December 2006

At least a dozen loud Broncos fans are cheering on their team at the Stadium Club sports bar in the Holiday Inn in Hays, Kan. We're stranded, waiting for I-70 westbound to open. Until then, three big screens, a roomful of people getting to know each other and football, football, football.

Just watched the Chiefs beat Jacksonville to keep their playoff hopes alive.

With the weather beating down, what better time to pause and reflect on your resolutions for the coming year?

For me, I wouldn't mind getting out of Hays, Kan., in the next couple of days. And I'm definitely going to buy a new snow shovel.

What are you planning for 2007? What do you resolve? For yourself? What would you suggest for national leaders? Local leaders? Celebrities? Share your thoughts about 2007. Will it be a better year than 2006?

Saddam Hussein may be executed within the next few days but he remains in U.S. custody.

The former president is at an American military prison where he is expected to remain until the day of his execution, when he is to be transferred to Iraqi authorities.

On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref, told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings.

You did this drill last week. Did the city/state/DIA learn anything? Did you?

Did you brave the storm and get to work? Hunkered down at home in front of a fire? Worried about your electricity staying on?

I'm working - from a hotel room in Hays, Kan., where we're stuck until I-70 reopens. It's raining here, expected to turn to snow later today. Plan to sample all that Hays has to offer.

Former President Gerald Ford, the only person to serve as both president and vice president without being elected to either office, died Tuesday at 93.

The former President and his family always seemed to have one boot planted in Colorado, writes Joe Garner.

Ford was linked to Colorado for decades through his love of the Vail Valley. He brought his family to ski at Vail for the first time in 1968, when he was a Michigan congressman, just six years after the resort opened.

During one ski trip, the four Ford children agreed to spend every Christmas at Vail, and the family moved into a new condo in 1970. The energetic, down- to-Earth Republican congressman, his wife and their children were quickly accepted as locals within the resort community.

It's a country Christmas for us..

Our family is together for the holidays, surviving travel out of Denver to visit my parents in a small town in Indiana and looking forward to an after-church gathering tonight at a picturesque farmhouse in the country hosted by a couple I've known since grade school.

That chorus of 'Let it snow' echoing from one mountain valley to another is being led by Colorado's ski industry, reports Joanne Kelley.

The resorts that attract visitors from afar said clear weather is expected to return before the bulk of their Christmas vacationers begin to arrive this weekend. At the same time, the ever-upbeat industry expects the white stuff to create a positive impression on visiting skiers, who will return home and report on the state's abundant snow conditions.

In Aspen, some out-of-state visitors were unable to catch flights home. But that meant they kept the chairlifts and the hotel rooms occupied until others could come and take their places.

"It's a perfect arrangement," Aspen Skiing Co.'s Jeff Hanle said jokingly. "You can't come in, but you can't leave."

The men and women whose boots are on the ground in Iraq gave new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates a strong message this morning: we need more help.

"Sir I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Spc. Jason T. Green, with the 101st Military Intelligence Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, told Gates during a breakfast session with about 15 U.S. soldiers at Camp Victory in Iraq.

"I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi Army trained up."

The troops may be somewhat at odds with military commanders, who worry that rushing thousands more Americans to the battlefront could prompt Iraqis to slow their effort to take control of their country.

Not that you're going to need one today - offices are closed along with most everything else - but most of you will still need two forms of ID to get a Colorado driver's license, reports Sara Burnett.

But exactly which documents will be required remains unclear.

"We're saying to people, 'Bring what you have when you come,' " said Diane Reimer, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Revenue, which issues driver's licenses.

"In some cases, one document will suffice. But most times you're going to need something else."

The end is near!

Not of the world, just of the great blizzard of '06.

Really. The wind's easing up. The snow is supposed to stop by the middle of the day. It'll take another day at least to dig out, but you'll get that last-minute shopping done, you'll get where you're going even if you're late. Now put another log on the fire, stir the hot chocolate and stay out of harm's way.

A newsroom full of Rocky staffers spent the night at downtown hotels so they could bring you today's newspaper, even if most of you will get it on the Internet. In addition to our coverage at RockyMountainNews.com you can read the entire newspaper online for free today.

Guy in a small front-wheel drive car does a 180 on Cleveland Place.

Broadway a slightly moving parking lot from 16th Street all the way to Alameda. Top speed: 10 mph.

Guy in a Honda Prelude fishtailing just north of 13th Ave. Chance of accident before he gets home: 80%.

Last week's raids and arrests of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants are unlikely to nudge Congress off entrenched positions on immigration policy, reports M.E. Sprengelmeyer.

