PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — The president of the Colorado Farm Bureau said Wednesday fruit growers and ranchers are having some crops go unpicked and animals untended because they can’t get a dependable supply of field workers because of a stalemate over immigration reform.

At a meeting in Pueblo, Don Shawcroft said the U.S. Senate needs to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a measure that House Republicans have rejected.

The issue is also on the minds of several Western Slope farmers, who would like to see a guest worker program.

Farmers and supportive community groups on the Western Slope got together Wednesday to talk about how a large part of their business is hiring workers that could benefit from the bill.

They said while they might not agree with every part of the bill that passed through the U.S. Senate, they hope the House will support some type of reform, and soon.

“We would like to be legal here,” said Antonio Gallegos, member of the Hispanic Affairs Project. “We want to be out of the shadows” and have the freedoms everyone else has so they can compete.

Bruce Talbott, farm manager for Talbott’s Mountain Gold, said his business is seasonal and he is always hiring new people to work in his fields.

“We need a guest-workers program that will allow us to bring in people from out of Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador and Guatemala,” he said.

Talbott said Colorado’s agriculture is a $40 billion dollar industry that hires nearly 200,000 employees.

Raymond owns one of only six dairy farms on the Western Slope. It’s an industry he says is shrinking, while the area’s population continues to grow.

“Our country was built on people who have come here from foreign countries,” said Carlyle Currier, vice president of Colorado Farm Bureau. “We need to continue that ability for people who are seeking freedom, who are seeking a better life for their families.”

Supporters note that U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado won election in 2008 in a conservative district by campaigning against an immigration overhaul. But an unfavorable redrawing of his district after the 2010 census left him in a Democratic-leaning territory that President Barack Obama won last year and where Hispanics make up nearly 20 percent of the population. He is now pushing for a “compassionate” approach to immigration.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

(credit: CBS)

LA JUNTA, Colo. (CBS4) – Authorities on the Western Slope are trying to figure out how a missing ambulance ended up 400 miles away.

The ambulance was reported stolen from the Collbran Fire Station just east of Grand Junction earlier in the week. It was found in a parking lot at the Arkansas Valley Hospital in La Junta.

Police so far don’t have any suspects.

DENVER (AP) – Prison time for a murder he didn’t commit robbed 52-year-old Robert Dewey of priceless moments, like the birth of his grandchildren and the burial of his only son.

For 17 years he was locked away. He entered prison an able-bodied 33-year-old nicknamed “Rider” because of his love of motorcycles. Now, Dewey uses a walker to support his lanky frame because of chronic back troubles that have required two surgeries.

His wrongful imprisonment means Dewey is owed nearly $1.2 million from Colorado, under a new state law he helped inspire. The total sum works out to be about $70,000 for every year he spent in prison. Last month, he received his first payment.

“It hasn’t brought me peace of mind. It hasn’t brought me closure,” Dewey said recently, his waist-long hair tied behind him, his goatee longer – and grayer – than in his prison mug shot. “It hasn’t made me forget what I went through. Nothing’s going to make that go away.”

Dewey is the first exonerated Colorado inmate to benefit from the new compensation law, which took effect in June. No one else has applied for compensation.

Every September, Dewey will get $100,000 until the state’s debt is paid. He’s finding that the money goes by fast, even though by his account he continues to live modestly.

“I still only have one pair of shoes,” he said.

He’s bought a used truck, a motorcycle, and repaid friends who helped him over the years. He’s given money to his parents and grandchildren, and he budgeted for a year’s rent for his basement apartment in Colorado Springs that he shares with his ex-girlfriend. He has to buy health insurance, or the state will deduct $10,000 from future awards.

He said the money is “just about” spent, but he declined to say how much he has left.

Laws to compensate the wrongly incarcerated are not uncommon. Including Colorado, 29 states and the federal government have some form of compensation.

“We wanted to right the worst kind of wrong the government can inflict on someone,” said Denver Democratic Rep. Dan Pabon, one of the lawmakers who sponsored Colorado’s compensation law.

Pabon said lawmakers settled on a compensation amount by weighing several factors, including health insurance costs and income tables to determine how much an average person makes a year.

When the bill was heard in committee this spring, Dewey’s testimony made some lawmaker’s tear up. He told them he found no use in being angry about what happened to him.

“Yeah, I’m pissed off. But what good is that going to do?” he said at the hearing.

Dewey was arrested in 1994 for the death of 19-year-old Jacie Taylor in June of that year in the Western Slope town of Palisade. Police found her partially clothed body in the bathtub of her apartment, having been strangled and raped.

Dewey did not cooperate with police initially, but he eventually told them he knew Taylor and had been to her apartment before. Investigators also recovered a blood-stained shirt in Dewey’s apartment and used it to build a case against him. All along, Dewey maintained his innocence.

