A young man walks along Colfax Avenue past a sign advertising "premium medical marijuana" at nearby Serenity Moon Wellness Center in Denver.

And what if, with the click of a mouse, you could find out how many medical marijuana dispensaries were near the schools you care about?
With the I-News Network, you can do all this.
I-News and two network partners – Education News Colorado and Health Policy Solutions – have analyzed several sets of data and interviewed dozens of school and district officials, healthcare workers and, yes, students across the state to help show you what’s happening with schools and marijuana.
What we found is alarming:

• Drug incidents in schools are up dramatically, even while suspensions for other reasons have dropped.
• Students say medical marijuana is relatively easy to get and they prefer it for interesting reasons.
• Suburban and rural districts, and even elementary students, are not immune.

You can get this in-depth information here. But you can also find it among our many media partners throughout Colorado.
In January, the U.S. Justice Department gave some medical marijuana facilities until Feb. 27 to move out of the federal drug-free zones set within 1,000 feet of all schools. The U.S. Attorney says more warnings are coming.
And more coverage of this issue is coming, too, from I-News and its partners.
We’d like to hear what questions you want answered. Feel free to post them below, or send a direct email to us.

Indispensary in Colorado Springs, which is located about a block from Palmer High School, may be one of 25 medical marijuana dispensaries targeted by federal authorities for closure.

A letter, with redactions, sent by U.S. Attorney John Walsh to 23 marijuana stores in Colorado.

“When the voters of Colorado passed the limited medical marijuana amendment in 2000, they could not have anticipated that their vote would be used to justify large marijuana stores located within blocks of our schools,” Walsh said.
Federal authorities are working to identify all marijuana stores within 1,000 feet of a school, he said, and today’s warnings “are merely a first step to address this issue.”
“The office will continue to insist marijuana stores near schools shut down,” he said.
Walsh cited data showing many school districts in Colorado “have seen a dramatic increase in student abuse of marijuana, with resulting student suspensions and discipline” since medical marijuana facilities opened.
An ongoing joint investigation by Education News Colorado, Solutions and the I-News Network found a 44 percent jump in all drug-related incidents at K-12 schools statewide over the past four years. That increase occurred from the 2008-09 school year through 2010-11.
The figures from the Colorado Department of Education don’t specify the drugs involved, but several school and health officials interviewed across Colorado attributed the increase to marijuana use.

“We’ve really seen our numbers go up,” said Judy Mueller with YouthZone, a Glenwood Springs non-profit that works to keep young offenders out of juvenile court. “It is medical marijuana that their friends or friends’ parents got. They’re telling us it’s easy to get. They’re getting it from an adult’s stash.”
The investigation also found that other dispensaries could be targeted under the crackdown. As many as 56 medical marijuana facilities in Colorado are located within 1,000 feet of a school, according to an I-News analysis of school addresses and licenses issued to more than 700 medical marijuana facilities statewide.
Today’s action sets up a potential showdown between federal and local authorities, though legal experts agree that federal law – which clearly states marijuana is illegal – trumps local law.
Federal law also imposes enhanced penalties for any drug use within 1,000 feet of a school.
State law recommends a 1,000-foot buffer between medical marijuana facilities and schools, drug rehabilitation centers and child care centers. But the law allowed local authorities to set their own rules.
So Colorado Springs, for example, allows marijuana facilities within 400 feet of schools while Denver has several closer than 1,000 feet. Those facilities have been allowed to continue operating because they opened before the state law was enacted.
Among other findings of the joint investigation:

• Up to 45 public schools are within 1,000 feet of a medical marijuana facility. The range — depending on how you measure the distance — is from 31 to 45. Because there are multiple medical marijuana facilities near some schools, the total number of medical marijuana facilities within 1,000 feet of Colorado schools is up to 56.
• Most of the schools closest to dispensaries are in Denver and Colorado Springs. For example, North High School in Denver and Palmer High School in Colorado Springs have marijuana facilities within 1,000 feet.
• Overall, 370 of the 1,692 public school buildings in Colorado lie within a mile of a medical marijuana dispensary or product infusion manufacturer. That’s 22 percent – or between one-fourth and one-fifth of all schools.

