northern Colorado formal application with the 1-1 milltt similar to the popular Core W tnkler-esel. "Receiving area, said the program will Knowledge curriculum of- an excellent academic edu- not be a "fine arts" school fered in other local charter cation is so important, and reserved only for gifted end Poudre School District releasing those artistic and talented children, and 'schools, supplemented by juices or talents from with- the school will not use any a strong focus on develop- in only contributes more to kind of screening process. ing students' abilities in their academic learning." The school anticipates featured art areas. Winkler-Riesel, a Fort having a uniform dress "Child n who have Collins resident who has code a strict discipline Academy of Arts and Knowledge, or NCAAK, Colorado Charter Sc oo Institute on Monday, with t re grades K-5 in August 2006. artistic talent need to start co-founded two K-8 char- code and strong parental would serve students in hopes of being approved in The new school would nurturing that at an early ter schools and one charter kindergarten through time to open to students in teach a core curriculum age," said founder Annette high school in the Denver See SCHOOL/Page A2 By SARA REED I Sara Reed@coloradoan.com A new computer system that links every law enforcement agency in Larimer County, with the exception of Loveland police, has been worth the $57Tmillion price tag, officials said one year after the system launched. The Tiburon system allows all agen cies on the system to access records fr6m other, agencies as well as the Larimer County Detention Center. It also allows dispatchers to view ellsan'd locations of officers from oth- erragerrcies.The cost of -the system -was -- shared, with Fort Collins police con- trib4ting $2 million, Larimer County, $1 million, and the # Latimer Emergency Telephone Authority s # picking up the re- maining $700,000. The cost was broken down based on how much each agency us- es the system. Sharing informa- VAIL tion among law en- forcement, officials said, makes it easier to track crime pat- terns and, in some cases, suspect move- ment. "Investigators really like it because they no longer have to track through several systems," said Larry Vail, Fort Collins police project manager for the combined region information systems project. The ability to track people or crime patterns is extremely valuable, said sheriffs Lt. Steve Bebell. "People who commit crimes respect no boundaries," he said. "People cross jurisdictional boundaries all the time." The ability to track crimes outside See COMPUTER/Page A2 A dispatcher uses the Tiburon system Friday while working at the f every law enforcement agency in the county. Cosh breakdown for system ■ $3.7 million: Tiburon's total cost ■ $602,640: Computer -aided dis- patch system ■ $840,667: Records management system ■ $73,015: Civil process system ■ $177,452: Jail management system ■ $320,286: Special software ■ $668,415: Interfaces and integration ■ $481,572: Technological and pro- fessional consultants ■ $190,759: Third -party software ■ $346,335: Miscellaneous (included documentation books, crime analysis server, network equipment, training and lab rental) its weight Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan dins police building. The new system links nearly American space tourist blasts off in Russian rocket Buckle up Safety belt use in the reached its highest rf mark this year — 82 p Percentage of pee use safety belts in 1994 . AM 2000 2005 By vehicle type, 2( Cars Vans, SUVs By road type, 200E Expressways Surf SOURCE: Department of Tran Seat t use hi higher point, By KEN THOMAS The Associated Press WASHINGTO More Americans are strapping on belts when they the car. Belt use has r record 82 percent an increase of 2 pa points from last Transportation ment said Friday.' it goes to growin ness of safety be and a possible tick lice officer pulls over. "The fact th, belts save lives is s click with the I people," said Tr. tion Secretary Nc Mineta. See SEAT BELT Repor testifie in CIA leak c� By RICHARD B. SC Los Angeles Times WASHINGTOT ter serving neat months in jail fot to disclose her c tions with a cot source, New York Times re- porter Ju- dith Miller broke her A2, The Coloradoan, Saturday, October 1, 2005, www.coloradoan.com School Continued from Page Al support and involvement, ac- cording to promotional materi- als. Students in kindergarten and first grade would be exposed to each of the four art areas, with students in second grade and up specializing in one specific area of visual arts, creative writing, music or drama. Students would present their work to parents and the public every six weeks to demonstrate what they have learned. NCAAK would hold classes 200 days of the year — approx- imately five weeks longer than regular public schools — with an additional hour of class time added to each school day. By the time students graduate, they will have accumulated close to an extra 21/2 years of K- 12 education. "The benefit is that 21/2 years doesn't come all at one time," j Winkler-Riesel said. "It comes in increments, and therefore, every year they get a little more ahead so that they are pre- pared. Whether they go on to college or out into the world of business, they have that much more of a head start" Terry Gogerty, director of business development at Mo- saica Education, an educational service provider that is helping j Winkler-Riesel launch the new school, said if the charter is ap- proved, NCAAK likely would be housed in southeast Fort Collins. The school's founders are considering three possible sites, with a favorite located at East Harmony Road and Mc - Murry Avenue. Start-up funds for the new school would come from a combination of federal and pri- vate grants as well as per -pupil funding from the state. Like all charters, NCAAK Reporter Continued from Page Al less than a day