Seeking sheriff
Denver posted an official job listing for a new sheriff Monday, almost a year after former Gary Wilson stepped down amid a flurry of excessive-force cases. The announcement calls for a “change agent,” reports Noelle Phillips in The Denver Post, though the hiring committee is comprised of a familiar cast of characters from past sheriff’s department dramas.
Up in smoke
After wildfires and epic floods, the Colorado Division of Insurance still can’t prevent insurance companies from bailing on homeowners after disasters. In a Gazette series on wildfire recovery, Ryan Maye Handy reports that many in the Pikes Peak region aren’t any closer to fixing fire damage than the day their homes burned.
Mob rules
An attorney suing Colorado pot shops likened a new anti-legalization strategy that uses racketeering laws from the 70s to “putting a bounty on the heads of anyone doing business with the marijuana industry.” The scary thing for the cannabis industry is that the new strategy is working. Via The Aurora Sentinel.
Off the bench
One of the 46 sentences President Obama commuted on Monday was that of Katina Smith — mother of Denver Broncos wide-receiver Demaryius Thomas, reports ESPN. She’ll be released in November. Read Paul Klee’s interview with Demaryius in The Gazette last year on what it’s like to play without his biggest fan in the stands.
Look before you leap
The Tres Rios Bureau of Land Management field office has extended the “scoping” period to gather more public input before deciding whether to let Silverton Mountain expand its helicopter-skiing terrain. Via The Durango Herald.
Towel the door
Despite its name, iBake Denver isn’t technically in Denver. That’s why the pot club/head shop hybrid can continue to operate on the legal vanguard while activists push lawmakers to allow public pot consumption. Via Westword.
“Critical” would be cuckoo
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and U.S. Senator Cory Gardner wrote a letter urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week not to designate the habitat of threatened yellow-billed cuckoos as “critical.” Such a move “clearly offers no benefit to the species,” they wrote, and “would certainly do demonstrable harm” to nearby communities. Via The Grand Junction Sentinel.
Photo credit: Tess Aquarium, Creative Commons, Flickr.
