“Some teachers and other staff in Hanover School District 28 soon will be packing heat,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs about an El Paso County school district. “Wednesday, coincidentally, was the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six employees were killed.”
The Aspen Times reports today how a Facebook post of surveillance footage of a restaurant robbery posted by a bartender helped identify a suspect, leading to a strange local crime story.
“Two controversial studies involving culling predators to test the effect on mule deer numbers will begin in coming months outside Rifle and in the Upper Arkansas River Basin, after the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously approved them at a heavily attended meeting Wednesday,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “An estimated 180 people showed up at a meeting in Fort Collins to consider the proposal, in what the agency said was one of the highest public turnouts in years for commission meetings. Some 40 members of the public spoke, with opponents of the studies somewhat outnumbering supporters.”
The Coloradoan in Fort Collins reports on a bipartisan effort by members of Colorado’s congressional delegation to secure $252 million in federal funding for post-flood highway construction in the area. “It’s an illustration that, when it comes to emergencies, we’re all in it together,” said U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who was re-elected in November.
After voters rejected a school-funding ballot measure in Greeley, some residents decided to chip in their own dough, reports The Tribune. It will help almost immediately, “as the school needs to get $37,000 in matching funds for its part of a $150,000 city grant for a new, accessible playground. The newest piece of equipment on the school’s current playground is 35 years old.”
The Pueblo Chieftain reports “eighteen disabled residents of the Pueblo Regional Center and their family members have filed a lawsuit in Pueblo District Court challenging the unconstitutionality of mass strip searches conducted by Colorado Department of Human Services in March 2015.” Denver attorney Mari Newman, one of the lawyers handling the suit, told the paper, “The defendants conducted these warrantless strip searches over the objections of PRC residents and without legal consent.”
“Nearly 58 percent of Boulder County renters were cost-burdened in 2015, according to a new report from online marketplace Apartment List — a 6.2 percent increase over 2014,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The report, based on U.S. Census data released Dec. 8, shows that 57.9 percent of renters here paid more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. In 2014, the figure was 54.6 percent.”
The Denver Post reports oil giant BP is locating a headquarters in Denver with 200 jobs. “The company on Wednesday said it has signed a lease for 86,000 square feet of space in the new Riverview building, in the 1700 block of Platte Street, and plans to bring to Denver about 200 of the 450 people who work in its onshore oil and gas production office in Texas — including CEO David Lawler.”
“A new study on ways to reduce crowding at the Boulder County Jail recommends the county build an alternative sentencing facility that would house programs such as work-release to clear beds at the jail for high-risk inmates,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The report, commissioned by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office and the county commissioners, and released Wednesday by Justice System Partners, highlights 27 recommendations to limit growth and ease crowding at the jail, an issue the sheriff’s office has been concerned with for many years.”
