Suspect pleads not guilty in racial attack
A Lafayette man accused of attacking a black man after yelling racial slurs pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of assault and ethnic intimidation.
A judge scheduled a Jan. 23 trial date for Phillip Martinez, 38, who also faces a Feb. 13 trial on unrelated drug charges.
If convicted of the assault and ethnic-intimidation charges, Martinez faces up to nine years in prison. The drug charges against him each could bring up to 12 years in prison.
Martinez was arrested in July after a June 3 attack that left University of Colorado senior Andrew Sterling with a broken jaw.
Four people, two of whom are black, testified for Martinez during a hearing in August, saying they did not believe he is racist. But prosecutors argued that Martinez is a violent man and shouted racial epithets at Sterling before the attack.
Martinez was being held on $70,000 bail.
Roadless-area panel gets $115,000 in aid
A state roadless-area task force set to begin meeting this month received $115,000 Thursday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for expenses.
The money, requested by Gov. Bill Owens, will support the 13-member panel that will advise his office on which portions of national forests should be protected as roadless areas under a controversial new rule handed down by the Bush administration.
The task force will be chaired by Russell George, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and composed of members selected by Owens and other state Democratic and Republican leaders.
It has 16 months to hold public meetings and make recommendations on which of the 4.4 million acres of roadless lands in Colorado should be preserved; Owens and the U.S. Forest Service then will have veto authority in making the final decision.
Hospital declines to resume air ambulance
Steamboat Springs – Eight months after a deadly crash in Wyoming, the Yampa Valley Medical Center has decided against re-establishing an air- ambulance service because it doesn’t make economic sense.
The Yampa Valley Air Ambulance has not been used since the Jan. 11 crash near Rawlins that killed three people. Board members with the Steamboat Springs hospital made their decision last month and announced it Thursday.
Hospital chief executive Karl Gills said the hospital could not set up an economically feasible air-ambulance service independently, in a joint venture or through a contract with another operator.
Since the crash, the northwestern Colorado hospital has primarily used Flight for Life and Air Life, airplane and helicopter services based in the eastern half of the state. The hospital plans to continue to use those services.
The Yampa Valley Air Ambulance was en route to Rawlins to pick up and transport a patient to Casper when the accident occurred. Pilot Tim Benway, 35, air-ambulance director and flight nurse Dave Linner, 36, and flight nurse Jennifer Wells, 30, were killed. The sole survivor was Tim Baldwin, a 35-year-old emergency medical technician.
Wildlife department scales back CWD goal
Cheyenne – The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is proposing to manage rather than try to eradicate a brain disease that kills deer and elk.
Trying to eliminate chronic wasting disease is neither justified nor realistic, said a draft management plan submitted to the state Game and Fish Commission on Thursday.
The symptoms and cause of chronic wasting disease resemble scrapie, which affects sheep, and mad cow disease. Chronic wasting disease was first detected in Colorado more than 30 years ago, and in the past few years it has spread as far east as West Virginia.
So far, the disease has remained mainly east of the Continental Divide, although there is concern about it affecting western Wyoming’s elk herds.
“We want to find effective ways to manage CWD without large-scale culling of populations,” Game and Fish Deputy Director Gregg Arthur said.
Developer reports retail-center progress
Developer Shea Properties on Friday said it is completing commitments with retailers to occupy its 270,000-square-foot Arvada Ridge development.
The SuperTarget-anchored center at 50th Avenue and Kip ling Street also will include Payless ShoeSource, Hallmark, Sally Beauty Supply, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Cingular Wireless, Qdoba, Verizon Wireless, Quiznos and Great Clips, the company said.
Housing and office development also are planned for the site.
Teamsters grocery deadline looms
Warehouse and transportation workers for King Soopers and Safeway face a contract negotiation deadline this week.
Contracts covering an estimated 1,200 workers represented by Teamsters Local 537 and 435 expire the night of Sept. 17.
Rudolph “Ted” Textor, secretary-treasurer for Local 537, said negotiations are ongoing, but he declined to provide additional information on the status of the talks.
