VAIL MOUNTAIN ARSONIST SURRENDERS
One of the three remaining fugitives in a string of ecoterrorism fires set on Vail Mountain, in Orego and California has surrendered to authorities. The U.S. attorney’s office in Portland, Ore., said Thursday that 39-year-old Rebecca Jeanette Rubin turned herself in to the FBI at the Canadian border in Blaine, Wash. Rubin has been sought as part of a group based in Eugene, Ore., known as The Family, on charges she took part in setting fires at the Vail ski resort in Colorado, a timber company office in Oregon, and wild horse corrals in Oregon and Northern California. The group was considered part of the Earth Liberation Front. Ten others pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy and arson and were sentenced to prison. Two others remain at large.
OIL SHALE SUBSIDIES CONSIDERED
DENVER (AP) – A Texas Republican’s proposal to subsidize research on developing oil from oil shale is prompting objections from taxpayer advocates. A handful of companies have leases on federal land in Colorado and Utah for research on oil shale. Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado says it’s a promising energy resource. Texas Rep. Ralph Hall introduced a bill this week that proposes $10 million in annual subsidies for fiscal years 2013-2017 for oil shale research. Taxpayers for Common Sense co-founder Jill Lancelot says her group generally opposes any subsidies, but she says subsidies for oil shale are particularly worrisome because companies are still trying to find how to extract oil from it in a viable way. Unlike shale oil resources, oil shale must be heated to extremely high temperatures before getting oil.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) – Former U.S. Senate candidate Jane Norton is asking federal election officials to forgive hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign debt. Norton lost the 2010 Republican Party nomination to Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck. She still owes about 18 creditors nearly $476,000. So far, she has only raised a few thousand dollars.
ALAMOSA, Colo. (AP) – Alamosa’s top prosecutor says he’s told law enforcement in his area that he won’t prosecute new cases of marijuana possession under an ounce for adults 21 and older. District Attorney David Mahonee says he doesn’t believe jurors would convict defendants in such cases after Colorado voters approved marijuana for recreational use. Mahonee’s jurisdiction covers six counties in southern Colorado.
DENVER (AP) – A former state prison in southeast Colorado could be getting a new life as a treatment center for chronically homeless veterans. The governor’s office proposed today that the former Fort Lyon Correctional Facility in Las Animas could eventually house 200 or so homeless people. It was shuttered last year because of a declining prison population. Fort Lyon is a 500-acre facility that has functioned as a VA hospital and a prison.
