To the Editor

As the host parents of the exchange student who was recently in the news, we would like to offer our sincere gratitude to the community of Berthoud for their tremendous kindness and support. 
Our exchange daughter had been the victim of a very violent attack in Germany several years ago that was never reported.  She re-enacted that crime here in Berthoud as a cry for help. While we all wish that she had found another way to tell us what she needed, we are relieved for her that she is finally going to have a chance to heal from that pain. She has returned to Germany to be with her family. 
We know that she is deeply sorry for any pain or harm she caused this community, and hopefully she will someday be able to express that herself.
 We are grateful to the Berthoud Police Department and the FBI for their professionalism and efforts to help this troubled young woman. We also wish to thank the Berthoud High School staff and student community for their compassion and kindness in a difficult and frightening situation. Berthoud truly is no place for hate.

Jen and Dan Rotar

See:

Berthoud High School foreign exchange student rescinds allegations about ‘hate crime’

To the Editor:

I am a candidate from South Loveland for the Little Thompson Water District board to serve as a voice for customers, including seniors, on future water policies and rate-setting including the issue of water for fracking purposes if it comes at the expense of other customers or leads to a rise in rates.

Currently I am on the Advisory Board of the Larimer County Office on Aging and “graduated” from Larimer County 101 in 2011, a class run by the county to encourage more informed citizens who would be a resource on local boards. I have a college degree in Economics (Business), a teaching degree (MAT) in American history, and a doctorate in History. I am comfortable with analyzing budgets. 

The last election for the water board was in 2006 election and was decided by fewer than 100 people bothering to vote in a district stretching from County Road 20 in Larimer County to County Road 5 in Weld County and including portions of northern Boulder County. All water customers may vote for any candidate but candidates must live in certain district.

I am in a three-way race in Ward 6.

I am urging readers to vote in person May 8 at the Little ThompsonWater District Office where you drop off your water payment– 835 East Hwy 56, just east of L & M, a mere quarter mile west of the town of Berthoud.

Senator Lundberg is trying to make “political hay” on a non-issue. It is true that approximately 400,000 non-profits lost their status when they did not heed the notices about the need to start submitting annual reports to the IRS. However, as a board member a local non-profit, I know that our treasurer received the notice and found it easy to comply and there was no problem. I continued making the reports after she retired.

Another organization, of which I am a member, did not pay attention to the IRS notice and lost its status. Three years does seem to be an adequate amount of time for compliance, but this organization was one of the 400,000. I assisted in filling out the form for reinstatement and found that while not simple, it was not terribly difficult. The fee for reinstatement was reduced from $400 to $100.

Some of the non-profits that lost their status had ceased to function and needed to be culled from the rolls. Others were not paying attention to their financial business and are now apparently whining about their own mistakes.

The granting of tax benefits to non-profits under article 501c is an important function of the IRS and the agency needs to monitor and regulate the “industry” so that charity really is charity. There have been numerous instances of people taking advantage of the non-profit status for personal gain. I would not agree that the IRS is over-regulating the non-profit groups. The report itself is very easy to do online and it only takes a few minutes.

Senator Lundberg has apparently had some complaints from organizations that lost their status and is now trying to turn this in to an issue of “government overregulation.” I have much more experience in the non-profit world that Kevin Lundberg and will state that strong, efficiently run organizations had no problem with the IRS rules. The others now want Senator Lundberg to bail them out with out having to do the work the rest of us have done.

Lundberg is not looking out for the little guy, he is looking out for Lundberg. Perhaps he should try to do something a bit more useful with his time.

IRS Looks To Make The Non-Profit A Non-Factor
Senator Kevin Lundberg Watches Out For The Little Guy

Loveland, CO., April 27, 2012 – Colorado State Senator and U.S. Congressional Candidate, Kevin Lundberg, has introduced a measure in the Colorado State Senate urging Congress to fix IRS regulations that has revoked the tax-exempt status of a large number of small non-profit charities across the country.

