DENVER - Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter held his first news conference after his bike accident last week and said he's in pain, but recovering. He said it will be next week before he can resume his full schedule.

The governor signed 28 bills on Wednesday, most of them to fix this year's budget. He also met with his staff at the Capitol.

Ritter said he held the news conference to let people know he was still on the job, even though he suffered six breaks on five ribs, a separated shoulder and previously undisclosed bruising of his lung and a cracked sternum.

Standing at the podium, he tried not to laugh, but he broke into a broad smile while recounting how his children nearly brought him to tears when he returned home and they forced him to watch "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," a comedy about a teenager who decides to take a day off from school.

"We were five minutes into the video and I had to ask them, not just ask them, I screamed, you have to take it off, because I was laug

ASPEN - A judge Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Aspen resident Marilyn Marks against City Clerk Kathryn Koch, which attempted to force Koch into releasing ballot images from last May's city election.
Judge James Boyd of the Ninth Judicial District Court dismissed the case, citing the Colorado state constitution, which requires the city clerk to keep ballots secret.
The city's central argument in the legal wrangling that has occurred since last summer has been that it's against state law to release ballot images.
"We believe it was appropriate to rule in this manner," said Jim True, the city's special counsel.
Shortly after the May 5 election, Marks filed a Colorado Open Record Act request for 2,544 digital ballot images cast by Aspen voters so they could be checked against how the scanning machines interpreted them as part of an independent review to be conducted by an outside group.
That request was denied by the city, which prompted Marks to file a lawsu

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - A helicopter is on scene in Glenwood Canyon, where crews plan to break apart a large boulder that threatens to fall down on Interstate 70, according to a Wednesday morning update from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The roadway has been closed since Sunday night, when a large rock slide littered the interstate with boulders, punched holes in the pavement and caused structural damage.

The helicopter will be used to drop off drilling equipment and a generator for Wednesday's planned operations. A crew hopes to bring down the unstable boulder, estimated at roughly 20 feet in diameter, sometime in the early afternoon, according to CDOT. Then, the hillside will be stabilized and any additional damage to the highway that results from bringing down the boulder will be assessed, allowing CDOT to estimate when it might be able to reopen some part of the interstate.

On Tuesday, a team of six hiked up the mountainside some 900 feet to remove loose roc

DENVER - Colorado's unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point in January to 7.4 percent, the state Department of Labor and Employment said Wednesday.

That compares with 6.7 percent a year ago.

The number of Coloradans with jobs declined by 4,700 in January to about 2.5 million. The number who looked for a job but couldn't find one rose by 3,800, to about 196,000.

Donald Mares, director of the Department of Labor and Employment, said he expects Colorado's unemployment rate to improve this year.

"While the unemployment rate may be volatile throughout 2010 as Coloradans re-enter the labor force, we expect to see the job market strengthen," he said.

Employment increased in four sectors: trade, transportation and utilities; leisure and hospitality; financial activities; and manufacturing.

Employment declined in education and health services, construction, professional and business services, and government.

The national unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in Januar

DENVER - Lawyers for the state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association argued before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday that a 2001 federal rule banning construction of new roads on National Forest land violates the law.

The Roadless Rule, initiated under President Clinton's presidency, banned road construction and reconstruction on certain areas of National Forest lands. It affects at least 40 million acres of federal land nationwide.

The appeals court did not indicate when it would decide the case, which was filed by Wyoming to challenge the rule.

Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association argue the rule violates the 1964 Wilderness Act, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not follow National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, regulations.

Wyoming attorneys argue the definition of roadless lands is synonymous with wilderness lands. The 1964 Wilderness Act states only Congress can designate wilderness lands.

The U.S. Department of Agri