Updates Of Past Coverage.

Here are some updates on stories I've mentioned in the past:

The Colorado redistricting suit isn't quite over yet. The Attorney General (a Republican) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to end it once and for all, which would affirm the status quo in the case.

A fire that killed a mother and baby, Kris Kueneman, 23, and her 8-month-old girl, Lilly, in Fort Collins was probably caused by a cigarette butt flicked into some debris including paint, under a stairwell in her apartment building. No one know who flicked the burning ember that actually caused the fire and the area was full of cigarette butts from probably many people. The mother had called 911, and tried to save her baby by putting her in a sink with water in it. Both died of smoke inhalation before they could be rescued. The woman's parents noted the lack of fire escapes in the public housing building.

The City of Denver's Main Street zoning plan will get its first trial in a 5 story building with apartments over shops at Madison and East Colfax in the Congress Park neighborhood. Neighbors fear a shortage of parking. City planners hope to bring life to Colfax and similar streets which have been one big long strip mall dominanted by poverty.

The 9th Circuit has been saved, for now. Efforts to split it were dropped in Congressional negotiations. (So were efforts to allow a free for all for oil shale exploration in Colorado proposed by Rep. Pombo).

Early Iraqi election results (more analysis later).