Senator Kevin Lundberg said, “Tens of thousands of non-profits across the country have been put out of business because the IRS changed the rules and didn’t give them proper notice. Congress needs to fix what they have broken.”

Lundberg’s measure urges Congress to fix IRS reporting procedures for small non-profit organizations to ensure that their tax-exempt status would not be unfairly revoked.

Since 2006, over 400,000 non-profit organizations have had their tax-exempt status revoked, many of which because of this poorly executed addition to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

In 2005, a report was issued to Congress by the Panel on the Non-Profit Sector and recommended that small non-profit organizations be required to submit an annual report to the IRS. The panel’s recommendation stated that organizations that do not comply within a reasonable amount of time should have their tax-exempt status suspended.

In 2006, Congress adopted the Pension Protection Act that was based in part on the panel’s recommendations. The act requires that an affected organization’s tax-exempt status “be considered revoked” after failing to file a report for three consecutive years, even though the panel’s recommendation was that the organization’s status only be suspended.

The new and unfamiliar filing regulations were poorly executed and poorly communicated. The IRS claimed that they would send notifications to affected organizations prior to any revocation of their status. The truth is that many were not contacted until after the fact, and in some cases had to simply shut their doors because they were no longer in compliance.

Although it is not unreasonable to expect non-profits to submit such a report, it is only fair that they be given proper notice. And in the case that their tax-exempt status is revoked, they ought to be afforded a simple process to become compliant and regain their prior status.

In a society where government entitlement programs are growing out of control, small non-profits provide a valuable service to their communities and should be allowed to operate without undue regulation from the federal government. It is time to send someone to Washington who will focus on protecting our liberty and our freedom rather than eroding the principles of self-responsibility by over-regulation.

The complete measure Senator Lundberg has introduced can be found at: http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2012a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont/D4605D343E364AAA872579C600650A46?Open&file=SJM003_01.pdf

Colorado State Senator Kevin Lundberg is a candidate for the 2nd Congressional District of Colorado. For more information on Kevin’s campaign visit: http://www.Lundberg2012.com.

21 February 2012

Dear Editor:

It is not just wishful thinking that states can live without the death penalty. Generally, states that do not have capital punishment have lower homicide rates than states that have capital punishment.

People of New Testament times need to consider what Jesus did when asked about the legality of divorce. Jesus was aware of His present time and of what the law stated, but He referenced a time before the law was ever given to reveal what God’s intentions were/are for humanity (Mt. 19:3-8).

For the sake of our Protestant brethren in Colorado, I promise not to bring up the whole Henry VIII affair, but the example of what Jesus did regarding divorce is also valid for capital punishment. We only need to go back and to examine what God did about the very first homicide.

After Cain killed Abel, God put a seal on Cain so that no human being would presume to execute him (Gen. 4:15). Execution is God’s domain – not man’s.

This is the ideal of what God intended/intends for humanity even for today. Cain became a wanderer, but society today can not have killers on the loose. This is why we have jails. Incarceration is enough. The law of love leads one to choose life instead of death.

Until the saints come marching in, and I am not just referring to the ones down in New Orleans, we all have work to do. Colorado, please pray the little prayer at www.de-vrouwe.info every day, and please abolish the death penalty.

“Society will never learn to respect human life when the state hypocritically kills those who have killed.” “The violence of capital punishment only begets more violence.”

Let the Coloradoan without sin be the first to put the lethal needle in!

Sincerely,

Matthew R. Dunnigan

00193 Roma
Italia

My post on Heartland Institute has generated a great deal of comment both on the comment section and around the blogosphere. See Heartland Panics Over Leak: 71 Year Old Vet, Young Mom Fire Back at Threats.

Most of the comments are positive, several are attacking, but I approve all that do not have offensive language. So far everyone has been relatively civil compared to what I read at other sites. I want to thank you all for that.

