It was so cold at the Greeley Independence Stampede on Saturday night, July 4, 2009, that a woman ferrying guests about in a golf cart was forced to wear earmuffs to fend off the chill.   After a rain storm delayed the start of the Bucky Covington/Blake Shelton concert, the temperature dropped.  I was wrapped up in a sweatshirt and two coats.

The cold, damp weather isn’t unique to Northern Colorado.  According to the National Weather Service, Central Park in New York City suffered through one of the coldest, wettest Junes in history.  Some interesting Central Park June weather facts:

THIS JUNE IS TIED FOR THE 8TH COOLEST ON RECORD. THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE WAS 67.5…3.7 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL…WHICH ALSO
OCCURRED IN 1897.

CENTRAL PARK HAS NOT HIT 85 DEGREES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE THIS YEAR.
THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 1916. THIS HAS ONLY OCCURRED
2 OTHER TIMES…1903 AND 1886.

The latest global averaged satellite temperature shows that Al Gore’s “fever” diagnosis for planet earth is just plain wrong! According to Climate Depot, “the Earth has cooled .74°F since former Vice President Al Gore released “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006.”  And it’s part of an 8 year trend.  It seems the truth is inconvenient for the Goracle.

UPDATE:  Al Gore is  insane — bats in the belfry!  Today the London Times Online reports that Al Gore, the high priest of global warming hysteria, likens his fight over global warming to the free world’s battle against Nazis — genocidal, facist Nazis.

The mystery is over.  Congresswoman Betsy Markey paid back her environmental leftist supporters such as the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund voting yes on the country’s largest tax increase in history.  The massive cap and tax global warming bill rammed through by Speaker Pelosi will cost the average 4th CD family of four nearly $4000. 

Markey’s spokesman Ben Marter told the Denver Post that the Congresswoman would do what was right for the 4th CD.  She’s got some explaining to do.

I’ve asked repeatedly for Congresswoman Betsy Markey’s position on what the Wall Street Journal calls the largest tax in American history — the global warming bill that Speaker Pelosi is forcing through the House right now.  I’ve sent at least three emails this week asking her office how she intends to vote.  So far, no response. 

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a position.

According to leftist Denver Post columnist Susan Greene, Markey has “pledged support” for the bill.  According to listeners, Markey’s Washington DC office says she is undecided.  While her Greeley office says she is leaning towards supporting the bill.

So far, she has at least three positions none of them being NO.

If she votes in favor of a bill that the Heritage Foundation says will cost the average family of four nearly $4000 per year and kill jobs, including thousands in Colorado’s 4th CD, she will have some serious explaining to do if she expects to be re-elected.

New Frontier Bank made the front page of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal with an article titled “Town’s Friendly Bank Left Nasty Mess.” 

What is left out of the article is just how bad the economic impact will be.  Good and bad loans will be packaged and sold for pennies on the dollar to large investment firms or hedge funds.  According to the FDIC, the terms of the original loan remain in place unless borrowers are as little as one day late on one payment. That note may get called in.  Can’t pay? Tough.  You aren’t negotiating with your local banker anymore.   Loan managers may begin foreclosure and sell off the assets.  From what I understand sale of bundled loans will begin later this summer.  We will begin to see the fallout by the end of 2009.  So much for our late year recovery.

Denver gets our water. We get  property devaluations, dried up farm land, double digit unemployment and a depressed tax base.  Despite how bleak that picture looks, we will recover.  It may take 3 to 5 years but we will recover.

Something to keep in mind, bank regulators audited NFB loans every six months and never found a problem with them until the end of 2007 when the economy was headed south.   NFB complied with new regulations but the economy continued to tank. 

According to bank insiders, at the end of 2008 NFB applied for $42 million in TARP funds but Governor Bill Ritter would not sign a letter of recommendation so FDIC Chair Shelia Bair wouldn’t approve the request.  A request to Ken Salazar to intervene got little response during last fall’s busy campaign season. 

Also according to those involved in negotiations, the FDIC nixed a plan that would have brought in much needed capital from an investment group out of Boulder.  News reports say that the deal “fell through” but some of parties involved insist that is not the case claiming the FDIC targeted NFB for closure.

