SUNRISE: Northbound I-25 back open near Fountain
Nobound Interstate 25 has been re-opened after an early-morning crash Tuesday morning. The five car crash about 7:15 a.m. and temporarily closed northbound lanes in the area, diverting traffic onto a frontage road. All lanes have since been re-opened.
Also, traffic is slowed south of Pueblo after a semi truck rolled over about 4:30 a.m. at mile marker 73. The interstate was shut down in the area for a few hours but one lane in each direction opened up about 6:30 a.m. All lanes have since re-opened.
Travel conditions in those areas can be viewed at the Colorado Department of Transportation website and local travel times can be viewed on the Gazette's traffic page.
Need last-minute Valentine's Day plans?
The staff at ColoradoSprings.com has you covered.
If you're in need of a reservation, or a tip about where to go, check out their last-minute Valentine's Day dining guide and find out how restaurants are celebrating the special occasion with this Valentine's Day restaurant roundup. Want to stay in? Check out Warren Epstein's picks for the top 10 most romantic movies. Also, if you can't find a babysitter, PikesPeakParent.com has some great tips for spending the special night at home.
Bomb threat evacuates east-side Wal-Mart
A man angry at a Wal-Mart manager called the east-side store and said there was going to be an explosion early Tuesday, according to Colorado Springs Police.
The bomb threat at the store at 1575 Space Center Drive was called into the store about 2 a.m., police say. A manager evacuated the store as a precautionary measure but no bomb was found. Police continue to investigate the incident.
3 from Fort Carson become US citizens in Afghanistan
FORT CARSON (AP) — Three soldiers based at Fort Carson have become U.S. citizens while serving in Afghanistan.
The Army says Pfc. Satoshi Kondo, Pfc. Alberto Vera-Navarro and Spc. Qianqian Liu took an oath of allegiance and became citizens Friday in a ceremony at Kandahar Air Field.
They are assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, part of Fort Carson's 4th Infantry Division. Their brigade has been in Afghanistan for eight months.
They were among 36 soldiers, Marines and airmen who became citizens in the ceremony.
Dragging death trial continues Tuesday
The trial of a woman accused of dragging a tow-truck driver to his death continues at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Prosecutors say Detra Farries drove off in her SUV after tow-truck driver Allen Lew Rose had hooked it to a tow line on Feb. 23, 2011. Rose became ensnared in the line and was dragged for more than a mile by the vehicle. Gazette reporter Lance Benzel is tweeting live from the trial. You can follow his tweets @lancebenzel. See Monday's coverage of the trial.
TODAY’S WEATHER
Expect cool temperatures and partly sunny skies this Valentine’s Day. The National Weather Service predicts a high of 47 degrees and some sun. Temperatures are predicted to dip at night and there’s a 20 percent chance of snow Wednesday morning. Temperatures are predicted to stay in the upper-30s and low-40s for the rest of the week.
BEST OF THE SITES
- outtherecolorado.com: Tour of Colorado Springs could draw 2,000 cyclists in June
- springsmilitarylife.com: First look at Army's new combat pants
- csfreshink.com: Slideshow: Doherty vs. Palmer basketball
- gazettepreps.com: Peak Performer: Sydney Buckley, Cheyenne Mountain swimming
AROUND COLORADO
Woman faces accessory charges after daughter suspected of hit-and-run
DENVER (AP) — A 45-year-old woman is facing charges after she was accused by Denver authorities of helping her daughter elude police.
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey charged Kimberly Jacobs as an accessory after she refused to tell police where to find her daughter or the vehicle involved.
Her daughter, Taylor Mathis, was charged in January with leaving the scene of an accident causing serious bodily injury and driving with a revoked license. Police said Mathis hit two pedestrians and left the scene.
Actions before Columbine attack being investigated
DENVER (AP) — Authorities were investigating a 14-year-old girl's actions before they say she attacked two students with a hammer at Columbine High School in the first assault with a weapon since the deadly shootings there in 1999.
