“When curious visitors come to Colorado with questions about legal marijuana, Durango now has the go-to place,” reports The Durango Herald. “The mission of the Durango Cannabis Discovery Center is to provide information about cannabis, the cannabis industry and laws governing the marijuana industry. “We deal with people every day, mostly tourists, who have questions, and we wanted to provide a center that provides information from seed to sale,” said Jason Barker, co-owner of the discovery center at 965 Main Ave., the space previously occupied by Jewelry Works.”

“Colorado House District 50 hasn’t had an open seat this millennium, and a Republican hasn’t won the mostly Greeley seat since 2002,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “This year, two Democratic candidates, including a former District 50 representative, will face off in a primary to see who gets to attempt to keep the Democratic streak alive. Former Greeley City Councilwoman Rochelle Galindo is running as the fresh face of the district, pitching herself as a more representative representative for the strongly Latino district.”

“When community volunteers started going to local gun shops, pawn shops and firing ranges in Mesa County to ask to display suicide prevention and gun safety materials, Susan Becker was a little nervous,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “I know I wasn’t alone in being concerned that shop owners would have concerns about being singled out or that this was about gun control,” she said. But those concerns never materialized, because Colorado’s Gun Shop Project has seen wide success across the state. Becker, a psychology professor at Colorado Mesa University, in the fall visited 96 gun shops, pawn shops and firing ranges in 16 Colorado counties that agreed to participate in a pilot phase of the Gun Shop Project. Of those, 74 percent still had materials about gun safety and suicide prevention displayed for their customers to access.”

“An elk calf was attacked by a dog near the trailhead of Blackmere Drive on Emerald Mountain this morning, closing the trail for the day,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “A Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer was dispatched to the scene after Routt County Communications received a call from the dog owner about the incident. The calf, which was found about 15 yards south of the trailhead, didn’t have any apparent wounds, according to Kris Middledorf, Colorado Parks and Wildlife area wildlife manager, who arrived on scene at about 8:30 a.m.”

“After nearly two decades in Summit County, Norma Quezada thought she would be a homeowner by now, but her hopes have been dashed repeatedly by poor credit and rising home prices,” reports Summit Daily. “‘It’s very frustrating,” Quezada said, with her daughter translating in the kitchen of her small Wildernest apartment. “I’ve tried many times.” Rent prices have soared as well, and Quezada has been forced to move at least five times since leaving Mexico for Summit County 20 years ago. In 2016, the latest time she and her family of four were told to pack up, she had just one month’s notice. “We were scrambling because it was just such a surprise,” Quezada said. ‘Out of nowhere we just get a call saying the owner is deciding to sell the apartment, so we didn’t really know where to start looking.'”

“Lawmakers from Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico are demanding that new Amtrak President Richard Anderson keep the federally sponsored railroad’s past commitment to support improvements to the route of the Southwest Chief passenger train,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “In a letter to Anderson, the federal lawmakers — including Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner — are demanding that Amtrak provide a $3 million grant the railroad had agreed to provide before Anderson became chief of Amtrak last year.”

“Jefferson County’s public health chief on Thursday declared that the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge should stay closed to the public for lack of a ‘truly independent’ assessment of potentially lethal plutonium contamination both on and off the federal property,” reports The Denver Post. “Dr. Mark Johnson’s declaration — made in federal court to back a request by environment groups for a judicial order blocking the scheduled opening this summer — intensifies the recent flaring of mistrust around cleanup of the nation’s Cold War nuclear sites. It is rooted in decades of obfuscation and secrecy that have come back to haunt the government as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service labors to begin a new chapter.”

“A local teen was on the run only a few hours after he allegedly stabbed a female jogger in the early morning of Thursday, May 31,” reports Vail Daily. “Andrew Young, Jr., 18, was arrested at 9:53 a.m., about three hours after the 6:32 a.m. attack, in which Young allegedly stabbed a female jogger on the Eagle Valley Trail near The Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa in Avon Two people rendered immediate lifesaving aid to the victim, Avon Police Chief Greg Daly said. She was rushed to the Vail Health hospital, where she was reported in stable condition as of late Thursday afternoon. Young immediately fled the scene. Avon police and Eagle County Sheriff’s deputies soon arrested Young without incident, Daly said.”

“Peter Tippett is taking on homelessness one home at a time,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Tippett, a former real estate agent, wants to help provide housing to people often described as the “invisible homeless.” “These are people who live in Fort Collins and have jobs and cars and families and they are homeless — or on the verge of being homeless,” he said. “This is our target audience, as opposed to the chronic homeless.” These are the couch-surfers, the people staying with family and friends for a few weeks at a time. They might earn too much income to qualify for government housing assistance but not enough to afford Fort Collins’ rising rents.”

“Beaten, bound and forced onto his stomach with his hands tied behind his back, Full Throttle Auto Service owner George Maldonado Sr. was anything but a threat,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “But that didn’t stop one of his robbers from making sure with a single deadly stomp on the incapacitated man’s head, authorities say. “Right there – no provocation, nothing,” prosecutor Nathaniel Marsh said Thursday as he walked a jury through surveillance footage that captured the fatal blow, allegedly inflicted by Eric William Grant, 39, after two men burst into Maldonado’s shop last July disguised as utilities workers.”

“She strutted on the stage in kicks, the way a dancer does, in a red-sequined gown and blue-and-white top hemmed in stars,” reports ColoradoPolitics. “The harmonic chords of ‘American Woman,’ the Lenny Kravitz cover, felt like kicking open a door at Denver’s Diamond Cabaret strip club Saturday night, when Stormy came to town. The political gawkers looked just like the regular gawkers in the dimly lit club where strobe lights twirl from the ceiling. The place smelled of cigars and loneliness. Stormy Daniels — who has been making a series of appearances around the country like the one Saturday in Denver — is a big deal in the adult film industry and a bigger deal in Washington politics. Daniels is suing President Donald Trump to get out of a non-disclosure agreement that barred her from talking about whether they had a fling in 2006. Weeks before the election two years ago, she took $130,000 from Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen not to say anything. Trump doesn’t deny paying the money, but he denies having the affair.”

“Over the last decade, Larimer County school districts have lost out on more than $372 million in state funding,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “That’s according to the Colorado School Finance Project, which released updated numbers this month. The Colorado School Finance Project determined the shortfall by comparing how much Colorado school districts would have received without the budget stabilization factor, or negative factor.”

“Starting this week, Colorado’s unaffiliated voters will begin casting ballots in the state’s primary election for the first time ever,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Also for the first time, Colorado voters in both parties are faced with contested primaries for an open seat for governor. There are also crowded races for state treasurer in both parties and for attorney general among the Democrats, as well as what’s shaping up to be primaries in nearly every one of the state’s seven congressional districts and a smattering of heated contests in legislative and other races. Coincidence? Experts say no. Most primary voters will be facing more choices than ever this year thanks to the change in voting rules.”

“An FBI agent who busted moves in a downtown Denver bar may get busted. Denver’s district attorney this week is expected to decide whether the city will prosecute the agent,” reports The Denver Post. “He was off-duty but armed early Saturday when his gun fell as he did a back flip while dancing in front of a crowd and he accidentally shot a man in the lower leg, according to police reports. The wounded man was treated in a hospital and was expected to recover, according to Denver police.”

“Steep and rugged terrain made building containment lines difficult for crews fighting the 416 Fire 10 miles north of Durango on Sunday,” reports The Durango Herald. “And though rain was a welcome sight for everyone, it had no impact on the fire, according to authorities. The blaze remained at 2,255 acres and 10 percent containment Sunday night. Almost 400 firefighters are working on the fire.”

“For nearly half its existence, the Collbran Job Corps Center has been headed by William Governor Aker — Gove Aker to contemporaries, Mr. Aker to his students and staff,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Aker finished off his career last week at the center, capping off 23 years as head of the center, a place where he worked twice before landing the top job. In that time, said Collbran Mayor Lew Evans, Aker “took a mediocre Job Corps center and made it into one of the two best in the country.” Aker is ‘a guy who just gives and gives and gives and gives and just when you think he can’t give any more, he does,’ Evans said.”

“Olympian Chloe Woodruff has confirmed she will compete in the 2018 GoPro Mountain Games on Saturday, June 9,” reports Vail Daily. “Woodruff will take on the new cross-country mountain biking course which starts at the base of Golden Peak at 10:45 a.m. A former Mountain Games competitor who has taken the last 5 years off to compete on the World Cup circuit, Woodruff found an opening in her schedule this season and is excited to make a much-anticipated return.”

“The man on the telephone had a gun to his head, but he wanted Kim Jeffries to send the police to his home so his family wouldn’t be the ones to find his body,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Jeffries gave an ironic smile as she remembered. The man, so tormented he wanted to end his life, also didn’t want to be a burden to her. “He said he’d hang up before he pulled the trigger so I wouldn’t have to hear the gun go off,” she said. ‘So I did everything I could to keep him from hanging up.'”

“While in the University of Northern Colorado’s renowned School of Theatre Arts, Andy Kelso played guitar, wrote songs and sang for a band called Dizzynova,” reports The Greeley Tribune. The buddies played at a lounge or two near campus, plus at Herman’s Hideaway and the Paramount Café in Denver. A scholarship acting major who took musical theater classes only as electives, Kelso was in a grand total of one UNC musical. That was “West Side Story,” and he snapped his fingers and rumbled as a Jet. This is not the resume of a Broadway musical star, is it? Yet 16 years after his 2002 graduation from UNC, Kelso is established as a bona fide big-type, bright-lights lead, mostly thanks to his roughly three-year New York run (in two stints) as Charlie Price in “Kinky Boots,” composed by rock icon Cyndi Lauper.”

“Between now and June 26, the four remaining Democratic candidates vying for the party’s nomination — Mike Johnston, Cary Kennedy, Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne and U.S Rep. Jared Polis — will be seeing each other pretty often,” reports Denverite. “Their next public meeting will be during Monday’s debate, produced by 9News and airing on Channel 20 KTVD at 7 p.m. There still isn’t a clear frontrunner, but conventional wisdom among close observers right now is that there’s a split between Kennedy and Polis as the most popular candidates and Johnston not far behind.”

“Parents and law enforcement officials hope meetings this week with St. Vrain Valley School District regarding a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office proposal to store long-range rifles in firearm safes inside two high schools steer clear of political debate surrounding gun rights,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Questions from parents about the monitoring of such safes and how effectively they might expedite a deputy’s response to a shooting at either Lyons Middle/Senior or Niwot high schools loom ahead of public discussions with St. Vrain Superintendent Don Haddad. Citing greater emergency response times to those two schools compared to campuses within city limits, the sheriff’s office in April asked the district allow installation of safes that could be unlocked only by a deputy’s fingerprint to keep police-issued AR-15 rifles inside both schools.”

“Former Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Dodd, who is accused of storing murder evidence in a personal storage locker, is set to go to trial June 25-29,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Monday was Dodd’s final chance to take a plea agreement in the case. Judge Norman Cooling granted Dodd’s lawyer’s request to give potential jurors a questionnaire before they sit on the jury. “It’s a small community, and I’ve seen a lot of publicity,” attorney Randy Jorgensen said. “I think it might expedite things if we ask questions to see if they’ve already formed an opinion.” Jorgensen said he is waiting for a copy of a local television interview with the person who allegedly discovered the murder evidence. He said Rick Ratzlaff, who bought Dodd’s storage locker, made a ‘bunch of statements that are inconsistent’ with other interviews.”

“The nearly three-year legal battle over the controversial Martin Marietta Materials concrete and asphalt plant in Johnstown took another sharp turn Monday after a judge effectively sent the project back into the hands of the Board of Weld County Commissioners,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Weld District Court Judge Todd Taylor issued two separate rulings Monday afternoon, denying the plant’s neighbors’ request to have it torn down and affirming an entreaty from Martin Marietta and the county for a chance to fix the issues that caused the Colorado Court of Appeals to reverse the county commissioners’ decision to allow the plant.”

“The state’s largest public employee pension system got a needed shot in the arm Monday when Gov. John Hickenlooper signed significant reforms into law,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “While issues impacting the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association are far from solved, a bill approved during this year’s legislative session went a long way toward addressing them, lawmakers said.”

“Monday’s news that Crested Butte Mountain Resort was among the latest acquisitions of Vail Resorts advances the competition between its Epic Pass and the Ikon Pass and, with it, the consolidation of destination ski areas, particularly in the American West,” reports Vail Daily. “The Associated Press reported that Vail will make Crested Butte its fifth Colorado ski resort along with Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Vail, its flagship resort. It will pay $82 million to acquire Triple Peaks LLC, which is held by the Tim and Diane Mueller family and includes Crested Butte, Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont and Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire.”

“The newly formed Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance is gearing up to fight the pending plans to expand the Mid-Continent limestone quarry north of town,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The group will hold an informational meeting regarding the forthcoming Transfer Trail Mine expansion, as it’s known, at 6 p.m. tonight at the Hotel Colorado. Rocky Mountain Resources (RMR), which currently extracts limestone on the federally leased land near the base of Transfer Trail north of Glenwood Springs, has its eyes set on a major expansion of the operation.

“GateHouse Media, one of the largest publishers of locally based media in the United States, officially assumed ownership of The Pueblo Chieftain on Monday,” the paper reports. “With that, General Manager Brad Slater now leads the nearly 150-year-old publication in Pueblo. Slater, who has been general manager at The Chieftain for the past 3 1/2 years, has authority under his current role as well as the duties of former Publisher Jane Rawlings.”

“Two moose were loose in Loveland on Monday morning before being tranquilized by wildlife officers and relocated to a wilderness area northwest of Masonville,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “The two female moose had wandered into a field near the intersection of West 50th Street and Duffield Avenue, which is within the Alford Meadows subdivision. Colorado Parks and Wildlife district wildlife manager Joe Padia said the moose were “most likely siblings” of about a year old that had been “kicked loose from their mother” and followed a drainage into Loveland in search of a place to live.”

“A 19-year-old man was sentenced to probation and work release for blazing past a stop sign on a dark country road, causing a crash that killed a Poudre High School student and his mom last November,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Eighth Judicial District Judge Susan Blanco sentenced Connor Givans of New Mexico to 10 years of probation and 18 months of work release, which allows people to serve jail sentences while living in a residential facility and leaving during working hours. Givans also will lose his driver’s license for seven years, must pay $17,000 in restitution to the Cortez family and must complete 1,000 hours of community service over 10 years.”

