Greeley City Council is looking for one new member on the Planning Commission.

Deadline for applications is 5:00pm Friday September 5.

State Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, is hosting a community forum to present an overview of housing legislation and explore critical housing issues in Colorado on Saturday, April 14th, from 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. at the Monfort Children’s Clinic, 100 N. 11th Ave, Greeley.

Greeley Citizen Transportation Advisory Board met Monday to hear about a plan to bring a high speed rail line to Northern Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Rail Authority has a grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation to study the feasability of a plan to connect Greeley to the Denver Metro area.

This is an exciting development. They want to take the plan to voters by 2008.

Aanston Frazier, UNC Mirror columnist, has an interesting editorial on the Democratic party’s recent attempt to allow TSA personnel to unionize.

Democrats are now back in charge of Congress. This is the first time since 1994 that the party has controlled both houses and already they are attempting to do something more ridiculous than make Pelosi Speaker of the House.

New York Democrat Charles Rangel is attempting to reinstate the draft, a proposal that 7 out of 10 Americans are against.

Democrats won this election on promises to put an end to the situation in Iraq and one of the first publicized actions they are considering is conscription. Wow, will these guys EVER learn?

The election is over. Here is a recap of what we have learned.

1. Marilyn Musgrave is NOT popular It’s fairly obvious from the vote differential and the amount of votes garnered by a third party candidate that Marilyn is not as secure as she could be. If the democrats had provided a stronger candidate the Angie Paccione they very well could have unseated Marilyn, even in a historically Republican district.
2. Politicians should kiss babies Jim Riesberg showed that a Democrat can hold on to his seat if he works for it. All Dave Owen did was send out pretentious letters signed with an ‘Honorable’ in front of his name (what the heck does that mean - I wouldn’t vote for a ‘dishonorable’ candidate) and pose in pictures where he looked like someone should check his pulse. Meanwhile Riesberg was out in the public, throwing pig roasts and whatnot. No wonder he handily won.
3. Coloradoans are not sympathetic to Gays It’s a live and let live world, but when it comes down to homosexuals exchanging wedding vows, Coloradoans are not quite the ‘progressive’. Both amendments addressing this went to the straight camp. Not really a shock.
4. Americans are tired of the Iraq occupation I can’t even call what’s going on in Iraq a war anymore. The soldiers over there are risking their lives in a role more suited to policemen than soldiers. The sooner our government figures a way out of that mess, the better.
5. President Bush is on the run Wednesday’s resignation of Rummy indicated to me that the President is backpedaling. My guess is the GOP is going to due a quick turnaround on the whole Iraq thing real quick. The people have spoken and their best bet now is to figure out a way to blame the whole fiasco on the Democrats - which shouldn’t be too hard since they are now in control of Congress.

Election time is so interesting. It’s always funny to me to drive around an notice people’s political affiliations.

Look Marge, the Johnsons have campaign posters in their yard. Such nice people, who would have thought they were democrats. Guess little Billy isn’t going to be able to go to Freddy’s birthday party after all. Thank God we found out.

What I find amusing is the way that everyone seems to support ALL of the party candidates. Sure, Angie Paccione and Bill Ritter are both decent candidates, but Solomon Little Owl? Come on. I really like when there are all of the major candidates’ posters in the yards and along with two or three candidates for school board or county commissioner that you’ve never heard of, but are supposed to vote for because they are Republicans. If everyone just supports one party’s candidates, why do we even bother to vote for individuals? Why don’t we just go down and select D or R? Our whole society wants to pigeonhole EVERYONE as either a liberal or a conservative - both groups painting the other as devils. I know I don’t fit perfectly into either mold, and I’m guessing you don’t either.

Remember, when you go to vote, don’t vote for a party, vote for a person.

The University of Northern Colorado Faculty Senate will sponsor an informational forum with Solomon Little Owl, senate candidate for District 13, and Tom Griggs, candidate for the State Board of Education, at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 23, at Centennial Hall, located in Brown Hall, near the intersection of 9th Avenue and 19th Street.

Candidates Marilyn Musgrave, Angie Paccione and Scott Renfroe were invited to participate in separate candidate forums but declined to participate. Bob Schaffer (candidate for the State Board of Education) was also invited but will be unable to attend because of schedule constraints.

Co-sponsors for the forum are the State Personnel Employees Executive Council, Professional Administrative Staff Council, Student Representative Council and the UNC chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Too bad more candidates won’t be appearing.

On October 2nd there was a terrible accident in Weld County. A 17 year old girl was driving with her brothers, 15 and 12, and her 3 month old daugther. This girl was speeding, ran a stopsign and was hit by a pickup truck. The 15 year old, 12 year old and 3 month old were all killed.

Now, because of the actions of the liberal Greeley Tribune and conservative state Representative Dave Schultheis. Representative Schultheis sent an email to the reporter that covered the crash and asked the following questions:

• Was the driver properly licensed?
• Was the vehicle properly registered, and insured?
• Why aren’t these facts part of your published article?
• Was this person the child of parents in the U.S illegally?
• Or was she here illegally?

Rather than answer the questions, the Tribune just printed the Representative’s letter with these questions:

• What do you think of this?
• Why would Schultheis ask these questions?
• Does it have anything to do with something besides the victim’s surnames?

Now the story has been picked up by 9news, the Colorado Springs Gazette and who knows who else. Representative Schultheis is being accused of racism and the Colorado Democrats are demanding an apology from Schulthesis (not from the Tribune who actually made all of this public and is brazenly using the Bustillos family to boost their revenue).

The ironic thing is that Representative Schulthesis’ questions appear to be right on the money. Last night 9news interviewed Susanne Villarreal who said the Bustillos were in her husband’s citizenship class and were ‘just’ legal (whatever that means).

This is not a racial issue at all. This is a real, valid problem with illegal immigration. We cannot have illegal immigrants in this country driving without a license, without insurance and causing accidents. If this is the case with Miss Bustillos, as tragic as the situation is, she should face criminal charges for the deaths of her family members.

I challenge hispanic ‘activists’ in Weld County and across the nation to wake up and recognize that the illegal immigration issues in this country are not (yet) racially motivated against latinos. There are valid reasons to restrict the widespread immigration of undocumented people into this country and the Bustillos case is just an example of one of these reasons.

It’s Primary day! Don’t forget to Vote!