DENVER (AP) — Colorado ski resorts set a visitation record last season, a mark attributed to weather and the California drought.

The Denver Post reports that the state’s 25 ski areas logged 12.6 million visits, a 10 percent jump over last year.

Industry group Colorado Ski County USA says the visitation record came despite “sensationalized media hype” about marijuana. The drug is off-limits on the slopes, most of which are on federal land.

The record was attributed to strong snowfall in the Rockies, along with a California drought that steered skiers to Colorado.

Colorado’s ski communities reported strong spending during the season as well. The resort towns of Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge and Telluride posting record sales-tax revenues for the ski season.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former leader of the state Board of Regents has been named director of the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas.

The appointment of Reggie Robinson was announced Thursday. He replaces Marilu Goodyear, who is leaving the post to become an assistant vice chancellor at the university’s Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

Robinson holds bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Kansas.

He was appointed president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents in 2002, leaving that job in 2010 to teach law at Washburn University and direct its Center of Law and Government.

Robinson has also held senior positions in the U.S. Justice Department, and served four years in the Army.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New federal statistics show Kansas’ gross domestic product grew slightly faster than the national average last year but still lagged behind most other states in the region.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce says Kansas’ gross domestic product grew 1.9 percent in 2013.

GDP is the value of finished goods and services and is considered a key indicator of economic health.

The U.S. saw a 1.8 percent growth in its GDP last year.

But the statistics showed that among eight neighboring or Plains states, only Missouri saw lower GDP growth than Kansas, with 0.8 percent.

The top GDP growth in the region was North Dakota’s 9.7 percent, followed by Oklahoma at 4.2 percent and Colorado at 3.8 percent.

MAYETTA, Kan. (AP) — A leader in the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in northeast Kansas has died in a traffic accident.

Suzanne Heck, editor for the tribe’s newspaper and website, said Thursday that James M. Potter, who was tribal council secretary, died after the accident Wednesday evening west of Mayetta.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Potter’s term as secretary was to end this year.

Heck says the tribe is expected to issue a statement later Thursday about Potter’s death.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Dozens of Kansas judges have heard a presentation about how Germany’s judiciary aided the Nazis and the Holocaust before and during the Second World War.

The presentation Thursday by Marcus Appelbaum and William Meinecke Jr. of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington came during an annual conference for nearly 300 Kansas judges.

Both told reporters before their presentations that Germany had a tradition of an independent judiciary and many of the judges who served before the Nazi regime continued in the judiciary. They said judges interpreted laws broadly to assist the Nazi regime and often appear to have done so to remain relevant in public life.

Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said the history contains lessons for the judiciary and reminds citizens that they must remain involved.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush has celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump near his summer home in Maine.

The 41st president jumped out of a helicopter Thursday while harnessed to a retired member of the Army’s parachute team.

He could be seen floating to the ground using a red, white and blue parachute. A spokesman says he landed safely and softly in Kennebunkport, out of the sight of reporters.

With the jump, Bush made good on a promise from five years ago, when he also celebrated his birthday by skydiving.

The first time Bush jumped from an airplane was when his plane was shot down in World War II over the Pacific.

Thursday marked his eighth jump. He can no longer use his legs because of a form of parkinsonism.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year-old Topeka man is facing carjacking charges after a witness followed him for several miles until officers could make an arrest.

Shawnee County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a carjacking Wednesday in the Pauline shopping district. The victim told police when she went into a store, a man pointed a gun at a teenager in her car. The passenger got out of the car and the man drove off.

WIBW-AM reports a witness followed the car into Osage County, updating emergency dispatchers along the way. An Osage County Sheriff’s deputy followed the car into Burlingame, where the suspect stopped and ran into a house.

He eventually surrendered without incident and is being held in the Shawnee County jail.