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Exactly as some legal experts predicted, Boulder's courts saw a spike in claims of "adverse possession" filed by people apparently trying to beat the clock on changes to the controversial land law. Of the 25 active adverse-possession lawsuits in Boulder County -- where a person or company claims someone else's land after trespassing on it for at least 18 years -- 15 of those cases were filed in June Some of those cases were filed just hours before changes to the law went into effect last Tuesday, court records show. The changes, drafted by a bipartisan group of state legislators...

Richard McLean and Edith Stevens did not fabricate evidence or lie to win their controversial land case against neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin, District Judge James C. Klein ruled today. Klein’s order essentially upholds his decision last fall to award about 34 percent of one of the Kirlins’ vacant lots to McLean and Stevens after they sued for it using the squatter’s-rights law of “adverse possession.” The Kirlins had filed paperwork earlier this year alleging that McLean, a former district court judge, and Stevens, an attorney, faked evidence of a dirt path across the Kirlins’ property and lied about using...

Adverse possession law set to change. Beginning July 1, people hoping to use "adverse possession" to take control of another person's land had better be prepared to pay for it... The bill, which garnered wide bipartisan support among state lawmakers, requires that an adverse possessor believe in "good faith" that the land is actually his or her own. It also raises the burden of proof in an adverse-possession case and gives judges the power to make plaintiffs payfor any land they are awarded. Witwer on Friday said the bill is a victory for property owners. "This will make it harder...

A Boulder County District Court judge charged with revisiting a controversial land dispute should not consider "outrageous" claims that Richard McLean and Edith Stevens lied to win their case, according to the couple's attorney. In court documents submitted Tuesday, Boulder attorney Kim Hult responded pointedly to accusations made by Don and Susie Kirlin that their neighbors fabricated a path across their Hardscrabble Drive vacant lot. The thin dirt trail, which has come to be known as "Edie's Path," was a critical piece of evidence that in part led Judge James C. Klein last fall to award about a third of...

Galen Foster's home and business of 23 years is supposed to make way for parking for the Wadsworth Boulevard light-rail station in Lakewood. But what chaps Foster's hide is that there already are conceptual plans showing his property being used not for transit parking, but for a five-story commercial office building. While government's right of condemnation, more politely called eminent domain, has been recognized for centuries, the Regional Transportation District is entering an untested area that includes economic development in its efforts to build the FasTracks West Corridor line. While there is little room to challenge RTD's acquisition of land...

A war of words continues in a high-profile Boulder land case, with each side accusing the other of lying. In January, Don and Susie Kirlin appealed an October ruling by Boulder County District Court Judge James C. Klein that awarded a third of their million-dollar lot to neighbors Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, based on the squatter's-rights law of "adverse possession." The Kirlins at the same time filed a request with the Colorado Court of Appeals to send the case back to the district court level to hear additional evidence, alleging their neighbors fabricated evidence to win their case. After...

McLean, Stevens ‘Insulted’. A Boulder couple who lost part of their million-dollar lot in a land dispute has filed a motion accusing their neighbors of fabricating crucial evidence. "These people have committed fraud on the court," said Don Kirlin. Don and Susie Kirlin said they have new evidence their neighbors, Dick McLean and Edie Stevens, deceptively created a path on the vacant lot next door after they sued for it. McLean and Stevens have said they've used "Edie's path" for the last 25 years to access their back yard with no objection from the Kirlins, a crucial part of their...

Lawmakers Want To Make Adverse Possession More Difficult. A proposal seeking to change a controversial "land grab" law ... A little more than half of the representatives in the State House have signed on as sponsors of a bill that would make adverse possession of property more difficult. “Clearly the time has come to change the law of adverse possession in Colorado,”... The proposal is in response to a ‘land grab’ situation in South Boulder where former mayor and district judge Richard McLean and Edie Stevens, an attorney, sued their neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin for their land. The couple...

The Boulder couple who successfully sued for part of their neighbors' land mailed a letter this week to "those who have supported us," saying they hoped to restore peace in their neighborhood. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, plaintiffs in the controversial adverse-possession case against Don and Susie Kirlin, spelled out their side of the story in the four-page letter -- obtained by the Camera from a recipient who wished to remain anonymous. "We still hope that we can reconcile our differences with the Kirlins and restore peace in our neighborhood and community," McLean and Stevens wrote. Contacted at her home...

