Anti-war activist Sheehan cancels talks
Grand Junction – Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has canceled three visits to Colorado after emotions over her protest outside President Bush’s ranch boiled over at a church and college campus.
A Glenwood Springs church voted Thursday not to allow Sheehan to give a speech scheduled for later this month after some members threatened to leave the church if she came.
Church member Mo Barz said he thinks it is inappropriate for the church to host a political speaker.
“I was definitely against having her,” he said.
Sheehan has gained notoriety for her month-long protest outside Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, and her demands to meet with him to discuss her 24-year-old son Casey’s death in Iraq. He was killed April 4, 2004, in Baghdad during an ambush by insurgents.
Sheehan was scheduled to speak at Mesa State College in Grand Junction on Sept. 15. After the school received complaints about her visit, the school issued a statement saying it did not support or sponsor Sheehan’s visit. Sheehan’s camp then canceled the visit.
She also canceled a stop in Paonia.
Rattlesnake bite sends researcher to hospital
Paonia – A 47-year-old researcher at Plains Conservation Center in Aurora was in serious condition after a rattlesnake bit him Saturday morning, firefighters say.
The man, whose identity has not been released, was carrying the snake in a pillowcase when it bit him through the cloth at about 9 a.m., said Kevin Moffitt, Aurora fire department spokesman.
The researcher is allergic to rattlesnakes and had an anaphylactic reaction, said Tudi Anreill, executive director of the conservation center.
The man was flown by helicopter to Denver Health Medical Center, which has anti-venom, Moffitt said. The man’s condition improved late Saturday after he received the medicine, Anreill said.
Man in plane brawl sentenced to prison
The man whose drunken brawl with his companion aboard a United Airlines flight forced the plane to make an unscheduled stop in Denver was sentenced Friday to six months in federal prison.
In a shaky voice, Montgomery Joe Carter apologized and said the incident made him realize he is an alcoholic and that he is seeking treatment. The West Virginia man asked for probation and four months of house arrest.
But U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham noted that Carter, 37, has nine prior alcohol-related convictions.
“Nothing that has happened to him so far seems to have deterred him,” Nottingham said. “Perhaps, as he has said, this one has caught his attention. Whatever.”
Nottingham also ordered Carter to pay United $10,150 in restitution, money the airline estimated it spent in diverting the flight.
On April 12, Carter and his companion were flying from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas when they began arguing. Carter hit his companion in the head several times and flight attendants separated the two. Carter walked the plane’s aisles, yelling and looking for his companion. He pushed flight attendants who tried to stop him, and in the scuffle a pregnant flight attendant was shoved.
He also approached the flight deck, and worried airline personnel blocked entry to the cockpit with a beverage cart.
Judge hears arguments on 2 ballot initiatives
Community activist Douglas Bruce says he has done everything right: He collected the required number of signatures to get his measures on the ballot and he has met every deadline.
Bruce contends that Colorado Springs officials, who refused to put his questions before voters in November, don’t like that the initiatives would limit the city’s ability to collect revenue and borrow money.
Bruce was in federal court Friday arguing that Colorado Springs had infringed upon his First Amendment rights. And he asked a judge to force the city to put his questions on the ballot.
U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel said he would issue an opinion by Tuesday.
Bruce, an El Paso County commissioner, is author of the state Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which places constitutional limits on how much tax money governments can keep unless voters decide otherwise.
Lawyers for Colorado Springs said the city has concerns about whether the questions are constitutional and that they’ve asked a state court to decide that issue.
Democrat Grossman won’t run for AG
State Sen. Dan Grossman, D-Denver, bowed out of the 2006 attorney general’s race on Friday without ever formally declaring that he was running.
In a prepared statement, Grossman said, “As exciting and rewarding as the prospect of serving as Colorado’s attorney general is, at this time, it does not exceed the importance and fulfillment of being a present parent and husband.”
Grossman and his wife have a 10-month-old daughter.
Last January, Grossman, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, oversaw the confirmation hearings for Attorney General John Suthers, a Republican.
Suthers replaced Democrat Ken Salazar, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. Grossman said he declined to vote during the Suthers hearing because he was thinking about running for the office himself.
