The two snowboarders talk about snow conditions and route selection as they drop in, one at a time. Gusting wind is blowing snow across the ridge as they wind between reefy rocks. “Avalanche!” yells Tyler DeWitt as he cranks to a stop below his friend Evan Hannibal. The two watch the slide — captured on […]
Bruce Brown
Posted inCOVID, Environment, Health, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Warnings are working (for now) to keep visitors out of Colorado’s high country. But tickets, legal battles loom.
Police in Colorado’s mountain communities are doing a lot of educating and even issuing written warnings to violators of local and state health orders designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But if mask mandates, closures, restrictions and locals-only access rules linger for months, warnings will soon turn to tickets. And that worries Western […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Outdoors
Colorado counties try different ways to tell visitors the same thing: please stay away
The contagion sweeping through Colorado spiked first in mountain communities crowded with recreating tourists. And those communities are now alternately asking, pleading and demanding that visitors — the lifeblood of mountain economies — stay away. As increasingly antsy Coloradans lumber into their second month of coronavirus-related quarantine, the municipal approaches urging visitors to follow statewide […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Prosecutors drop official misconduct charge against Eagle County’s sheriff, saying they can’t prove the case
An official misconduct charge brought against Eagle County Sheriff James van Beek has been dismissed in what his attorney says is a misunderstanding with the district attorney that could have been resolved over a cup of coffee. Instead, the case went to a grand jury, which over the summer charged van Beek with misusing funds. […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
The Eagle County sheriff has been indicted for official misconduct. He says the district attorney misinterpreted the law.
Eagle County Sheriff James van Beek has been indicted on suspicion of official misconduct related to money spent by his office, but he says the situation all stems from a misunderstanding of the law by the district attorney. The grand jury indictment splits two of the most powerful law enforcement officers in Colorado’s high country, […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s new U.S. attorney wants law enforcement to treat overdose deaths as homicides as he focuses on opioids
Jason Dunn, Colorado’s new U.S. attorney, has made stemming the state’s opioid epidemic a top focus of his office, encouraging law enforcement in the state to investigate overdose deaths as homicides. He is also digging into data on doctors and nurses who prescribe unusually large quantities of opioid painkillers, with an eye toward prosecuting those […]