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LOCAL

Recreational marijuana legal, impaired driving not

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As marijuana becomes available for recreational use, CDOT and the CSP remind motorists that it is illegal to drive while impaired by marijuana.

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AUTO REVIEW

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Toyota has reinvented the iconic RAV4 The 2013 Toyota RAV4 AWD XLE model has a base price of $25,690. Running boards and destination charges brought the final price to $27,084.

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LOCAL

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‘The Living West’ exhibit opens at History Colorado Center The relationship between Colorado’s people and its landscape is examined through the 7,000 square foot exhibition.

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50¢ S i n c e 19 2 6 January 9, 2014

D I S P A T C H www.HDnewspaper.com

Vol. 93 No. 03

Building a Habitat for Humanity

Greenwood Village resident Roger Krapfl visits with Malawian schoolchildren last year during his Habitat for Humanity trip to the African nation. This year, the team leader is recruiting volunteers for two homebuilding projects in Asia. Photo courtesy of Roger Krapfl

Greenwood Villager seeks volunteers for Asian homebuilding trips By Peter Jones It’s a long and circuitous route from Greenwood Village to Kyrgyzstan, but count on Roger Krapfl to get there and back when he needs to.

The longtime team leader for Habitat for Humanity first had to find the landlocked mountainous central Asian nation on a map before leading a mission to build homes in the former Soviet republic. The nonprofit Habitat has constructed hundreds of thousands of houses for homeless and disadvantaged people in developing nations all around the world since

1976. Krapfl, himself, has taken his hammer to nations as varied as Nepal, Vietnam, Bolivia and Kenya. Last November, Krapfl led a team to southeast Africa’s Malawi, one of the nation’s least developed nations, to build two homes for orphans with AIDS. The whirlwind effort was one of more than 100 similar projects in such disparate locations as Fiji,

Hungary and the state of New Mexico. As it happened, three members of Krapfl’s team were recruited as the result of an article published last June in the Herald. The team leader is hoping for similar success for his upcoming 14-day trips to Thailand and Mongolia. He will need to recruit 12 to15 volunteers for each trip. Volunteers must be flexible

and amenable to life in a Third World country. Each volunteer must pay about $2,000 for room, board, local transportation, as well as for cultural excursions in the country and to support of the local projects. Volunteers are also responsible for their own airfare. The Herald recently asked Krapfl about his upcoming trips, Continued on page 2

Colorado flu hospitalizations rise; it’s not too late to get vaccinated Following a December surge in hospitalizations for influenza, state health officials say it’s not too late to get vaccinated. The number of flu hospitalizations this season jumped to 448, compared to 373 at this time last year. “The surge in hospitalizations due to flu is concerning,” said Dr. Lisa Miller, state epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “We normally see higher flu numbers among the young and elderly, but this year there are more cases among people ages 25 to 64. We encourage anyone who hasn’t been immunized this year to get a flu vaccination now.” Last year, people ages 25 to 64 accounted for 30 percent of all

cases; right now those people make up 57 percent of all cases. Though Colorado doesn’t formally track flu deaths among adults, thousands of people in the U.S. die every year due to influenza. The best way to protect yourself is to get immunized. It takes about two weeks after the vaccination for your body to build the antibodies to protect you from flu. State health officials also encourage you to avoid the flu by

• Washing your hands frequently; • Coughing and sneezing into the crook of your arm, rather than uncovered or in your hand; • Avoiding people with respiratory illness; • Staying home from work or school when sick, returning only after a fever has subsided for 24 hours without the use of a fever-reducing medication. Everyone six months of age and older should receive a flu

vaccine. People at high risk of serious complications from seasonal influenza include those 65 years and older, children younger than five years, pregnant women and people of any age with certain chronic medical conditions. The flu vaccine is widely available at doctor’s offices, clinics, health departments and local pharmacies. Treatment with antiviral medications also is available, and is particularly recommended for patients with severe disease, hospitalized patients or patients with a high risk of complications. For more information on Colorado immunizations, go to facebook.com/immunizeCO and twitter.com/ImmunizeCO.


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