The Home Front: Denver becomes first U.S. city to allow pot use in public, but…

Denver will now allow people to use marijuana in restaurants and bars, yoga studios and other public places that allow it, becoming the first city in the nation to do so, reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The catch: Patrons could use pot as long as it isn’t smoked and the locations would have to seek the approval of neighbors.” That’s because Denver voters “approved Proposition 300 as eight other states legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes last week. The Denver vote was so close that it took an entire week for supporters to claim victory and opponents to concede.”

Donations are down at the Weld County Food Bank, which is looking for turkeys to give out at Thanksgiving, according to The Greeley Tribune. “Last year, more than 4,500 families got the chance to enjoy a special holiday meal because Weld County residents generously donated turkeys, canned cranberries, stuffing, green beans and cream of mushroom soup to the Weld Food Bank. This year, Weld Food Bank and the agencies they partner with — 90 in total, including food pantries, soup kitchens and more — need 4,862 turkeys and all the fixings. But the food bank only has about 1,200 of the frozen birds.”

“The Obama administration on Tuesday finalized a Bureau of Land Management rule to limit methane waste related to oil and gas development on federal and tribal lands, but it faces an immediate legal challenge and the potential for President-elect Donald Trump to try to reverse it,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The Interior Department said in a release that the rule “updates 30-year-old regulations governing venting, flaring, and leaks of natural gas, and will help curb waste of public resources, reduce harmful methane emissions, and provide a fair return on public resources for federal taxpayers, tribes and states.” Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and also contains other hazardous pollutants such as cancer-causing benzene.”

“Boulder County’s moratorium on oil and gas development in unincorporated parts of the county, which was to have ended on Friday, will be kept in place at least through the end of January and may be extended for some months beyond that,” according to The Boulder Daily Camera. “County Commissioners Elise Jones, Deb Gardner and Cindy Domenico voted Tuesday evening to approve a “temporary emergency moratorium” through Jan. 31 to give county staff time to start studying and preparing possible additions to the latest draft version of updated oil and gas development regulations the commissioners want in place before they start accepting applications for drilling oil and gas wells.”

The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent reports how The People’s Tree, a.k.a, the U.S. Capitol’s Christmas tree, made its way through the area as it rode on a truck from central Idaho to Washington, D.C. “This will be the 46th year the U.S. Forest Service has provided a Christmas tree to the U.S. Capitol (not to be confused with the National Christmas Tree, which goes to the White House).”

Snow on Thursday could break a monthlong no-snow drought, reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “National Weather Service forecaster Kari Bowen said the brunt of the snow will come Thursday and Thursday night, although Front Range residents could see some cloudiness and light snow Wednesday night.”

Steamboat Today reports how the city council on Tuesday “told proponents of a parks and recreation property tax to take their plan on the road to gauge what the community thinks of it. No council member appeared ready to commit to the tax proposal, which would seek to raise more money for the upkeep and maintenance of parks and recreation amenities.”

“State election officials said Pueblo County would have had to test the county’s election system with 50,000-60,000 test ballots to discover the limited data base on the Dominion Express system that filled up on Election Day, causing days of delay in getting final results,” The Pueblo Chieftain reports. “Dwight Shellman, county support manager for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, said the limited data base was not mentioned in any of the vendor’s documentation about the Microsoft SQL Express system and that neither state or county officials were aware of it — until the computer server stopped working on Election Day.”

The Coloradoan in Fort Collins reports Colorado State University received its largest donation in its history when when Walter Scott Jr. gave the school $53.3 million. “Scott is a resident of Omaha, Nebraska. He is a CSU civil engineering alumnus who once led the international contractor Kiewit and now serves on the Berkshire Hathaway board. The College of Engineering will be renamed the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering in his honor.”

Vail Mountain is delaying its opening day for skiing and snowboarding by a week, according to Vail Daily. “Warm temperatures have hampered snowmaking efforts over the last several weeks, and natural snowfall has been light.”

“A Fremont Correctional Facility inmate has sued nine correctional officers and nurses claiming that he suffered permanent physical disabilities after officers repeatedly failed to provide proper treatment for a series of strokes,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “The civil lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of Allen Williams against five nurses of the medical staff and four correctional officers at the Canon City prison by Denver attorney Adam Frank and Faisal Salahuddin.”

The Boulder Daily Camera reports how Boulder, “which already had the highest affordable housing linkage fee of any city between the country’s coasts, approved an increase on Tuesday night and will now charge developers of office space $12 per square foot.”

“A Colorado representative to the Electoral College is helping lead a movement to block Donald Trump from taking the White House,” The Denver Post reports. “Micheal Baca, a Denver Democrat and member of the state’s Electoral College delegation, is working to persuade Republican electors in other states to support a different candidate.”

The Colorado Springs Independent reports on a group called Colorado Springs Forward as a wealthy and connected organization that hopes to “steer the city into prosperous waters.”

 

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.