Question number one: If NFB had been approved for the TARP funds, would that have improved the bank’s balance sheet enough to weather the current recession?  In other words, would $42 million in taxpayer dollars have saved the $670 million that it now is costing to fix the mess? 

Question number two: If the FDIC hadn’t stopped the sale of NFB to the Boulder group, would NFB have been able to survive — saving taxpayers millions and Northern Colorado from the pending economic devastation.

I do not support bailouts.   The worst thing about them, is that the government gets to pick winners and losers.  Clearly, Northern Colorado has been tagged a loser.   It’s also clear that those in charge underestimated the pain of closing NFB versus keeping it afloat with TARP money.  We are in uncharted waters.  In my opinion, neither the FDIC, Governor Ritter (he signed the closure order), nor our congressional delegation (Congresswoman Markey and Senators Benett and Udall) ever grasped the magnitude of the situation.  The economic multiplier effect will be in the billions of dollars.  This is our economic tsunami.  

The collapse of NFB will be the biggest issue in Northern Colorado (especially the 4th CD) of the 2010 election.

For those who want to skewer NFB management, I understand your anger but I don’t want to use them as a poster child for why the FDIC should shutter all community banks.  NFB isn’t the only one (and there will be more).  Community banks are imperative to economic growth in small communities that don’t have connections to national financial institutions.  I think this quote from Windsor Mayor John Vazquez sums it up perfectly, ”At community banks it’s not all about performance and projections…It’s about belief in the individual, the guy you sit next to in church.”

Where is summer?  A cold, damp weather pattern has dominated Northern Colorado since before Memorial Day weekend.  According to Long Range Expert Joe Bastardi, this is no surprise.  Bastardi predicts that “areas from the northern Plains into the Northeast will have a ‘year without a summer.’”

In addition, the weather pattern has brought more intense thunderstorms.  Just last weekend a young man from Evans died from a lightning strike.

Makes me wish for the days of global warming.

Governor Bill Ritter vetoed SB 180 which would have allowed collective bargaining for firefighters despite the will of local voters.  This is great news for Fort Collins and Weld County voters who, on multiple occasions, have defeated collective bargaining for first responders.

I have been critical of Governor Ritter but in this case he was right and it probably will cost him.  I give him credit for supporting local control. 

That’s more than I can say for several No CO legislators who voted against the will of their constiuents in order to appease union contributors.  No CO legislators voting yes: Reps Randy Fischer, John Kefalas, Jim Reisberg and Sen Bob Bacon.  According to Follow the Money, these four legislators received over $112,000 from labor unions during the last election cycle.

I guess what unions want is more important than what voters want.

A warning about this post: I use anonymous sources so take it through that filter.   However, everything posted was told to me independently by more than one source, or I was able to verify another way. 

Bill Jackson, Ag reporter for the Greeley Tribune, said it best when he wrapped up his article about Ag producers who face economic ruin following the collapse of New Frontier Bank.  Jackson wrote, “it could get real ugly.” 

Most businesses that had a loan with NFB have been told to find a new lender or face their loan being packaged and sold to an out of state bank for pennies on the dollar.  According to a phone conversation between one business owner and the FDIC,  loans are “going to be sold to an outside lender.  It’s not going to be anything here in town or maybe even in the state.   You’re never going to be able to actually talk to anybody to get anything done in person.  It will always be over the phone.”

And even one day late on a payment could constitute a violation of the terms of the loan, which allows the out-of-state bank to call in the loan.  The FDIC representative warned, “it’s in your best interest to get the loan refinanced before it’s sold.”

There are a several problems with this suggestion. First, there is no capital.  Second, the FDIC has made it harder for banks to loan by raising the required capitalization levels. Three, many of these loans are underwater as it is so they don’t qualify even if the capital is available.   And four, banks have no incentive to loan when they know that in a few short weeks they can buy the notes at auction for pennies on the dollar. I’ve heard from some former NFB customers that have been to dozens of lenders with no success.

Couple the financial mess with low commodity prices and hundreds of wells shut down two years ago, and we face a grave future. Agriculture is a $1.5 billion business in Weld County, making it 8th in the nation in agricultural product sales and the only county in the top ten outside of California.  This important industry is in trouble.  According to Jackson,

Many veteran agribusiness people are predicting the fallout from New Frontier’s closure will be worse than when the Greeley packing plant of Monfort was shut down for two years in the early 1980s, and the financial woes farmers faced in the mid-1980s with double-digit interest rates and commodity prices at the bottom of the barrel.

