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Representative Marilyn Musgrave (R) seeks vote on oil drilling, despite the Congressional recess. Plus, another Ft. Carson soldier has died in Iraq, and Colorado State Fair organizers look into becoming more energy efficient.
McCain visits the state and is favored by polled Colorado voters, DNC Chairman Howard Dean visits Mile High, the plague in Pueblo, and kayakers hit the World Cup.
Colorado will receive a quarter-billion dollars in military-related funding from the Defense appropriations act that President Bush signed Monday.
The lion’s share, $142 million, goes to the Pueblo Chemical Weapons Depot, to fund de-activation of World War Two era munitions stored there. An international treaty the U.S. signed requires them to be destroyed by 2012, but defense officials say their target date for destruction, with the new funding, is now 2017.
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Sunday is veterans day. There are a lot of ways to honor vets, and we bring you now the story of one artist’s gesture. Sally Lincoln of Pueblo doesn’t think that sitting for a portrait painted by an oil painter should be a privilege reserved for the rich and famous. Lately she’s been going to the Veteran’s Administration Nursing Home and Care Unit in Denver to paint portraits of the residents and patients there. No money is exchanged. Instead she just snaps a few photos of the painting and then gives it to the person who sat for it. The portraits have had a surprisingly emotional impact on the vets and the staff at the facility. Shanna Lewis reports.
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The Day of the Dead, or Dia de Los Muertos, is a Mexican holiday when the spirits of ancestors are invited to come back and celebrate with the living. Traditionally the holiday is observed every year around Halloween, on the Christian holy days of All Saints Day, November 1st, and All Souls Day, November 2nd. Pueblo got a head start on its Day of The Dead festivities with a parade this past Friday, Oct. 26th. KRCC’s Michelle Mercer was there and brings us this report.
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UPDATE: Feds Say: Protect Preble’s Mouse in Colorado, But Not Wyoming
Read more about the decision HERE
Two Homicides in Pueblo This Week
Gas Leases Suspended for Environmental Concerns
Denver High School Clinics Ponder Offering Contraceptives
Report: Immigration Raids Traumatize Legal Residents
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Pueblo photographer Walter Beck was a aerial photographer with the 20th Combat Mapping Squadron based at Peterson Field. The war took him all over the South Pacific, where he took lots of unofficial photos of men at war, the machines they flew, and the colorful, often risque art with which they decorated them. Beck died in 1989, but his daughter, Analee has organized some of his war photo collection into a display at the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center in Pueblo. KRCC’s Michelle Mercer visited the exhibit with Analee Beck.
Visit the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center’s website here.
State Senator Ron May
Springs Senator Ron May Resigns - Bruce to Statehouse?
Accused Springs Cop Killer Asks for Venue Change
State Unemployment Rate Ticks Up Slightly
Bones From Pueblo Frontier Days Found in Vermont
Sewage Spill at Camp for Gas Workers
CU President Brown’s “Ghetto” Comment Criticized
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Affordable Housing Scarce in Colorado Springs, Pueblo
(For more details, click HERE)
Salazar Talks Expansion at Pinon Canyon, Buckley
Search Scaled Back for Calhan Man at Lake Powell
Pilot Killed in Air Ambulance Crash Was Experienced, Safe
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Senate OKs Pueblo Depot Cleanup Money
Anti-Abortion Minister Vows to Protest Dem Convention in Denver
CSU Gets TB Research Money
TB Patient Goes Back to Arizona
Gov. Ritter to Testify on Global Warming in DC
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Colorado Springs won’t be going to federal court with the Sierra Club as planned on Monday, Sept. 17.
Last Friday a federal judge granted the Sierra Club’s request for more time to prepare it’s case brought under the Clean Water Act against the city for repeated sewage spills into Fountain Creek. The new court date is January 28th. Sierra Club Attorney Eric Huber says he needs more time to prepare because he was planning on getting a lot of help from Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut. Thiebaut filed the original suit against Colorado Springs in late 2005, and the Sierra Club joined later. But last week the judge said Thiebaut had no standing or jurisdiction to sue, leaving the Sierra Club as the lone litigant.
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Pueblo County has identified clostridium perfringens as the bug that made 126 of its jail inmates sick last week, but it’s still unclear exactly who is reponsible.
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Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor says 126 inmates in the county jail are sick with diarrhea and vomiting, and health officials are trying to find the cause. County public health nurse Jody Carrillio says stool samples have been sent to the state lab in Denver for testing. In the meantime, jail officials are taking precautions to prevent the spread of infections.
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A federal judge says Pueblo’s district attorney can’t sue Colorado Springs over wastewater spills, but the Sierra Club can. On Wednesday the judge tossed out the suit Pueblo DA Bill Theibaut filed in 2005, after a pair of spills sent some 340,000 gallons of raw sewage down Fountain Creek. Fountain Creek enters the Arkansas River at Pueblo. Theibaut argued that the spills violated the federal Clean Water Act, and asked for monetary penalties. The Judge said the DA didn’t demonstrate that he had jurisdiction to file suit. Theibaut says he disagrees with the ruling and that he is considering an appeal. The Clean Water Act was written to give ordinary citizens the power to call for enforcement of pollution violations. So the Sierra Club’s lawsuit, which is very similar to the one Theibaut filed, is being allowed to go forward. It’s scheduled for a 10-day trial starting September 17th. Colorado Springs utilities Spokesman Steve Berry says the city is ready for its day in court.
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Military, economic and political heavyweights from Colorado Springs met with Senator Ken Salazar Aug. 29 to lobby for expansion of the Pinon Canyon Army training site in southeastern Colorado. Ft. Carson wants to nearly triple the size of the site to some 650 square miles. That would mean buying or condemning more than 400,000 acres of private land, something landowners and local governments in southeastern Colorado vehemently oppose. That sentiment was made evident three weeks ago when Senator Salazar visited Trinidad. He got very different opinion in the Springs.
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SLIDESHOW