A Buckley Air Force Base administrative office could be added to the Pentagon’s list of military installations scheduled for closure, months after officials breathed a sigh of relief that Colorado appeared to have been spared.
The commission that is reviewing – and could change – the Pentagon’s plan for restructuring U.S. military bases will vote today on whether to add bases to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s list of closures and consolidations.
In a letter, commission chairman Anthony Principi has included the Defense Finance Accounting Services, Buckley Annex, among those installations that could be added to the Pentagon list that was announced in May. The office employs about 1,500 people and was expected to double in size.
“Everybody in Colorado was breathing a sigh of relief, and some even celebrating that Colorado would actually get jobs,” said Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo. “This definitely sets a different mood.”
COLORADO SPRINGS
30 arrested, $2 million seized in cocaine bust
A Drug Enforcement Administration task force busted a cocaine trafficking organization after two years of investigation, agents announced Monday.
More than $2 million was seized and 30 people were arrested in what the DEA called Operation Denali.
The investigation’s name was based on the American Indian name for Mount McKinley in Alaska, where one of the tips against the alleged crime ring was generated.
Half of the people arrested are from Colorado; the remainder are from elsewhere in the U.S. or from Mexico.
Authorities say the suspects are accused of trafficking cocaine, mostly between the U.S. and Mexico.
Officers from Pueblo, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Fountain and the Colorado State Patrol worked with federal agents on the bust.
ASPEN
Bears going “bonkers” in search for snacks
Bears looking for food while they wait for their annual supply of berries and acorns are starting to cause some problems for residents in Aspen and Snowmass Village.
“Bears are starting to go pretty bonkers here,” Colorado Division of Wildlife officer Kevin Wright said. “We’re right in between the period where the berries are ripe and all the grasses and forbs are cured out.”
Snowmass Village has had 20 home break-ins by bears in the past week, with most of the incidents occurring just below the lower slopes of Snowmass Ski Area, police officer Brian Olson said Sunday.
Aspen residents also have reported problems.
GLENWOOD SPRINGS
Petitions circulating to recall DA Truden
Backers of a recall effort against 9th Judicial District Attorney Colleen Truden began passing petitions Monday.
The petitions list six reasons for voters in Garfield, Rio Blanco and Pitkin counties to remove Truden from the office she has held for six months.
The petitions allege Truden lied to officials, the public and the media; wasted taxpayer money by spending 74 percent of her budget in the first four months she was in office; practiced nepotism by hiring her husband and paying him $1,000 a week; has failed to prosecute cases and has dismissed or reduced charges in serious felony cases; has mismanaged her office, leaving it understaffed and ineffective; and has failed to be accountable to the public about the operation and finances of her office.
Truden could not be reached for comment Monday.
NORTHGLENN
Officer, driver hurt in vehicle collision
A police officer and another man were recovering Monday after being involved in a collision the night before.
The officer was driving with lights and sirens northbound on Huron Street on Sunday night when the other man drove into the intersection at West 112th Avenue. Northglenn police said the two vehicles collided and the other man’s vehicle rolled.
The Northglenn officer, who was heading to a fire, was treated for minor injuries, police said. The other man was taken to Denver Health Medical Center. Northglenn police Sgt. Steve Sanders said the man was in stable condition in the intensive- care unit. Sanders declined to release the names of the officer or the man.
INDIANAPOLIS
Frontier jet clips tail of small United plane
A Frontier Airlines plane clipped a United Express plane Monday at Indianapolis International Airport.
The wing of the Frontier plane clipped the horizontal stabilizer of the tail on the United Express plane.
Passengers were not injured. Both flights, which were bound for Denver, were canceled. The Frontier plane was not damaged; the United Express jet will undergo inspections.
The cause of the incident was unknown, according to Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas.