He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in Mesa County, but new DNA technology led to his release in April, 2012. The DNA tests also implicated another man who is scheduled for trial next year.

Stephen Saloom, policy director of the New York-based Innocence Project, which worked on Dewey’s case, said compensation laws are important because they help the wrongly convicted rebuild their lives.

“They literally have nothing. Typically they don’t have a home, a car, access to medical care, or education. Often, they don’t even know where they’re going to sleep that night,” Saloom said.

Looking ahead, Dewey hopes to one day own a home, maybe a log-cabin. Of the things he’s used his money on so far, giving some to his grandchildren makes him happiest. He’s gotten to meet two of his seven grandchildren.

But missing his son’s funeral six years before his release from prison continues to haunt him. He wonders whether he somehow could’ve prevented his son’s death in a car wreck if he had not been incarcerated. And thinking about that makes it impossible to find closure with any amount of money.

“How do you put a price tag on missing your son’s funeral – your only child’s funeral?” he asked.

- By Ivan Moreno, AP Writer

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

More Robert Dewey Stories

• After Unjust Sentence, Colorado Begins Paying Inmate
• Wrongly Convicted Colorado Man Could Get $1.2M
• Payments For Wrongly Imprisoned Approved In Colorado
• State Lawmakers Consider Compensation Bill For Wrongly Imprisoned
• Wrongly Imprisoned? Colorado Mulls Compensation
• New Legislation Aimed At Helping Those Who Are Wrongly Imprisoned
• Prosecutors: State Must Compensate The Exonerated

DENVER (AP) – Coloradans braced for another round of snow this weekend as blistering cold temperatures continue across the state, filling homeless shelters and snarling traffic.

The National Weather Service said Friday a winter storm watch is in effect on Saturday and Sunday for the Western Slope. Forecasters say up to a foot more of snow is expected in the mountains, and the storm is set to move east.

The weather service reports temperatures ranged Friday from 26 degrees below zero in Walden to 13 above in Cortez, with several communities on the Eastern Plains warming up to 10 degrees above zero.

The Denver Rescue Mission called an ambulance on Friday to help one woman in a wheelchair who showed up shivering outside the all-male shelter. Shelter spokeswoman Alexxa Gagner said the woman was brought inside while someone called for help. The woman’s name and condition were not available.

In Grand Junction, the Parade of Lights was still on for Saturday, even though several high school marching bands canceled because of the danger of putting cold instruments against their mouths.

The parade has never been canceled due to weather.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – They were once a group that guides clients on mountain lion hunts, but now two men are charged with federal wildlife crimes.

Hunting of mountain lions isn’t easy and it’s not supposed to be. The season lasts most of the winter from November to March. Normally guides will track a mountain lion, release dogs so the cat goes up a tree, and that’s when the client hunter shows up and shoots the animal.

Now one Western Slope group of guides is accused of trapping the cats and making sure they couldn’t escape. The most disturbing allegation is that they would shoot the cat in the leg or put a trap on them beforehand so they weren’t so elusive from the clients.

The Department of Justice says Christopher Loncarich, 55, of Mack had help from his partner Nicolaus Rodgers of Medford, Ore. They led hunts around the Book Cliffs Mountains on the Utah border. They are accused of sometimes capturing the cats in Utah and bringing them back into Colorado.

RELATED: Big Game Outfitter Charged With Wildlife Plot

It’s the result of a lengthy investigation with the help of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Some law enforcement officers say it’s something they haven’t seen before.

“I would say this is probably one of the more egregious situations that I have seen in more than 20 years of doing this,” Dean Riggs with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said “We in society expect people to follow laws and to do this in a ‘fair chase’ sort of manner.”

Four other members of the outfitting group have already pleaded guilty as part of the ring.

Loncarich and Rodgers are facing 17 counts in federal court.

SILT, Colo. (AP/CBS4) — National Transportation Safety Board and FAA officials are expected to arrive Tuesday to investigate after a helicopter crashed near Silt in western Colorado, killing all three people aboard.

Authorities say the three men were killed Monday morning during a routine aerial inspection of power lines when the helicopter snagged a line and crashed.

Doug Sheffer (credit: DBS Helicopters)

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario tells the Glenwood Springs Post Independent that Doug Sheffer, the owner and chief pilot for DBS Helicopters, based in Rifle, was among those killed. The names of the other two on board have not been released.

The Aspen Daily News reports that Sheffer “racked up more than 8,000 hours of high country flying time” during his career. Some of his work in the air included running mountain rescue missions and helping the Colorado Department of Transportation with rockfall mitigation work.

(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) – The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Colorado’s Western Slope.