On my show last week, Carrie Linker, executive director of the Morgan County Executive Development Corporation, voiced another frightening possibility about what could happen if farmers, ranchers and dairies go bankrupt.  Banks foreclose and sell to anyone who will buy.  Buyers may include municipalities that only want the land for the water rights that go with it.  Front range cities could buy the water and allow the once fertile farm land to dry up in order to satisfy thirsty populations.

Ag isn’t the only troubled industry since the closure of NFB.  According to reliable sources, commercial real estate is about to see the bottom drop.  Source predictions include:

• double digit unemployment
• up to $1 billion of commercial real estate flooding an already saturated market as owners try to avoid foreclosure and banks try to get what they can for properties that are upside down.
• additional bank closures possible

A land developer told me that the impending implosion of the commercial real estate market will make the recent devaluation in the residential market look like a “day at Disneyland.”

It’s clear that the FDIC doesn’t know how to handle the situation.  They don’t have enough people on the ground in Greeley to make decisions.  I called the FDIC last week and have yet to receive a call back.  According to former NFB customers, that seems to be the pattern with federal agency.

To paraphrase Jackson, the picture isn’t pretty.  A longtime resident who is close to the situation described No CO’s economic future: “Think of the New Frontier closure as an earthquake that caused a tsunami that is currently out at sea.  The forecast is we are about to get slammed and all we can do is prepare.  Sadly some people are still walking on the beach oblivious to the danger.”

Jackson is right, it could get ugly, real ugly.

I’ve given birth, broken bones, had major surgery and now I can add this to my list of physically challenging accomplishments: I completed Anthony Navarro’s tactical pistol class at Colorado Shooting Sports in Northern Colorado.  (Full disclosure: Anthony is one of my show sponsors)

The class is scheduled for 8 hours but went closer to 10 1/2 and was chicks only– eight including my 17-year-old daughter Ann.  Using 9 mm Glocks, we learned to shoot, reload and clear jammed weapons when moving, lying in the fetal position, lying down and with multiple targets.  We practiced to fire when attacked from behind, from the side or when bad guys are very close.  We loaded all of our magazine ourselves which led to swollen hands and blistered and sore thumbs.  Most of use got at least one finger caught in the chamber or some other part of the Glock.  At least half of us wound up with bloody hands, me included.

By the end we were hot, thirsty, exhausted and sore but incredibly proud of what we accomplished.  Anthony lectured most of the morning about the legalities of carrying a weapon and defending yourself.  After lunch we went to the shooting range.  I was a bit skeptical of having women with little or no gun experience wielding a loaded weapon right next to me and my daughter.  By the end of the day, I had complete confidence in myself and my fellow classmates.  Caught in a situation where any of them needed to defend themselves, I’d put money on any one of these ladies that she would come through while the bad guy would find himself six feet under.  I was so proud to be a part of this class with these women!

When Anthony teaches he isn’t fooling around and doesn’t plan on building a student’s self esteem with constant praise.   If you do something wrong, he tells you in no uncertain terms.  If you do something right, he tells you that as well.   Anthony is very clear that he has to go home at night with the knowledge that his students could be attacked and must draw on what they have learned.  Therefore, he doesn’t worry about hurting someone’s feelings or egos.  He is right.  I think I speak for most of the women when I say we all left incredibly proud of having completed such a challenging class.  Too bad the public education system doesn’t subscribe to the same philosophy.

All of us were there for different reasons — practice, need for self defense, sounded like fun — but whatever the reason, we all left with an incredible feeling of accomplishment and confidence in our abilities.  I’m looking forward to the tactical shot gun class and free follow up training .

Completing the class is just one of the requirements for getting a concealed weapons permit in Colorado.  I can now carry my firearm with confidence.  We are proof that girls just want to have guns!

The legislation has passed.  All that’s left is the ceremonial signature from Governor Bill Ritter with all the concerned parties in attendance.  I’m told it is common courtesy to invite the primary bill sponsor to a cermonial signing unless, of course, you are the incredibly effective freshman legislator from Loveland named BJ Nikkel. 

