Police Need Public's Help Investigating Fire

The Fort Morgan Police Department is once again calling for the public to help with their investigation of a mysterious fire reported in November. Fort Morgan police chief Chris Kuretich says on November 25th, police responded to the 900-block of Ensign Street where they found a fence engulfed in flames...






Kuretich says the fire appears to have been intentionally set, but so far, that's all they know... Anyone with information about the fire is urged to call Fort Morgan Police at 867-5678.

Elway, Tebow Jersey Stolen

Fox 31 reports that thieves broke into the LoDo Fast Frames store and stole signed Tim Tebow and John Elway jerseys right off the wall over the weekend. Owner Jarrod Perrott said whoever did it, threw a liquor bottle through a window, broke the front door and took the two jerseys, worth about a thousand dollars each. Perrott said all the thieves wanted were the two jerseys, since there were more valuable items in the store. Police do have some info to go on: witnesses got a license plate number, and there's video surveillance of the break in, so they'll try to find the perps who did it.

USDA to close labs, offices in 46 states in cost-saving move

DES MOINES, Iowa - The U.S. Agriculture Department announced Monday it will close nearly 260 offices nationwide, a move that won praise for cutting costs but raised concerns about the possible effect on food safety.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the goal was to save $150 million a year in the agency's $145 billion budget. About $90 million had already been saved by reducing travel and supplies, and the closures were expected to save an additional $60 million, he said.
The plan calls for 259 offices, labs and other facilities to be closed, affecting the USDA headquarters in Washington and operations in 46 states. Seven foreign offices also will be shut.
Some of the closures had been previously announced. The USDA said last year it would shut down 10 agricultural research stations, including the only one in Alaska, where scientists were seeking ways to use the vast waste generated by the largest wild fishery in the nation to make everything from gel caps for pills to fish meal for livestock feed.
Other parts of the announcement were a surprise. Andrew Lorenz, deputy district manager for the Food Safety and Inspection Service in Minneapolis, learned his office would be closed, along with those in Madison, Wis., and Lawrence, Kan.
"They wiped out the entire Midwest," said Lorenz, whose office handles all federal inspections of meat, poultry and egg products in Minnesota, Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming.
FSIS offices in Chicago and Des Moines will remain open. It was not immediately clear whether work from the other offices would be shifted to them.
Lorenz said about 16 people work in his office, and he expected 12 to 14 of their jobs to be eliminated.
Vilsack said he didn't anticipate widespread layoffs, in part because 7,000 USDA employees took early retirements over the past year. He said the agency is trying to do more with less in light of federal cutbacks, and many of the offices to be closed had few employees or were near other offices.
"Our workload is at record highs; we have less money and fewer people and work to do; and we tried to address how do you do that without interrupting service," Vilsack said in a phone interview
The USDA manages a wide array of programs, from emergency aid for farmers to grants for rural development and food assistance programs for the poor. The USDA plans to shut 131 Farm Service Agency offices in 32 states, with largest number of closures in Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas.

Police: Ex-Husband Person Of Interest In Lafayette Bombing

(Lafayette, CO) -- The ex-husband of a Lafayette bombing victim has been named a "person of interest" in the case. Federal authorities spent part of the weekend searching Michael Brittain's Thornton home but haven't arrested him. His ex-wife, Allyson Stone, was seriously injured Saturday afternoon when a bomb hidden in a paper bag exploded in her lap. Stone's current husband, Christopher Stone, was also hurt but is expected to be okay. The Stones were inside their car when the bomb went off. Court records show Brittain was found not guilty of domestic violence a year before he and Allyson Stone divorced in 2004.

Pittsburgh Mayor To "Tebow" After Steelers Lose Playoff Game

(Pittsburgh, PA) -- Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is set to become the latest person to "Tebow." Ravenstahl will get down on one knee at a public event tomorrow, while wearing the Denver Broncos quarterback's jersey. The Broncos stunned the Steelers 29-23 in yesterday's AFC Wild Card game. Ravenstahl's office wouldn't say where the mayor would "Tebow," but Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is hoping he'll do it at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.

