Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., talks with reporters Thursday after announcing a GOP plan to curb gas prices.	
Washington – Senate Republicans on Thursday tried to get the upper hand in the political battle over high gasoline prices by proposing a $100 rebate for taxpayers and by suggesting that they might increase taxes on oil-industry profits.
Their proposal also calls for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil production, a provision sure to draw opposition from many Democrats and even some Republicans.
“The American consumer is the one that needs the break today, and we need to be taking steps to make sure that they aren’t emptying their wallet every time they fill their tank,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., as the leadership unveiled its response to an issue quickly taking over the congressional agenda.
The GOP plan includes a provision that could levy a significant tax on oil-company profits, a provision that President Bush promised to veto when a similar version appeared in another Senate bill last year.
Speaking at a BP service station in Biloxi, Miss., on Thursday, Bush endorsed one aspect of the Senate proposal by encouraging Congress to give him the same authority to set standards for gasoline mileage of cars as he has over “light trucks,” or SUVs, pickups and minivans.
Greeting surprised customers, Bush likened rising gas prices to a new tax and promised to curb price gouging, boost refinery capacity and support alternative fuels.
“One of the things we’ve got to do is make these trucks run on ethanol and batteries that won’t require gasoline,” he said. “That’s what the future is going to be.”
Democrats quickly dismissed the new Republican approach as a back-door attempt to overcome deep-seated opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“Americans are struggling to pay the rising cost of gas, and they are not interested in handouts to help oil companies make more money by letting them drill in wildlife refuges,” said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader.
Democrats pressed their own ideas, including a proposal by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to suspend the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal tax on gasoline and 24-cent-a-gallon diesel tax for 60 days. “It is direct relief at the pump,” Menendez said. Some Republicans, including Thune, also have endorsed a suspension of the tax.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., tied up the Senate for almost five hours Thursday in an effort to force a vote on his proposal to prohibit oil companies from escaping federal royalties for drilling on public lands when oil prices exceed $55 per barrel. But Republicans blocked that effort.
“You cannot get a vote up or down in the United States Senate on a rip-off of taxpayer money,” Wyden said.
Democrats say they believe public ire will play into their efforts to regain control of the House and Senate as they try to convince voters of the close ties between Republicans and oil companies and remind voters of industry-friendly legislation advocated by Republicans.
“High gas prices are going to be the final nail in the GOP’s coffin this election year,” said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
But Republicans say they believe their new plan, which was made public at a news conference attended by several senators facing re-election this year, could strike a public chord, particularly with its promise of a $100 check to millions of taxpayers.
Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard joined Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and seven other Republicans urging legislation that would suspend some oil-industry tax breaks and use that money to temporarily lift a fuel tax. The language was added as an amendment to a larger bill providing funding for Iraq and hurricane relief.
It is unclear when the Senate might move forward or how the White House and the House, where Republicans and Democrats have their own ideas, will respond.
The price tag for the Republican package had not been calculated, but aides said it would cost less than $20 billion.
The $100 rebate was patterned after a similar refund sent to taxpayers early in Bush’s first term as a down payment on an initial set of tax cuts.
The payment would not be tied to gas consumption but would be sent to taxpayers at the end of the summer, going to single filing taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes below $145,950 and couples earning less than $218,950. The Finance Committee estimated that at least 100 million taxpayers would qualify.
A bespectacled woman sits on a rusty tractor in Nebraska holding a sign that reads, in boxy green letters, “Anni Holm.”
A bald man in dark sunglasses stands on a deserted Chicago street, lifting a yellow placard with the words “Anni Holm” in huge purple type.
A woman in earmuffs stands in front of the Forbidden City, with the face of Mao Zedong peering stoically over her shoulder as she clutches a sign of her own. It too reads “Anni Holm.”
More than 50 people in locales as far-flung as Estonia, England and Antarctica have submitted photos of themselves brandishing artist Anni Holm’s name, which she then posts on her latest art project, a blog called “Getting My Name Out There” (anniholm.blogspot.com).
Holm’s goal is to gather people around the world in a creative, accessible and constantly expanding work of art.
With the rise of self-publishing photo websites like Flickr, artists are taking their cues and soliciting photographs – often self-portraits – from strangers for their online projects. The goal for many is to bring art out of the museums and to make average people participants and not just spectators of art. This medium, some scholars say, is changing the definition of art.
“We’re starting to blur the distinction between professional photographers and amateurs,” said Mark Amerika, an art professor at the University of Colorado. “It’s not so much about getting the best aesthetic composition, but finding the right online social network.”
After arriving in Chicago from Denmark hoping to break into the American art world, Holm repeatedly was encouraged to “get her name out there.”