removed from a prison cell where she had been held for 85 days. She was held in contempt of court for refusing to cooperate in the investigation into whether White House fig- ures illegally leaked the name of a CIA operative to journalists in July 2003. While she declined to detail the substance of her testimony, sources said the focus was con- versations she had with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Ch- eney, days before the name of would be a tuition -free public school that operates through a contract with the state or with Poudre School District. Because PSD's charter appli- cation of Aug.15 has passed, the school's founders are filing their application with the Col- orado Charter School Institute, which approves and oversees charters at the state level. Still, Winkler-Riesel said her hope is for NCAAK to become a dis- trict -affiliated charter. "We want to be a part of the Poudre district and be an asset to them," she said, adding that her motivation behind starting the charter was to develop something reflective of the community. "We have such a huge arts community between Loveland and Fort Collins." Poudre School District board president Ross Cunniff said he is aware of the founders' desire to launch the new school in partnership with the district. "We need to talk about that as a board and see if board members have an interest," Cunniff said. "In order to (ac- cept their application), we would have to waive policy on the Aug.15 deadline." Cunniff said he doesn't believe PSD has any schools or pro- grams that correspond directly to the proposed arts school. The board president said the fact that charter school founders can go directly to the Colorado Charter School Institute with their idea for a school bothers him because it prevents the dis- trict from being made aware of a need it could potentially address from within the district. Gogerty said NCAAK al- ready has more than 100 fami- lies expressing some interest. The school is accepting ap- plications for enrollment on its Web site at www.NCAAKorg. CIA operative Valerie Plame ap- peared in a newspaper column. The sources spoke on the condi- tion of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury pro- ceedings. Miller, who was jailed July 6 for refusing to discuss her con- versations with Libby, said she agreed to testify after her source personally telephoned her jail cell in Virginia last week, urging her to appear and releasing her from a claim of confidentiality. She did not identify Libby as her source, but he was named by others close to the case. "I said to the court before I 1k#Lein _ Margo Dobbins, Branch Manager 970-663-9808 or866-663-9809 Cell: 970-222-8099 Fax: 970-663-9810 m.dobbins@kleinet.com "The Pulse is a great place to ■�'7�e teach. The members are so dedicated, and the extra -large group fitness rooms allow intensity build. awesome to e Drake and Shields Sharing the high energy and music helps reaching fitness 490-1300 goals easy and fun." coi 4 iputer Continued from Page Al jurisdictions enables an agency to be proactive if it notices a trend approaching its jurisdic- tion, said CSU Cpl. Dave Hur- ley, communications supervisor and information technology co- ordinator. "We can develop leads be- forehand," Hurley said. "It gives us an opportunity to put some type of crime analysis in play." The system also has cut down on the amount of time staff spends trying to access informa- tion from other agencies. Before Tiburon launched, an officer would have to call every other agency in the county to see if it had information on a suspect; now the officer can pull that in - Seat belt Continued from Page Al A state -by -state list will be re- leased later in the year, officials said. While more vehicles are be- coming equipped with technolo- gy to help reduce rollovers and avoid collisions, safety advo- cates still view the seat belt as the most effective tool in pre- venting traffic deaths. Seat belts have been standard equipment in new cars since the mid-1960s but have been utilized in wider numbers during the past decade. About 58 percent of Americans buckled up in 1994, and 71 percent strapped them- selves in by 2000. With a use rate of 82 percent, Mineta said seat belts annually prevent 15,700 fatalities, 350,000 serious injuries and $67 billion in economic costs linked to deaths and injuries. The 2-point increase saved an estimated 540 lives, he said. was jailed that I did not believe I was above the law, and that I would have to go to jail because of my principles," Miller said in a news conference on the court- house steps. "But once I satisfied those principles, I was prepared to testify." She briefly answered ques- tions from reporters and then retreated into a waiting limou- sine, saying she was looking for- ward to a bh4me-cooked meal by her husband and huging her dog. Thus ended a media drama that had provoked claims of overreaching by the prosecutor in the case and renewed interest in Congress in enacting legisla- tion that affords journalists greater protection against dis- closing sources who provide formation up through Tiburon. The system hasn't even been fully implemented, officials said, and it could be 12 to 18 more months before it is fully running. Fort Collins police, which al- so dispatches for Poudre Fire Authority, is testing a new pro- gram that tracks fire engines and ambulances using Global Positioning System technology, Vail said. This, once implemented, will allow dispatchers to dispatch the closest engine or ambu- lance, which isn't always neces- sarily at the nearest fire station, Vail said; and will help to re- duce response time. The Sheriff's Office and CSU police want to integrate laptop On the Internet National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: www.nhtsa.dot.gov A warning light and tone in- structs motorists to wear their seat belts in all new vehicles, and