Lost above
Eight Colorado climbers remain on Mount Everest after the devastating earthquake hit Nepal this weekend. Denver-born filmmaker Tom Taplin, however, is reportedly among the dead lost to avalanches that swept down the shaken mountain and bulldozed and buried climbers at base camps up and down the slopes. “The gods of the mountains have taken him … our loss forever,” wrote a friend on Taplin’s Facebook page. Via The Daily Camera. Here’s video from one of the camps, taken by climber Jost Kobusch.
Funeral procession
Another shooting in northeast Denver. This one, Saturday, during the funeral of Abdul Rahim Muhammad who was also shot earlier this month. Via The Denver Post.
Shooting on
As the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes is set to begin, the city’s Daily Sentinel takes measure of gun debates in the state. The sound and fury ignited by gun-control laws passed in 2013 in the wake of the shootings is gone, says the paper. “There’s a lot of folks looking around and saying ‘wait a minute, the sky didn’t fall,'” said John Morse, a state senator recalled for backing gun-control measures. “The more time goes under the bridge, the more these laws will stick.”
Track attack
The Greeley Tribune this weekend wrote glowingly of local law enforcement’s new “digital tracking” efforts. The article is supposed to be more encouraging than worrying.
“Law enforcement agencies have dedicated an enormous amount of resources to developing robust criminal information databases and enhancing information sharing capabilities with partners throughout the country, and around the world… The private sector has also entered the fugitive hunting business… With a few key strokes, [new software] programs allow detectives to constantly scan a variety of databases and automatically alert investigators if a wanted suspect should do something as simple as sign up for utilities, purchase a fishing license or fill a prescription at a pharmacy.”
Weed read
The Fort Collins Coloradoan on Sunday published a “one-year-later” review of the legal weed trade in Larimer County. The story contains stats: It’s a $2-million-a-month business; there are two recreational pot shops in the county and that’s all that’s allowed; four medical marijuana clinics in Fort Collins have expanded to include recreational products; there can only be one medical dispensary for every 500 medical pot card holders; and there are 5,000 card holders in the county.
No GMO
Chipotle, which has always boasted that it uses clean, healthy ingredients, is now doing away with all GMO products. And they’re not keeping quiet about it.
Spoken word
Poet Lenny Chernila, a decades-long force in Denver’s spoken-word community, died over the weekend. “If a single soul bridged the transition of Denver’s spoken-word poetry scene from its Beat roots to the thriving slam arena of the present, it was Lenny Chernila, the “Professor,” whose presence over the years as both a participant and mentor at readings at the Mercury Cafe and other spots resonated with contemporaries and young poets alike,” write’s Susan Froyd of Westword.
Photo Credit: Bob Witlox, Creative Commons, Flickr.