Up to a foot of blowing snow is expected Wednesday and Thursday in the north central mountains.

Winds gusting to 70 miles per hour may cause whiteout conditions over the higher mountain passes overnight. High winds are also predicted for the Front Range.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

DENVER (AP) – People who want to testify on a bill at the state Capitol may no longer need to drive several hours to come to Denver.

A bill pending in the state House would establish locations around the state where people can go to give remote testimony. At least one remote location would have to be in the Western Slope.

The proposal was scheduled to be heard Monday, but the meeting has been postponed for a later date.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

DENVER (AP) – Cantaloupe or peaches? Alamosa Republican state Sen. Larry Crowder wants both to be Colorado’s official state fruits.

Crowder said Friday that he will attempt to add Rocky Ford cantaloupe to a bill introduced in the Legislature to make the Palisade peach Colorado’s official state fruit.

Crowder told the Pueblo Chieftain that both fruits have a comparable history in the state. Palisade peaches are grown on the Western Slope near Grand Junction. Rocky Ford cantaloupes are grown in southeastern Colorado.

LINK: House Bill 1304

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4) – The mountain snow is melting and it looks like Colorado’s white winter in the high country will bring good news for residents along the Front Range.

Denver Water thinks Dillon Reservoir will fill to capacity for the first time in years.

Dillon Reservoir on Monday (credit: CBS)

It was the end of March last year when Denver Water put in Stage 1 water restrictions as Lake Dillon was only 65 percent full. As on Monday it’s at about 85 percent full and it’s actually being drained to get ready for more melting snow, which will mean even more water.

“It’s always a balancing act with our reservoirs across the state — Dillon in particular. We want to ultimately keep it full so people can enjoy recreation on the reservoir, but we have to be really conscious too as to what happens below the reservoir,” Stacy Chesney with Denver Water said.

With the snowpack well above average surrounding the largest reservoir that sends water to Denver, officials have been planning all winter to let some go.

“We’ve been proactively releasing water into the river below to create that room to help reduce any risk of flooding that could happen later in the season,” Chesney said.

But officials from Denver Water are keeping an eye on the snowpack with the hope of having full reservoirs for the first time since July of 2011.

“At this point we do expect that our reservoirs will fill and we hope that customers will continue that wise water use and not overuse water and follow our watering rules which will start on May 1,” Chesney said.

What many people in the high country are going to be watching is a layer of dust on the Western Slope that has sat on the snow for nearly a month. That, along with rain and warm temperatures over the last week, helped rush the melt over the past few days.

LINK: Denver Water

COLLBRAN, Colo. (AP/CBS4) — Rescue teams were searching Monday for three men missing after a half-mile stretch of a ridge saturated with rain collapsed, sending mud sliding for 3 miles in a remote part of western Colorado.

Ccounty road worker Clancy Nichols, 51, his 24-year-old son Danny and Wes Hawkins, 46, have been missing since Sunday after rain-saturated ridge collapsed.

The three went to check on damage Sunday from an initial slide near the edge of Grand Mesa, one of the world’s largest flat-topped mountains, after a rancher reported that his irrigation ditch had stopped flowing, Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said.

(credit: CBS)

The search near the small town of Collbran has been hampered because only the lower third of the slide is stable. Even at the edges, the mud is 20 to 30 feet deep. It’s believed to be several hundred feet deep in some places.

“It’s an understatement to say it is massive,” Hilkey said. “It’s incredibly deep and full of debris.”

Hilkey said no signs of the men or their truck have been found. Their names haven’t been released.

“Everyone on this mountain is praying for a miracle right now,” he said.

VIDEO: Entire News Conference From Sheriff On Missing Men After Mudslide

Deputies estimate that the entire ridge had been moving for most of Sunday before someone called to report the slide at 6:15 p.m., describing it as sounding like a freight train. Hilkey believes runoff from Grand Mesa from recent rain triggered the slide. A hydrologist from the Natural Weather Service and a geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey were helping authorities assess the situation.

“The upper end of this is still unstable. It was still falling when we flew over it this morning,” Hilkey said. “We saw massive cracks in the hillsides that give us an enormous amount of concern.”

Bill Clark, a cousin of one of the missing men, visited the canyon where the slide struck and said it was completely filled with mud. He said the slide struck with so much force that some also spilled over into the neighboring draw.

“I’ve never seen so much earth move like that in my life,” he said.

From a distance of about 10 miles, the slide looked like a funnel, narrowing into a culvert below. It cut a giant channel through trees. The creek that once gradually flowed down the ridge now spurted down like a waterfall. Roads in the area, where some cattle grazed, were muddy from rain.

“How in the devil could this happen?” said Collbran resident Lloyd Power, gazing out at the slide.

