Denver public pot-use turns in signatures
DENVER – Marijuana activists campaigning to see pot consumption allowed in bars and other public places in Denver are turning in signatures to get the question on November’s city ballots.
The Limited Social Use campaign says they have more than enough signatures to see a public vote on the matter. The campaign needs 4,700 signatures, and supporters say they have collected about 8,000 signatures.
If the measure passes, Denver would be the first American city to allow public marijuana consumption. Bars and clubs would have the final say about whether to allow pot.
Patrons would have to bring their own weed and comply with clean-air laws. That means the marijuana would have to be edible, or if smoked, consumed on an outside patio shielded from public view.
Man guilty in 5 Denver murders
DENVER – A man was convicted of murder Monday for stabbing five people to death in a Denver bar during a botched robbery three years ago, making him eligible for the death penalty.
Jurors returned the guilty verdict for Dexter Lewis after deliberating for 10 hours over three days in a case that has been overshadowed by the trial of Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes in suburban Denver.
Lewis and his relatives showed no emotion, but the families of the victims began crying as the verdict was read, The Denver Post reported.
Prosecutors say Lewis went to the bar with three other men in October 2012 and stabbed the bar’s owner, Young Suk Fero, 53, and four customers – Daria M. Pohl, 21, of Denver; Kellene Fallon, 44, of Denver; Ross Richter, 29, of Overland Park, Kansas; and Tereasa Beesley, 45, of Denver.
In the case, brothers Joseph and Lynell Hill pleaded guilty under deals with prosecutors and received lengthy sentences. The fourth man, Demarea Harris, was a confidential informant at the time for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and reported the slayings to authorities. He was never charged in the case.
Harris and Lynell Hill testified that Lewis stabbed all five people. Joseph Hill refused to testify.
Lewis could face the death penalty, but the last time a Denver jury chose to execute someone was in 1986.
Google to repay N.M. $1M for firm’s closure
SANTA FE – Officials say Google Inc., will repay New Mexico nearly $1 million in economic assistance funds after announcing it was pulling a subsidiarity out of the state.
The Albuquerque Journal reported New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela said Monday that Google has agreed to repay that amount under clawback provisions.
The Mountain View, California-based Google announced last week that Titan Aerospace was leaving its facilities at the Moriarty airport, where it has been developing a solar-powered drone.
That announcement sparked demands for Google to repay because the state.
The state’s investment included $995,000 for infrastructure improvements at the Titan site.
1st trial a wrap for green chile harvester
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Inventors and investors recently came to southern New Mexico to try to do what many farmers believe can’t be done: Mechanically harvest the green chiles.
Green chile harvesting and de-stemming is now done entirely by hand.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that the people behind a chile-harvesting machine have wrapped up their first trial of the device.
Experts on chile cultivation say the state’s future hinges upon a move to mechanization, as uncertainties in labor supply, pressure from competing countries and states and an ongoing river water shortage all add to the riskiness of growing the crop, dissuading growers from farming it.
Associated Press
