DOWNTOWN HIT BY POWER OUTAGES
The downtown Denver area was hit hard with multiple power outages Wednesday night.
About 7:20 p.m., Xcel Energy reported 48 outages impacting 6,417 customers, according to the energy company’s website.
Denver firefighters responded to at least a dozen calls about stuck elevators associated with the outages. There were also reports of surveillance cameras going down.
Most of the outages were on the north side of downtown, especially in the LoDo and BallPark neighborhoods. Downtown traffic lights were down as part of the outages.
Xcel crews worked Wednesday night to restore power. As of 9:20 p.m., 2,748 customers were without power.
Man charged with firstdegree murder.
Denver prosecutors this week charged a 20yearold man with firstdegree murder in connection with a September shooting in the Sunnyside neighborhood.
Elijah Lucero also was charged with one count of menacing.
The charges allege that Lucero shot and killed 20yearold Briseidy JimenezOrtega on Sept. 7 outside Lucero’s home in the 3900 block of Bryant Street. Authorities say the victim attempted to see or speak with Lucero when he shot her and ran off.
Denver police arrested Lucero on Sept. 26.
Lucero also allegedly threatened his girlfriend with a gun earlier in the day, prior to the shooting incident, the DA’s office said in a news release. The girlfriend was allegedly with JimenezOrtega when she was shot, according to the DA’s office.
Lucero is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 4.
Bear trapping beginning in Tetons.
Fall trapping of grizzly bears is getting started in western Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and will continue through midNovember.
Park officials urged people Monday to heed brightly colored warning signs and stay away from areas where the routine trapping is occurring.
Biologists sedate the grizzly bears and fit them with tracking collars. They also collect samples and take measurements.
A judge last week ordered grizzlies in the Yellowstone region back on the U.S. government’s list of threatened species. The decision reinstates tougher rules to protect the bears.
Before the decision, state officials in Wyoming and Idaho were preparing to let hunters kill as many as 23 grizzlies in areas around Yellowstone and Grand Teton this fall.
Natural gas project meets resistance.
CASPER» An environmental group seeks to block a major natural gas drilling project in Wyoming.
The group WildEarth Guardians tells the U.S. Interior Department’s review board in a recent petition the project would violate air pollution laws.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the Normally Pressured Lance project in southwestern Wyoming in August. The project could eventually consist of 3,500 natural gas wells in the Upper Green River Basin.
The wells would be drilled in an area covering some 220 square miles.
The Casper StarTribune reports the $17 billion project could create up to 1,000 jobs.
Jonah Energy officials say they plan to drill multiple wells from single well pads to reduce land disturbance. The company says it uses infrared equipment to locate and stop leaking methane.