The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 9

would allow the authority to buy the hangar from West Star without bond financing are under discussion, he said. Those discussions include getting the city or the county, both of which own the airport, to guarantee the debt, allowing the bonds to be sold. Granum said West Star Chief Executive Officer Robert Rasberry told him Dec. 12 that the aircraft maintenance company is committed to finding a way to make the deal happen. Meanwhile, final architectural drawings are going through a vetting process with the city as originally planned, Krogman said.

West Star has already spent $600,000 to get final plans in or- der and is proceeding with the original construction time line without regard to the FBI investigation, in hopes that it will be resolved before construction is to start, Krogman said. want to be ready to break ground when the time he said. Charles Ashby contributed to this report HANGAR: Alternative financing being discussed Continued from Page One Sheriff Grayson Robinson has said investigators think she was shot at random by Pierson, who had gone into the school looking for a teacher with whom he had a dispute. Pierson may have been nursing a grudge against the teacher a librarian and head of the school debate team since September. Pierson was on the team and had been disciplined by the librarian for reasons yet to be disclosed, the sheriff said.

He said Pierson threatened that teacher in September and came to the school Friday intending to harm him and inflict numerous other casualties. Pierson excelled at speech and debate and was passionate about the team, friends said. They described him as a smart student who apparently shirk from confrontations in class. Pierson legally bought a shotgun on Dec. 6 at a local store, and he purchased ammunition the morning of the shootings.

He managed to ignite a Molotov cocktail inside the school library before he killed himself as a fast-acting school security officer, a deputy sheriff, closed in, Robinson said. That aggressive response prevented more casualties, Robinson said. a tactic adopted nationwide after Columbine, in which first responders cordoned off the school before pursuing two student gunmen inside. The two killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. nice to see how well the system worked.

a remarkable improvement from before. This could have been much, much Hickenlooper said. After the Aurora theater shootings and the Newtown, school shootings, Democrat-led legislature this year implemented gun control measures that limited the size of ammunition magazines and instituted universal back- ground checks. Colorado also appropriated more than $20 million for mental health hotlines and local crisis centers. The measures were intended to address violence associated with so-called assault rifles, not shotguns that are widely owned for hunting and sport.

Hickenlooper acknowledged the latest shooting raised again questions about guns and violence. But he noted that Pierson seem to exhibit any signs of mental and he cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages. in Colorado is asking the same the governor said. the one hand there is a deeply held conviction for the freedoms laid out in the Second Amendment, but also a very, very strong conviction about the safety of children and the safety of the shooting, he said, any explanation, and you know we are searching for some THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sharon Adams looks through a 2013 Arapahoe High School yearbook at her home near the school in Centennial. The daughter is a cheerleader at the school and escaped unharmed.

VICTIM: Shooting any Continued from Page One GREELEY When Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County explains in speeches why he is not enforcing the new gun laws, he holds up two 30-round magazines. One, he says, he had before July 1, when the law banning the possession, sale or transfer of the large-capacity magazines went into effect. The other, he obtained afterward. He shuffles the magazines, which look identical, and then challenges the audience to tell the difference. is a deputy or an officer supposed to know which is he asks.

package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown, has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines more than 15 rounds may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the rural regions. Some sheriffs, like Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be very low as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.

The resistance of sheriffs in Colorado is playing out in other states, raising questions about whether tougher rules passed since Newtown will have a muted effect in parts of the American heartland, where gun ownership is common and grass-roots opposition to tighter restrictions is high. In New York state, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed one of the toughest gun law packages in the nation last January, two sheriffs have said publicly they would not enforce the laws inaction that Cuomo said would set dangerous and frightening The refusal is unlikely to have much effect in the state: According to the Division of Criminal Justice Services, since 2010, sheriffs have filed less than 2 percent of the two most common felony gun charges. The vast majority of charges are filed by the state or local police.

Countering the elected sheriffs are some police chiefs, especially in urban areas, and state officials who say that the laws are not only enforceable but that they are already having an effect. Most gun stores have stopped selling the high-capacity magazines for personal use, although one sheriff acknowledged that some stores continued to sell them illegally. Some people who are selling or otherwise transferring guns privately are seeking background checks. Eric Brown, a spokesman for Gov. John W.

Hickenlooper of Colorado, said, on background checks, the numbers show the law is The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has run 3,445 checks on private sales since the law went into effect, he said, and has denied gun sales to 70 people. A U.S. District Court judge last month ruled against a claim in the lawsuit that one part of the magazine law was unconstitutionally vague. The judge also ruled that although the sheriffs could sue as individuals, they had no standing to sue in their official capacity. Still, the top law enforcement officials acknowledged that sheriffs had wide discretion in enforcing state laws.

not in the position of telling sheriffs and chiefs what to do or not to said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. have people calling us all the time, thinking got an issue with their sheriff, and we tell them we have the authority to Sheriffs refuse to enforce gun laws By ERICA GOODE New York Times News Service THE NEW YORK TIMES Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who is not enforcing the gun laws, shakes hands with a resident at the Colorado Farm Show in Greeley last January. mandates that outlaw magazines over 15 rounds and require background checks for private gun transfers, hailed as a major victory by gun control advocates, may prove to be nearly irrelevant across much of the rural regions. LAS VEGAS A casino owner-turned-commercial developer is asking $7.85 million to sell a Las Vegas home, and willing to accept the online currency bitcoin for the deal. Jack Sommer said he got the idea to seek bitcoin for his mansion from two of his sons, been involved in making and trading the currency.

advantage is that expanding our market and adding some Sommer said. Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading began in 2009. Value is purchased through an exchange website with a mainstream paper currency, such as dollars or euros, though trading government-regulated. Using the currency can streamline international business deals, said Julian Tosh, a consultant and owner of the marketplace website bitcoinsinvegas.com. are a bunch of people who have bitcoins, and dying for a place to spend Tosh said.

He said willingness to accept bitcoin could open the home to a global audience. you increase awareness of potential buyers, you could tap into new Tosh said. Sommer has put a lot of work into the home in the posh Spanish Trail Country Club. It features marble from China, Iceland and Brazil, a full basement, staff quarters with Jacuzzis, and a secret garden. It also has 39 air-conditioning zones fed from a 120-ton cooling tower.

Library shelves are stainless steel clad in American cherry wood, and the view from the suite is of golf course fairways. Sommer once owned the Aladdin resort, which is now the Planet Hollywood Resort on the Las Vegas Strip. He said he and his wife, Laura, considered the additions made to the home exercise in how many cool details we could put He said they were downsizing now that their seven children have grown. Vegas developer selling his mansion for bitcoin By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JACKSON, Wyo. Both of western national parks are open for the winter season, which means the start of cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and skate skiing, among other outdoor activities.

Except for the Cody entrance, gates opened to snowmobiling Sunday, though snow conditions are best near the South Gate on up to Old Faithful. At Grand Teton National Park, conditions for over-snow winter sports are somewhat less optimal. Yellowstone, Grand Teton open now for winter season By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 970-243-0843 800-332-1401 www.westernslopeauto.com Serving the Grand Valley for 100 Years NEW 2013 FORD ECONOLINE 250 CARGO VAN 9000 GVWR pkg, racks bin system. Stk NEW 2013 FORD TRANSIT CONNECT Fleet Pricing after Instant Ford Rebate of $2500 $26,289 tax. Ford Motor Credit Rebate plus tax.

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tax. EXPIRES 49005 The Daily Sentinel Monday, December 16, 2013 9A.