“Town Manager Chris Lowe was fired Monday night in a unanimous vote by the town’s six trustees after they spent more than three hours in executive session,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Lowe had been suspended in early February, placed on paid administrative leave for two weeks. But that suspension was extended for months amid apparent allegations of sexual harassment as well as fears among staff members of retribution by Lowe. Lowe, who was paid about $121,000 a year, did not respond to requests for comment Monday night.”

“The fate of a rule that restricts city building heights could be decided Tuesday night as the Boulder City Council looks to either extend or make permanent a moratorium that is in its third year,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Passed in 2015, the ordinance limits developers’ ability to construct 55-foot-tall projects. Fifty-five feet is the voter-approved ceiling ensconced in the city charter since 1971, but it must be granted through modifications.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reignited a debate about the fairness and future of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission by issuing a rebuke of the panel’s handling of a case against a Lakewood baker who in 2012 refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple,” reports The Denver Post. “The court’s 7-2 decision in baker Jack Phillips’ favor, while narrow and unlikely to impact the authority and mission of the commission, immediately prompted calls by Republicans in the Colorado General Assembly for changes to the panel. That’s despite a last-minute, bipartisan compromise reached in the final hours of the recently ended legislative session to change the commission and keep it operating for several years, following months of efforts by conservatives to make drastic changes.”

“Steep and rugged terrain made building containment lines difficult for crews fighting the 416 Fire 10 miles north of Durango on Sunday,” reports The Cortez Journal. “And though rain was a welcome sight this weekend, it had no impact on the fire, according to authorities. The 416 Fire was at 2,402 acres on Monday morning and remained at 10 percent contained. Firefighters planned to focus on protecting homes on the southern edge of the fire Monday in the Hermosa area. “We’re trying to be really proactive down there,” said Vickie Russo, spokeswoman for the Type II management team. “That’s why they’re on pre-evacuation.” Firefighters continued to dig containment lines by hand or by machine. Structure crews worked on fuels mitigation such as clearing brush and flammable materials from around homes.”

“A planned homeless camp expected to open near the Durango Dog Park may pose health risks to residents, but the city does not plan to assess potential hazards before allowing people to sleep on the former uranium mill site,” reports The Durango Herald. “The state health department recently sent a letter to the city to recommend officials complete a health-risk assessment because radioactive materials were left on the site and the risk to those staying overnight on the land is unknown. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment restricts the use of the property through an environmental covenant because hazardous materials remain on the site. City officials do not believe setting up the camp violates the covenant, and the city is not seeking approval from the state to set up the camp, the letter states. ‘The city undertakes this effort at its own risk,’ the health department’s letter states.”

“A proposed smoking ban in Greeley’s public parks, trails and open spaces lost some steam Tuesday as members of the city council tabled first reading of the ordinance, sending it back to city staff for more research,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “The ban, originally presented to the council by the city’s Youth Commission in a work session April 10, would stretch from sidewalks to playgrounds, encompassing all parks, trails and open spaces except for a few designated smoking areas at Island Grove Regional Park. It originally was on Tuesday’s agenda for first reading.”

“He was supposed to be there for everything,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “He was supposed to teach his son to drive, teach him what he needed to know about girls. He was supposed to walk down the aisle with the daughter he and his wife adopted from China. Together, the couple joked often about how cute their grandchildren would be, dreamed about the life they’d have when they were old.”

“With the board of education of Pueblo City Schools (D60) mandated by the state to adopt its 2018-19 budget by the end of the month, work continues on what is in essence a ‘fluid’ document,'” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Tuesday, during a three-hour retreat, the board members, Superintendent Charlotte Macaluso and Chief Financial Officer David Horner took a more in-depth look at line items within the proposed budget. While the district is anticipating that student enrollment will continue to drop next year, the financial impact from fewer children in seats will, fortunately, be mitigated.”

“The empty building once known as Longmont’s Old City Jail, located north of Ninth Avenue and Main Street, was condemned by the city Tuesday and is slated to be demolished later this week,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Public pressure mounted Tuesday for the city to do something about the building at 915 Main St. a day after Longmont Matters Radio posted a Facebook Live video about transient drug users squatting at the dilapidated structure. The building — built in 1969 with then-old materials on the site of North Longmont’s combination town hall and jail — is currently littered with trash, stained mattresses and used drug paraphernalia.”

“Colorado Parks and Wildlife has issued a citation to the owner of the off-leash dog that attacked an elk calf Thursday near the Blackmere Drive trailhead,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The citation was for harassment of wildlife, and it carries a $200 fine plus surcharges. The name of the dog owner was not released Tuesday. “The individual in this case was extremely cooperative,” Steamboat Springs Police Chief Cory Christensen said.”

“As the weather warms up, you’re likely to spot more makeshift campsites on Fort Collins Natural Areas, especially near the river,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Leave them be and report them to the city for cleanup, Fort Collins officials urge. The city has spent more than $20,000 cleaning up roughly 260 camps on natural areas in the last year, the Coloradoan found. The camps, left behind by homeless or transient dwellers, often contain potentially dangerous items, like needles, glass, alcohol, drugs and human waste.”

“The meeting lasted 5 minutes. On Thursday, May 31, the Avon Town Council voted in favor of terminating Town Manager Virginia Egger,” reports Vail Daily. “Egger was an at-will employee, and council members do not have a legal obligation to explain their reasoning in letting her go. Mayor Pro Tem Sarah Smith Hymes made the motion to terminate ‘without cause.’ Prior to that motion being made, the council had met in closed session to discuss Egger’s annual performance review.”

“The company many people know for its hardy cellphones will work with the city of Loveland to design and engineer a detailed plan for its future municipal broadband network,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “We felt that their engineering experience and background was a very good fit,” said Brieana Reed-Harmel, broadband project manager for the city. The 12 respondents to the city’s request for proposals for the project were assigned scores based on eight initial qualifications, including their safety records, experience and cost as illustrated in their proposals. The vendors were narrowed to four finalists, who were interviewed in person. Reed-Harmel said city staff were comfortable with the fiber optic construction team, Bear Communications, and have a ‘very strong’ level of confidence in the team.”

“The push to widen Interstate 25 from Monument to Castle Rock just got a $65 million federal boost, a key chunk of funding for the project,” reports The Gazette. “The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program, state transportation officials said Tuesday. The Colorado Department of Transportation wants to add two toll lanes to “the Gap,” a two-lane stretch of about 18 miles, widening it to three lanes in each direction. CDOT also is getting $25 million from the feds to add an additional 12-mile shoulder lane on Interstate 70 in Clear Creek County. ‘The Gap’ plan from Monument to Castle has outraged some residents, who say toll lanes will only help those who pay the toll, and they’ll amount to double taxation because local taxpayers already are contributing to the project.”

“School nurses in Colorado now can administer nonsmokable medical marijuana to students whose parents have given permission,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Colorado law already permitted parents to give their children medical marijuana at school, typically for treating seizures. A new law signed this week by Gov. John Hickenlooper allows parents to bring the medicine to a school nurse’s office for a child who has a medical marijuana card. The law requires that the medicine be kept in a locked storage container and that the school principal and a parent have a written agreement. It also says the parent must bring a doctor’s note that instructs the school nurse about dosage and timing.”

“Colorado U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman said he and about two dozen like-minded Republican lawmakers have built enough support to force a vote in the U.S. House on a raft of immigration measures — including proposals that would protect from deportation young immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children,” reports The Denver Post. “Whether Coffman and his colleagues actually move forward with that plan is another question. A divided House Republican caucus is scheduled to meet Thursday in a last-ditch effort to hash out an intra-party compromise on immigration before Coffman and his colleagues try their end-around of House Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders.”

“Xcel Energy’s latest plan for electric production in Colorado calls for building three major solar power systems in Pueblo County, along with battery storage, and additional wind power that would let it dismantle the Comanche 1 and 2 power units south of the city,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “The ambitious energy forecast — called a 120-Day Report — confirms what Xcel has been suggesting for the past year: It intends to shift its power production into renewable energy and away from traditional carbon sources, including natural gas. Alice Jackson, president of Xcel Energy Colorado, said in a statement: ‘Our recommended plan secures long-term and low-cost renewable power, stimulates economic development in rural Colorado and substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions — all at a savings to customers.'”

“Karen Scopel didn’t sugarcoat it when she described what the natural lands that sit near 71st Avenue and the Poudre River Trail will look like in about a month,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “‘It’s going to look bad out here for awhile, bottom line. It’s all going to get pretty torn up,” Scopel, Greeley’s natural lands coordinator, said Wednesday, pointing to the 89 acres of surrounding landscape, made up of tall grasses, patches of cottonwood trees and an old utility road that was once used by oil and gas operators in the area.”

“Despite protests from neighbors, the Grand Junction City Council voted 6-1 on Wednesday night to allow approximately 300 homes to be planned for a subdivision north of Holy Family Catholic School,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The council voted to approve the zoning request after more than two hours of public comments and testimony, the majority of which opposed allowing the zoning for two homes per acre and some asking the council to consider limiting development to one home per acre.”

“Private security officers clad in khaki pants and gray shirts bearing the phrase ‘Longmont Welcoming Spaces Outreach Team’ will begin patrolling parts of Longmont next week in a joint venture between the city and the Longmont Downtown Development Authority,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The new program, characterized as the use of a “private security force” in an internal city email obtained by the Longmont Times-Call and Daily Camera, had not been announced publicly. But when asked about it Wednesday, officials confirmed the city contracted the Trident Protection Group for “ambassador services,” and that those patrols will begin Monday in order to ‘provide some additional eyes and ears.'”

“A mountain lion discovered Tuesday afternoon on a popular Steamboat Springs trail was euthanized Tuesday evening by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Something was wrong with it,” area wildlife manager Kris Middledorf said. Middledorf said a mountain biker was on the Morning Gloria Trail on Emerald Mountain when he discovered the animal at about 4 p.m. “All of the sudden he came around the corner, hit his brakes and a mountain lion was on the trail,” Middledorf said. An animal control officer from the city of Steamboat Springs responded to the scene in addition to a wildlife officer. The animal was still partially on the trail and still breathing but would not respond to audible or physical stimuli.”

“After a bear attacked a family campsite near Red Feather Lakes on Tuesday night, Colorado Parks & Wildlife is on the lookout for the perpetrator,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “A bear “trampled through a tent” containing a family of four, sending a man to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, according to a release Wednesday from the department. Parks & Wildlife, as well as the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, responded to a report of the attack around 11 p.m. Tuesday. Area wildlife manager Ty Petersburg stated in the release that the family was in a tent in a dispersed camping area off County Road 67J, also known as Prairie Divide Road. That road passes Hiawatha Lake, Lake Ramona and Mitchell Lake No. 3.”

“Colorado’s largest charter school for gifted and talented students has been hit with eight civil rights complaints in two years,” reports The Denver Post. “But administrators at Stargate Charter School, in Thornton, say they have learned their lesson and are making changes to better address allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination against disabled students. The complaints include the school’s mishandling of allegations that a former coach groped students and the school’s treatment of students with disabilities. The school has followed steps laid out by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, including employee training, a full review of the school’s processes for handling complaints and bringing on a Title IX coordinator, Jan Kulmann, Stargate’s governing board president said. The school’s executive director stepped down in April.”

“Pedro Gonzalez savagely beat Dita Richterova. Gonzalez admitted it and security video showed him doing it,” reports Vail Daily. “A jury spent four hours Wednesday afternoon, June 6, determining that Gonzalez was also guilty of trying to kill her. Along with assault, the jury of eight women and four men found him guilty of attempted first-degree murder. Gonzalez shifted his weight slightly when the verdict was read. Richterova exhaled with deep relief.”

“Boulder’s timeout on 55-foot-tall buildings likely will continue through 2020 after the City Council voted 5-4 late Tuesday night to extend the 2015 ban yet again,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The measure will go to a third reading at a future meeting. The split vote took place close to midnight in front of a nearly empty chamber. A handful of speakers stuck around after a lengthy discussion on accessory dwelling units to voice their views on the height ordinance, which limits developers’ ability to request height variances up to the city’s voter-mandated 55-foot limit. “We don’t need it,” said John Tayer, speaking for the Boulder Chamber, which has come out against the ban. ‘You have in your ability as City Council to hold off on any buildings above 35 feet that you don’t approve of.'”

“The historic Hotel St. Cloud is expected to be put up for auction to the public after efforts to raise funds for its restoration have been slow going,” reports The Cañon Cty Daily Record. “The hotel at 631 Main St., and the entire downtown district, are listed on the National Historic Register. “It is no secret that the FOY has had its challenges in generating community and public financial support for its efforts,” a letter Wednesday from the FOY to the city council states. ‘The foundation has had many Cañon City fundraising events and cumulatively has not raised enough matching funds for one grant.'”

“Colorado would see more than $120 million in construction at local military bases under a $716 billion military policy and spending bill the Senate is taking up this week,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The bill, which has already made its way through the House Armed Services Committee, would spend more than $100 million on Fort Carson, which would get a $77 million vehicle maintenance facility along with $24 million in new construction for the post’s 10th Special Forces Group. The Green Berets would get a $15 million “human performance training center” geared to prepare troops for combat in a method that’s reminiscent of how the NFL gets players ready for games. In addition to classrooms, the facility would include physical fitness facilities and amenities for dietary training.”

“The federal government would be forced to respect state laws on marijuana under a bill introduced Thursday by U.S. Sens. Cory Gardner and Elizabeth Warren,” reports The Denver Post. “The measure, which is welcomed by the cannabis industry but faces a tough path to becoming law, wouldn’t legalize the drug in states that haven’t sanctioned its use or sale. Nor would it expand its legality beyond whatever a state already has approved — say, to authorize recreational use in a state that has approved marijuana only for medical purposes. But in states that have welcomed marijuana, including Colorado, the measure would end the current conflict between federal and state law by giving states the upper hand. “We just want the federal government to get out of the way,” Warren said.”

“The last night of the Sumdog National Math Contest, Chappelow K-8 third-grader Luca Wakefield went to bed before the results had been finalized,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “He knew his Chappelow team, one of 1,500 in the country competing in the online competition, had a shot at first place, but he wasn’t sure they’d be able to secure it. Then, while Luca slept, his mom Mariana got an email with the results — they’d won. She told her son as soon as he woke up.”

“A new natural gas-fired electricity plant in western Colorado sought by local elected officials and the energy industry isn’t part of an Xcel Energy state power plan proposal unveiled this week,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Not only was no new western Colorado plant proposed during the bidding process Xcel conducted in developing the plan, but the company is proposing that what natural gas power it would obtain would come through the purchase of existing plants.”

