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The Denver Police Department's bomb squad responded to reports of a suspicious package at an intersection near downtown at 2:30 p.m. today. Authorities said the suspicious package was reportedly at East 14th Avenue and Ogden Street in Capitol Hill. Police have closed Ogden from East 14th Avenue to East Colfax Avenue. The street remains closed while police continue to investigate.

DENVER (CBS4) ― It has the makings of international intrigue. Less than two weeks before the Democratic National Convention a man has been found dead in a Denver hotel room with a container of what authorities initially suspect to be the deadly poison cyanide. Adding to the intrigue is that the dead man, Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, appears to be from outside the U.S. No passport was found on Dirie, who is believed to have entered the country from Canada. A large container of a white powdery substance was found in the man's room on the fourth floor of The...

Sen. John McCain / Archbishop Charles Chaput Denver, Jul 30, 2008 / 12:16 pm (CNA).- Senator John McCain is paying his second visit to Colorado in less than a week and on this trip he is taking time to meet privately with Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. After arriving in Denver on Tuesday, Sen. McCain spoke at a 6:25 p.m. fundraiser at the Cherry Hills Village home of investor Charlie Gallagher. At 9:30 on Wednesday morning, John McCain and his wife Cindy met with Denver’s Archbishop Charles Chaput. The archbishop described the meeting as private and told CNA...

Colorado Springs, May 23, 2008 / 05:01 am (CNA).- A physics professor has persuaded an Oxford laboratory to revisit the question of the age of the Shroud of Turin, the reputed burial shroud of Jesus Christ.  The professor argues that carbon monoxide contaminating the shroud could have distorted its radiocarbon dating results by more than 1,000 years.In 1988 and 1989 scientists at three laboratories drew on the results of radiocarbon dating to conclude that the shroud was a medieval forgery.  They dated its creation to between 1260 and 1390 AD.The Denver Post reports that John Jackson, a physics lecturer...

HURON, Calif. - Weary of waiting for Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, the United Farm Workers hopes to recruit Mexican laborers to pick crops on U.S. farms. The union’s efforts to import temporary workers under an existing government program follows similar moves by lawmakers in Arizona and Colorado, who are also trying to create new pathways to bring in foreign field hands without approval from Washington. This month, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez signed an agreement with the governor of the Mexican state of Michoacan to help recruit local residents to apply for temporary jobs on U.S. farms, all...

Word has it that radical peace (?) groups are planning to create monumental tumult during the August Democrat National Convention in Denver. The goal is a media-frenzied series of public disturbances similar to the disorder which occurred in the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention. However, the current plan is more extreme. They plan to throw bags of urine and blood on cops at the DNC protests. Pretty disgusting, eh? Under the name ReCreate 68 and led by Ward Churchill supporter, Glenn Spagnuolo, the group wants to choreograph the actions of various anti-American, anti-capitalist and socialist throngs such as Code Pink, Food...

Gov. Bill Ritter paid more than $200,000 in campaign expenses out of his inaugural account in violation of campaign-finance laws, his office announced today as March disclosures come due. Ritter has put up his home as collateral on a $200,000 loan to repay the misspent funds...

Police: Mother A Crip, Father A Westside Baller COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- A couple fighting about which gang their 4-year-old toddler should join caused a public disturbance that resulted in the father's arrest, Commerce City police said Thursday. On Saturday, Joseph Manzanares stormed into the Hollywood Video store where his girlfriend worked, threatened to kill her and knocked over several video displays and even a computer, Commerce City police Sgt. Joe Sandoval said. After he ran out of the store, police were called and the 19-year-old was arrested at his home. His girlfriend told police that they had been arguing...

Federal officials are worried that a plan to remove water from a Leadville mine, relieving pressure so humans and wildlife aren't endangered, will be delayed because a Lake County commissioner wants $20,000 to let them put a pipe across his property. The Environmental Protection Agency says it will work with county commissioner Ken Olsen on the matter, but will not pay him anything. "We're responsible to taxpayers," said Sonya Pennock, spokeswoman for the EPA, which is building a well and pipeline to help solve the problem. "I can't imagine what would happen to the funding we have for environmental cleanup...

It was conservative commentator Ann Coulter who once said that Democrats had finally found, in the global warming scare, a claim that skeptics would have to wait for 100 years to disprove. It was a good line and pointed up the difficulty of disputing a projected rise in ocean levels that had not yet occurred. Still, as it turns out, Coulter was wrong. The alarms about global warming — or climate change, as it is now often labeled — are under increasing attack and it is hard to imagine that the dispute will take a century to resolve. This is,...

