About one third of newspapers across Colorado carried stories about the first local babies born in 2017 on their front pages today. They include newborns in the circulation area of The Greeley Tribune, The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, The Longmont Times-Call, and The Gazette in Colorado Springs.
Beyond that, here were more headlines from around the state this morning:
Steamboat Today kicked off a three-part series this week “examining major issues that will face the Colorado State Legislature when it convenes its 71st General Assembly Jan. 11.” To set the table, the paper reported how a number of important issues await Colorado legislators this year, “and according to incoming Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and State Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, D-Steamboat Springs, transportation and education will figure highly on the list of legislative priorities.”
When The Greeley Tribune looked into its archives it found that 100 years ago this week, Democrats and Independents joined together in an effort to scrap the Electoral College system. “Because President Wilson easily won the popular vote, but almost lost in the Electoral College, the Democrats and Independents have been urging the abolishment of the Electoral College,” the paper reports. “The general opinion is that the Electoral College is needed to prevent the most-populated states from controlling the election.” (Ed note: This week a Democratic state senator in Colorado, Andy Kerr of Lakewood, floated a proposal to do the same.)
On the Western Slope, “more counseling is on the way for youth at risk of suicide, thanks to a cooperative agreement between the Western Colorado Suicide Prevention Foundation and the Second Wind Fund, reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Western Colorado Suicide Prevention Foundation had offered up to eight sessions of counseling for youth who have no insurance or are under-insured through its Bridges Program.”
Kayaking is apparently not just a summer sport, according to today’s Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “A Colorado family that’s forsaken the stationary life joined a long-running New Year’s Day tradition in Glenwood Canyon and braved the icy waters for a few winter runs down Shoshone,” the paper reports. “A fluctuating group of boaters has been running Shoshone on New Year’s Day for decades, and this year’s might have been the biggest group yet. Big years have seen up to 70 paddlers, and other years there have been as few as a dozen.”
About 250 people “joined in a happy, sweaty dance party Sunday on the basketball courts at the Longmont Recreation Center,” reports The Longmont Times-Call on its front page today. It’s a six-year tradition. Why? “Why not,” Longmont’s Jodi Hall told the paper when asked why she joined in. “You have friends, exercise, smiles, laughter. It’s amazing. I needed something awesomely positive to start the new year. It feels great.”
What lies ahead in the news year for Fort Collins? The Coloradoan has that covered with a local look at how the city might change in 2017 from construction to elections, local legal matters and more. Bottom line: “lively” the paper reports.
The Loveland Reporter-Herald led its front page above the fold with a national Associated Press story headlined “Trump sees risk, avoids email.” In its local coverage, the paper today reported how construction of a “classic” local charter school is taking shape.
The Cañon City Daily Record’s front page today is populated by three stories from The Denver Post— seniors facing risk, a chairlift fatality, a recap of 2016 political stories in Colorado— and one from the Tribune News Service about how a drug cocktail would tamp down cost for the state’s new aid-in-dying law.
Republicans are adjusting to new GOP leadership changes at the Statehouse, reports The Durango Herald. “In the state Senate, the list will be almost completely different from top to bottom after the exit of Senate President Bill Cadman and the resignation of President pro tem Ellen Roberts. Taking over will be Sen. Kevin Grantham of Cañon City, as new president, and Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling, as president pro tem.”
The Daily Camera in Boulder reports how “Lafayette-based John’s Cleaners has always prided itself on being a green dry-cleaning operation. Now, with a little help from county and state energy programs, John’s might be the greenest cleaner in the state.”
New Year’s resolutions, reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs, are easy to make and tough to keep.
The Denver Post reports how Douglas County is pioneering a new program to curb domestic violence. “Has he or she threatened to kill you or your children? Do you think he or she might try to kill you? Blunt, unvarnished questions such as these can get to the truth of what is happening inside a home and, ultimately, can save lives. And now more than 400 police officers and sheriff’s deputies in Douglas County are making the queries — known formally as the Lethality Assessment Program — when they are sent on domestic violence calls. Douglas County is the first county in Colorado to implement the program, which was developed by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence and is used in hundreds of jurisdictions nationwide.”