Instead, after the crackdown at Swift & Co. plants in Colorado and five other states, lawmakers from competing sides of the debate over a proposed guest-worker plan used the arrests last week to bolster their locked-in positions.

That could set the stage for another difficult debate in coming months, after Democrats take control of both houses of Congress and try to advance a plan President Bush has long favored.

While advocates of tougher immigration laws generally praised the raids, some see it as a ruse to appease hard-liners and make it easier to pass what they believe is amnesty.

In an uncommonly candid news conference, President Bush said an increase in American forces in Iraq is being considered and that 2007 would bring more U.S. losses.

He said "2006 was a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people. We began the year with optimism" but that faded as extremists fomented sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

"And over the course of the year they had success," the president acknowledged. "Their success hurt our efforts to help the Iraqis rebuild their country, it set back reconciliation, it kept Iraq's unity government and our coalition from establishing security and stability throughout the country."

Democrats are about to claim control of Congress and Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy about Bush's handling of the war, so the president is at a turning point as he searches for new approaches. Administration officials said Bush's remarks were intended to brace a war-weary nation for another tough year in Iraq.

Denver won't know until after New Year's Day if the city will host the 2008 Democratic National Convention, report Alan Gathright and Stuart Steers.

The announcement on Tuesday came as top Colorado Democrats, including Gov.-elect Bill Ritter, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, pressed the local stagehands' union to sign a no- strike agreement that the Democratic National Committee requires to even consider Denver's bid.

The stagehands' union and some labor leaders want to use the agreement as leverage to force the privately owned Pepsi Center to employ union contractors year-round. The arena already has agreed on the DNC's requirement to use the union workers during the convention.

Union leaders resent being pressured by Democrats, especially after millions of union dollars flowed to Democratic coffers during the last election.

"The Pepsi Center has been unwilling to engage in a conversation with us," said Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation. "The way this is being spun is we're holding this up. This is an issue the Pepsi Center could resolve."

Who needs Santa Claus? A.I. is coming to town.

The Nuggets traded for seven-time all-star and former MVP Allen Iverson, sealing the deal Tuesday afternoon by agreeing to include veteran point guard Andre Miller in the package which includes veteran forward Joe Smith and two first-round draft choices, reports Chris Tomasson.

Reaction? All over the place.

Dave Krieger lets us in on the perspective of his 17-year-old son, an enormous AI fan. Dave's bottom line:

Superstars become available very rarely. Either you draft them or you get lucky when a team is forced into a divorce by circumstance, as the Lakers were with Shaquille O'Neal a couple of years ago. That worked out pretty well for the team that landed him.

If you can get one of those guys, you do it and you take your chances. Because championship teams always have great players. And the Nuggets just added one.

Of that there is no doubt.

This doesn't mean a championship is on the horizon. But it means the Nuggets have a better shot at one than they did yesterday.

In a world rent asunder by torment and divisiveness, it is reassuring to note when justice is served. To wit, Miss USA, Tara Conner, will keep her crown.

And, as goes the way of so much celebrity flesh, she'll be entering rehab. She turned 21 yesterday.

"She left a small town in Kentucky and she was telling me that she got caught up in the whirlwind of New York," pageant owner Donald Trump said at a press conference. "It's a story that has happened many times before to many women and many men who came to the Big Apple. They wanted their slice of the Big Apple and they found out it wasn't so easy."

Conner won the title in April and has been living in New York. Recent media accounts of heavy drinking brought a storm of criticism, since she was underage at the time.

A senior staff member at New Life Church - former home of Ted Haggard who resigned amid sexual scandal last month - has stepped down after admitting to sexual misconduct with an adult and other "mistakes," reports Jean Torkelson.

Christopher Beard, director of twentyfourseven, a ministry for Christian leaders between ages 18 and 24, resigned Friday from the Colorado Springs mega-church after admitting to sexual misconduct with an adult, as well as other, unspecified mistakes, said associate pastor Rob Brendle. The matters came to light during a recent personnel review conducted by the church's board of overseers. It was prompted by the Haggard scandal.

Brendle said he wouldn't comment on whether the conduct was with a male or female but said it did not involve Haggard.

In the wake of the roundup of 261 suspected illegal immigrants at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant last week, some law enforcement officials - and, surprise, polititicians - say Greeley should have its very own Imigration and Customs Enforcement office, reports Chris Barge.

Local law enforcement agents have forwarded their request for a new office to Congress, saying it would help curb crime in Weld County. And U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard have taken up the cause.

"This raid this past week is an example of why we need one," Allard spokeswoman Laura Condeluci said.

But opponents in Greeley's Hispanic community say they have yet to see real statistics linking illegal immigrants to higher crime rates. They point out that only 5 percent of the 1,282 suspected illegal immigrant workers rounded up in last week's six-state raid were charged with crimes beyond being in the country illegally.

