Deer stroll at Rock Flats, one of several sites that registered ozone levels beyond the federal standard Saturday

By Kim McGuire — The Front Range this weekend saw some of the highest levels of ozone for the year, making it more difficult for the region to stay in compliance with federal clean air rules.

Monitors scattered throughout the Denver-area on Saturday registered levels of ozone far above the federal health-based standard of 80 parts per billion. >> MORE

Immigrant farmworker Roberto Ramirez Antonio leaps across irrigation canals as he retrieves boxes of celery seedlings. Post

By Anne Mulkern in Washington - Despite months of heated debate and protests across the country, Congress is effectively killing any chance to rewrite immigration laws this year, many close to the issue say.

With only about a dozen days left on Congress’ calendar, U.S. House leaders have no plans to negotiate with the Senate on an immigration-reform bill. >> MORE

The Colorado Republican chairman showed up to chide the state’s ex-Democratic governor for his “racist and bigoted remarks.”

The ex-Democratic governor told the Colorado Republican chairman, “Don’t give me all this political-correctness BS.”

Only he didn’t use the initials. >> MORE

By Beth Potter — Some retirees in Colorado think hedge funds are too risky a place to invest their pension assets, no matter what Congress decides on a pending pension bill.

A provision in the bill moving through Congress would let hedge funds - the scantly regulated managed investment funds that are gaining in popularity nationally - to take on more pension fund money with less government scrutiny. >> MORE

By Washington and the West

Colorado’s U.S. senators and the veteran congressman representing Colorado Springs expressed concern today about the military’s plans to scale back operations at the underground Cheyenne Mountain post, saying they would like to know more about the plan.

A statement from Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs (pictured), said he had “grave concerns� about the plan to place the Cheyenne Mountain complex on standby status. >> MORE

By Bruce Finley in Colorado Springs � The military is relegating its newly renovated airspace and missile defense complex in Cheyenne Mountain to standby status � clouding the future of a Cold War nerve center touted as the most secure spot in America.

The green jump-suited sentries who electronically scan the skies from deep inside this granite cocoon southwest of Colorado Springs � built in the 1960s to withstand Soviet nuclear blasts � now are to blend into broader homeland defense operations under prairie skies at nearby Peterson Air Force Base.

“I can’t be in two places at one time,� said Adm. Tim Keating, commander of both U.S. Northern Command, set up in 2002 to fight terrorism, and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Both NORAD and Northcom have their headquarters at Peterson.

U.S. strategists created the mountain post to prevent nuclear missile and bomber attacks. But today the government’s best intelligence “leads us to believe a missile attack from China or Russia is very unlikely,� Keating said in an interview Wednesday. >> MORE

“Underlying everything is a sense that what we do is important to the whole country:” Maggie Petrowske, secretary at Cheyenne Mountain since 1988 Christopher J. Sherrer

By Bruce Finley in Colorado Springs � No nuke ever shook her like this. And thousands of feet under granite, secretary Maggie Petrowske braced for moving orders.

She still hopes to work for as long as possible in the Cold War bunker under Cheyenne Mountain that � despite incessant drips and phone calls from people seeking free rides to space � became home.

A 57-year-old Minnesotan, Petrowske has served 16 NORAD commanding generals since she arrived in 1988. >> MORE

By Bruce Finley — A Colorado lawyer stopped by local police in three states because his name appears on a federal terrorist watch list is challenging the government’s ability to detain him.

A lawsuit filed by Francisco “Kiko” Martinez (pictured) today in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe alleges federal and state officials violated his constitutional rights during traffic stops.

First in Colorado, then in Illinois and New Mexico, police stopped Martinez for traffic violations and held him without a warrant for hours, in one case handcuffing him and placing him in a locked police car, while they checked his status with federal counter-terrorism officials, the suit alleges. >> MORE

By Nancy Lofholm in Grand Junction - Even though the parents of a pregnant 17-year-old tried to get medical attention for their daughter, federal health privacy rules prevented doctors from telling them about her condition.

The parents of Cheyenne Corbett suspected she was pregnant, but she denied it and used a privacy act to block them from that information, officials said. >> MORE

This road in the White River National Forest is closed to motorized vehicles by the Forest Service to prevent erosion. Ed Kosmicki

By Steve Lipsher - White River National Forest officials Thursday unveiled their draft travel- management plan for the country’s most popular national forest - designating some areas off-limits to some uses to reduce conflicts.

The draft - in the works since 1999 - calls for exclusive uses in some areas of the strained public lands to distance groups - separating, for example, backcountry skiers from snowmobile riders, and mountain bikers from horseback riders. >> MORE

By Christopher N. Osher - A mailer by a political action committee supporting congressional candidate Peggy Lamm displays the birth dates of potential voters, raising identity-theft concerns.

“We are very concerned,” Wayne Munster, the secretary of state’s deputy director of elections, said Thursday. >> MORE

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By Andy Vuong - As motorists continue to pay more at the gas pump, two of the nation’s largest oil companies on Thursday reported second-quarter profits of nearly $18 billion.

The huge profits come at a time when refiners are marking up wholesale gas prices to levels seen during the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, reigniting concerns about the possibility of price gouging. >> MORE

By Howard Pankratz - Republicans asked a three- judge panel Wednesday to re instate a congressional redistricting plan drawn by the GOP-controlled legislature in the 2003 session.

At the same hearing, the Colorado attorney general’s office said the case should be dismissed.

The current battle in federal court erupted after the Colorado Supreme Court held that the 2003 legislative-redistricting plan violated the Colorado Constitution. The high court said redistricting can happen just once a decade. >> MORE

Debbie Willhite. AP file

By George Merritt — The group bidding to bring the 2008 Democratic National Convention to Denver has hired a veteran Washington, D.C., organizer as executive director - a tangible sign of the city’s commitment to landing the meeting.

Debbie Willhite will be named executive director this week, the host committee confirmed Wednesday. Willhite ran the 1992 convention for the Democrats as well as the 1997 Summit of the Eight in Denver. She has been working on Democratic campaigns going back to President Jimmy Carter’s re-election bid. >> MORE

By Anne C. Mulkern in Washington � Using a Lakewood family as their example, Senate Democrats on Wednesday pushed their election-year message that Republican policies squeeze the middle class. >> MORE