“St. Vrain Valley Superintendent Don Haddad told an audience at Sunset Middle School in Longmont on Thursday evening that the roughly 50 students who’ve been asked to chime in about police keeping AR-15 rifles at Niwot High and Lyons Middle/Senior High were split on the issue,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “‘It was a mixed bag,’ Haddad said. ‘For some, it made them feel anxious. Others said, ‘You know, if that’s what it takes to keep us safe.'” The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office has asked for permission from the school district to keep an AR-15-style rifle — popular with gun enthusiasts, but targeted by gun-control advocates — in a locked safe the Niwot and Lyons schools for use in the event of a school shooting.”

“With a dry and hot start to June and high wildfire risk in parts of Colorado, the city of Steamboat Springs has been working on a backup plan if it is too dry to launch July Fourth fireworks,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “‘The leaning from the fire chief at this point is no fireworks,” City Manager Gary Suiter told Steamboat Springs City Council members Tuesday. “The long-term forecast shows maybe an afternoon shower later in the month.” When fireworks were canceled last July Fourth, the city was left without a backup plan, and city officials have been wanting to make plans for future years.”

“A 9th Judicial District Court Judge has concluded that prosecutors haven’t met their burden in proving Michael Montgomery should face first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of his son-in-law in Rifle in March 2017,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “Instead, Judge Denise Lynch has decided to bind the case over as second-degree murder. According to Colorado statute, first-degree murder is defined as both intentional and premeditated. At Montgomery’s last hearing on May 24, Judge Lynch decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the crime was planned.”

“Death threats, both over the phone and via social media. Continued harassment and denigration, mostly through social media, that’s led to the departure of staff and a culture of fear,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Despite City Council’s passage of the Pueblo Animal Protection Act, which come January will mandate a 90 percent live animal release rate, those who believe Pueblo Animal Services is euthanizing adoptable dogs are continuing with a campaign of intimidation and abuse. So says Julie Justman, who as the shelter director is often the lightning rod for the critics’ wrath.”

“After Loveland resident Gabriel Navarrete pleaded guilty in the death of his infant son Monday, the Larimer County Coroner’s Office released an autopsy report outlining the 8-month-old’s cause of death,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Based on the report, Adrian Dominguez, born April 11, 2017, died after being dropped and then smothered against Navarrete’s jacketed chest. Larimer’s coroner and chief medical examiner, Dr. James Wilkerson, states in the report that the smothering ended baby Adrian’s life but that his body also suffered rib fractures and blunt-force damage to the face and neck.”

“Navigating the parking lot of the former Kmart store on South College Avenue near Drake Road can be a teeth-jarring experience,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Some of the potholes in the pavement are huge: Speed bumps near the entrance to the boarded-up big-box store, which closed in May 2016, are still doing the job of slowing vehicles, although many drivers know how to get around the obstacles. Drivers ignore movable stop signs near the bumps. Few pedestrians use the sidewalk in front of the empty building, so there’s no point in stopping.”

“Boulder police again plan to use discretion in enforcing open-carry rules during Saturday’s planned ‘Rally for Our Rights’ downtown, pointing to a possible repeat of a similar pro-gun protest in April at which demonstrators were allowed to wield weapons in violation of the city’s laws,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “‘The Boulder Police Department has contacted event coordinators to reiterate city open-carry laws,’ spokeswoman Shannon Aulabaugh said in an emailed statement Thursday. ‘Officers will monitor Saturday’s event and allow participants to express their constitutional rights, while protecting the public safety for attendees and the community.'”

“Vail Resorts’ acquisition and pass-sales strategies seem to have weathered a snow-short winter in the Colorado Rockies,” reports Vail Daily. “During a Thursday, June 7, conference call, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz said the company performed well in the third quarter of its 2018 fiscal year. The company’s fiscal year runs from Aug. 1 to July 31, so third-quarter results encompass the final three months of the ski season.”

“La Plata County sheriff’s deputies began knocking on doors in an expanded evacuation area north of Durango on Thursday after the 416 wildfire spread to 5,103 acres in southwest Colorado,” reports The Denver Post on the front page of The Cañon City Daily Record. “An additional 497 homes were evacuated Thursday morning, bringing the total number to 1,276, said Megan Graham, La Plata County spokeswoman. Pre-evacuation orders have been issued to 750 other homeowners, Graham said. The wildfire is only 10 percent contained, she said. Firefighting conditions are terrible because the wildfire is burning in steep terrain in a drought area.”

“Hundreds of La Plata County residents found themselves facing an uncertain future Thursday as the 416 Fire inched its way closer to their Hermosa homes,” reports The Durango Herald. “Almost 500 homes – 497 to be exact – were evacuated at 6 a.m. Thursday in the Hermosa area. Hours later, an additional 751 homes were put on pre-evacuation notice. Multiple vehicles packed to the brim with personal belongings departed the Hermosa area Thursday morning, with no time frame for when they would be able to return home. “’It’s kind of like an apocalypse,’ said Wes Stein, who was given a pre-evacuation notice Thursday morning. ‘It was super smoky, everyone’s packing up, the sheriff’s out here on a megaphone telling everyone to get ready to leave. It’s eerie. It feels like ‘The Walking Dead.’’”

“Peterson Air Force Base will lose 72 airmen and civilians after Air Force Space Command was stripped of its role overseeing the service’s computer warfare efforts,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The Air Force announced the change Thursday afternoon, moving the service’s cyber component from Colorado Springs to Virginia where it will become part of Air Combat Command. “This move will drive faster decisions as we fight by realigning the cyber operations and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions under the same command,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a statement.”

“The Pikes Peak Cog Railway, whose future as an iconic tourist attraction has been in doubt since its closing late last year, will be rebuilt and reopened if its owner and the city of Manitou Springs sign a proposed agreement,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The cost to rebuild the railway could be close to $100 million, said Gary Pierson, president and CEO of Oklahoma Publishing Co., parent company of The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs and the Cog Railway. The ownership group is seeking a pair of tax breaks from Manitou Springs but otherwise plans to pay for the project privately. Work on the railway could begin as soon as August with a reopening in May 2020, in time for the unveiling later that year of the new $50 million Summit House on top of Pikes Peak. … Trump administration steel tariffs could send costs soaring and even kill the project, Pierson said. Steel rails that would be used to rebuild the Cog – one of the few railways of its kind in the world – are available only in Switzerland, he said, as are the three steel railway cars that Oklahoma Publishing says it needs to buy.”

“The Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education approved a $264 million budget for the 2018-19 school year during its meeting Monday night, a budget as notable for what it didn’t contain — painful cuts — as for what it did,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Unlike previous years, when district officials cut back on things like bus routes and teacher professional development to save money, this year’s budget was easy to balance because of the voter-approved mill-levy override and an increase in funding from the state, District 6 Chief Financial Officer Meggan Sponsler said.”

“Cancellations of fireworks shows, bans on fireworks use and sales, increased fire restrictions and even an outright closure of a national forest are reflecting ever-growing concern about tinderbox conditions in western Colorado,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Garfield County commissioners on Monday approved an immediate ban on use of fireworks in the unincorporated part of the county, and Garfield sheriff emergency manager Chris Bornholdt told commissioners the Sheriff’s Office is thinking about imposing Stage 2 fire restrictions as well, which prohibits fireworks, campfires or any open burning of any kind. Smoking outdoors is also outlawed unless it’s in an enclosed vehicle or building.”

“The owners of a Longmont home at 525 Collyer St. have requested that the City Council revoke a 1994 designation that identifies their house as a local landmark,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “That 24-year-old landmark designation was based in part on inaccurate information about the house and its historical significance, according to current owners Tim and Heather Chambers and the city staff. Karen Bryant, a senior city planner, has written the council that when a Cultural Resource Survey of the Collyer Street property was completed on the property in 2002, it indicated that ‘some of the information provided in 1994 that warranted designation of the property as a local landmark was incorrect.'”

“The 2018 Leadership Steamboat class took on food waste by purchasing three high-efficiency composters that were placed around town last week,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The composters, called Earth Cubes, were placed at LiftUp of Routt County in Steamboat Springs and near dining areas at Steamboat Springs Middle School and Colorado Mountain College. Each year, Leadership Steamboat participants select a community project to better the Yampa Valley, and this year’s Leadership class decided to purchase the cubes because food waste makes up 30 percent of waste sent to landfills in Routt County, according to a news release issued by the organization.”

“Last Thursday’s Glenwood Springs City Council meeting discussion regarding the ongoing Seventh Street beautification project was anything but pretty,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The discussion, which caused some “unpleasantries,” in the words of some council members, was intended to allow council to give direction to city staff on whether to send out to bid Phase 1 of the project, which involves installation of a new sanitary sewer line. Without it, the subsequent five phases of a long-term Seventh Street redevelopment and beautification project that’s to come in the aftermath of the Grand Avenue Bridge completion could not commence.”

“A Minnesota-based fresh produce distributor on Monday announced plans to expand into Colorado by opening a 163-worker processing and distribution center at the vacant former Mars/Doane building at the airport industrial park,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Russ Davis Wholesale, based in Wadena, Minn., plans to invest $8 million to $10 million to purchase the 125,000-square-foot building and ready and equip the site for operations by September. Company executives detailed their plans at a jobs announcement Monday afternoon at the Lake Elizabeth pavilion at the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo.”

“With no controversy and little discussion, the Loveland Planning Commission lent its support Monday evening to the annexation of 25 acres of land on Derby Hill with a zoning that would allow multifamily housing to be built there,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “The commission voted 6-0 to recommend that the City Council accept the annexation and the zoning to R-3, or high-density residential, which would allow 10 to 20 residential units per acre. “I find the requested zoning and annexation to be appropriate,” said commission chairwoman Carol Dowding. “Especially because it’s an enclave, this helps the city to grow better, and it can grow in whole pieces instead of in chunks.” The Planning Commission’s recommendation will go to the Loveland City Council on July 17 and Aug. 7 for first and second reading, according to city planner Jennifer Hewett-Apperson.”

“Crews fought a Vail Valley wildfire to a standstill, despite high winds and dry conditions,” reports Vail Daily. “The Bocco fire three miles north of Wolcott was still 415 acres Monday, June 11, the same size it reached Saturday afternoon, June 9, a few hours after it was sparked near the Wolcott shooting range. Evacuations were lifted Monday afternoon. Containment reached 50 percent; 140 firefighters are on the scene, the Bureau of Land Management said.”

“More than 2,800 square miles of public land in southwestern Colorado will be closed to campers, hikers and bikers because of the fire danger,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Officials plan to bar most entry to the San Juan National Forest starting Tuesday to prevent the possibility of an abandoned campfire or another spark starting another catastrophic wildfire in exceptional drought conditions. Roads through the forest will remain open. Residents of more than 2,000 homes have been ordered to evacuate because of a fire that started in the forest north of Durango, which doubled in size to about 25 square miles (67 square kilometers) over the weekend.”

“Georgia Romine quickly began losing ground on her property when the bank along the Arkansas River began caving in,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “She had purchased the land in Florence three years ago and started growing hay to sell, but more and more of the land was falling into the river, decreasing the number of bales of hay she could produce.”

“One year after an attempt to oust Yellow Deli from its home at 908 Pearl Street, the building’s owners association is contemplating a move that would severely impact the restaurant’s ability to stay in business, operators say,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “On Wednesday, owners of units at 900 Pearl Street — which includes offices, retail business and private residences — will vote to more than double the money Yellow Deli pays toward the building’s shared costs, including water, sewer, electricity and trash. Currently, the eatery pays $7 per square foot for those services. The board at 900 Pearl is suggesting raising that to $17 per square foot, adding $16,000 to Yellow Deli’s tab every year.”

“The Pikes Peak Cog Railway, whose future as an iconic tourist attraction has been in doubt since its closing late last year, will be rebuilt and reopened if its owner and the city of Manitou Springs sign a proposed agreement,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The cost to rebuild the railway could be close to $100 million, said Gary Pierson, president and CEO of Oklahoma Publishing Co., parent company of The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs and the Cog Railway. The ownership group is seeking a pair of tax breaks from Manitou Springs but otherwise plans to pay for the project privately. Work on the railway could begin as soon as August with a reopening in May 2020, in time for the unveiling later that year of the new $50 million Summit House on top of Pikes Peak.”

“Millennial adventure seekers aren’t the only ones hitching a ride on all those direct flights between Denver and Reykjavik — a lot more fish are about to start flowing from Iceland to Colorado,” reports The Denver Post. “Niceland Seafood, a Reykjavik startup, is locating its U.S. headquarters in Denver, where it will team with the Seattle Fish Co. to distribute the morning’s catch from the cold waters of the North Atlantic to restaurants and stores throughout the region in under 24 hours. “We will be doing tons of fish each week,” said Oliver Luckett, the company’s CEO and former head of innovation at the Walt Disney Co. But a seafood company setting up shop in landlocked Colorado, which is 1,000 miles from the nearest big body of water? For Niceland, the reasons to put a home base a mile high for a business that sources its product at sea level were twofold: the transportation setup and Colorado’s culture.”

“Wildfire anxiety in Colorado is peaking after a fast-growing blaze west of Silverthorne ignited Tuesday morning and made a hasty run at more than 1,300 houses and condominiums in a pair of neighborhoods, prompting a quick round of mandatory evacuations as authorities rushed to get people out of its path,” reports The Denver Post. “By afternoon, though, officials were optimistic about their battle against the Buffalo fire, which elicited a massive response of firefighters and firefighting aircraft and was burning on about 100 acres in the White River National Forest. ‘Things are looking really good around the two subdivisions at this time,’ Jim Genung, with the Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Unit, said at a news conference. ‘Things are looking really pretty good right now.’ Fires are raging across Colorado, keeping crews busy as they fight to protect homes from flames fueled by drought, tinder-dry air and Rocky Mountain winds. Springtime predictions of a wild summer of blazes across the state appear to be proving themselves true — and with a fervor.”

“As Colorado Rising gathers signatures in support of its statewide ballot initiative that would place tough new restrictions on oil and gas drilling, the Colorado Association of Mineral and Royalty Owners is letting residents know such restrictions are not in the best interest of the state,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “The ballot measure would increase the required minimum distance between occupied buildings and new wells — known as a setback — to 2,500 feet from the current requirement of 500 feet. The impact of Initiative 97, said Neil Ray, president of the association, would be huge for Colorado’s 600,000 mineral rights owners. The organization, which represents individuals and corporations that own oil and gas rights, released a report Tuesday showing untapped minerals in Colorado’s Wattenberg Field, which includes much of Weld County, could have an expected ultimate recovery of nearly $180 billion over the life of the field. Royalties for mineral owners alone would come to $26 billion. If cities and counties in the Wattenberg Field, or the state of Colorado, effectively ban developing minerals in the Wattenberg Field as a result of the 2,500-foot setback, they could be on the hook for more than $26 billion from successful takings claims, or just compensation for the public use of private property, Ray said.”

