right up and over the front range. and then down slope fashion, right across the denver metro area. why we were so warm today, the official temperature at dia at 61 degrees, it's also why it's so gusty outside. the reports, broomfield, jeff co airport, 45 miles per hour. da at 40 miles per hour. and even into aurora at 36 miles per hour. so obviously, if a fire were to start, it would spread very quickly. it doesn't take much after it gets started to really spread, this. and that's why we've got the red flag warning, in effect for one more hour, it expired at 7:00 p.m. wind gusts expected in the red shaded area from 40-50 miles per hour. with humidity, down about 13%. so the wind in combination with the dry humidity the fire danger is high for the denver metro area and sown down south in colorado springs and all the way state lines.

minutes, ed greene will let you know how warm we get this week, it's going to be well above average and when we finally see winds. live tonight in broomfield, justin mcheffey, cbs4 news. developing tonight, an investigation into a plane crash in el paso county. that small plane went down near palmer lake this morning. first responders found the wreckage engulfed in flames. investigators say the wreckage is so badly burned, they weren't able to identify a tail number, if t faa confirms two people were on board. the nearby air force academy says it was not one of its planes. two women in the middle of a bible study in denver, rudely interrupted by a suspected robber. the man was trying to get away from the police, and ran into that home at 13th and lipan. after a s.w.a.t. stand off, police were able to arrest the man, peacefully, the women were able to safely escape the house and they'll tell us how they

now the latest on campaign 2016, doctor ben carson will not be participated in tomorrow night's debate. he does not see a political path forward, in light of last evening's super tuesday results. he did stop short of saying he was dropping out. there's a push now to find the solution to the frustration over colorado's caucuses. >> some voters tell us they get down right angry last night. none of the republicans had a say in the nominee because the party cancelled the straw poll and thousands of democrats didn't get a say because of lines like this. caucus goers wrapped around the building in denver. >> political specialist shaun boyd is live at the state capitol, what is the solution? >>reporter: a presidential primary, karen, lawmakers eliminated it 13 years a over budget concerns, but support for bringing it back grew

people waited for hours to vote in colorado's democratic caucuses. >> it is time to figure out whether or not we can do a dual track parallel system that has caucuses that go on aez well as presidential primaries. >>reporter: colorado democratic party chair rick -- >> so it's a conversation we need to have. >>reporter: and colorado republican party chair steve house are urging state lawmakers to bring back colorado's presidential primary. >> what are the chances of a bill getting this the session? >> it might pass today with a high number, because of the changes on both sides last night. >>reporter: but if democrats and republicans are frustrated voters may be more so. they don't get a say at all in the nominees. despite record turnout, by democrats, tuesday night, the represented 14% of the party. >> in 2014, 67% of new registrations in colorado were unaffiliated voters, it's our

we think, as a business community, their voice needs to be heard. >>reporter: head of the denver metro area chamber of commerce, part of a group that got initial approval for a ballot measure that would allow unaffiliated voters to participate in primaries, including a presidential primary should lawmakers bring it back. >> one way or the other, whether it's legislate i or on the ballot, we're going to see this this year and something will have to be done. >>reporter: now, lawmakers considered a bill to bring back the presidential primary last year, but it failed over concerns about the cost. and an estimated 2 l million dollars and the ability to pull it off by 2016. but representative garn net, who will be carrying the bill this year, told me there will be a political will to pass it now. he said he probably could have walked around a bucket at precincts la night and can it. governor hickenlooper says he is also certainly open to the idea. cbs4 news.

right now, to a medina alert, police search for a hit-and-run driver. investigators say a 66-year-old woman was walking across park avenue west at tremont place last night, hit by a car. she is in critical condition. witnesses told the police that there were several people in the car that hit her. >> we would like to hear from the folks that were in the car. it is not uncommon that people who attempt to hide information about an incident, that they know about, could potentially get charged. >> that car described as a blue 1998 lincoln town car with colorado license plate qki-285. and it is missing a side mirror. police in boulder are looking for a credit card thief who might have taken his dog along on one of the crimes. surveillance cameras spotted who investigators are looking for. cbs4's lauren dispirito, on that story this evening, lauren, he has been using those stolen

>>reporter: yeah, here in boulder and also in westminster, lafayette and also in broomfield. according to the police, but they don't know who he is, so they want your help identifying him. they think he racked up 1600 rth of charges on the cards. one f of those cards was taken from the safeway here on arapahoe. they've put out the pictures showing him with a dog. it is a german shepherd mix, he is wearing a hat in the photos. they think this started last month when the man stole a card from an unlocked home. then, they say a few days later, according to the boulder police, he stole that credit card out of a woman's purse here at the safeway grocery store. >> you think like in a store, with it being well lit and people that -- something like that wouldn't happen. keep my eye out for suspicious things. >>reporter: he's described as being short, a white man, in his 30s. he also was seen driving a