Related:

Former employees are suing Swift & Co. for $23 million, alleging the meatpacking company conspired to keep wages down by hiring illegal immigrants.

More aggressive police work is among the factors being credited for a 12 percent drop in serious crime in Denver in the first 10 months of 2006, reports Lou Kilzer.

Arrests soared 14 percent during the first eight of months of this year, the most current number available from the Denver Police Department, reversing a decline since 1998.

The drop in crime came as large cities nationwide - and some of Denver's suburbs - saw crime rise during the first half of the year.

Nowhere is Denver's juiced-up enforcement more obvious than in the proactive policing that officers do without being called by someone to react to a problem.

According to Denver court records from January through October, the latest figures available from the court, DUI cases shot up 48 percent from the comparable period in 2005.

Meanwhile, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Lakewood all saw increases in violent crimes (categorized by the FBI as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault), reports Hector Gutierrez.

George Karl calls out Isiah Thomas. Carmelo Anthony's agent says the NBA is making an example of his client. Nuggets fans are frustrated.

The Nuggets are in disarray minus their two top scorers. Except that they came out like men possessed and beat the Washington Wizards last night, which prompted Dave Krieger to write that the undermanned squad has a chance to prove it can win as a team.

Does the music played at Ivesco/Mile High or the Pepsi Center fire you up for your team?

Reports Erika Gonzalez:

Earlier this year, the Broncos pulled Gary Glitter's signature touchdown song, Rock 'n' Roll Part II, because of Glitter's recent conviction on child obscenity charges in Vietnam, and replaced it with a customized version of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's Go Daddy-O (changed to Go Bronco). Fans, however, didn't exactly embrace the new tune.

"It just didn't go over well," said Teresa Shear, director of cheerleaders and game-day entertainment. So, Shear found a more hard-edged anthem: Thunderstruck by AC/DC.

The verdict from the blue and orange jury? "We haven't gotten any more complaints."

I'd like to thank the little people and of course I have to share Time Magazine's Person of the Year award with YOU.
Time magzine named us - 'citizens of the digital democracy' it calls us - because we update Wikipedia, promote ourselves on You Tube and MySpace and blog ourselves silly on like this.

We represent, in Time's words, "he many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."

This is going to look so good on our resumes.

The Broncos sifted just enough good stuff from the sand outside Phoenix to stifle a four-game losing streak and stay in the playoff hunt, writes Jeff Legwold.

Bernie Lincicome's take: It's simple when it all works.

When Jay Cutler whips a football 60 or so yards on his third play of the game, putting it only where Javon Walker can catch it in stride in the end zone, when, out of the mists of obscurity, comes someone named Quincy Morgan returning kicks to helpful field position, when Champ Bailey gets challenged twice and . . . well, let him tell it.

"Two balls, two picks," said Bailey, making the math easy.

When Rod Smith is once again a factor, catching four balls, one for his first touchdown in seven games and his first from Cutler, when the defense gives up only one touchdown drive all day, when Mike Shanahan can exhale instead of chewing the inside of his cheek, this is how it could be, how it should be, how it has not been.

Americans are projected to spend nearly 10 hours per day consuming media next year, according to the Census Bureau.

Media use has risen every year since the start of the decade, helped by faster and easier ways to get information and entertainment, according to statistics in a new government report.

Next year, Americans are projected to spend more than 9 1/2 hours a day with the media, though hours spent doing two things at once, such as watching TV and using the Internet, are counted twice in the report.

So maybe we won't see Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sipping lattes on the 16th Street Mall after all.

The odds that Our Fair City will land the 2008 Democratic National Convention seemed to grow longer after a conversation between Sen. Ken Salazar and DNC chairman Howard Dean, report Stuart Steers and M.E. Sprengelmeyer.

Salazar and Dean spoke for more than 30 minutes Thursday morning, and it ended with the senator putting the odds of Denver winning the convention at "50-50" - a less optimistic assessment than previously, said Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz.

"He is concerned about whether or not the convention will come here," Wertz said. "It is not our decision. It's Howard Dean's decision. Sen. Salazar, along with several others in Denver and the state, are working hard on the issue."

The main issue is money. Dean is worried over whether Denver can raise the estimated $80 million required to host the convention.

You won't need to lug a filing cabinet to the DMV to get a driver's license anymore.

District Court Judge Larry Naves decided the state's rule requiring two forms of ID to get a license created hardships and was implemented without enough public comment, reports April M. Washington.

At issue were DMV rules - including one that went into effect Sept. 6 - that require applicants to provide two forms of ID, one showing proof of age and lawful presence and the other giving proof of a person's full name. But plaintiffs argued the two- form requirement mushroomed into five and six and seven forms.