“The Grand Valley Drainage District will not appeal a recent court ruling that said a stormwater drainage fee it has been charging for the past three years is actually a tax,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “As a result, the district is to pay back the money it’s already collected because it was done so without voter approval. The district’s three-member board of directors voted 2-1 Tuesday to forego any legal challenge to District Judge Lance Timbreza’s ruling last week, saying there was no guarantee they would prevail in an appeal and they didn’t want to subject district businesses and residents to more legal uncertainty.”

“Longmont City Council members wrestled until late Tuesday night with details and specifics about what an affordable-housing mandate should include,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “A council majority continued to favor, as it did previously in March, the reestablishment of an “inclusionary housing” requirement for new residential development. Council members decided at about 11:45 p.m., however, to table further discussions and informal votes on directives to the city staff for two more weeks and to resume their consideration of inclusionary housing and affordable housing issues on June 26. Under discussion on Tuesday were such issues as exactly what percentage of a housing project’s units should be required to be affordable, what range of household incomes would be eligible to buy those homes, and how or whether developers would be given other alternatives to actually building such units.”

“This year marks the 121st anniversary of Strawberry Days, a festival known for carnival rides, strawberry ice cream and local arts, crafts and food vendors,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The fair this year will be unaccompanied by the carnival, though, which for nearly a decade took place outside the Glenwood Springs Mall in West Glenwood. For reasons unknown, the mall opted not to host the event this year, and the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association was unable to find an alternative location.”

“The Wild Horse Warriors of Sand Wash Basin called a last-minute meeting Tuesday to coordinate hauling water to the Sand Wash Basin in western Moffat County to alleviate the group’s concerns that wild horses in the basin do not have access to enough water,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Loudy-Simpson Park near Craig. To haul water, the volunteers would need approval from the Bureau of Land Management, the agency tasked with managing wild horses and burros.”

“After campus police were called to question two Native American teenagers from New Mexico on a tour of Colorado State University, many people thought the teens should receive full-ride scholarships,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Others accused President Tony Frank of race baiting. Frank responded to that late-April incident with an open letter addressing on-campus issues centering on race and hate. It wasn’t the first time during the year that Frank responded to incidents involving racial strife — perceived, implied, or overt — at CSU or nationally.”

“When the new mayor of Pueblo takes the oath next January, he or she will find that City Council still will have an important say in how the city is run,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Council passed six ordinances Monday night that underlined its own importance in the future, even though it will be handing the job of providing leadership to the new mayor. First, council will have the power of confirming — or rejecting — the new mayor’s choices for all city department heads.”

“Members of the Loveland City Council have familiarity with cash flow, but not with forecasting trends in city fund balances, said Councilor Don Overcash of Ward IV,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “And that led to some confusion at the council’s study session Tuesday evening about the amount of money stashed in the city’s general fund. Though the presentation by staff seemed to indicate that the city’s general fund balance decreased by more than half between 2017 and 2018, and then would do so again between 2018 and 2019, that is not the case. The questions stemmed from a presentation of a draft of the 10-year Capital Improvement Plan and a draft of the 2019 Financial Master Plan by city budget staff to council. The document shows the city’s early projections for revenue and expenditures in the coming year and the city’s ability to fund capital projects, also known as infrastructure.”

“Between this county’s geographic diversity and tourism-based economy, imposing fire restrictions is serious business,” reports Vail Daily. “Current fire danger is very serious. In the wake of several wildfires sparking in the past few days, county and federal officials on Tuesday, June 12, imposed Stage 1 fire restrictions for all of Eagle County. The restrictions are in effect for all non-federal property in the county and will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday, June 15, for land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. That’s more than 70 percent of all land in the county.”

“Tests to study the effects of radon on people in tents may be conducted at the site of a new homeless camp expected to open before the end of the month near the Durango Dog Park,” reports The Durango Herald. “The Durango City Council directed staff to establish criteria for the study at a work session Tuesday evening. The study could eventually go out for a bid for tests at the site, which is near a former uranium mill used during the Manhattan Project. “As elected officials, it is our responsibility to ensure it is safe for humans to sleep there,” Councilor Melissa Youssef said. Use of the area as a homeless camp goes beyond the site’s anticipated recreational uses, which are outlined in an agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the city. Youssef worried a differing land use might prompt a legal battle.”

“The Fremont County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday issued a transparency statement regarding Fremont County Clerk and Recorder Katie Barr and the former practice of her office permitting employees to cash checks,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Chairman Tim Payne said the board wanted to fully disclose the facts and timeline leading to Barr’s recent criminal case as known to them, and he hopes that the public trust across Fremont County will be restored moving forward. “There has been a lot of what we consider misinformation, particularly on social media, that has affected this issue,” Payne said. Barr, who was arrested in March on charges of embezzlement of public property, harassment, intimidation of a witness and fraud by check, pleaded guilty May 30 to the issuance of a bad check, a class 3 misdemeanor.”

“Citing high public support and demand for better, cheaper internet, Boulder’s City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to fund through the issuance of debt the $15 million construction of what will become the backbone of a citywide broadband network,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “In a survey, the results of which were presented publicly for the first time during Tuesday night’s meeting, 90 percent of respondents supported city-owned and -operated internet, and as many said they would be very or somewhat likely to purchase service from the city. Another surprising result was the share of households — somewhere between 4 percent and 7 percent — with no internet service, due to lack of access or affordability. A staff-provided map showed that most of the under-served areas were in low-income neighborhoods.”

“The Manitou Springs City Council gave a unanimous preliminary vote of approval Tuesday night for a deal that would enable the rebuilding of the historic Pikes Peak Cog Railway and keep its train cars chugging up and down Pikes Peak for decades to come,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Another vote still must be taken on the agreement with Oklahoma Publishing Co., parent company of The Broadmoor hotel and the Cog Railway. Under the pact, the city would give the ownership group two tax breaks, incentives it says it needs to invest $75 million to $95 million to rebuild the railway. In March, Broadmoor President and CEO Jack Damioli announced that the aging railway had “run its useful life,” and a study would weigh whether it should be refurbished or permanently closed. The analysis found that nearly $100 million likely would be needed to restore the system, rebuilding the track and expanding, remodeling or even demolishing the railway’s Manitou depot.”

“Dacono residents mulled Wednesday whether Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s agreement to move two proposed well pads further from homes and outside city limits justifies the city losing tax revenue at a meeting with the company’s staff and city officials,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “About 40 Dacono residents gathered at the Frederick-Firestone Protection District Business and Education Center to learn how they will be impacted by Anadarko’s plans to drill 73 oil and gas wells on four pads. Through negotiations with Dacono leaders, Anadarko — which was blamed for the deadly home explosion in Firestone last year — agreed to move the so-called Buddy and Ranger well pads about a half-mile south of their originally proposed locations on parcels bordering the more heavily developed city center and Glens of Dacono areas.”

“Heather Seitz was nervous when Greeley’s Public Works Department was getting ready to pitch its solution to the massive flooding problem that haunted residents who live near Woodbriar Park,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “It felt as if there was no way the city’s Culture, Parks and Recreation Department would accept it. Seitz wanted to scrape off the face of the park, a project that would take a year and a half and essentially mean starting from scratch and finding a way to direct all that water to the park and not to residents’ basements. To her surprise, the parks department embraced the idea. Workers there didn’t love the park, either. They had plans of their own to renovate it.”

“Fire restrictions will go in place Friday on public lands in Colorado’s central mountain region, while Montrose County’s sheriff increased restrictions in the unincorporated part of that county due to the severity of current conditions,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Meanwhile, officials say restrictions continue not to be needed on the Grand Mesa National Forest.”

“The wild horses in Moffat County’s Sand Wash Basin will not be receiving supplemental water, at least not right now,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The Bureau of Land Management told the Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin advocacy groups Tuesday that the agency would not allow volunteers to haul supplemental water into the basin at this time. “Wild Horse Warriors will not give permission to others to haul water, and Wild Horse Warriors will not haul water without permission, but we are going to continue to stay in touch and monitor daily what’s going on with water,” said Cindy Wright, an organizer with the volunteer organization. ‘In the meantime, we will be preparing for when the state says ‘go’ to be ready to go with the water. That’s not gone away. This is just a delay. It’s not going to happen when we thought it was going to happen. We still believe that it will happen.'”

“Larimer County is on the fast track for high fire danger, as abnormally warm days pile up and moisture eludes the region. Fire restrictions are likely if the weather pattern continues, Poudre Fire Authority battalion chief John Lippert said,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “He predicted Larimer County will enter a period of high fire danger by Sunday or Monday. “We’ve got a lot of fuels that grew this spring, and now they’re drying out,” he said. “This is kind of an unusual year, because it got hot so quick.”

Hawaii golfers during the volcano eat your heart out pic.twitter.com/JDnXE9YxjW

— Corey Hutchins (@CoreyHutchins) June 14, 2018

“Mustard-agent weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Deport are again being processed and destroyed at the water-based neutralization plant, Army officials announced Wednesday,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant has been idled for 10 months while engineers reworked some of its internal systems. That work now is complete and the plant resumed destroying 155 millimeter howitzer shells this week. Greg Mohrman, project manager at the plant, announced the successful testing Wednesday. ‘By restarting the plant slowly and methodically, we will bring equipment and people back up to normal operations with the goal of sustainable 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operations,’ Mohrman said in a message to plant staff. ‘The last 10 months have taught us a lot about perseverance and teamwork.'”

“The head pastor of Resurrection Fellowship apologized Tuesday for comments made during a February sermon in which he said the city of Loveland chose his church over others to hold Sunday services in the downtown Rialto Theater,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “In a video of the sermon, Rev. Jonathan Wiggins says Resurrection Fellowship, also known as Rez.Church, received an agreement to rent the Rialto when other churches did not, and that the city would advertise for their services.”

“Combine eight of the Vail Valley’s premier builders with a great cause, and good things will happen,” reports Vail Daily. “And, with a bit of luck, a lot of money will be raised for charity. The Vail Board of Realtors presents the town of Avon’s Playhouse Project — a name almost as big as some of the structures — has brought together companies and individuals to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Vail Board of Realtors Foundation and Habitat for Humanity of Eagle and Lake counties.”

“Facing protests from dockless bike-sharing companies, Boulder’s City Council nonetheless voted unanimously late Tuesday to launch a pilot program intended to limit where the free-floating cycles end up,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The program, which will last two years, will limit operators to fleets of 100 bikes, with an option for 50 additional e-bikes or adaptive cycles. It will also require all bicycles be able to lock to something via a built-in mechanism, in order to prevent bikes being abandoned in sidewalks or public rights-of-way, a problem that has plagued other cities that have allowed dockless bikes. “We’re trying to be proactive with this ordinance and avoid negative consequences,” said Senior Transportation Planner David Kemp.”

“Thousands of houses and cars were damaged early Wednesday by large hail during the worst overnight storm in El Paso County in more than 20 years,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Between 1 and 3 a.m., hailstones up to 3 inches in diameter pummeled Fountain, Fort Carson and other areas southeast of Colorado Springs. The last time the county was hit by a severe hail storm overnight was in 1995, when 2-inch hail fell, according to the National Weather Service in Pueblo. Hail up to an inch also was reported near the Air Force Academy and Black Forest, the Weather Service reported.”

“Could Colorado’s standards for health lessons for its fourth-graders be biased against guns? That’s what some members of the Colorado State Board of Education believe, and although their concerns didn’t prevail at a board meeting Wednesday, it all made for a provocative discussion,” reports The Denver Post. “Joyce Rankin, a Republican from Carbondale, got the conversation started by criticizing as too negative a section explaining the potential dangers of weapons at home, in school and in the community. She wanted to add a discussion about the benefits of using guns for self-defense.”

“From a small plane circling over secluded grassy meadows and Sangre de Cristo Mountain spires, politicians and conservationists on Friday will see the stakes as the federal government pushes to open 18,000 acres next to some of the nation’s most pristine wilderness and headwaters to fossil fuels development,” reports The Denver Post. “But the Trump administration’s proposed sell-off of mineral rights on the eastern slopes of the mountains for possible oil and gas drilling puts locals in a quandary. On one hand, Huerfano County ranks among the poorest in Colorado after decades of mineral booms and busts. One county commissioner and a state senator said new drilling could bring much-needed bucks. On the other hand, people here rely on the Huerfano River watershed and a natural solitude and beauty that increasingly attracts well-heeled visitors. Drilling could be done on parcels touching the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness Area, and as close as one mile from the boundary of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Newly acquired Navajo ancestral property lies to the north, and Navajos consider two mountains in the area to be sacred.”

“Students across the Roaring Fork Valley are working on films about climate change amid a time when wildfires, extremely dry conditions, drought, and rising temperatures are at the forefront of environmental conversations in the state and across the globe,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The weeklong effort, in which students are making films, encourages youth to explore ways in which climate change affects their own individual lives. The project, in its third year, was funded by the National Science Foundation, which gave CU Boulder a $1.1 million grant to host a series of programs like this across the state. The Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, is an extension of CU Boulder that spearheads the development of the project.”

“In the wake of repeated liquor law violations, the Greeley Stampede during a special events permit hearing Thursday retained the right to serve alcohol at this year’s event,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Since at least 2006, the Stampede has apparently violated six state laws, regulations or municipal codes, according to the January 2018 summary of a Greeley Police Department investigation that began in late 2017. The investigation began with a late-November tip from members of two nonprofits that had worked with the Stampede — The Greeley Stampede Riders and The Wranglers Inc. — alleging the Stampede bought alcohol at wholesale cost and sold the alcohol at an inflated price to nonprofit organizations that agreed to work concession booths featuring alcohol, according to the summary. Police found the Stampede had violated a number of laws and rules, including selling alcohol wholesale without a liquor license, according to police records.”

“The Federal Aviation Administration awarded Grand Junction Regional Airport two grants totaling $5.2 million as part of its plan to build a new runway,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The grants, announced by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were part of $34.3 million in infrastructure funding awarded to several airports statewide.”

“There is a backlog of people sitting in county jails awaiting court-ordered competency tests at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo and a Denver advocacy group reopened a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday to force the state to limit that wait to no more than 28 days,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Disability Law Colorado first sued the Department of Human Services in 2011 over the delays in getting people evaluated at CMHIP. The two sides eventually reached the 28-day agreement. The advocacy group reopened that lawsuit this week, saying DHS continually fails to meet that agreement and that hundreds of people have been waiting in county jails for up to five months to get an evaluation at CMHIP.”