Coors Light Jumps To Number Two

(Golden, CO) -- There is big news brewing over in Golden. Coors Light is now the second best-selling beer in the nation. Sales for the tasty brew were up over one-percent, while Budwesier continued to slip. The two rival brands are now nearly neck and neck. Coors Light shipped 18-point-two-million barrels last year, compared with 17-point-seven for Budweiser. The number-one beer in the county continues to be Bud Light.

Rep: Nick Cannon released from the hospital

NEW YORK (AP) — Nick Cannon is out of the hospital after battling what wife Mariah Carey called "mild kidney failure."

The entertainer was hospitalized in Aspen, Colo., last week after he fell ill while the couple was on vacation there. He was transferred to a Los Angeles hospital a few days later. Carey said he was suffering from a form of kidney failure but no further details were released.

In a statement Monday, Cannon's publicist Tracy Nguyen said he's now "resting and recovering at home" and thanks everyone who was concerned about him.

She says he'll return to his live morning radio show, "Rollin' with Nick Cannon," on Jan. 17.

Colorado looks at potential drilling at state park

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is preparing for potential drilling at a state park and state wildlife area.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife owns mineral rights on 439 acres of St. Vrain Park, which sits on the highly productive Wattenberg oil field, in Longmont.

On Thursday, commissioners could authorize agency director Rick Cables to negotiate a surface rights agreement to allow for energy development from a 10-acre well pad in a rural section of the park, with stipulations to protect the environment and visitors' experience. Any drilling likely wouldn't occur until 2013.

Commissioners also will be asked Thursday to approve stipulations for DeJour Energy to develop three well pads on the Garfield Creek State Wildlife Area.

DeJour leased mineral rights there from the federal government.

Occupy Boulder protesters focus on day protests

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Anti-Wall Street protesters in Boulder are focusing on day protests after the city announced it is cracking down on overnight campers.

The camp was abandoned overnight Saturday, leaving clothes and furniture. Police say they arrested 27-year-old Peter John Jentsch on suspicion of third-degree trespassing after an officer saw him allegedly setting up a tent near the municipal building around 1:43 a.m. Sunday.

The Boulder Daily Camera reports that protesters on Sunday talked about plans for daytime actions.

Those plans include staging a funeral for the Bill of Rights on Saturday.

The group also is hoping to train more facilitators after several organizers left because of burn out.

Planned Parenthood appeals CO abortion proposal

DENVER (AP) — Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is appealing a proposed ballot measure banning abortion to the Colorado Supreme Court.

The appeal filed Monday asks the court to reject a third attempt to ask Colorado voters whether to enact a direct challenge to federal abortion rights by stating that abortion is illegal in all circumstances.

The appeal comes after the Colorado title board approved the amendment language, which would allow Personhood Colorado members to begin gathering the 86,000 or so signatures needed to put the question on ballots.

Similar proposals have been overwhelmingly rejected by Colorado voters in 2010 and 2008.

The Planned Parenthood appeal argues that the measure is illegally vague.

Widow: Body found on border lake isn't her husband

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - A woman whose husband was presumably killed on a lake on the Texas-Mexico border says she's sad that remains found at the lake recently are not those of her husband.

Tiffany Hartley says her husband David was shot in the head on Falcon Lake on Sept. 30, 2010, when they were using personal watercraft.

She told KUSA-TV in Denver on Monday that test results from the Mexican government show clothing on a human skeleton found at the lake recently don't match what her husband was wearing, and the skull does not have a bullet wound.

Her husband was 6 feet tall. The skeleton was 5 feet 10 inches. The legs were bound together and it was partially clothed.

Formal charges filed after Kersey shooting

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed two counts of attempted murder against a Greeley woman accused of shooting one man twice and firing 27 bullets at another man whom police believe was her intended target.

The Greeley Tribune reports the 25-year-old woman also will face two sentence enhancers of committing a violent crime using a weapon.

The shooting happened Dec. 29 at an apartment in Kersey. Investigators say the woman suspected her intended target had sexually assaulted her son on Dec. 25. That man, who has denied the allegations, wasn't hurt, but 51-year-old John Collins was shot in the leg and hip.

The woman's friend Khanh Tran of Commerce City was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to a crime. Tran is free on bond.