Rumored for weeks, the Colorado crackdown follows similar federal action in California.
Colorado medical marijuana industry officials had hoped that they would dodge federal enforcement because they say the state tightly regulates the marijuana industry.
Mike Elliott, executive director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, which describes itself as the largest and most influential group in the state, said people in the industry support regulation.
“We are looking into the situation now. We fully support keeping regulated substances out of the hands of unauthorized users and schools,” Elliott said in a written statement.
“Towards that end, MMIG is in the process of putting together, and will announce soon, the details of a public education campaign to help educate medical marijuana patients about how to keep their medicine safe and secure.”
School officials welcomed the news of a crackdown.
About the data:
The analysis compared the locations of public schools in Colorado compiled by the state Department of Education to the addresses of medical marijuana dispensaries and infused product manufacturers from the Colorado Department of Revenue using ARCview GIS software and its geocoding technology. Not all marijuana facilities could be mapped because of problems with the addresses. Duplicate schools at the same physical address were not counted twice and online schools were not included in the analysis. Using the GIS software, the analysis electronically calculated the distances between schools and marijuana addresses.

It calculated a range of schools that could be within a 1,000 feet of a medical marijuana facility since the software calculates distances between addresses and the state law measures from property line to property line.

“We are supportive of the law as written and are glad to see the U.S. Attorney enforcing the buffer zone,” said Antonio Esquibel, executive director of the West Denver Network Schools, including North High School.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, has tried to pin down the U.S. Attorney General regarding federal enforcement of medical marijuana businesses that comply with state law.
Polis released a statement today saying that he supports keeping dispensaries at least 1,000 feet away from schools.
 
“Both federal and Colorado law state that dispensaries are not allowed within 1,000 feet of schools, which is a policy that makes sense, that I support, and with which all businesses should comply,” Polis said. “The Justice Department has repeatedly made clear that dispensaries that are in compliance with state law are not an enforcement priority. Colorado’s tough system of medical marijuana regulation is the best way to keep drugs out of the hands of minors.”

National and local studies in Colorado show that marijuana use among minors is on the rise.

Dr. Chris Thurstone, who runs a drug and alcohol treatment program at Denver Health, said nearly all of the young people in his program are addicted to marijuana. He walked around East and North high schools in Denver and was shocked at the number of dispensaries located near the schools.

Thurstone can’t prove the proximity of dispensaries has caused the spike in marijuana abuse among his patients, he said, but he cited research showing teen marijuana use rises when it’s easily available, socially acceptable and perceived not to be harmful.

“There’s been lots of debate about how close to a school it should be,” Thurstone said. “Should it be 500 feet, 1,000 feet? Should we grandfather in the people who are already there? It kind of blows my mind that that’s a debate.”

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Audio of Christian Thurstone, Medical Director of the Substance Abuse Treatment, Education and Prevention Program at Denver Health and Hospital Authority, discusses his views about medical marijuana dispensaries near schools. (1 min., 26 seconds)


Download the AIFF file: (Control or option click to save the file) Christian Thurstone [15.7 megabytes]
Get the embed code here: Audio embed code

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PDF of the letter, with redactions, sent by U.S. Attorney John Walsh to 23 marijuana stores in Colorado. Download the PDF: (Control or option click to save the file) U.S. Attorney letter

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I-News Video Clip

Direct download a 1440×1280 HD version of this video: Christian Thurstone video [29.8 megabytes]
Direct link to this video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/TinfcF9c4Tg

Colorado income changes 1999-2010

By Burt Hubbard
I-News Network
Coloradans who felt their paychecks weren’t going as far this past decade were right.

The state saw a 9% decline in household buying power since 2000, according to an I-News analysis of newly released U.S. Census Bureau survey data.

The hit was widespread – felt in two of every three counties. One of the state’s richest counties – Pitkin County, which is home to Aspen – led the loss with a 17% drop in household buying power since 2000.

At the same time, poverty rates rose in every county, with children being especially hard hit. Overall, one in six Colorado kids lives in poverty. But in a third of the state’s counties, child poverty rates are so high that now more than one in five kids is living in poverty.

The survey also showed that education levels edged up during the decade and the portion of foreign-born residents remained relatively flat.

The data are the result of a five-year survey of demographics from income to education, conducted between 2006 and 2010. It provides information on all of Colorado cities, places and counties. I-News compared the data to demographic information from the 2000 Census.