Ex-student teacher roaming with boyfriend, kids, documents allege - The student teacher whose affair with a teenager led to the young man's slaying by her husband is now roaming from seedy motel to seedy motel with a new teenage lover and her two young sons in tow, documents allege. In affidavits filed in Knox County Fourth Circuit Court, Eric McLean and his divorce attorney, Steve Sharp, allege former West High School student teacher Erin McLean is embarked on a rootless existence with a 19-year-old paramour. "(Erin McLean) has been to California and then to Austin, Texas, staying in cheap motels...

A judge who granted a couple part of their neighbors' property in an adverse-possession lawsuit has denied their request to add on a strip of land 9 inches wide. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, of Boulder, had asked for the full width of a disputed path on land purchased by their neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin. In October, McLean and Stevens were awarded about a third of the Kirlins' lot, or more than 1,400 square feet... A judge said last week he could only consider evidence presented at trial ...

The land-dispute case on Hardscrabble Drive isn't the first time a former Boulder judge has used the legal concept of "adverse possession" to win land from a neighbor. Earlier this year, the secretary of the Indian Peaks chapter of the Sierra Club and his wife lost about 100 square feet of their property to Marsha Yeager, a former judge, and her husband, John Yeager. The issue of adverse possession hit the spotlight earlier this month when Don and Susie Kirlin lost about a third of their property to their neighbors — former judge Richard McLean and his wife, Edith Stevens...

Don and Susie Kirlin of Boulder, Colordao. How many times have we heard about government abuses of the right to own property going on in neighborhoods across America, in the form of the invoking of the right of ‘eminent domain’, and the corruption of other legal concepts? Kelo vs. New London is probably the most publicized of such unconstitutional atrocities, but similar atrocities occur daily across this country. How many of us have attempted to help the victims of such abuses of power? I myself have done so no more than once or twice. I ask any FReeper who...

A judiciary oversight committee has rejected a Boulder couple's request to investigate a neighboring couple who used an arcane legal loophole to take over their property. The Colorado Supreme Court's Attorney Regulation Counsel rejected Don and Susie Kirlin's request to investigate ex-judge and former Boulder mayor Richard McLean and his lawyer wife Edith Stevens, who won a strip of their property on Hardscrabble Drive. In a letter to the Kirlins, assistant regulation counsel Louise Culberson-Smith said that the McLean and Stevens' use of an "adverse possession claim" to win the land does not constitute a violation of the Rules of...

The Thompson fund-raising event was at the private residence of William & Christine Barr. Mr. Barr was Attorney General under Bush 41 and their home is wonderfully full of mementos like photos with the Pope, Pres. Reagan, and a host of other notables. We got there promptly at 6pm and they valet parked our car, and we went inside where we met our hosts, the Barrs, and talked to them as people arrived. They are warm, wonderful and normal people. At about 6:20 there were about 125-150 of us in their "library" and there was a buzz in the room...

A former West High School student teacher whose affair with a student led to murder snatched her children from her mother’s Nashville home last week and hasn’t been seen or heard from since, her estranged husband’s attorney confirmed today. Erin McLean climbed through a window of her mother’s home on Gale Lane in Nashville last Saturday, grabbed her two sons, ages 11 and 8, and left, defense attorney Bruce Poston said, citing information from Erin McLean’s grandmother and younger sister. “She told an uncle she was going to California to meet a man she met over the Internet,” Poston said....

Capital One Financial Corp. said Monday it will cut 1,900 jobs and shutter its wholesale mortgage banking business, a move that comes as lenders continue to struggle in the nation's housing and mortgage markets. ADVERTISEMENT Capital One said it will shut down GreenPoint Mortgage and eliminate most of the jobs by the end of year. The McLean, Va.-based company will close 31 GreenPoint locations in 19 states and "cease residential mortgage origination" effective immediately but said it will honor commitments to customers with locked rates who have loans already in the pipeline. "Over the past few months, we have experienced...

Capital One, the McLean financial services company, announced yesterday that it will purchase NetSpend Holdings, a retail seller of prepaid debit cards, for $700 million. The acquisition would give Capital One, best known for its credit card offerings, a bigger presence in the growing market for prepaid debit cards and extend its reach to the estimated 70 million U.S. citizens who don't have bank accounts, the company said. "It's adjacent to our core business," said Tatiana Stead, a spokeswoman for Capital One. "We now have an opportunity to provide an option for everybody." Prepaid debit cards can be used like...

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, has again cut the asking price on her McLean, Va., estate, this time to $12.5 million, from $25 million when it went up for sale in 2003. John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, bought the 12-bedroom mansion in 1953 shortly after he joined the U.S. Senate. In 1957 the future president sold the home to his brother, who raised his 11 children there. Set on more than five acres, the 19th-century mansion has 18 rooms, 10½ baths and 12 fireplaces. The property also includes a pool, pool house, tennis court and...

