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My Page: Howard Rothman

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Denver's Rocky Mountain News was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday morning, both for a special report called Final Salute that told in words and pictures about U.S. Marines who notify survivors after a death in Iraq. The awards went to Jim Sheeler, 37, for feature writing and Todd Heisler, 34, for feature photography. Their story was published last year on Veteran's Day and the awards increased the News’ total Pulitzer count to four — it previously won a pair of breaking news photography awards, in 2000 for its coverage of the Columbine massacre and in 2003 for coverage of the statewide wildfires — and pulled it into a tie with the Denver Post, which had captured three of the industry's top awards before also winning one in 2000 for its breaking news reporting of Columbine events. [more]

Crashing the Front Range

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, whose politically progressive Daily Kos website is consistently among the top draws in all the blogoshere, will be visiting the Front Range this week to talk about his new book "Crashing the Gate." Appearances Tuesday in Boulder and Wednesday in Denver are detailed here. More info on the book, which Zúniga co-wrote with MyDD.com founder Jerome Armstrong, can be found here. Described as "a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington, D.C. and a call to re-democratize politics in America (w)ritten by two of the most popular political bloggers in America," the book has gotten positive reviews from partisan and mainstream media alike and Zúniga's appearances around the country are often buzzed about for days after.

Update: Go here for Zúniga's own take on Tuesday in Boulder and here for pix and audio links from his appearance on ProgressRadio.

Tancredo Watch

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado's most quotable elected official, is starting to raise a few more eyebrows around the country. An undeclared but unabashed player in the initial stages of the '08 Republican presidential race, the suburban Denver Congressman on Wednesday was in a virtual tie with Rudy Giuliani for second-place behind only John McCain in an ongoing MSNBC Virtual Straw Poll measuring the early strength of a potential field of 12 contenders. He had double the votes of Mitt Romney and Chuck Hagel, and even bigger leads on the likes of George Allen, Sam Brownback and Bill Frist. As Colorado Pols points out today, Tancredo now says he may run for the U.S. Senate in 2008 as well. Combined with his ongoing Congressional re-election bid, this should give him plenty of opportunity to at least keep his pet projects (read: immigration reform) on the front burner — as he did in a television debate last week with Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois that erupted into a "screaming, epithet-laden fracas."

Now, that’s the way to raise eyebrows.

Update: Tancredo's national profile continues to rise, as evidenced by a lengthy piece in the new issue of Newsweek focused on the way "Tom Tancredo is pulling the immigration debate to the right—and away from Bush."

Politics Unusual

If there's one thing I’ve been telling people we need around here, it's more respectable-looking pseudo-media where politicians (among others) can dump a truckload of hooey that appears to most observers to be official, serious, unbiased, old-fashioned, editorially sanctioned news. That's why I was so happy to learn that YourHub.com, the Denver area’s earnest New Media offspring of stodgy Old Media titans Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, is enthusiastically filling that void. In south metro communities, at least, several politicians — including the House Minority Leader and a couple of wannabes who hope to be ensconced in the Colorado Capitol after next fall's election — have discovered that they can post whatever they like in "news stories" and "columns" which carry no costs like a traditional advertisement and have a degree of implied authenticity that elevates them beyond anything a paid ad could dream to achieve. We can only hope that more local politicians discover this avenue for unadorned propaganda before the campaign season becomes hopelessly mired in attempts to seriously debate the real issues.

Correction: Jim Nolan, director of communications for the Denver Newspaper Agency, writes: "YourHub is not, as your article impled, a joint product of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post. In fact, it is produced by the editorial staff of the News and distributed by the Denver Newspaper Agency through both The Post and the News. The News is soley responsible for YourHub's editorial content." [more]

Real Sports

Coming such a short time after the super hype of Super Bowl XL, the scene at Arapahoe High School's Sitting Eagle Gymnasium the other night was particularly striking. There were no prima donna athletes, no self-important sideline analysts, no unfunny commercial spots, no over-produced entertainment spectaculars. Instead, there were old wooden bleachers crammed with cheering fans. And two squads with real heart — the Arapahoe Special Olympics basketball team and the South Suburban Stars — battling it out on the court. Who won the game? Who cares? This match-up between teams of special-needs high-schoolers in the Unified Sports Program of Special Olympics Colorado showed what true athletics, and true athletic fans, are really all about. [more]

Blogs Breaking News

It was fascinating on Thursday to watch as the story of Bob Beauprez and his flight suit hit the web with a bang – and was totally ignored by traditional media outlets. Literally minutes after a group called Veterans for Progress emailed an incriminating photo accompanied by a press release that complained about the GOP candidate for Colorado governor's inappropriate choice of attire at a 2004 event, the pic appeared on a variety of local and national blogs (led by Richard Martin's first post here on New West) under headlines that called Beauprez everything from a poser to a chickenhawk. Hundreds of comments were posted on these sites by early evening, with angry anti-Beauprez sentiments far outnumbering the handful of apologists who blamed everyone from Republican competitor Marc Holtzman to undeclared Democrat challenger John Hickenlooper for the release. Despite the hubbub, however, Colorado's major newspapers and TV outlets had still not acknowledged the initial story or subsequent outcry by Friday morning. [more]

What Local Control?

So, did you hear the one about the lawmaker from Colorado Springs who walks into the Capitol and says she wants to standardize the starting and ending dates for each school year by requiring that every district across Colorado realign its calendar to her schedule? Unfortunately, it’s not the opening line to a joke. GOP Rep. Lynn Hefley is promoting House Bill 1150, which says all schools will start on the Tuesday after Labor Day and end no earlier than the Friday after Memorial Day.

I’m sorry, Rep. Hefley, but that’s what my local school board is elected to do. And if my neighbors and I don’t like the calendar they set, we can take it up with them at a meeting. Or at the polls. [more]

Initiative 100 Challenge

Remember Eric Footer? He’s the 39-year-old real estate consultant who argued that he should not be prosecuted for getting caught with pot and a pipe in his car last November because Denver voters had just approved Initiative 100 — which decriminalized possession of an ounce or less of weed and made Mile High jokes momentarily the late-night TV rage. He and supporters from the advocacy group that pushed the Denver initiative promised to press the issue through the courts after police and prosecutors insisted a tougher state law required that they continue prosecution of such cases, despite 59% of voters demanding they do otherwise. Well, on Wednesday, all charges against Footer were dismissed. [more]

Politics as Usual

Batten down the hatches and get ready for the onslaught! Colorado’s next general election is still 10 months away, but we’re about to be inundated with enough spin and counterspin to make your head explode. What will surely become the kicks off in earnest on Tuesday when .

Of course everyone knew he would be battling Marc Holtzman for the GOP nod, so the two have already been able to raise more than $1 million apiece or about 75% of the amount spent on the entire gubernatorial campaign in 1998 — the last time this was an open seat. If the Democrats are ever able and really make this a race, watch out. It won’t be safe to turn on your TV, crank up the radio, open your mail or answer a phone until it’s all over on Wednesday, November 8.

Update: The noise machine cranked up right on schedule Monday as Holtzman tried to upstage Beauprez's announcement by... attacking Hickenlooper?

Fare Wars

Southwest Airlines has arrived at Denver International Airport, and from the amount of publicity this has generated in the local media you’d think it was the Second Coming. Actually, in a way I guess it is. Southwest served the area from old Stapleton International until 1986, when it pulled out complaining that local fees were too high. Things have changed in the intervening years, though, and the aggressively low-end airline with a weakened competition led by United Airlines for the hearts and wallets of Denver flyers. And as someone who logged more than 55,000 air miles in 2005, I welcome the competition. [more]