“The Boulder City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to advance a ban on the sale and possession of assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines in the city,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “In recent weeks, the terms and scope of the council’s proposed ban have been hotly debated, including at a multi-hour public hearing before the council April 5, during a street protest on Broadway and through hundreds of emails to the council from citizens. What the council voted for on Tuesday is not final. In order to be adopted as law, it will need to be voted on again at a third reading that will likely take place in the next few weeks.”
“Record marijuana sales in March helped contribute to financial success with the city collecting $2.9 million in total sales tax revenue, which is 3.5 percent more than in March 2017,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The city depends on sales tax revenue to fund about 70 percent of government operations, and on Tuesday, the city revealed how March fared. March revenues represent about 12 percent of the city’s total annual collections.”
“As shop after shop shutters in Boulder and sales stagnate along the Pearl Street Mall, one culprit is blamed again and again: Amazon,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The retail behemoth — grabbing 40 percent of all e-commerce in 2017, according to widely reported analytics data — has become synonymous with online shopping in general, and the go-to fall guy for all small business woes. When Robb’s Music closed in June, owners affixed a “death certificate” to the door of the 30th Street store. Under cause of death, it listed Amazon.”
“A Fort Collins-based construction company filed an appeal that claims the Board of Weld County Commissioners didn’t adhere to its own processes after the company lost out on a $38 million project,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Weld County officials already rejected the initial appeal, but Bryan Construction appealed again Tuesday and will have a hearing before Weld County commissioners within the next two weeks. Bryan Construction, through its Colorado Springs-based attorney Karl Berg, Jr., first filed an appeal April 23, five days after missing out on the bid for a massive Weld County Jail expansion project.”
“The Loveland City Council on Tuesday OK’d a new development near Boedecker Lake, but told developer Boedecker Lake Partners they cannot extend their development without also extending a public open space that runs along part of the shoreline,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Boedecker Lake Partners owns a 23-acre parcel of land south of First Street and west of South County Road 21 on which they hope to build about 80 homes. The developers hope to also purchase an adjacent 44.5-acre property to enlarge the district to about 200 homes if they can successfully petition the property owner to sell the land.”
“Grand Junction isn’t waiting for tinder dry conditions or a fire emergency to quash the sales of fireworks this year,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Knowing the Grand Valley is heading into one of the driest seasons in recent history, the city banned the sales of fireworks within city limits during its Wednesday night meeting. “This sends a message to the community that we have a fire danger here,” Councilor Bennett Boeschenstein said. The idea to enact the prevention measure comes in light of a countywide fire ban that goes into effect Friday. Fireworks are not allowed under the Stage 1 fire restrictions imposed for all Mesa County land, but not federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.”
“Pueblo City Schools (D60) teachers and paraprofessionals plan to strike on Monday,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “That announcement was made after the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Wednesday said it will not enact jurisdiction in the ongoing impasse between D60 and its educators and paraprofessionals. With the department electing not to intervene, members of the Pueblo Education Association and the Pueblo ParaProfessional Education Association are free to strike and say the district-wide walkout will commence Monday morning.”
“When the Vail Town Council in late 2012 approved Vail Resorts’ application for the massive Ever Vail development, it was already uncertain as to when work would begin,” reports Vail Daily. “Now, the clock is ticking rapidly on a handful of key approvals that could derail the project as proposed. At the Vail Town Council’s afternoon meeting on Tuesday, May 1, town planner Jonathan Spence updated the Vail Town Council on the status of the project. The key takeaway is that several key approvals expire on Dec. 31, 2020.”
“On Tuesday, defense attorney David Lane released police body camera footage in the case of Michaella Surat to a Denver TV station,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Fort Collins police say the body camera footage was not yet cleared for public release as it is evidence in the ongoing criminal case against Surat. Interim chief of police Terry Jones said Lane’s release of the video was “an orchestration to influence public opinion.” Lane said he’s not worried about releasing evidence because the footage was shown in the first public trial and “it’s in the public record already.'”
“A former corrections officer at Fremont Correctional Facility is accused of bringing methamphetamine and opiates into the facility to give to an offender with whom she allegedly was romantically involved,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Sarah Nicole James, 25, was arrested in March on suspicion of introducing contraband, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance. Chris Barr, an investigator for the Office of the Inspector General, responded to the facility Dec. 14 when he was alerted that James may have had contraband in her lunch box at the Cell House 3 control center, where she had been working.”
“U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn remained on the Republican primary ballot after a last-ditch effort to remove him failed Wednesday in federal court,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Two terse rulings handed down Wednesday afternoon denied bids by a group of Republicans to keep Lamborn off the party’s primary ballot because petition circulators who gathered some of his signatures weren’t Colorado residents. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed appeals filed by a group that included state Sen. Owen Hill, one of Lamborn’s four Republican primary challengers. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Wayne Williams told Colorado Politics that he won’t appeal Tuesday’s federal court ruling that Lamborn should be on the ballot, closing the last avenue for knocking him off.”
“Restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores and other organizations that serve food could face greater scrutiny from the city of Durango when it comes to grease disposal,” reports The Durango Herald. “Fats, oils and grease that congeal in city pipes are creating health hazards and causing sewer lines to overflow, said Jarrod Biggs, assistant utilities director. Cleaning up an overflow costs the city $400 per hour, he said. To help prevent blocked sewer lines next year, the city may start enforcing existing plumbing codes that require establishments that serve food to install and maintain grease traps, he said.”