He said residents were praying for the missing. “That’s all we can do,” Power said.

While the surrounding area is popular place for fishing, hiking and camping, the slide hit on land with an access gate that isn’t open to the public. No one else is believed missing and no homes were damaged. Energy companies were a monitoring oil and gas wells in the area, part of the productive Piceance Basin, but so far the mud has only come up to the edge of one pad operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp. The three wells there have been shut down, said David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil & Gas Association, a trade group.

Hilkey said he’d received a telephone call from authorities in Washington state, where a March 22 landslide swept a square mile of dirt, sand and silt through a neighborhood in Oso, about an hour northeast of Seattle. That slide leveled homes and killed at least 43 people.

- By P. Solomon Banda, AP Writer

(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

COLLBRAN, Colo. (CBS4) – The landslide that skidded down out of a bowl shaped drop-off from the Grand Mesa Sunday night had enough material to stretch out for three miles, and it was hundreds of feet deep in some spots.

It was so powerful it had enough force to go uphill.

“It actually jumped it. It made us pay attention,” said Dr. David Noe, a senior research geologist for the Colorado Geological Survey.

“It came around the corner and did what we call a NASCAR turn,” he added about part of its path.

An image from a drone of the Grand Mesa landslide (credit: CBS)

The scale of the slide was stunning, but not unexpected.

The Grand Mesa has been loaded with snow this winter and spring. A waterfall pouring off the mesa drenched the mountainsides in the bowl area on the northern edge, south of Collbran.

Even though rock does not float, that much water changes the buoyancy. As water loads into the area, things move.

“It’s not like the hard rock you drive through on the I-70 road cut, the Dakota formation; this is a formation called the Green River formation where a lot of the oil shale comes out of,” Noe explained. “It’s got clay in it, it holds itself together just a little bit, but it’s very, very prone to failing.”

Noe and his colleagues have mapped out some of the areas of the state that are prone to slides, but not all. The amount of slide-prone territory is enormous and a significant chunk of the state’s geologic history.

“It’s not all that uncommon. Most of Western Colorado’s slopes have some type of landslide or failure mechanism, where they’re wearing away over time.”

One slope is so fluid, CDOT moved a road on the south side of McClure Pass north of Paonia several years back to the other side of Muddy Creek. Above the road, the saturated ground won’t stop moving.

New infrastructure can change the water flow beneath and weaken new areas.

“An irrigation ditch gets cut across the lower part of the landslide, all of a sudden that water shows up again,” said Noe. “Whenever we cut a slope to put in a foundation or a road that could change the whole stability of that landslide slope.”

Marble is one of the towns built on material from a past slide. How long ago is difficult to tell.

A landslide path near Marble (credit: CBS)

“It comes down and spreads out in the valley and the town of Marble is built on it.”

Above the town, Noe can see a gully where water seeps into the mountain. Someday there will be another slide. It’s hard to say whether there’d be enough time to evacuate people if one of the towns in dangerous slide areas were ever hit. The only thing that may be protecting them is that it will happen on a geologic time scale, not a human one.

“What I can’t say at this point is that this would happen within our lifetime or the next 200 years or the next 20 years.”

Related Stories

• Marijuana, Gay Marriage Lead Top 6 Colorado News Stories Of First Half Of 2014
• Hundreds Honor 3 Men Lost In Mesa County Mudslide
• Area Of Massive Mesa County Mudslide Being Remapped
• Gov. Hickenlooper Tours Massive Mudslide Near Collbran
• Western Slope Landslide: It’s Just A Matter Of When
• Rock Slides Will Remain Common Because Of The Significant Snowpack
• Drones Helping Search For 3 Missing In Mudslide
• Western Slope Mudslide Registers 2.8 On Richter Scale

Social issues and the weather found center stage in the first half of 2014 in Colorado, with legal pot and not-so-legal gay marriage claiming the headlines. Meanwhile, a snowy and rainy winter and spring caused the state’s snowpack to soar, resulting in a respite from the drought and more than a dozen deaths on rivers statewide.

Here are the top six Colorado stories from 2014 so far:

1. Marijuana’s Legalization Ushers In Celebration, Tragedy, Legal Snares

Some Coloradans rang in the new year not with champagne but with legally purchased recreational marijuana, when two dozen stores opened in eight cities across the state on Jan. 1. Colorado made history by becoming the first state to legalize recreational pot sales.

In April, businesses sold roughly $22 million worth of pot, an increase of 58 percent from January. Patrons pay a hefty tax on their purchases: An additional 15 percent wholesale excise tax is applied atop a sales tax of 12.9 percent.

Legalization brought challenges and tragedy: In the spring, police blamed at least two deaths on pot edibles.

