State transportation officials closed both lanes of Interstate 70 between Copper Mountain and Vail for several hours Saturday after a snowstorm caused numerous accidents, officials said.
“The visibility is very bad,” Paul Peterson, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said about 2:30 p.m. “There have been multiple accidents throughout a 15-mile stretch.”
The eastbound lanes of the highway were reopened about 4 p.m., and the other lanes were open by 5 p.m., officials said.
Heavy snow and icy roads made travel treacherous, Peterson said. The highway was shut down at 1:20 p.m. after several crashes. No serious injuries were reported.
CDOT road crews were plowing and removing cars and semi-tractor trailers involved in the accidents from the road, said agency spokeswoman Stacey Stegman.
DENVER
Army urged to avoid forced sales of land
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has asked the Army to forgo the use of forced sales to expand its Piñon Canyon training site in southeast Colorado.
Salazar, D-Colo., sent the Army a list of suggestions to overcome heated objections to its proposal to nearly triple the size of the training grounds to about 654,000 acres, from the current 235,368 acres.
Ranchers in the area say the Army hasn’t proved why it needs more land. The Colorado legislature is considering a bill that would attempt to ban the Army from using state eminent domain law to force unwilling landowners to sell, although questions have been raised about the measure’s legality.
The training site is used by soldiers from Fort Carson. Army officials have pointed to the post’s projected growth, to about 25,000 troops in 2009 from the current 16,000, as part of the reason for expanding the training grounds.
AURORA
Mall accused of racial profiling
The Town Center at Aurora is being accused of racial profiling and harassing minority customers, several years after race issues were first raised there.
The Colorado chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has surveyed more than 1,000 patrons of the mall since last summer. The Town Center was formerly the Aurora Mall.
The group found about 100 people who said they were victims of racial profiling or harassment.
A disproportionate number of black teens were being profiled according to the clothes they were wearing, said ACORN’s local organizer, Ben Hanna. Black teens also were targeted more than white teens during mall curfews.
Officials for the Town Center at Aurora said in a statement Friday that the mall does not condone or practice discrimination. They also said most of the complaints were about a program in which shoppers under 16 are required to be accompanied by an adult on Friday and Saturday nights.
DENVER
AG files suit to force feds on immigration
Complying with a mandate from voters, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday demanding the federal government enforce immigration laws.
Voters approved Referendum K in November directing Suthers to sue.
Similar lawsuits filed by other states have failed, Suthers said in a written release, but the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “changed the way we must look at border security and whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional obligations.”
DENVER
State DNR requests park division audit
The director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources has requested an audit of the Colorado State Parks Division, according to the Colorado auditor’s office.
Director Harris Sherman asked for the audit about two weeks ago, according to Karen Hoover of the auditor’s office.
“We have been asked to take a look at the financial policies and procedures and their internal controls,” Hoover said.
About $8.5 million in lottery funds had been withheld from state parks over accounting issues within the division.
GRAND JUNCTION
Man hurt as crane falls at building site
A crane collapsed at a construction site for a parking structure on Friday, injuring a worker.
Arturo Carrola-Andrade, 39, was in fair condition at St. Mary’s Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Miranda Ellinwood said.
