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Colorado ranks third in lightning-related deaths, with 25 since 2006. Here’s how to stay safe
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado ranks third in lightning-related deaths, with 25 since 2006. Here’s how to stay safe

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun A thunderstorm that turned roads into rivers and basements into swimming pools lit up the sky over Greeley on Tuesday night with flashes of light as bright as daytime. Three days earlier, a single lightning strike killed a Jackson County rancher and more than 30 of his cattle. Last week, a storm that raged over Yuma, rumbling like a freight train, buried the plains town in knee-deep hail. It’s been an intense week, even for Colorado in the spring.  The state, known for its wild electrical storms that seem to come out of nowhere, is third-highest in the nation for lightning deaths. The fatal strike Saturday that killed a cattle rancher outside of Rand in northern Colorado was the 25th lightning death in Colorado since 2006, according to dat...
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In 3rd District, Democratic Super PAC is running ads to help Ron Hanks win primary
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

In 3rd District, Democratic Super PAC is running ads to help Ron Hanks win primary

By Jesse Paul and Sandra Fish | The Colorado Sun A Democratic super PAC is spending at least $84,000 — and counting — to air a television ad boosting the profile of an election conspiracy theorist it wants to see win the six-way Republican primary in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.  The ad campaign is an effort by Rocky Mountain Values PAC to advance former state Rep. Ron Hanks to the general election because the group appears to believe he will be easier for the de facto Democratic nominee, former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch, to beat in November.  It’s a strategy Democrats tried in multiple Colorado races in 2022, including Hanks’ bid for U.S. Senate that year. It didn’t work, however. The more moderate GOP candidates won their primaries, but lost in the ge...
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In Colorado’s nonlethal wolf deterrent game, its Wolves 3, Cows 0 in one county, and ranchers aren’t pleased
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

In Colorado’s nonlethal wolf deterrent game, its Wolves 3, Cows 0 in one county, and ranchers aren’t pleased

By Tracy Ross | Colorado Sun Grand County ranchers say three calves were killed by wolves in the month since they were given $20,000 to hire a range rider to protect their cattle, and they’re demanding more action from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. But CPW says there’s not enough proof to confirm wolves transplanted to Colorado were responsible for more than one of the three dead calves found on May 11 and remains unwilling to kill the large predators, according to ranchers.   The stockgrowers wrote yet another angry letter to CPW director Jeff Davis requesting wolf No. 2309 and wolf No. 2312 be removed from the Williams Fork River Basin. Their request, dated May 23, references a rule in the Colorado Wolf Restoration Plan that lays out certain conditions under which a w...
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There’s an app for that. Some Colorado counties broadcast emergency alerts through app
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

There’s an app for that. Some Colorado counties broadcast emergency alerts through app

By Tatiana Flowers | The Colorado Sun After Eagle County officials responded to seven small wildfires in less than a year, they felt it was critical to begin providing emergency alerts to residents in a swifter, more effective way — and in multiple languages. About a year ago, when Eagle County officials began working with leaders at ReachWell — an organization that runs a cell phone app that translates emergency alerts into more than 130 languages — they didn’t know much about platforms that can interpret or translate emergency alerts. Now, people in Eagle County, who have the app downloaded onto their phones can receive traffic alerts and reports about wildfires and flooding, said Fernando Almanza, deputy emergency manager for Eagle County.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORAD...
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New technology may help find missing people in Colorado’s backcountry within minutes
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

New technology may help find missing people in Colorado’s backcountry within minutes

By Olivia Prentzel | The Colorado Sun A Durango-based helicopter company is testing a new tool that could help search and rescue teams in helicopters detect missing and distressed people in Colorado’s backcountry within minutes and communicate with them, even if they are stuck in an area without cellphone service. The technology, akin to a miniature cellphone tower, attaches to the outside of a helicopter and allows searchers to pinpoint the locations of any cellphones within a 3-mile radius using a map on a tablet, Dr. Tim Durkin, a search and rescue program coordinator for Colorado Highland Helicopters.  “As we detect the phone, basically a blotch shows up on the map and as we fly around that area, that blotch gets smaller and smaller and smaller until we can see exactly wh...
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Colorado vets go through hundreds of unclaimed cremated remains to give comrades dignified memorial
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Colorado vets go through hundreds of unclaimed cremated remains to give comrades dignified memorial

