this is 9news. we start with breaking news, a construction worker was injured this morning after falling into a hole at a construction site at 18th and lincoln in denver. he was not seriously injured. he did hurt his back, however. so as a precaution, emergency officials did take him to the hospital. this is a live picture of the construction site, thanks to our crew out in the field. again a construction worker hurt earlier today. we are told not seriously but still being looked as for a back injury. also in denver today, there's shock that the police officer memorial at headquarters was vandalized again. it was exactly one year ago when it was first covered in red paint. denver police chief robert white said this time the vandal poured more red paint on the memorial, probably sometime early this morning. that memorial is on cherokee

police have not released any suspect information yet but police say they have surveillance video of the vandalism and believe they know who was responsible. because this was not the first time this memorial has been vandalized, denver police had taken measures to protect it. >> as a result of the incident that occurred last year, i mean, we posted no trespassing signs when the classes closed, we put a barricade around a memorial and also have cameras. >> in february of last year the memorial was vandalized in the exact same way with red paint. two men this their early 20s were caught. chief white says he thinks this recent advancedization happened -- vandalization happened because it was around the one- year anniversary of that incident. a lot of snow up in the high country today and this morning it only really added headache to all the holiday traffic on i-70 on this presidents' day but it's not like this was really a big surprise to anybody. the traffic, i mean. cdot always expects more

and in fact they say more than 49,000 cars pass through the tunnel on -- passed through the tunnel on friday, by 8:00 this morning more than 5000 cars had gone up the tunnel and headed to that resort. the line of cars usually are a pretty good indication of what the lift lines look like at the resorts. this is a look inside where cdot monitors the traffic, i-70 control center and this morning we got to spend some time to see how it all works. belen is jig us from the back yard. we saw all the snow falling and still is. >> three to 7 inches of hours. i would be up there as well. let's take a look at this awesome shot of breckenridge where you can see that snow falling and it is busy on the base right now. there's still several travel advisories in effect, additional snowfall expected through the rest of today, that lingering snow especially along i-70 is going to give problems for those skiers and snow

mountain later this afternoon but you will notice that the snow mainly affecting our north and central mountains and this snowpack numbers were starting to go down, so we happen to see some kind of moisture in country. our radar and satellite is showing that flow coming in from the northwest causing that snow in the high country and even light rain into northeast colorado. clouds around town right now with pretty strong winds if you can see the flags in the bottom right-hand of your corner it's been a very windy night. right now gusts up to 56 miles per hour in broomfield and not done with the strong winds. in fact, through this evening a high wind warning will remain in effect. that area could see gusts up to 75 miles per hour and that includes southern wyoming. as far as the temperatures go, right now we are in the 50s, 40s closer to the foothills, afternoon highs, although they will be mild and above average in the upper 50s and low 60s, well, it's still pretty brisk out here, you need the jacket the northwest. coming up we will talk about the snow lingering, the winds

we are going to see temperatures get close to record highs this weekend. it's been pretty dry across the metro area. is there any chance for snow soon? i'll answer those questions coming up. kyle. >> we will see you shortly then, belen, thank you. the planned parenthood compound in colorado springs back open. only been 2 1/2 months since a man went on a shooting rampage there and killed three people. 9news reporter ryan harris spoke to them ahead of the doors opening. >> reporter: you can see the clinic hasn't been completely repaired since the november shooting. that work will continue as this planned parenthood gets back to operating as it was before the incident. today planned parenthood of the rocky mountain ceo said the patient list for the partial opening today is completely full and all the services they offered before the shooting will be available. since this shooting planned parenthood has taken a closer look at their protocols and structure and while they can't go into details about new safety measures, she says they will be implemented.

and safe and says the fact that patient list is full for today is a sign that people need care and aren't scared to get it. >> we are really a place of a solace, a place of deep, deep care and i think it's a very positive experience for the patients who come to us and i think that's why our schedule filled up immediately. that's why we see 8000 people here every year. so that will continue. >> reporter: at least one pro- life protester stood outside of the parking lot here today. he says he's sad about the shooting and the lives lost but also says he'll continue to work to shut down planned parenthood in his own way, by being vocal about his stance on abortion. a judge recently ordered that the shooter in this case go through a mental health evaluation before moving forward in court proceedings. the shooter will be back in court to discuss that mental health evaluation on february 24th. in colorado springs, i'm ryan haarer, 9news. >> thank you. close to 50 civilians were killed in missile attacks on