“Residents of the Mesa Cortina and Wildernest neighborhoods came back to homes untouched by fire Thursday afternoon as an evacuation order for the Buffalo Mountain Fire was lifted and replaced with a pre-evacuation notice,” reports Summit Daily. “As Summit County’s first wildfire of the season entered its third day, officials were optimistic that the massive early response and past mitigation efforts worked in keeping people and homes safe. Authorities announced during a community meeting Wednesday night at the Silverthorne Pavilion that the fire remained at 91 acres and that power and gas had been restored to the neighborhoods. The fire danger in the county was also raised to “Very High” as forests continue to dry out and raise the danger of another wildfire exploding in the backcountry.”

“Quick action by Steamboat Springs firefighters and bystanders helped save the life of a man who had a heart attack Wednesday night while playing hockey at Howelsen Ice Arena,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue Capt. Michael Arce said it was the first game of the summer season, and he was headed to the bench when he heard that someone was down on the ice. ‘I’m thinking a collision, maybe someone popped a knee,’ Arce said.”

“Larimer County saw its first rabid bat June 6 in downtown Loveland, marking one of many non-skunk creatures to catch the disease in Colorado,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “According to the county’s map of rabies-positive animals, the bat was reported in the 200 block of North Garfield Avenue and is Loveland’s first rabid animal of the season. As of June 8, Colorado has reported 14 rabid bats; the rise in rabid bats has occurred as the number of skunks — 170 so far this year — has stagnated.”

“Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company crews are expected to start improving the Ninth Avenue railroad crossing between Airport Road and Hover Street on Wednesday, city officials said,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “At that point, BNSF will begin upgrading the crossing, as well as expanding it to accommodate a city project to widen the roadway and install a sidewalk there. Project manager Alden Jenkins, a Public Works and Natural Resources Department civil engineer, said in a Thursday email that Ninth Avenue will be closed to all traffic at the crossing during BNSF’s work, which he said is expected to take about three days.”

“An impromptu protest from anti-fracking activists on the floor of Lafayette’s City Council meeting Tuesday forced officials to abruptly adjourn, suspending the leadership’s planned vote to revamp the city’s oil and gas rules,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The cancellation came just minutes into council’s discussion. It was preceded by an hour of public comment, during which residents, including the prominent activist group East Boulder County United, reproached the council for what many of them allege are new rules that would conflict with the city’s existing legislation. Shortly after Jeffrey Robbins, the attorney that has shepherded the city’s proposed regulation overhaul to the tune of $300 per hour, took to the podium to speak, protestors in attendance stood up and shouted, “mic check,” followed by a litany of chants.”

“On the eve of a potentially unprecedented recall campaign against Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer, all sides are hiring lawyers and gearing up for a potential fight,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “As soon as today, the 60-day clock will start for Platteville resident Sara Mondragon to gather the 5,767 signatures necessary to put the recall on the ballot for Kirkmeyer’s District 3 seat. The effort is lining up to potentially place the recall on the November ballot. Mondragon has accused Kirkmeyer of leveraging her position for personal gain and of scheduling or attempting to schedule private meetings to discuss policy, including official action that could result in financial gain to one or more commissioners, according to Mondragon’s recall affidavit filed earlier this month.”

“A community safety committee including parents, community members and law enforcement wants to use $14 million in newly available School District 51 capital funds to increase security at local high schools,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Committee members told the Board of Education on Tuesday that they supported the district’s current security efforts and also want to see additional steps to “harden” high schools and improve communication about lockdowns for students and parents.”

“As the immigration debate has evolved from that of Dreamers wanting their fair shot at the American Dream to sobbing children being separated from their parents under President Trump’s ‘zero tolerance” policy, Colorado immigrants rights leaders are speaking out,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “‘You may have seen pictures online of the children in cages,’ Immigration Hub Executive Director Tyler Moran said Tuesday during a telephone press conference with reporters. ‘I have been to that facility when I worked for Senator [Harry] Reid, they call it ‘the dog pound,’ he said. ‘In fact, there are almost 50 parents in a detention facility in Aurora right now whose children were taken from them.'”

“Steamboat Springs City Council agreed to move forward in placing a 0.2-percent sales tax on the ballot in November that would increase funding for direct flights into Yampa Valley Regional Airport during the ski season,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Council will decide if it will give final approval to place the measure on the fall ballot after a public hearing, following a second reading of the ordinance at City Council’s July 3 meeting.”

“Almost all of Larimer County’s unaffiliated voters participating in the primary elections so far will have their ballots tallied,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Almost. One hundred and fifty-nine unaffiliated voters returned ballots for both the Republican and Democratic primary elections. That’s about 3 percent of the unaffiliated voters who’ve participated in the primary as of Monday. For those who haven’t voted yet, don’t do that. If you vote both ballots, neither will count.”

“The owner of the Orem Owlz Minor League Baseball team — an affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels — is coming to Pueblo on Wednesday to present his intentions to bring his team to Pueblo,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “The Pueblo Chieftain has known for months that Jeff Katofsky has been in talks with the county about bringing his Utah team here, and Pueblo County building a stadium Downtown. In April, Katofsky told The Chieftain that the lease in Utah will be up in five years and he was talking to a number of states about possibly moving his team there.”

“Lynette Chilcoat was sitting in her backyard enjoying a Father’s Day barbecue with her family when she heard them: several loud booms that have become unmistakable to her as the sound of yet another neighbor lighting illegal fireworks,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “It was just the latest instance of a problem that she said has become all too common in the Derby Hill neighborhood on the south side of Loveland where Chilcoat has lived for over a decade — and one that despite being a “year-around issue” will surely reach its annual zenith over the next few weeks as July 4 approaches.”

“After two weeks of thick smoke from the 416 Fire, blue skies returned this week to northern La Plata County, disguising almost all evidence of the 34,000-acre fire that smolders below,” reports The Durango Herald. “Though the fire experienced light, consistent rain last weekend, flames continue to creep through the underbrush of the San Juan National Forest. Weather forecasters are calling for a return to hot and dry conditions, which will further dry out fuels and could lead to active fire behavior. The fire is 35 percent contained, mainly along the southern and eastern perimeter.”

“The Cañon City Council has postponed this year’s Fourth of July fireworks display because of the recent Stage 2 fire restrictions and ‘drought conditions,'” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “During Monday’s meeting, Cañon City Police Chief Daric Harvey expressed concern for having this year’s fireworks display off of Skyline Drive because of the dry conditions.”

“Kicking off what would be a marathon public hearing on the proposed redevelopment of 311 Mapleton Ave. into senior housing and care facilities, Mayor Suzanne Jones reminded speakers what, exactly, the City Council would be deciding Tuesday night,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. ‘The decisions are whether it meets the criteria or not, not whether or not we like it,” Jones said. “That’s the feedback we want.'”

“Before Manitou Springs strikes a deal expected to keep the Pikes Peak Cog Railway open for decades to come, the City Council wants to know exactly how much Cog owners will contribute to local projects,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The council gave unanimous preliminary approval June 12 to an agreement with Oklahoma Publishing Co., parent company of The Broadmoor hotel and the Cog Railway. The pact would give the ownership group two tax breaks it has said it needs to invest $75 million to $95 million to rebuild the railway. The agreement, slated for final council approval June 26, requires Oklahoma Publishing to pay Manitou Springs $1 million from 2018 to 2019 to make up for the tax revenue shortage expected since the Cog’s closure.”

“President Donald Trump and his administration’s approach on immigration took center stage as the four Republicans battling for a chance to be Colorado’s next governor faced off Tuesday evening in their final debate before the June 26 primary,” reports The Denver Post. “Each candidate at the showdown hosted by The Denver Post, Denver7 and the University of Denver voiced support for Trump, but they hedged on his policy of separating immigrant parents crossing into the U.S. illegally from their children.”

“Colorado’s economy is flush and so are expected revenues to the state, economic forecasters told legislators Wednesday,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Even though state forecasters said months ago that Colorado was at near full employment because of the 2.9 percent statewide unemployment rate, more people have gotten jobs this year from people who left the labor market after the Great Recession, the economists said.”

“The secretary of an oversight board for Weld County’s elected officials said she filed a complaint against a board member with the Colorado Division of Civil Rights, citing more than a year of alleged harassment and inappropriate conduct during meetings, among other accusations,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Linda Kane, who has worked as the secretary for the Weld County Council for nearly two years, addressed the council publicly during its regular meeting Monday, speaking out against a proposal by council members to form a whistleblower program independent from the Board of Weld County Commissioners. Among a list of complaints, Kane alleged Councilman Michael Grillos swears and becomes hostile during meetings and “has said lewd, sexually vulgar things to me about one of our assistant county attorneys. Since filing this complaint in February, Mr. Grillos has continued retaliation efforts against me,” she said, pointing to those incidents as reasons why she doesn’t think the council should be in charge of a whistleblower program.”

“Crestone Peak Resources would like to keep its drilling operations in place despite concerns over flooding on Boulder County’s Wheeler open space,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “In a new plan filed last week and scheduled to be made public Wednesday, the Denver-based extraction company is suggesting that its easternmost wellpads stay put, even as that area is being re-designated as a floodway, which puts the site more at risk of damage than under its previous floodplain classification. The dual-pad site, on 10 square miles between Longmont and Lafayette, would accommodate up to 56 wells. Spokesman Jason Oates said Crestone can ensure the safety of the pads by tweaking the design of the structures. The Wheeler site remains the best option, because moving the pads will put them closer to people or wildlife.”

“Residents are being reminded to lock their car doors after a black bear broke into a Subaru Outback and destroyed it,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “It’s the worst one we’ve ever seen,” said Custom Color owner Dave Mihaich, who, over the years, has done work on cars that were damaged by bears. Cate Potyen, who lives in the Tree Haus neighborhood just outside Steamboat Springs, got a text message Monday morning from a neighbor who wanted to know if her Subaru was OK.”

“One man is dead and another was hospitalized after a suspected accidental heroin overdose at a downtown Glenwood Springs residence Wednesday afternoon,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “According to a Glenwood Springs Police Department news release, emergency responders were called at 2:29 p.m. to the 800 block of Bennett Avenue where they found two men in their 20s unconscious, with friends and neighbors performing CPR.”

“A young baseball player baking in the hot sun over Andenucio Field at the Runyon Sports Complex Wednesday let out a brand new call in the Steel City — one that was appropriate for the ceremony he was attending,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “‘Hoot, hoo’” the boy chanted over loud speakers. “Hoot, hoo,” he repeated rapidly to cheers from the more than 300 people gathered at the diamond on the field. It may just be the new battle cry for a Minor League Baseball team moving to Pueblo.”

“Thompson School District students will pay 25 cents more per school lunch or breakfast next year after school board members unanimously approved a price increase at Wednesday’s board meeting,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “The hike is across the board for all meals and all school levels, but does not apply to students who buy their lunches at a reduced rate.”

“A six-person jury ruled Wednesday, June 20, that Vail Resorts had closed the upper Prima Cornice run on Vail Mountain’s front side before an in-bounds avalanche killed 13-year-old Taft Conlin on Jan. 22, 2012,” reports Vail Daily. “Taft’s parents, Dr. Louise Ingalls and Dr. Stephen Conlin, had sued the ski company for negligence, saying the company did not close the run properly and violated Colorado’s Skier Safety Act.”

“Developers who plug and abandon oil wells — with testing and monitoring for safety — could be rewarded with additional developable land in Fort Collins,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “The City Council generally supported extending buffers for development around oil and gas wells, along with a new incentive that significantly cuts the buffer if a well is capped. The discussion happened at a work session Tuesday, where no formal decisions are made.”

“The arrest affidavit remains sealed in the case involving a Fremont County Sheriff’s deputy who is facing several felony and misdemeanor charges,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Christopher Pape made his initial court appearance Wednesday in District Court. Prosecutors requested more time to file formal charges. Pape, 30, Cañon City, who is free on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond, is scheduled to return to court July 9 for formal filing of charges. He was arrested June 8 on charges of attempting to influence a public servant, a class 4 felony; forgery of a public record, a class 5 felony; tampering with physical evidence – destruction, a class 6 felony; theft – $5,000 – $20,000, a class 5 felony; and two charges of first-degree official misconduct and abuse of public records – false entry, all misdemeanors.”

“The two most notorious chemicals in the Widefield aquifer are seven to 10 times more toxic than previously suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency, a different federal agency reported Wednesday,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The chemicals’ heightened toxicity highlighted an 852-page draft report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which it posted for public comment amid concerns by Capitol Hill lawmakers that the report would be suppressed by the White House.”

“Denver was supposed to be on the shortlist to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, but the group that made the bid withdrew the application because the July dates don’t work with the city’s schedule,” reports The Denver Post. “Amber Miller, a Denver city spokeswoman, and multiple Democratic sources confirmed the situation. Miller said the Democratic National Committee set the July 13-16 dates for the 2020 convention after the deadline for cities to submit their host bids. She said Denver believed the timeline to be more open-ended.”

“Gaya Jenkins missed her bus. She was headed to Denver, to receive treatment for cancer, but now she would have to catch a later ride,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “While she waited, she decided to charge her phone through one of the outlets in front of the old courthouse on the Pearl Street Mall. It was a decision that would, nearly a year later, land her in jail. Jenkins was one of nine people in the past two years to receive a ticket from the Boulder Police Department for using city outlets to charge their phones or other devices. The charge: theft of a public utility. Cops say those tickets are rare, and officers issue them only if offenders don’t heed warnings. Critics allege police were twisting city and state laws in order to penalize the homeless. ‘Charging a phone represents a fraction of a penny in electricity use,’ said Darren O’Connor, of Boulder Rights Watch. ‘To call that stealing is a stretch.'”

“The same political consulting company hired by Sen. Ray Scott to help with his re-election campaign also was hired by a political action committee to produce negative flyers and robocalls attacking Scott’s challenger, Rep. Dan Thurlow,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “But whether that constitutes coordination between a candidate and a third-party group, which is against the law, is unclear.”

“The local organization that led the effort for Longmont voters’ 2012 passage of a fracking ban has announced that it is closing down,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont’s steering committee members said in a Wednesday post on Longmont ROAR’s Facebook page that they’d decided “that it is time to celebrate our accomplishments and pass the mantle on to the many others that have valiantly picked up the cause to ban dangerous and destructive fracking from our communities.” Steering committee member Karen Dike said Thursday that ‘we’ll continue working’ on trying to protect the community from the impacts of oil and gas exploration and production, “if we need to.'”

