Four newspapers around the state had front-page coverage of reaction to a new transportation bill introduced Wednesday at the state Capitol. The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction reported today that House and Senate Republicans announced almost immediately their opposition to the $677 million annual sales tax increase, saying it is not a solution and that they will aggressively fight against it. Steamboat Today reported the controversial bill is co-sponsored by the area’s House and Senate lawmakers, Rep. Diane Mitsch-Bush of Steamboat and Sen. Randy Baumgardner of Hot Sulphur Springs, who chair the transportation committees in the House and Senate. The Pueblo Chieftain covered lawmaker’s comments on the bill. “If it was a trial balloon, I think it resembled the Hindenburg,” said Sen. Tim Neville of Littleton, a leading Senate conservative. The Denver Post also reported Neville’s opposition, along with that of his son, Rep. Patrick Neville of Castle Rock, who is House Minority Leader.
The front page of today’s Longmont Times-Call recounted the personal story of a local woman whose family came to the United States in the 1970s from Iran and her reaction to the latest executive order on immigration from the Trump administration. Maryam Moore said she hadn’t thought much about her heritage until the first executive order, banning immigration from seven countries, including Iran, came out in January. “I couldn’t stay silent anymore about the fact that my family immigrated to this country from one of the listed banned nations and that I owe all of my happiness and opportunity — all that I hold dear — to the ability that my family had to immigrate,” Moore told the Times-Call.
Despite voter approval of a bond measure for the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, court battles have tied up the issue, creating delays for the district in spending that $375 million for construction of three new schools, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. The district prevailed in one of two lawsuits filed over the measure by local activist Eric Sutherland, who challenged the results of the November election. But one more lawsuit still awaits resolution, over whether the bonds that would pay for the construction are valid.
The Loveland Reporter Herald’s front page covers a decision by the Loveland City Council to approve a $17 million lease-purchase arrangement that would finance a downtown revitalization project known as The Foundry. The building will be renovated into a parking garage.
Albertine Sellers, who has worked for the city of Denver for more than 60 years, was honored for that service this week by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, according to The Denver Post. Sellers, now 82, is the first person in history to work for the city for 60 years, but wasn’t recognized for that service anniversary, which took place in 2015, until this week. The city had to have a special service pin made for her.
Highway 3, in southwestern Colorado, would be renamed after Capt. Jeff Kuss, a Navy Blue Angel who died in a training exercise last year, the Durango Herald reports today. Kuss, a Durango native, is the subject of a resolution at the state Capitol offered by Rep. Barbara McLachlan, a former teacher who remembers Kuss as one of her outstanding students.
The Boulder Daily Camera’s front page includes a story on the expansion of Boulder’s Google campus, which is leasing another 30,000 square feet to house an additional 200 employees. Google is building a four-acre campus a few blocks east of the leased space on Walnut Street.
The Vail Daily reports today that snowpack in the Vail Valley is on track with annual averages, with the mountain town’s snowiest months still ahead.
Some students in the Canon City School District are getting free eye exams and free eyeglasses from the Essilor Vision Foundation, according to the the Canon City Daily Record. It’s the second year for the eye program. Sixty students got free exams at Harrison Elementary.
