Size of Colorado bank accounts shrink last year, study says

Colorado consumers set aside less money in savings and checking accounts last year, even as average account balances rose nationwide, according to an analysis Monday from Pitney Bowes Software.

The size of the average consumer savings account in the state was $5,324 in 2011, down 1.26 percent from the $5,392 reported in 2010. That ran counter to the country as a whole, where savings account balances rose 3 percent last year to $5,923.

Colorado ranked 45th among states for the average size of savings accounts, although it fared better, 19th, for the average balances in non-interest bearing checking accounts.

But even there, Colorado checking account balances declined -0.57 percent from $3,160 in 2010 to $3,142, while they rose 5.2 percent to $3,100 nationally.

Pitney Bowes Software examined data from more than 100 million U.S. commercial bank accounts for its survey.

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Obama, Romney begin final presidential debate in Florida

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Foreign policy took command of the campaign spotlight Monday at the third and final debate between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, two weeks before Election Day in a close race for the White House dominated by pocketbook issues and the economy.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the recent attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and Iran's nuclear ambitions were all ripe for disagreement in the 90-minute event at Lynn University.

Both men spent the weekend in rehearsals, the president at Camp David in Maryland and Romney in Florida. They paid brief visits to the debate hall in the hours before its start.

Obama and Romney are locked in a close race in national opinion polls.

For both men, the final days of the long campaign are likely to be a whirlwind of rallies in the far-flung battleground states. Already four million ballots have been cast in early voting in more than two dozen states.

Barring a last-minute change in strategy by one campaign or the other, Obama appears on course to win states and the District of Columbia that account for 237 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. The same is true for Romney in states with 191 electoral votes.

The battlegrounds account for the remaining 110 electoral votes: Florida (29), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), New Hampshire (4), Iowa (6), Colorado (9), Nevada (6), Ohio (18) and Wisconsin (10).

The televised debate brought no cessation to other campaigning.

Obama's campaign launched a television ad in Florida that said the president ended the war in Iraq and has a plan to do the same in Afghanistan, accusing Romney of opposing him on both. It was not clear how often the ad would air, given the fall's overall focus on the economy.

Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Canton, Ohio, emphasized differences between the two candidates on the war in Afghanistan.

"We will leave Afghanistan in 2014, period. They say it depends," he said. "Ladies and gentlemen, like everything with them, it depends. It depends on what day you find these guys."

Romney's running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, was in Colorado. "We are in the midst of deciding the kind of country we're going to be, the kind of people we're going to be, for a generation," he said.

Whatever the outcome of the final face-to-face confrontation, the debates have left an imprint on the race. Romney was widely judged the winner of the first debate over a listless president on Oct. 3, and he has risen in polls in the days since. Obama was much more energetic in the second.

Monday night marked the third time in less than a week that the president and his challenger shared a stage, following the feisty 90-minute town-hall-style meeting last Tuesday on Long Island and a white-tie charity dinner two night later where gracious compliments flowed and barbs dipped in humor flew.

The most memorable exchange of the second debate concerned Libya, and Romney's contention that Obama's administration has responded poorly to an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last month that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.

As for the Al Smith charity dinner, Obama previewed his all-purpose fallback to criticism on international affairs.

"Spoiler alert: We got bin Laden," he said, a reminder of the signature foreign policy triumph of his term, the death at the hand of U.S. special operations forces of the mastermind behind the terror attacks on the United States more than a decade ago.

The president and his challenger agreed long ago to devote one of their three debates to foreign policy, even though opinion polls show voters care most about economic concerns.

Growth has been slow and unemployment high across Obama's tenure in the White House. Romney, a wealthy former businessman, cites his experience as evidence he will put in place policies that can revive the economy.

In recent weeks, the former Massachusetts governor has stepped up his criticism of the president's handling of international matters, although his campaign hasn't spent any of its television advertising budget on commercials on the subject.

