Ritter says he won’t bow out if Hickenlooper runs
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter said Monday that regardless of whether Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper jumps in the race, he is not getting out.
“I’m in this race for the long haul, regardless of who else may or may not get in,” Ritter said in a statement. “I hope Mayor Hickenlooper remains in office and finishes the job he started.”
Ritter, 49, named Colorado Children’s Campaign president Barbara O’Brien as his lieutenant governor running mate two weeks ago. He has hired Shaylisa Hurte, who worked for U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, to help run his fundraising.
DENVER
Fitz-Gerald ruling won’t be appealed
The Republicans who were suing to block state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, from running for re-election have chosen not to appeal the case to the Colorado state Supreme Court.
Scott Gessler, lawyer for the Senate Majority Fund, said Monday the Republican group is not appealing the decision.
Republicans had claimed that term limits barred Fitz-Gerald from running again because she filled two legislative sessions during the unfinished four-year term of a senator who died in office. Fitz-Gerald said she served fewer than half the days in the four-year term.
Mark Grueskin, lawyer for Fitz-Gerald, said Attorney General John Suthers’ office also said it didn’t plan to appeal.
“I think it’s an appropriate result,” Grueskin said. “The court decision sets forth a clear, usable standard for public officials going forward.”
DENVER
Part of suit in 2002 cop shooting dropped
The family of a man shot to death by Denver police in 2002 saw part of its federal lawsuit dismissed Monday. U.S. District Judge Walker Miller granted a motion for summary judgment, dismissing claims against the Police Department and the city in the case filed by the family of Gregory Lee Smith Jr.
However, the claims against the officers involved, James Turney and Robert Silvas, remain pending. Smith, 18, was shot just after midnight Jan. 30, 2002, by police responding to calls about a family dispute. Turney and Silvas stood at the top of a stairwell trying to get Smith to come out of his bedroom. Smith came out carrying a knife, and officers fatally shot him.
BENNETT
Teacher in “Faust” controversy on leave
Tresa Waggoner, a music teacher who has come under fire for showing portions of a video production of the opera “Faust” to first-, second- and third-graders at Bennett Elementary School a few weeks ago, was placed on paid administrative leave Monday afternoon.
George Sauter, superintendent of the Bennett School District, said the leave will continue until he concludes an investigation into the incident and the school board makes a decision about what disciplinary action to take, if any. He expects the process to take about two weeks.
Controversy engulfed Bennett, a bedroom community 30 miles east of Denver, after a group of parents said their children were traumatized by the devil’s appearance and other elements in the video.
DENVER
Lawsuit on Rocky Flats water dismissed
A judge on Monday dismissed a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the Department of Energy and its contractors from cutting off treated water supplies to a landowner near Rocky Flats.
U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock said a more than 20-year agreement is enforceable only through state courts.
Charles Church McKay, a fourth-generation rancher in Jefferson County, argued that the agreement called for up to 20,000 gallons of water per day from a water-treatment facility at the former weapons plant, which has since been demolished, be delivered to an industrial park where he owns land.
The government and its contractors, including Rockwell International and Kaiser-Hill Co., have complied for the past two decades but stopped in the past year as they vacated the buildings, the lawsuit states.
Babcock tossed out the claims against Rockwell and Kaiser- Hill for lack of jurisdiction and ordered McKay to appear in court Feb. 24 to argue why his claims against the government shouldn’t be dismissed.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Spacecraft hibernates, awaits NASA orders
NASA placed its Stardust spacecraft into hibernation mode Sunday, two weeks after the craft dropped a landing capsule toward Earth bearing comet dust for scientists to study.
Operators directed the main spacecraft to spin off into an oval orbit around the sun. After confirming that the probe is behaving as expected, experts sent up a command that turned off most of its subsystems, putting the spacecraft to “sleep.”
Stardust contains enough fuel that it could be used for another mission, NASA officials said. Engineers with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County designed and built Stardust and its landing capsule and operated most of the mission.
In other news, operators successfully directed the Colorado- designed New Horizons spacecraft, bound for Pluto, to perform two small engine firings Saturday and Monday. The moves pointed the craft toward a flyby of Jupiter for a gravity boost that will fling it out toward Pluto. New Horizons is expected to reach that planet in 2015.
DENVER
Natural-gas leak closes Colorado Blvd.
Colorado Boulevard was closed from East 36th Avenue to Interstate 70 and some buildings were evacuated Monday afternoon while authorities dealt with a fuel leak in a natural-gas- powered United Parcel Service truck.
Lt. Phil Champagne, spokesman for the Denver Fire Department, said the truck got “entangled” with a guardrail at East 41st Avenue and Colorado about 3:45 p.m. The accident caused a fuel line from two 400-pound natural-gas tanks to rupture, and firefighters measured the content of the air in the area to determine it was leaking.
DENVER
Ex-deputy pleads guilty in jail case
A former Denver deputy sheriff who authorities say spent months smuggling contraband to inmates in the Denver County Jail has pleaded guilty to one count of introducing contraband. Investigators say he brought marijuana and cigarettes into the jail.
The probe of Solomon Mikael, 35, began in April after officials heard that a deputy was bringing contraband to sell to inmates. On Sept. 1, Mikael met an undercover agent and received marijuana, tobacco and $250 in marked money, court records say.
Officers said Mikael smuggled the drugs and tobacco into the jail and sold them to an inmate.
Mikael will be sentenced in March and faces a sentence ranging from probation up to six years in prison.