if you have any information about him or these crimes, call boulder police. live in boulder, lauren dispirito, cbs4 news. also in boulder, an air force a -- he is charged of sexual assaulting a woman. the victim says she was with a group of air force cadets that night. he was arrested yesterday after investigators say dna evidence linked him to the crime. happening now, repairs to i a water main that broke at third and can holley, holley is closed between 3rd and 6th. look at the gaping hole in the middle of the intersection. not to mention all of the mud and water that's filtered into the nearby businesses. jamie leary explains, business owners say it's a frequent problem at that spot in the road. working now. this has happened twice before,

flooded. denver water says those breaks were due to bad pipes. they replaced an entire section of piping along holley, but unfortunately, it lookss like they didn't replace the piping just outside of that new replacement, which is right here broke. and once again, these businesses flooded. >> it's a huge nuisance. i'm not making money for a whole day, i'm here for free because i work on commission. >>reporter: you can see how much water was inside of the salon, that water flowing down holley street for a few blocks as well. there are restoration crews cleaning up those businesses now, and i'm told that four residents and one business are water. it could take as long as 12 hours to clear this intersection, but those businesses and residentss should be back up and having water before that happens. but, again, they still need to dig down here and actually get to the water main that's the broken to figure out what

it could be just a leaky valve or could be due to the bad pipes in which case they have to replace part of the water main down here, but whatever the case, they have their work cut in denver, cbs4 news. thank you. and water is expected to be restored by 7:00 tonight. but that intersection likely won't reopen until midnight. so, could super sonic planes come back? nasa is hoping so and paying a colorado company to make one. how the new generation of those jets will be different than the last. two colorado cities considered the best in the country to live in. how they made it on the national list. and the jet stream right over eastern colorado, translating all of those strong winds to the surface, now that moves off to east and this

new tonight, nasa could bring back super sonic jet travel. colorado base lockheed martin a 20 million dollar contract to create a passenger jet that can fly faster than the speed of sound.

the concord was ground and nasa says the new jet will safer, greener and quieter. if you live in southern jefferson or doug last county, you may hear something like rockets going off. mark taylor takes us inside of the aerospace company where engineers are working on their next frontier deposition space travel. >> gone further into space than any other and more than 40 years, now, it's back here on earth, and ready for testing. >> 3, 2, 1. >>reporter: in december of 2014, the world watched as orion tested the waters of deep space travel. before successfully landing in the pacific ocean. now, that same spacecraft is at lockheed martin in littleton. and science r scientists are using it to take us even further. >> this spacecraft is designed

>>reporter: they are testing the effects each rocket launch has on the capsule and the astronauts inside. >> they will recreate the same sound pressure and noise, that the rocket would when it was launching. >>reporter: future missions will require rockets more powerful than ever. and the tests here in colorado may make future nasa missions cheaper, and more frequent. >> this is a feature of america behind us. >>reporter: orion has planned to take humans into deep space by 2023 and they return to new frontiers, those working on orion now hope it inspires future engineers, scientists and even astronauts, right here at home. >> projects like this inspire a lot of kids to want to grow up, do jobs like this. >> we're leading the way to try to get a manned mission to mars. >>reporter: mark at a loshgs cbs --

mars mission have a tentative date of sometime 15 years from now. more affordable housing will soon be available in denver, today, city officials sell bratd the ground breaking -- celebrated the ground breaking of an affordable housing development in the westwood neighborhood. it will be at alameda near federal. the four-story tall building will have a commercial place for retail business and 98 apartments for low and can moderate-income households. including 56 two bedroom units. >> you know what that does to this community? you know what that provides for the people of denver? you know what that provides for a lot of people? it gives them that opportunity to do that for their children. >> it is great news. the city of denver also plans to build two more affordable housing develops in the stapleton and the hail neighborhoods. >> if you live in denver, you're living in the best place to live

>> why from money editor from the partners at koa news radio. >> ranks denver as the top place to live in the country. the magazine looked at the country's largest 100 cities and picked denver because based on factors like jobs, cost of living and national perception, down the list a couple of notches is colorado springs, ranked as the country's 5th best place to live. >> pat also tells us denver tops the list because of relatively low crime rates and access to good schools. u.s. news ranked these austin, texas, fayetteville, arkansas and raleigh-durham, north carolina. you can hear all of the reports on koa news radio. and we also typically have great weather here, not so much today. >> we have the gusty winds today, which nobody seemed to like. we had a few showers over colorado, you can see them going

to the east, we've got clearing skies in the mountain areas. we're seeing the high pressure ridge here. clipping northeastern colorado, that will all begin to move off to the east. and as it does, we'll be under this drier mass, and that will warm us up as well for tomorrow. still, you can see another system sitting out there in the pacific, warmer air with rain behind it, snow ahead of it and then the cold front off the eastern seaboard with a little bit of moisture, nice and sunny over the southeast. the winds today, here's what we've got right now, pretty gusty in eaton, greeley. area. we'll push this into the evening hours, still, 27 at denver, 9:00 park. nederland, as you lose the color, you're losing the winds, 1:30 a.m. all single digits and low teens, that continues right on through tomorrow. and into tomorrow afternoon. and it will stop at right about this time tomorrow. you can see all of the single

gusty in the foothills. but not nearly as bad as we saw today. 61 and 60 in denver, the peak gust out at dia, 53 miles per hour today. our low is 36 and 38. should be at 50 and 23. from our weather watchers, silverthorne had 39 degrees, franktown 55. 57 in southwest lone tree. 56 and 53 right now. we have a west wind at 35. but gusting to 45. 16% humidity and the barometer is on the rise. from debbie, this is sunset from thornton, what a pretty shot that is. and take a look at this from don, this is sunset from deer trail. as we look at the lows tonight, mostly in the teenss, 20s, 30s, over the eastern plains, find single digits, teens, 20s for the high country. out west, 20s and 30s. the winds will die down. only see temperatures in the 60s, to near 70 degrees for the eastern plains.