The analysis found:

• Overall declines in median household income during the decade. About 64% of the state’s cities and places – 221 of 344 – showed drops after adjusting for inflation. Two thirds of the state’s counties posted drops in buying power led by Pitkin County, with a 17% decline. Most of the counties that saw real gains in income were in oil and gas counties on the Western Slope. Weld County was the only county along the Front Range to show a gain in incomes, but it was less than half a percent.
• Overall poverty rates rose in all the state’s 63 counties (Broomfield was not a county in 2000) and in about two thirds of the cities and places. As a result, about one third of the state’s cities, places and counties had 20% or more of their children living in poverty at the end of the decade. That was up from about one fourth in 2000.
• Education levels rose across the board during the decade. About two thirds of the cities and places and 90% of the counties saw the percent of high school and college graduates rise over the decade. As a result the number of cities and counties where at least half the adults have college degrees rose from 44 in 2000 to 55 in the later part of the decade. The highest rate was in Cherry Hills Village at 81%. Among counties, Pitkin had the largest percent of college graduates – 60 percent – and Crowley County had the lowest – 12 percent.
• There are more native Coloradans. More than half of the state’s cities, places and counties saw an increase in the number of residents born and raised in the state since 2000. Among Front Range counties, Weld County had the highest percentage of natives – 52%. Pitkin County had the lowest – 22 percent.
• The percentage of foreign-born residents remained steady during the decade with about half of the cities, counties and places showing increases since 2000 and half showing declines the percent of foreign born. The highest percentage of foreign-born residents were found on the Western Slope. Eagle County led the state with 20 percent and Avon led among cities with 43 percent. Among metro area counties, Denver was the only one showing a decline in the percent of foreign born, dropping slightly to 17 percent.

(Updated: A spreadsheet that shows poverty, education levels and the percent of foreign born living within the boundaries of Colorado’s school districts has been added to this post. See below.)

Download the household income data in Microsoft Excel format:

Colorado county survey data
Colorado city survey data

Download the marital data in Microsoft Excel format:
Marital Data

Download the school district data in Microsoft Excel format:
School District Data

The workshop is specially designed for Colorado journalists working in digital media and is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

To attend, please RSVP to I-News director Laura Frank.

When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011
Where: I-News offices at 1089 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80204

Feel free to come for any or all of the sessions. Bring a sack lunch for the noontime session.

I-News

Schedule:

10:00-11:00        
Preventing and fighting defamation claims
• Elements of defamation
• Defenses
• 230(c) Immunity
• Anti-SLAPP in Colorado
• Handling retractions

11:05-12:05
Gaining access to federal and state records/meetings
• Federal FOIA and Sunshine Law
• Colorado open records/meetings laws

12:15-1:15 (please feel free to bring and eat lunch during this program)
Gaining access to court records and proceedings
• Right of access to records
• Courtroom closures
• Reporting from inside the courtroom

1:20-2:00
Copyright law
• Copyright basics
• Fair Use/Creative Commons
• DMCA protections
• Website copyright/privacy policies

2:00-3:00
Responding to government controls
• Subpoenas/Shield law (traditional & for anonymous posters)
• “Newsroom” searches
• Prior restraints/gag orders

One of every six Coloradans has no health insurance – a figure that has grown more than 20 percent in the past two years alone, a new statewide survey finds.

UNINSURED: Western Colorado has the highest rates of residents without health insurance.

In addition, more workers lack health insurance and fewer Coloradans reported having a regular place to go when they’re sick or need health care advice.
“We’ve lost ground,” said Ned Calonge, who recently left his post as chief medical officer at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to become president and chief operating officer at The Colorado Trust, a foundation focused on improving Coloradans’ access to health.
Calonge presented the results today [Nov. 15, 2011] of the Colorado Health Access Survey, a statewide survey of more than 10,000 households sponsored every two years by The Colorado Trust and administered by the nonprofit Colorado Health Institute.
Growing health insurance costs, the weak economy and high unemployment are the likely causes for the negative trends, said Michelle Lueck, who heads the Colorado Health Institute.
The trends should worry both health care consumers and policymakers, Calonge and Lueck said.
Nearly 830,000 Coloradans lack health insurance – an increase of 150,000 people since 2009.
“It would be as if the entire city of Grand Junction lost health insurance all at once, or as if all the cities on the Arkansas River suddenly had no health insurance,” Calonge said of the increase. “It’s a serious issue.”
Add to that the number of underinsured Coloradans and nearly one in three state residents is affected. People are considered underinsured when they have insurance but can’t afford out-of-pocket costs that amount to at least 10 percent of their income – or 5 percent for those living in poverty.