In a speech earlier this month, Romney accused the president of an absence of strong leadership in the Middle East, where popular revolutions have swept away autocratic regimes in Egypt and elsewhere in the past two years. He has also accused Obama of failing to support Israel strongly enough, of failing to make it clear that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and of backing cuts in the defense budget that would harm military readiness.

Yet Romney has stumbled several times in attempting to establish his own credentials.

He offended the British when he traveled to England this summer and made comments viewed as critical of their preparation for the Olympic Games.

Democrats pounced when he failed to mention the U.S. troops in Afghanistan or Iraq during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in late August, and officials in both parties were critical of his comments about the attack in Benghazi while the facts were unknown.

Earlier this fall, a videotape surfaced showing him telling donors "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace. The pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Motorcade fundraiser benefits family of Jessica Ridgeway

Thousands of motorcyclists and drivers came out Sunday to honor the memory of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway and raised an estimated $40,000 for her family.

The parking lots around the Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant on U.S. 36 and West 104th Avenue were packed with motorcycles.

The memorial car/bike cruise for the Ridgeway family was the idea of Tim Beckwith, a well-known drag racer and an Arvada resident. It came to him the night the body of the Westminster girl, who disappeared Oct. 5, was found.

"It hit so incredibly close to home," Beckwith said. "I have a 9-year-old and a 2-year-old daughter; I went to Arvada West ... this is my neighborhood."

Beckwith said he thought he would get a lot of support because of his drag-racing fan base and his links to the local biker community.

One of Beckwith's favorite restaurants, Quaker Steak & Lube, agreed to host the event.

The approximately 2,000 participants each paid $20 to participate in the event, according to organizers. Every dollar earned will go to Jessica's parents, Sarah Ridgeway and Jeremiah Bryant, Beckwith said.

Long before official registration opened at noon, the restaurant's parking lot, as well as every parking lot around the restaurant, was packed. Late arrivals lined their bikes along West 104th Avenue up to the entrance ramp of U.S. 36.

Stephan Teske, a family friend and spokesperson for the Ridgeways, said it was by far the largest fundraiser in memory of Jessica.

"I know that most of the money is going to be used for the Jessica Ridgeway Foundation" the family plans to create, Teske said. "They want to do something positive for her memory, like sending kids to camp and cheerleading stuff. Jessica really wanted to do cheerleading."

Beckwith's sponsors designed a special purple helmet that said "We Love you, Jessica" on the front and had a purple memorial ribbon on the back.

Beckwith led the motorcade on his bright red motorcycle just before 2 p.m. At the end of the tour, he and his family signed the helmet and gave it to the Ridgeways.

Megan Mitchell: 303-954-1223, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/megs_report

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Presidential campaigns hit Colorado hard this week

COLORADO SPRINGS — On the eve of the start of early voting at polling places in Colorado, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told a crowd of close to 1,000 Sunday that the election could hinge on the state.

"Please remember, Colorado, you can decide," a hoarse-voiced Ryan said, giving a nod to the state's status as one of the few toss-ups in the election. "You have within the palm of your voting hand the ability to shape the future for this country and your kids."

Ryan's remarks, inside an airplane hangar at the Colorado Springs airport, fired the metaphorical starting gun on a four-day presidential-campaign scramble across the state. Between Sunday and Wednesday, members of the GOP or Democratic tickets will hold six campaign events in all four of the state's quadrants.

On Monday, Ryan is scheduled to hit a trifecta of rallies in Pueblo West, Durango and Grand Junction before heading back to the Front Range. On Tuesday, he and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will hold a moonlit rally at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, in what could be a capstone to their campaign in Colorado. There are whispers in the campaign about high-profile musical acts appearing alongside the Republican candidates. The campaign expects the event to fill the more than 9,000-seat amphitheater.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama will have a dramatic photo op of his own, holding a rally in Denver's City Park with the downtown skyline as a backdrop.

