This is not a pipe
Durango City Council issued this declaration Tuesday: “The city is not, and has never been, a sanctuary city.” But the simple message is a bit trickier in practice. The local police department says it never uses city resources to identify, apprehend or deport immigrants, but generally does call ICE in the case of violent crimes. Via The Durango Herald.
Heat of the moment
Mountain View Electric Association stands to lose millions in FEMA money for failing to use a competitive bidding process when hiring a contractor that repaired miles of damaged power lines after the Black Forest Fire two years ago. The association plans to take it up with federal regulators, saying they went with the contractor they had at the time because wildfires don’t wait around for bureaucracy. Via The Gazette.
Not in my backyard
An EPA responder on the scene of two holes filled with chemical waste a little north of Nederland called the illegal dumping site one of the most egregious he’d ever seen. “I live in Boulder. It’s in my watershed, too,” he told The Daily Camera’s Charlie Brennan. “I was horrified by what I saw.”
Donald on drugs
Colorado’s marijuana aficionados will be curious to hear what frontrunner Donald Trump might say about our little experiment with legalization, in the first GOP primary debate tonight. He talked about legalizing all drugs back in the 90s, but now thinks that Colorado’s got “some big, big problems.” Via Westword.
Growing sector
The publicly-traded Two Rivers Water & Farming Co. made bank growing fruits and vegetables, but this season, it has its eye on a bigger prize. “The cannabis market is just too big to ignore,” said chief financial officer Wayne Harding of Two Rivers’ new subsidiary GrowCo which has started to break ground on some massive new greenhouses in rural Pueblo County. Via The Denver Post.
Need to know
“In general, Aug. 5 is a fairly unremarkable date,” Megan Verlee begins in a post on CPR’s website. But this year, it’s the day 120 new state laws take effect. Most are pretty obscure, she says, so she runs through the four really worth knowing about.
Black box
Erie Mayor Tina Harris says the town’s new guidelines for oil and gas development are about as strict as they come, but don’t ask what they are — it’s attorney-client privilege. Via The Daily Camera.
