Six consecutive days of ozone action alerts
The sixth ozone action alert in six days was issued Saturday for the Denver metro area and Front Range. It warns residents in these areas of potentially high ground-level ozone through 4 p.m. today.
The Regional Air Quality Council and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment urge residents in these areas to carpool, use public transportation and refuel cars in the evening.
Other tips include keeping paints, stains and solvents tightly capped and mowing laws in the evenings, according to Sarah Schmitz of the air quality council.
Denver, which has used these alerts for several years, has issued 13 this year. The agencies issued 14 last year.
Those affected most by higher-than-usual ozone levels are the elderly or people who have asthma or other respiratory ailments, according to the alert. Those people may want to refrain from outdoor aerobic activity, Schmitz said.
More information is available at the council’s website: www.ozoneaware.org.
Englewood man drowns in S. Platte
A 26-year-old Englewood man drowned in the South Platte River on Saturday afternoon.
The man slipped into white water in the chutes area, just north of Union Avenue. Family members unsuccessfully attempted to grab the man after he fell just before 4 p.m., according to Sgt. Gary Firko of the Sheridan Police Department.
Divers from the Littleton Fire Department’s dive team retrieved the victim approximately 30 minutes after he went under, Firko said.
The man, whose identity was not released pending notification of next of kin, was taken to Swedish Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Senior vice president at CSU is new provost
Colorado State University senior vice president Anthony Frank on Thursday was named provost, the school’s top academic post.
Frank, who was serving as interim provost, has been with the school in various jobs for more than a decade.
“I feel privileged to help lead the university faculty and students toward even greater success in academic and research achievements,” Frank said in a written statement.
DA asks high court to OK death sentence
The Adams County district attorney has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to get convicted killer Robert Harlan’s death sentence reinstated.
District Attorney Don Quick made the filing, called a petition for a writ of certiorari, Friday morning. The court will make a decision whether to hear the case sometime in October, Quick said in a news release.
Harlan was convicted in 1995 for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of waitress Rhonda Maloney and the shooting of good Samaritan Jacquie Creazzo, who had stopped to help Maloney. The jury in the case decided on the death penalty for Harlan.
But because jurors consulted a Bible during deliberations, a district judge in 2003 decided to overturn the death sentence. The Colorado Supreme Court voted 3-2 in March to uphold that decision.
Quick said he believed the two dissenting justices were correct when they wrote that there wasn’t enough proof that jurors were influenced by the Bible passages to vote for the death penalty.
State Rep. Paccione eyes bid vs. Musgrave
Democratic state Rep. Angie Paccione says she has raised at least $20,000 through a committee exploring the possibility of a challenge to two-term GOP U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
Paccione said Friday that she expects her campaign to generate $3 million – if she runs.
“It’s all been, ‘If you run, we’ll write the check,”‘ Paccione said of the commitments she’s received. “If I run, (money) won’t be a problem.”
Musgrave’s re-election last year was one of the closest among victorious House incumbents.
The congresswoman, perhaps best known as a lead sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage, was recently named one of the 10 most vulnerable Republican incumbents by a political action committee of House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas.
Still, the GOP has held the district since 1973 and holds a 60,000-person edge in terms of registered voters. Musgrave has also raised nearly $960,000 already, according to campaign finance figures released Friday.
Students at CU, CSU awarded NASA grants
Five students from the University of Colorado at Boulder received NASA-awarded graduate fellowships in Earth-systems science – the most awarded to any university in the nation, CU has announced.
The space agency handed out 65 fellowships to students at 41 universities for 2005-06, according to its website.
Two Colorado State University students also won the awards, worth $24,000 annually, for up to three years of graduate school.
CU’s recipients are Charles Bardeen of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department; Melinda Beaver and Ingrid Ulbrich of chemistry and biochemistry; and Kyuhong Choi and Thomas Jakub of aerospace engineering.
The students will be studying topics as diverse as clouds, climate change and sea-level variation during the past 100 years.
CSU’s recipients are Anita Rapp and Peter Barry.
Deer Creek road to be closed till Aug. 8
Deer Creek Canyon Road will be closed beginning Monday to allow storm-sewer construction for a nearby housing development. The closure is expected to continue until Aug. 8.
Alternative bike routes will be available for cyclists who use Deer Creek Canyon Road. Cyclists still may park at Deer Creek Canyon Road and South Wadsworth Boulevard, although they will detour to a bike path that runs through the Chatfield Bluffs subdivision and on to West Ute Avenue.