UNDERINSURED: Coloradans who are underinsured have insurance, but the insurance and their incomes don't cover the costs of medically necessary services

That means some 1.5 million Coloradans are either uninsured or underinsured – about as many people as live in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and Grand Junction combined.
Lueck said it would be difficult to estimate an exact cost for the growing numbers of uninsured in the state. However, a 2009 University of Denver study estimated Colorado lost between $1.8 billion and $3.9 billion in productivity and lost work hours because of uninsured workers’ illnesses and untreated conditions.
The new data reveal health insurance disparities among certain populations in Colorado. For example, while census figures show 20 percent of the state’s population is Hispanic, they make up more than 33 percent of the uninsured.
The highest rates of uninsured are in western Colorado, where Mesa County was the only area that didn’t top 20 percent uninsured. Officials say the large number of small employers and seasonal workers on the Western Slope leaves many uninsured.
In eastern Colorado, only two regions topped 20 percent uninsured. Those were the Denver-Adams County area, and the region that includes the counties of Elbert, Lincoln, Kit Carson and Cheyenne.
Douglas County had the lowest rate of uninsured in the state, with 7 percent, followed by Boulder County at 9 percent.
Cost was by far the top reason people are uninsured, the survey found. Nearly 85 percent of uninsured Coloradans said they lacked health insurance because it was too expensive. The next most common reason, at nearly 41 percent, was that an employee couldn’t get insurance through work. That was followed by job loss or job change at 39 percent.
The survey also looked at whether people have a regular source of health care, such as a primary care physician.
Weld County and the southwest part of the state reported the highest rates of residents without a usual source of care. Mesa and Douglas counties reported the lowest.

This year, more Coloradans reported they lacked a regular place to go when they are sick

About 30,000 people die every year in Colorado. Studies show half those deaths are preventable, and that health insurance would save lives, Calonge said. Coloradans without health insurance face a 40 percent higher risk of dying prematurely than those with private health insurance, a 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated.
“People who are uninsured don’t get the preventative or chronic illness services they need,” Calonge said. “That impacts their chances for a long and healthy life.”

Download maps that illustrate the data.

These are some of the results of the 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey, which polled more than 10,000 state households about health insurance and access to care. The survey is sponsored every two years by The Colorado Trust and is intended to help set public health policy.

Map: Percent of Uninsured in Colorado

Control-click [PC] or Option-click [Mac] to download the target file.

Western Colorado has the highest rates of residents without health insurance, according to new data from the Colorado Health Access Survey. The rates are shown for the state’s 21 health statistics regions, which state officials developed to use for public health planning services.Source: 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey, I-News Network

• High resolution (200dpi) JPG map
• Encapsulated PostScript file
• Adobe Illustrator file

Map: Percent of Underinsured in Colorado

This year, more Coloradans reported they lacked a regular place to go when they are sick or need health care advice than in 2009. Residents of Douglas and Mesa counties were most likely to have a usual source of care.Source: 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey, I-News Network
Control-click [PC] or Option-click [Mac] to download the target file.

• High resolution (200dpi) JPG map
• Encapsulated PostScript file
• Adobe Illustrator file

Map: Unusual source for health care.

This year, more Coloradans reported they lacked a regular place to go when they are sick or need health care advice than in 2009. Residents of Douglas and Mesa counties were most likely to have a usual source of care.Source: 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey, I-News Network
Control-click [PC] or Option-click [Mac] to download the target file.

• High resolution (200dpi) JPG map
• Encapsulated PostScript file
• Adobe Illustrator file

Links:

See how some of our media partners used this report:

Health Policy Solutions

Colorado Springs Gazette

CSAP Results: More than 80,000 students are substandard in reading, and the percent not catching up rose this year. Photo by Joe Mahoney/I-News

Thousands of Colorado school children are behind in math, reading, writing and science – and they might never catch up.

This week, I-News helped our media partners throughout Colorado tell the story.

I-News analyzed data from the Colorado Student Assessment Program for our media partners.The CSAP data are thousands of numbers that show how students in grades 3 through 10 perform in reading, writing, math and science. I-News boiled the numbers down, then shared them with our media partners statewide.

Here’s some of what we found:

Nearly 87 percent of Colorado public school students who fail to meet state education standards in math are not on pace to catch up, according to an I-News analysis of the latest standardized testing results.

More than 100,000 public school students in Colorado are not on track to become proficient in math or writing within three years, or by the time they reach the 10th grade.

