correctionsThe Gazette corrects errors of fact in this space. If you find mistakes, please call 636-0266 during business hours.

back pages Oct. 21, 1910Colorado City News. “The general health of the city is better than it has been for some time,” is the statement made yesterday by City Physician G. B. Gilmore. No cases of contagious diseases are on record, and the few un-sanitary conditions in the city have been removed. Oct. 21, 1935John Barr, one of the old-est survivors of the Colorado Springs Trolley Car System, died Saturday night at the Myron Stratton Home. He came to Colorado Springs in 1900 and began working for the street car company. For many years he worked on the north-south line going to the Roswell district. Oct. 21, 1960Big game hunters were reminded again today that absolutely no hunting or trespassing will be allowed on city watershed areas on Pikes Peak when the season open Saturday. There is nothing on the big game maps to show that the watershed areas are ex-cluded from hunting, but the wa-tershed must be considered as private property and respected as other private property is.colorado springs pioneers museum

today in history In 1805, a British fleet com-manded by Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, was killed. In 1917, members of the 1st Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I. In 1959, the Solomon R. Guggen-heim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York. In 1970, American agronomist Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in developing high-yield grains. In 1971, President Richard Nixon nominated Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The biggest catch in that operation was the arrest in May of Carlos Ramon Castro-Rocha, whom DEA investigators identified as a drug kingpin. He is be-ing held in a Mexico City jail pending extradition to a federal court in either Ari-zona or North Carolina.

“He’s actually responsible for growing the poppies and manufacturing the heroin,” Merrill said.

Four suspects in the Colo-rado cases remain at large.

Along with the DEA, agen-cies that took part in the investigation included: Colorado Springs police, El Paso County Sheriff’s Of-fice, Metro Vice and Narcot-ics, Colorado State Patrol, Pueblo police and sheriff’s office, the District Attor-ney’s Office and federal im-migration officials.

The 29 Colorado arrests included 22 Mexicans in the U.S. illegally and Nathan Stack, a former Cheyenne Mountain High School stu-dent whom police previous-ly identified as being part

of a group that supplied tar heroin to about 25 fellow students.

Stack, 20, was sentenced in October 2009 to 60 days in jail and 200 hours of community service for his guilty plea to a drug posses-sion charge.

The most recent arrests occurred in September on South Academy Boulevard, where police intercepted a car they believed was transporting drugs. A drug-sniffing dog alerted on the vehicle, which was towed to a police impound lot.

While dismantling the car, investigators found several packages of cocaine stowed inside the engine, said Mat-thew R. Barden, the agent in charge of the DEA’s Colo-rado Springs office.

Barden acknowledged that others will take the place of those arrested in Colorado.

“But can you imagine what the world would be like if we didn’t do the things we do?” he asked.

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For video and more on this story, visit “The Sidebar” blog at gazette.

com

drugs: Kingpin was the biggest catchfrom page 1—

engaged in lobbying efforts to influence legislation or sway voters deciding ballot measures in 2008.

“We have not had any lob-byist. We haven’t gone to promote bills before the Legislature. We haven’t giv-en any money to any candi-date,” he told the Gazette on Wednesday.

The IRS wouldn’t comment on Active Citizens Together.

On its website, the IRS de-fines lobbying as attempting to influence legislation or the outcome of ballot mea-sures.

Active Citizens Together has 501(c)3 status with the IRS. The designation allows charitable organizations to escape taxes, but strictly limits their political involve-ment, and includes a re-quirement that they disclose lobbying.

On tax forms and other public documents, the group says its purpose is to educate people on civil rights. Bruce said the group was working to educate voters on their right to petition with the 2008 mailers, which asked voters to “Go ‘NO’ on O,” ac-cording to a description in The Denver Post.

Educating voters is one thing, said Colorado Springs tax lawyer John Buckley. Di-rectly soliciting a “yes” or “no” vote is another.

“Urging people to vote a specific way is lobbying for a cause,” said Buckley, whose clients have included tax-exempt nonprofits.

Nonprofits can lobby, but how much those groups can spend on lobbying is lim-ited, and the spending must be shown on tax forms.

On the 2008 tax form, Bruce wrote that the char-ity work included “mailings, public contacts, website maintenance to explain and advocate awareness of and enjoyment of all constitu-tional and other legal rights, including the bill of rights and petitions.”

The charity reported spending $183,000 in 2008 on printing, publications, postage and shipping for its activities. Bruce was the charity’s registered agent until giving up that title in August.

Bruce has said a top mis-sion for the charity is pro-viding high school seniors with copies of the nation’s founding documents.

He said the charity took on the 2008 ballot measure

bruce: Was charity’s registered agent until Augustfrom page 1—

Referendum O because “It was an attack on the right to petition.” The referendum would have required more signatures to get proposed amendments onto the ballot.

The charity also opposed 2008’s Amendment 59, which would have taken money that otherwise would be refunded under TABOR and would have funneled it into a fund for schools.

The Denver Post in 2008 es-timated that Active Citizens Together spent as much as $100,000 on mailers oppos-ing the measures.