Political friendships, and political animus, apparently are not made to last. Six years ago, former Reagan Navy secretary James Webb was a Republican, and he opined that President Bill Clinton's administration was "the most corrupt administration in modern memory." He made the comments at a news conference endorsing Republican George F. Allen for the Senate, and renouncing his past support of Virginia Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb. Today, Webb is a Democrat, running against the incumbent Allen. And Webb's campaign said last night that Clinton has agreed to headline a fundraiser for Webb this fall at -- just to complete...

Today President Bush traveled to the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia to attend a briefing. Following the briefing, the President made a statement to the press, crediting the agency for its part in foiling the terror plot in England last week. FR's Finest has done a thread on "Twins" and there's a great photo collage of the President's and First Lady's lovely daughters right HERE . (Thanks to Dolly for the link!) Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island on the Daily Dose!!

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2006 – The federal government’s duty is to protect the American people, and the work being done at the National Counterterrorism Center is doing just that, President Bush said today. “I want to thank all the people in this building and around our government who spend an incredible amount of time and energy and effort to do a very difficult job, and that's to protect the American people,” Bush told the nation’s counterterrorism team at the center’s headquarters in McLean, Va. Bush said the U.S. is safer now than in the past, but he was quick...

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A former Commerce Department official killed his 12-year-old son and himself early Friday following an apparent domestic dispute, police said. Police found the bodies of William Lash III, 45, a law professor at George Mason University and a former assistant secretary of commerce, and his son William IV inside a bedroom of their home following a barricade that lasted more than six hours, said Mary Ann Jennings, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman. Lash's wife called police Thursday night and said her husband and son were barricaded inside the home, Jennings said. Shortly after officers arrived, they...

Gunfire at McLean Home Followed Fight With Wife A former Bush administration official, after arguing violently with his wife Thursday night, shot and killed his 12-year-old son inside their McLean home, then turned a shotgun on himself and committed suicide, Fairfax County police said. William H. Lash III, 45, was an assistant secretary of commerce from 2001 until last year, then returned to teach at George Mason University Law School in Arlington, where he had begun as a professor in 1994. His wife, Sharon K. Zackula, fled the house before the shootings, and police said yesterday they were not sure...

Friends of U.S. peace activist Tom Fox, who was kidnapped and killed in Iraq, cited his stance against retribution on Saturday and called for the remembrance of all victims of violence around the world. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia....

FAIRFAX, Va. - A CIA worker was arrested and charged with being a serial burglar responsible for more than a dozen incidents near the spy agency's headquarters. Fairfax County police said Tuesday that George C. Dalmas III had been charged with 17 burglaries in McLean, Va., between October and last month. Dalmas, 44, of Falls Church, faced numerous counts of burglary and grand larceny, and investigators said other charges were possible. Investigators said Dalmas was tracked down after a Jan. 24 robbery at the home of Lori Myer, who was able to give police information from the license plates of...

Gannett Co. reported its earnings fell 9.2% in the fourth quarter, due primarily to weak ad sales at its U.K. newspapers and a drop in television revenue. The nation's largest newspaper publisher, which publishes USA Today and 90 other daily papers, said net income dropped to $343.4 million, or $1.44 a share, from $378.1 million, or $1.47 a share a year earlier. Earnings were at the high end of Gannett's forecast of $1.40 to $1.44 a share, and beat analysts' consensus estimate of $1.41 a share, according to a survey by Thomson First Call. Revenue increased 5.7% to $2.05 billion...

This morning, President Bush, accompanied by Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez, signed H.R. 972, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Later the President spoke to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their meeting in Washington, highlighting progress in fashioning democracy in Iraq, rebuilding the economy and training Iraqi forces. He then welcomed the 2005 Little League Softball World Series Champions, from McLean, Va, in the Oval Office. First Lady Laura Bush today delivered a speech at the National Conference on At-Risk Youth, opening the Coordinating Council...

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2005 – The aroma of fresh-baked cookies filling the entryway of the small apartment brings a reminiscent feeling of home for many visitors. It does not, however, give an idea of the magnitude of the efforts of the one-woman cookie factory within these walls. Germaine Broussard, also known as "The Cookie Lady," has been baking cookies for troops serving overseas for a year and a half. She has baked thousands of cookies and sent them to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines -- most of whom she has never met. Broussard started her baking ventures around Christmas 2003,...

