Colorado
Former Winter Park ski patrolman killed in explosion while doing avalanche mitigation in California
SQUAW VALLEY, Calif. – A former ski patrolman at Winter Park Resort died while working at a northern California ski resort Tuesday morning.
Joe Zuiches, 42, died in an accident involving an explosive while crews were doing avalanche mitigation before the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows resort opened Tuesday morning.
The Lake Tahoe area has seen a near-unprecedented amount of snow this month and the area is highly avalanche-prone at this time.
Winter Park posted on its Facebook page that Zuiches had been a member of its ski patrol from 1999-2012 and was “a beloved and cherished member of the community, whose intelligence and enthusiasm for skiing was infectious to all who had the pleasure of knowing him.”
Both Winter Park and Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows said they were saddened by Zuiches’ passing and extended their condolences to his friend and family.
The California ski resort where he worked said Zuiches is survived by his wife and infant son.
A GoFundMe page for his family has been set up and can be found by clicking here. As of Tuesday night, it had already raised more than $75,000 of the $100,000 goal.
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Document detailing possible Trump infrastructure priorities includes Colo. I-70, I-25 improvements
DENVER – Two major Colorado infrastructure projects and an energy proposal with Colorado ties are among a list of nationwide infrastructure projects prioritized for federal funding under the Donald Trump administration, according to documents obtained by McClatchy DC and the Kansas City Star.
The documents show that among the projects proposed to be earmarked for federal funding are the I-70 Mountain Corridor, and improving and widening I-25 between Monument and Castle Rock. Continue reading
Head of Secret Service’s Denver district under fire for anti-Trump Facebook post
DENVER – The head of the U.S. Secret Service’s Denver district is under fire for an October Facebook post in which she said she would not “take a bullet” for Donald Trump.
The post was made by Kerry O’Grady, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Denver district. It was made before Trump won the presidency and does not specifically mention him by name, but came to light in a story published Tuesday by the Washington Examiner.
By the time the post was made, the presidential field had been narrowed down to Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.
In her position, she is in charge of coordinating advance teams for presidential trips to the area.
“Despite the fact that I am expected to take a bullet for both sides…this world has changed and I have changed,” O’Grady wrote, in part, in the post, which has since been deleted. “And I would take jail time over a bullet or an endorsement for what I believe to be disaster to this country and the strong and amazing women and minorities who reside here.”
She also wrote that she was in a “struggle to not violate the Hatch Act,” and wrote, “Hatch Act be damned. I am with her.”
The Hatch Act prohibits some executive branch employees, including Secret Service agents, from engaging in political activity or speech for a certain candidate or cause on social media.
The Examiner reports there has been at least one official complaint levied against her speech. Attempts to reach O’Grady for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful. But she told the Examiner repeatedly that she would perform her duties and that she was proud to serve the office of the president.
The U.S. Secret Service told the Examiner it was “aware of the postings” and “looking into the matter.”
Report: Peyton Manning to speak at Republican retreat in Philadelphia
DENVER – Former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning will be among the speakers at a joint House-Senate Republican retreat scheduled to start Wednesday in Philadelphia, according to Politico.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are also both expected to speak at the retreat, as is British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The retreat was set for Republicans on the Hill to hammer out a new agenda the party seeks to install, as it will hold the presidency, House and Senate for at least the next two years.
Manning donated to Jeb Bush during the Republican primaries, and had a picture taken with Donald Trump Jr. while the Trump campaign was in Mississippi.
While he has not publicly supported Trump, Manning has a history of donating to Tennessee Republicans, and gave money to George W. Bush in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2012 for their presidential bids.
One of the Tennessee Republicans Manning has supported, Sen. Bob Corker, said he was looking forward to having Manning at the retreat and will introduce him to his colleagues.
“Peyton is a long-time friend, and I am excited to welcome him to this year’s congressional Republican policy retreat in Philadelphia,” said Corker in a statement. “Passing meaningful legislation takes a great deal of teamwork, a skill Peyton has certainly mastered throughout his football career.”
But Trump praised Manning in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” last year, saying he is a “very good guy.”
Manning has not publicly discussed what he will talk about at the retreat.
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Trump’s pick for Air Force secretary, Heather Wilson, an Academy graduate and NM congresswoman
DENVER – President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Heather Wilson as Air Force Secretary.
The White House said Monday it would nominate Wilson, a graduate of the Air Force Academy and former New Mexico congresswoman, to the post.
Wilson served as New Mexico’s 1st congressional district representative from 1998 to 2009 and was the first female veteran elected to Congress. She currently serves as the President of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
She was among the first women admitted to the Academy and eventually became a Vice Wing Commander before graduating as a Distinguished Graduate. She then was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and went to Oxford University.
She served in the Air Force until 1989 until she was picked to serve on National Security Council staff, and later founded a private defense company, Keystone International, and worked in the Gary Johnson administration before being elected to Congress.
While there, she served as chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence and was a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and also served on the House Armed Services Committee.
But she was at the center of a 2015 settlement involving Albuquerque, N.M-based Sandia Labs after she allegedly lobbied members of Congress and the Obama administration for an extension of the contract with the federal government.
