Heating-bill fund gets boost from legislature
The Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP) has received a boost from the state to help Coloradans keep up with the rising cost of heating their homes, Gov. Bill Owens announced Thursday.
LEAP distributed $7.6 million, a sum made available through legislation passed by the General Assembly, which authorized the transfer of the money from the severance tax fund.
The addition to the LEAP coffers means the 96,000 LEAP recipients received an average of $79 to help cover energy bills.
This amount is on top of the average $270 per recipient already disbursed from a federal grant, a donation from Energy Outreach Colorado and other state funds that had been made available by Owens, said LEAP director Glenn Cooper.
4th man charged in paleontologist’s death
A fourth man has been charged in the the January death of world-renowned paleontologist Charles Repenning of Lakewood.
Michael Scott Mapps, 52, of Arvada, was arrested in May and charged with 10 counts related to the manufacture, possession and distribution of methamphetamine.
After further investigation, Jefferson County prosecutors on Thursday filed felony murder, second-degree burglary of a dwelling and criminal solicitation charges against Mapps.
Also charged with Repenning’s strangulation death are Rich ard Kasparson, Michael Wessel and Nicolas Savajian.
Court documents allege that Mapps is believed to have met Repenning while doing construction work at a nearby home, and later solicited burglary of Repenning’s home “by offering to pay money, drugs and the title to a motorcycle” for items in the 82-year-old man’s home.
Wal-Mart plan inches forward despite flak
The Westminster planning commission voted narrowly to move along a controversial proposal to build a Wal-Mart at Interstate 25 and 136th Avenue.
About 100 people attended the meeting Tuesday night, many there to protest the plan. At about 10 p.m., after about two and a half hours of testimony and discussion, the commission voted 4-3 to give the proposal to Westminster’s City Council for consideration, said Joe Reid, Westminster’s spokesman.
The plan calls for a Wal-Mart Supercenter to be built on the southwest corner of I-25 and 136th. That site is about a quarter-mile from the nearest houses. It is also just across the highway from a spot where Wal-Mart wanted to put a supercenter last year, before mobs of angry Thornton residents convinced their City Council to kill the project.
Westminster’s City Council will consider the Wal-Mart plan at its June 13 meeting. The next night, another controversial plan to build a Wal-Mart – this one at West 72nd Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard – will go before the city’s planning commission.
CU Nobel winner elected to academy
Eric Cornell, a 2001 Nobel Prize winner and Boulder physicist, has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cornell is already a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has won numerous other international awards for his work on the behavior of super-cold atoms.
Cornell, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, was the only Coloradan among 196 new fellows elected this year.
Others included Supreme Court Justice William Rehn quist, journalist Tom Brokaw, actor and director Sidney Poitier and Steven Squyres, who leads NASA’s Mars Rover program.
Last fall, Cornell lost his arm to a tissue-killing bacterial infection.
6 arrested in alleged identity-theft ring
Police busted an identity-theft and check-fraud operation at a public housing project on Thursday morning.
Police went to an apartment in the 2800 block of West 11th Avenue to pick up someone for an outstanding warrant when they made the discovery, said police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez.
The residents consented to a search and police found a major criminal enterprise, Lopez said.
Tina Garay, 30; Debbie Valdez, 47; Juan Santos, 28; Stacy Cordova, 20; Jamie Holt, 32; and Jason Atencio, 22, were arrested on suspicion of felony theft, criminal impersonation, check fraud and identity theft.
Documents and evidence of the crimes were found while searching an antiquated computer, Lopez said.
Four children ranging in age from infant to school age were taken from the home and placed in protective custody.
Town hopes bikers won’t boycott rally
Red River, N.M. – The president of the Red River Chamber of Commerce hopes motorcyclists won’t boycott the northern New Mexico community over a motorcycle crash that claimed the lives of two Pueblo men last year.
Rob Swan said Red River is powerless in what has become a battle between the families of Timothy Serles and Leslie Walker and the state’s legal system. Serles and Walker were killed May 30 in a collision between Questa and Red River.
A special prosecutor is examining the case and will decide whether to file charges against a 16-year-old who was driving a vehicle that crossed the center line, causing the crash.
The motorcyclist group Brotherhood Active Towards Education of Colorado called for a boycott of this weekend’s annual Red River Rally earlier this year.
The event has drawn approximately 25,000 people to the area in recent years.
So far, indications are that Red River and immediately surrounding areas won’t see much of a drop in business, said Sherrie Bullington, with Red River Promotions.
