The Home Front: CU-Boulder scouted out California to ‘help prepare’ for their Ann Coulter event

“The University of Colorado and Boulder police departments sent employees to an Ann Coulter event in California last weekend to help prepare the university for the controversial commentator’s appearance later this week,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Coulter is scheduled to appear at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Chem 140, at a speaking event hosted by conservative group Turning Point USA. In preparation, CU spokesman Ryan Huff said the university sent two employees to Mountain View, Calif., where Coulter spoke at a private event. Boulder police spokeswoman Shannon Aulabaugh said Boulder police also sent one person. Huff said the employees were able to watch a “a well-attended event that occurred without disruption.”

“With the Grand Avenue bridge detour and its related business impacts fading in the rearview mirror, Glenwood Springs started 2018 on the right foot when it came to retail sales in the city,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “City finance officials reported sales taxes were up nearly 1.5 percent in January, thanks to strong performance in several key sectors including general merchandise, or “big box” sales, which opened 2018 more than 11.5 percent ahead of the same month last year. Sales of clothing and accessories were also up more than 31 percent, food sales were up 14.5 percent, and miscellaneous retail, which takes in many of the independently owned downtown shops, was up 14.2 percent, according to the January sales tax report.”

“One person was injured, another had to jump out of a second story window and most of an east Greeley apartment building was damaged Sunday afternoon after a large fire broke out near 4th Avenue and 20th Street,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “The fire started about 4 p.m. in a second-floor apartment in the 2000 block of 4th Avenue, summoning six fire engines and two ladder trucks, and sending one person suffering from smoke inhalation to North Colorado Medical Center. Greeley Fire Department officials didn’t immediately know the cause of the fire, but it started on the second floor — across the hall from Vance Cundy’s and Mariah Jackson’s apartment.”

“Broad-based panels that advise the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado have been directed to make recommendations on how to implement numerous Trump administration orders,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “That leaves environmental representatives of the groups in the uncomfortable position of being tasked with things such as identifying steps to bolster oil and gas development.”

“A piece of land at the intersection of Colorado 402 and County Road 9 may soon be zoned to allow the construction of a manufacturing facility, but some of the property’s neighbors are concerned about the proposed development,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Initial plans call for construction of a manufacturing facility that produces modular cleanrooms for pharmacies, hospitals and medical offices. Known as the West Creek addition, the 9.7 acres of property are owned by Pat Travis of Travis Clean Air, Inc., a custom cleanroom provider.”

“Anxieties over the new parking garage in downtown Breckenridge adding to traffic problems in an area already notorious for them have not gone unnoticed among town officials, even as they push forward with a project to build a 400-space structure at Tiger Dredge and F Lot,” reports Summit Daily. “The site selected for the new parking garage sits between Washington Avenue and Village Road with South Park Avenue to the west and the Blue River by the Riverwalk Center on the east. Town council landed on the location for its potential to increase parking with limited traffic impacts, great walkability to the downtown core, a magnitude of uses and the overall project cost, town staff said.”

“It started off as a very routine day with Oak Creek Police Officer Stephen Harbison looking out for cars speeding by on Main Street,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Then, shortly after 8 a.m. on Feb. 15, Harbison got a call to help a 30-year-old man who was unconscious, and the training Harbison received just six days prior would be used to save the man’s life. Harbison is among the growing number of police officers in Colorado to be trained in administering Naloxone, a drug also known as Narcan, which quickly reverses the effects of an opiate overdose.”

“Longmont’s City Council on Tuesday night may direct the city staff to prepare municipal code amendments that would impose new procedures for property owners to follow before the city allows them to exterminate prairie dogs on their properties,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Longmont’s current Land Development Code currently requires some property owners to make good-faith efforts to move unwanted prairie dogs to another location, or to arrange to donate at least some of those animals as food for raptor or black-footed ferret recovery programs before seeking city approval to exterminate the rest.”

“Walnut Street’s businesses survived a two-month road closure with more-or-less minimal scathing,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Now one of the business owners hopes to make their tactics routine for the city. George Grossman, owner of Happy Lucky’s Teahouse, is planning to work with the city to develop a formal toolbox of sorts. The goal is to make it easier for businesses to do things like post signs at construction sites to let the public know they’re still open, or to offer free parking in nearby garages.”

“The primary election ballot will have one less candidate in the race for Fremont County Sheriff after Saturday’s Republican Assembly,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “After being duly nominated, candidates were required to garner a minimum of 30 percent of the votes from the 186 credentialed delegates in order to be designated onto the June 26 primary ballot.”

“It was founded nearly 70 years ago, before the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, and has its roots in an early state anti-discrimination law that dates back to 1895,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “But now the state’s Civil Rights Commission is potentially facing major changes to its mandate and authority – thanks in large part to the Lakewood baker who refused, on religious grounds, to provide a cake for a same-sex couple. Some Republican lawmakers have charged that the cake case shows that the commission holds an anti-business bias and are calling for major changes in the commission’s makeup and power. At the same time, however, they maintain they support civil rights and have no intention of making the commission or the division go away. As the Colorado General Assembly takes up a bill that would preserve the commission and division following a “sunset review” – the process by which laws are renewed or allowed to expire – some of its most ardent backers have pointed to its history as the best reason to extend its life. The commission has been at the center of groundbreaking cases that have made Colorado a national leader in dealing with discrimination.”

“The Denver Sheriff Department mishandled the investigation into the 2015 death of jail inmate Michael Marshall, and public safety officials made such flawed disciplinary decisions that it failed to hold accountable the deputies and sergeants involved, according to a new report by Denver’s police watchdog,” reports The Denver Post. “The scathing, 73-page report from independent monitor Nick Mitchell raises questions about the department’s ability to investigate itself and whether it is taking proper steps to reform, and it provides insight into why the city likely was willing to pay $4.6 million to the Marshall family before a lawsuit had been filed.”

“La Plata County Democrats voted to place county treasurer candidates Tim Walsworth and Allison Aichele on the primary ballot during the county assembly on Saturday at Fort Lewis College,” reports The Durango Herald. “Aichele, the incumbent, garnered 105 votes, or about 66 percent, and Walsworth received 65.5 votes, about 38 percent. There were 170.5 votes cast in the race, although there were 187 elected delegates at the assembly. Two people at the assembly counted as half a vote. At the caucuses, a precinct chose to send one more delegate than they were alloted and asked two delegates to split a vote. Allowing delegates to split votes helps to increase participation at the assembly because it allows more party members to attend, said party Chairwoman Jean Walter. Overall, she said she was pleased with the turnout.”

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