MONTROSE, Colo. (AP) – A Colorado logger who cut off all of the
toes on his right foot after he was pinned by a logging machine
says he was afraid it would take hours to find him and he might
die. Jon Hutt says he used a 3-inch pocketknife to sever his toes
from the machinery about a half hour after realizing no one heard
his cries for help. Hutt says Wednesday he was trying to retrieve a pile of fallen Aspen trees to cut up for winter firewood near Montrose
when a logging trailer slipped and pinned his foot.
He says it happened Aug. 19 but he didn’t file a police report.
The 61-year-old logger drove to a parking lot, where an
ambulance arrived to take him to Montrose Memorial Hospital.
MEDICAID CUTBACKS
Colorado scaling back Medicaid coverage
(Information in the following story is from: The Denver Post,
DENVER (AP) – Colorado is cutting back on Medicaid coverage for
poor adults without children because the estimated number of people
has tripled. State program manager Joanne Zahora said the program was based on 2-year-old estimates. The state originally estimated there would be 49,200 people eligible for the program at a cost of about $200 million a year.
That number has climbed to 143,000 people, with an estimated cost
$1.7 billion. Cutting back the program to 49,000 childless adults who qualify would still cost $770 million.
INTERSTATE DELAYS
SILVERTHORNE, Colo. (AP) – A project to improve the
Interstate-70 interchange at Silverthorne has been put on hold
while state contractors concentrate on widening the Twin Tunnels
near Idaho Springs. Colorado Department of Transportation officials told the Summit Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday it could be two years
before they can resume work on the interchange.
Silverthorne officials weren’t happy with the decision.
Silverthorne town manager Kevin Batchelder says he’s afraid the
project will be put on hold again, even though it was one of the
early projects identified to help clear up the congestion on the
mountain corridor.
TRUCKER-TURNPIKE TOLLS
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Colorado trucker has been fined $1,000
for not paying a $36.05 Pennsylvania Turnpike Toll, but avoided
possible jail on charges that he purposely obscured his license
plates in the process. Fifty-seven-year-old Kevin Roche, of Kremmling, Colo., was cited in May 2010 for driving through an E-ZPass lane in New Stanton without an electronic toll scanning device.
Roche says he knew he’d be billed and intended to pay the toll
later because toll booth cameras record license plate numbers of
non-paying vehicles. A jury acquitted Roche of charges that he intentionally hid his rear plate with a paper bag and his front plate under a notepad on
his dashboard. But a judge didn’t believe the trucker’s claim that
the plates were accidentally obscured and fined him on a lesser
charge.
SKI UPGRADES
DENVER (AP) – Colorado ski resorts are spending millions of
dollars on upgrades this year. Vail Resorts is spending about $128 million in upgrades, including a new high-speed chair in Beaver Creek’s Rose Bowl and a new restaurant on Vail Mountain. Colorado’s other 22
ski areas are putting more than $50 million into upgrades, with a
new chair and terrain at Aspen’s Buttermilk and new lifts at Copper
Mountain, Loveland, Monarch and Ski Cooper.
COLORADO TAX STUDY
Study suggests big repairs to CO’s finances
DENVER (AP) – Economists from the University of Denver gave
state officials grim news about the state’s finances in February.
That’s when the school released the first part of a study on the
Colorado’s conflicting constitutional mandates amid rising health,
education and corrections costs. DU is releasing the second part of the study – how Colorado can dig its way out of the fiscal hole. The economic team planned to deliver a report on possible solutions Wednesday morning at the
university. Economists say Colorado’s finances are out of whack because
lawmakers are in some ways required to spend tax money, and in
other areas prohibited from raising tax money. One analyst says
it’s as is if Colorado has one foot on the gas pedal and one foot
on the brake.
CARR DOCUMENTARY
New documentary features former Colorado Gov. Carr
DENVER (AP) – Former Colorado Gov. Ralph Carr is the subject of
a new documentary. The documentary produced by Fujisankei Communications International Inc. tells how Carr opposed the internment of
Japanese Americans in U.S. government camps during World War II.
The documentary will be shown on most of the international
flights of All Nippon Airways starting Sept. 1.
The film is sponsored by Nitto Tire, which has offices in the
U.S. and Japan.
