The Home Front: Trump’s budget could take a bite out of public radio in Southwest Colorado

“Radio stations in Southwest Colorado face significant financial losses should the Trump administration make good on its promise to cut funds for public media, which accounts for a tiny fraction of the national budget,” reports The Durango Herald. “If Trump’s proposed budget is accepted by Congress, nearly $450 million dedicated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports a number of local public radio stations, would disappear. Those funds account for about .01 percent of the $3.899 trillion federal budget, or about $1.35 per person in taxes a year.”

“Greeley is still among the finalists for the 700-mph hyperloop project, but the Colorado-based proposals — presented this week in Washington, D.C. — have grown considerably from the 40-mile, Greeley-to-DIA round trip initially submitted,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “There are now three Colorado-based hyperloop projects among 11 U.S. finalists and 24 international finalists for three eventual winners that will work with Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One to further develop the project. The idea is for passengers to ride in pods that travel along the tube track and ‘accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag,’ according to the company.”

“Colorado Mesa University’s Board of Trustees on Thursday approved an $8.3 million capital construction request for a building to house physician assistant, occupational therapy and physical therapy programs, one week after voting to proceed with the accreditation process for those areas of study,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “University officials and President Tim Foster are hoping that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education will approve the program request, a requirement before it receives consideration for funding from the Legislature. The last-minute request comes just a day before the commission gets together to vote on program requests for all of Colorado’s higher education institutions. Foster said it is ‘not normal, (but) not unheard of’ to submit a capital construction request immediately before the commission meets.”

“While this year’s Longmont city elections are still seven months away, the mayor’s post already has attracted one announced candidate. Véronique Bellamy is running for the seat now filled by Mayor Dennis Coombs, who cannot seek re-election because of term limits,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “I’ve been planning for this for a while,” the a senior software architect for Phase Zero who has lived in Longmont since August 2013 told the paper. “I think that Longmont has a lot of opportunity and a lot of things going for it … we need to protect it from opportunists.”

“Hospital bills in the high country are higher than in metro Denver — but that’s inevitable anywhere there is a small population base, say hospital executives,” reports The Steamboat Today & Pilot as part of a six-part series into mountain town healthcare written by William Scanlon. “The hospitals have to big enough for the crush of ski season, when the number of people in the communities triple in size, and there are crazy numbers of fractures, sprains and concussions. But they can’t hire nurses and doctors just for the ski season — or if they could, they would have to sweeten the deal with salary bumps.”

“Spring has returned to the Roaring Fork Valley and with it, too, have the bears,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “After sleeping all winter, they are hungry. Glenwood Springs Police Chief Terry Wilson warns that anybody with trash that is not secured will be ticketed. “They’re up and active, and so are we,” he said of the bears’ return to Glenwood Springs. ‘We’re on the hunt and will start issuing tickets.'”

In Pueblo, the “Cinco parade could fade for lack of barricades,” reports The Chieftain. “Janet Wilson, the East Side woman who is applying for a Cinco de Mayo Parade permit with Pueblo police, says she can’t find local businesses that will rent simple traffic barricades to her,” the paper reports. “I’ve been told they don’t want to have anything to do with it because of the controversy,” she said. “The ‘controversy’ is Wilson’s threat to sue the city over its handling of her 2015 permit application — and on-again, off-again affair. In a legal complaint filed with the city, Wilson said police required her to get insurance and very expensive barricades for traffic control — and then denied her permit at the last minute.”

“Heroin deaths doubled between 2011 and 2015 in Colorado while arrests for heroin offenses grew six times during that time period, according to the state’s first report on the drug released Thursday,” reported The Associated Press on in The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “However, officials in law enforcement and public health said the state’s heroin problem is not as severe as that seen on the East Coast and Midwest and are hoping efforts to fight the abuse of prescription painkillers will eventually help keep the heroin problem from getting worse.”

“Varehya Pratt is good at firsts. The effusive Colorado State University sophomore is the first in her family to attend college,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “She’s also the first student ever to partner with Loveland-based Zephyr Headwear to help design the international company’s distinctive hats. Pratt, who is majoring in product development, is paying her own way through college. She said she didn’t have the support of family members, who she no longer has a relationship with. But that hasn’t stopped her from making a name for herself. “You have to persevere through any challenge, and a lot of times it does get discouraging,” Pratt said. “I really do try to be more empowered within education.”

“Construction on 100 new homes may begin in June, the first wave of what the City of Cañon City says could be a total of more than 580 houses,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “The proposed Sun Cañon community is located west of Four Mile Ranch. Because the subdivision process could take about 18 months, the city gave the developer the green light to begin building on the first 100 lots, then they can start the others when the subdivision process is complete, according to Mayor Preston Troutman. A venture capital company bought Four Mile Ranch Golf Club and the neighboring land after it went through foreclosure and recently brought in the developer, Troutman said. He has not yet received permission to release the name of the corporation, but he said it is similar to Del Webb Construction that builds living communities across the U.S.”

“The Boulder Planning Board voted 6-0 on Thursday night against an outright ban of banks on the first floor of Pearl Street buildings downtown, which the City Council temporarily approved two months ago. Instead, the Planning Board recommended that the council require banks seeking to locate downtown undergo a special use review,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “It also recommended extending that policy beyond the area the council identified when it approved the ban — on Pearl Street between Ninth and 18th streets — to include three downtown zoning districts that cover stretches of Canyon Boulevard, Walnut Street and Spruce Street.”

“Even with a tree branch jutting from her shattered windshield, Pat Matela made it to work early on Tuesday morning,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Matela was driving on North Cascade Avenue near Caramillo Street in the old North End about 4:45 a.m. when a limb broke under the weight of several inches of wet snow, impaling her windshield, skewering her car’s steering column and missing her leg by inches.”

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