Bernie Lincicome says if Allen Iverson is The Answer, somebody is asking the wrong question.

The Nuggets would not win the NBA title with Allen Iverson. No team will win the NBA title with Iverson. The 76ers could not win with Iverson. The U.S. Olympic team could not win with Iverson. Georgetown could not win with Iverson.

Iverson went from co-captain of America's Team to being unwelcomed on his own team, the same team he carried on his slight shoulders to the NBA Finals a few years ago, paid not to play, expunged from Philadelphia and denied international participation even after he had to ask.

Anyone who looks at Iverson and sees a savior ought to turn the binoculars around.

The Rocky's annual Holiday Lights guide runs today as we choose the top 10 displays in the metro area. Among them: Karen Vaught, who bought her house in Broomfield primarily for the purpose of staging her massive display.

We have more than 300 reader-submitted addreses in our online data bank and readers can build their own driving map, vote on the top displays, watch Sonya Doctorian's holiday lights driving tour and share your own holiday lights display on YourHub.com.

Do you drive around to see the displays? Are they genuine displays of the holiday spirit or over-the-top wastes of electricity? Ever had a Chevy Chase moment (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)? How extensive is your holiday display? Santa and the elves in 3-D animation or a single strand of lights on an artificial wreath?

Federal immigration officials claim Swift & Co. let hundreds of illegal immigrants escape Tuesday's raid by firing them in advance, report M.E. Sprengelmeyer and Joanne Kelley.

But Swift disagreed, saying immigration officials gave permission to the meatpacking company to question employees, some of whom then quit when confronted about their documentation.

The dispute came to a head Wednesday, one day after immigration raids at six Swift & Co. plants netted 1,282 suspects.

Federal immigration officials claimed the meat processor fired the employees without their permission after Swift learned of the federal probe.

A letter sent to Swift in October from ICE investigations director Marcy Forman appears to back the company:

"I feel compelled to write you to clarify a point," Forman wrote to company attorneys. "At no time has anyone from ICE told any Swift official that they cannot take action against employees who Swift determines, on its own, are unauthorized."

I've never laughed as hard at anything on a movie screen as I did at Peter Boyle doing a soft shoe routine with Gene Wilder to "Putting on the Ritz" in Young Frankenstein. Nearly fell out of my chair. Still can bearly watch it without howlling.

An "action figure" of Boyle as the monster, a Christmas gift from my oldest son, stands proudly on a bookcase shelf in my office at home and the DVD is within handy reach.

Mr. Boyle died Monday night of multiple myeloma and heart disease. He was 71. He enjoyed a distinguished film career but won widest fame for playing Frank Barrone for 10 years on Everybody Loves Raymond.

Jason Jennings was the Rockies' No. 1 draft choice who matured into their best pitcher, an innings-eating workhorse who won more games, pitched more innings and had more shutouts than any player in team history.

You'll see him next year at Coors Field - whenever the Houston Astros come to town. The Rockies were unable to make a fair-market offer to Jennings, who become a free agent after this season, so they shipped him to Houston for speedy centerfielder Willy Taveras and two young pitchers.

Was this a good deal because they were going to lose Jennings to free agency after next year? Do you think the Rockies will ever be able to afford to pay enough to keep their home-grown stars?

Sen. Hillary Clinton is lobbying to land the Democratic National Convention for her home base in New York but analysts say Denver would be a better launching pad for a Clinton presidential campaign, report Stuart Steers, M.E. Sprengelmeyer and Alan Gathright.

To win, a Democratic presidential nominee must reach out beyond the party's base in the Northeast and on the West Coast. That's especially true for a senator from New York.

Political analyst Jennifer Duffy, of The Cook Political Report, said that Clinton can't count on any big boost from a hometown convention in New York City. She noted that Sen. John Kerry, of Massachusetts, was nominated in Boston, a choice that made it easier for his opponents to paint him as an out-of-touch "Massachusetts liberal."

The new T-REX light rail line has trimmed commuting time for many passengers - but certainly not all as Kevin Flynn reports.

Many who once took nonstop express buses straight to their destinations, a so-called one-seat ride, are finding that their best-case itineraries are at least 15 minutes longer now that those express buses have been replaced with shuttles to light rail.

Throw in a chance missed connection or a late bus, and the extra time can grow to an hour tacked on each side of their daily commutes.

The city's election commission is such a mess that voters should put it out of business early next year, a city council committee has decided, reports Ann Imse.

"

The number of mistakes were simply unconscionable," said Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie, after hearing Fujitsu Consulting's final report on Denver's disastrous Nov. 7 election.