She was also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for consulting with three contractors involved in other federal laboratories, but no one could document her work, according to the Washington Post.
She denied lobbying for the Sandia Labs contract.
“Heather Wilson is going to make an outstanding Secretary of the Air Force. Her distinguished military service, high level of knowledge, and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nation’s Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity,” President Trump said in a statement.
The same news release said Wilson plans “to strengthen American air and space power to keep the country safe.”
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DPD finds officers followed department policy in 2015 shooting of teen
DENVER – The Denver Police Department on Monday announced it had cleared the two officers in the 2015 shooting death of a teenage girl who was inside a stolen car at the time.
DPD announced that Officer Gabriel Jordan and Officer Daniel Greene had used “appropriate force” and followed department policy as it was written at the time.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office had already determined that the two would not face criminal charges in the shooting, which left 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez dead.
The case had been reviewed by the DA’s Office, as well as DPD Internal Affairs, the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Hernandez was killed in an alleyway near the intersection of 25th and Niagara on the early morning of Jan. 26, 2015. Investigators said she was driving a stolen car toward two officers, who opened fire.
The department has since re-written its policy so as to not allow its officers to shoot at moving vehicles.
“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the Jessica Hernandez case it has been determined that the officers’ actions do not warrant disciplinary action,” Denver Police Chief Robert C. White said, in part, in a statement to Denver7. “Nonetheless, this incident is a tragedy for all involved. Ms. Hernandez had her whole life in front of her and we mourn her loss with the family.”
Hernandez’s family also issued a statement Monday:
Today, the family of Jessica Hernandez received a call from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who expressed compassion as he conveyed the results of the Police Department’s internal affairs investigation. This call followed a productive face-to-face meeting on November 16, 2016, where the family and Denver officials, including the Mayor and Chief White, discussed their strong desire to bring positive change from such an inexplicable tragedy. The family has expressed to Mayor Hancock their appreciation for his willingness to grieve and pray with them.
Nevertheless, the Hernandez family will achieve justice for Jessie and continue to advocate for meaningful police reform. DPD’s changed policies on vehicle stops and shooting into moving vehicles will hopefully prevent future tragedies like the killing of Jessie and other members of the Denver community. The Hernandez family will continue to work with the community and Denver to try to bring about positive change and ensure that Jessie’s death was not in vain.
The Hernandez family holds out hope that no other family or community will have to experience their pain. They appreciate the compassion and support that the Denver community has shown as they still try to come to grips with this immense loss. Not a day goes by that they don’t think about and miss their beloved Jessie.
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Bill would require probable cause for police access to people’s prescription records
DENVER – A bill under consideration in the Colorado Legislature would make it harder for law enforcement agencies to gain access to Coloradans’ prescription drug information.
Senate Bill 32 would require Colorado law enforcement agencies and regulatory boards to have a judge or neutral third party approve a warrant backed by a sworn affidavit or testimony before they can access the state’s prescription drug monitoring program. The bill was proposed by Sen. Michael Merrifield, a Democrat from El Paso County.
The state’s program is aimed at mitigating the abuse or misuse of prescription drugs. Pharmacies and doctors are required to upload prescription information for all Schedule II-V drugs prescribed and distributed to patients into the program’s database each day. The bulk of prescription drugs fall under those categorizations.
In Colorado, the law currently requires the requesting agency or board to prove that the information is related to a specific “practitioner, patient or pharmacy” amid an ongoing “bona fide investigation.”
But Coloradans could still have their private information and past prescriptions shared with law enforcement agencies that fill out an administrative subpoena which does not go before independent court officials before it is issued by the agency.
As revealed by a five-month investigation last August by Denver7’s Washington bureau, Scripps News, Colorado was one of 31 states that allowed law enforcement and regulatory boards to access that private consumer information without probable cause.
The Scripps News investigation uncovered an incident in Utah in which local police investigating the theft of drugs from an ambulance accessed the private prescription records of all 480 employees of the United Fire Authority of Salt Lake County. None of the employees were suspects, no court approved the search and no probable cause ever existed that any of the employees were involved in the theft.
Two of the employees were eventually charged after police used the information they obtained, though their charges were not related to the theft and were eventually dropped altogether.
Utah auditors later found that warrantless access to the database “may have resulted in questionable use” of the database by other law enforcement agencies in more than half the sampled cases.
The Scripps News investigation found that in 2014-15 alone, law enforcement nationally had accessed at least 344,921 Americans’ prescription histories in the 31 states that don’t require a warrant or court order.
Utah has since changed its law to require warrants be approved before the information is released.
Sen. Merrifield told Scripps Monday that his bill is aimed at providing better protections for Coloradans, and simply requires law enforcement agencies and regulatory boards to establish probable cause for the search.
“We need to protect Coloradans’ constitutional right to privacy,” he said. “It simply isn’t right that any law enforcement official or regulator could access private health records without any form of judicial oversight. As technology advances, and these records become digitized, Colorado needs to make sure investigations into people’s prescription health records are done so with a judge’s approval, just like any investigation into any other personal database.”
The bill is scheduled for its first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 1.