some automakers — such as Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Mo- tor Corp. — have developed sys- tems to remind motorists to buckle up if they remain unbelt- ed while in transit. Experts attribute the progress to the use of high -profile media campaigns such as "Click It or Ticket," more enforcement by police officers and the adoption of primary seat belt laws, which let police stop motorists who fail to use seat belts. In West Virginia, highway of- ficials placed a big emphasis on its "Click It or Ticket" campaign in May, airing commercials on confidential information about official misconduct. The special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, had pressed for jail time, saying that Miller's testimony was es- sential to wrapping up an inves- tigation that has dragged on for two years. But the import of her testimony for that investigation is far from clear. Justice Department rules al- low prosecutors to seek the tes- timony of journalists both for purposes of exonerating as well as implicating potential defen- dants, and Fitzgerald has not provided any clues about his in- tentions. The grand jury investi- gating the case is set to expire Oct. 28, although its term could be extended. Fitzgerald, a terrorism expert who is also the U.S. Attorney in , 4"X Huge Clearance! S•r�®& BUY ONE PAIR, . GET ANOTHER PAIR* ` FOR ONLY Of Equal or Lesser Value. v In Stock Footwear Only, As Marked - 4. ZO%-SO% OFF • fi... 0.UOPni N1 Offer expires 10/16/05 Original Price. NORTH FRONT RANGE PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE Mmoro�rtw ruwNrta owwiunoN The North Front Range Transportation & Air Quality Planning Council will hold a Public Hearing on the latest Planning Assumptions used for modeling and development of the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan for the North Front Range MPO. The Public Hearing will be held at the November MPO Planning Council meeting scheduled for Thursday, November 3, 2005, at the Loveland Council Chambers, 500 East Third, Loveland, at 6 p.m. The public is welcome. These Planning Assumptions were used in the development of the 2030 Regional Transoortation Plan and have not heen ravicad sinrc Itc arinntinn in nrtnhor computers into their patrol cars, which would allow officers and deputies to access Tiburon, en- abling them to write reports and access databases from their ve- hicles. CSU expects to have laptops in two vehicles by mid -October, Hurley said, as part of a pilot program. There is no time frame for the Sheriffs Office, Bebell said, but he hopes it can be done within the next year or so. The Fort Collins police de- partment, which has had lap- tops in its patrol cars since 1998, trained its patrol officers on Tiburon in April, Vail said. Since then, about half of all reports filed by officers have been through Tiburon, said records supervisor Susan MTV, during NASCAR events and ESPN's "SportsCenter." It apparently worked — the state says its use rate hit nearly 85 per- cent this year, a vast improve- ment over 2001, when only about half the motorists wore seat belts. "You could barely turn the television on without seeing (a commercial)," said Bob Tipton, director of West Virginia's high- way safety office. Michigan expanded its use of safety belt enforcement zones, in which motorists were notified by road signs that police were look- ing for unbuckled travelers. The state's belt use grew from 905 percent in 2004 to 92.9 percent this year, said Anne Readett, a spokeswoman for Michigan's of- fice of highway safety planning. Others give credit to primary seat belt laws, which have been passed in 22 states. A law went into effect in Florida in July ap- plying to drivers and occupants Chicago, declined comment as he left the courthouse Friday. Questions surround the cir- cumstances of Miller's release, with lawyers on both sides trad- ing jabs about their conduct of the case. Questions arose over whether her lawyers had acted aggressively enough early in the case to strike a deal with Libby to ­wimhis support for her testimony. here were also questions >ther Libby had done every- fAing he could to encourage Miller to testify and whether he abided by a mandate from Pres- ident Bush to fully cooperate in the investigation. Neiman, without creatir more work for the offic( fore Tiburon, officers di their reports to tape an( records employees woulc scribe the reports, which take several weeks, N said. Now, records filed tl Tiburon are available in 1 Talks are under way Loveland joining the T' system, but it is not l whether that will happei and Bebell said. The Loveland police c ment wasn't ready to purc new system when Ti rolled out in Larimer C but the system was built low it to integrate should t partment decide to join said. younger than 18. Most states have secondary which allow police to issue belt violation only if a dr stopped for another infrac New Hampshire is tht state that has no adult safe law. "We need more states act primary enforcement belt use laws and continue ernment support for the `C or Ticket' mobilizations,' Bob Lange, General N Corp.'s top safety official. The National Highway Safety Administration esti that states with primary be: averaged use rates of 85 pe compared with 75 perct states with secondary laws The Bush administratic tried to entice more sta adopt primary belt laws, of grant money for highwa} struction and safety en ment programs to state: pass the measures. A lawyer for Libby, J Tate, said in an interview lished Thursday in the York Times that he had one of Miller's lawyers, Abrams, a waiver freein journalist to testify befor grand jury more than a yea Abrams countered Frida the sort of waiver that Tat propounding was not suffi ly personal to Miller to sat need that the journalist h know that the source wa cere about the waiver. Al said that Miller had declir .call the source directly foi a waiver.