Voter registration software failed, and an estimated 18,000 citizens gave up trying to vote in the face of three-hour lines. Vote counting took nine days.

Online schools serving thousands of Colorado students are a mess.

The audit uncovered issues ranging from academic performance - online students perform worse on state tests, repeat grades more and are more likely to drop out - to lax monitoring that apparently has allowed state money to feed into private and religious schools housing online programs, reports Nancy Mitchell.

Much of the focus was on the Hope Online Learning Academy, charted out of the tiny Vilas school district in the southeastern part of the state.

Hope, which operates 81 learning centers across the state, was criticized for a lack of qualified teachers, incomplete criminal background checks for staff and failing to ensure its centers meet fire safety codes.

After visiting seven Hope centers, the auditors concluded there is a "high risk" that public funds are being used to fund private religious instruction.

Pity Snippy. Her owner says she exited this life after being attacked by space aliens. And now her bones - wired together and mounted on a platform - are at the center of a custody battle, reports Deborah Frazier.

Snippy spent a brief time on eBay with a $50,000 price tag but now her remains are in limbo.

Attorneys for the heirs of Snippy's last owner, Carl Helfin, lawyers for the descendants of Snippy's original owner, Nellie Lewis, and legal counsel for the Alamosa Chamber of Commerce where Snippy once resided, all claim the mare's remains.

Even as iPods continue to fly off store shelves this time of year, some users complain that the failure rate of the small, expensive devices is too high, reports Nick Wingfield.

Among users of the device, it's long been common to hear of iPods laid low by

The iPod's durability could become a more important issue as consumers become less dazzled by cutting-edge technology and more concerned about longevity, especially for a device that can cost hundreds of dollars.

I fired up Ticketmaster at exactly 10 a.m. Saturday morning and managed to get two tickets on the main floor for Bob Seger's show Valentine's Day at 10 a.m.

By the time that deal was processed, all the main floor seats were gone, although second-level straight back from the stage were still available late Saturday. Surprised it didn't sell out, but looking forward to a great show.

Paul Barnes, leader of the 2,100-member has resigned after admitting to sexual infidelity.

The Denver Post reports that Barnes, who is married, told his church he had struggled with homosexuality since childhood.

It comes in the wake of Colorado Springs evangelist Ted Haggard's recent resignation amid allegations he was involved with sexual activity and drug use with a former Denver male prostitute.

Foreign flags in classrooms? The Democrats are ready to unfurl them. And add sexual orientation to employment civil rights laws. After forging an electoral margin of 39-26 in the House and 20-15 in the Senate to go with Bill Ritter's election as governor, the Democrats are looking to exert more influence on the legislative agenda reports Lynn Bartels.

Some Republicans predict a slew of anti-business, pro-trial lawyer and pro-union legislation, but Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, disagree.

"Our agenda is ambitious: To build the best public schools in America, to become the renewable energy capital of the world and to bring health care to all Coloradans," the Denver lawmaker said this week in a news release announcing legislative committee appointments."

"That's what the Colorado Promise is all about."

The Kid was OK. Everybody else, not so much.

Jay Cutler's second start as the Broncos quarteback - at least the second half of it - was testament to why he got the job. He made plays, stayed cool, led touchdown drives and generally took a big jump up the learning curve. That's the good news. All of it.

San Diego made it official, the Chargers are AFC West champions after a 48-20 victory that bounced the Broncos to the cusp of a playoff miss, in a game that often felt like the guys in Denver attire simply had walked in on somebody else's party, writes Jeff Legwold.

Jeff will be online at 11:30 a.m. to talk about the collapse and the Broncos' playoff situation. Join the chat here at 11:30.

Dave Krieger writes:

The Broncos' fatal flaw was at center stage Sunday, and it wasn't pretty. They were beaten at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Their offensive and defensive lines were manhandled.

First the Iraq Study Group says the war is going badly. Now the House ethics committee rules the Republicans in charge didn't protect the pages from Mark Foley's creepy advances..

The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct among many "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's conduct.

First clue would have been ...

House Speaker Dennis Hastert probably learned about Foley's salacious e-mails from two Republican leaders last spring, the report concluded.

Hastert has said he doesn't recall the conversations. But both Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York have said they informed the speaker last spring.

"The speaker's reported statement in response to Majority Leader Boehner that the matter 'has been taken care of' is some evidence that the speaker was aware of some concern regarding Rep. Foley's conduct" even prior to the spring conversation, the report said.

Hillary Clinton has a double-digit lead on Democratic challengers but would lose a general election bid to either Sen. John McCain or former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, according to a new poll.