Two comments have come in by email and I will share those here a Letter to the editor

The first was to Heartland president Mr. Bast and copied to me. Reprinted with permission:

Mr. Bast.

You, sir, are, in my opinion, a turd.  Your organization is a cesspool.  Please forward this to the FBI.  I’d love my opinion of you and your organization to be on file somewhere.  Then let history judge.

Sincerely,

KCA

p.s.  I’d love as well for you to contact my attorney.  His name is Jeff Ruch.  He is executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.  His email is jruch@peer.org.  You might be hearing quite a lot from him and his organization in future.  I certainly hope so.

Dr. Kelly Anspaugh
Department of English
OSU-Lima

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.  –John Milton

The second letter scolds me. It is from a Mr. Dave Burton who follows his name with an impressive series of letters and numbers that are meaningless to me. Perhaps someone can decode for me. It appears that he uses IPCC to try to attach him self to that organization, but the “Expert Reviewer” makes me think he is a denier who reviews the work of IPCC to discredit it. Any helpers here. In my carear as a pilot, FOD meant Foreign Object Damage. I wonder if that is what it means here. Any suggestions on how to respond to Mr. Burton. At least he had the politeness to address me by my title.

Dear Col. Wamsley,

It seems to me that if you were a decent sort of fellow, you’d apologize for believing the forged document, for jumping to a conclusion which wrongly assumed the worst about Heartland, and (of course) for accusing the good folks at Heartland of treason, ofdestroying our nation, and of destroying the planet. Really, after tossing off such outrageous insults, the surprising thing is that the reply you received from Bast was as gentle as it was.

I do agree with you that such insults, vile as they are, aren’t threats.  Bast was wrong to so characterize them.  But if someone accusedyou of treason, of destroying our nation, and of destroying the planet, how gentle do you think you would be in your reply?

I also think that you should show some gratitude to Heartland and their donors for the wonderful work they do, which benefits all Americans.  Have you actually read any of their work?  It is excellent!  I highly recommend to you that you invest the time to study some of it.  If you do, you will surely learn a great deal.

Sincerely yours,

Dave Burton

IPCC AR5 WG1 FOD Expert Reviewer
Member, NC Sea Level Rise Impact Study Advisory Committee

Here is another interesting link. When James at Pathteacher sent an email to Heartland questioning their 5o1(c)3 status he got a most interesting answer from Dian Bast. Insulting rather than threatening. This post give additional credence to the plan to brainwash teachers.

http://pathteacheroneword.blogspot.com/2012/02/heartland-institute-more-lobbyists-with.html

 

Dear Editor,

As the deadline nears for health insurance companies to return nearly $1.4 billion to consumers for wasting our money, the lobbyists have moved in to stop it.

Two bills have surfaced in Congress to undermine our rebates, putting most of the money we deserve right back into insurance company pockets!

We’re not going to let the lobbyists have their way. We need you, and anyone you know who’s concerned about skyrocketing health insurance costs, to join us.

Tell Congress: Hold the health insurance companies accountable. It’s our money!

One of the most pro-consumer rules in the national health reform law is aimed squarely at how insurance companies spend our money. If an insurance company spends more than 20 percent of our premium dollars on their CEO salaries, paperwork, marketing and sales costs, we get a rebate, or lower rates.

The deadline for the first round of rebate checks is August 1. And it’s estimated insurers owe 9 million Americans nearly $1.4 billion! That’s a REAL incentive for companies to tighten their belts and get costs under control – just like the rest of us are having to do.

We’re launching a nationwide campaign to support this common-sense rule in health reform and prevent it from being gutted by lobbyists and others. If you’ve ever been frustrated by a health insurance company that seems accountable to no one, now is the time to speak out.

Send your message now! It’s time consumer voices drown out the lobbyists!

