The Home Front: Hate crimes are on the rise after the election

Reports of hate crimes have been on the rise since the Nov. 8 presidential election, reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The number of hate crimes and incidents of harassment across the country since Nov. 8 hit a total of 701 as of Friday, up from about 200 five days earlier as counted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

The Cañon City Daily Record fronts a Denver Post story today about how anxiety is growing after the election of Donald Trump and the law enforcement response to it. “Someone painted anti-LGBT graffiti, Trump’s name and a swastika on her SUV. A Latino friend was harassed with an ethnic epithet at an Aurora gas station. And across the street from her Cheesman Park apartment, Timmons could see red paint splattered across a “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging on the wall of a church.”

Unaffiliated voters were the least likely to fill out ballots this election, reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “The Colorado Secretary of State’s office on Thursday sent out its last round of ballot-return data before results are finalized Dec. 8. Those figures, when paired with voter registration numbers from Nov. 1, show while more than 90 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans cast votes, only 81 percent of unaffiliated voters participated in Colorado’s 2016 general election.”

The Boulder Daily Camera reports on the closing of a downtown haven for homeless programs, which had been open for a decade. “The space soon to close — Friday will be its final day — sits in the carriage house of First Congregational Church, at Broadway and Pine Street. Boulder service provider Bridge House put $150,000 toward renovations of the carriage house in 2006, in exchange for a decade of free rent. The lease expired last month, and Bridge House declined an offered five-year renewal, which would have required the organization to pay for the space for the first time.”

Steamboat Today reports on a new local accreditation, which is “allowing Integrated Community, a Steamboat Springs nonprofit, to provide legal services to local immigrants, many of whom feel unsettled due to the results of the presidential election.”

The local transgender community in Longmont held a day of remembrance for those killed last year, reports The Times-Call. “The Day of Remembrance, which began in 1998 and is held annually on Nov. 20, is dedicated to the memory of the transgender people killed each year across the world.”

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports on a local Uber driver and former pilot who is concerned about fees at he local airport. “It hit home,” the paper reports, “when he saw that the airport was planning to issue permits to taxi and shuttle companies — and Uber and Lyft drivers, such as himself — in 2017, and Ball questioned whether the airport was overreaching.”

A Florida company is eying Dove Creek for a hemp plant, reports The Durango Herald. “It looks promising, with hope that the purchase and land lease could be completed by the end of the year,” DCDC chairperson Gus Westerman told the paper.

The Aspen Times reports how a wilderness camping restriction plan drew a reaction from around the state but little from Aspen. “The White River National Forest’s plan to limit camping in overused parts of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness is gaining support from people throughout Colorado but, for whatever reason, hasn’t attracted much attention in the Roaring Fork Valley.”

Retail sales in Glenwood Springs have hit a record pace, according to The Post-Independent. “Sales were up 2.3 percent in September, and a strong first half of the year has the city on track to surpass last year’s $16.8 million in sales taxes collected. That number reflected $455 million in total retail sales for the city, which surpassed even pre-recession sales in 2007 and 2008.”

The Greeley Tribune reports on what a local school is doing to get off the sate’s watch list. “The school, on the northeast side of town, is one of the most troubled in Greeley-Evans School District 6, having achieved the ignominious distinction of being on the state’s watch list for five straight years. The school, along with two others in Greeley, will go before the state Board of Education with a plan to improve. If the state says “no,” well, district officials don’t want to think about those ramifications, including a possible state takeover.”