The former first lady held a double-digit lead over possible rivals in the survey released Thursday by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion. Clinton, who has taken steps suggesting a 2008 bid, had the support of 33 percent of Democrats to 14 percent for former Sen. John Edwards.

Former Vice President Al Gore was at 13 percent and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 12 percent. Other Democrats were in single digits.

McCain and Giuliani were neck and neck among Republicans but poll respondents soured on Giuliani when they were informed he was pro-gay rights, pro-gun control and pro-choice.

McCain has staked out a position as "the last neo-con" writes Salon's Joe Conason.

The Fray, the Denver band that signed their major label deal onstage at Boulder's Fox Theater, earned a pair of Grammy nominations, writes Mark Brown.

One bright spot: Colorado artists being rewarded for fine work. The Fray received nominations for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal for Over My Head (Cable Car) and the same nod in the rock category for How to Save a Life. The band learned about the nominations just as they boarded a flight in London, getting the news via cell phone from their manager when the band's flight was delayed. If the flight had been on time, they would have had to wait nine hours to find out.

If Sen. Wayne Allard decides not to run for re-election in 2008, Gov. Bill Owens won't be among the Republicans shouting "Pick me."

Allard is expected to announce whether he will run again early next year. Owens has been widely mentioned as a possible candidate if Allard decides not to seek re-election.

But the governor, who will leave office Jan. 9, told 9News that while the speculation is flattering, a Senate campaign is not something he is interested in."

Now it's a waiting game but organizers tasked with luring the 2008 Democratic National Convention to Denver are increasingly confident that the party's leaders will find Our Fair City irresistible.

Alan Gathright and M.E. Sprengelmeyer report DNC officials made a low-key visit to Denver this week to check out fundraising and in-kind contributions to the bash, which is expected to draw 35,000 visitors.

President Bush is backing away from some of the major recommendations in the Iraq Study Group's recommendations and will meet with Congressional leaders and members of his own national security advisers before announcing his plans for the war.

Bush is opposed to talks with Syria and Iran as well as commiting to a major reduction of U.S. forces.

Meanwhile Americans told an AP poll they believe the U.S. will have to settle for something less than a clear-cut military victory and are pessimistic about Iraq's ability to forge a stable government.

Rocky critic Robert Denerstein says Apocalypto, the latest directorial effort from Mel Gibson arrives "quaking with primal excitement" and leaves "rivers of blood in its tracks."

Aside from being controversial, Gibson's Passion of The Christ brought a bloody, visionary glaze to the story of Jesus' final hours. With Apocalypto, Gibson serves up one of the most violent offerings of this or any other year - and he does it with consummate skill.

Men are beheaded. Beating hearts are ripped from chests. A jaguar eats a man's face. Blood spurts in geyser-like fashion from another man's temple. Men are clubbed with animalistic vengeance. I mention this early on because Apocalypto should be avoided by those who are repelled by graphic violence.

Mark McGwire won't make the Hall of Fame his first year of eligibility according to voter polls conducted by the Rocky Mountain News and Associated Press.

Rocky baseball writer Jack Etkin reports 19 of 23 voters contacted by the Rocky said they wouldn't vote for McGwire, who hit a record 70 home runs in 1998 and ranks seventh on the all-time homer list but has been dogged by accusations he used steroids.

McGwire was evasive about steroid use when he testified before a Congressional committee in 2005, saying, "I am not here to talk about the past."

Jim Doyle tells columnist Gary Massaro what it was like in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Doyle was a Navy pilot and aerial photographer.

"It was a fluke I was on the ground. The rest of my squadron had flown out," he said. "I had orders to gunnery school in San Diego. Back then, you had to wait for the next ship sailing out. So I was waiting on travel orders."

He was quartered in a hangar on the west side of Pearl Harbor.

Then he heard the explosions. He went outside.

"The sky was filled with airplanes. They were buzzing in every direction," he said. "They were flying at street level, just missing the buildings. I watched the Utah turning turtle - upside down. The scream of the planes, the terrible explosions were bad enough. But all the oil burning from all the ships, the burnt flesh - it was sickening."

Pearl Harbor survivors, now in their 80s and 90s, will meet for one last reunion in Hawaii on the 65th anniversary of the bombing.

A Mars probe built by Lockheed Martin has sent pictures that seem to suggest muddy water has gushed down crater walls at some point during the past seven years, reports Jim Erickson.

The gully-washers left behind bright streaks of sediment that weren't there when the two sites were first photographed in 1999.

Researchers with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft say the fresh gully deposits provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water occasionally flows on the Red Planet.

"This is a squirting gun for water on Mars," team member Ken Edgett said at a news briefing Wednesday.

Dusty Saunders pens an homage to what he considers the best TV Christmas show ever, the 1965 classic Charlie Brown Christmas.