The reason for the burst of interest is early voting in Colorado, which is now in full swing. Mail-in ballots started going out to voters last Monday — roughly 70 percent of Colorado's active voters are permanent mail-in voters. Meanwhile, early voting at polling places begins on Monday. All told, the majority of Colorado voters are expected to cast a ballot before Election Day even arrives.

That means, after months of persuading and motivating and rallying, both campaigns are now hoping to begin banking their votes.

Following separate Monday press events promoting early voting, Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet will cast their ballots at early voting locations. In a campaign stop in Greeley last week, Vice President Joe Biden also urged voters to cast a ballot early.

Though the Republicans did not make such an implicit push at Sunday's Ryan rally, the urgency of the campaign hung over the crowd.

"We have 15 days," University of Colorado Regent Kyle Hybl told the crowd at the Colorado Springs rally Sunday evening. "In this 15 days is the destiny of our country and what sort of institution we leave to our children and our grandchildren."

Ryan's speech hit on familiar themes to Colorado voters now accustomed to campaign appearances and ads. He said, if elected, he and Romney would reduce the deficit and balance the federal budget. He spoke about strengthening the armed forces, a popular promise in military-rich Colorado Springs. And he talked about boosting domestic energy production.

"This is about more than just jobs," he said. "This is about the kind of country we're going to leave our kids."

And, he made clear where he and Romney believe voters should lay their frustrations with Washington.

"If he can't change Washington," Ryan said of Obama, as the crowd cheered in approval, "then I say we change presidents."

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Fern Lake Fire in RMNP sparks up in warm, dry weather

The Fern Lake Fire, burning in Rocky Mountain National Park southwest of Estes Park, sparked up on Saturday because of warm, dry weather, fire officials said.

The fire, which started on Oct. 9, is up to about 670 acres, said Ranger Julie Johndreau, a fire spokeswoman.

The fire, which is burning in a steep, rugged canyon with heavy beetle-kill laced throughout the timber, increased by about 40 acres on Saturday.

About 50 people are fighting the blaze and a helicopter was used for reconnaissance on Saturday.

Fire officials are keeping a close eye on the fire as the weather forecast calls for continued dry weather on Sunday.

Additional information about this fire can be found at www.inciweb.org, or by calling 970-586-1381. New information will be released as it becomes available.

Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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U.S. 36 ramp WB from NB I-25 shutdown by traffic accident

Traffic on Interstate 25 north of Denver is backed up as workers clean up an accident on the westbound ramp of U.S. Highway 36.

The accident happened at about 3:15 p.m. and the ramp, which accessed from the northbound lanes of I-25, remained closed at 7:30 p.m., according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

A semi truck hauling asphalt lost its load. Officials did not give an estimated time for the reopening.

Further details on the accident were not available. Drivers should avoid the area if possible. The same accident has also shut down traffic westbound on I-270 over I-25.

Through the weekend the northbound ramp of I-225 from southbound I-25 will be closed for construction, according to CDOT. That ramp is scheduled to reopen at 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Live chat: Colorado high school football's Week 8

Stop by for live updates, scores and information from around Colorado as high school football play continues in Week 8.

View on a phone.

Navigate to: Chat | Live games

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Live chat

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Live games

Class 5A
• 7 p.m.: Fossil Ridge vs. Poudre
• 7 p.m.: Rocky Mountain vs. Mountain Range
• 7 p.m.: (2) Valor Christian vs. Palmer
• TBD

Class 2A
• 7 p.m.: (10) Brush at Sterling
• 7 p.m.: (2) Eaton at Strasburg

Class 1A
• 7 p.m.: Calhan at (2) Limon

8-man
• 7:30 p.m.: Merino at (4) Akron

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman duplicated others' words in Post, DBJ op-eds

A pair of columns published by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora within the past year contain passages of previously published work by other House members but did not attribute the source of the information or writing.

The op-ed columns on different subjects were published beneath Coffman's byline in The Denver Post and the Denver Business Journal.

The Post op-ed contains

unattributed material from a budget proposal crafted by Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, while the Business Journal op-ed contains material earlier published by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri.