By Kevin Simpson | The Colorado Sun A motorcycle escort rumbled slowly along the pavement that cuts through meandering rows of identical white headstones at Denver’s Fort Logan National Cemetery, making its way toward a pavilion where dozens of military veterans converged under a brilliant late April sky for a long-overdue rite. While bagpipes played, 13 men in crisp white dress shirts beneath black vests bearing patches signifying their military affiliations each accepted a wooden box unloaded from the back of a hearse. Solemnly cradling them in white gloves, some with trembling hands, they delivered sets of cremated remains to a table. Once the boxes had been laid in a row, a folded American flag next to each, uniformed onlookers snapped a salute. The bagpipes quieted and speake...
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Lightning strike kills Northern Colorado rancher, 30 head of his cattle
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Lightning strike kills Northern Colorado rancher, 30 head of his cattle

By Jennifer Brown | Colorado Sun A lightning strike killed a Jackson County rancher and more than 30 of his cattle Saturday afternoon as the man tossed hay from the back of a trailer, the local coroner said Sunday.  Mike Morgan, 51, was feeding his herd as the strike hit, killing him and knocking the 100 or so cows and calves standing around the trailer off their feet, said George Crocket, coroner for the rural county in far northern Colorado.  “The 32 cattle did not get back up,” Crocket said.  “As best I can tell, it hit him on the trailer. The cattle were bunched up around the trailer and it hit them all.”  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Some upper Rocky Mountain passes will be closed over Memorial Day weekend
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Some upper Rocky Mountain passes will be closed over Memorial Day weekend

By Parker Yamasaki | The Colorado Sun Memorial Day travelers hoping for a long, scenic drive through the Rockies may have to re-route their plans.  Independence Pass, the popular highway that connects Aspen to Twin Lakes and passes beneath four fourteeners, will remain closed through Memorial Day weekend. Its anticipated opening date has been pushed back to June 1.  The pass typically closes on Nov. 7 and “almost always” opens the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s website. The highway closed a week early this past winter in anticipation of a storm. The last time Colorado 82 wasn’t open by Memorial Day was in 2020, after several counties requested it stay closed to limit travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. R...
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Colorado’s (not yet signed) new law bans cellphone use while driving. When can it lead to a traffic stop?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado’s (not yet signed) new law bans cellphone use while driving. When can it lead to a traffic stop?

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun All drivers will be prohibited from talking on or otherwise using their cellphones while driving under a bill passed by the Colorado legislature this year that Gov. Jared Polis says he will sign into law.  Senate Bill 65 would create some exceptions, including for drivers using hands-free accessories. Senate Bill 65 says a driver can’t be cited for talking on or using their cellphone while driving unless a law enforcement officer sees them doing so in a “manner that caused the individual to drive in a careless and imprudent manner, without due regard for the width, grade, curves, corners, traffic and use of the streets and highways and all other attendant circumstances.” READ THE FULL STORY ON THE BILL AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Transition to reformulated gas in nine Front Range counties will result in price increase there. How high will it go?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Transition to reformulated gas in nine Front Range counties will result in price increase there. How high will it go?

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Keep an eye on gas prices in the next few weeks, Colorado, and you can watch a major policy battle play out between an extremely irritated Gov. Jared Polis and officials enforcing the federal Clean Air Act.  Colorado has a big problem with toxic ground-level ozone in the nine-county northern Front Range area that the Environmental Protection Agency has declared in “severe” violation of Clean Air Act ozone limits. When an area hits “severe,” the Clean Air Act requires all gas stations in that area to begin selling “reformulated” gas during the summer ozone season, beginning June 1.  Reformulated gas, according to the EPA, can cut back on ozone-causing emissions because it’s denser and doesn’t evaporate as quickly in hot weather. Po...
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