Westminster investigates death of 7-month-old girl
Westminster police are investigating whether child abuse caused the death of a 7-month-old Westminster girl, police spokeswoman Stephanie Topkoff said Saturday.
The baby, whose name was not released, was transported to Children’s Hospital on Wednesday evening with head injuries and died Friday afternoon, she said.
The girl lived with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and her 8-year-old sister at the Warwick Station Apartments in the 10300 block of Wadsworth Parkway.
The mother and her boyfriend, who are from Wyoming and haven’t been in the Denver area long, apparently got lost trying to take the girl to the hospital and called 911 from a pay phone near 20th and Lawrence streets, where an ambulance picked the girl up, Topkoff said.
No arrests have been made, but the baby’s sister has been removed from the home pending the investigation, Topkoff said.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Evidence destroyed; police error blamed
Evidence was accidentally destroyed in a sexual-assault case and an unknown number of other cases in Colorado’s second-largest city, prosecutors said Friday.
The sexual-assault case was not affected, but police and prosecutors were still trying to determine the effect on other cases, said Lisa Kirkman, chief deputy district attorney for El Paso County.
“In some cases it might be fatal, but I would guess in the majority it will not be,” she said.
Kirkman said some of the cases were active or unsolved and others were closed.
The district attorney’s office said the evidence was destroyed because of a mistake by Police Department staff.
Lt. Rafael Cintron, a Colorado Springs police spokesman, did not immediately return a call.
The problem came to light two or three weeks ago, when prosecutors were preparing for trial in the assault case. Kirkman said the defendant pleaded guilty and the missing evidence did not hurt the case.
LA JUNTA
Army changes mind, plans live-fire training
More than two decades after assuring residents and elected officials that live-fire training would not take place at the Piñon Canyon Maneuvering Site, the Army now concedes that such training is part of a proposal to quadruple the roughly 250,000-acre site.
“You are right, we told you that we weren’t going to do this, but I am also telling you the situation has changed,” Fort Carson’s Tom Warren told residents at a public meeting Wednesday.
“In 1982, during the first land acquisition for the site, Army officials told the public that there would never be live fire conducted at the site, but the world has changed and the mission of the Army has changed dramatically,” Warren said. “Now we have to have live fire at the site.”
Army officials are preparing an environmental impact statement as they study the possibility of expanding the area in southeastern Colorado to as much as 1 million acres. The move would provide space to train soldiers from Fort Carson, which is expected to grow by 10,000 soldiers, and other units that include Colorado National Guard members.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Fees go up Monday for Western parks
A fee increase for Glacier, Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks will take effect Monday.
As of Monday, it will cost $25 – up from the current $20 – per car for a one-week pass to enter those and a handful of other national parks in the West, including Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef in Utah, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Motorcycle passes will cost $20, up from $15; hikers, bicyclists and skiers will pay $12, up from $10.
The fee increases were announced in September.
Yellowstone National Park officials said the change could generate an additional $1 million in annual revenue for the park.
In a related matter, wildlife photographers and documentary filmmakers say a new fee schedule for commercial filming in Yellowstone and other national parks could put them out of business.
“It won’t just be the filmmakers and photographers affected by this, it’ll be the whole country,” said Jeff Hogan, a documentary filmmaker in Jackson, Wyo., who has shot wildlife programs for National Geographic and the BBC.
The interim fees, scheduled to take effect May 15, would charge filmmakers at least $150 per day for filming in the park.
They now pay $200 per year, plus fees for any park services or assistance they require.
BOULDER
CU cops offer reward for pot smokers’ IDs
University of Colorado police have posted 150 photos of people attending an annual gathering last week where hundreds smoked marijuana.
Police are offering $50 rewards for information about the people, many of whom are shown with hand-rolled cigarettes, glass pipes or bongs. One young man was streaking.
Authorities say they were trespassing on Farrand Field, which is surrounded by several dorms, despite signs and security posted to keep them away.
About 2,500 people attended the event, but police estimated that fewer than half were using the drug.
During the event, a local restaurant gave away sandwiches, and people dressed in costumes danced to the beat of drums.
The gathering occurs on campus each April 20 at 4:20 p.m.
FARMINGTON, N.M.
Group: Medicaid ID law will hurt Indians
A new law requiring applicants to present a birth certificate or passport to qualify for Medicaid could leave some American Indians and others without coverage, according to New Mexico Voices for Children.
American Indians and others who were born at home and do not have a hospital birth certificate will no longer qualify for Medicaid under the new law, said Sharon Kayne, communications director for the organization.
New Mexico Voices for Children estimates that 1.7 million adults and 2.9 million children do not have birth certificates.
The new law, passed as an amendment to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, takes effect July 1. Its intent was to deny assistance to illegal immigrants.
Navajo Nation officials said the issue concerns them because many elderly Navajos on Medicaid were born at home.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate LoRenzo Bates of Upper Fruitland said elderly Navajos cannot prove citizenship and many of them do not speak English.
“I guess being the first Americans doesn’t count,” he said.
