Hazlehurst's Blog » 2009

Freedom’s just another word…

31. August 2009

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For nothin’ left to lose. Yesterday afternoon, at 3:29 PM, the Wall Street Journal reported that Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Colorado Springs Gazette, would file for bankruptcy this week. How did I know the precise time that the WSJ reported the story? Because the Google alert, sent within microseconds of the WSJ [...]

Goodbye, Senator

26. August 2009

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June 18, 1960. I was a 19 year-old college kid who, through an unlikely series of events, found himself at the Colorado state democratic convention, held that year at Fort Lewis College in Durango. The keynote speaker: Sen. John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was accompanied by half-a-dozen aides, including his brother Ted, then 27. He struck [...]

My very own reservoir site – and it’s free!

20. August 2009

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Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte may have been born on a Wednesday – but it wasn’t yesterday. In a polite but devastating takedown of Mark Morley’s offer to sell Utilities a reservoir site near Pueblo for $36 million, and pass along $12 million of the sales price to the USOC, Forte said thanks-but no [...]

Bruce rings bell, media salivates

19. August 2009

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(Editor’s note: This posting has been revised and corrected. See below) At 10 a.m. on Monday, we, in common with other local media, got a phone call from the ol’ taxcutter himself, Doug Bruce. He invited us to attend a press conference in an hour’s time, to be held on the steps of city hall. [...]

Streeter a no-show

12. August 2009

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“Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish he’d go away …” I thought of that little poem, originally written by Hughes Means during 1899, as I sat through yesterday’s City Council meeting. For those in attendance, the theory of relativity was amply demonstrated. [...]

Commission votes, mayor gloats

11. August 2009

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As predicted by many, the two-member Independent Ethics Commission cleared Mayor Lionel Rivera of any violation of the city Code of Ethics, as alleged in the complaint filed by Ron Johnson. The report is carefully crafted, fair, judicious and as complete and accurate as it could be, given the limited scope of the inquiry. As [...]

USOC a done deal?

7. August 2009

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Last night’s “town hall” meeting, wherein the hapless public was invited to come to City Hall at 7 p.m. and comment about the U.S. Olympic Committee deal, had all the elements of Kabuki theater. Councilmembers (excluding Messrs. Glenn and Heimlicher) drifted slowly to the dais and, stone faced, took their seats. The mayor opened the meeting [...]

Mason, Berlin not interviewed by ethics commission

6. August 2009

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As of early this morning, the Independent Ethics Commission had yet to release the results of their investigation into alleged conflicts of interest involving Mayor Lionel Rivera. We don’t know who the ethics commission interviewed during their investigation, or whether they made use of their notably weak powers of subpoena. As we pointed out when [...]

The Dougster’s baaaaack!

5. August 2009

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Just when you might have thought that Douglas Bruce had retreated quietly from politics, perhaps happily ensconced in some palatial, Mandarin era residence along the Bund in Shanghai, he’s baaaaack!!! Here’s the scoop, such as it is, on the latest Bruce/city kerfuffle. The ol’ tax cutter took out petitions during May of this year, intent [...]

Archive | August, 2009