On March 11, college student Levy Thamba Pongi, 19, jumped to his death in downtown Denver after eating more than six times the recommended amount of a marijuana cookie. A Denver man is accused of shooting his wife while she was on the phone with 911, police said, after he consumed marijuana-laced candy on April 14.

A pot brownie (credit: CBS4)

Critics also argue marijuana packing appeals to children, prompting state lawmakers to force retailers to clearly mark their wares as drugs. In March, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation that requires opaque and child-resistant packaging. In June, a 7-year-old Basalt girl was hospitalized after eating an edible.

Businesses also experienced banking woes. Because marijuana still flouts federal law, banks are leery about servicing marijuana shops, leaving them to conduct all-cash transactions and susceptible to robbery and other hassles. In response, the IRS issued guidelines on how banks might handle businesses’ money, and state lawmakers in May renewed a bill that would allow businesses to enter into uninsured financial co-operatives that act somewhat like credit unions.

2. Boulder County And State Battle Over Gay Marriage

This summer, Colorado became the latest state where a challenge arose to a same-sex marriage ban.

On June 25, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled that Utah’s gay-marriage is unconstitutional, and the Boulder County clerk and recorder wasted little time granting marriage licenses to gay couples. The county, which has issued more than 100 licenses, said the Utah ruling applied to Colorado, too.

Laurie Lynch, left, and Andie Lyons celebrate obtaining their marriage license in Boulder County in June. (credit: CBS)

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers sued to prevent Boulder County from issuing more licenses, arguing the court had stayed its ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court could decide the matter.

“We firmly believe these are legal marriages,” clerk Hillary Hall said.

Colorado voters in 2006 approved an amendment to the state constitution that outlawed gay marriage. Gay couples can enter into civil unions that grant many legal rights.

3. Giant Western Slope Mudslide Kills 3

A massive three-mile-long mudslide killed three men on May 28 and carved a half-mile crater across a ridge saturated with snow, rain and mud.

The accident near Collbran on the state’s Western Slope claimed the lives of Clancy Nichols, 51, his 24-year-old son Danny and Wes Hawkins, 46. They were in the area to investigate problems with an irrigation ditch.

The ground’s instability hampered immediate search efforts and the slide was up to 30 feet deep at its edges.

“I’ve never seen so much earth move like that in my life,” Bill Clark, a cousin of one of the missing men, told the Associated Press. Geologists measured the slide at 2.8 on the Richter Scale. Higher-than-normal snowpack is one cause of rock slides, even small ones, the Colorado Geological Survey told CBS4.

An image of the mudslide (credit: CBS)

4. Increased Snowpack Swells Dangerous Rivers, Tempers Drought

The increased snowpack altered Colorado’s spring in another way: Swollen and dangerous rivers across the mountains quenched the state’s reservoirs but also killed several kayakers and rafters.

By early July, at least a dozen people had accidentally drowned in Colorado’s rivers, including three along the heavily rafted Cache la Poudre River, which flowed at nearly five times its historic average for the spring.

In June, a group of tourists whose raft flipped on a trip down a tamer portion of the Poudre said the shock of the icy, churning waters hints at the danger: “It’s not a good feeling to be underneath the water,” one of the tourists said. “Mother Nature, do not mess with Mother Nature.”

Rafting on the Poudre River (credit: CBS)

A mid-May storm pushed the state’s snowpack to120 percent of normal, adding an inch of water to the state, Mage Hultstrand of the Department of Agriculture said. By July 1, data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service showed various state river basins with significantly higher snowpack, with the North Platte leading at 141 percent of normal.

The high snow levels and the fast-moving rivers follow a period of dry conditions in Colorado. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, the entire state a year ago experience some drought conditions, with “exceptional drought” — the most severe form — hitting 18 percent of the state. As of July 1, only 2 percent of the state was in exceptional drought.

5. Denver Falters In RNC Bid, While GOP Hopeful Fight To Face Hickenlooper

A bipartisan crew of Colorado politicians hoped to land the 2016 Republican National Convention, but the national selection committee squashed their hopes when it announced in late June that Denver was not among the two finalists.

Denver was considered to have an advantage because it hosted the 2008 DNC, and the selection committee also praised its great weather. Concerns about legal marijuana and Colorado’s swing-state status were irrelevant in the committee’s selection, it said.

Pete Coors, left, and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock were part of the bipartisan team that tried to bring the RNC to Denver. (credit: CBS)

“It’s a business decision,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said during a visit to Denver on June 10. That clearly was the case. Denver needed to raise $60 million, or at least have those commitments in place, to snag the convention. Fundraising problems plagued the bid.

Meanwhile, four hopefuls battled for the GOP gubernatorial nomination this spring to face incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper in the fall.