FAIRFAX, Va. — A man who abducted the wife of U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., from her McLean home and forced her to withdraw money from a bank at knifepoint was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison. Michael J. Pierre, 27, of Upper Marlboro, Md., pleaded guilty in February to robbery and abduction charges. His accomplice, Christopher L. Forbes, 33, was sentenced last month to 15 years. "I am eternally sorry, your honor," said Pierre, who appeared before Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Michael P. McWeeny. Pierre and Forbes acknowledged sneaking into the Greggs' home through an open garage...

Kennedy discount Just in time for the inauguration is Ethel Kennedy's blowout sale. The widow of RFK has lowered the price of her famed "Hickory Hill" estate by $5 million. The 18-room Colonial residence on 6 acres in McLean, Va., is now sporting a price tag of $20 million. "It's an extraordinary piece of property, but that price is still unheard of in Virginia," said one broker. Bobby Kennedy purchased the estate in 1957 from his older brother, then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who bought the property after he wed wife Jackie in 1953. The house features 13 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms,...

American Lie by BipolarBob A wrong, wrong rhyme ago I watched the evening news that told all I ever knew And I said goodnight to David and Chet Read the newspaper to hedge my bet The Cold War kept me awake Because nuclear war made me quake it was about all I could take all our lives seemed at stake The Day the media died So lie lie Mr. Evening News Guy Turned the channel and never asked why Their whoppers were a point of pride just kept searching the TV Guide for a news source that I could abide,...

NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - Credit card issuer Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) said on Wednesday its quarterly earnings rose as lending grew, and the company increased its 2004 earnings outlook. The company also announced that it was cutting 1,400 call center jobs in Florida, Texas and Virginia, and took a $56 million charge in the second quarter. Capital One said it will take a $60 to $100 million charge during the second half of 2004 as part of a company reorganization. The McLean, Virginia-based company posted second-quarter earnings of $407.4 million, or $1.65 a share, compared with $286.2...

Alexandria, Va. (AP) - A human rights activist who had once been convicted by China of espionage was sentenced Friday in Alexandria (website - news) federal court to seven months in jail for selling sensitive computer equipment to Beijing. Gao Zhan of McLean, a former researcher at American University, attracted international attention in 2001 when she was arrested in China and accused of spying for Taiwan. The Chinese government convicted her but released her to the United States, following diplomatic pressure. But last fall, Gao pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally exporting computer equipment over several years to agencies...

Mar. 3--VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Federal agents arrested a gas station owner Tuesday morning on charges that he and others, including a Maryland lawyer, conspired to allow illegal Middle Eastern immigrants into the country. The agents stormed a home in the 1900 block of Abbotsbury Way, off Holland Road, and arrested Zulfiqar Ali, 43. Four others were arrested in Herndon, McLean, Potomac, Md., and Kingston, N.Y. An indictment filed in Greenbelt, Md., alleges that Ali and the others allowed an unknown number of illegal immigrants into the country from here to New York from 1998 to last year by filing...

(KINGSTON) TWO PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED LAST NIGHT AT THE RAMADA INN ON ROUTE 28 OUTSIDE KINGSTON BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY. OFFICIALS WOULD NOT GIVE ANY SPECIFICS ON THE CASE, OR THE NAMES OF THOSE ARRESTED. AUTHORITIES DID SAY A LARGE QUANITY OF CASH WAS RECOVERED AT THE MOTEL. THE INVESTIGATION IS CONTINUING BY THE IMMIGRATION CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT UNIT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY.

TV Satellite Launched from Cape Canaveral TV Satellite Launched from Cape Canaveral CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An Atlas 2 rocket carrying a television relay satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, the first of the year for International Launch Services. Lift-off came at 6:46 p.m. EST from launch complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Atlantic seaboard. The launch was delayed briefly by a balky valve during fueling. ILS, a partnership between Lockheed Martin Corp., builder of the Atlas rocket, and the Khrunichev Space Center in Russia, has 15 launches on its books for...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — Although Vincent W. Foster Jr., the Clinton administration's deputy White House counsel, killed himself more than 10 years ago, the controversy provoked by his death has yet to run its course. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday on whether the Freedom of Information Act obliges the government to make public the graphic photographs that the police took of the death scene in Fort Marcy Park in McLean, Va. The question was whether the release of the photographs, sought by a California lawyer who questions the official conclusion that the death was a suicide, would be...

Evangelicals defy easy labels. Here's why--and why their numbers are growing What would Jonathan Edwards think of suburban Chicago's Willow Creek Community Church, where every weekend some 17,000 congregants arrive in their Chevy Tahoes and Toyota minivans to worship in the enormous brick-and-glass auditorium? More specifically, what would the 18th-century Puritan preacher who penned the fire-and-brimstone sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" make of "seeker-friendly" services that use "drama, multimedia, and contemporary music" to serve "individuals checking out what it really means to have a personal relationship with Jesus"? Gazing across the packed rows, would Edwards recognize...