Ethics experts contacted by The Post said the duplicative writings fall short of their definition of plagiarism. But they said Coffman's use of material by other writers failed to reach accepted standards for attribution.

Coffman is engaged in one of the most contentious congressional races in Colorado. The Post made its discovery of the duplicative writing when a Democratic operative associated with the campaign of Coffman's rival, state Rep. Joe Miklosi, provided documents and alleged plagiarism to a reporter and the news organization's editorial page.

Those documents were delivered to The Post on Monday — the day ballots were mailed to voters and a week before early voting begins.

After reviewing the documents, editorial-page editor Curtis Hubbard changed practices for future contributors

meant to ensure that submissions are original work.

"There has always been an unspoken understanding that items submitted to the opinion pages are the original work of the author and that proper credit is given to other sources when it is due," Hubbard said. "We have now spelled out that policy in writing and posted it to our website so there will be no question as to our guidelines moving forward."

Coffman on Friday called the plagiarism allegations "absurd."

"My staff are in constant collaboration with various committees, and a major role of committee staff is to help members create content," Coffman said.

The Post's editorial board operates separately from the newsroom, which conducted a review of the op-eds in question, along with recent op-eds published by Colorado's current congressional delegation.

Staff for Coffman's campaign said that in the unpaid Post op-ed April 15, House Budget Committee analyst Matt Hoffmann inserted an explanation that laid out the Republican majority's plan to reform Medicare as part of its fiscal 2013 budget proposal.

Coffman's campaign provided documents showing how the op-ed column was altered — at Coffman's request — by Hoffmann, who inserted verbatim language from Ryan's "Paths to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal," published almost a month earlier.

Coffman said he didn't know that the material came directly from the budget plan. Requests to Hoffmann seeking comment have not been returned.

Coffman's campaign provided documents that detailed the collaboration that led to publication of the Business Journal op-ed Aug. 24.

In that instance, a Republican staffer for the House Committee on Small Business wrote an op-ed about the impact should the so-called "fiscal cliff" of tax increases next year transpire.

The staffer e-mailed Coffman's staff, saying, "We've written for you to use as you wish."

The Small Business Committee staffer also gave similar — but not exactly the same — material to other Republicans, including Graves, the committee's chairman.

Coffman's campaign said that collaboration with partisan staffers was common practice in Washington. And the campaign provided two instances in which significant portions of text were repeated in two pairs of op-eds published by Republican congressmen since 2009.

Coffman's campaign also provided a copy of a Post op-ed by Denver U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat, that contained similar material to another source in a piece published earlier on the Rocky Mountain PBS website. DeGette's duplicative wording amounted to three copied phrases — not full sentences or paragraphs.

Independently, The Post found one instance in which sentences in a Post op-ed written by DeGette later appeared in a press release by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute observed the Coffman documents and said these kinds of events can occur when a politician or public official makes use of a ghostwriter.

"Responsible practice requires transparency: making it clear who wrote what," Clark said in an e-mail.

Teresa Fishman, director of the International Center for Academic Integrity, said given the purpose and context of an op-ed, the original authors could easily have been noted.

"In my opinion putting forth text written by someone else as his own in an op-ed runs contrary to the legitimate expectations for an op-ed, i.e. that the content was produced by the person to whom it is attributed," Fishman said via e-mail.

Staff researcher Vickie Makings contributed to this report.

Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee

Shared writing

A Denver Post op-ed by Rep. Mike Coffman uses the following language from Rep. Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" budget plan.

Identical content shown in italics.

From Rep. Coffman's April 15 Denver Post op-ed:

"The second-least expensive approved plan or the traditional fee-for-service Medicare, whichever is least expensive, would establish the benchmark that determines the premium-support amount.

" If a senior chose a costlier plan than the benchmark plan, he would be responsible for paying the difference between the premium subsidy and the monthly premium. Conversely, if that senior chose a plan that cost less than the benchmark, he would be given a rebate for the difference. Payments to plans would be risk-adjusted and geographically rated. Private health plans would be required to cover at least the actuarial equivalent of the benefit package provided by traditional fee-for-service Medicare."

