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Nation in brief
Colo. storm blamed for fatal crash, avalanche
By wire services
Published January 4, 2004
DENVER - A winter storm that dropped three feet of snow on parts of Colorado's high country Saturday was blamed for a fatal plane crash and an avalanche that temporarily shut down Vail Pass.
A twin-engine plane trying to land in heavy snow crashed less than a quarter-mile from the runway at Cortez-Montezuma County Airport in southwestern Colorado, said Lt. William Conner of the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office. The pilot, the only person on board, was killed.
Westbound lanes of Interstate 70 on Vail Pass were closed for about three hours after an avalanche left about six feet of snow on the road. No one was caught in the slide.
Traffic was rerouted while crews plowed the road and worked to eliminate the threat of more avalanches, officials said.
More than 100 avalanches had been reported in Colorado's central mountains and San Juan Mountains since a storm dumped up to three feet of snow beginning Friday.
On Friday, an avalanche in Idaho crashed onto a mountainside cabin, killing a couple as they slept. At one point Friday, 25 major roads were closed by snow slides in eastern and central Idaho.
Mourners remember victims of Calif. mudslide
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Mourners swayed to rousing hymns and wailed as they watched a slide show Saturday recalling 12 people - many of them children - who were swept away in a Christmas Day flash flood at a church campground in the San Bernardino Mountains.
More than a thousand people attended the memorial service at Church of God Prophecy, and the sanctuary was so full that hundreds had to watch the bilingual ceremony on televisions in separate rooms.
The victims were attending a Christmas gathering at Saint Sophia Camp, a Greek Orthodox facility, when the mudslide roared through.
Thirteen people were killed, and 11-year-old Edgar Meza is missing and presumed dead. A space at the cemetery was left open so he can be buried with his father, and both were honored at Saturday's memorial.
Utah bill would ban firing squad executions
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah could ban firing squads and execute condemned prisoners only by lethal injection - but not on Sundays, Mondays or holidays - under bills submitted for the upcoming legislative session.
Utah is the only state that uses firing squads. Three current death row inmates have chosen to die by firing squad rather than injection.
State Sen. Ron Allen and state Rep. Sheryl Allen introduced the bills in the House and Senate aimed at abolishing the firing squad. The Allens are not related.
The Utah Sentencing Commission said in August it would support eliminating the firing squads. Commission members said firing-squad executions have become publicity magnets that tend to focus attention on death-row inmates instead of their victims.
The state's last firing squad execution, in 1996, drew more than 150 television crews from around the world.
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Nation in briefColo. storm blamed for fatal crash, avalanche
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