The Home Front: Why all the pro-fracking ads, more rules for dogs, and the DIA bus crash driver IDed

It’s the battle of Battlement Mesa as some residents “are calling on Gov. John Hickenlooper to intervene after state regulators approved a second proposed Ursa Resources oil and gas pad in that residential community,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel today. “Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staff OK’d the proposal late last week. Ursa now has state and Garfield County approvals to drill more than 50 wells from two pads in the community of several thousand residents.” The latest approval allows fracking near the municipal water intake on the Colorado River.

The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent reports the tiny home movement rolled through town “drawing energy efficiency professionals from around the region to check out what was billed as the cutting edge of high performance housing.”

Another local government in Colorado is looking at its official rules for dogs, according to a front-page story in The Greeley Tribune. “Weld County officials are looking at how they should punish owners for their dogs’ violence toward other animals — or whether they should at all. The county has regulations on “dogs at large,” which punish owners for three levels of infractions: having a loose dog, having a loose dog that attacks other animals and having a loose dog that attacks people.”

If anti-fracking measures failed to make the Nov. 8 ballot, then why all the pro-fracking TV ads, asks The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “The group — Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy, and Energy Independence — got much of its funding from oil and gas companies and has run ads that feature a thank-you message to Colorado voters for not giving proponents enough signatures to put the measures to a vote. So what’s the thinking behind spending money to reach out to an electorate that won’t actually vote on new restrictions on fracking? Well, some of it is by chance. The group purchased the ad space before it knew proponents of the two measures had come up short on their signature requirements.”

The Loveland Reporter-Herald IDs the driver in the DIA bus crash as 43-year-old Kari Chopper. “While the cause of Sunday’s school bus crash at Denver International Airport that injured 18 and killed the driver remains a mystery, Legacy High students returning to class Monday say they’re focused on supporting the victims.”

A proposed pay raise would bump the pay of Erie’s town administrator up 33 percent in five years, reports The Boulder Daily Camera.

The Cañon City school district is reviewing the future of an elementary school, according to The Cañon City Daily Record.

The Denver Post fronts a look at a congressional race between Democrat Gail Schwartz and Republican Scott Tipton that has coal-industry jobs front and center of a race “few Coloradans saw coming.”

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda were in Colorado Springs shooting a movie, reports The Gazette.