The Denver City Council nixed an attempt to change the way some voters elect at-large council members Monday, keeping it off the May municipal election ballot.
At-large Councilman Doug Linkhart hoped to split the races for Denver’s two at-large seats into separate races and require candidates to win a majority. Currently, all at-large candidates run in a single pool and the two candidates with the most votes get seats.
Linkhart said the change would add accountability to the races by – for one thing – allowing candidates to challenge a particular incumbent.
But other council members questioned whether the current system was a problem.
The effort failed because seven votes are needed for the City Council to put a question on the ballot. The council voted 6-4, with three members absent.
The council approved a different ballot question extending term limits for the district attorney from two terms to three.
More local news briefs
CASTLE ROCK
Body of missing hiker may have been found
Searchers found Monday what they believe is the body of a Castle Rock woman who had gone missing Wednesday while on a hiking trip in remote Douglas County.
Carolyn Gjendem, 52, was found behind a boulder off Rampart Range Road, about 6 miles from where her Chevy Blazer was parked near a trailhead.
Late Monday afternoon, authorities could not rule out foul play as investigators were working the area.
“We just won’t know until they have completed their work,” said Cocha Heyden, spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department.
An autopsy will be performed today or Wednesday, and authorities would likely have a positive identification by that time.
A search volunteer spotted tracks off the side of the road, followed them and found the body, Heyden said.
LAKEWOOD
Meningitis suspected in death of student
Health officials are investigating whether a Brady Exploration high school student died of bacterial meningitis, Nancy Braden, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment, said Monday.
The student died Thursday.
Officials of the charter school, at 5290 W. Ohio Ave. in Lakewood, sent out letters to parents Friday after being notified of the senior’s death.
Bacterial meningitis is a serious infection of the fluid in the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain.
It is spread through direct contact with nasal or throat discharges of an infected person.
LONGMONT
Marine killed in Iraq has ties to Colorado
A Marine who attended high school in Colorado was killed in Iraq as he tried to disarm a bomb, his mother told an Oklahoma newspaper.
Dustin Gould, whose hometown the military listed as Longmont, died Friday in Iraq’s Anbar province. The 28-year-old staff sergeant was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California and was on his fourth tour in Iraq, his mother said.
Gould was born in Oklahoma and attended elementary school there, his mother, Karen Gould, who lives in Norman, Okla., told the Tulsa World. He graduated from high school in Colorado, she said.
LAKEWOOD
2 held on suspicion of giving pot to boy
Two people were arrested after giving marijuana to one of the suspect’s 6-year-old son, police said Monday.
Regina Martinez, 25, and Jason Ladehoff, 21, are scheduled for a court hearing later this month after the two were arrested Jan. 9.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a man who went to the couple’s apartment in the 9600 block of West 16th Avenue to buy pot saw Ladehoff offer the boy marijuana.
The boy at first denied to police that he smoked it but later said he had smoked pot from a pink pipe.
The boy also said he had smoked marijuana and drank alcohol on several occasions, primarily on weekends, at the house, the warrant said.
Martinez and Ladehoff face several charges, including child abuse and providing marijuana to a person under 15 years old.
Ladehoff also faces charges of possession with the intent to distribute.
GOLDEN
MTV actor pleads not guilty in sex case
Vincent Margera, who portrayed “Uncle Don Vito” on the MTV show “Viva La Bam,” pleaded not guilty Monday to three counts of sexual assault on a child.
Margera, 50, was arrested by Lakewood police on Aug. 18 and is accused of touching or grabbing the buttocks of a 12-year- old girl and touching the breasts of two other girls ages 12 and 14.
An Aug. 27 trial date has been set.
Margera is free on a $50,000 bond.
DENVER
Gen. Edwards named to state veterans post
Gov. Bill Ritter nominated Brig. Gen. H. Michael Edwards to become the new adjutant general and executive director of the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs on Monday.
He replaces retiring Maj. Gen. Mason C. Whitney.
Edwards, 55, has served as commander of the 140th Wing, Colorado Air National Guard at Buckley Air Force Base, supervising 1,400 people, since 2002.
A change-of-command ceremony is scheduled for March 24.
The director oversees more than 5,400 Colorado Army and Air National Guard members and 2,500 Civil Air Patrol officers, cadets and volunteers.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Udall joins colleagues opposing land sell-off
Rep. Mark Udall has joined a group of 11 lawmakers opposing a Bush administration proposal to sell off federal lands to fund a rural schools program.
Under this proposal, Udall said, 273,806 acres in 35 states would be sold.
Nearly 22,000 acres in Colorado are included on a list of lands eligible for sale, he said.
“The Bush administration’s land sale proposal is like selling the homestead to pay the credit- card bill,” Udall said.
Congress rejected a similar proposal last year.