This is shaping up as an epic battle, because we know the insurance companies don’t want to give our money back. Please take action, and stay engaged with us as we continue to fight for value in health insurance.

Sincerely,
DeAnn Friedholm, PrescriptionforChange.org
Consumers Union, Policy and Action from Consumer Reports
1101 17th Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036

To The Editor

Dear Editor,

How can it be that a year has passed since Mom died?

After a two-decades long descent into dementia, dependence, and debilitation, Dorothy is free from Alzheimer’s, but her survivors are not. Alzheimer’s continues to devastate us, infecting our every memory of this beautiful, beloved person.

As if this long, slow goodbye were not awful enough, the disease’s after effects are nth degree atrocious. When Mom died on Jan. 26, 2011, part of me was grateful her suffering was over; the other part had no idea then how ours would continue.

I have since vowed I will do what I can to help others avoid the physical, financial, and psychological trauma that is Alzheimer’s.

How?

Two words: aggressive advocacy.

A year ago on Jan. 4, Alzheimer’s activists were instrumental in moving a bitterly divided, bipartisan Congress to unanimously pass the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA). More than 50,000 emails, nearly 10,000 phone calls, and 1,000-plus meetings led legislators to agree the only way to overcome the escalating Alzheimer’s crisis is to create a coordinated national plan of action.

A draft of said strategy awaits your input at www.napa.alz.org. 

While online there, please contact Representative Cory Gardner, and Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, and let them know they mustn’t allow either the Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act or the HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act to languish for another session. Their immediate co-sponsorship and our collective voices will make a difference in 2012.

The millions living and dying with Alzheimer’s can’t wait for another anniversary to pass.

Brenda Rader Mross, Ambassador
Alzheimer’s Association Northern Colorado Chapter

Welcome the passage of Senate Bill 1867 and the police state.  No hearings were held and this passed under the guise of “our security.”Our government now has the right to detain and imprison American civilians indefinitely WITHOUT charges or due process.  Guilty until proven innocent is now the American way. This bill is the final step necessary to strike down any remaining Constitutional protections.

We have fusions centers all over the country gathering information on all citizens from all different sources.  These fusion centers have no oversight. Everythingyou do and own is tracked, including your financial transactions. We fear the IRS whose power is unrestrained in attaching citizens’ resources. We have FEMA camps that have been built all over the US, with barbed wire facing inward, guard station, restricted access, cameras, and plenty of coffins.  Sounds ominous, doesn’t it?

We have failed ventures (Solyndra) and illegal activities (Fast & Furious) being covered up, government officials taking advantage of insider information to enrich themselves.  All this is being done with OUR money.  These actions are all worthy of impeachment proceedings.

Where is the outrage? Nothing will change unless we clean out Congress and create TERM LIMITS to get rid of them.  We should be asking ourselves why does hardly anyone know about the Get Out of Our House (goooh.com) movement  which will allow us to do just that and why isn’t the press reporting on it?

K. Burson
Houston, Texas

This was a very bad idea! The amount withheld from your paycheck (matched by your employer) is not a “tax,” but a contribution to your Social Security retirement benefits. If you don’t pay in during those quarters, it reduces the benefits you will receive upon retirement. Ask the Social Security Administration for a calculation of your estimated benefits (which are based on how much you pay-in) and you will see what I mean!

This “tax holiday,” like all holidays, costs you in the long run.  The reason that Social Security contributions were made mandatory was because a large portion of the population is too shortsighted to save for retirement on their own.  Where will your “stored harvest” be when you’re ready to retire?  That $1,000 per year that you don’t contribute today will mean money you won’t get tomorrow!

Furthermore, this “holiday,” in reality, further depletes an already broke system. And, by the way, now that we’ve experienced this “holiday,” how hard do you suppose it is going to be to re-institute this “non-tax”?

Do you see the absence of wisdom…Grasshopper?

Joseph Dion (Retired Attorney/CPA)
Masonville, Colorado