DENVER – A judge says lawsuits can move forward against the owner of the Colorado movie theater where a gunman killed 12 people and injured 70 others in 2012.

The Denver Post reports that U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson ruled Friday that Cinemark could have predicted moviegoers might be targeted for an attack, noting “the grim history” of mass killings in recent times.

Jackson writes that although theaters had until then avoided a mass shooting, moviegoers are “perhaps even more than students in a school or shoppers in a mall, ‘sitting ducks.’”

The ruling, which allows 20 lawsuits to advance, didn’t decide if Cinemark did enough to try to prevent the shooting in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

Loveland man positive for West Nile virus

LOVELAND – Health officials say a Loveland man has tested positive for West Nile virus – the first confirmed case in Larimer County this season.

Jane Viste, a spokeswoman for the county’s Department of Health and Environment, says the man began to show symptoms in early August but was not hospitalized and since has recovered.

Initial human symptoms can include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, weakness and rash.

More severe symptoms can include stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, vision loss, paralysis and even death.

Last year, Colorado reported 322 cases of West Nile virus disease, and seven people died. The virus is carried by mosquitoes and spread through their bites.

Last blast to widen I-70 tunnels to go off

IDAHO SPRINGS – Transportation officials say the final blast needed to widen the westbound bore of the Twin Tunnels on Interstate 70 in Idaho Springs is scheduled for Monday morning.

The Colorado Department of Transportation says since the first week of April, crews have detonated 85 blasts to widen the bore to a width of 53 feet. Another blast is scheduled later in the week to remove the structure’s rock base floor.

The expansion is part of a $55 million project to ease congestion on the heavily traveled interstate, which links Denver with some of the state’s largest ski areas.

The new tunnel is set to open to traffic by the end of the year, and the project is expected to be completed next summer.

Woman improves after ingesting lye

SALT LAKE CITY – A woman who unknowingly drank iced tea laced with an industrial cleaning solution at a Utah restaurant has whispered and gotten out of bed, her lawyer said Saturday.

The progress marks the first sign of improvement for Jan Harding since the 67-year-old was rushed to a hospital nearly a week ago with severe burns to her mouth and throat, said family attorney Paxton Guymon.

The heavy-duty cleaner that ended up in the sweetened iced tea Harding drank Aug. 10 at a Dickey’s Barbecue in a Salt Lake City suburb was unintentionally mixed into a bag of sugar, which a worker later added into the iced tea dispenser, authorities have said.

Colorado Springs police nab napping burglar

COLORADO SPRINGS – A woman who police say decided to take a nap inside a Colorado Springs home she was burglarizing has been arrested.

The Gazette reports the owner came home Friday afternoon and found the woman asleep in one of the bedrooms.

Investigators say she broke into the home and stole several items before becoming sleepy.

She was arrested and booked into the El Paso County jail.

Researchers progress on air-pollution project

DENVER – The National Center for Atmospheric Research is wrapping up C-130 cargo plane flights across Colorado aimed at tracking air pollution at different elevations.

The Denver Post reports the monthlong project measured pollution at elevations up to 12,500 feet, and the data will be combined with information from NASA Earth-observing satellites, balloons and other aircraft – as well as Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ground sensors.

Wing-mounted cylinders draw in air that is tested for more than 200 pollutants including aerosols, nitric acid, sulfur dioxide and hydrocarbons, such as cancer-causing benzene.

Now, scientists are beginning to analyze the data.

Associated Press