This half-hour says more about the holiday spirit than all the upcoming new productions, which will attempt to get viewers in the Christmas mood, while pitching expensive holiday gift suggestions.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a gentle reminder about how easy it is for adults and kids to get caught up in what cantankerous Lucy calls "a big commercial racket." It ends with Charlie Brown and Linus eventually finding the true meaning of Christmas.

On the dark side of Christmas video, Dave Larsen of the Dayton Daily News compiled this list of the worst Christmas TV shows and movies.

Injuries are part of the game in the NFL. As Jeff Legwold puts it today:

Crash the large and the swift together and there will be injuries. And while tough play, timely touchdowns and sure tackling always will lead the way, the simple perk of good health always is in the league's playoff mix.

After Cecil Sapp broke his left leg against the Seahawks, the Broncos have four starters and a key backup on injured reserve; three other starters have missed games because of nagging injuries. Coach Mike Shanahan says the team has to fight through its injuries but history shows that's easier said than done.

First smoking, now trans fat.

New York became the first city in the nation to ban restaurants from cooking with trans fat oil, which has been linked to obesity and heart disease.

City health officials created the unprecedented new requirements Tuesday. Restaurants will get a grace period to make both changes, but by mid-2008, Dunkin' Donuts will have to find a substitute for the 3.5 grams of trans fat in its Boston Kremes and tell customers up front that the snacks contain 240 calories.

But the city's gigantic food-service industry has opposed parts of both new rules, and some restaurant companies have hinted that they might challenge them in court.

Colorado public schools continued to show improvement on state school report cards, reports Berny Morson.

The figures released by the Colorado Department of Education show that just under 100,000 Colorado students - more than one in eight - attend schools with the highest rating, excellent. That is up from 98,000 students in excellent schools last year.

About 4,350 of the state's 780,000 students were enrolled in schools with the lowest rating, unsatisfactory. More than 16,800 students attended unsatisfactory schools in 2001, when the accountability program began.

John Elway is the greatest Bronco of all time but has no role with the Broncos, observes Dave Krieger.

His solution: get Elway to tutor young Jay Cutler, who looked bewildered in his debut, a loss to Seattle last week. Krieger conducted some shuttle diplomacy, floating the idea first to Elway, then to Mike Shanahan.

Snippy was a three-year-old Appaloosa mare whose untimely demise in a field near Alamosa back in 1967 became the first reported case of animal mutilation by space aliens.

And now Snippy is back in the news after her bones were offered for sale on eBay, reports Deborah Frazier.

There were no tracks or blood on the ground, but the skin and flesh from the withers to the head were removed, exposing the bone.

Lewis told the world media there was a strange, sweet odor that she likened to incense on the rural ranch in the area where Snippy's remains were found.

Rep. Bob Beauprez is circulating an electronic newsletter and isn't ruling out a run for the Senate if Wayne Allard honors his pledge not to serve more than two terms, reports M.E. Sprengelmeyer.

His gubernatorial campaign committee sent an e-mail to supporters signed "Bob," in which he talks about lessons Republicans could learn from this year's elections. He also invited people to sign up for a new e-mail-based newsletter he plans to use for regular updates on national issues

Beauprez's move comes at a time when political observers in Colorado are waiting to hear whether Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, will honor a long-standing pledge to serve only two terms or seek re-election in 2008.

In a recent interview with CBS 4 News, Beauprez would not rule out a future Senate run, telling interviewer Terry Jessup: "We'll take a serious look at almost any opportunity, including that one, I suppose."

Denver-area foreclosures have hit a record through November, reports John Rebchook.

In the first 11 months of 2006, public trustees in the seven-county metro area opened 17,782 foreclosures. That's 3.85 percent higher than the record set in 1988, during the oil industry bust.

Experts say other parts of the country that recently had hot real estate markets need only look to Denver to see what's in store for them.

A large percentage of filings are concentrated in the "foreclosure belts" of Adams and Weld counties, north Aurora, and northeastern Denver neighborhoods such as Montbello and Green Valley Ranch.

Let's pitch camp on the moon.

Local planetary scientists endorsed NASA's announced plan to permanently staff an international base camp on the moon, reports Jim Erickson.

But some believe the plan is not bold enough:

The president of the Colorado-based Mars Society said that the lunar goal is "too timid" and that the nation "needs something a bit more ambitious than this."

The Mars Society would skip the lunar base and send humans straight to the Red Planet.

NASA says it wants to permanently staff the base in 2024.

Faced with a nomination destined to twist slowly in the wind, John Bolton will resign as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nation.

Bolton's nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton. Critics have questioned Bolton's brusque style and whether he could be an effective public servant who could help bring reform to the U.N.