More than 80,000 students are substandard in reading, and the percent not catching up rose this year.

Jo O’Brien, assistant commissioner of standards and assessments for the Colorado Department of Education, said the state is trying to develop new strategies to help students who can’t catch up.

“We’ve gone as far as we can go,” O’Brien said. “Students not scoring proficient can’t seem to rise and tend to stay behind through graduation. We believe the new business of education will be centered around the students who are in the catchup category.”

An I-News analysis of the state’s scores on how well schools are advancing students to meet the state standards found:

• 134,681 students, or 86.5% of those who scored unsatisfactory or partially proficient, were not on track to achieve proficiency in state standards in math within three years or by the time they reach the 10th grade. Last year, 87% were not on pace to achieve proficiency.

• 122,853 students, or 72% of those not meeting state writing standards, were not on pace to catch up. Despite the high numbers, it was an improvement over last year when 76% were not on track to reach writing proficiency.

• 80,999 students, or 71% of deficient students in reading, were not on pace to reach proficiency. That was an increase from 65% last year.

Four of every five school districts in the state (81 percent) made gains in the portion of their students who scored proficient at meeting state reading standards between 1997 and 2011. But those gains have stalled in the past five years. (Photo by Joe Mahoney/I-News)

More Colorado public school children are meeting state education standards for reading than they were 15 years ago, but fewer are excelling at the subject, an I-News Network analysis of new school testing scores shows.

State education officials today (Aug. 3) released scores for the standardized Colorado Student Assessment Program tests – known as CSAPs – which showed the portion of fourth graders in state public schools who meet or surpass state reading requirements has risen 10 percentage points since testing began a decade and a half ago.

An I-News analysis of those data show the gains appear to have stalled recently, though.

Most reading gains came in the first decade of testing, the analysis shows. And most school districts, including some of the largest, have actually seen their students’ reading scores drop since 2006.

This marks the fifteenth year Colorado has tested fourth grade reading and writing in its public schools. The state is revamping its testing program next year.

The I-News Network analyzed 15 years of data and found:

• More students meet reading standards. Four of every five school districts in the state (81 percent) made gains in the portion of their students who scored proficient at meeting state reading standards between 1997 and 2011.

• Advanced reading scores suffered. Nearly two of every three districts (64 percent) saw an actual drop in the portion of children scoring advanced in reading since CSAPs began.

• Reading gains are stalled. Almost all the reading gains came in the first 10 years of testing, with most districts either stagnating or falling slightly since 2006.

The portion of fourth graders scoring advanced in reading fell or stagnated in about 80 percent of the districts, or four out of every five. Some of the biggest drops were posted by some of the highest scoring districts. Academy 20 in El Paso County saw a 4 percentage point fall, Cherry Creek fell five percentage points, Littleton dropped three percentage points, Douglas County fell two percentage points, Poudre Valley in Larimer County fell two percentage points and Boulder Valley dropped one percentage point.

Denver was among the 20 percent of districts to show a gain in the portion of students scoring advanced in fourth grade reading, rising one percentage point over the 15 years.

One in three districts reduced the percent of students scoring “unsatisfactory” in reading.

State officials are most concerned with what they call “passing” scores: Combining both proficient and advanced. Statewide, the percent of students scoring either proficient or advanced in fourth grade reading has risen 10 percentage points in the past decade and a half, to 65 percent.

But since 2006, the portion of students with a passing fourth grade reading score has dropped three percentage points. Among the largest districts, these saw an overall decline in reading scores between 2006 and 2011: Douglas County, Colorado Springs, Greeley, Five Star in Adams County, St. Vrain, Boulder Valley, and Academy 20.

For fourth grade writing, the other test administered in all 15 years of the CSAPs, there also was a gap between gains in proficient scores and gains in advanced scores, though it was not as dramatic as the reading score gap. From 1997 to 2011, 89 percent of the districts showed gains in overall proficiency compared to 59 percent of the districts showing gains in the percent of students scoring advanced.

Districts also did much better in reducing the percent of students scoring unsatisfactory in writing, with 92 percent of the districts posting declines in unsatisfactory scores.

A growing number of companies in Colorado and nationwide are joining an elite corporate club that lets members avoid regular federal safety inspections.

Called the Voluntary Protection Program, it is run by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration and is supposed to be limited to companies with exemplary safety records.

