The Home Front: A top District Attorney investigator in Pueblo has been ‘charged with multiple crimes’ but the indictment is sealed

“Court records show that the former deputy chief investigator of the Pueblo District Attorney’s office has been charged with multiple crimes, including official misconduct, misuse of official information and professional gambling,” The Pueblo Chieftain reports. “The Pueblo Chieftain obtained records showing that Charles “Chuck” Widup was indicted and arrested on Jan. 29. The records show he appeared Feb. 2 in court and has been released on a $50,000 bond. The case against Widup, who has a long career in law enforcement, has shaken the district attorneys office and other law enforcement agencies. … Specifics of the charges are not available because court staff said Wednesday the indictment is sealed. The Chieftain has worked for some time to get information on the arrest, but records were not located until Wednesday.”

“Accusing Colorado Springs leaders of violating the state Sunshine Law on open meetings, City Councilman Bill Murray walked out of an executive session Wednesday morning in protest,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. According to the council agenda, the closed meeting involved “legal advice and negotiation consultation with the city attorney regarding an annexation matter.” Murray said it was about proposed changes to the 30-year-old annexation agreement for Banning Lewis Ranch, long blamed for stagnation on the 24,000-acre parcel. A federal judge upheld the agreement in August 2015, but city leaders later began negotiating with about 40 property owners at the ranch to tweak the document and stimulate growth in the area.”

“When Monica Draper, the principal of Billie Martinez Elementary, saw her school’s state accreditation rating, she was crushed,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “It was August 2017, and Martinez had spent four years on the Colorado Department of Education’s “accountability clock,” meaning it sat in the state’s bottom two accreditation ratings those four years. If a school is on the clock for five years, the Education Department can take drastic action, such as closing the school or turning it into a charter. The school had already remade its curriculum with the hope of avoiding something that severe.”

“The Colorado Energy Office would return under a bill that won preliminary approval in the Colorado Senate on Wednesday,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “But while the office’s focus won’t just be on promoting renewable energy in the state, as it had been before it was defunded last year, Republican senators made sure it won’t be tilted against fossil fuels, either.”

“Criticism of an unpaid advertisement for a gun raffle sponsored by the St. Vrain Valley Friends of NRA in a Boulder County 4-H newsletter this month has 4-H leaders re-examining their relationship with the gun-rights advocacy group,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The advertisement markets $20 tickets for an April 14 winner-take-all raffle of seven firearms — including a Bushmaster Quick Response semi-automatic rifle pictured alongside the other guns in the ad — plus a gun safe and a $1,000 gift card to Cabela’s.”

“When Tim Fletcher of Steamboat Springs would tell a good story about the best of days to his young boys, he’d use the phrase ‘like you read about’ as if it were an exclamation point,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “There were 15 fresh inches of snow on Mount Werner. The powder came over your head, “like you read about.” It was a beautiful day sailing on Steamboat Lake, the boat skimming across the water, “like you read about.” Those Norwegian ski fans sure know how to party, “like you read about.” Now the only way to hear those stories is to read them. Diagnosed in August 2016 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, Tim is dying. Different varieties of ALS work in different ways, some from the extremities in, some from the feet up. Fletcher’s goes from his head down.”

“Breckenridge’s new police chief will be switching from college town to ski town when he takes up his post in April, ending a 25-year career at the Ann Arbor Police Department in Michigan,” reports Summit Daily. “Jim Baird, who has served as Ann Arbor’s police chief since 2016, will be filling the top vacancy at the Breckenridge Police Department, which opened last August with the resignation of former chief Dennis McLaughlin. Reached by phone after the town’s official announcement on Tuesday, Baird said he thought his career in Ann Arbor prepared him well for policing a town like Breckenridge, which can see huge influxes of visitors for special events and weekend powder days.”

“House of Neighborly Service is not liable under federal law for the religious language it added to its bylaws in August last year, the city of Loveland attorney’s office found last week,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “But, according to an update delivered to the City Council on Tuesday evening, the city will continue to scrutinize HNS, along with other city-supported nonprofits, for issues relating to fair and equal access to its services. Alison Hade, administrator of the city’s Community Partnership Office, led the presentation to council. The CPO is responsible for overseeing all of the city’s grant contracts with its nonprofit partners, works on affordable housing and evaluating the homelessness situation in Loveland, and also receives compliments and complaints related to the city’s partners.”

“Mikaela Shiffrin had once hoped to win five gold medals at these Olympics,” reports Vail Daily. “A perfectly arranged schedule — her strongest events, the giant slalom and slalom, followed by speed events, with rest days spaced in between — made three or four or five medals look like a possibility. But bad weather intervened, scrambling the schedule more and more. The women ended up racing three days in a row, followed by back-to-back races the following week — a grueling schedule for anyone seeking to race all of them.”

“A Fort Collins man accused of sexually assaulting multiple children used his position as a youth hockey program volunteer to earn the trust of his victims, according to federal arrest documents,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins.

“The Cañon City Council is soliciting feedback from citizens on a proposed deer harvest within city limits to control deer herd populations,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Mayor Preston Troutman said the proposal is in response to community members who have expressed concerns about deer running in front of cars and destroying property.”

“The latest campaign from Boulder’s Hapa Sushi and ad agency TDA_Boulder had a short shelf life in Denver, after the Downtown Denver Partnership raised concerns over the political nature of the images used in the advertisements,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Seven kiosk ads along the 16th Street Mall featured the campaign’s images. Each ad paired a Trump tweet with Hapa’s logo and some apocalyptic humor plugging the restaurant, “Eat well before it all ends.” Selected tweets include commentary on global warming or nuclear weapons. Sometimes, it is both, as in this example, which Trump tweeted in 2014: ‘The global warming we should be worried about is the global warming caused by NUCLEAR WEAPONS in the hands of crazy or incompetent leaders!'”

“Last summer Govs. John Hickenlooper and John Kasich urged Congress to take a bipartisan approach to fixing the nation’s healthcare system, reports ColoradoPolitics. “Now the Colorado Democrat and Ohio Republican are trying again, according to an announcement Wednesday night from the Colorado governor’s office. The announcement promises a bipartisan group of governors will unveil a blueprint for health care, and includes Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, to the partnership. A press conference is scheduled for Friday morning at the National Press Club. Kasich and Hickenlooper appeared there last summer in their first attempt to continue insurance provided by Obamacare for millions of Americans, while compromising between Democrats and Republicans. The GOP at the time was trying to repeal and replace the healthcare system and mandatory health insurance that was the signature achievement of President Obama.”

“For close to a decade, the Community Reentry Project has helped people rebuild their lives after they left Denver’s jail system,” reports Denverite. “On Dec. 31, the city-funded group closed its doors — and it hasn’t reopened yet. “They kicked us out of our offices. They required us to shut it down. We had to shut down our entire 10 years worth of programming,” said Lisa Calderón, its long-time executive director. CRP had lost its contract with the local government, and city officials haven’t yet chosen a new group to run the program. Calderón believes that the program is the victim of “political retribution” because she has publicly criticized Mayor Michael Hancock.”