The Home Front: After Trump, one Colorado city might declare it is not ‘ruled by fear’

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, the city of Longmont might declare it is not “ruled by fear,” the Times-Call reports. “On Tuesday, the Longmont City Council will consider a resolution that would “reaffirm our constitutional rights and our community values.”

Councilwoman Polly Christensen proposed the measure on Nov. 29, “the first council meeting following the Nov. 8 presidential election,” the paper reported. Christensen told the paper she was inspired to propose the measure after a visit to Washington, D.C., and a letter from a constituent. “A year ago I went into the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and they have an exhibit called ‘They Were Our Neighbors.’ It highlighted how in many, many cases it was the neighbors and longtime friends who turned in the Jews … so that those few people who did survive the Holocaust came into a world where they couldn’t trust anyone,” Christensen said.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports the city might seek an increase in the local sales tax. “If so, those officials hope city residents will approve a proposed quarter-cent sales tax increase in April to fund a $45 million event center and $15 million in improvements to Two Rivers Convention Center.”

Calls to 911 are way up in the Greeley area, reports The Greeley Tribune. “Ask Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner about some of the more infamous 911 calls his department has received, and he can rattle a few off the top of his head. There was the one about a child who climbed a tree and refused to come down. There were a slew of Black Friday calls concerning faulty, newly bought merchandise. The one he remembers most, though, is the time a resident called 911 because there was a spider in a bus shelter.”

Pueblo Chieftain reporter pens a tribute to astronaut John Glenn, who died Thursday, recalling a “soft-spoken hero” who loved to fly. “Glenn was a Democratic senator for 25 years, but he was a flyer, first and always. It’s hard as a reporter to get more than 10 or 15 minutes of a senator’s time in Washington, D.C., and I’d had my share of brief interviews with him. But when Glenn heard I wanted an interview about his test pilot records, he gave me an entire hour.”

“The election is finally over for Fort Collins and Larimer County,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Poudre School District’s $375 million bond prevailed in recount results Thursday, nearly a month after Election Day. The bond’s 123-vote lead in official election results triggered the automatic recount, which was estimated to cost Larimer County just more than $20,000. Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Angela Myers said she did not have a final cost for the recount Thursday evening.”

The Boulder Daily Camera reports Broomfield is eyeing a new oil-and-gas moratorium— “this time one significantly shorter than the one invalidated earlier this year after the Colorado Supreme Court struck down bans in Longmont and Fort Collins. The City Council this week took the first step, to vociferous applause and a standing ovation, in approving a temporary moratorium that would halt any new oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing and processing applications until June.”

“He’s not quite ready to fully ride off into the sunset, but after working 55 years in the tourism and theme park industry — 53 of which were in management positions — Mike Bandera is looking forward to having some time to himself,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Bandera, general manager of the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park and vice-president of the Royal Gorge Company of Colorado, will retire from his post Dec. 31.”

The Denver Post reports the city as too cold for Russian ballerinas, Disney on ice, and even some crooks. “People are just less active. Things just sort of shut down. People aren’t out and about,” Stanford University assistant professor Marshall Burke, who has studied the correlation between changing temperatures and crime rates, told the newspaper.

Giraffes are facing a “silent crisis,” according to a report in The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Bad news came Wednesday for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s 16 long-necked residents – and their most ardent fans. Giraffes now face the threat of extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which chronicles the status of at-risk species on its internationally renowned Red List. At a Wednesday conference in Mexico, the organization downgraded the giraffe’s status, from “least concern” – or a species with a relatively low extinction risk – to “vulnerable” – just a step above endangered.”