She took the words literally and, last October, sent mass e-mail messages asking friends to join her.
While the concept of her project may seem egocentric, Holm says it’s just the opposite: She wants to show how much artists rely on others’ support and affirmation, as well as infuse her art with humor and accessibility.
The Internet provides the perfect space for creative, collaborative projects, says Charles Traub, a professor at New York’s School of Visual Arts.
“To ‘make art’ seems to be almost a 20th-century concept,” Traub said. As he sees it, today’s most important work is being done by what he calls “the creative interlocutor,” a person who “enables other people to be creative and creates something bigger than the sum of its parts.”
Traub’s websites collect photographs as a means to document recent American tragedies. “Here is New York” gathers post-9/11 photographs of images from the falling towers to survivors’ faces hereisnewyork.org).
Other artist bloggers request photographs that range from the stylish to the funky to the strange. Song-Soo Ahn collects and posts photographs of people covering one of their eyes with one of their hands.
The Mirror Project (mirrorproject.com), launched by Heather Champ and Aaron Straup Cope, features more than 34,000 self-portraits taken in reflective surfaces, from glass windows to hubcaps to spoons. And Ze Frank (zefrank.com) has persuaded multitudes to submit photographs of themselves getting attacked by food or dressed in toilet paper.
While photographer Bill Wadman takes his own pictures for his online project, he relies on strangers to help by becoming his subjects.
Wadman launched “365 Portraits” (365portraits.com) on Jan. 1, vowing to snap a different person each day. Afraid he would never find enough subjects, he posted an ad on Craigslist. That listing scored him the initial few, and he now has between 500 and 600 people viewing his site every day and is flooded with e-mails from hopeful participants.
“I see someone participating as doing me a favor, whereas a lot of people make me feel like I’m doing them a favor by letting them be involved,” Wadman said.
“The one picture you take doesn’t mean a lot. It only means something in the context of the project,” said Swati Khurana, who posed in front of the Brooklyn Art Museum with a sign bearing her friend Anni Holm’s name.
Lisbeth Nielsen, a teacher in a small Denmark town who found out about Anni Holm’s project when it was featured in a local newspaper, said participating in the project gave her the “thrilling” chance to display her hometown to the world.
“It shows how small the world has become,” she said in an e-mail. “It’s a get-together project, and that’s what the world needs.”
Last year, Stephen Jablonsky curated “selfportraitr,” an exhibit of thousands of self-portraits uploaded to Flickr, then displayed on 10 computers in a Manhattan gallery.
“From the art-world side, people need to appreciate the public’s creation,” Jablonsky said, “not in an aesthetic way, but for what it shows about culture.”
Indeed, while the images collected may not meet traditional museum standards, Traub says these projects have a different kind of potential. “You take your dumb picture of yourself, I take my dumb picture of myself, but when they come together it does represent something about culture that’s more important than the face of any dumb schmuck on the street,” Traub said.
Amtrak said Tuesday it does not yet have an agreement with Iowa Pacific Holdings to help operate a new Ski Train service between Denver’s Union Station and Winter Park.
In the quarter, Dish earned $230.9 million, or 52 cents per share, for the January-March period. That compares with $312.7 million, or 70 cents per share, a year ago. The cost to acquire subscribers rose by 41 percent to $412 million. Revenue rose 5 percent to $3.06 billion from $2.91 billion.
BOULDER — Colorado senior safety Terrel Smith said Wednesday following the first session of August camp in full pads that he has felt no problems with his repaired right shoulder.
Smith underwent extensive surgery on the shoulder on Sept. 5 and sat out the 2013 season as an injury redshirt. He was held out of full-contact work in the spring.
“I feel confident in my shoulder,” Smith said. “I didn’t feel confident in it during the spring. It wasn’t as strong as it needed to be. But now it feels great.”
“The good thing with Terrel with that shoulder, he’s running into people,” MacIntyre said. “That’s the first thing I wanted to see. The physicalness is the main concern, and he’s doing that.”
Colorado Rockies pitcher Jon Gray throws to home plate during spring training workouts on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in Scottsdale, Ariz.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The question posed to Jon Gray was simple and direct: Do you think you have a chance to be the best pitcher in Rockies history?
“I think I can definitely accomplish that, because I don’t fear Coors Field at all,” Gray said last week as spring training opened. “I know I can go in there and give it everything I have and get the win.”
Former Rockies right-hander Aaron Cook used to say that winning games pitching at altitude was like a badge of honor. Gray, 25, agrees, though it’s taken him a while to come around.