Pahlavi appeals to young Iranians who hate clerical rule and don't remember his father's regime McLEAN, Va. -- With his plastic watch and blue suit, Reza Pahlavi blends easily into the strip malls and bedroom communities that sprawl beyond the Capital Beltway. But the son of Iran's deposed king has far greater aspirations than the white-collar professionals and stay-at-home moms who populate suburban Washington: He wishes to lead the Iran of his youth -- the nation that sent him into a quarter-century of exile -- from dictatorship to democracy. "Look at Solidarity in Poland and what it accomplished," he said...

WASHINGTON -- A human rights activist freed from a Chinese prison after the U.S. government interceded on her behalf pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally selling American high-tech items with potential military uses to China. Gao Zhan, who was born in China and is a U.S. resident living in McLean, Va., pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful export for selling 80 microprocessors. She also pleaded guilty to tax evasion, as did her husband, Xue Donghua. "The technology exported in this case is tightly controlled for good reason: It can be used in sensitive military systems," said Kevin Delli-Colli, a U.S....

WELL, WE live in nervous times. The terrorists arrive that awful Sept. 11 morning, and the nation spends the past two years trying to cope. The government investigates shadowy places where it never previously stuck its nose, and the civil libertarians shudder. Is Big Brother getting too snoopy? A 12-year-old kid at Boys' Latin researches a paper on the Bay Bridge, and suddenly the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force shows up in the headmaster's office. You could laugh if you didn't know the jangled nerves that set off such a reaction.

Irate Senator Gets His Money Back Bank, Blasted as 'Stupid,' Replaces $4,000 Stolen From Wife By Tom Jackman Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 18, 2003; Page B01 The day after his wife was abducted and forced to withdraw cash from a McLean bank, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) called the branch manager and chastised her for the bank's "stupid" actions during the robbery and soon was refunded the $4,000 that was stolen, three Wachovia employees said. The branch manager, Parisa Davoudian, said Gregg hung up on her after demanding to speak to a higher-ranking Wachovia Bank official. Davoudian and two...

MANCHESTER – Tied up, lying face down with one of two attackers sitting atop her, Kathy Gregg calmly devised a plan Tuesday morning to save her life and end this violent abduction from her McLean, Va., home. “I was lying on the floor, face down, they had my arms and legs tied together. I’m tied up and thinking, ‘I need to get out of this house. They are not getting what they want. This is really going to make them even more angry, and they just might do what they are threatening to do,’ ” Kathy Gregg said during an...

TRENTON, N.J. Two men suspected of kidnapping a U.S. senator's wife from her Virginia home and forcing her at knifepoint to withdraw money from a bank were arrested early Thursday after a short police chase, police said. The men were spotted in Carteret driving a car that matched a description of the assailants' vehicle, said Tammy Read, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia. WABC-TV in New York reported that Carteret police officers approached the silver Chevrolet Monte Carlo with Virginia license plates in a parking lot. A passenger fled on foot and the driver sped away,...

CARTERET, N.J. (AP) — Two men suspected of kidnapping a U.S. senator's wife from her Virginia home were caught in New Jersey after they unwittingly stumbled into an undercover narcotics surveillance operation, authorities said. The suspects, accused of abducting the wife of Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and forcing her to withdraw money from a bank at knifepoint, fled to New Jersey and were caught late Wednesday night when they pulled off an exit of the New Jersey Turnpike. They parked in an area Carteret police had under surveillance as a known drug trafficking location, Police Chief John Pieczyski said. Kathleen...

No joke. First heard of this from Rush a couple minutes ago. On the the ABC News homepage, see the 1st story listed under "Headlines" - which is not yet linked to any text. From Rush right now - she was kidnapped from her Virginia home and forced to withdraw money from an ATM. She has been released and is unharmed. Bit of a relief: For a moment I thought it was a terrorist kidnapping.

McLEAN, Va. - The wife of Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H., was abducted at knife point from her home on Tuesday morning, but later released unharmed, said suburban Virginia police and spokesmen for the senator. Police said that 52-year-old Kathleen Gregg arrived at her house about 9:30 a.m. EDT to find two men waiting inside. One drew a knife and demanded cash, said Jacqi Smith, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department. One of the men then drove her to a nearby bank while the other followed in another car, Smith said, reporting that after the...

Sam, of Mclean, Virginia of course. http://www.ewg.org/farm/region.php?fips=00000

Breaking on ABC... does anyone know who's wife this is? I haven't heard anything more!