While the SEC is off battling delusional fantasies of naked short sellers "destroying companies," Colorado citizens are evaluating a proposed ballot measure that would really crack down corporate fraud. The proposed law would make executives criminally responsible for fraud at the companies they ran. According to the New York Times, "It would also permit any Colorado resident to sue the executives under such circumstances. Proceeds from successful suits would go to the state."

I'm not so sure about this one. I certainly agree that we need to have greater accountability for executives who violate the public trust. But the idea of any Colorado resident being allowed to sue and have the proceeds go to the state sounds a little hokey. Activist organizations might be able to use a law like this to file frivolous and distracting lawsuits against controversial companies like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT).

The fact is that no private individual would sue a company with the proceeds going to the state for any purpose other than revenge or some kind of grudge. People who have been defrauded can file civil lawsuits and they do -- it seems like every time a hot stock goes south, four or five class-action firms rush to announce lawsuits. The SEC can file civil charges as well, and the Justice Department can go after criminals, as they did in the case of Enron executives like Jeff Skilling.

Where can you find the "Wall Street of the West?" In Colorado, of course -- specifically, Denver's 17th Street financial district.

Colorado's economy has come a long way from its foundation on trapping and mining. Denver's location, equidistant between Los Angeles and Chicago, between Seattle and New Orleans, has helped the Centennial State become the economic center of Rocky Mountain states -- even Denver's time zone and elevation help it keep in touch with the rest of the world. It's no wonder there's a large federal government presence in the state (U.S. Air Force Academy, NORAD, NOAA, Denver Mint, U.S. Geological Survey).

Companies such as Lockheed-Martin (NYSE: LMT), Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP), and Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) offer a sense of the diversity of the state's economy. And so do the three companies examined here: Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN), Dynamic Materials Corp. (NASDAQ: BOOM), and Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM).

Rising global demand for oil, combined with geological studies that predict that global oil production derived from conventional oil supplies will begin to decline late in this century, or as early as 2040, has led to a search for unconventional oil supplies.

Further, a large amount of that unconventional oil exists in the form of tar sands in Alberta, Canada, the bitumen of which is capable of producing 1.7 billion barrels of synthetic crude. Moreover, if just 10% of this field is actually recoverable, it would still represent the second largest oil reserve in the world.

But, as writer Elizabeth Kolbert outlined in an article on unconventional oil in this week's issue of The New Yorker magazine ("Unconventional Crude"), extracting that resource comes at a price: it's more expensive to extract -- about $1 of energy is needed to generate $3 of unconventional oil -- more CO2 is also released into the atmosphere than from conventional oil, and mines dug to secure the material scar the landscape, if not fully restored.

According to Denver's CBS affiliate, the city has come up with a clever idea to (a) help the homeless and (b) recycle old parking meters.

Placed in strategic spots downtown -- including "blighted" Skyline Park (a member of the Project for Public Spaces' Hall of Shame) -- newly refurbished parking meters are encouraging people to deposit money they would otherwise have given to panhandlers. Proceeds will go to "organizations that provide meals, job training, substance abuse counseling and housing to the homeless."

And just in time: The Colorado Division of Housing claims an estimated total of 16,203 homeless people, one-third being children and teenagers. In addition, a summer survey revealed, "up to 5,200 children and teenagers were homeless the night of Aug. 28, 2006, according to new finalized figures."

Mayor John Hickenlooper -- Chairman of the National Association of Mayors With Memorable Names -- said in a statement, "Denver's 10-year plan to end homelessness, what we call Denver's road home, has really become a national model. I think we've had the greatest success in getting the whole community to buy in, to believe this is something we can tackle as a community."

This week, 36 of the so-called homeless meters were unveiled.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.

Next time you have a hankering to listen to your iPod during a thunderstorm, you may want to do that inside. Jason Bunch could tell you that from first-hand experience. The Colorado 17-year-old was listening to his iPod when lightning struck on his lawn.

The earbuds conducted the eletricity right into Bunch's ears, rupturing his eardrums, singing his hair and burning him from his ears to his feet. Experts say that any electronic device held up to a person's ear (including cell phones and, we're certain, Microsoft's new iPod "killer") could direct the current from a lightning bolt similarly.

[Photo ocean yamaha]