Democrats wished perennial firebrand Tom Tancredo — a former U.S. House representative, gubernatorial loser in 2010 and the nation’s most outspoken anti-immigration voice — would snare the primary win because it would likely mean a more lopsided general election.

Bob Beauprez celebrates his win on June 24. (credit: CBS)

But Bob Beauprez, also a former House representative, won June 24’s primary, beating Tancredo and two others.

Beauprez is in familiar territory: He ran for the governor’s seat, and lost, to Bill Ritter in 2006.

6. 75-Mile Car Chase Leads To Attempted Murder, Kidnapping, Carjacking Charges

On March 12, a former prison inmate carjacked two different vehicles after stealing a car with a 4-year-old boy inside, and seriously injured a state trooper as he led police on an hour-long, 75-mile car chase along metro-area highways.

Ryan Stone, 28, faces a bevy of charges, including attempted murder, kidnapping and carjacking.

The dramatic chase began at a Longmont gas station when Stone, police say, stole an SUV with young Allan Chavarria-Rodriguez inside. The boy was not injured.

Copter4 video showed Stone abandoning the SUV approximately 30 minutes later and carjacking a gold minivan, forcing the driver and passenger out. He drove the wrong way on Interstate 76 before ending up on E-470 and then got out and carjacked another car. Efforts to halt Stone, including stop sticks and spikes, were unsuccessful.

Stone crashed at Lincoln Parkway and Peoria Street in Douglas County, ran off and was apprehended after trying to climb a fence.

A state trooper, Bellamann Hee, was severely injured in the chase and is still recovering.

Stone had been incarcerated for several years on harassment, assault, weapons and drugs convictions.

Will Ellenburg, a bounty hunter who had been tracking Stone, told CBS4 he had tried to convince him to turn himself in: “All he said was he couldn’t do the time … he didn’t want to go back to prison.”

Stone faces 16 years to life in prison.

Runner Up: Small Plane Crashes Into Home In Northglenn

Related: Top 10 Colorado News Stories Of 2013

- Written by Tim Skillern for CBSDenver.com

CARBONDALE, Colo. (CBS4) – Habitat for Humanity in the Roaring Fork Valley has constructed one of its most energy-efficient — and expensive homes — ever.

A severe spinal cord injury he suffered in a mountain biking accident left Adam Lavender an incomplete quadriplegic. So the charity selected Lavender and his family for a home. He and his wife and their two daughters moved in this week.

The house features an elevator, a steam shower and a hoist that helps Lavender into his bed. He had trouble getting around his last home.

This home will cost nearly $500,000, but the family is being charged $150,000.

“The first morning, everyone woke up with the biggest smile I’d ever seen. There’s a huge sense of relief,” he told CBS4.

It’s in the process of being certified as LEED Platinum, which means it’s the most energy-efficient and environmentally friendly home as possible.

Adam Lavender (credit: CBS)

“We had to build a large home on a small footprint, which required an elevator to get him from his therapy room to his bedroom to his office,” Scott Gilbert of Habitat for Humanity said. “It’s the first residence on the Western Slope of Colorado with that level of efficiency.”

Lavender helped build the house as much as he could.

“That in and of itself was very empowering,” he said. “I really appreciate Habitat for letting me be a part of the process.”

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – A man who was once part of a group that guides clients on mountain lion hunts has pleaded guilty to federal wildlife crimes.

The Department of Justice says Christopher Loncarich, 55, of Mack had help from his partner Nicolaus Rodgers of Shady Cove, Ore. They led hunts around the Book Cliffs Mountains on the Utah border. They are accused of sometimes capturing the cats in Utah and bringing them back into Colorado.

Rodgers, 31, pleaded guilty in federal court in Denver to a felony conspiracy charge on Thursday.

“Rodgers pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act. The Lacey Act is a federal law that makes it illegal to knowingly transport or sell in interstate commerce any wildlife that has been taken or possessed in violation of state laws or regulations,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Hunting of mountain lions isn’t easy and it’s not supposed to be. The season lasts most of the winter from November to March. Normally guides will track a mountain lion, release dogs so the cat goes up a tree, and that’s when the client hunter shows up and shoots the animal.

Loncarich, with the help of Rodgers, were accused of trapping the cats and making sure they couldn’t escape. The most disturbing allegation is that they would shoot the cat in the leg or put a trap on them beforehand so they weren’t so elusive from the clients.

RELATED: Group Accused Of Maiming Mountain Lions For Easier Hunt | Big Game Outfitter Charged With Wildlife Plot

It’s the result of a lengthy investigation with the help of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Some law enforcement officers say it’s something they haven’t seen before.

“I would say this is probably one of the more egregious situations that I have seen in more than 20 years of doing this,” Dean Riggs with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in January. “We in society expect people to follow laws and to do this in a ‘fair chase’ sort of manner.”