Investigators Monday were trying to gather additional details, including where the girl got the hammer, said John McDonald, Jefferson County School District's executive director of security and emergency management. The Jefferson County sheriff's office — the same agency that investigated the shootings nearly 13 years ago — is also working to determine whom the girl spoke with before the attack.
It was unclear what sparked the attack Monday morning at the school outside of Littleton, about 13 miles southwest of downtown Denver.
The 14-year-old targeted a 15-year-old girl in a hallway leading to bathrooms, Jefferson County sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said.
Aaron Flowers, 16, told Denver television stations that the 15-year-old was struck in the hand. He said he also was hit in the hand and ribs while trying to grab the hammer from the attacker, after another friend pushed the attacker down.
The victims were expected to recover fully from their injuries, sheriff's officials said. They were taken to a hospital and later released.
Fort Collins pot shops shutting down
FORT COLLINS (AP) — Medical marijuana dispensaries in Fort Collins are shutting down to meet a deadline imposed by voters.
Police say they plan to begin inspecting the businesses Tuesday night to make sure the dispensaries are complying.
The owners of six marijuana businesses lost their appeal to a judge to block the ban from taking effect. The judge denied their request for a temporary restraining order, saying the businesses had failed to demonstrate that their constitutional rights were violated by the ban.
Colorado residents voted in 2000 to allow small uses of marijuana for medical purposes. But in 2010, lawmakers decided to allow cities and counties to decide whether to allow medical marijuana businesses within their boundaries.
Toby Churchill to open first US office in Denver
DENVER (AP) — Colorado officials say a British company plans to open its first U.S. office in Denver.
The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade said Monday that Toby Churchill Ltd plans to open the office July 1 to support sales of its Lightwriter products to U.S. customers. The company creates tools to help people with communication impairments worldwide.
The company plans to recruit several Denver-based and national field-based positions. The exact number isn't known.
Also Monday, the Office of Economic Development and International Trade said it has opened a new European Trade and Investment office in Dublin, Ireland. It's the state office's third international location after Mexico and Japan.
Pot shops try to create banks
DENVER (AP) — Medical marijuana is legal in 17 states, but the industry has a decidedly black-market aspect — it's mostly cash-only.
Banks won't touch pot money. The drug is illegal under federal law, and processing transactions or investments with pot money puts federally insured banks at risk of drug-racketeering charges.
In Colorado, state lawmakers are attempting an end-run around the federal ban with a bill that would create the nation's first state cooperative financial institution for dispensaries and growers to allow them to store and borrow money.
The proposal, if enacted, would be a direct challenge to the U.S. Justice Department, which warns that all financial transactions involving pot money are illegal.
But for Colorado's 600 or so medical marijuana dispensaries, and hundreds more growers and associated industry workers, the problem of not being able to bank marijuana money is big enough to make the challenge worthwhile.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
February 14, 1929 is the anniversary of the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” – the bloody end to a turf war between gangsters Al Capone and George “Bugs” Moran. Capone’s henchmen disguised themselves and entered Moran’s headquarters that day and killed all seven men inside. The move decimated Moran’s gang and it never returned to its full power. On the seventh anniversary of the killing, one of the suspected hit men Jack McGurn was killed by a burst of machine gun fire in a bowling alley.
HAPPENINGS
-- “Lunch and a Movie,” bring your lunch and watch “Moneyball,” noon-2:30 p.m., Penrose Library, 20 N. Cascade Ave., free.
-- “Anti-Valentine’s Day,” anti-Valentine theme activities for teens, 4-6 p.m., Fountain Library, 230 S. Main St., Fountain, free.
-- “Learn Japanese,” 6-7:30 p.m., East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd., free.
-- “Celebrating Youth in the Arts” breakfast, 7:30 p.m., Antlers Hilton Hotel, 4 S. Cascade Ave., donations accepted to benefit youths in the arts.