Scripps News’ senior national investigative correspondent Mark Greenblatt contributed to this report.
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Woman convicted of forging ballot signatures for Senate candidate sentenced to probation
DENVER – The Colorado signature collector who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of forgery last November for turning in dozens of forged signatures on a petition for a U.S. Senate candidate was sentenced to probation and community service Friday in Denver.
Maureen Moss, 45, will be on probation for four years and will have to perform 250 hours of community service, a Denver District Court judge ruled Friday morning.
Moss was originally charged with 34 felony forgery counts after Denver7 uncovered 10 forged signatures and investigators at district attorney’s offices in Denver, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties confirmed there were 24 further instances.
The forged signatures were all put on a petition drive to get Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser on June’s primary election ballot. He made the primary ballot, but took fourth in the primary, which was won by Darryl Glenn.
Court documents also revealed that Moss had an extensive criminal history regarding fraudulent and forged credit card usage.
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Thousands expected at Women’s March on Denver Saturday; some Coloradans head to D.C. march
DENVER – Thousands of people are expected to take part in the Women’s March on Denver this Saturday in a local event that mirrors a larger march scheduled in Washington D.C. and other cities across the country.
The national women’s march was organized as a quasi-protest to follow President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration after Trump made lewd comments about grabbing women came to light during the campaign.
But the organizers for the Women’s March on Denver say their event is not only about women’s rights, but also an effort to support all human rights, minorities and other marginalized communities.
Organizers Jessica Rogers, Cheetah McClellan and Karen Hinkel told Denver7 Wednesday that the event “is sponsored by women for everyone” and that they hope to give women from across the west a platform to express themselves.
Rogers and McClellan both stressed that the march was not a protest and “not against anything,” saying the event plans more of a focus on propping up and empowering women and other marginalized people, as well as focusing on progressive social issues.
“We hope the march helps inspire women and all participants to take action and do whatever they can to participate in our democracy,” McClellan said.
There are also marches planned in Aspen, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Durango, Grand Junction and Steamboat Springs.
More than a dozen women, including state legislators, city council members, educators, human rights advocates and other professionals plan to speak during the march, which will start and end at Civic Center Park.
Denver’s march begins Saturday at 9:30 a.m., and the rally starts at 11:15 a.m. The event is set to run through 3 p.m.
SOME COLORADANS HEADED TO WASHINGTON FOR MARCH
The march in Washington, D.C. is expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
Among those from Colorado attending the Washington, D.C., march will be Boulder resident Lilavati Sinclair.
“What we’re there for is to say we are a large constituency, we are a large body of women who are alert, awake and willing to what it takes to defend the rights we already have — protect them going forward and to keep fighting for the ones that have historically been of issue for women,” she said.
Sinclair won’t be alone. Her daughters will also be attending.
“I don’t want to be Pollyannaish and say, ‘Oh, yes, you know, all of us going out there, we’re automatically going to heal all of the divisive speech that has gone on.’ But I do think that there’s a potential of people to bind together and say, this is a time to respect our differences,” said her oldest daughter, Chenoah.
For more information on the Women’s March on Denver, click here.
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Ski Granby Ranch closes lift that caused fatal accident for ‘testing,’ says modification to blame
SKI GRANBY RANCH, Colo. – Ski Granby Ranch announced Friday the Quick Draw Express chairlift, which killed a Texas woman last month when it malfunctioned, would be closed Friday and Saturday while it is tested.
Kelly Huber, 40, of San Antonio died Dec. 29 when she was thrown from the lift along with her two children, who both survived.
The lift was closed for more than a week as state regulators investigated what caused the accident. On Jan. 9, the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board released a report saying that a “rare dynamic event” occurred within the lift’s primary electrical drive and control system.
The board said weather, environmental factors, and human error on Huber’s behalf were not factors in the accident.
Ski Granby Ranch reopened the lift after the report, but could only operate it using its backup diesel engine and not the electrical system.
Resort operators were also asked to disconnect the electrical drive entirely, to run the lift at a slower pace and to increase the number of visual and mechanical inspections on the lift.
The safety board said in its report it reserves the right to slow or shut down the lift, and it also left room for the continuing investigation to grow.
Friday morning, Ski Granby Ranch posted a message on Instagram saying the lift would be closed while it is tested.
In a news release the ski resort sent out later Friday, the resort said it was hoping to reopen the lift under diesel power “as soon as possible” and that it had scheduled the installation of a new electric drive in the future.
It added that the “current tests are being done out of an abundance of caution.”
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies said in a statement sent late Friday that the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board reached the decision to not reopen the lift until it is “deemed safe for public operation as set forth in a Non-Disciplinary Operation Agreement.”
The ski area also said that an independent contractor was hired to make modifications to the lift before this current ski season, and that “the issue that likely caused the incident was the independent contractor’s modification to the lift’s electrical drive/control system.”
The contractor was not affiliated with the original lift manufacturer, and the resort said it has since “retained the original manufacturer of the lift to return the Quick Draw Express Lift to safe operating condition [sic] under electrical power.”
It said the rest of the ski area remained open, that it was offering discounted tickets and that it would re-open the lift as soon as possible following the completion of testing.
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