Four other members of the outfitting group have already pleaded guilty as part of the ring.

The maximum penalty for conspiring to violate the Lacey Act is up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) – You may soon have to pay to visit a majestic place in Glenwood Canyon.

Hanging Lake (credit: CBS)

The U.S. Forest service is looking to ease crowding at Hanging Lake Trail, and met this week to discuss the issue.

Every year, 130,000 people hike the two mile trail to the national natural landmark in the White River National Forest. Most of them make the trip between May and September, and it has gotten so popular that people who want to park at the rest area off Interstate 70 and make the climb sometimes can’t because there’s nowhere to park.

LINK: Hanging Lake Trail

The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports that the area may now consider shuttle buses or admission tickets.

Officials said they also want to remind people that swimming in the lake is prohibited and that dogs are not allowed on the trail.

DENVER (AP) – Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican Bob Beauprez are meeting for their second debate before November’s election.

The debate will provide an opportunity for the candidates to try to take the lead in a race that polls have shown to be tied. The Denver Post is hosting the debate Tuesday evening.

Hickenlooper has focused his campaign on highlighting how the state economy has improved during his time in office. State unemployment was at 9.1 percent four years ago, and it’s now at 5.1 percent.

Beauprez has countered by arguing that the economy is still sluggish in areas outside the Front Range, including El Paso County and the Western Slope.

More Campaign 2014 Stories

• Many Colorado Legislative Races Still Undecided
• Despite Losses, GMO Label Backers Aren’t Quitting
• Control Of Colorado Legislature In The Balance
• Ballots Still Being Tallied In Adams, Jefferson Counties
• School Measure Colorado’s Only Approved Initiative
• Gardner: ‘We’ve Got A Lot Of Work To Do’
• Colorado Democrats Win Seats Lost Over Gun Bills Back 2
• Hickenlooper Leading Beauprez In Gov’s Race, Set To Speak At 9:30 a.m.
• Stapleton Re-Elected State Treasurer, Beats Markey
• Colorado Rejects ‘Unborn Human Being’ Measure

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) – A water-measuring flume on a ditch sitting exactly astride Tennessee Pass outside Leadville might be as good a place as any to bring Western and Eastern Slope interests together to talk about water.

Those interests met in the middle here recently, at the point where the Ewing Ditch crosses the Continental Divide, on a transbasin diversion tour presented by the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.

It was a chance to consider the past of water development in Colorado while also pondering its future. And where better to look back at the history of transbasin diversions than at Ewing Ditch, the oldest diversion of Western Slope water to the Eastern Slope?

This straightforward, unassuming dirt conduit seemingly defies gravity, diverting water from Eagle River tributary Piney Gulch just a short walk from Tennessee Pass, and just high enough up the gulch that the water can follow a contoured course crossing basins and head into the Arkansas River Valley.

“It’s simple, but I love simplicity. It fits my mind,” Alan Ward, water resources manager with the Pueblo Board of Water Works, joked about the ditch, which the utility bought in 1955.

It was built in 1880 and also is called the Ewing Placer Ditch, which Ward believes suggests early use of the water in mining.

As transbasin diversions go, it’s a minuscule one, delivering up to 18.5 cubic feet per second, or an average of about 1,000 acre-feet in a year. It diverts about five square miles of melt-off from snowpack that can leave the ditch buried beneath 10 to 20 feet of snow in the winter. David Curtis is in charge of clearing that snow and maintaining and operating the ditch during the seven months out of each year that he works out of Leadville as a ditch rider for the utility.

The utility says Ewing Ditch is about three-quarters of a mile long.

“I think it’s a little longer,” Curtis said, adding that at least it seems that way when he and others are busy clearing spring snow.

A chartered bus delivered more than two dozen tour participants to view the ditch, including Boulder County resident Joe Stepanek. He found last week’s two-day tour to be highly informative. He’s interested in Colorado’s history of water development, and is retired from a U.S. Agency for International Development career that had him traveling abroad.

“I come back and join this water tour and learn a lot about Colorado,” he said.

Sonja Reiser, an engineer with CH2M HILL in Denver, likewise was finding the tour to be eye-opening.

“I’m learning so much about how complicated Colorado water law is,” she said as the tour bus moved on from this tiny diversion point to the outlet of the five-mile-long Homestake Tunnel, which goes under the Continental Divide from Homestake Reservoir in Eagle County and is capable of delivering a much more massive 800 cubic feet per second to help meet municipal needs in Colorado Springs and Aurora.

