News in Brief

Residents performed CPR on a man who was found unconscious and not breathing in the Clark’s Market parking lot on Saturday afternoon.Witnesses in the parking lot did not see what caused the man, whose identity was unavailable Saturday afternoon, to fall to the ground. According to Aspen police Sgt. Gary Kalkman, the man was seen lying on the ground near the second row of cars from the grocery store. The man was taken to the hospital.The man did, at least temporarily, breath on his own while medics were present, Kalkman said.”It isn’t known what caused him to fall,” he said. “He could have had a heart attack and hit his head. When we arrived at the scene, several citizens were doing CPR.”

PUEBLO (AP) – The city’s new downtown whitewater park has been christened and opens this weekend.The official ceremony Friday included speeches and fireworks with the official opening Saturday.City Councilman Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, noted that the dream of the park was promoted by the Army Corps of Engineers and Great Outdoors Colorado, the principal funders of the Arkansas River Corridor Legacy project, and many others.Gus Sandstrom of Pueblo Conservancy District, which operates the Arkansas River levee through town, said the idea of the kayak course and the chain of lakes upstream actually began in 1978, “Now we have to continue the dream,” he said. “Let us stay together.”State wildlife and parks agencies, Pueblo Zoo and the Greenway and Nature Center, also supported creation of the park. Several cities and irrigation companies had to come to agreement, too.The whitewater park is the most visible result of the project, but fishery and riverside improvements extend about 7.5 miles downstream of Pueblo Dam. Some are still to be completed.Cool mountain weather has delayed the melting of snowpack, which will speed the flow of the river. So this weekend, the cities of Colorado Springs, Aurora and Fountain, Pueblo Board of Water Works and some Lower Arkansas Valley irrigation canals are cooperating to provide 600 to 700 cubic feet per second of water through the course.

COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) – The private sector must be involved in defending against terrorism in order for the country’s efforts to be successful, the nation’s homeland security chief said Friday.”There’s no question that one lesson is, we need to coordinate very closely with the private sector, which owns about 85 percent of the infrastructure in the country,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was in Colorado to tour the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command. He gave a 15-minute news briefing.Chertoff said the importance of integrating the private sector into the country’s preparation for terrorist attacks was illuminated by an April exercise, which simulated large-scale attacks in Connecticut and New Jersey to test and prepare about 300 agencies. It cost $16 million.The exercise, dubbed TOPOFF 3, showed how many of the potential facilities and services that would be affected by a terrorist attack are run by the private sector, such as hospitals, Chertoff said. Security in the private sector is voluntary, however, and there are no plans to force companies to coordinate with the government, he said.