Slim wallets and an end to U.S. slaughterhouses flood rescue centers with horses and few options for dealing with them. A dying horse is a physics problem, and 1,000 pounds of emotional debate over what we should do with the iconic Western companion at the end of its useful life. "The bottom line is there are more horses than there are people with properties who can adequately care for them," said Keith Roehr, a veterinarian with the state of Colorado. Overbreeding has saturated the horse market, driving down values, while feed-grain prices have tripled. At the same time, changing ethical...

Woman, 89, uses ax to break into home Wed Feb 13, 1:28 AM ET DURANGO, Colo. - An 89-year-old woman used an ax to break into her own home after she locked herself out on a patio hemmed in by deep snow. "I had to bang the glass four times with the ax before it broke," said Geraldine "Gerry" Palmer, who turns 90 this weekend. Palmer said a sliding glass door locked behind her Saturday after she went outside to rearrange some things that had gotten wet on the patio. Snow sliding off the patio roof had formed a pile...

Denver and Mountain View police apologized to members of the Hells Angels and settled a federal lawsuit over a 2005 traffic stop with a $14,000 payment to the bikers, their attorney said Thursday. The apologies signed by Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe and Mountain View Police Chief Eric Gomez mark the second time Denver police have had to say "sorry" to the Hells Angels.

The presidential campaign has reached the point where the list of obnoxious features far outweighs the appealing. In fact, the sheer size and magnitude of what is aggravating is enough to discourage attention. Television news channels continue to rely on what amounts to mind reading as one pundit, adviser or strategist after another attempts to divine the future even as they must overlook their prior mistakes and miscalculations. It is as though the need to know what will be happening and who will win and who will lose is so urgent there is simply no time to discuss what has...

GOLDEN — Federal and state forestry officials say at current rates, mountain pine beetles will kill the majority of Colorado's large-diameter lodgepole pine forests within three to five years. In a news conference this morning, Regional Forester Rick Cables and Jeff Jahnke, the Colorado State Forester, announced the results of the 2007 aerial survey of the state's forests. The survey concluded that the beetle infestation in 2007 claimed 500,000 new acres of trees, bringing the total number acres of up to 1.5 million since the first signs of the outbreak 1996. Officials described the infestation as a "catastrophic event" that...

A man who authorities say ran one of the nation's largest and most sophisticated fake-document rings appeared in federal court in Denver on Thursday, more than two years after he was indicted and a year after he was arrested in Mexico. Pedro Castorena-Ibarra was extradited to Denver on Monday, said Ken Deal, chief deputy U.S. marshal for Colorado. He was being held in the Douglas County jail.

'In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday," Mike Huckabee said the day after Benazir Bhutto's murder, "it's interesting that there are more Pakistanis who have illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border." The man who would win the Iowa Republican caucuses a few days later is so at sea on foreign policy that he resorted to using an incident of supreme international importance to make a point about a domestic issue. And a false point at that. A month earlier, Huckabee was asked about a National Intelligence Estimate on...

Saturday was another special day at Fort Carson as about a hundred more soldiers were welcomed home from Iraq. The soldiers with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team have been deployed since October of last year. For some a lot has changed at home while they've been gone.They march in side by side, in front of their favorite fans. 125 brave war heroes who left their loved ones to fight for our freedom are finally home."It's been pretty hard at times," said Alison Miller.She has spent the last nine months as a single mom. "My husband came home two days before...

GREELEY — A Catholic priest accused of jogging naked before dawn will ask a jury to decide his guilt on a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure. On Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Robert Whipkey’s attorney, Matt Giacomini, entered a not guilty plea and requested a jury trial for his client. If he is convicted, Whipkey might have to register as a sex offender. Whipkey, who was wearing a suit with an open-collared shirt, did not speak during the hearing. He and his attorneys, Giacomini and Doug Tisdale, would not comment as they left the courtroom or the courthouse. The trial is...

DENVER (Reuters) - Three people were shot to death and six were wounded in Colorado on Sunday in two church-related shootings in the U.S. Christian heartland. A gunman -- described by an eyewitness as dressed in black, wearing combat boots and holding an assault rifle and at least one handgun -- wounded four people when he opened fire in the parking lot of the vast New Life evangelical church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after Sunday services, police said. A New Life church security guard shot and killed the gunman before police arrived on the scene, Colorado Springs police chief Richard...

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado — More than two dozen illegal immigrants have been let go since Friday because federal immigration agents failed to respond to calls to pick them up, Eagle County sheriff’s deputies said. Eagle County sheriff’s deputies talked to two vans of illegal immigrants Friday and another van was pulled over Sunday on Interstate 70. The majority of the people, who said they were illegal immigrants, were let go after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement either said the agency was not available or did not respond to calls to pick them up, sheriff’s deputies said. Immigration and Customs had...