Active Citizens Together had a banner fundraising year in 2008, bringing in $517,375 — up from receipts of $44,802 in 2007.

Bruce, when he served on the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners in 2005, pledged to donate his $63,000 salary to Active Citi-zens Together.

“I’m going to endorse it over (to the charity), that will be a charitable contribution and that will lower my tax li-ability from the salary,” Bruce told The Gazette after receiv-ing his first county paycheck.

The IRS can fine charities that turn in false returns, and can pull their tax-exempt status. People who knowing-

ly make false statements on IRS forms could face civil or criminal penalties.

“The IRS is not permitted to discuss a particular or spe-cific taxpayer’s tax matter or their taxes based on federal disclosure regulations and federal law,” IRS spokeswom-an Karen Connelly wrote in an e-mail.A campaign fi-nance complaint filed this week accuses Active Citizens Together of breaking state law by failing to disclose 2010 spending in support of Amendments 60 and 61, and Proposition 101.

The complaint was filed by Coloradans for Responsible Reform, a political action group that has spent $6.7 million opposing the same measures. The Colorado sec-retary of state has referred the complaint to an adminis-trative court.

Bruce said Tuesday that Active Citizens Together’s spending for the November election included paying for signature-gathering efforts to get the measures on the ballot, and for mailers urging a yes vote on the three pro-posals.

He said Active Citizens Together is not required to report its spending to state campaign regulators.

or governance would have to be approved by voters in April 2011. Still on the table are: selling Memorial to a for-profit company, selling or partnering with a nonprofit company, spinning Memo-rial off as an independent nonprofit or turning it into a semigovernmental hospital authority.

Munger wanted Wednes-day to also kill the idea of selling Memorial to a for-profit company, but the vote was postponed to the Nov. 10 meeting.

“Personally, I think we’re ready to take the for-profit model off the table,” Munger said.

Memorial has been city-owned since 1943 and is a major local employer, with more than 4,000 employees. Its future ownership could affect the amount of charity care the hospital provides, the procedures it offers and its ability to survive in a fast-changing health care

landscape.Much of the discussion at

Wednesday’s meeting wasn’t about the options, but how the commission should wind down its yearlong process. The commission is due to make a formal presenta-tion of its recommendation to the City Council on Nov. 22, and several commission members argued that it should meet in secret until that time so the council can find out the final recommen-dation at the same time the public does. Munger and other members argued in fa-vor of holding all discussions in public and ultimately won the argument in a 5-3 vote, with one abstention.

“We know what decision we’re about to make here, most of us do,” he said. “Why are we afraid to make it in the light of public atten-tion?”

The disagreement might have been based on a mis-understanding. Commission chairman Bob Lally and vice co-chair Martha Barton met

with Mayor Lionel Rivera and Councilman Bernie Her-pin recently and said they were told the council would like to hear the recommen-dation first. Contacted after the meeting, however, Rive-ra said he and Herpin advo-cated for keeping the discus-sion public.

“I certainly did not tell them that the council wants to hear it before the public hears about it,” Rivera said. “We basically said, ‘We’re go-ing to hear about it the same time a newspaper reporter publishes it on a blog’ — I don’t see how you can avoid that.”

Rivera said he agrees that Memorial’s current struc-ture isn’t optimal.

In any case, said commis-sion vice co-chair Jay Patel, the commission’s disagree-ment, and split vote, were about the process, not the final decision. He said he expects something close to a unanimous decision when the commission makes its fi-nal recommendation.

memorial: Panel member disapproves of for-profit option from page 1—

740 FICO, 36 mo., $15K max balance to finance, plus tax. W.A.C./D. 2000 and newer models.

ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT, WHATEVER! JUST POINT, CLICK AND SUBMIT!The contest is always photos of your neighborhood along with a revolving theme of different categories (Pikes Peak, sunsets, Garden of the Gods etc..). Check back each week as different prizes, including movie tickets, gift cards, show tickets and more will be up for grabs.DEADLINE TO ENTER TO WIN IS EACH WEEK ON SUNDAY AT 5 P.M.

* 0.0% APR financing for 60 months on 2010 Grand Vitaras and 2010 Equators. Monthly payments of $16.67 per $1,000 financed. Subject to credit approval from Am. Suzuki Fin. Svc. (ASFS). Amount of down payment and other factors may affect qualification. 0.0% APR financing offer is in lieu of the standard customer cash rebate. Customer Cash is in addition to all other eligible incentives and may be combined with other incentives so long as all conditions of offer are met. Offer ends 11/01/10. See dealer for details. New Suzuki automobiles come standard with a 100,000-mile/7-year powertrain limited warranty. See dealer or SuzukiAuto.com for complete warranty details. GV Luxury and Equator shown with optional equipment. Visit SuzukiAuto.com for Offer details. © American Suzuki Motor Corporation 2010. Suzuki, the “S” logo, Suzuki model names and The power of engineering. are Suzuki trademarks or ®.

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A2 ❘ the gazette ❘ thursday, OctOber 21, 2010