Diesel-drivers are getting a break from some state emission testing requirements, reports Todd Hartman.

New breaks from emission testing in the works for gasoline-burning cars in the metro area have been extended to diesel vehicles as well, at least to a degree.

New rules approved by the legislature and recently affirmed by a Colorado air quality board mean owners of light-duty diesels - certain pickups and passenger cars model year 2004 or newer - are exempted from emission testing requirements for the vehicle's first four years.

If the Democrats choose Denver for their 2008 convention, just how much of a financial windfall would the city reap?

Boston, which hosted the Democrats in 2004, has mixed opinions, reports M.E. Sprengelmeyer. City officials say the event pumped more than $150 million into the city's coffers but a "free market" think tank says the real net gain was about $15 million.

The skeptical report by The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University has been the subject of fierce debate since it was released in 2004.

The institute arrived at the lower figure after factoring in an estimated loss of $30 million in normal commuter and summer tourist spending, combined with the loss of more than $100 million from two events that were scrapped to make way for Democrats: the Olympic gymnastics trials and a harbor festival.

Critics have accused the institute of having a right-leaning bias that caused it to intentionally underestimate the benefits of a Democratic gathering. The institute defends its methodology.

Some of Denver's more dangerous intersections could get an eye-in-the-sky to help deter crime, reports Felix Doligosa Jr.

Members of the Denver Police Department are hoping to place cameras in targeted residential and commercial neighborhoods throughout the city. In some cases, the public might not know the equipment is there - unless they happen to spot the electronic eye atop a light pole or in another discreet location.

Some privacy advocates aren't thrilled:

The rookie looked like a rookie.

Jay Cutler threw three passes that resulted in touchdowns: two to teammates, one to the Seahawks and Seattle's Josh Brown kicked a 50-yard field goal in the waning seconds to beat the Broncos 23-20.

Jeff Legwold writes:

In a season when leads have been squandered and opportunities lost, the Broncos watched things slip away once again Sunday night. And this time, a large piece of what are fading playoff hopes might have gone with it.

John Elway's name will disappear from his former auto dealerships this month.

AutoNation, the nation's largest automobile retailer, said Thursday it was ending its nine-year licensing deal with Elway, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Broncos to two Super Bowl victories.

AutoNation said the 16 Denver-area Elway dealerships will be renamed "Go" this month at the same time they introduce a simplified car-pricing program called SmartChoice that it eventually will expand nationwide.

"Both parties decided to move on," said Mike Maroone, AutoNation president and chief operating officer. "It's been very amicable. We've had a great relationship with John both personally and professionally."

Four Iraqi divisions in northern Iraq will be moved to Baghdad's control by next March, according to the commander of coalition forces in the area.

"I can certainly see great opportunity to reduce the amount of combat forces on the ground" in the north "and turn more responsibility over to Iraqi security forces," Benjamin Mixon told Pentagon reporters in a videoconference from his headquarters near Tikrit. He said that even after this transition is complete, U.S. troops likely would continue to support Iraqi forces and conduct combat operations against al-Qaida "operatives."

In the Iraq Study Group report expected to be releases next Wednesday, the U.S. government would be called upon to rely more on diplomacy than deadlines in its Iraq policy. But that would rob many war critics of the impetus they wanted to force a speedy, sizable U.S. troop withdrawal from the battlefield.

When your waiter asks "How are you guys tonight?" do you make a mental note to shortchange the tip? How about when they ask ask if you "need change" when you pay with cash?

If you're a waiter, is there anything worse than having unruly children at the table? Or being blamed when the food isn't prepared to a diner's satisfaction?

Waiters and restaurant customers should be complementary partners in a fine dining experience but too often they seem to be at war.

Rocky dining critic John Lehndorff asked waiters and diners for their peeves about each other and the results are published in Saturday's Spotlight section. The story is available online now.

After repeated delays, Microsoft rolled out its new Vista operating system as well as a new version of its business suite called Office 2007. The software will be available immediately to businesses but won't be in stores until Jan. 30.

Vista Home Basic will cost $199 or $99.95 for customers running Windows XP. A version with the ability to record TV will cost $239. The business version will cost $299 with upgrades at $199.

Local businesses are taking a wait-and-see approach before plunging into Vista, reports Roger Fillion.

If you've travelled into or out of the United States during the past four years you may be one of millions of Americans who have been assigned a secret "risk assessment" score by the government.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

The government calls the system critical to national security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some privacy advocates call it one of the most intrusive and risky schemes yet mounted in the name of anti-terrorism efforts.

Does it strike you as a valuable tool against terrorism or an intrusion on your privacy?