“The great Sno-Cat heist of 2018 was short-lived,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “Though Sheriff Rosco never did catch up with General Lee in ‘The Dukes of Hazzard,’ the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office quickly apprehended the heavy-duty snow machine decorated to imitate the famous stock car from the 1980s TV series, and now it’s sitting in the impound lot.”
“John Brandenburg’s stolen Sno-Cat wasn’t gone long and didn’t get far,” reports Vail Daily. “Brandenburg is one of the owners of The General Lee, a big, orange Sno-Cat that was on a trailer when it was stolen some time the morning of Sunday, March 11, from the Turntable restaurant parking lot [in Minturn]. … “The suspect, 27-year-old Jason Cuervo, allegedly trailered the big, orange Sno-Cat west on Interstate 70 toward the high desert, where a Sno-Cat is mostly out of its element. The General Lee was spotted by a woman in Mesa County who was curious about the small truck straining to pull the huge trailer. She was so curious that she followed it to a Grand Junction neighborhood near the base of the Colorado National Monument. The woman called the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, which asked the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office for a little help.”
“Felony drug filings have increased sharply across Colorado in the past six years, a spike that has disproportionately impacted women and contributed to the state’s rising prison budget, according to a report released Monday by the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition,” reports Summit Daily. “The study’s findings indicate that drug sentencing reforms designed to keep addicts out of prison have fallen short. The report also highlights enormous disparities in drug crime trends across the state. While two judicial districts have seen filing increases higher than 200 percent in the past six years, the change in Summit County’s district is only one percent — the lowest in the state.”
“The Board of Weld County Commissioners is facing two lawsuits related to commissioners’ approval of an asphalt and concrete plant near Severance, with landowner Tom Moore and the Water Supply and Storage Co. each recently filing lawsuits,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “Like the Water Supply and Storage Co.’s lawsuit, Moore’s lawsuit, filed jointly with Moore’s crop company, K&M Co., alleges due process violations, a lack of compatibility and a decision by county commissioners that wasn’t based on competent evidence.”
“Another former motel property that has been offering workforce housing in Steamboat Springs is poised to get a major makeover,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “The owners of the apartments at the Dream Island mobile home community have submitted plans to completely remodel 30 apartments in the complex. The project is also slated to convert some existing ground floor retail spaces, such as the former Mogil’s on the Mountain camera shop and storage units, into additional studio apartment units.”
“A serial burglar usually has a tell, according to Fort Collins police detectives,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “The burglars typically frequent the same types of businesses, use the same tools or steal the same items — and their sprees can drive up crime rates in Fort Collins. Property crimes made up the largest share of Fort Collins’ reported crimes in 2017, according to data recently compiled by Fort Collins Police Services. Of the 11,810 crimes reported in the city last year, about one-third involved some sort of theft: 1,078 reported larceny offenses, 1,012 reported thefts from motor vehicles and 924 reported shoplifting offenses, among other theft crimes.”
“About 50 Berthoud students left their classrooms and marched through town Wednesday morning in solidarity with the students killed in Parkland, Fla., and asked the school district to find the money for mental health counselors for the schools,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “They carried signs with messages such as “Enough is Enough,” “Never Again” and “Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough,” earning many honks and thumbs-up from passersby as well as a couple of middle fingers from classmates who thought the students were marching for gun control.”
“Clashing viewpoints emerged from residents of a northeast Longmont neighborhood when they were told last week that the Longmont Police Department SWAT team would be training several times this spring in a field bordering homes,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The SWAT team went through the first of those practice sessions Monday on a property with an open field and old, empty buildings at the southeast corner of Colo. 66 and Alpine Street in the Prairie Village neighborhood. About 15 police officers in green tactical uniforms and helmets armed with non-lethal air pellet guns simulated the apprehension of armed suspects and forced entries through closed doors.”
“Eighth-graders at Cortez Middle School held mock trials at Montezuma County Combined Court on March 8 and 12 to cap a study of genocide,” reports The Cortez Journal. “The classes, led by eighth-grade language arts teachers Lissa Lycan and Katherine Freeman, have been studying the Holocaust this semester. According to Lycan, the students worked on language skills while researching for their mock trial. Students were assigned a current or historical event that could be considered genocide, and prepared supporting and opposing arguments. The teachers chose four cases, including the current Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. The students researched and argued whether those events should be considered genocide.”
“Cañon City High School Principal Bill Summers presented Monday to the Cañon City School Board a proposal to change the start time of all but one of the Cañon City schools,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “The schools’ start times except for Mountain View Core Knowledge would be changed in the proposal. The most significant proposed start time changes would be to CCHS, Cañon City Middle School and McKinley Elementary. CCHS and CCMS would start 55 minutes later than the current start time. McKinley would start one hour earlier.”
“Put up a parking lot? That question lingers as Colorado Springs decision-makers contemplate the future of America’s favorite city park. Nobody claims to have a simple remedy for Garden of the Gods’ worsening summer traffic congestion,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “But one option presented Monday night – deemed by advocates as sensible though problematic – would place rows of vehicles in the postcard image taken from the visitor center. After nearly a year of study and listening to stakeholders, a city-hired consultant recommended that people park in 400 spaces to be created in the Rock Ledge Ranch field by the Garden’s main entrance. Visitors then would be shuttled into the park in an effort to relieve traffic and parking congestion from May through September.”
“The next generation of blazing-fast cellular data speeds hasn’t arrived yet, but the major wireless carriers are hard at work in Denver laying the groundwork,” reports The Denver Post. “So far, Verizon has led the pack by planting its flag in dozens of spots, in the form of 30-foot poles topped with antennas that boost signal strength in a one- to two-block radius. Hundreds more, or perhaps thousands, are likely on the way, city officials say. The installations are turning heads — though not always in a good way.”
“A little over a month after a ‘Race and Faith’ chapel event that ruffled the feathers of some students and parents at Faith Christian Academy, the private Christian school fired the faculty member responsible for it,” reports Denverite. “Gregg Tucker, who was a teacher and chaplain at the school, organized the event with the help of the school’s administration partially in response to several racist incidents that took place at the school about a year ago which he described in an open letter as ‘blatant, unsettling, and had a profound impact on how many of our minority students were feeling at the school.'”
“It was founded nearly 70 years ago, before the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, and has its roots in an early state anti-discrimination law that dates back to 1895,” reports ColoradoPolitics. “But now the state’s Civil Rights Commission is teetering on the brink of elimination — or potentially facing major changes to its mandate and authority — thanks in large part to the Lakewood baker who refused, on religious grounds, to provide a cake for a same-sex couple.”