So, now we know. When he was running for the highest office in the state, we all heard a lot of promises from Bill Ritter: promises about consultation with Colorado’s major constituencies, collaborative government, moderation — all the “new Democrat” codswallop. Maybe you thought we had elected a “moderate.” But at this point, everyone on this side of the sod should know that we elected a weasel. The governor’s plan to unionize government flies in the face of everything he promised during his campaign. At least, everything he promised publicly. Evidently, there were other, more serious, promises made behind closed...

A statement by Bishop McManus of Worcester [via Amy Welborn] A controversy has arisen at the College of the Holy Cross that has resulted from the College’s renting space for a conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. The conference involves workshops presented by members of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. Both organizations promote positions on artificial contraception and abortion that are contrary to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. I have received numerous complaints from people who are shocked and outraged that a Catholic institution like Holy Cross would have anything to do with such...

EAGLE, Colo. -- An Eagle woman accused of chasing a group of Hispanic children with a sword faces a number of charges, including ethnic intimidation, after allegedly calling them "illegal spics," according to police. Amanda Jane Darling Harris, 21, allegedly chased the children, aged 9 to 15, with an 18-inch samurai sword because they were playing in a parking lot of the Villa apartments, according to a police report. Police investigated the incident on Sept. 20, and Harris was jailed until she posted a $3,500 bond this week. According to the police report, the teens said Harris yelled at the...

Zeke lived with an FFA teacher because he had no other home. He worked for his room and board; he fed the pigs and chickens, and helped with the milking. The summer between the 8th and 9th grades, Jasper, the FFA teacher, took Zeke to a neighbor's ranch and let him pick out a day-old Hereford bull for his first FFA project. The deal was that Jasper would pay for the calf, and for the feed, and Zeke could repay Jasper when the calf grew to become the Grand Champion Steer at the state fair, and sold at the fair's...

But Christian alliance says constitution forbids it. A Christian organization in Colorado is launching a campaign to "rally the troops" because Gov. Bill Ritter repeatedly has promised to restore state funding to Planned Parenthood, a move that could violate the state constitution's ban on "direct" or "indirect" taxpayer funding for abortions. Ritter made the promise on his 2006 campaign website, and in various speeches since, to have Colorado taxpayers pay for expenses for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, despite two votes by the people in 1984 and 1988 banning that support. "We will restore the Planned Parenthood money...

Denver, Aug 27, 2007 / 10:38 am (CNA).- Members of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X complied with directives from the Archdiocese of Denver on Saturday, banning them from praying in two Denver churches. Since 1999, members of St. Isidore the Farmer Church in Watkins, Colorado have embarked on a 50-mile walking pilgrimage to Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado to thank God for the completion of their church. In the past, the pilgrims stopped along the route to pray and rest in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception or Holy Ghost Church, both in downtown Denver. However, the...

DENVER _ The question of whether a Denver girl was cured by a miracle courtesy of an 18th century missionary priest is now in the hands of the Vatican. The Denver Archdiocese has wrapped up its part of an investigation into whether Father Junipero Serra intervened to save Kayla Rebecca Kellog from severe birth defects before she was born. A local church team spent seven months collecting documents, including independent medical data, which is now at the Holy See for further evaluation. It's all part of an investigation into whether the California priest is worthy of sainthood. There's no way...

Democratic leaders in the Colorado General Assembly may get cheers from their political supporters. But they're making a policy blunder by embracing California's attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Last week, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff submitted written testimony to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is deciding whether to let California and a number of other states force automakers to cut carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars by 30 percent, beginning with the 2009 model year. The easiest ways to achieve this goal: Reduce horsepower or somehow sell a lot more...

Lawyers for the people who pled guilty and are now being sentenced for a crime spree that included the 1998 Vail Mountain arson naturally argue that their clients are not terrorists, no indeed. "KEVIN TUBBS IS NOT A TERRORIST," Tubbs' lawyer wrote in melodramatic fashion in a court brief (the capital letters were his). The given reason: Tubbs' violence was motivated by a love for animals and an "overwhelming feeling of despair." Tubbs, a supporter of the Earth Liberation Front, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Eugene, Ore., to more than 12 years in prison. Chelsea Gerlach's attorney argued...

