Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Tuesday, November 06, 2007

I-100 And Mason In The NY TIMES

Spending Trumps Social Issues on Ballots This Time


Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
Mason Tvert, a supporter of legal marijuana in Denver, where a ballot proposal would make marijuana arrests a lower priority

In Oregon, tobacco companies have spent more than $10 million to block a measure that would increase cigarette taxes by 84.5 cents a pack. The increase would be used to pay for health care for uninsured children. Supporters of the expanded health care coverage have raised almost $1.4 million, much of the money coming from hospitals and health insurance companies, and spent about $460,000 on television advertisements. The spending by both sides has made the ballot measure the most expensive in the state’s history.

Tobacco companies have waged equally aggressive fights in recent years in California and Missouri to defeat similar measures, though one such measure passed last year in Arizona despite efforts by the companies.

In Washington State, trial lawyers and insurance companies are battling a proposal to repeal a state law that allows consumers to seek triple damages in court against nonmedical insurers that unreasonably deny claims.

Oregon voters are also deciding whether to scale back a 2004 law requiring governments to compensate landowners for any loss in value caused by land-use regulations, or to waive those regulations.

So-called wedge issues are not entirely absent from Tuesday’s tickets.

In Texas, conservatives oppose the omission of a stem cell research ban in Proposition 15, a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to borrow $300 million a year over the next decade to finance cancer research.

In Hailey, Idaho, voters are faced with four initiatives that would legalize or decriminalize marijuana and direct city officials to lobby for the passage of similar measures statewide.

In Denver, an initiative would make the private use and possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 21 and older the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority. Supporters of the proposed initiative, which is similar to regulations in Seattle and Missoula County, Mont., say that the police have more pressing problems and that the use of small amounts of marijuana is less harmful than alcohol to adults.

Voters in Missoula will decide on a measure calling for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. If it is passed, Missoula would join more than 200 other cities and towns that have passed similar resolutions.


Ny Times

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Friends, this image is copyrighted by me and the New York Times. Please don't simply copy and post at will on a blog. There are legal and acceptable ways to display this image on your site that keeps control of the image with me and/or the Times.

If you contact me and can tell you how to do that. But copying the file to your web server is a distinct copyright violation.

Please remedy your policy on that.

Thank you,

Kevin Moloney

Pamela Clifton and Christie Donner said...

I am really sorry about that Kevin. Mason is a friend of mine, and I was just so excited about the article and the picture. I would love to know how to do that legally. Please forgive the obvious lack of process on my part.

Anonymous said...

Thanks much for the removal. The appropriate way to post an image seen elsewhere is to simply post its URL. Legally it's a bibliographic reference that way. You can "hotlink" it by entering the image's URL on the NYT server as the image reference (you might get it to actually appear that way without having a copy reside on your server), or simply posting the URL so readers can click their way there.

Thanks for the concern.

Anonymous said...

5
去年下半年以來的 酒店工作金融海嘯,不僅讓市井小民壓力沉重, 酒店上班就連專營高檔客層的精品商家,也都面臨不小的壓力, 寒假打工
甚至無力負擔商圈的房租,市場瀰漫著一股悲觀的氣氛。


隨著股市、房市 暑假打工的熱絡氣象,外界預期一些辛苦經營的精品店面、 酒店PT商圈,將順勢而起,不過,熟悉大台北商圈的欣元商仲總經理焦文華直言,目 禮服酒店前精品業者的經營還相當艱困,景氣反轉的力道並不如外界預期。


焦文華分析,精品商圈 兼差的經營,確實還是面臨消費力不足的困境。目前消費者物價指數已連續兩個月負成長(六、七月份),具體反映出消費力衰退的現象,高檔的珠寶、手錶、服飾等精品市場感受更深,部分店家業績 打工,更是過去高峰期的三分之一,業者稱得上是「苦撐待變」。


永慶店面事業部 台北酒店經紀經理李元鳳表示,精品商圈在金融海 酒店經紀嘯中確實面臨很大的壓力,且當時都無法預期景氣何時好轉 酒店打工,耗費數百萬元的裝潢成本,更迫使業者無法輕言放棄。以當時的天母SOGO商圈為例,就算距離天母SOG 酒店兼差O百貨的開幕已經不到半年的時間,但周邊店面的空置率仍高達二十%,顯示屋主與業者都存有濃厚的觀望心態,這 酒店兼職與過去市場會提前反映利多現象有顯著差異。


雖然精品業者辛苦經營,但是從喝花酒永慶店面事業部的統計數據來看,五大精品商圈的空置率在今年上半年皆有明顯下降,但是積極展店的業種,卻是以餐飲、零售等微利事業體,精品商圈交際應酬的「精品氣氛」,已逐漸稀釋。


不僅精品商圈的味道變了,過去勇於投資精品商圈的粉味投資客,追價的力道同樣大不如前。李元鳳表示,以台北市最廣為人知的「晶華酒店商圈」為例酒店喝酒,售價從二○○八年曾出現的每坪三百萬元的高檔價格,到今年平均一百八十萬至兩百五十萬元的水準,雖然店租行情波動不大,但也反映出目前買方出價的「保守」。


徐佳馨表示,從空置率數據來看,與去年狀況極差的第四季相比 酒店,精品商圈的空置率都出現明顯的下降,但由於各界對於景氣是否反彈仍有疑慮,因此就算租金與售價已開始蠢動,但是否能夠真實反映市場實況,仍存有許多變數。