Car Insurance

The disabled evacuee with chronic heart problems is trying to start his life over in Colorado Springs, and a local charity group has helped by giving him a car.

The help is coming from Northern Churches Care, one of 13 organizations that get a portion of their funding from The Gazette/ El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund.

“While I’m grateful that Colorado Springs has public transit, it’s just not reliable enough,” said Rivero, who needs to get to medical appointments on time.

The vehicle is a 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis with about 40,000 miles on it.

“It’s like a new car, absolutely no problems at all,” Rivero said. “It can be as cold as it gets here, and you walk out, turn the key and it cranks instantly. I’m really grateful to have received this.”

And while it has helped him move around Colorado Springs, the best gift that came with the car was a trip to Kansas City for Thanksgiving.

Northern Churches Care gave Rivero gasoline vouchers so he could make the almost 1,200-mile round-trip drive, allowing a reunion with relatives, including his aging mother.

“My mother is 79, and she is not in the best health,” he said. “I was very much afraid this might be the last Thanksgiving I get to spend with her.”

Rivero isn’t sure what happened to the car he owned in New Orleans. It was in the shop when Katrina hit, and he hasn’t seen it since.

Rivero hitchhiked out of New Orleans to safety just before Katrina hit. His spent about a month in a shelter in Baton Rouge. In late September, he boarded a bus with about 50 people and ended up in Colorado Springs.

Rivero said he couldn’t be happier.

“This has got to be the best place I’ve ever been in my life, as far as the kindness and just how nice people are,” he said. “I’m so grateful and consider myself extremely blessed to have come here.”

Marcia was making it as a single mom. Her two kids were teenagers, and she was working in the finance department at a car dealership.

But everything changed in the instant a “lady ran me down with a car on purpose,” Marcia said. She informed the woman that the dealership would repossess the car, followed her to the car lot, and the next thing she knew she was rolling on the pavement.

Marcia ended up with rods and bolts in her back and a neck fusion. She suffers from arthritis, fibromyalgia and back pain, along with shortterm memory loss. She hasn’t been able to hold down a job since the incident 15 years ago.

“It’s been a long haul,” she said. “If I could work, I would, because I’d love to make more money than I do.”

She survives on Social Security and a pension, but it’s hard to make ends meet.

Marcia depends on her monthly visits to the Divine Redeemer Catholic Church Food Pantry, partners of Care & Share Food Bank.

Care & Share provided more than 60,000 pounds of food in 2005 to Divine Redeemer, one of Care & Share’s 416 partners. The Care & Share Food Bank is one of 13 area charities receiving grants from The Gazette/El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund.

“I’ve been going to Divine Redeemer for three to four years, and they know who I am,” Marcia said. “They can tell when something is wrong, and they are always willing to help you out. They’re just really good people.”

In October, Marcia took in her 8-year-old granddaughter. She says the girl was being physically and mentally abused by her stepmother and father (Marcia’s son).

So, her meals from the food pantry have become even more vital to her.

“Right now, I just hope I don’t get sick or anything so I can take care of my granddaughter,” she said. “At Divine Redeemer, they’re more like friends now than somewhere I go to get emergency food. It just makes you feel good that somebody cares that much.”

By now you’ve heard that this week’s Masters could be a celestial battle of the golf stars, a titanic tilt of a tournament you later will be able to look back upon and say, “Was that some phat action or what?” But what will it mean to the world rankings? Great question, Forrest.

At the risk of turning a personality-rich story into a stat, No. 1 Vijay Singh and No. 2 Tiger Woods currently are separated by a mere 0.20 average points per tournament in the world rankings. What are the rules of the rankings? Well, they’re complicated. Essentially, a great performance among a great field means a greater number of points, thereby increasing your average and hip-hopping you up the charts.

In addition, the top-gun back and forth could include Ernie Els, who many forget spent nine weeks as the No. 1 in the world, long ago, back when buying a gas-guzzling, wheel-rotating SUV was a reasonable idea. He trails Woods by 0.84, which can be made up with a Masters win and a couple of Tiger tournament tamings. Then there’s everybody’s favorite lefty, Phil Mickelson, fourth in the world but trying harder. He’s a fair piece back in points–even after playing in last weekend’s wet Masters warmup, the BellSouth Classic–as the other three putted down the road at Augusta. But he’s gung-ho and gaining, and, gosh, he has great teeth.

