Two people were killed Friday night in a plane crash in Weld County, sheriff’s spokeswoman Margie Martinez said.
About 6:50 p.m., the Civil Air Patrol was notified that an experimental aircraft crashed in the Hudson area on County Line Road 4 between County Line roads 53 and 55.
Investigators were trying to identify the victims and their destination at the time of the crash.
The plane went down in a field east of the town of Lochbuie. The Civil Air Patrol says the crash may have happened much earlier in the day, possibly around 10:22 a.m. Once they were contacted, it took another four hours to locate the wreckage.
National Transportation Safety Board officials will begin an investigation this morning.
FORT COLLINS
CSU sees slight drop in fall enrollment
Colorado State University saw a 1.7 percent decrease in students this year compared with last year, school officials said Friday.
The school had a 2005 total enrollment of 24,947, compared with last year’s 25,382, according to a news release. School officials say the drop is likely due to a record graduating class in May, but they are still analyzing data.
This year, the school’s minority student population increased by 71 students, to a new high of 2,950, or 12 percent of the student body.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Colorado ski rep
joins roadless advisers
A Colorado ski-industry representative was among 13 people named Friday to a national committee advising the Bush administration on proposed new roadless areas.
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johans named Geraldine Link, director of public policy for the National Ski Areas Association, based in Lakewood, to the Roadless Area Conservation national advisory committee, which will make recommendations based on proposals from state governors.
Also on the committee are Darin Bird, deputy director for the Utah Department of Natural Resources; Idaho County Commissioner Robert Cope; Adena Cook of the Blue-Ribbon Coalition, representing participants in motorized recreation; Jeff Eisenberg of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; James Riley of the Intermountain Forest Association; Gregory Schaefer of the National Mining Association; Denny Scott, representing organized labor organizations; Paul Hansen of the Izaak Walton League; Dale Harris of the Montana Wilderness Association; Todd Schulke of the New Mexico Center for Biological Diversity; Howard Vaughan of Wild Law; and Chris Wood of Trout Unlimited.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Fort Carson soldier AWOL for rape trial
Police were searching Friday for a Fort Carson soldier who failed to show up for his trial on rape and false imprisonment charges.
Pfc. Jerry Ciarcia III, 28, a member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, is charged with four counts of sexual assault, crime of violence, second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and menacing.
Ciarcia and the victim were acquaintances, according to his arrest affidavit.
A bench warrant was issued Tuesday for Ciarcia, who had been free on bail since October, police Lt. Rafael Cintron said.
The victim told Colorado Springs police that Ciarcia raped her several times, repeatedly punched her in the head and put her in a chokehold, the affidavit states. The affidavit says Ciarcia told police he had consensual sex with the woman.
Ciarcia appeared in court Monday for a readiness hearing, in which he found out his trial remained on schedule for Tuesday morning.
AKRON
N.M. officials capture four jail escapees
Authorities said four men who escaped from the Washington County Jail in northeastern Colorado were arrested Friday near Pecos, N.M., more than 300 miles away.
New Mexico State Police spokesman Jimmy Glascock said Dustan Amos, Simon Blanco, Peter Hernandez and Travis Becker were arrested after state troopers used a “spike belt” to flatten the tires of the vehicle they were driving on Interstate 25.
The four men fled the vehicle on foot but were captured, Glascock said.
Authorities said they escaped Thursday night, possibly through a ventilation duct.
DENVER
Wheat Ridge man gets prison in tax scheme
A Wheat Ridge accountant was sentenced to 18 months in prison for preparing false tax returns as part of a massive tax-evasion scheme, officials said Friday.
Lynden Bridges was sentenced for his role in Anderson’s Ark & Associates, an anti-tax organization that helped members file bogus tax deductions totaling $120 million from 1997 to 2001. Bridges pleaded guilty in May.
Tara LaGrand, of Naples, Fla., was sentenced to 24 months in prison, officials said Friday. Six other Anderson’s Ark accountants, including James and Pamela Moran of Montrose, were convicted by a federal jury in Seattle in December and sentenced to prison terms of seven to 20 years.
CHICAGO
United’s schedule for bankruptcy exit OK’d
A bankruptcy court judge Friday tentatively approved United Airlines’ schedule to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy early in 2006.
Judge Eugene Wedoff in the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved the plan from UAL Corp., the parent of United, to hold a final confirmation hearing of its bankruptcy plan Jan. 18-20.
The judge said he would allow time to tweak the schedule to accommodate objections to the debtor’s plan.
United, the world’s second-largest carrier behind AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002.