50s, 60s to around 70 degrees out west. the good looking forecast for tonight. slowly, the winds begin to decrease. 35 and 32 by morning. then for tomorrow, partly cloudy skies. 68 and 67 for the pleasant highs, well above the seasonal normals. 61 on friday. 64 on saturday. sunday looks pretty good with 70 degrees, but then, monday, chance for some showers and turning cooler with a high of just 53 degrees. . >> all right. thanks, ed. the rockies playing baseball again, we're going to take you down to arizona for the spring opener. >> and if you think you know what peyton manning will do next, you might want to hear

,,

peyton manning spotted tonight and he said he had a big announcement. >> yeah, it wasn't on his future, he was talking in florida, he said the people of jacksonville, get 50% off on papa johns. >> hey. >> that is good. >> i can tell you how many times i've been asked, what is peyton going to do? is he going to retire? is he coming back?

my answer, is i have no idea. most people expected him to retire, but here we are, nearly a month later and still no decision. . >> with regard to i'm going to play or i'm not going to play, i don't even ask him. because i know that he's going to tell me when he decides. and when he wants to let me know, he'll let me know. to tell you the truth, you know, decided. so you know, he's going to -- let's face it, the football thing has been a huge part of his life for a very long time. since he's been a little kid. and i mean, you know, you understand this as well as anybody, when that's gone, there's a big hole and you've got to fill it up with something.

decision, march 9th is when the 2016 salary becomes guaranteed. he must pass a physical five days before that, which would be this friday. in doubt that this is kobe bryant's final season, he makes his final appearance in denver, you know, those laker fans will be out in full force tonight. bryant isn't what we once was, but mike malone and the nuggets know firsthand that kobe can show flashes of his old stuff. >> 21 point lead, he's a big part of that. so we expect a great effort, he's rested the last couple of games and he's going to try to give this denver crowd a fond farewell. i hope it's a loss for them. >> that brings us to our century link poll question, who do you think is the greatest laker of all time, these five are listed at the top, cast your vote on the sports page of cbsdenver.com. >> the rockies opened up spring

against arizona. noland hitting the ground running, first inning, he hits a double to left. that scores a run. i've missed watch him play the hot corner, he makes it look so easy. a lot of expectations on young pitcher john, he looked good today. pitched two scoreless inning s with a skriek out, the rockies would go on to lose, 6-3, the future ace was impressive. >> he's on a pitch count last year, i saw him last year, you know, he's got some great stuff, like i said, it's still early, hard to really tell. and you know, i'm excited about him. he likes to come pet and that's what we want -- compete and that's what we want as a pitcher. >> and harbaugh is milk this spring break trip to florida, a coach for the detroit tigers at their spring training game. harbaugh exchanged the starting lineups at home plate and ended up coaching down at 1st base. >> don't want anybody picked off 1st base, that's my main -- nobody get picked off of 1st

get hit by a line drive. personally. >> now, the tigers did lose 10-9, we cannot confirm nor deny -- [ inaudible ]. >> i bet he did. >> thanks. >> englewood based authorities authority files for bankruptcy and the filing papers reveal they are big in debt.

live from colorado's news channel, this is cbs4 news at 6:30. high winds damaged the post office on 20th street in downtown denver, the postal service says a gust picked up an nearby flower pot, causing it to crash right into that door, you can see it's all boarded up now. the red flag remains in effect until 7:00 tonight. justin mcheffey live in broomfield tonight and justin, powerful wind gusts in the metro area today. >>reporter: and they're still whipping up here in broomfield. wind gusts 40-50 miles per hour and even where i'm standing, boulder in the background. we've got gusts about 35-45

not far from here, at the jeff co brofield airport, wind gusts of 46 miles per hour, city park in downtown denver, we had a 40 mile an hour gust, about one hour ago. so the problem when you get weather conditions like this, is it really increases the fire danger. because think about it, east of the mountain, all of the snow has melted. so if any of these very dry shrubs and vegetation are exposed, it will spread quickly, we've got the red flag warning, it expired at 7:00 tonight. that with the low relative hushlthsd it will keep the fire danger high for at least the next 30 minutes, but also, maybe warm temperatures, once again. ed greene's forecast is coming up in a few minute, more now, live in broomfield. sports authority has finally filed for bankruptcy. the company plans to close or sell about 140 stores nationwide in the coming months.