“The city of Steamboat Springs announced Thursday it was canceling Fourth of July fireworks due to dry conditions,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Instead, there will be a laser show at the base of Howelsen Hill the evening of July 4. City leaders decided to cancel the fireworks for the safety of participants and volunteers, as well as the potential wildfire threat.”

“Glenwood Springs will, once again, witness bridge history on Friday,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The brand new Grand Avenue Bridge — gateway to a city known for its defiant, roaring history a la Doc Holliday to the more serene hot springs — will officially be dedicated with a special ceremony. The event marks the official completion next week of the two-and-a-half-year-long, $126 million bridge project.”

“You may see them in the Pueblo skies soon, or maybe you already have. With training completed, the Pueblo Police Department has actively started deploying two drones in the field that it purchased earlier this year,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “By the start of June, seven of the police department’s officers had obtained their licenses to be able to operate the drones, which are going to be used for a number of purposes including helping in locating missing people, apprehending suspects that run from police and scanning big buildings when there is a burglary alarm going off, among other functions.”

“The Loveland City Council will discuss the adequacy of sidewalks along North Wilson Avenue at a future council study session in response to the death this month of a local 13-year-old,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Gavin, a seventh-grader at Lucile Erwin Middle School in Loveland, was struck and killed by a suspected drunk driver June 8 as he walked along the sidewalk in the 4000 block of North Wilson Avenue. The council decided to discuss the lack of a complete sidewalk in the area of the crash via a rule of four, meaning a vote in favor of discussion from at least four councilors, over email Monday. Mayor Jacki Marsh and councilors Don Overcash, Steve Olson, Kathi Wright and John Fogle responded to a request for discussion from Councilor Jeremy Jersvig.”

“At a time when theology schools and seminaries are downsizing, merging or closing, Denver’s Iliff School of Theology is holding steady,” reports The Denver Post. “The United Methodist-related school, tucked next to the University of Denver on South University Boulevard and East Iliff Avenue, is little known around the metro but has garnered a national reputation as a progressive theology school rooted in social justice causes. And that reputation might be what’s saving them. Fewer students have been attending theological schools; enrollment dropped 9 percent in the U.S. and Canada from 2007 to 2017, when there were 72,896 students. That drop comes as Pew Research studies find that fewer Americans identify as religious, a change largely attributed to the growing number of millennials who aren’t members of any organized religion.”

“Two projects in Eagle County have netted nearly $54,000 in Great Outdoors Colorado grant money,” reports Vail Daily. “Eagle Valley Land Trust received a $33,399 grant to cover closing costs associated with the conservation of the Minturn Boneyard Open Space. Sylvan Lake State Park received $20,000 to restore a historic schoolhouse in disrepair.”

“For a person to be healthy, they need to eat well and also keep their brain active. It’s those ideas that children are getting to express through art with the help of the Fremont Center for the Arts by painting a mural on the Garden Park Building on Sixth Street,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “I think Cañon City has a lot more to offer,’ said FCA Director Nan Sullivan. ‘I think we can do so many murals so that Cañon City is known as not just a prison town.'”

“High in the San Juan Mountains, one week before the start of the 416 Fire, a small crew of trainees cleared brush and cut fire lines, preparing for the real thing,” reports The Durango Herald. “It was the first time in Southwest Colorado that the U.S. Forest Service hosted a weeklong firefighter training course for a crew of combined veterans and Southwest Conservation Corps members.”

“The U.S. oil and gas industry emits 13 million metric tons of methane from its operations each year – nearly 60 percent more than current estimates and enough to offset much of the climate benefits of burning natural gas instead of coal, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science,” reports The Durango Herald. “The higher volumes of natural gas leaking from across the industry’s supply chain would be enough to fuel 10 million homes and would be worth an estimated $2 billion, the researchers said. The study, led by Environmental Defense Fund researchers and including 19 co-authors from 15 institutions, estimated that the current leak rate from U.S. oil and gas operations is 2.3 percent, significantly higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s current estimate of 1.4 percent.”

“Glenwood Springs saw a significant drop during April in the city’s most lucrative source of sales tax dollars — general merchandise stores,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “Since 2014, in the month of April alone, general merchandise stores — which includes the large national retail stores — in Glenwood Springs have earned the city $1,038,673 in sales tax.”

“Brittany Dick was getting into her car to go for a run outside her home in Elk River Estates when she saw an uncommon site in Routt County — a funnel cloud,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The funnel cloud was just forming above North Routt County. “I had never seen a funnel cloud before, honestly, even growing up in the Midwest. So, I actually got my roommate outside and asked him ‘Is that a funnel cloud?'” she said.”

“Investigators on Sunday worked to determine the cause of a Saturday night fire that did an estimated $5 million in damage to Marys Lake Lodge in Estes Park,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Estes Valley Fire Protection District spokesman Mike Richardson said late Sunday that he would not speculate on the cause of the blaze, which damaged the resort’s main lodge. He said he had just spoken with the fire inspector, who provided the cost estimate. There were no injuries, other than to a firefighter who received a laceration.”

“When it was first revealed last summer that Lafayette and Boulder County Housing Authority planned to pay millions for a plot of church-owned land, with designs to install hundreds of cheaper costing houses, the response from citizens was telling,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “In the days ahead of the contract approval — a roughly $3.5 million deal with Flatirons Community Church for 24 acres at the northwest corner of Emma and 120th streets — the project’s unveiling spurred dozens of inquiries from those hoping to put their names on a nonexistent wait list for the still-nameless community.”

“At its closest point, Vail is more than 650 miles from the Mexican border, but ripple effects from the chaos over family separations and the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy were felt all the way in Eagle County last week,” reports Vail Daily. “Policymakers, immigration experts and candidates for Congress reacted with dismay at the hardline policies being enforced by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security — policies that have led to scenes of very young children separated from their parents at the border and placed into detention facilities around the country.”

“A contested water project that would change the Poudre River as we know it is back in the spotlight,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Over the years, you’ve probably heard of Northern Integrated Supply Project. Commonly called NISP, it’s a plan that includes two new reservoirs filled with Poudre River water for 15 small municipalities and water districts in Northern Colorado. Together, the reservoirs would have a combined capacity much bigger than Horsetooth Reservoir. If the project is approved, the Poudre will look and feel different because of reduced flows through Fort Collins and beyond.”

“The trial for former Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Dodd, who is accused of storing murder evidence in a personal storage locker, is set to begin Monday and last through Friday,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Dodd declined to take a plea agreement June 4. During that hearing, Judge Norman Cooling granted Dodd’s lawyer’s request to give potential jurors a questionnaire before they sit on the jury.”

“Colorado’s unaffiliated voters haven’t exactly turned out in droves to cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary election, even though a new law allows them to do so for the first time,” reports The Denver Post. “The lackluster interest — a turnout rate roughly half that of registered Democrats and Republicans — does not surprise veteran political observers who know from prior elections that most unaffiliated voters in Colorado are less interested in politics, less motivated to participate and less optimistic that their vote will make a difference. Also, it’s new, and experts say it will take time for voters to get acclimated — and for the impact of their vote to make a difference.”

“A free recycle center that has been in the works for months now has an opening date,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “A grand opening celebration for Pueblo RecycleWorks, located at 1595 Stockyard Road, is slated from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The recycle center will be located near a large-item trash drop-off site that was opened to the public in early February and allows residents to dispose of bulky items such as mattresses, sofas, chairs, tables, other furniture and appliances at the cost of a $10 voucher for one item that are limited to two per city household per year.”

“A hail storm passed through Windsor and Greeley about mid-day Sunday, dropping hail up to a half-inch in diameter,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “The National Weather Service before noon put out a special weather advisory, warning of a strong thunderstorm over Johnstown, 10 miles southwest of Greeley and moving east about 25 mph. The advisory remained in effect until 12:45 p.m. The storm rolled in to the Greeley Stampede arena about 11:45 a.m., briefly interrupting the Kids Rodeo and sending junior barrel racers, as well as their horses, ducking for cover. The storm dropped pebble-sized hail and rain for close to 45 minutes.”

“Longmont Housing Authority will scale back armed security patrols of The Suites next month in an effort to create a less intimidating environment at the affordable housing complex since unwarranted police searches of residents’ apartments last year sparked outcry,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Tenants have applauded changes this year to policies on the property and the additions of weekly therapeutic art classes and yoga sessions. Verbal altercations between some residents persist, but LHA officials this week cited decreased criminal activity documented by police at The Suites as a sign of progress from the 2017 controversy that eroded resident trust of its management.”

“The sixth-annual Colorado West Pride Fest drew attendees from across the Western Slope on Sunday, starting with a parade down Main Street that included everything from an inflatable unicorn to synchronized rainbow flag dancing, glitter and glam,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The anthems provided by Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way,” the tutus and the body-hugging neon Spandex costumes underlined the central message of the festival — that it’s ok for people to be different, to wear what they want, be who they want and love who they want.”

“Former Colorado U.S. Sen. and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be working with Black Hills Energy and Riverwalk North Alliance as the two sides continue to work with each other to plan the redevelopment of Black Hills Power Stations 5 & … 6,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “The announcement that Salazar — who has worked on a number of large projects across the country throughout his career — will be involved in exploring the future for the old power stations came Monday morning at a community celebration of the stations receiving a historic designation from City Council and of the partnership formed between Black Hills and Riverwalk North Alliance.”

“A Texas oil and gas company that filed a defamation lawsuit against a Paonia activist over an online comment he made to a Glenwood Springs Post Independent article had its case dismissed in Delta County last week,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) came after a comment left on the Post Independent’s website by Peter Kolbenschlag, a 20-year North Fork Valley resident, in response to the publication’s 2016 article, “Divide lease decision likely to land in court.” According to a Motion for Summary Judgment issued by the Delta County District Court, the plaintiff, SG Interests I Ltd. and its libel claim against defendant Peter Kolbenschlag was dismissed in its entirety, “on the grounds that the statement attributed to the defendant was substantially true.”

“At 7 p.m. today, polls will close on the first primary election that opened up to Colorado’s unaffiliated voters, giving them a say in early races for the governor’s office, county commissioner seats, Congress, the clerk and recorder’s office and a dozen other local seats,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “As of Monday, Weld County received 28,001 ballots, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, including 6,300 from unaffiliated voters. With the new voters in the mix, the current turnout is already higher by 2,153 votes than it was during final count for the 2016 primary, according to data from the Weld County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.”

“Resources as diverse as the western Colorado landscapes that contain them are at stake in a lawsuit challenging 53 oil and gas leases covering some 45,000 acres in Mesa and Garfield counties, conservationists say,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “They tried to make their point evident from up above on Monday by providing journalists with a bird’s-eye view of the places facing possible drilling thanks to Bureau of Land Management lease sales conducted in December 2016 and December 2017.”

“A little more than a year after being hired as the town of Mead’s first law enforcement officer, Ismael Aldana this month resigned from his position with Mead Police Department,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “His departure leaves the agency with two sworn patrol officers and comes at a time when the town already is searching for a permanent police chief and two additional officers.”

“Arie Hoogendoorn looked dazed as he walked away from the falling timbers and smoking ashes of the historic barn he owned in North Routt County,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “I’m going back to my house to cry,” he said as he passed by. Behind him, firefighters from North Routt Fire Protection District and Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue doused the barn with water as flames continued to leap from the ashes. The iconic red barn, a longtime fixture of the Circle Bar Ranch, is a well-known landmark for those traveling from Steamboat Springs to Clark and Steamboat Lake along Routt County Road 129.”

“The downtown Foundry redevelopment project is in need of more money due to rising costs of labor and construction, so the city of Loveland and its partner on The Foundry project, Brinkman, have crafted a plan to cover the new costs and ensure the project is completed,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “The plan calls for Brinkman Development paying $679,869 more, the Brinkman Metro District paying $529,142 more and the city of Loveland paying $627,647 more toward the construction and labor costs of the project.”

“The Fort Collins transient man found guilty of manslaughter for his role in the killing of another transient man was sentenced to six years in prison on Monday — the maximum sentence he could receive,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Matthew Tatti faced a first-degree murder charge for his role in the death of Benjamin McKinley in November 2016. Last month, a jury found him guilty of the lesser manslaughter charge instead.”

“A jury of four women and two men (and one alternate juror) listened to opening statements and heard testimony from three witnesses Monday during the first day of trial for former Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Dodd,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Dodd is accused of storing murder evidence in a personal storage locker that later was sold at auction when payments were not made. He is charged with second-degree official misconduct, abuse of public records and criminal possession of an identification document.”

“A former University of Colorado student shot by Boulder police in a 2014 standoff on University Hill will get a new trial after an appeals court reversed his conviction on menacing and obstruction charges,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Coleman Stewart, 27, accused of brandishing a BB gun, was convicted by a Boulder County jury in 2015 of four counts of felony menacing and obstructing a peace officer. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail and probation. But the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the conviction last year, and Boulder District Judge Ingrid Bakke on Monday scheduled a new eight-day trial beginning Jan. 14.”

“The Trump administration is pushing to open more public land in Colorado for fossil fuel development, preparing to sell off access to minerals under 45,000 acres near a state park and bird habitat along the upper Colorado River,” reports The Denver Post. “But the intensifying efforts by the federal Bureau of Land Management face resistance. Conservation groups are fighting in federal court to block this leasing in already-drilled areas around De Beque, accusing the feds of skipping required environmental reviews.”

“Inflow into McPhee Reservoir from the Dolores River has dropped to a historic low, falling below the 2002 levels that were the previous driest year since the reservoir was built,” reports The Cortez Journal. “As a result, supply in the reservoir has also dropped slightly to 16.7 inches per acre, down from earlier estimates of 17 inches per acre for full-service irrigators. During full supply, the rate is 22 inches per acre. “After one good storm the first week of May, it was all downhill, and the Dolores River inflows are coming in below 2002 levels,” said Ken Curtis, an engineer with the Dolores Water Conservancy District, which manages McPhee.”

“U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, the Republican incumbent representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, knows which Democrat he will face off against in the mid-term general election Nov. 6 – former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush of Steamboat Springs,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “As the final results were coming in Tuesday night, Mitsch Bush had a comfortable lead with 64.2 percent of the vote to 28 percent for Glenwood Springs attorney Karl Hanlon and 8 percent for former Eagle County Commissioner Arn Menconi.”

