The Home Front: Climate change in Colorado, housing for the homeless, and police body cams in Pueblo

“Johnstown water officials are under investigation for inadvertently killing almost 1,000 fish in the town’s reservoir this summer,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “In an effort to treat an algae outbreak, a worker put a chemical compound into the water that ended up suffocating 972 fish, Jennifer Churchill, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said on Thursday.”

Donald Trump Jr. got a warm reception at a stop in Grand Junction yesterday, according to The Daily Sentinel. “The younger Trump’s event at the Mesa County Fairgrounds was billed as “a campfire with Donald Trump Jr.,” with him talking about specific issues facing the use of public lands in the West. Well, there was no campfire, and all the younger Trump said about public lands was that they should remain open and accessible to all. And instead of the 4,000 people organizers had expected to draw, there were only about 300.”

A service provider and a developer plan to build a $14 million apartment complex for the homeless near downtown Colorado Springs, The Gazette reports. “The project will target the chronically homeless – usually single men and women who suffer from debilitating physical or mental conditions and who often sleep in tents, doorways and cars for long stretches of time.”

Meanwhile, volunteers are key to a new homeless program in Loveland, The Reporter-Herald reports. “The One Congregation-One Family program — a program under the Department of Local Affairs that has several versions throughout the state including One Village One Family through Homeless Gear in Fort Collins — pairs mentor teams of churches, organizations, businesses and community members with families experiencing homelessness or housing instability.”

The Pueblo Chieftain localized the story about a black man killed by police on tape in Charlotte with a story about how and when footage is released by local police. In Charlotte, the police chief has yet to release the tape publicly. In Colorado, whether or not to release footage is up to the police to decide if they think it’s in the “public interest.” The Pueblo department “has provided videos when sought by the news media under the Colorado Criminal Records Justice Act. The only caveat is the police have waited until the district attorney’s office has closed an investigation.”

In Steamboat Springs, police will start carrying a treatment for drug overdoses, Steamboat Today reports. “The potentially life-saving drug called Narcan is a nasal mist form of naloxone. Recently, it became legal to buy the drug without a prescription. City Market in Steamboat Springs sells the drug, and Walgreens anticipates selling the drug soon.”

Ivanka Trump came to the Liberty Common school. The Coloradoan in Fort Collins has that dispatch.

“The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that a Boulder District Court judge was wrong to conclude last year that Boulder was within its rights to create a municipal electric utility,” reports The Daily Camera. “The ruling reverses Judge Judith LaBuda’s dismissal of a lawsuit by Xcel Energy — the incumbent utility from which Boulder has long sought to separate — that aimed to undo the utility’s formation on paper. In 2011, Boulder voters authorized the city to explore forming a municipal electric utility, assuming approval from Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission, and demonstration that the municipal utility could acquire Xcel’s local distribution system and charge rates that don’t exceed those charged by Xcel at the time of acquisition.”

“James Coleman, who purchased Purgatory Resort in 2015, has added another ski slope to his portfolio: Hesperus Ski Area, 11 miles west of Durango,” according to The Herald. “The acquisition announced Thursday includes the Hesperus Ski Area’s lodge, rental shop and tubing hill, in addition to its 160-acre lease.”

Vail Daily asks today if the ColoradoCare universal healthcare ballot measure is right for Colorado. The paper looks at what the amendment, set for voters to decide on Nov. 8, would do.

Colorado will get hotter because of climate change, reports The Denver Post. “Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins are likely to see hot days more frequently each year, including an average of seven days with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, according to three studies released Thursday by the Louisville-based Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. They also predict, with less certainty, an increase in severe storms dropping significant rain or snow. If heat-trapping emissions into the atmosphere keep increasing, researchers found, the northern Front Range climate by 2050 will be fundamentally different.”

Denverite’s Erica Meltzer talked with Republican U.S. Senate nominee Darryl Glenn.