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State may set standard forfracking-fluid disclosure. »5B

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011 partly sunny E 44˚F 20˚»12B B © the denver post B $1.00 price may vary outside metro denver

Online photo galleries» View the best images from a news-filled 2011. » denverpost.com/captureddp

Bank-card cap backfires on small shopsNew credit- and debit-card fee limits have bankstaking a bigger bite out of inexpensive purchases.

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SIX NEW TAKESON FAVORITEHOLIDAY COOKIES»food, 1D

Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

On Dec. 31, 2009, snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injuryin an accident during practice that left him in a coma. Now, nearly two years laterand after extensive physical therapy at Craig Hospital in Englewood, he is back ona snowboard. Pearce and his friends hit the slopes in Breckenridge on Tuesday.And while the four-time X Games medalist will never ride competitively again, justbeing back on the board was “the ride of a lifetime.” »1C

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NATIONTIMEOUT CALLEDON $1 COIN OUTPUTMore than a billion one-dollarcoins are going un-used and piling upin bank vaults, sothe U.S. Mint willall but halt produc-tion of its specialpresidential dollarcoins. »6A

Blagojevich may serve time at U.S. lockup in Jeffco.»denver & the west, 1B

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By David Migoya The Denver Post

It took about five minutes and a doz-en customers before a lunch patronhanded Su-Lin Hsieh cash for an order.

It used to be different. But in aworld where plastic is now king, it’salso why small businesses are feelingthe pinch.

A new federal law intended to re-duce costs for businesses that acceptdebit cards for inexpensive purchases

— coffee shops and conveniencestores, among them — is affectingsmall operations such as Hsieh’s fami-ly-owned lunch counter in downtownDenver.

Monthly processing costs on creditand debit charges are shooting up rath-er than down, an unintended conse-quence of legislation that capped theamount card companies could chargemerchants.

“If they keep raising the fees, then

we’ll have no choice but to raise ourprices,” said Hsieh, whose Chinja busi-ness is probably the most popularcounter at the food-court space be-neath Republic Plaza along the 16thStreet Mall.

Last month, the business saw inter-change fees eat up about 3.8 percentof revenue, Hsieh said. Next month,she said she’s expecting it to top 4 per-cent — or worse.

“But without accepting credit anddebit cards, we couldn’t stay in busi-ness,” a difficult thought after 17 yearsin the same location, she said.

FEES » 15A

Fee changesCard companies arecapped at charging 22cents for each debit- orcredit-card transaction;previously, it was anaverage of about 42 cents.They also used to charge alower rate for smallertransactions — on averageabout 5 or 6 cents each —but now the charge iscloser to 22 cents.

By Anthony Cotton The Denver Post

The National Transportation Safe-ty Board recommended Tuesday thatdrivers be prohibited from usinghand-held and portable electronic de-vices in automobiles, a ban that wouldinclude cellphone usage, even withhands-free devices.

Citing increasing accident rates asthe motivation, NTSB chairwomanDeborah A.P. Hersman said she real-ized the recommended ban might beunpopular with the public but addedthat “no call, no text, no update isworth a human life.”

“This is a difficult recommenda-tion, but it’s the right recommenda-tion and it’s time,” she said.

The NTSB said the only exceptionsto the ban would be using a cellphonein emergency situations or GPS navi-gation devices.

PHONE » 15A

DISTRACTED DRIVERS

NTSB seekscellphoneban whencar’s movingThe effort cites increasingaccident rates as a reason tobar even hands-free devices.

By John Ingold The Denver Post

For the second time this year, ajudge has tossed out a criminal caseagainst a doctor accused of writingbad medical-marijuana recommenda-tions to undercover police officers.

Arapahoe County District JudgeCarlos Samour dismissed the caseagainst Dr. Manuel Aquino-Villamanfollowing a hearing Friday. Samoursaid Aquino-Villaman’s actions werelawful under the Colorado Constitu-tion, according to a court summaryof the hearing. He also said the charg-es should be dropped because offi-cials failed to preserve key evidence.Aquino-Villaman had been chargedwith felony conspiracy to distributemarijuana, in addition to forgery and

DOCTOR » 12A

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Another caseagainst a doctortossed in court

By Eric Gorski and David OlingerThe Denver Post

Structural deficiencies have beendiscovered at two more schools con-structed by the Neenan Co., new evi-dence that inspections of the compa-ny’s work are unearthing a pattern ofproblems at schools built by the com-pany statewide.

In Moffat County in northwesternColorado, a wing of 2-year-old CraigMiddle School was closed to studentsthis week after a structural analysisfound it failed to meet building codes.

The superintendent, Joe Petrone,wrote that he made the decision “to re-duce the risk to all students,” eventhough the engineering firm that con-ducted the review does “not believethe structure is dangerous.”

And on the other side of the state, inAkron, a school under constructionwith help from a $17 million stategrant needs foundation work and oth-er strengthening after a third-party review requested by the state.

SCHOOLS » 14A

REVIEW OF NEENAN WORK

Moreschoolfixeson tapBuildings in Craig and Akronare the latest where structuralproblems have been found.

At Breckenridge on Tuesday, professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce returns to the slopes for thefirst time since suffering a near-death injury while training for the Vancouver Olympics.Photos by Jack Dempsey, The Associated Press

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