in syria and doctors without borders says an attack on a clinic in northern syria has killed at least seven people. the international medical charity says the hospital was hit by four missiles just a few minutes apart and the building was destroyed. heavy smoke, you can see here, is coming from what's left of that hospital. the british based syrian observatory for human rights says this attack was carried out by russian war planes. with the weekend death of antonin scalia, the high court faces this term with only eight members. it's been more than 50 years since the supreme court was in this position and that casts a big shadow of uncertainty as the court prepares to take up cases. here is nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: draped in an american flag, the body of antonin scalia arrived in virginia last sunday night. the justice's death from an apparent heart attack came a month shy of his 80th birthday at this west texas guest ranch. the owner says scalia was in

dying in his sleep in his room. >> he found himself in a very congenial group, he was surrounded by admirers of him and his work. >> reporter: justice anthony kennedy, the court's other ronald reagan appointee says scalia will be remembered for his wisdom -- five conservatives and four liberals. now with just eight justices, that raises the possibility of a 4-4 tie, a tie leaves the lower court ruling intact, a victory for whoever won in the lower courts. among the big cases this term, a tie would maintain tough new texas restrictions on abortion, possibly encouraging other states to pass similar laws. a 4-4 vote would leave the legal hold in place on president obama's plan to let 5 million undocumented migrants stay here. and a tie would head off an effort to weaken unions representing public employees including teachers.

court, that would mean a liberal majority. >> it's never been, i think, so clear that the balance of power i'd logically on the -- ideologically on the court really depends on nominations when the court is so closely divided. >> reporter: among possible nominees, two judges on the washington, d.c. appeals court patricia and paul watford an appeals court judge in california. >> funeral arrangements for justice scalia are expected to be released soon. we will pass them along as soon as we get them. in the family wishes he could be -- if the family wishes he could be given the honor in supreme court's -- a decade ago. a 15-year-old girl is in the hospital today. her mother dead after a crash last night in arvada. it happened around 10:00 near west 80th and sheridan. arvada police say the driver of a jeep ran a red light and slammed into the chevy malibu driven by the teenager's mom. three men who were inside that jeep got out, ran away but

driver, 24-year-old jose sandoval cruz and another man a couple of miles away at 35th and pecos in westminster. police still looking for the other passenger who was in that jeep. they do believe alcohol was involved. a mesa county deputy is being laid to rest today. this is a live look inside where the service will begin in about an hour from now for deputy derrick gear. last wednesday he was shot after he confronted a 17-year- old who matched the description of a suspect with a gun. deputy gear is survived by his wife and two children and the family did donate his organs to help the lives of others. again, we will have more on that service throughout the day on the networks of 9news. so have you gotten to your taxes yet? if not, you might want to get busy when you hear about the new tax fraud crisis. and we are talking about the weather too. it's windy out there, snowy up in the high country.

holiday and belen will fill us in what to expect for the rest

well, no amount of hair spray could help this sister out in the back yard. it is windy. and in the high country we have that snow that continues to fall. let me take you to the high country shots as i fix my hair. copper mountain base certainly is busy on this presidents' day, but it looks like our skiers and snowboarders might have icy and snowpacked roads as they are headed down the mountain this afternoon with travel advisories that remain

copper mountain, loveland, cooper, five, steamboat three and a-basin four. here in the metro area this is day 12 without seeing rain or snow. we will take a look at the extended forecast and see if that changes coming up. right now, 55 degrees at dia, here in the back yard very windy back yard, temperatures at 53 degrees. a check of the weather across the state, starting off with northern colorado and we are already at 50 in ft. collins right now, 45 in greeley, more 50s for lower elevations in the eastern plains, 20s and 40s in the high country. afternoon highs will remain chilly for higher elevations with some pretty strong winds, and we will get into the mid to upper 50s along the i-25 corridor, 60s to the south no matter if those temperatures are above average, it is pretty chilly with those winds coming in from the northwest so i would still recommend that jacket and those wind gusts have been exceeding up to 50 miles per hour and as we take a look at the rest of your afternoon, notice how the winds will continue to be pretty strong in and around the

metro area as well, it won't be until tomorrow when we start to see an improvement with those winds and i'm talking about an improvement because i'm comparing them to gusts up to 75 miles per hour. so it could still be gusty at times. that snow lingers in the high country throughout the day, here's your futurecast, we are going to stay dry here on the front range, a chance for showers into northeast colorado, no severe weather expected and our skies will actually clear here in the city as we approach later this afternoon and evening. here's 9:00, rain into northeast colorado, snow still in our north and central mountains, at that time the travel advisories will expire and then tomorrow the weather is setting up to be dry across the state. here is a look at the rest of your day and notice that i did mention that we will be seeing some clearing as we approach evening hours. tonight the temperatures drop to 31, our skies partly cloudy, winds 10 to 20 miles per hour, and in the next several days we are going to have a high pressure ridge that builds over the western part of our country bringing our temperatures warm

friday that chance for snow arrives for the high country. for us here it's still going to stay pretty dry. tomorrow the high of 61, we approach near record highs on wednesday, 71, thursday 68, friday sunny and breezy, 63.

