Rifle wildfire evacuates 40 homes, threatens lodge
Rifle – Forty homes near here were evacuated as a wildfire destroyed four outbuildings and threatened a tourist lodge as it grew to hundreds of acres in just a few hours Thursday, officials said.
Residents in several homes in the area were also advised to leave if they felt they were in danger as crews aided by two air tankers battled the flames, Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario told radio station KMTS-FM.
Vallario estimated the size of the fire at between 1,500 and 1,800 acres. Evacuees were being sent to Rifle City Hall.
At least 50 homes were threatened and the tourist lodge was in imminent danger, said Larry Helmerick of the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. Helmerick did not immediately know the name of the tourist lodge.
The fire was reported at 4:30 p.m., Helmerick said.
Molly Glasschroeder, who answered the phone at the Brickyard Square restaurant in Rifle, said the fire was burning about 10 miles away from her town.
“I can see the smoke out the back door,” she said. “Big, huge amounts of black smoke.”
The fire was burning between Rifle and Rulison south of Interstate 70 and the Colorado River.
DENVER
A Taste of Colorado causes traffic changes
Some downtown Denver streets will be closed through Monday for A Taste of Colorado.
Beginning at 8:30 a.m. today, westbound Colfax Avenue between 15th and Lincoln streets and 15th Street between Colfax Avenue and Cleveland Place will be closed.
More street closures will take effect at 7 p.m.
Lincoln Street will be closed between East 13th and East 16th avenues. Sherman Street will switch to one-way, northbound between East Colfax and East 17th avenues, and East 14th Avenue will be closed between Lincoln and Sherman streets. East Colfax Avenue between Lincoln and Sherman streets will also close.
In addition, eastbound lanes of East 16th Avenue between Broadway and Lincoln Street will be closed Saturday at noon.
All traffic lanes will be reopened by 6 a.m. Tuesday.
DENVER
Alleged gang member from L.A. arrested
Denver and Lakewood police on Thursday arrested an alleged Los Angeles gang member who was wanted on counts of armed robbery and parole violation.
Angel Reyes, 27, was taken into custody without incident about 4 p.m. by Lakewood SWAT and Denver Gang Unit police at an apartment in the 1000 block of West Seventh Avenue, according to Sonny Jackson, spokesman for the Denver Police Department.
Police were able to coax Reyes into releasing a 5-year-old child who was in the apartment with him before surrendering himself, Jackson said.
“It was really good police work that allowed (Reyes’) capture without a shootout,” Jackson said. “(Reyes) had sworn he wasn’t going to be taken alive.”
Reyes was a “three strikes” violator facing life imprisonment, according to Jackson. Police were able to track him down by locating at a local school a child with whom he had moved to Denver.
GOLDEN
Teacher in flag flap moves to new school
The middle school geography teacher placed on paid administrative leave after he refused to remove Chinese, Mexican and United Nations flags from his classroom will be transferred to West Jefferson Middle School in Conifer.
Eric Hamlin was originally assigned to teach seventh-grade geography at Carmody Middle School in the Jefferson County School District.
Last week, however, he was reprimanded and placed on leave after he refused his principal’s order that the flags be removed. District officials feared Hamlin’s display violated a state law prohibiting the permanent display of any flag but the American, Colorado or local flags on public buildings, including schools.
District officials later agreed to allow the flags, but Hamlin said he preferred not to return to Carmody because the incident – which drew national attention – had created too many divisions and distractions.
ALBUQUERQUE
AF asked to change name of “Crusaders”
An Air Force Academy graduate from Albuquerque wants Cannon Air Force Base officials to end the 523rd Fighter Squadron’s use of “Crusaders” as the unit’s nickname.
Mikey Weinstein, who has sued the Air Force over allegations that Air Force Academy cadets were unconstitutionally subjected to Christian evangelization, has complained about the 523rd’s unit emblem, which features a cross, a sword and an armored helmet.
“The airmen of 523rd Fighter Squadron … not only have invoked the term ‘Crusaders’ to describe their unit, they use blatantly sectarian religious symbolism on the patches they affix to their uniforms and the official logo of their unit,” Weinstein wrote in an article for the Sept. 4 issues of the Air Force Times, Army Times and Navy Times.
A Cannon spokesman, Staff Sgt. Craig Seals, said he knew of no plans to change the Crusaders nickname or emblem.
SALT LAKE CITY
Accountant captured after evading prison
A Utah accountant who failed to report to prison for tax crimes was arrested in Wyoming by a federal marshal who spotted him at a traffic light.
Chad Merica of Murray was stuck at the stoplight Wednesday when a deputy marshal recognized him and stopped him in Afton, Wyo., near the Idaho border, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.
Merica was supposed to report to a federal prison in January, a month after being sentenced to 51 months for conspiring to defraud the government. He was among eight people convicted in an illegal tax shelter that cheated more than 75 people out of $15 million.
Merica now faces a charge of failing to report to prison, Rydalch said. The maximum sentence on that charge is 10 years.
RIVERTON, Wyo.
Lawmaker in hospital with West Nile virus
Wyoming state Sen. Bob Peck has been diagnosed with West Nile virus and accompanying encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.
Peck, 81, has been hospitalized since Aug. 19 at Riverton Memorial Hospital, according to the Riverton Ranger, the newspaper of which Peck is publisher. According to the newspaper, Peck’s diagnosis was made following spinal fluid analysis.
Steve Peck, co-publisher of the Ranger and Sen. Peck’s son, said his father’s condition was critical on Aug. 20-21 but has since improved. Peck said his father’s prospects for release from the hospital remain uncertain.
The Wyoming Department of Health this week reported that 10 of the 12 people diagnosed with West Nile virus in Wyoming this year have been in Fremont County.
