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Before Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, there was Mudcrutch.

Petty has reformed the band from the early 1970s and plays bass, just as he did in the old days and a new album hits stores next Tuesday. Rolling Stone likes it.

Mark Brown's Rocky Mountain Music blog has a link where you can stream the new Mudcrutch album for free.

Do societies shape people or do people shape societies?

Discuss.

(From Consider This ... Questions That Make You Think (Random House Reference, $12.95) by Barbara Ann Kipfer)

Rev. Jeremiah Wright returns to the media spotlight tonight when he is interviewed by Bill Moyers on PBS.

Wright, former pastor to Barack Obama, said that publicizing sound bites of sermons in which he condemned U.S. policies was "unfair" and "devious," and done by people who know nothing about his church.

Voting booths may need recliners and bathroom facilities by the time Colorado's ballet is complete.

Gov. Bill Ritter is backing a plan to abolish an oil-and-gas tax credit that would raise the effective rate of the severance tax and devote a majority of the money raised for undergraduate scholarships.

The severance tax is what the state collects for oil and gas permanently removed, or "severed," from its land. The proposal would raise Colorado's total effective taxes on the oil and gas industry from 5.7 percent to about 8 to 9 percent, according to the governor's office.

That is still lower than the 9.4 percent in New Mexico and 11.2 percent in Wyoming, but more than the 4.5 percent in Utah.

Ritter said oil and gas "are called nonrenewable resources for a reason." Therefore, he argued, taxes on those resources should be invested for the future, and the best investment is the state's students.

Four girls report a fifth grade boy makes sexual comments to them and tells them what they can do his body.

Would you call the cops or deal with it as a school matter? The principal called police, the boy was issued a ticket and suspended from school.

How about a four-year-old boy with his hand down the pants of a female classmate under a blanket at naptime? District staff told the school to call police and social services.

The case that sparked a surge in school calls to city police and social workers goes to court today, reports Nancy Mitchell.

Attorneys for Skinner Middle School Principal Nicole Veltze will argue that a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse should be dismissed.

They claim that Veltze was following DPS policy when she contacted parents and district officials - but not police - after a girl reported she was repeatedly touched on her chest and bottom by two boys in class.

DPS has backed Veltze, with the district's social work manager describing her actions as "absolutely correct."

But Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey argues that Veltze should have called police immediately.

Arguments in the case are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. A judge could rule today on the motions to dismiss or issue a written ruling later.

Whether that decision will resolve lingering questions about who, and when, to call is uncertain.

A Rocky Mountain News analysis of 55 sexual incident reports filed by schools with DPS' department of safety and security between May 2006 and March 2008 shows a broad range of responses during that span.

Rush Limbaugh, the thrice-married champion of conservative values, says he's been dreaming of riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention.

"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during his radio show on Wednesday. He prodded his listeners to help make that a reality.