“Republican voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly nominated incumbent at-large Weld County Commissioner Steve Moreno, and they picked Johnstown Mayor Scott James as the Republican nominee in county commissioner District 2,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “For Moreno, who outpaced challenger Sandi Elder 70 percent to 30 percent, the win was a confirmation voters approve of how he’s doing his job — in essence, an ode to the status quo.”

“Sen. Ray Scott had little difficulty holding off a challenge to his Senate District 7 seat in Tuesday’s primary race,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “As the polls closed at 7 p.m., the Grand Junction Republican took an early lead with 12,970 votes, 63 percent, compared to 7,477 votes for his opponent, Rep. Dan Thurlow.”

“In a political tug-of-war spread over three counties, Republican challenger Don Bendell appeared to be headed to victory Tuesday night in the GOP primary contest against state Rep. Judy Reyher in state House District 47,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “At press time, Bendell had 3,635 votes to Reyher’s 2,678. The winner of the GOP race will take on Democrat Brianna Buentello of Pueblo in November. As votes were counted Tuesday evening, one trend seemed to be holding — Reyher, from La Junta, was winning in Otero County, but Bendell held the lead in both Pueblo County and his home county, Fremont.”

“Larimer County real estate agent Sean Dougherty will be the Republican nominee for Larimer County commissioner,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “He had about 15,000 votes, or 57.5 percent, to Chalon Kintzley’s 11,000, or 42.5 percent, at the 9:30 p.m. count by the Larimer County Clerk and Recorder. Dougherty will face state Sen. John Kefalas for the seat. Kefalas was unchallenged in the Democratic primary.”

“The Steamboat Springs City Council has asked staff to begin exploring the possibility of asking voters to approve a new sales tax on packaged alcohol, marijuana and tobacco products. Council members directed city attorney Dan Foote to draft an ordinance that would place the tax on the November ballot,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The ordinance is slated for first reading at City Council’s July 17 meeting. Council did not determine at what rate alcohol, marijuana and tobacco would be taxed.”

“Joe Neguse cruised to victory in the Democratic primary race for the 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday night, setting the stage to become Colorado’s first African American congressman should he defeat his Republican and independent challengers this fall,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “‘I’m very excited, very honored to be the Democratic nominee into the general election and carry the torch through the rest of the election,’ Neguse, a Lafayette resident, said at an election watch party at the Rayback Collective in Boulder.”

“Longmont veterinarian Karen McCormick on Tuesday night declared victory over her opponent Chase Kohne in the Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional District,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The Colorado Secretary of State had McCormick with about 65 percent of roughly 54,000 votes that had been tallied as of about 3 a.m. Wednesday. Kohne, also a veterinarian, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The historically conservative 4th Congressional District is currently represented by Republican Ken Buck, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary. McCormick said that the district has not been properly represented for the past four years.”

“An ex-Fort Carson soldier facing the death penalty in a 2016 double slaying was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and second-degree murder – marking a jury’s rejection of allegations that both killings were premeditated,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Although Glen Law Galloway, 46, remains eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors now face an uphill battle as they lobby his jury to impose it, legal observers say.”

“The city of Durango on Thursday will open a temporary site for homeless campers displaced by fire restrictions,” reports The Durango Herald. “City councilors, on a 4-0 vote with Councilor Chris Bettin absent, passed an emergency ordinance allowing a temporary, sleep-only evacuation site to open for two months. Homeless campers will occupy about an acre of a 3-acre city open-space parcel near Greenmount Cemetery. The Greenmount site, with space for 40 tents, would be open to homeless campers who were moved from a La Plata County homeless camp to the Red Cross evacuation site at Escalante Middle School.”

“Michael Dougherty secured his place as Boulder County district attorney Tuesday night by handily beating opponent Mike Foote in the Democratic primary in a race that will see no Republican challenger this November,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “More than 52,000 votes had been counted as of the Boulder County clerk and recorder’s 3:15 a.m. Wednesday update. Of those, Dougherty held a 10,000-vote lead, having won just over 60 percent of the vote while Foote won just under 40 percent. Dougherty, 46, gave a speech at his election night party at the Madelife Gallery in downtown Boulder shortly after the 8:15 p.m. results were posted online and showed he was still leading in the race.”

“An audio interview with former Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Dodd and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was played Tuesday during day two of Dodd’s jury trial,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Dodd was asked by CBI agent Julie Petterson in the interview that was conducted in January 2017 about him allegedly storing murder evidence in a personal storage unit that later was sold at auction when his payment defaulted. “I took this stuff, I was trying to be more thorough — I wanted to take more photos, I didn’t get around to it, nothing more — I swear to God,” Dodd said in the interview.”

“Phil Weiser, a former University of Colorado Law School dean and ex-Obama administration official, appeared to be overcoming a major name ID gap in the Democratic primary for the Colorado attorney general’s race on Tuesday night, as he led state Rep. Joe Salazar in the closely watched contest that remained too close to call,” reports The Denver Post. “Weiser was up with 51 percent of the vote to Salazar’s 49 percent, with 463,000 ballots counted as of 9:30 p.m. — a stunning turnaround from what looked like an uphill battle for the first-time candidate. “We started this campaign with no donors, no volunteers, no name recognition,” Weiser told The Denver Post on Tuesday night.”

“Antiquated election equipment, glitches and an expensive printing mistake added up to Montrose County’s primary election night turning into election week,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Teams of judges continued to tally votes by hand Wednesday after a fiasco with ballot printing made it impossible to complete the primary election by machine Tuesday night.”

“The day after the primary election, when many politicos are breathing a sigh of relief, Weld County Democratic Party Chairman Jerad Sutton was in his office making phone calls,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “That might sound boring to people who have always had offices — not the case for the Weld County Democratic Party. In a phone interview Wednesday, Sutton’s excitement was palpable. He’s got 10 local candidates running for office in November, the most in his time as chairman and more than any time since at least 2010.”

“Longmont has launched a project to evaluate the effectiveness of three types of bike lanes on city streets and is inviting comments about each,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “‘The goal of the bike lane trial project is to test different types of bike lane facilities and solicit feedback from bicyclists, drivers’ and the city’s street maintenance workers, said Micah Zogorski, the project engineer for the experiment.”

‘If you had started the 1996 film ‘Twister’ at the moment when a tornado touched down about eight miles southwest of Clark on Sunday morning, you’d barely be done with the opening credits before the tornado was over,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The tornado, a EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, caused no damage, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. It touched down at 10:18 a.m. and lasted two minutes. Its path was about 30 yards wide and about one-third of a mile long. Winds in the storm reached about 65 miles per hour. The funnel cloud associated with the storm existed for about 10 minutes.”

“It was the election where Colorado’s unaffiliated voters were going to make their muscle felt,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “But when the ballots were counted Tuesday, it seemed to be an election where the best-known, best-financed candidates carried the day. Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton has been considered the front-runner in the GOP primary for governor for most of the past year and he prevailed fairly easily, with 48 percent of the vote over businessman Victor Mitchell (30 percent), former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez (13 percent) and retired investment banker Doug Robinson (9 percent).”

“The Loveland City Council voted Tuesday in favor of spending about $628,000 more in order to complete the downtown Foundry project,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “But, contrary to the report prepared for council by city staff, the project’s developer told council the additional costs are not as much due to increasing costs of construction as they are about a widening scope of the project. The intention is to “keep the Foundry feel” while staying in budget, said Brinkman president Jay Hardy.”

“Vail native Mike Johnston will not be Colorado’s next governor, but said he is proud that he helped point us back toward the light,” reports Vail Daily. “Johnston was the first candidate in the Colorado governor’s race, shortly after the 2016 presidential campaign and its contentious aftermath — riots and demonstrations, confrontations, charges of racism — the list is long and unpleasant. When we did not withdraw, we lashed out at each other, Johnston said. “We doubted the goodness of our neighbors. We gave up on the idea of a nation, indivisible,” Johnston said in a letter Wednesday afternoon, June 27, to his supporters.”

“Voter turnout in Colorado’s primary election is unlike anything the Centennial State has seen in its recent history,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “And that’s before you get to the fact that voters who are unaffiliated with a party were able to vote in the Democratic and Republican contests for the first time. More than 877,000 Registered Democrats and Republicans voted in Tuesday’s races, which is more than 100,000 more ballots than the previous highest turnout for a primary, per unofficial results from Wednesday morning.”

“Boulder County may ask voters in November to authorize collections of a 0.185 percent sales and use tax to fund improvements to the Boulder County Jail and construction of a new alternative-sentencing facility near the jail,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The Board of County Commissioners has not yet formally discussed the possible tax question during one of its regular meetings but is tentatively set to consider in August whether to advance such a proposal to the fall ballot, according to Michelle Krezek, the commissioners’ staff deputy. No decisions have been made yet, Krezek said Wednesday. However, public discussion of the idea may start as soon as Thursday evening, when the possibility of such a county-wide ballot issue is on the agenda during a county commissioners’ annual dinner meeting with Longmont’s City Council.”

“Former Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Dodd took the stand on the third day of his jury trial Wednesday,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “He is accused of storing murder evidence in a personal storage unit that later was sold at auction when his payment defaulted. Dodd said he had no evil motives for holding the found property, which had “no value” to him. He faces charges of second-degree official misconduct, abuse of public records and criminal possession of an identification document. The charges stem from the December 2016 discovery of evidence in the storage locker found by Cañon City resident Rick Ratzlaff, who purchased the unit. The items allegedly are connected to the Aug. 15, 2006, murder of 17-year-old Candace Hiltz in the Copper Gulch area.”

“Colorado could finally be shedding its reputation as a state that eschews childhood vaccinations,” reports The Denver Post. “New figures from the health department show, for the second school year in a row, that more than 90 percent of students got their required shots. The shots are being administered at levels that officials say is needed to protect children against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B and polio. Prevention of the spread of viruses also is protecting kids who don’t get vaccinated. “This builds up protections for all kids — even those who can’t, for some reason, get immunized,” Tony Cappello, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s disease control and environmental epidemiology division.”

“The city of Durango may test for radon at a proposed homeless camp, but residents and the state health department say the test will not answer all the questions about radioactive materials on the former uranium mill site,” reports The Durango Herald. “Durango City Council voted in April to establish a camp for homeless residents west of the Durango Dog Park. However, it is “yet to be determined” whether homeless campers will move to the former uranium mill site parallel to Lightner Creek from a site near Greenmount Cemetery, Assistant City Manager Kevin Hall said in an email to The Durango Herald. It is also unknown how much a radon test might cost, he said. Campers cannot stay at the Greenmount Cemetery site long term because it was acquired as open space to preserve the viewshed, Councilor Dick White said. The council anticipated having more time to weigh options for a homeless camp while campers were staying at Escalante Middle School during the 416 Fire evacuations. But they had to make an immediate decision about where campers could stay when the evacuations ended, White said.”

“Colorado, which is on the fringe of the habitat for greater sage-grouse, also is far from ground zero when it comes to the battle over proposed changes to 3-year-old plans for protecting the bird’s habitat around the West,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Conservation groups, however, warn that the state could share in the fallout if revisions in other states reduce protections and revive the prospect for the bird being listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Bureau of Land Management in May released draft resource management plan amendments and environmental impact statements governing greater sage-grouse management in Colorado and several other states. The proposed Colorado revised plan — which has drawn praise from Gov. John Hickenlooper, who says it will better protect the species — also is eliciting some support from those who want those protections to allow activities such as oil and gas leasing and development to still continue.”

“Lafayette has inked a deal worth nearly $2 million in incentives to bring a Kohl’s to the city’s new Promenade development, an agreement some say may herald the end of the department store’s neighboring Louisville location and accelerate a feared “economic crisis” along the McCaslin corridor,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Lafayette spokeswoman Debbie Wilmot said the specific Kohl’s site plans may arrive in front of planning commissioners later this month. If approved, the site will join the recently installed Tractor Supply and upcoming 24-Hour Fitness near the Arapahoe Road and U.S. 287 intersection — the subject of continued litigation between Lafayette and neighboring Erie.”

“As the final seconds of stoppage time rolled off the clock in Russia and officials declared the World Cup quarterfinal game over Friday afternoon, Belgium’s celebration of the 2-1 victory over Brazil began,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “In The Tavern at St. Michael’s Square in west Greeley, Debra Reichert, 60, nodded toward the screen. “Look at those people,” she said of the Brazilian fans in yellow. “They’re crying in the stands.” She wasn’t going that far, but squeezed into one side of a booth with her partner, Paul Speck, 64, to face the screen at the side of the room, Reichert had been noticeably rooting for Brazil.”

“It was a Monday night — April 30, 2012, to be exact — when a small group of federal and state health officials appeared at a City Council work session to talk about testing soil in the Eilers Heights neighborhood,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “In fact, they said the South Side neighborhood needed to be on the federal Superfund list of areas that have risky levels of industrial contamination. Council was stunned. Hearing Pueblo linked with the word Superfund was like your doctor calling and saying he needs to talk to you about your latest x-rays. It couldn’t be good news.”

“As businesses began ushering customers back into the heart of downtown Basalt on Sunday, local and national fire crews continued battling the Lake Christine Fire not far above the small town’s main drag,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “Just up the road from popular eateries and well-known watering holes, a Snowmass Village police officer blocked and made sure those entering Sopris Drive had the proper credentials — no residents and absolutely zero sightseers got waved through the barricades. Farther up was another checkpoint, manned by a Pitkin County sheriff’s deputy, who doubled down on making sure only authorized personnel entered the volatile area.”

“The chairlift on Steamboat’s historic ski area, Howelsen Hill, is soon expected to get a lift. Contractors from Utah are expected to complete repairs on the Barrows Chairlift later this month,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “City council approved the construction up to $35,000. The repair will keep the lift operational for this winter’s Ski Free Sundays and the free learn to ski program for second graders in the Steamboat Springs School District. In a June meeting, council approved continuing both programs this winter.”

“Peter Yu, a Loveland native hoping to take over Jared Polis’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, says his campaign against Democrat Joe Neguse will be all about facing the facts,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Yu visited Loveland last week and spoke to a small group about his philosophies on topics such as the national debt and child separations at the border. “We’re having a situation where the fabric of our society is being challenged in regard to what direction we want to head,” Yu said. “The part that terrifies me now is we’re having a little bit of a shift of our culture.” Yu, a 45-year-old Republican, said he is seeking to challenge voters in what he knows is a dependably Democratic district. Polis beat out competitors for the seat every two years beginning in 2008, and the last Republican to do so was Don Brotzman, who left office in 1975.”

