The Premiere News Source for Leadville, Colorado & Beyond!
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Welcome to The Herald Democrat - Online! The Premiere News Source for Leadville, Colorado & Beyond! August 21, 2003 Edition • Front Page • 20 x 100=2,000 miles Advertise YOUR Business HERE! Photo by Jenn Wiant Ken Chlouber (right), an organizer of the Trail 100, poses with Bill Finkbeiner of Auburn, Calif. and his family at the awards ceremony Sunday. Finkbeiner completed his 20th LT 100 Sunday in 15th place. http://www.leadvilleherald.com/ (1 of 6) [8/21/2003 1:31:31 PM] Welcome to The Herald Democrat - Online! The Premiere News Source for Leadville, Colorado & Beyond! Two injured; fire ‘suspicious’ Photo by Marcia Martinek Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Jerry Means and his partner, Erin, investigate at 422 W. 10th St. on Tuesday morning. Erin’s job is to sniff for petroleum-based accelerants at the scene of a fire. by Marcia Martinek Herald Editor Two Leadville boys are apparently in very serious condition at Children’s Hospital in Denver suffering from burns that appear to have been received in a fire early Monday morning. As of deadline time, no specific information on their conditions was available. The fire has been termed “suspicious” by Capt. Mark Langdon of the Leadville/Lake County Fire Department. Because the boys are juveniles, their names have not been released by authorities investigating the incident. Langdon said a call came in around 2:30 a.m. Monday that a person in the 500 block of E. 8th St. was having difficulty breathing. The fire department responded to the address along http://www.leadvilleherald.com/ (2 of 6) [8/21/2003 1:31:31 PM] Welcome to The Herald Democrat - Online! The Premiere News Source for Leadville, Colorado & Beyond! with the ambulance, he said, which is standard procedure. Upon arrival, officials contacted two boys who were suffering from burns. When asked by Leadville Police Officer Tim Handel where the burns had occurred, one of the boys pointed in the direction of E. 10th St., Langdon said. Handel headed toward 10th where he encountered very thick smoke. He finally determined that it was coming from the house at 422 E. 10th. Initially, no flames were visible, but fire was discovered in the rear of the building where it apparently had started. Langdon said the fire had gotten into the roof trusses and the floor. Firemen knocked out the windows in the front of the home to better direct the air toward the fire. All the windows in the house were intact when the fire was discovered. Apparently no one in the neighborhood had noticed the fire until police and fire officials arrived. Rumors of an explosion at the residence are apparently unfounded, according to Langdon, who also disputed any rumors of pipe bombs detonating. A homeowner next door was awakened by the fire officials in case evacuation would be necessary; however, the fire was contained quickly and this was not necessary. No one was in the burning house when officials arrived. It is a rental house, and the owners live in Texas. They said no one had rented the house since last spring. On Tuesday, Agent Jerry Means from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was on the scene with Erin, his partner. Means and Erin, a four-year-old black Labrador, investigate fires throughout the state of Colorado. Erin was born in a suburb of New York and was certified through the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. She has been with Means since arriving in Colorado about three years ago. Her specialty is sniffing out petroleum accelerants that might be used in arson fires. In July, Means and Erin investigated 21 fires in the state. Because the incident is under investigation, Langdon could not reveal many details. He did say officials have determined quite a bit from the fire scene and will be awaiting the results of tests conducted by the CBI before coming up with a final report. For more news, - click on the"Front Page" link - here, or on the left sidebar above... http://www.leadvilleherald.com/ (3 of 6) [8/21/2003 1:31:31 PM] More Top Stories from The Herald Democrat - Online! The Premiere News Source for Leadvilee, Colorado & Beyond! August 21, 2003 Edition More Top Stories Olsen targets junk cars by Jenn Wiant Herald Staff Writer According to state statute, abandoning a vehicle is a class 3 misdemeanor in the state of Colorado. Commissioner Ken Olsen brought the statute to the public’s attention at the Aug. 18 Board of County Commissioners meeting to address a frequently heard complaint in the community about the number of junk cars around Leadville. Olsen’s point was that “the law is