If you have listened to my show you know that I am a huge fan of State Rep BJ Nikkel.  Without her, there is no Colorado Taxpayer Transparency Act.  She embodies what voters want from their elected officials.  She works tirelessly on behalf of her constiuents.   Rep Nikkel’s problem is that she is a Republican and a thorn in the side of Colorado’s weak Governor.

Ritter’s office paid her back by not inviting her to the signing ceremony for her bill (HB 1290) concerning tuition assistance for members of the Colorado National Guard.  In fact, they didn’t even let her know when it was.  Ritter signed the legislation, along with several others, in El Paso County on Monday, May 11.  Others legislators — mostly Democrats and Don Marostica — got the invitation.  According to a press release Ritter praised Democrat legislators:

‘Reps. Apuan and Merrifield and Sen. Morse played a key role in leading Colorado forward during the 2009 legislative session….These three lawmakers worked hard on all of those issues for their El Paso County constituents. All of Colorado also will benefit from the bills I am signing into law here in Colorado Springs today, including measures to increase bicycle safety, help National Guard members go to college, improve civil rights and assist local schools.’

While Ritter praised the “hard work” of legislators including Rep Dennis Apuan, who was a co-sponsor of Nikkel’s legislation, sources tell me that Apuan did nothing to promote the National Guard tuition assistance legislation.  Nikkel did all the heavy lifting.  In fact, a source told me that Nikkel was forced to put Apuan on the bill so that she could get her fifth bill for this session.  Each legislator is allowed five bill titles.  But because Nikkel was appointed to the vacany in HD 49 after Kevin Lundberg moved to the Senate,  House leadership was only going to allow her four bills unless….she included Apuan on HB 1290. 

Why is it important to have Apuan as a co-sponsor on legislation for the National Guard? Good question.  Apparently, Apuan, whose district includes Fort Carson, has a history of protesting the military, and Democrats want to soften his anti-military reputation.  Representative Mark Waller (R-Colorado Springs), a former military member, told Face the State in March:

Essentially the Democrats have Rep. Apuan carrying a lot of military bills, and I believe it is for political reasons…The Democrats are trying to bolster his credentials with the military. If Rep. Apuan wants to use the military for political gain, then he needs to be called on his record.

Ritter has yet to sign Nikkel’s Colorado Taxpayer Transparency Act, which passed at the end of the session.  I called her to find out when he intends to do so.  The legislator known among her colleague as “Miss Transparency” has no idea.  Not that she hasn’t asked.  The Governor’s office won’t tell her.  So much for transparency from the Executive Branch.  They even keep bill signings secret.

“I don’t need a bailout. What I do need is a bank,” said Gary Teague a northern Colorado farmer.  According to the Denver Post, Teague ”runs a $50 million business that employs 155 people, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has given him 30 days to renegotiate his loans, or they will be liquidated.”

Teague made his “tearful” statement during a community forum with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Congresswoman Betsy Markey and Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall.  The meeting at the Morgan County Fairgrounds drew 300 “angry farmers and ranchers [who] demanded help from the federal government” after the collapse of New Frontier Bank.

On Saturday, Colorado’s congressional delegation announced that Vilsack freed up $253 million in federal funding to be used for operating loans for farmers and ranchers in search of banks to extend them new lines of credit.  It’s up to banks to pick up the money and extend the loans. 

While the $253 million is welcome news, it is well short of the nearly $448 million in outstanding agricultural loans that New Frontier had when it closed on Friday.  Despite claims from farmers and ranchers that they are current on loans, sources tell me some bankers simply are hesitant to lend.  Agriculture is a risky business.  The Denver Post confirmed it: “Several area farm leaders said banks in northern Colorado view many of the New Frontier loans as distressed and will not take them on.”

The ripple effect of this will be profound.  If the eighth largest agricultural county in the United States goes belly-up, not only will Weld County be hurt but also the entire state of Colorado.  Summed up by one attendee, “‘Many of the people in this room buy from each other, whether it’s grain or alfalfa. You can’t believe the carnage that will happen’  if the farmers don’t receive more help.”

Couple that with a possible decline in oil and gas revenue — our economic outlook is worrrisome.