CU committee would give Churchill a virtual pass For anyone who cares about the integrity of American higher education, recent reports that the University of Colorado's Privilege and Tenure Committee has recommended professor Ward Churchill be suspended for a year but not fired is a blow to the stomach. And bad news for CU, too. Don't get us wrong. We don't believe for a moment that President Hank Brown will actually adopt the committee's advice and let Churchill remain as a permanent blight on the Boulder campus. At the end of this month Brown will, we remain confident

Denver, May 8, 2007 / 11:13 am (CNA).- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap. will ordain three men to the Catholic priesthood on Saturday, May 12 at 10 am at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, including one cancer survivor. Deacons Randy Dollins, 30, Steven Voss, 28, and Timothy Hjelstrom, 31, will culminate nearly eight years of Catholic study at the Archdiocese of Denver’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. Voss, a native of Lakewood, CO, experienced the call to the priesthood soon after being diagnosed with cancer. Shortly after recovering from major surgery, he explored seminary life and, within...

THERE'S GOOD NEWS in the latest Ports-to-Plains progress report for Lubbock and West Texas residents who recognize the evolving trade route's potential economic benefit to our area. Extending from the most active U.S.-Mexico border port, Laredo, through Lubbock and West Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado, the Ports-to-Plains Corridor links the nation's plains states to the border centers of commerce. The Texas Department of Transportation is analyzing funding alternatives including opportunities for private investment and partnerships to pay for moving freight and utilities along the trade route. Using Ports-to-Plains as a case study, TxDOT will research the best potential applications...

A Manitou Springs man who stabbed his 7-year-old daughter to death in 2000 because he thought she was the devil has asked for the third time to be released from a mental institute. Robert Dunn’s request was denied Tuesday by District Court Judge Larry Schwartz, who called the killing barbaric. Dunn, 57, was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the June 2000 killing of his daughter, Aaren, and sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. Dunn also asked in 2003 and 2004 to be “conditionally released,” meaning he would live on his own with daily check-ins...

Calling all Freepers! If you are not planning to attend the Washington DC event on March 17th, please consider meeting at the Capitol in Denver to Counter Demonstrate the Anti War Rally planned for Noon on March 17th.

Major wildfires, such as occurred in Indonesia in 1997 can release copious amounts of CO2 into the Earth's atmosphere. Page et al (2002) have inventoried the CO2 that entered the atmosphere during this period by use of satellite and ground measurements. In this forested region, there are reservoirs of carbon not only in standing forests but also in the peat deposits (some reaching depths of 20 m) below the peat swamp forests. Studies have shown that the 1997 fires may have burned 25 to 85 cm of this peak as well as the biomass in trees (Schimel and Baker, 2002)....

All flights between Denver and Bay Area airports were cancelled Wednesday due to a blizzard striking Colorado that prompted Gov. Bill Owens to declare a disaster emergency for his state. Spokespeople for San Francisco International Airport, Mineta San Jose International Airport and Oakland International Airport confirmed that all flights to and from Denver have been cancelled. United and Frontier airlines, the two major carriers that provide flights between the Bay Area's three aiports and Denver, said the earliest flights could resume would be Thursday evening. The holiday blizzard not only closed Denver International Airport -- it shut down major highways,...

The suspected driver of a pickup truck that slammed into a family of four, killing a mother and her two young children in a stroller, was drunk, according to charges announced in court Sunday. Becca Bingham, 39, of Denver, and her two children, 4-year-old Macie and 2-year-old Garrison, were killed in the downtown hit-and-run crash Friday night that stunned the city. The children's father and Becca's husband, Frank Bingham, 41, survived and was listed in fair condition Sunday at Denver Health Medical Center with bruises and nerve damage to his right arm. Lawrence Trujillo, 36, appeared in court Sunday, wearing...

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR ALL 50 GOVERNORS AS OF 11/20/06 SORT â–º ALPHABETICALLY BY STATE

New York, Nov. 06, 2006 (CNA) - Catholic League president William Donohue says the request that the Archdiocese of Denver release all church documents related to sexually abusive priests and church employees who covered up priests' actions is “absurd.” The five groups that made the request “should be dismissed as witch hunters,” he said. The groups, including Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Voice of the Faithful, made the demand at a news conference in Denver on Thursday. The groups also put their request in a letter to Archbishop Charles Chaput, saying they "want the truth exposed.” ...

The report on climate change by Nicholas Stern and the U.K. government has sparked publicity and scary headlines around the world. Much attention has been devoted to Mr. Stern's core argument that the price of inaction would be extraordinary and the cost of action modest. Unfortunately, this claim falls apart when one actually reads the 700-page tome. Despite using many good references, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is selective and its conclusion flawed. Its fear-mongering arguments have been sensationalized, which is ultimately only likely to make the world worse off. The review correctly points out that...

