WYOMING

Colorado mother, daughter missing in Wyoming forest

Searchers are looking for a Colorado woman and her daughter who did not return from a hike in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

The pair left Saturday for a 15-mile trek along the Encampment River Trail, said Carbon County Sheriff Jerry Colson.

Norma and Danielle Super of Lakewood parked a car on the south side of the trail, where they were due to arrive Monday morning.

Police were called Tuesday morning. Search teams were dispatched that afternoon.

The search continued Wednesday and Thursday, with a canine tracking team on the ground and crews in planes and helicopters in the air.

METRO AREA

State's black bears are back, and hungry

Toppled trash cans. Strewn rubbish. Broken branches.

The telltale signs that bears have awoken from winter hibernation are emerging across Colorado.

So far this season, there have been about two dozen reported bear sightings in the Steamboat Springs area, said district wildlife manager Libbie Miller.

Although black bear activity has been low so far, Miller expects it will accelerate, especially because the drought could reduce the berries, nuts and vegetation on which bears rely.

Right now, bears would usually be eating grasses and flowers, Area Wildlife Manager Steve Yamashita said. Dry conditions have made that kind of vegetation scarce, so bears are looking elsewhere for food.

HIGHLANDS RANCH

Low-tech approach catches red-light runners

Sheriff's deputies are using a decidedly low-tech device to crack down on drivers who run red lights at some of Douglas County's most dangerous intersections.

Lights on the back of traffic signals will turn blue when the red light turns on, allowing oncoming police to see if drivers cross illegally into intersections.

"It's new, it's different, but we're sure it'll work," Deputy Bernard Harris said.

Harris said the system eliminates some of the guesswork associated with catching red-light runners.

The lights were installed this month at three intersections.

County traffic engineers devised the plan after hearing police complaints about crashes and near-accidents.

CANON CITY

Cotter Corp. pays for radioactive soil review

Cotter Corp. will pay about $8,000 for an independent review of radioactive soil it would like to accept from a New Jersey Superfund site.

Cotter proposes shipping 470,000 tons of low-level radioactive materials from the Superfund site in Maywood, N.J., and disposing of it south of Canon City.

The company has presented an environmental impact assessment of the soil to county commissioners and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

But area residents and opponents of the shipments objected to the assessment of impacts on tourism and property values. Cotter's assessment said the Maywood shipments would not affect the local economy.

Fremont County commissioners requested an independent review.

Camera wire services contributed to this report.

May 31, 2002

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