Commerce City tot injured after being hit by car in lot
Commerce City – For the second time in less than 24 hours, a Commerce City toddler was struck by a car late Sunday afternoon, but the second incident wasn’t fatal, police reported.
Saturday night, Ashley Portillo, 3, was struck and killed by a car outside her home in the 9700 block of Joliet Circle in the Eagle Creek subdivision, police said.
Sunday afternoon, 2-year-old Angelo Martinez suffered minor injuries to his left arm and had visible scratches after being struck by a neighbor backing his car out of a parking space at the apartment complex where they live in the 6200 block of Ivy Way.
In Saturday’s fatal accident, a Dodge Stratus and a Dodge Durango, both belonging to Ashley’s family members, were in motion at the time the girl was hit about 8:10 p.m., police said.
An investigation is underway to determine how the accident happened, which vehicle struck the girl and who was driving.
About 5:35 p.m. Sunday, David Acosta, 36, was backing out of a parking space when he hit Angelo, who was on his tricycle, police said.
When officers arrived, Angelo was with his mother. Angelo was transported to Children’s Hospital. Acosta was cited for careless driving, police said.
LIHUE, HAWAII
Colo. boy lost at sea off Hawaii; mom hurt
Kauai officials say a 9-year-old Colorado boy was swept out to sea Saturday and his mother was hospitalized in critical condition after trying to rescue him.
Firefighters and Coast Guard search-and-rescue crews were searching for the boy.
The boy and his younger brother were playing in the water when they were caught in currents off Anahola Beach. Their mother and a bystander were able to rescue the younger son.
The mother immediately returned to the water to save her older son, but she ran into trouble and had to be rescued by the same good Samaritan.
County officials say the woman was unconscious and was taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.
Her husband was caring for the younger son and a daughter.
CHEYENNE
College offers online associate’s degree
Students can now get two- year associate’s degrees from Laramie County Community College without setting foot on campus.
The college offers 10 online degree programs. It has offered courses online for several years, but the opportunity to get a degree through the use of a computer is new.
Debbie Major, instructional design manager at the college, said LCCC has online students from as far away as Japan.
A team from the Higher Learning Commission visited the campus last spring and accredited courses for the online degrees. The college is now working to set up Web cameras to connect online students with professors.
LINCOLN, Neb.
Farms warned about grasshopper threat
Nebraska producers should be prepared for potentially large grasshopper populations this spring and summer, according to University of Nebraska- Lincoln entomologists.
High numbers of adult grasshoppers last year mean there is significant concern for economically damaging populations developing this year, said Gary Hein, entomologist at UNL’s Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff.
The high-risk areas are the central and southwest rangelands, according to the 2005 U.S. Agriculture Department’s Animal Health Inspection Service survey. But Hein said weather conditions will play a major role in this year’s numbers.
Cool, wet conditions reduce grasshopper populations.
ESPAÑOLA, N.M.
Towns exceed cap on liquor outlets
Española has almost five times the number of liquor outlets that a town its size should have, and it’s not the only place in New Mexico over the quota, the state Alcohol and Gaming Division said.
Health officials in Española want the number of liquor outlets reduced.
The town of about 9,688 people has 24 bars and package stores. The state quota of one outlet per 2,000 residents would allow five.
The quota does not include restaurants with beer and wine licenses, and it does not apply to liquor licenses issued before the quota was set several years ago.
Santa Fe has 114 full licenses when it should have 33, Albuquerque has 354 when its quota is 210, and Taos has 19 when it should have three, the division said.
Lauren Reichelt of the Rio Arriba Family Care Network said a 10-year study of overdose deaths showed the main cause is alcohol.
“All the studies show that when you have high densities of alcohol outlets, you have increased crime rates, you have increased drug use, you just have everything bad,” she said.