But some of those companies remain in the program despite serious safety violations – even death – a joint investigation by I-News and the Washington-based news organization Center for Public Integrity has found.

I-News collaborated on this workplace safety investigation with its fellow INN member newsroom at the Center for Public Integrity. Read more about CPI’s finding Model Workplaces, Imperiled Workers

Nationwide, at least 65 percent of companies in the program retained their special status even after a worker had been killed on the job. That’s what happened last year with Sturgeon Electric in Henderson, just northeast of Denver.

On the morning of Jan. 15, 2010, 53-year-old Ross Thompson and a Sturgeon coworker were installing electrical lines in Broomfield.

The boom holding the aerial bucket they were in collapsed. Thompson was thrown from the bucket as it crashed on top of the utility truck below. He died at the scene.

In the case of Thompson’s death, the subsequent OSHA investigation cited the company for two safety violations – including one that was a repeat violation.

OSHA officials told I-News that Sturgeon deserved to stay in the program because of the circumstances surrounding the accident, its response to the incident and its overall safety record.

An investigator examines a bucket truck that failed Jan. 15, 2010 at Broomfield Plaza shopping center at 120th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard. (Broomfield Enterprise | Dylan Otto Krider via The Denver Post)

Gary Engen, vice president and chief legal counsel with Sturgeon, said the company welcomed OSHA’s decision.

“I think the company certainly deserves to be in the program,” Engen said.
“I think the company has a good safety record.”

The program – known as VPP – began in 1982, but has grown rapidly in recent years. In Colorado, the number of companies admitted to the program more than doubled in the past four years. It’s now at 29, and includes companies that employ hundreds of Coloradans, such as Coors Distributing Company and the Bechtel Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Plant.

In the case of Thompson’s death at Sturgeon Electric, the subsequent OSHA investigation cited the company for two violations. According to OSHA documents, the crew had exceeded the weight limits for the aerial buckets by 183 pounds, and crew members had not used proper restraints that would have prevented Thompson from being ejected from the bucket.

The agency initially proposed $25,200 in fines for the safety violations, but later reduced those by half to $12,600.

“I think we reached s settlement that we were comfortable with,” said Megan Meagher with OSHA’s Denver area office. She said the company agreed to the violation over restraints.

However, Engen said given the nature of the accident, he is not sure any restraint system would have worked.

“In fact, in that kind of situation I don’t think there was fall protection that would have made any difference whatsoever,” he said.

Both workers were wearing harnesses that would have stopped falls after six feet. However, the collapse sent the bucket free falling to the ground and ejecting Thompson after it hit the truck, said OSHA’s Baptiste. According to Baptiste, OSHA regulations say restraints need to be in place to prevent workers from striking objects below them, but don’t specify the type of restraint needed.

“To be completely honest with you, there’s a very good possibility that had that (violation) been contested and gone to court, they might have prevailed,” he said.

Baptiste said Sturgeon stopped using the truck models involved in the accidents and installed new restraint systems for workers.

Baptiste said a review of the company’s overall safety reputation, its response to the accident and the unusual circumstances that caused the boom to collapse led to the decision to keep the company in the program.

“They are a company truly committed to helping the industry,” Baptiste said. “They are trying to change the industry to make it better.”

He said the investigation found that the boom likely collapsed because an independent company that performed maintenance on Sturgeon’s trucks put in an “unauthorized” hydraulic part that failed.

The 2010 violations were not the first time Sturgeon had been singled out by OSHA for safety violations, including a 2007 report that initially cited the company for an employee not using a harness while in a bucket.

One month before Thompson’s death, Sturgeon agreed to a settlement in another case after a backhoe severed a gas line in Boulder. The original violations were labeled as “serious,” but lowered to the less serious “other” category and the proposed fine was reduced from $3,250 to $2,625.

In June 2007, OSHA found that a Sturgeon worker in Montrose was not wearing restraints when working alone in an aerial basket, said John Healey, director of the OSHA Englewood office, which issued the citations.

However, Healey said the citations were dismissed after the worker admitted he had not used the harness and that no one else at Sturgeon was aware of the safety breach. In addition, the company had disciplined the worker for the infraction after it came to officials’ attention, he said.

In all, the company has been initially cited by the OSHA offices in Colorado for safety violations eight times between October 2001 and the fatal accident in 2010.

All of the violations prior to Thompson’s death involved either no fines or fines of only several thousand dollars. In three instances, the citations and fines were dropped altogether.

