BURBANK, Calif.
School rebuffs Disney over “Einstein” DVDs
The Walt Disney Co. said Thursday evening that it still wants the University of Washington to retract “an inflammatory and misleading” news release concerning “Baby Einstein” and other baby DVDs – a demand that was categorically rejected earlier Thursday by the school’s president.
Disney said it believes the news release was “developed to gain media attention, and contradicts and distorts the study’s own carefully limited and hedged findings.”
“Baby Einstein” and similar videos were the brainchild of Denver-area schoolteacher Julie Aigner-Clark. Disney bought Aig ner-Clark’s Baby Einstein Co. in 2001.
On Thursday morning, University of Washington president Mark Emmert told Robert Iger, Disney’s chief executive and president, that not only was the news release valid but so was the work of the three University of Washington professors who conducted the study.
Emmert said the school unequivocally stands behind the work of professors Frederick Zimmerman, Dimitri Christakis and Andrew Meltzoff, co-authors of the study.
The study found that the videos not only don’t benefit infants 8 to 16 months old, but may actually be harmful.
According to the news release, the researchers found that for every hour each day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than babies who didn’t watch.
BRECKENRIDGE
Iraq war vet’s death ruled an accident
The death of an Iraq war veteran who was hit and killed by a trolley bus in this resort town was an accident, the county coroner says.
Lynn Scutellaro, a 28-year-old helicopter pilot and captain in the Colorado National Guard from Evergreen, was crossing a street just before 9 p.m. July 7 when a town trolley struck and killed her.
Coroner Joanne Richardson ruled Wednesday that the death was an accident.
The driver, David Vickers, 50, was cleared. He had been on administrative leave.
Scutellaro returned from Iraq in November after a 12-month deployment with Colorado’s 89th Troop Command.
GREELEY
Meat plant struggling to fill second shift
The Brazilian company that bought the Greeley meatpacking plant from Swift is finding slow-going in hiring staff for a second shift.
The Greeley Tribune reported that the company says it has hired some workers but is not where it wants to be.
And once the workers are hired, it will take some months to get them all trained.
Many Colorado companies are reporting labor shortages, blaming it on a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
GRAND JUNCTION
Mesa State enrollment overflows housing
Up to 50 Mesa State College freshmen and sophomores will start the semester living in a residential hotel or a private apartment complex because on- campus housing is full.
“We’re sort of busting at the seams,” college spokeswoman Dana Nunn said.
The college, not the students, will pay any additional cost, she said.
Enrollment is about 2 percent higher this year and should reach about 6,000, Nunn said.
ARAPAHOE COUNTY
County’s first case of West Nile confirmed
The first human case of West Nile virus in Arapahoe County has been confirmed. Meanwhile, Boulder County has caught mosquitoes testing positive for the virus, according to statements from the government agencies Thursday.
The 57-year-old Aurora man is the 104th person in the state to be diagnosed.
He has a mild form of the virus and was not hospitalized, according to the Tri-County Health Department.
Three people in the state have died this year from West Nile.
The Boulder mosquito samples were gathered Aug. 8. It is the second time a sample has tested positive.
ARVADA
3 arrested, another sought in slaying
Arvada police investigators arrested three people in Arizona and are seeking a fourth in the state in connection with a July homicide in the Castlegate apartment complex in Arvada.
Police believe Richard “Ricky” Frank Regalado, 29, who is suspected in the shooting death of Shawn Joseph Rodriguez, 19, may be in the area of Buckeye, Ariz.
In a release, police said Regalado could be “associated” with a white Ford Focus or newer model truck.
Three people were arrested in Buckeye early Thursday morning.
Working with officers from the Buckeye and Goodyear, Ariz., police departments, investigators from the Arvada Police Department and Jefferson County district attorney’s office arrested:
Thomas “Tommy” Anthony Garrison, 22, on a Jefferson County warrant of first-degree murder.
Jeffrey Alan Wright, 25, on a Jefferson County warrant of accessory to first-degree murder.
An unidentified 26-year-old woman on a warrant unrelated to homicide.