Whatever. All you need to know is that Singh and Woods are going to be spending more time fighting at the top of the charts than 50 Cent and The Game. Hate it or love it, the days of one player dominating the rankings for 264 straight weeks–as Woods did before he was dethroned by Singh–are done.–Paul Grant.

Golf worth watching

The battle among the Big Four couldn’t be happening at a better time for PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem–his tour’s contracts with CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN. USA and the Golf Channel all are up for renegotiation. The early returns support that Finchem is in good stead to reap big bucks in deals for 2006 and beyond: Tiger Woods’ sensational Sunday battle with Phil Mickelson at last month’s Ford Championship earned a 5.9 rating for NBC, up a whopping 84 percent from 2004. If the Big Four-Woods, Mickelson, Vijay Singll and Ernie Els–take turns tangling like that. it could be a long, hot summer.

Getting those big bucks can only come by enticing back casual fans–and the best chance to do that is at the Masters. Last year’s rating for the final round. 7.3, was the second-lowest for Augusta since 1981, and the season’s numbers continued downhill from there. Because the Masters is the highest-rated tournament on the tour. a similarly poor showing this year would prove costly during negotiations with the networks, as it would be held up as the ceiling for ratings potential.A high-visibility, final-round rollick between Woods and one of the other Big Four would boost ratings, bring back casual fans and serve as useful ammunition for Finchem during talks.

Where are the fattest people in the world? That’s right, baby–right here in the good ol’ US of A, stuffing their faces at baseball games. According to the National Hat Dog and Sausage Council (yes, that’s a real organization), more than 27.5 million hat dogs will be consumed this season by fans at major league ballparks. Urp.

‘Prime Time’ has a pet project

He’s a cornerback. He’s a return man. He’s a receiver. He’s a baseball player. He’s a broadcaster. And he’s even a coach.

Multitalented free-agent cornerback Deion Sanders might or might not return to the Ravens to play again this year, but he is doing a little coaching on the side. Sanders called Gary Wichard, the agent for top cornerback prospect Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, to offer to show Pac-Man some technique work. Sanders watched Pac-Man’s West Virginia team lose to his alma mater, Florida State, in the Gator Bowl and undoubtedly saw some ways he could help the youngster. –Dan Pompei.

Howard Baldwin, producer of the Oscar-nominated film Ray, the story of late music legend Ray Charles, is teaming up with screen legend Robert Redford to produce another biopic on another groundbreaking African American. This time, it’s Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, with the movie set for a 2006 or 2007 release.

Redford, who will co-produce the film, was “the natural” choice to play Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. A possibility for the starring role of Robinson: Ray star Jamie Foxx. “At the appropriate time,” Baldwin says, “we’d be nuts not to want to talk to Jamie.”–Vinnie Iyer

ON A QUIET afternoon last year towards the end of a press trip driving out of Botswana into still poorer Zambia in a new Jeep Cherokee, I found myself scanning the side of the road for a candidate to inherit my walking boots. It didn’t take too long to spot a young lad, in rags, limping along with a tyre over his shoulder and looking understandably bewildered when I brought the Jeep to an abrupt halt alongside him, bunged him a pair of socks, my weary but still thoroughly usable boots and a quick lesson in how best to securely tie the long, heavy-duty laces.

The boy excitedly told me he’d never owned a pair of shoes in his life and his family would be ecstatic that he’d acquired some sturdy footwear from a visitor to the area. He didn’t ask for or expect anything from anyone. And neither did any of the other people I met there.

What’s all this got to do with motoring? Plenty. If I’m willing and able to do a tiny bit of good by donating an ageing but still decent pair of boots to a hugely grateful African, who will exploit them for years to come, why can’t Africa receive some of the cars we inexplicably send to the scrap yard when they’ve still got years of life left in them?

