Road worker killed when car swerves onto shoulder
Sedalia – A highway construction worker was killed Saturday afternoon when a driver on U.S. 85 in Sedalia swerved onto the shoulder, hitting the worker’s truck and a construction warning barrel.
The worker, who was getting out of the truck, was not identified Saturday night. The Colorado State Patrol was notifying family members.
The driver of the 2000 Geo Metro involved in the crash, 19-year-old Elizabeth Vogel, was taken to Skyridge Medical Center, where she was treated for minor injuries.
Vogel apparently fell asleep while driving, according to 9News.
Charges are pending based on the outcome of an investigation, a State Patrol spokesman said.
FRISCO
Forest official fears devastation by beetle
Fifty percent to 90 percent of the White River National Forest’s lodgepole pines will likely succumb to the mountain pine beetle epidemic in the next few years, said Don Carroll, the deputy forest supervisor.
The massive scope of the insect infestation was one of the key points repeated frequently during the regular monthly meeting of the Summit County pine beetle task force.
Carroll and others suggested the general public still likely isn’t prepared for the imminent landscape-level changes on the 2.5 million-acre White River forest. Those predictions could be tempered by unpredictable factors, including weather.
“We’re not going to stop this epidemic in Grand County or Routt or Summit County,” Carroll said, urging residents to start taking a long-term view of forest restoration, while focusing available resources to protect important resources from wildfire hazards.
A combined Colorado congressional delegation will meet with representatives of local and regional governments this week to craft a unified approach to existing policy and funding initiatives addressing the bark beetle threat and the increasing probability of catastrophic wildfires.
ASPEN
Skilling, others will attend Lay memorials
Family and friends, including co-defendant Jeffrey Skilling, will attend private memorial services for Kenneth Lay in Houston and in Aspen, where the Enron Corp. founder died Wednesday while awaiting sentencing for his role in one of the biggest business debacles ever.
The 64-year-old executive faced spending decades in prison after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges earlier this year by a federal jury in Houston.
A small, private memorial service is set for this afternoon at the Aspen Chapel just outside the northern city limits of Aspen, family spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said in a statement.
A second memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday at First United Methodist Church in downtown Houston.
FORT COLLINS
Farmers to receive irrigation assistance
The North Poudre Irrigation Co. has secured water loans from area water districts and municipalities to help fulfill promised allocations to area farmers, officials said.
After hot, dry weather depleted mountain snowpack and flow in the Poudre River, the irrigation company projected it would be 5,000 to 6,000 acre-feet of water short of what it had told farmers it could deliver this summer.
Now, the company will work out exchanges with supply companies that have water stored in high-elevation reservoirs to get 10,500 acre-feet from the Poudre River to the crops, said operations manager Steve Smith.
Most water will go to farmers north of Fort Collins.
DENVER
Judge rules businesses can’t deal edited films
Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to studios, an appeals judge ruled.
Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an “illegitimate business” that hurts studios and directors who own the movie rights, said U.S District Judge Rich ard Matsch in a decision released Thursday in Denver.
Matsch ordered the companies named in the suit, including CleanFlicks, Play It Clean Video and CleanFilms, to stop “producing, manufacturing, creating” and renting edited movies. The businesses must also turn over their inventory to the studios within five days of the ruling.
DENVER
Broncos kick in funds for nonprofit clinic
An inner-city clinic in Denver will receive more than $100,000 from the Denver Broncos over the next three years.
Inner City Health Center, a nonprofit health care facility on Downing Street near downtown, has received $50,000 from the Broncos, team officials announced Friday. The center will receive an additional $100,000.
The team also plans to send cheerleaders, players and Miles, the Bronco’s mascot, to visit the center over the next three years.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.
Sex offender held in Colo. woman’s killing
A 59-year-old convicted California sex offender faces a murder charge after DNA evidence linked him to the stabbing death of a Colorado woman nearly two decades ago.
Paul Zamora of La Mirada was arrested Wednesday and was being held at a Rancho Cucamonga detention center in lieu of $1 million bail.
Prosecutors allege that Zamora killed 33-year-old Susan Marie White, whose body was found on June 25, 1987, along Interstate 15.
White disappeared two days earlier. She had been driving home to Grand Junction with her boyfriend and a male friend and the three got into an argument, according to San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials.
WHEAT RIDGE
Police nab suspect in bank fraud scheme
Police arrested a man Friday suspected of running a bank fraud scheme out of his hotel room.
Matthew Drake, 33, purchased the bank-account information of customers at TCF Bank from an assistant manager and used the data to make forged checks and IDs, according to a Wheat Ridge police news release.
When police searched Drake’s hotel room, they found computer equipment used to produce fake checks, banking profiles of TCF customers and methamphetamines, the release said.
Police have located 10 victims so far, but the incident is still under investigation, said spokeswoman Lisa Stigall.
CHEYENNE
Truck stop employee killed in explosion
A 44-year-old man died Saturday in a blast that happened while he was cutting off the top of a 55-gallon drum with a blowtorch, according to Laramie County sheriff’s officials.
The identity of the employee of the Sapp Bros. truck stop was withheld pending notification of his family.