Baptiste said OSHA violations before a company applies for the VPP status or after it gets the status do not preclude companies from being part of the program.

“The most significant issue is whether there were willful or repeat (violations), especially willfuls,” he said.

None of the violations against Sturgeon fell in either category, he said.

So imagine my surprise when I-News started winning awards!

Laura Frank

But there were two reasons I didn’t:

#1. We were just too darn busy. During contest season, our small staff was cranking out major investigations and analysis for our many media partners. In November, we revealed how government computers were feeding the toxic trade in e-waste. In December, we explained that Colorado could be saving tax money if it helped more disabled people live independently. In January, we started gearing up for our big series of Census analysis. In February, we were poring through a decade’s worth of air traffic safety reports.

Contest entries were at the bottom of our priorities, and they didn’t get done.

#2. Money. It costs money to enter many of those contests. Even if we’d had more time, we probably would have chosen to spend our funds on journalism rather than contests anyway.

In several instances, though, I-News has won awards – or been part of the journalism that won awards for our media partners. And I have to say that this turned out to be even better than entering ourselves. Some of the awards are well-known. Some are not. But each highlights, for me, the special relationship I-News has with the public and with its media partners.

Let me tell you about two examples:

Hunter Lovins talks about her new book during her keynote speech at the 2011 Colorado Association for Recycling awards in Breckenridge. Click the photo to learn more about Lovins at her website.

Last week, some 200 people gathered at an awards ceremony in Breckenridge for the Colorado Association for Recycling. They gave I-News’ Kristin Jones and Joe Mahoney their outstanding media award. CAFR president Anne Peters, who nominated I-News for the award, said I-News uncovered information about electronics recycling that had never before been reported in 10 years of national media scrutiny, and sparked conversation and action in the halls of power.

Yesterday, NPR’s Joe Shapiro told me that the series on which we collaborated with him won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting. Joe did the national story, which aired on NPR. I-News did a local companion series, which aired on public radio across Colorado, and appeared on NPR’s website. We found that one in five disabled Coloradans in nursing homes want out, and that Colorado could be saving tax dollars if it spent funds on home care instead of nursing homes for people with disabilities.

I’m as proud of these awards as I’ve ever been of any. Well done, I-News. And thank you to our partners and the public.

Here’s the latest from I-News reporter Kristin Jones:

It’s hard to imagine: A flourishing local trade in hazardous electronic waste. Brokers buy it by the container-load, and sell it to the highest bidders. Their customers store it in their basements, douse it in acid or burn it in their driveways, truck it to local landfills, or ship it to Asia or Africa to be sold on the open market or dumped in toxic wastelands.

Now imagine that Colorado state agencies—including the one charged with regulating toxic waste—aren’t interfering in this trade. Instead, they profit from it by selling their own waste on the open market.

Sound far-fetched? In fact, this is just how electronic waste is handled in Colorado, an I-News investigation found last year.

Used electronics—which contain a toxic stew of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and other nasty ingredients along with recoverable commodities like gold and copper—are bought, sold and processed with little oversight or accountability.

A bill moving through state senate this week aims to bring some order to the market.

An auction of surplus state government property, including a large allotment of computers and other electronic devices.

With input from the Colorado Association for Recycling, Senator Gail Schwartz introduced legislation April 29 that would require large recyclers and processors to be certified by the state public health department or national programs like e-Stewards and R2.

The intent is to prevent the kind of Wild-West brokering and overseas dumping uncovered by I-News.

“We’re trying to create through this bill a very high standard of accountability,” Schwartz told I-News. “We have to be comfortable that these goods are not ending up in the hands of someone who will bid for them and dispose of them improperly.”

Among its provisions are specific measures aimed at state agencies—whose auction of e-waste was highlighted in I-News’ investigation. The new law would require agencies to use vetted recyclers for their electronic trash. “To the extent that the state of Colorado and other government agencies are contributing to this issue, we need to tighten it up,” Schwartz said.

The proposed legislation falls short of mandating that producers take responsibility for discarded electronics—a key element of other state laws. That idea fell to stiff resistance from manufacturers here, said Marjorie Griek, executive director of the Colorado Association for Recycling.

If the bill passes, Colorado would join 25 other states that have laws on electronics recycling. But it’s fighting the clock. Even if it passes the Senate—as seems likely—it still has to make its way through the House before the current session ends on Wednesday (May 11).
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