“That’s exactly the way I feel — now,” Gray said with a faint smile. “I guess it’s pretty fair to say that I didn’t know what I was doing when I first got here.”
Gray has seemingly tamed the beast. Last year at Coors Field, he posted a 7-2 record with a 4.30 ERA while striking out 94 and walking just 18 in 83⅔ innings.
Compared with other franchises, Colorado’s benchmark for pitching greatness is relatively low, but there are some milestones in place. Left-hander Jorge De La Rosa‘s 86 victories in a Rockies uniform ranks No. 1 — as do his 53 victories at Coors Field, as well as his 985 career strikeouts. Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez had the best season in Rockies history, going 19-8 with a club- record 214 strikeouts and a 2.88 ERA in 2010.
Gray, the third overall pick in the 2013 draft, was projected to be a bona fide ace coming out of the University of Oklahoma, and he received a $4.8 million signing bonus based on his raw talent. Solid as an oak, the 6-foot-4, 232-pound right-hander turned pro with a plus fastball and wicked slider, but in need of another pitch.
Fast forward to 2016, when Gray flashed star potential in his first full season in the majors. Though his 10-10 record and 4.61 ERA were pedestrian, he offered hints of brilliance. His 185 strikeouts set a rookie franchise record, as did his 9.91 strikeouts per nine innings.
“Jon really made great strides last year in a number of areas. Performance, his confidence, really getting his feet on the ground as a major-league starting pitcher,” said new Rockies manager Bud Black. “He’s got to continue to grow, continue to pass these tests that every young player has to pass, and continue to perform like a top-of-the-rotation major-league starter. He’s very capable of doing those things based on his talent, his work ethic and his passion to play.”
Gray’s shining moment came Sept. 17 against San Diego at Coors Field. He struck out a club-record 16 batters while pitching a four-hitter and walking none. No Padres baserunner got beyond first base. The 16 strikeouts were the most ever at Coors Field — surpassing Hall of Fame left-hander Randy Johnson, who whiffed 14 Rockies at Coors Field on May 13, 2001, while pitching for Arizona.
Rookie catcher Tom Murphy was behind the plate for Gray’s gem, but he believes another game was more telling of how good Gray can become. It was played Sept. 10 at San Diego, just one start before Gray’s masterpiece at Coors Field. Gray had nothing that night at Petco Park. He got the hook after four innings, having given up six runs on eight hits.
“Jon just didn’t have a very good feel for his pitches,” Murphy recalled. “I went back into the tunnel to grab something during the game and I see Jon all alone, trying to getting a feel for his pitches. He was just throwing into an empty net; nobody was around.”
“Before, I think you would have seen Jon almost feeling sorry for himself,” Murphy said. “He was not searching for answers, not trying to get ahead of the curve, just accepting it. He didn’t let that happen last year. He took ownership.”
Gray, who participated in Pilates during the offseason to increase his flexibility and body balance — “Look, I can touch my hands to the ground now. Pretty cool,” he said — is beginning this season in a good place.
“I know I can only get better if I take care of myself,” he said. “My arm feels better too. I’m throwing easier now.”
Gray’s fastball hums in the 95, 96 mph range, and his 88 to 90 mph slider has always been an effective swing-and-miss pitch. But according to Rockies pitching coach Steve Foster, Gray’s still-developing curveball, which has surpassed a so-so changeup as his third pitch, could transform him into an ace.
“Last season, me and Holmsie (bullpen coach Darren Holmes) worked hard to get Jon’s delivery right,” Foster said. “There were things that weren’t consistent when he first got up here. We worked to iron those things out. And Jon started trusting that curveball as a pitch he could deliver with confidence.”
“I think it’s a weapon now. If I can throw it for a strike, it changes the whole game,” Gray said. “Guys aren’t stepping into my fastball or slider the way they were earlier.
“Plus, it’s been shown that it’s a pitch I can strike somebody out with. So that’s something I want to home in on, see if I can drop the pitch in front of the plate.”
“I think every time Jon goes out there on the mound he learns a little bit more about himself,” Foster said. “He learns about what a particular pitch does at Coors Field versus how it acts on the road.
“He’s learned to control his emotions, he’s learned how to control the tempo of the game. he’s learned how to control the strike zone and how to take advantage of the count. For me, it’s all about experience. All Jon lacks is experience, because the talent is there.”
In 38 big-league starts, Gray is 10-12 with a 4.79 ERA. That’s not impressive. But Gray isn’t about to carry early career baggage with him.
“I was gaining confidence last year, but it would come and go,” he said. “Sometimes I felt like I belonged out there, sometimes I didn’t. I’ve tried to get rid of any of those old, negative thoughts. Now I think I’m ready to take the next step.”