118 cars use new toll lane on I-25 at peak hour Friday
A peak of 118 drivers paid to use the metro area’s new toll express lane between 4 and 5 p.m. Friday, the opening day for the 6.6-mile section of Interstate 25 between U.S. 36 and downtown Denver.
Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said there was a violation rate of about 50 percent Friday afternoon since it was still being used by carpools and solo drivers without transponders that automatically deduct the $3.25 toll from accounts set up with the Colorado Tolling Enterprise.
Cameras above the lanes will snap a shot as vehicles pass, and toll violators will be fined $65. Stegman said CDOT is projecting an average of 250 solo drivers in the peak hour for the first year.
BOULDER
Ex-CU athlete guilty in ethnic intimidation
A former University of Colorado football player accused of sending a racially charged message to a Latino student-athlete has pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation.
Clint O’Neal, 23, received a deferred sentence in exchange for the plea Friday and will have the charge struck from his record if he stays out of trouble for 18 months. He was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service, spend four days on a Boulder County Jail work crew, and send letters of apology to the victims, CU and the community.
O’Neal and former girlfriend Jackie Zeigle, a runner for CU, were ticketed in December after Zeigle’s teammate Greg Castro received a message through CU’s electronic “Facebook” system calling him a “river rat” and “border hopper,” according to police reports. The message was traced to an account held by O’Neal, police said.
Another message was sent from the same account to cross-country athlete Stephen Pifer, a biracial friend of Castro’s, telling him to “stick with your own kind,” police said.
O’Neal and Zeigle are white.
Zeigle, 21, pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation in March and received the same sentence as O’Neal.
BOULDER COUNTY
Man fractures skull in fall while climbing
A man in his 20s received a skull fracture when he fell on his head while climbing Saturday afternoon in Boulder Canyon.
The unidentified man was airlifted to St. Anthony Central Hospital. His condition was not known although rescuers reported he was awake and breathing on his own.
LOUISVILLE
Auction lifts AirCell’s in-flight Wi-Fi plans
A company affiliated with Louis ville-based AirCell has won airwaves to provide airline passengers with high-speed Internet access during flights.
AC BidCo LLC, which is linked to AirCell, won a 3-MHz license with a bid of $31.3 million in a Federal Communications Commission auction that concluded Friday after more than three weeks of bidding.
AirCell has said its broadband system would be targeted for commercial deployment in 2007. AirCell did not respond to a request for comments Friday.
The broadband system would allow passengers to use their Wi-Fi devices to access the Internet in the airplane cabin.
DENVER
Baby’s death brings $100,000 jury award
Shantal Gonzales, who lost her baby following a Denver traffic accident, was awarded $100,000 in noneconomic damages by a Denver jury Thursday in her wrongful-death lawsuit. The jury also awarded her $1,500 in economic damages on top of the wrongful-death claim. Gonzales was 22 weeks pregnant when the baby, Marco Gonzales, was delivered by cesarean section. He lived one hour and six minutes.
The accident occurred June 19 at South Federal Boulevard and West Kentucky Avenue. Gonzales was riding in a car driven by Veronica Mascarenas. Mascarenas was turning when she was hit by a speeding pickup truck, which left the scene. The truck driver has not been found.
Gonzales sued Mascarenas, who blamed the pickup driver for the accident. The jury found that Mascarenas and the pickup driver each had a 50 percent responsibility for the accident. That means the award to Gonzales will be reduced by half, or a total of $50,750.
Mascarenas had argued that Gonzales could recover nothing because the wrongful-death statute allows recovery only when a “person dies.” Her lawyer, Anthony Viorst, argued that Marco was a nonviable fetus and therefore didn’t fall under the law. The jury took about one hour to reach its verdict.
COLORADO
Grants to help battle cancer, heart disease
The state has awarded nearly $4.5 million – collected from the tobacco tax – to 20 health-care programs and organizations for fighting and preventing cancer and heart disease.
The grants, awarded by the state health department, include:
$206,492 to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless for cancer screening;
$380,000 to Denver Health for programs to prevent cardiac disease, including smoking cessation;
$390,000 to Klein Buendel, Inc. of Golden, along with the University of Colorado, for skin cancer prevention programs;
$12,946 to Wray Rehabilitation and Activities Center in Wray for a cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation program;
$94,800 to St. Mary-Corwin Health Foundation to fund support programs for cancer patients in 20 southern Colorado counties;
$87,800 to Entravision Communications Corp. to air a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show on health care and disease prevention.
Recipients were chosen from a pool of applicants by a 16-member committee appointed by the health department.
TRINIDAD
Bubonic plague case confirmed in pet cat
Medical authorities have confirmed a case of bubonic plague detected in a family pet 10 miles west of this southern Colorado town.
The cat developed a large abscess on its jaw in May. After examining the animal, a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Fort Collins confirmed the cat had contracted the plague, and it was euthanized.
Dr. William Aaroe of Fisher’s Peak Veterinary Clinic said increased moisture in the area likely sparked a rise in rodent population.
The disease lives in rodents such as rats, squirrels and rabbits, and the bacteria is spread through fleas. A rapid die-off of rodents is an indication the plague is spreading and should be reported.
Aaroe said early signs of the plague in humans include a sudden onset of high fever, muscle pain, malaise, nausea, vomiting and enlarged, painful lymph glands.