“The Quarry Fire that erupted Saturday night near Fremont Peak is 90 percent contained, according to fire officials,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “In an update late Sunday afternoon, officials said 67 fire personnel are working the fire with one KMAX helicopter assigned to the incident. The fire, which officials said was started by a lightning strike, is estimated to be at 8.5 acres. Firefighters battled two fires in Fremont County on Saturday evening. The Twin Fire off of CR 3A near the former Buckskin Joes and the Royal Gorge Park was less than one acre and was fully contained Saturday night.”

“As anyone who has watched as more and more cars stack up during the morning commute can attest, the population here keeps booming,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “But if that’s the case, why is the city’s water use continuously going down? Seriously. In 2000, the city of Fort Collins treated 31,594 acre-feet of water. In 2017, the city treated three-fourths of that, or 23,512 acre-feet — despite an additional 15,400 people tapping into the city’s water. (Fort Collins Water serves the majority of businesses and residences in the city limits, but not all.)”

“A feud that came to a head with an unsatisfactory review of the Monument police chief’s performance has since led to the firing of the town manager, two municipal employees wondering if they still have jobs and a deadlocked Board of Trustees,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Town government in Monument has been in turmoil since ex-Town Manager Chris Lowe cited issues with Police Chief Jacob Shirk’s performance, including IT security lapses noted in an audit of the department by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. In addition, Lowe faulted the chief for mishandling evidence, sex offenders not being registered correctly and what he claimed was insubordination by Shirk.”

“Residents near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport say they’re fine with noise from slurry bombers that land and take off from the airport to assist in fighting wildfires across Colorado,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “However, some in Broomfield and Superior are increasingly upset about noise from regular airport operations, including the Rocky Mountain Flight School. Superior resident Diane Marsella said that she understands fires are ongoing and planes delivering slurry are necessary, as are the crafts that take off at 3:30 a.m. from the airport for a medical flight to deliver harvested organs.”

“The University of Northern Colorado will soon be led by a 50-year-old expert in hotel management who aims to extend a welcoming hand to anyone who wants to help raise the profile and steady Colorado’s fiscally challenged underdog university,” reports The Denver Post. “I am going to be fully engaged with the community and the university community,” Andy Feinstein said. “I am going to do my absolute best to move this university forward and build on its successes in the past. I think we’ve got a good story to tell here, and I look forward to getting that story out.” Feinstein begins his new job of president at the 13,000-student UNC on July 9, replacing the retiring Kay Norton.”

“The Broomfield City Council is expected to vote on whether or not to adopt an ordinance amending sections of the municipal code regarding oil and gas regulations at its Tuesday council meeting,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “In general, the draft regulations ensure that oil and gas facilities are designed, modified, commissioned, constructed, equipped, operated, maintained, suspended and abandoned in a manner that prioritizes the protection of human health, safety, and welfare, according to the city memo. The draft regulations also contain provisions related to the location of proposed oil and gas well sites, including a requirement that operators conduct an alternative site analysis.”

“For the first time ever, the median sales price of a home in Greeley and Evans broke the $300,000 mark, coming in at $301,000, an increase of $4,600 since May,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “In comparison, the median sales price of a home in the Greeley/Evans area a year ago was $273,885. This represents a 9.9 percent increase year over year, according to data provided by Sears Real Estate. That’s good news for home sellers, said Chalice Springfield, CEO and managing broker of Sears Real Estate in Greeley. And not so good news for buyers.”

“Caerus Oil and Gas plans to spend about $229 million this year drilling and completing natural gas wells in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “A Caerus official on Monday updated Garfield County commissioners on the company’s operations and also said the company is looking into the possibility of restoring some level of public access on local acreage where it closed the access after buying the land last year. “We’re going to try and see if we can’t come to some kind of compromise,” said Michael Rynearson, vice president of operations. Denver-based Caerus formed in 2009 and in recent years has acquired Piceance Basin assets from a number of companies.”

“So many residents weighed in Monday night on a proposed pipeline to carry water from the Poudre River to Thornton that the Larimer County commissioners split a hearing on the matter into a second day,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “With hundreds of residents filling every seat in the Larimer County hearing room and many standing or sitting on the floor at the back of the room and lining the walls, the commissioners heard two opposing arguments on whether the county has a say on where the water is withdrawn from the Poudre River.”

“To protect the health of the Yampa River ecosystem, the city of Steamboat Springs and Colorado Parks and Wildlife have implemented a closure of the river from Steamboat to the Chuck Lewis State Wildlife area,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “On Monday, the city announced a voluntary closure for all recreational river use. In a news release, the city asked that tubers, paddleboarders, swimmers and anglers avoid river recreation. Commercial tubing outfitters have also suspended operations.”

“More families were able to move back home Monday night, as the evacuation order for the Lake Christine Fire was lifted for residences in the Missouri Heights neighborhood, east of Upper Cattle Creek Road,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “‘I’m thrilled,’ said attorney and Blue Creek resident Jody Edwards, who learned the news at Monday’s community meeting at Basalt High School. Edwards, who has been evacuated since July 4, was one of about 10 residences who were displaced by the mandatory evacuation order. “These guys have done a fantastic job,” Edwards said, adding he’s grateful for the firefighters and law enforcement for handling the operation so well. “Safety was their number one concern.” About 20 homes off of Frying Pan Road from Pinon to Cedar Road remain under mandatory evacuation.”

“Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., is asking the White House to bring more federal resources to the job of fighting the 105,000-acre Spring Fire, including the use of the special Boeing 747 supertanker that is based in Colorado Springs,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Tipton’s letter takes account of the burned acreage and lost homes in the fire, but notes the supertanker is not being used in fighting Colorado fires despite being able to carry 19,000 gallons of water or retardant. Tipton’s letter urges the Trump administration “to expedite federal approvals to get the tanker off the ground.” News reports have said the giant jet isn’t being used because it lacks computer software required by federal officials. The company that owns the airplane, Global SuperTanker, reports that it is getting the required update but doesn’t yet have all the needed approvals. It is reportedly getting its upgrade in Sacramento, Calif.”

“The Fort Collins man who went missing after climbing Mount Meeker on June 30 was hiking to celebrate completing his master’s program thesis, according to a friend,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Search efforts continued Monday for Brian Perri, who was last seen in a photo taken from the summit of the 13,911-foot mountain on June 30. Rocky Mountain National Park rangers were notified late Thursday of his reported disappearance and began a search that night. Now, nine days after the 38-year-old student was last seen, the search continues without resolution.”

“Visitors to the top of Pikes Peak now can drive themselves — rather than taking the previously mandated shuttle — if they arrive between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. or after 4 p.m., says Jack Glavan, manager of the Pikes Peak America’s Mountain Enterprise,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Visitors used to flock to the mountain between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., but they’re showing up these days between noon and 3 p.m. “People are staying a little longer, and they’re coming up a little later,” Glavan said, allowing more drivers to skip the shuttle service.”

“Charges were filed Monday against a Fremont County Sheriff’s deputy who allegedly took silver coins from a crime scene and later sold them at a local coin shop,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Christopher Pape, 30, who is free on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond, is facing charges of attempting to influence a public servant, theft between $5,000 and $20,000, and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies; and abuse of public records and first-degree official misconduct, both misdemeanors. Pape is on paid administrative leave while an internal investigation takes place, Fremont County Sheriff Jim Beicker said June 9. Pape was hired with the FCSO in October 2013 and recently was assigned as the marijuana enforcement officer.”

“After 27 years of EPA control, Colorado is preparing to take over the full financial burden — a forever bill for $2 million a year — of a high-mountain cyanide gold mine that became one of the West’s worst environmental disasters,” reports The Denver Post. “The re-shaping of ravaged alpine tundra at the Summitville Mine through a $250 million federal Superfund cleanup stands out because scores of other toxic mines in Colorado still are contaminating headwaters of western rivers each day. But this fix requires constant work. Colorado must pay the $2 million, a bill that the EPA has been handling, starting in 2021 for cleaning a fluctuating flow of up to 2,100 gallons a minute of toxic water that drains down a once-pristine mountainside. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will use the money to run a silver-domed $18 million industrial water treatment plant built at 11,500 feet elevation in a wild and spectacular valley, surrounded by snow-splotched jagged peaks.”

“The Montezuma County commissioners are getting pushback on their assertion that certain roads and trails running through the San Juan National Forest are under the jurisdiction of counties,” reports The Cortez Journal. “In a June 17 resolution based on historic maps, the Board of Commissioners claimed that 17 roads and trails fall under the RS2477 statute, which date to 1866 mining laws establishing early travel routes. The resolution states that the routes existed before the forest was formed in 1905 and therefore are under the control of counties where they lie.”

“For those behind the statewide, grass-roots effort to see Colorado schools funded more equitably and at a higher level, Wednesday marked a major victory,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Proponents of the Great Schools, Thriving Communities ballot measure (Initiative 93) — which would increase educational funding through tax increments on income earned above $150,000 and on corporations — announced in Denver’s Alamo Placita Park that the signatures needed to place the measure on the November ballot have been collected, prepared and delivered to Secretary of State Wayne W. Williams for certification.”

“Brian Sullivan looked around his home one day and counted 15 devices that were connected to the internet,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “TVs, gaming sets, cellphones, washers, driers, air conditioners and garage door openers were among his devices. It’s a number he expects to keep growing. ‘And so, they’re all using bandwidth,’ Sullivan, the city’s manager of Geographic Information Systems said. By 2021, according to an analysis by NEO Connect, a Glenwood Springs-based broadband consulting firm, more than 30 billion devices — from laptops to cellphones and clothing to cars — will be connected to the internet. That’s 13 devices per person.”

“Longmont’s City Council has directed the city staff to provide a report on a possible food-tax rebate program that might offset the municipal sales tax amounts that elderly, disabled and low-income residents now pay when they buy food,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Councilman Aren Rodriguez on Tuesday night moved to have the staff generate the report and received unanimous support from the council members at the meeting. Longmont’s council has not formally discussed — at one of its weekly meetings, at least — UnTax Food, a proposed ballot initiative that would ask voters in November to end collecting the city’s 3.53 percent sales tax on groceries.”

“One friend of Matthew Shelters describes the past 11 weeks as an emotional roller coaster and the past few days as a very difficult ride,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “‘Matt was always in a good mood and happy to see any of his friends,” Nicole Shively said. “He would always greet you with a big hug and smile no matter what was going on in his life.” Shively was one of several friends who helped organize and conduct searches after the 38-year-old Steamboat Springs man vanished April 24 after leaving Back Door Grill in downtown Steamboat Springs.”

“For Lynne Klish, having a dog everywhere she goes is a matter of life and death. Karina, her service dog, is trained to guide her safely around town,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The yellow Lab golden retriever mix was highly trained by The Seeing Eye dog program — so much that she will stand in front of Klish and block her from taking another step if there’s something dangerous approaching, like a quiet Prius stealthily gliding through a parking lot.”

“Due to many complaints from small business owners in the past year who say the cost of installing a code-mandated fire suppression system is just too high, the city of Loveland is examining programs to help with the costs,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Complainants have cited the cost of installing sprinklers in nearly century-old downtown buildings as prohibitive to opening a business in Loveland. Including labor costs, a system typically runs between $80,000 and $100,000, city staff said. To make matters worse, a surprise visit from a city building official or fire department member to a private building, including stores, hotels or apartment complexes, could lead the city to demand that the building owner install a system to comply with life safety provisions in the city code.”

“Larimer County could shared governance of a taxpayer-funded behavioral health system with the county’s cities and towns in the hope of drawing votes from rural areas,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “The county commission is gearing up to ask voters in November for sales tax money to pay for countywide behavioral health services. Its goal would be to “fill the gaps” in behavioral health services, a catch-all term for mental health and substance abuse disorders. Larimer County Behavioral Health Project Director Laurie Stolen said it wouldn’t be an effort to grow government or the county getting into the business of providing behavioral health services. She described it as the county wanting to convene “a conversation on a community-wide solution.”

“The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad plans to resume coal-fired steam engine service to Silverton on Thursday, after more than 40 days stuck in the depot,” reports The Durango Herald. “We are preparing to run on that day,” General Manager John Harper said Tuesday. Harper said the train will work with local agencies and fire districts in the next couple of days to make sure they agree it is safe to run coal-fired engines, which are known for sending off cinders and starting small fires. On Wednesday, La Plata County commissioners will discuss whether to downgrade current Stage 3 fire restrictions, which ban the use of coal-fired steam engines. Lowering fire restrictions would effectively allow D&SNG officials to decide whether it’s safe to run coal-fired engines.”

“Laying their heads by the riverside or at some other bucolic bivouac has proven not to be the way most Dead & Company fans roll, so the band’s return to Boulder this weekend likely will impact local merchants more than it does park rangers or the law enforcement community,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “In advance of the first shows at the University of Colorado’s Folsom Field by the remnants of the Grateful Dead in 2016, coming as they did just before the Fourth of July, many officials were concerned about an influx of so-called “travelers,” itinerant tie-dyed campers that might pour into foothill forests to put down a bedroll — stoking concerns about everything from wildfire danger to rampant illegal drug use. But as the band has aged, so have its most fervent fans. With a third round of Dead & Company concerts looming this weekend, they can likely be found more easily at the posh St. Julien Hotel & Spa in downtown Boulder than at Nederland’s West Magnolia campground.”

“Eagle’s second water treatment plant has been talked about, thought about and planned for two decades,” reports Vail Daily. “This week, the town set about starting to build it. A groundbreaking ceremony saw the first shovels of dirt turned Tuesday, July 10. Excavation should continue through the summer, and concrete should follow in the fall. Water is scheduled to begin flowing in the fall of 2020.”

“Cinders spewed out of the vintage coal train’s smoke stack as the locomotive chugged up a drought-stricken mountain canyon between Durango and Silverton in late spring,” reports The Denver Post. “Following behind was a small crew of certified firefighters flying a helicopter, rolling on the tracks in two “speeder” cars and riding in the rear train car beside a 1,000-gallon tank armed with a water canon in case embers ignited spot fires. In May, the layered fire protection system worked to extinguish five spot fires that sparked to life along the rails in heavily forested La Plata County, according people who helped put out the flames. But now locals are wondering if the train that draws tourists from around the world is to blame for a devastating fire that has burned through 54,000 acres north of Durango and continues to flare up.”

“The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office has terminated deputy Christopher Pape,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “The sheriff’s office confirmed Wednesday that Pape was fired a few days after his arrest and before Monday when he formally was charged. Pape, 30, who is free on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond, is facing charges of attempting to influence a public servant, theft between $5,000 and $20,000, and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies; and abuse of public records and first-degree official misconduct, both misdemeanors.”