You take a week off and what do you discover upon your return? So many absurd or disturbing local news stories that you can’t possibly devote serious space to them all. So without further ado, a small sampling of the feast.
1. Let’s start with Denver lawyer Lawrence Castle, foreclosure guru extraordinaire. His law firm, Castle Stawiarski, not only “files the most foreclosure cases each year in many large counties,” according to The Denver Post’s David Migoya, but for years that firm also “has refused to file its foreclosure cases electronically unless the specific county is using a computer system run by Government Technology Systems, a company in which [Castle] holds an interest.”
By not filing electronically, of course, Castle dumps a numbing burden of paperwork onto the offices of the public trustees charged with overseeing foreclosures.
Why is he allowed to engage in such blatantly self-interested bullying aimed, presumably, at “persuading” trustees to adopt his company’s system? Because the trustees can’t force anyone to file electronically.
But why shouldn’t they have that authority? The legislature should simply pass a statute allowing a trustee to mandate how foreclosure paperwork is filed. It’s the 21st century and electronic filing is hardly a novelty.
Unfortunately, it may be too much to expect the Public Trustees Association of Colorado to call for such a statute, however much that might be in its interest. As Migoya reported, not only does Castle donate tens of thousands of dollars to the group, he also has helped craft legislation for it.
Don’t worry, though: The governor’s legal office has responded to this disgracefully cozy relationship by promising to present a short seminar on ethics at an upcoming trustees meeting. A little finger-wagging will surely bring them around. What, you’re skeptical?
2. Anything that weans the south metro region off of non-renewable groundwater has got to be good, right? Sure, so long as the south metro region pays for it. But what if the entire nation is stuck with part of the bill? Is it still a good thing?
No; then it becomes part of the federal spending splurge that is driving record deficits. And yet, incredibly, that prospect is possible. As the Post’s Bruce Finley recently reported, Bureau of Reclamation officials say “rural water supply” funds may be available for a $558 million project diverting treated wastewater from Denver and Aurora to the south suburbs.
Of course, the south suburbs are “rural” to the same degree that the land designated for the Gaylord Entertainment complex in Aurora is “blighted.” But by all means, let no rhetorical sleight of hand go unexploited in the collective effort to bankrupt our country.
3. Speaking of federal spending, Boulder is seeking a grant from Washington to pay for free Wi-Fi on regional bus routes, according to the Daily Camera. Well, why not? Isn’t free Wi-Fi now something like a constitutional right?
What sort of callous nation would refuse to bankroll free Internet for its commuting citizens and save them the expense of having to use their own smartphones? Certainly not one with a $14 trillion debt.
4. Finally, let’s not overlook the remarkable judgment of the president of Denver’s Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, Caroline Schomp, who told another Post columnist that a spate of violence in her neighborhood amounted to “crimes of opportunity and depression. You are not out on the street robbing people, busting windshields and slashing tires if you have a job. The problem I see is the city’s economy is not getting any better.”
So how many of you believe the three men who beat a woman on a recent night in the 1100 block of Gaylord Street had been spending their days in a fruitless hunt for work? Me, neither.
Unemployment is a problem, all right. But, then, so is the total lack of a moral compass.
E-mail Vincent Carroll at vcarroll@denverpost.com.