DENVER -- If you are old enough to remember candy cigarettes, they may be what actors have to use in front of Colorado audiences. Even pretending to be a smoker is illegal in the state, if real cigarettes are used as props on stage. Denver District Judge Michael A. Martinez said there is no exemption allowed for Colorado's theater companies to use real cigarettes on stage. The state's indoor smoking ban gets top billing. Theaters seeking the exception said they didn't even want to smoke tobacco, they've been smoking herbal alternatives on stage for years. But the judge says there's...

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006 China quick to give Abe & Co. warning over Taiwan BEIJING (Kyodo) China has warned Japan's new government over its Taiwan policy, reiterating its opposition to including the island in the scope of the Japan-U.S. security alliance and urging Tokyo to act with caution over Taipei's invitation for former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to pay a visit. If the Japan-U.S. security alliance "exceeds the bilateral scope, it will trigger neighboring countries' worries and become a factor for instability and complexity in the regional security situation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday at a news...

An Army medic who fled rather than serve a second tour in Iraq because he believes war is immoral turned himself in Tuesday to face a possible court-martial. Army Spec. Agustin Aguayo, 34, turned himself in around 6 p.m. at Fort Irwin, an Army base in the Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles, said Army spokesman Ken Drylie. Aguayo has unsuccessfully fought the Pentagon for more than two years to be declared a conscientious objector and win a discharge. Aguayo, a U.S. citizen who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, said he was not anti-war when he enlisted in 2002. But...

The letter below was received by RD; it is in the form of a "memo" written to Marilyn Musgrave from her campaign manager:Marilyn, It's critical that you take a moment, right away, an write our supporters and let them know you need their help. I especially want you to contact Recovering_Democrat immediately.RD has been a loyal friend...Your re-election campaign will cost at least $3.3 million (maybe even $5 million if those negative 527 ads come back like we have heard)....as a member of the Immigration Reform Caucus, you along with your like minded colleagues will force Congress to finally get...

Quientana Ray was just 12 years old when she met John Mark Karr, the 41-year-old man under arrest for the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Within a year, against her parents wishes, she and Karr, then 19, were married. Ex-Wife Claims She Was Drugged, Abused Ray said she met Karr at a party in Hamilton, Ala.,and he proceeded to seduce her. Her parents, Melissa and Larry Shotts, said they were opposed to the marriage. The couple had a lengthy battle with Ray's parents over the relationship. According to Ray's parents, Karr became more defensive and threatening as they continued to...

Is Karr 'Gaming' the System? It doesn't take much to cast doubt on the story John Mark Karr has been telling. Although he claims to have killed six year old JonBenet Ramsey in her Colorado home in 1996, his tale doesn't hold water. The confession makes no sense -- none of the evidence points to him in any way. His handwriting doesn't match that on the ransom note, according to most experts. His confession states that he picked the girl up from school, but the murder took place during vacation. He stated that he drugged her, but no traces of...

A local landscaper, a Denver-born consultant, and a kid from Kansas - if you hung around Denver's largest mosque at 2071 S. Parker Road, it's likely you'd bump into them all. They reflect Islam's changing profile from foreign-born faith to American presence. On Sunday, I found myself in the company of the three - Mohammad Noorzai, Malik Taylor and Ammar Amonette - because I had heard big changes were coming to the mosque, whose formal name is the Colorado Muslim Society. It's a major, influential Islamic center where thousands of Colorado's estimated 15,000 Muslims worship, and where the demographics are...

Wyoming may soon get own conservation corps By Jennifer Frazer rep8@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - The Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s was famous for its use of the nation's youth to rejuvenate forests and public lands. Soon Wyoming may have a modern-day version of the corps, which would join corps in Utah, Montana and Colorado. The corps in all three of those states have worked in Wyoming in the past. The Wyoming Conservation Corps would provide youth 18-24 with an opportunity to learn skills and work with government agencies while improving Wyoming's public lands. The project...

FORT BENNING, GA (AP) -- A former Wisconsin resident who joined the National Guard while attending college in Texas and unsuccessfully sought conscientious objector status has received a bad conduct discharge, an anti-war group reports. Spc. Katherine Jashinski, 23, originally from Wautoma, Wis., also was sentenced to 120 days of confinement at Fort Benning in the decision handed down Tuesday. The Iraq Veterans Against the War said Jashinski, of Austin, Texas, pleaded guilty to refusing to obey a legal order but was acquitted of the more serious charge of missing movement by design.A post spokeswoman, Tracy Bailey, confirmed that Jashinski...