there. What we need is enforcement.” Olsen encouraged the public to ask local law enforcement agencies to enforce the abandoned cars law. The law says, “Any person who abandons a motor vehicle upon a Advertise street, highway, right-of-way, or any other public property, or upon any private property without the express consent of the YOUR owner or person in lawful charge of that private property commits abandonment of a motor vehicle.” Business A vehicle is considered abandoned if it has been left for more than seven days unattended and unmoved, if the license plates or HERE! other identifying marks have been removed, if the vehicle has been damaged or is deteriorated so extensively that it has value only for junk or salvage, or if the owner has been notified by a law enforcement agency to remove the motor vehicle and it has not been removed within three days of notification. The punishment for a class 3 misdemeanor is a $50 to $750 fine and up to six months imprisonment. http://www.leadvilleherald.com/topstories/topstories.html (1 of 4) [8/21/2003 1:31:46 PM] More Top Stories from The Herald Democrat - Online! The Premiere News Source for Leadvilee, Colorado & Beyond! Commissioner Bill Hollenback believes the junk cars in Lake County have an impact on how visitors view the county. “You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression,” he said. Sled dogs train without the snow Photo by Jenn Wiant Angel and Botley turn onto 7th Street with their master, Allen Rasmussen, in tow. Rasmussen is training the dogs to pull him around the Mineral Belt Trail. by Jenn Wiant Herald Staff Writer Allen Rasmussen does not ski. He does not snowboard. Last winter he and his wife sat around their trailer in Leadville with nothing to do. This winter Rasmussen will be training his two Huskies, Angel and Botley, to pull him on a sled. Rasmussen has always been good with animals and has wanted to train sled dogs since he came to Leadville two years ago. He bought Botley in February and Angel in May from two families who had Huskies because their kids watched the Disney movie Snowdogs and wanted Huskies. The dogs turned out to be more than they could handle, so Rasmussen bought them. He said the dogs cannot go more than 15 minutes without getting into something. Botley runs laps in Rasmussen’s trailer at 5:30 in the morning. When Rasmussen ran into someone at the post office in July who http://www.leadvilleherald.com/topstories/topstories.html (2 of 4) [8/21/2003 1:31:46 PM] More Top Stories from The Herald Democrat - Online! The Premiere News Source for Leadvilee, Colorado & Beyond! had a cart for sale, Rasmussen bought it and began training his dogs to pull him on it. After less than a month of training, he said they can go about one third of the way up the Mineral Belt Trail. Rasmussen hopes that they will be able to do the entire trail by next winter. In the meantime, he can be seen on his cart being pulled by the two dogs down Leadville side streets. Rasmussen said they love to run down Harrison Avenue. They also love to stop and bark at other dogs, chipmunks and birds. Rasmussen said they once caught a bird on the fly while they were pulling the cart. Worm attacks computers here by Jenn Wiant Herald Staff Writer A worm infecting computers worldwide, including right here in Lake County, kills Internet connections and only allows computers to stay on the Internet for 60 seconds, which for most is not long enough to download the virus fix. MSBlast, Blaster, or LovSan, as the worm is being called, was upgraded to a category 4 threat last Wednesday, Aug. 13, according to John Mora at ColoradoInternet (717 Harrison Ave.) and www.symantec.com. Category 5 is the most threatening type of virus. Mora referred to the worm as “the devil.” “My neighbor had his machine go down. It’s kept me fairly busy,” Mora said of the worm. MSBlast only affects computers using the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. Linux, Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT systems are not affected. MSBlast is transferred through email and messenger services, said Mora. Programs that automatically download email to the computer, such as Outlook or Outlook Express, are especially dangerous because these programs download all emails, even if the user deletes them without opening them. Mora said no particular emails have been identified as carrying the worm at this time. He suggests taking several precautions to prevent your computer from acquiring MSBlast: – Only get email from the web. Do not use a program that downloads the email to the computer. – Use an antivirus. Mora suggested the free AVG Antivirus at www.grisoft.com. – Get a personal firewall.