a warning from denver police today to be on the lookout for police impersonators. over the weekend there were

cases, but police don't think these two are connected. give you the details on both. the first one happened on friday night. two men who were in a maroon car with flashing lights pulled a driver over and robbed him. the driver says both were wearing uniforms and handcuffed him before taking about $180. this happened near 38th and sheridan. but then on the second -- the second incident was on saturday in denver's washington park naked. investigators say again two people in a dark blue sedan had red and blue flashing lights and tried to pull over a driver near the park. the driver felt like something wasn't quite right so he called 911 and that other car drive away -- drove away. there is some really promising new research that may change the game for those fighting blood cancers. researchers at the american association for the advancement of science announced that slightly modified stem cells may improve a powerful new type cell therapy. scientists are able to engineer

immune system to fight off the cancer cells. this is still in clinical trials but so far scientists let's hope. it is a mission that has lasted a dozen years around saturn and a team in colorado has helped us get a really close look at this distant planet and its moons. it's called cassini and it is a nasa spacecraft that's been orbiting saturn since 2004 and in the process it has captured amazing photographs. the cassini imaging team known as sigh cyclopse is based -- deorbit and it's going to crash into saturn next year. but before that, it will take many more pictures of saturn. coming up a little bit later on on our newscast today here at 9news, 9news reporter maya rodriguez will take us inside this lab where the pictures get processed for us all to see. we are going to get an inside

we are a few weeks into tax alerting taxpayers there could be something terribly wrong with their tax returns. american taxpayers are getting letters from the irs that shows the agency is again dealing tax returns. and these troubles this year are traced back to last year's data security breaches where millions of social security numbers ended up in the hands of i.d. thieves. these thieves then use the numbers to file a fake return and get other people's tax refunds. experts say the main thing you can do to prevent fraud is to file as early as possible this year. check out this video. it captured the moment a cliff collapsed into the sea below after a 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck new zealand yesterday. there were more than 40 aftershocks. now, police say there were no major reports of serious damage

this video, though, oh, my gosh, that is incredible. so after a serious injury, olympic and world cup champion mikaela schifrin said she would be back and boy is she. in her first race back she won. she tore a ligament in her right knee back in december. the 20-year-old left the world cup circuit, came back home to vail, spent about two months in rehab and two weeks ago she skied for the first time since december and this morning she knocked out two perfect runs and won the world cup slalom by almost half a second. this, her 18th world cup race so happy for her and her family. that's awesome. who is ready for the grammys tonight? kendrick lamar is. he enters the 2016 grammy awards with 11 nominations, the most for any artist. taylor swift one of the two runners up in the nominations hall, she is going with seven nominations including for album

and song of the year for blank space. included among the performances slated for tonight are tributes to recently passed away music stars david bowie, glen fry and maurice white. one artist who is not competing for grammys at the show tonight, adele, is going to perform. yep, she is going to be performing tonight at the

man, look at this rock. look what miners in the african country of angola found, a 404- carat diamond worth almost $14 million. it's 2.7 inches long. that will be impossible to fit on somebody's finger. it is the largest diamond ever found in angola. you remember when we talked about mariah's kerry's ring

that was 35. >> crazy. >> that is huge. this is how i came in from outside in the back yard. extra spray, blown away. >> everybody is wearing it like that today. >> yep, because we got that high wind warning that's currently in effect in and around the foothills so be careful. we thought we would see the stronger winds last through tonight and if you're traveling through the high country, i see slippery roads. >> and windy too. thank you. >> thank you. >> you look gorgeous today. >> i feel like beyonce. >> you look beautiful. have fun watching the grammys, right? have a great day, everybody.

ted cruz and the adult film star. his new attack ad disaster. now on "extra." christian values advocate ted cruz casts a porn star in his anti-rubio ad. >> maybe you should vote for more than just a pretty face next time. >> how he's explaining himself today, and why she's lashing out at cruz. then -- >> i think there's a very good chance of president donald trump. >> president obama are ellen getting personal about his wife.