“Durango City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday that prohibits anyone from sitting or lying down on downtown sidewalks, curbs and other public areas,” reports The Durango Herald. “The law will provide another tool for law enforcement to improve the atmosphere downtown and the safety of residents and tourists, Councilor Dick White said.”
“As the world changes and technology evolves, Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District officials hope their schools will reflect those changes,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Students can write on desks with surfaces that act like a whiteboard, hang out in common areas and make videos in a video production studio. Those are just some of the new technology elements being added to Windsor High School.”
“Following a six-day trial and nearly seven hours of deliberation Monday, a jury of 10 women and two men found Rachel Niemeyer, 40, guilty of second-degree murder in the Oct. 4, 2017, shooting death of her 48-year-old husband, Michael Adam Freese, a longtime Steamboat Springs resident,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “When he lived in Steamboat, Freese was part-owner of the former Karma Bar & Lounge and Bella’s wine bar.”
“The Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association board of directors is raising serious questions about an issue many Glenwood residents believe would kill tourism-related business in town,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “A resolution adopted unanimously by the GSCRA, a not-for-profit membership organization, states that the chamber has a ‘concern and interest in more information regarding the proposed Mid-Continent limestone quarry expansion.'”
“In front of about 30 concerned neighbors, the Loveland City Council declined to annex and zone a piece of land at the southeast corner of the intersection of Colo. 402 and County Road 9 Tuesday night,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “The property has been causing consternation among area residents who feel that adding a manufacturing facility on the property would exacerbate traffic problems and not fit with the agrarian area. Known as the West Creek Addition, the 9.7-acre parcel is owned by Pat Travis, who operates the light industrial manufacturing company Travis Clean Air Inc., which makes modular cleanrooms for pharmacies, hospitals and medical offices.”
“Longmont’s proposed agreement with a pair of oil and gas companies won’t prohibit drilling for underground deposits inside the city or from wells drilling for deposits under city-owned properties east of those boundaries, city officials acknowledged Tuesday night,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “However, any such drilling and petroleum production would be done from pads and wells located outside Longmont, through horizontal drilling — something that Dale Rademacher, general manager of Longmont’s Public Works and Natural Resources Department, said could happen from well pads as far as 2 miles away from the city or city properties east of Longmont. Rademacher was one of the city staff and council members fielding queries during a public question-and-answer forum about the agreement that got initial council approval last week and is up for a public hearing and possible final council approval on May 22.”
“Fort Collins police still haven’t arrested a suspect in connection to a robbery early Monday at Wells Fargo bank, but investigators are following some leads,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Bank robberies in Fort Collins are not uncommon. In April, Fort Collins police responded to a report of a man who robbed the Wells Fargo bank at 2827 E. Harmony Road. In February, Fort Collins police sought tips related to a suspect who robbed the Public Service Credit Union at 900 S. Lemay Ave. In December, police searched for an armed man who reportedly robbed the Public Service Credit Union branch in Old Town at 319 S. Meldrum St.”
“Boulder’s City Council unanimously passed a ban on assault weapons, even as it faced down a threat of legal action during Tuesday night’s meeting,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Attorneys from Mountain States Legal Foundation, speaking during the open comment section preceding the vote, vowed to challenge the ban in court on behalf of an unnamed client, alleging “violations of the Second, Fifth and 14th Amendments, (and) the Colorado Constitution.” Cody Wisniewski, a staff attorney for the foundation, said individual council members would be named in the suit as well. The ordinance prohibits the sale and possession of assault weapons, as defined by the city. Also outlawed are high-capacity magazines and bump stocks.”
“The option to go to a four-day school week has been passed on for the 2018-19 school year for the Cañon City School District, but a survey of district staff showed some points of interest and also some concerns,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “During Monday’s school board meeting, the board decided to remain a five-week model for next year. The survey of 384 staff members in the district showed some of the academic and social dilemmas that moving to a four-day week might create. Of the staff surveyed, 50 percent are teachers in the district.”
“Penrose-St. Francis Health Services laid off 42 employees this week, a hospital spokesman confirmed Tuesday,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The hospital system’s layoffs included Mark Hartman, the leader of St. Francis Medical Center, as well as other employees at “all levels of the organization,” according to Chris Valentine, a Penrose-St. Francis spokesman. The dismissals, which were issued Monday, mark the first layoffs at Penrose-St. Francis in at least a decade, Valentine said. They come as the hospital system’s parent organization and owner, Catholic Health Initiatives, struggles with deep losses that contributed to delays in the expansion of St. Francis Medical Center, on the city’s northeast side.”
“Some transgender inmates at Colorado Territorial prison want reforms — including the option to be jailed in a woman’s prison — that could result from Lindsay Saunders-Velez’s outspokenness,” reports The Denver Post. “They just don’t like how she went about it. They say the transgender inmate who sued the state prison system claiming she was raped is making their situation worse by failing to follow an unofficial code of conduct that keeps safe people who identify with a gender other than the one with which they were born.”
