The Rocky Mountain News has closed. The final edition was printed this morning.

Thanks to all who read and contributed to RockyTalk Live.

First it was Sen. Scott Renfroe of Greeley, who lumped homosexuality with murder in the debate over healthcare benefits for same-sex partners.

Now it's Sen. Dave Schultheis of Colorado Springs who opposes testing pregnant women for HIV so their babies can be treated to prevent the transfer of the virus.

Lynn Bartels reports:

"This stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part and I just can't go there," said Schultheis said. "We do things continually to remove the consequences of poor behavior, unacceptable behavior, quite frankly."

"What I'm hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that," he said. "The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior."

A bill to require large grocery chains to phase out plastic bags within three years was defeated in the Senate.

Republicans argued that paper bags cause their own set of environmental problems and that certain stores should not be singled out.

"If it's good, we should do it for everybody," argued Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs.

"I think we ought to ban this bill and put it in a landfill," he added. "The people of Colorado must be scratching their heads on this issue. We have critical financial times and we are talking about plastic bags."

President Barack Obama pitched a tone of realistic optimism to the American public in his first address to Congress.

Obama promised a nation shuddering in economic crisis Tuesday night that he would lead it from a dire "day of reckoning" to a brighter future, summoning politicians and public alike to shoulder responsibility for hard choices and shared sacrifice.

"The time to take charge of our future is here," Obama declared, delivering his first address to a joint session of Congress.

Offering words of reassurance to an anxious nation, he declared, "Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."

"We are a nation that has seen promise and peril," he said. "Now we must be that nation again."

When Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office, he inherited the leadership of a country mired in depression. Thousands of banks had failed, one in Americans was unemployed.

Adam Cohen, a journalist and lawyer, chronicles how Roosevelt's launched the New Deal during his first 100 days in office in his new book, Nothing to Fear.

Cohen will be online to discuss his book at 11 a.m. Wednesday. E-mail questions/comments in advance and join the chat here at 11.

Some of you have probably seen this, but it just came across my e-mail.

Should the state dump the death penalty and use the money it saves to set up a unit to solve old murders and other crimes?

Ed Sealover reports:

House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, revived his bill that just missed passing the House in 2007. The threat of death does not deter people from committing murders, he said, and the $370,000 spent to prosecute those cases could be better spent on investigating unsolved murders.

Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, called it a fairness and equity issue, not a prelude to gay marriage.

Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, said she did not agree with the comments of her Republican colleagues, including one who quoted the Scriptures and linked homosexuality and murder as sins that should not be allowed by law.

But Spence noted that state workers are facing furloughs and going without raises to help close the budget gap. In light of that, she said, "I don't think this is the time" for a measure that would increase state government's health care costs.

"For gay and lesbian state employees, when is the right time?" Veiga asked.

How are editorial cartoonists treating President Barack Obama? Was the New York Post's "dead chimp" cartoon offensive?

Rocky editorial cartoonist Ed Stein will be online at 11 a.m. to talk about those issues and his work.

E-mail questions/comments in advance and join the chat here at 11.

Stein's response to the New York Post's controversial cartoon:

I normally don't like to weigh in on the drawings of other cartoonists, but the outrage sparked by the deranged chimp cartoon by Sean Delonas of the New York Post begs a comment. The cartoon in question shows two policemen and the body of chimpanzee full of bullet holes. One of the cops is saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

First off, I don't know Mr. Delonas. He may be a perfectly wonderful fellow; I generally enjoy the company of cartoonists, regardless of their political bent. I'm good buddies with Mike Ramirez and Scott Stantis, and get along famously with Mike Lester, three of the most rabidly conservative cartoonists in the land. So, trust that what I say isn't colored by any political bias.

I noticed down in the corner that my spyware alert had been triggered, which meant I was connected to the Internet, even though I hadn't opened a browser. Curious, I popped open Mozilla and up popped the Rocky's Web site. Not wanting to be responsible for some communications system failure, I closed the site and shut off my wireless receiver. I figured I'd stumbled into some rogue Wi-Fi signal floating through the skies.

Now I'm guessing it was a test of an inflight Internet service many airlines expect to begin offering soon.

Despite the industry's promises over the years, Wi-Fi broadband service is available on a relatively small number of flights. Blame technological hurdles, financial turmoil and a general reluctance by airlines to invest in upgrading their fleets.

The U.S. airline industry, though, now appears serious about moving forward with Wi-Fi in the sky.

President Barack Obama signed the economic recovery package in Denver but, at first blush, we're on the short end of the stimulus stick.

Burt Hubbard reports:

Colorado will get $7.89 billion, the equivalent of $1,597 per resident. That ranks 49th among the 50 states, surpassing only Utah in per capita spending and tax savings, according to a Rocky Mountain News analysis of a state-by- state breakdown by the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.

The top state: Alaska at $2,619 per person.

If you can't get tickets to the Stevie Winwood/Eric Clapton reunion, perhaps you can get your Sixties duo fix by attending a rally featuring William Ayers and Ward Churchill next month on the CU campus.

Lance Vaillancourt writes in the Colorado Daily:

Two of academia's most controversial left-wing figures -- ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers and fired University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill -- will share a stage on the Boulder campus next month.

Three CU student groups recruited Ayers, a lightning rod of controversy during the 2008 presidential election, to speak at an academic-freedom rally just days before Churchill's lawsuit against CU goes to trial.

"What we're trying to show with this event is that Ward Churchill is not alone in this," said Aaron Smith, a recent CU graduate and member of Students for True Academic Freedom.

A conservative group is attacking the administration's economic stimulus plan by invoking Jesus and the three wise men.

The American Issues Project, which briefly aired a TV spot in last year's presidential race, will go up on Friday with a TV spot that marks the dollars spent with the passage of time.

"Suppose you spent $1 million every single day starting from the day Jesus was born -- and kept spending through today," says the announcer as an image of the three wise men flashes on the screen. "A million dollars a day for more than 2,000 years. You would still have spent less money than Congress just did."

The New York Post is sorry if anyone was offended by this cartoon.

Critics say the cartoon links President Barack Obama to a raging chimpanzee shot dead by police in Connecticut. But the newspaper also says the image was exploited by its longtime antagonists.

After two days of protests, the paper posted an editorial on its Web site Thursday saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but "to those who were offended by the image, we apologize."