From "The Path to Prosperity:"

"The second-least expensive approved plan or fee-for-service Medicare, whichever is least expensive, would establish the benchmark that determines the premium-support amount for the plan chosen by the senior.

If a senior chose a costlier plan than the benchmark plan, he or she would be responsible for paying the difference

Between the premium subsidy and the monthly premium. Conversely, if that senior chose a plan that cost less than

The benchmark, he or she would be given a rebate for the difference. Payments to plans would be risk-adjusted and

Geographically rated. Private health plans would be required to cover at least the actuarial equivalent of the benefit

package provided by fee-for-service Medicare."

Note: In preceding paragraphs of Coffman's op-ed, he references GOP House-passed fiscal year 2013 budget proposal.

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Aurora theater plans call for changes to theater 9

Redesign efforts at the Century Aurora 16 call for significant changes to theater 9, according to building plans filed with the city at the beginning of October.

Theater 9, where 12 people were killed and at least 58 others were injured in a July 20 mass shooting, will become a Cinemark XD theater.

According to Cinemark's website, these XD "extreme digital" theaters features an oversize wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor screen.

Officials with Cinemark declined comment Thursday.

According to the building plans, Kansas City, Mo.-based TK Architects developed the redesign and Colorado Springs-based TMS Construction is the contractor heading the project.

Total costs are estimated at $950,000, according

to the building plan.

The building plan's official description of work calls for "interior and exterior" finish upgrades throughout the theater complex as well as upgrades in the auditoriums "and conversion of one auditorium to be a large screen format auditorium."

The Aurora Sentinel reported Thursday that original plans from 1997 called for 421 seats in theater 9 and the new plans call for 360 seats.

In September, Cinemark President Tim Warner told Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan that the company would reopen the theater complex. This announcement came in response to Hogan submitting a letter to the Plano, Texas-based company that said the overall consensus from the community was that the Century Aurora 16 should reopen.

Warner at the time said the company hoped to have the Century Aurora 16 reopened by the New Year.

Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Denver police receive awards for being "best of the best"

 In 2011, investigative work done by Denver Det. Joel Humphrey helped to put three killers behind bars for life and on Thursday, he was among six officers honored by the police department.

Manager of Safety Alex Martinez called the recipients at the officer's of the year ceremony "the best of the best."

When Kalonniann Clark — who was days away from testifying against gang boss Brian Kenneth Hicks — was gunned down in her home in 2006, Humphrey "pledged to find" her killers, said Sgt. Anthony Parisi, supervisor in the cold case homicide unit.

Humphrey, 63, pored over 800 recorded phone calls to develop cases against Hicks, Willie Clark, and Shun Birch, evidence that became the heart of the case against them.

Instead of relaxing and enjoying his success when they were convicted last year, Humphrey dived into a cold case — the 2000 murder of 36 year-old Renee Ealy, traveling to Wyoming to question Marie Lynn Marone.

His work on that case led to the arrest of John Lee Vasquez, and Marone, his girlfriend Marone. Police believe Vasquez stabbed the disabled woman to learn what it was like to kill, then pumped his arm in the air proclaiming "I did it."

Humphrey, who is the winner of a medal of valor and other awards, was named Denver's Detective of the year for 2011.

Others awarded were Officer Jarrod Foust, 41, whose work patrolling District 3 resulted in 450 arrests in 2011.

Technician of the Year went to Dean Christopherson, a department historian and community resource officer in District 4.

Corporal of the Year A.B. Allen, 49, of District 5, has been instrumental in training other officers, said Commander Les Perry.

Sergeant of the Year was Anthony Martinez of District 6. "Sergeants are the ones who run this department on a daily basis," said Lt. Steve Addison.

Commander of the Year was Vice Lt. Aaron Sanchez, 43, who was instrumental in focusing police resources on human trafficking.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dpmcghee

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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