The Home Front: In Boulder area, ‘a disproportionate ratio of local Hispanic students suspended or referred to police’

“Disparities in discipline rates for students of color are a longtime concern for local school districts, with a disproportionate ratio of local Hispanic students suspended or referred to police,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “But officials in both the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts say they have initiatives in place to reduce both the disparities and discipline issues in general. The most recent discipline data from the Office of Civil Rights’ Data Collection, from 2015, shows that Hispanic students made up about 18 percent of Boulder Valley’s enrollment, but more than twice as much — 42 percent — of in-school suspensions.”

“By day, Terry Maxwell of Greeley runs a road grader for Weld County. A lot of nights, he puts on his Colorado Eagles jersey and makes the drive west to the Budweiser Events Center,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “There, he most often joins his brother-in-law, Rick Crawford, at the back of Section F at center ice and roots on northern Colorado’s minor-league hockey franchise.”

“A 5-year-old girl who was mauled by a black bear outside her East Orchard Mesa home early Sunday morning survived the attack and is in good condition thanks to the actions of her mother, state officials said,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The child — whose name hasn’t been released by authorities — apparently went outside her house at 3417 D Road at about 2:30 a.m. on Mother’s Day, possibly to check out noises she might have thought were her dog, according to information her mother gave Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials.”

“Mandy Owensby says she spent ample time trying to control her drinking, but it wasn’t working. One morning she says she woke up feeling ‘invisible,’ and on that morning, she heard a little voice in her head that said she deserved a better life,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “‘So I just started looking at how I could get some help,’ she said. ‘I felt that I was slowly losing everything that mattered to me, and the next thing I was going to lose were my children.’ She and a team of clinicians and program directors have just opened a new drug addiction recovery center on South Grand Avenue in Glenwood Springs, and the inpatient and outpatient residential program specializes in treating women and mothers with drug addiction.”

“If you ever thought about being a foster parent, Routt County might be the perfect place to experience what some call a tough but often rewarding job,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “‘Routt County is pretty exceptional in their staff and do a nice job,’ says Brian Hoza, Hayden’s current school board president and long-time foster parent. ‘We’ve learned through training and exposure to various agencies that we have a strong staff and a support system that’s better than many counties,’ said Hoza.”

“Staff members say they need to ensure that fees assessed to power utility customers cover the costs of maintenance on the electric grid — a reality that any city utility must deal with,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “But some Loveland residents say they feel the city’s rate structure charges too much from customers who choose to augment, or entirely cover, their energy needs with rooftop solar panels.”

“Several dozen teenagers stood around the perimeter of converted warehouse space in Longmont looking on as a roughly 100-pound robot zipped around, performing acrobatic turns and deftly scooping up modified milk crates before depositing them in wooden baskets high off the floor,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. Many of those watching — local high school students in the St. Vrain Valley School District — looked nonplussed. They’d seen this robot in action countless times before. They built it.”

“The reports say the same thing every year. Northern Colorado air quality is among the worst in the country because of ozone, that smog-causing molecule that is a good thing up high and a decidedly not-good thing near the ground,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “This year’s report is no different: Larimer County ranks No. 19 in the nation for high-ozone days, according to the latest ranking from the American Lung Association. The Denver Metro is No. 15. State leaders note that Northern Colorado ozone levels have decreased in recent years and since the study period, but the region falls among the likes of New York City, Houston and Los Angeles in the rankings.”

“Will Christopher Blevins pick a road cycling career, or will he continue to race his mountain bike? It is one of the biggest questions in American cycling,” reports The Durango Herald. “It’s also a question the 20-year-old from Durango is tired of answering. “I get asked that a lot, more and more,” he said. “I think of myself as more of a bike racer than a certain kind of bike racer. Even more than that, I think of myself as a person who happens to be a bike racer.” Only two months after his 20th birthday, Blevins is at the forefront of American mountain biking and has posted results in continental road races at which his peers marvel. This year, he has won some of the biggest American mountain biking events against elite professional fields. Blevins also won a stage at the Tour of the Gila road race in New Mexico before going on to finish ninth overall and win the green jersey for the best sprinter. Blevins admitted he is much more accustomed to winning polka dot jerseys as a road race’s best climber, but the Gila showed the young phenom’s ever-growing prowess.”

“Dispensaries licensed to sell medical marijuana are even more likely than recreational stores to recommend using it during pregnancy, a new Colorado study found,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The study, conducted by doctors at Denver Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, used researchers posing as pregnant women to ask if marijuana would help with morning sickness. Statewide, 83 percent of medical dispensary employees replied that it was okay. Half of those were in the Colorado Springs area that permits medical but not retail dispensaries.”

“Denver’s voter-passed green roof ordinance could be in for big changes soon, as city officials aim to make it more workable — and, in many cases, less costly to implement. Six months ago, 54 percent of city voters approved the nation’s most stringent and far-reaching mandate for rooftop gardens,” reports The Denver Post. “The move bucked the city’s mayor and building industry in a bid to reduce Denver’s urban “heat island” effect from heat-radiating roofs. Now the city charter’s temporary prohibition on making changes to the ordinance is expiring, with the caveat that any alterations require a two-thirds majority of the City Council, or nine of 13 members.”

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