Before getting to those cities, that water also is put to use at another tour stop, the Mount Elbert Power Plant just above Twin Lakes. There, the water goes through hydropower turbines that can be reversed to pull water back up from the lakes to a reservoir above the plant, helping ensure the water is available to create on-demand power to meet grid shortages at times when renewable energy from wind and solar sources wane.

While traveling to the tunnel, the busload heard Pitkin County Attorney John Ely discuss legal means that county has to at least weigh in on transbasin diversion proposals, even if it can’t outright stop them.

He then opined that Pitkin County has more in common with some Front Range counties than it does with some counties on the Western Slope.

“I think that at the end of the day everybody appreciates that we’re in this together,” he said.

Such thinking is helping drive an ongoing effort to develop a state water plan in Colorado. Ely said the priority is always going to be providing water for human consumption, but beyond that, decisions must be made about how to distribute it among competing uses such as agriculture, watering lawns, generating hydropower and maintaining streamflows.

“The only way you can get at that is to invite the public to participate,” he said.

Since 1880, many others have followed the lead taken with the Ewing Ditch and diverted Western Slope water for use on the populous Front Range. As a result, a big challenge facing the state water planning process is reconciling the Front Range’s desire to be able to access yet more of that water with the feeling of many on the Western Slope that they’ve given up enough of it. Although tours like last week’s can’t be expected to lead to breakthroughs on such difficult issues, they at least help to put faces behind the entities involved.

“We’re not three-headed monsters on the Eastern Slope,” Kevin Lusk, who works with Colorado Springs Utilities, said during a windy lunch break alongside Turquoise Lake, which stores water delivered by the Homestake Tunnel.

Fielding questions from a few Western Slope residents as they ate, Lusk and some other Front Range utility officials found themselves defending the amount of water conservation they’ve already undertaken, and questioning the Western Slope frustration about water being used to keep Front Range lawns green. Brett Gracely, also with Colorado Springs Utilities, said that watering accounts for just 3 percent of state water use.

“I don’t get it – why do people hate grass?” Lusk wondered.

But as Lusk later described Colorado Springs’ efforts to better shore up its diversion infrastructure to reduce leakage far up the Roaring Fork Valley in Pitkin County, it engendered a frustrated sigh from Lisa Tasker, a member of Pitkin County’s Healthy River Board. She has hiked around that infrastructure, and what has leaked from it has helped vegetation in the same pristine mountain basins from where that water originates, rather than irrigating Front Range lawns.

Still, Tasker bit her lip during Lusk’s presentation. She was on the tour to look and listen, and said earlier it was a chance to see diversion infrastructure firsthand and hear not just the perspectives but the passions of people from the Front Range.

“I’m strictly in learning mode,” she said.

Chris Treese, external affairs manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, based in Glenwood Springs, sits on the board of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, which uses tours and other means to provide unbiased information on water resources and issues. Treese, who also was a presenter during last week’s tour, said he believes such events help foster dialogue about water in the state and get new voices involved in the state’s water future.

“If it’s going to be a state water plan, it can’t just be water buffaloes’ state water plan,” Treese said, referring to the more traditional participants in water issues on both sides of the divide.

“It’s good for us to get outside of our box and look at the bigger picture,” said tour participant Joe Burtard, who works in external affairs for the Ute Water Conservancy District utility in Mesa County. “. It’s good for us to be exposed to the Front Range and Eastern Slope perspectives as well.”

- By DENNIS WEBB, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

GEORGETOWN, Colo. (AP) — Several accidents and snowy conditions closed Interstate 70 at the Eisenhower Tunnel for a short time on Sunday.

Colorado Department of Transportation traffic manager Brian Jordon says traffic in both directions was shut down briefly at the tunnel early Sunday because of fender-benders and spinouts.

Jordon says there are several major highways at higher elevations on the Western Slope with icy and snowpack conditions.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the Park, Gore, Elk mountains and central mountain valleys, with up to seven inches of snow expected by midnight Sunday and winds gusting to 40 miles an hour.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

PARACHUTE, Colo. (CBS4) – Two people were killed in a crash on Interstate 70 on Colorado’s Western Slope on Wednesday morning.

The victims were standing outside of a vehicle near West Parachute when they were struck by a car and killed, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

Trooper Nate Reid says a pickup truck pulling a cattle trailer got a flat tire about three miles west of Parachute on Wednesday morning. Two people in another vehicle — 19-year-old David Moore Jr., of Clifton; and 30-year-old Timothy Randall, of Grand Junction — stopped to help and were hit while they were next to the truck.

It’s unclear if Moore and Randall were in the right lane of the highway or on the shoulder when they were struck by a box truck.

The driver who hit them stayed on the scene.

The westbound lanes of the interstate had to be closed for several hours and traffic was being re-routed onto Highway 6. All lanes were reopened Wednesday afternoon.