I’m not suggesting that every shattered, rusting, F-reg bucket- of-bolts abandoned at the roadside in Britain should be scooped up and dumped in Africa, but I am advocating that some perfectly safe, high-quality cars going to unnecessarily early graves here be given a new lease of life in another, less privileged part of the world.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says it’s near impossible to accurately estimate the age at which the typical motor on British roads is handed a death sentence. The organisation believes that the ‘average’ age of a car here is 6.8 years and that the vast majority of cars are taken off our roads when they’re little more than a decade old, if not sooner. At this point, they become ” for a variety of complicated political, environmental, economic and image reasons ” just about useless and worthless to us. There is no market for them. But to desperately poor African nations, they could become valuable, desirable assets. These days, engines are often only nicely run-in when they reach 100,000 miles. Go to Cuba and you’ll see cars slowly but productively going about their business on a daily basis, despite the fact they are half a century old with millions of miles on the clock.

Why on earth wouldn’t poor African towns and villages be extremely grateful to be sent our discarded but far from deceased quality, pre-owned cars? They could be used by health workers, teachers, emergency services and others in jobs designed to help the needy. The vehicles could be looked after by skill-seeking Africans keen to learn the art of car maintenance, repair and safety. And before you pour cold water on my idea by reminding me that much of the region’s harsh terrain is difficult, if not impossible, to drive across, surprisingly large sectors of Africa have fine, paved, straight roads or dry, flat, dirt tracks, which even the simplest two- wheel-drive cars (the simpler, the better) could safely and efficiently negotiate. The recent shenanigans at Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Goodyear and Michelin, for example, have left these companies red-faced and in much need of some positive PR. This they can achieve by donating spares, tyres and equipment, as well as giving lessons on tyre safety, longevity and repairs.

A new tax law giving less favorable deductions to good Samaritans who donate cars and trucks to charities has caused a significant drop in donations in 2005.

Salvation Army Auto Sales at Weber and Cimarron streets received 40 percent fewer vehicles last year than in 2004, said Dennis Broom, administrative assistant and vehicle representative.

“It is due to the tax-law change, and while it’s not a big blow, it’s disappointing,” he said.

Brisk sales at a new Salvation Army thrift shop at Platte Avenue and Circle Drive have helped offset some of the loss of revenue, Broom said.

Under tighter Internal Revenue Service rules, taxpayers are allowed to claim as a donation the amount the donated vehicle sells for. If it’s less than $500, the taxpayer may claim up to $500. Before 2005, donors could claim whatever amount they thought reflected the fairmarket value of the car, up to $5,000.

“In some cases, the new restrictions made it a better deal to trade in a car rather than donate it,” said Sandra Miniutti, spokeswoman for Charity Navigator, a national nonprofit evaluator based in New Jersey.

Cars Helping Charities, a Morrison-based company that sells cars donated from around the state to benefit more than 500 nonprofits, will close because of the drop in donations.

“I went from 2,400 cars a year to 1,500 cars a year,” said Steve Morrow, who founded the company in 2002.

Goodwill Industries of Colorado Springs accepted 930 donated vehicles last year, 45 percent fewer than 2004’s donations of 1,711 vehicles, said spokeswoman Laura Marth. That led to a $100,000 decrease in program revenue, a 30 percent decline from 2004.

Last year’s loss is less than it could have been, though, because in December 2004 the organization received 464 vehicle donations from people getting in under the IRS deadline. That was the highest number of donated cars since the program started in 1998, Marth said.

The rush to make vehicle donations in the last month of 2004 before the new tax law went into effect is, in part, what led to the market downturn, Miniutti said.

“Apparently, donors who were aware of the changes coming decided to quickly make those gifts before the new rules took effect,” she said.

Although the number of vehicles donated to nonprofits has taken a nose dive, other aspects of automotive-donation programs have not.

The average sales price per car remained the same at the Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries, for example. The Salvation Army, licensed as a used-car dealer, averages a sales price of $950 to $970 per vehicle, Broom said. That’s higher than what other nonprofits report because the Salvation Army sells cars directly off its used-car lot and does not send donated vehicles to auction — the route many charities take to sell the vehicles.

Goodwill Industries’ average sales price was $478 last year, Marth said, which has remained consistent for several years. Goodwill sells the vehicles through a local auctioneer.

Despite the seeming setback, nonprofits say donating unwanted cars, trucks, vans and RVs remains a worthy avenue for supporting local charities and provides hassle-free disposal.

“It’s a real convenience — people just drop off their keys and title with us, and we take care of the rest,” Marth said. “And revenue generated is put back into our programs and services that help people in our community.”