“One year after the Trump administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, many young Coloradans who relied on it to attend school, apply for work permits and pay taxes without fear of deportation are now living court case to court case as they wait to learn their fate, according to immigration experts,” reports The Denver Post. “DACA, the Obama-era program that has allowed 17,000 Coloradans and hundreds of thousands of Americans brought to the United States illegally as children to have a legal presence in this country, was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017. Since then, a series of lawsuits have attempted to determine the legality of the program, leaving many recipients scrambling to renew their applications while they still can — and shutting out those who wanted to apply for the first time.”
“Months-long fire restrictions are falling like timber across Summit County as the Board Of County Commissioners decided on Tuesday to remove the Stage 1 restrictions in unincorporated areas of the county,” reports Summit Daily. “The county’s decision to remove Stage 1 fire restrictions, announced on Wednesday, maintains consistency with other local jurisdictions in and around Summit County, including U.S. Forest Service lands. Shortly after the county’s decision, Breckenridge announced that Mayor Eric Mamula signed a proclamation Wednesday, also removing the town’s Stage 1 fire restrictions. Soon after, officials in Frisco, Silverthorne and Dillon confirmed they too have all lifted the restrictions.”
“It took 8-year-old Brycen Zerby a while to catch up with his sisters as they walked out of Frontier Academy one day during the first week of school this year,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “His pastor, Eric Ebbinghaus, who was picking his own kids up from school, noticed that he was taking a while. So when he finally came out of the school, Ebbinghaus asked him, “Hey, dude, what happened? Your parents have been waiting.” Brycen, a redhead remembered for being outgoing and occasionally ornery, looked at him and replied with this: “I was having an important conversation.”
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has set itself a target deadline of late-November 2019 to decide on the application for the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas project in Oregon and an associated pipeline,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The agency and its chairman, Kevin McIntyre, say in a news release that it has established environmental schedules for reviewing 12 LNG projects, reflecting its efforts to streamline its review process for applications for such projects as the number of applications grows along with their complexity. “These efforts have helped to ensure that FERC will be equipped to process applications in a timely and expedient manner without compromising its statutory obligation to ensure safety and environmental protection,” FERC said in its release.”
“A private oil and gas industry group views a lawsuit filed jointly last week by the Boulder County Commissioners and the city of Lafayette against a state commission and a drilling operator as ignorant of property rights,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The suit, filed in Denver District Court, names the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — which reviews applications to drill wells across the state — and drilling operator 8 North as defendants, and is centered around the former giving a green light to the company to horizontally drill 52 wells through 4,000 acres in east Boulder County. While the county and Lafayette allege the state commission failed to hold 8 North to the proper standard of proving it owns enough mineral rights in the proposed drilling areas, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association industry group claims no current rule requires drilling applicants to show mineral rights title opinions.”
“Don Gore, 87, plans to continue working as a Steamboat Resort ski instructor at least until he is 100, and he hopes to be skiing even longer,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “There’s a man on the East Coast who is still skiing at 104, Gore has heard, and he’s determined to beat that record. Since Gore first tried skiing in 1955, it’s all he ever wanted to do. He’s been working full-time on the mountain for 28 years, after moving here from a ski resort in Washington where he worked for 25 years.”
“Nearly 80 percent of schools in Pueblo County School District 70 are performing at the highest level established by the state,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “That’s according to the recently released Colorado Department of Education’s preliminary ratings and performance frameworks for 2018, which show that 18 of 23 D70 schools have attained the level of Performance, the highest of four tiers. The district also retained its Accredited status — the second highest rating — with a 58.8 percent out of 100. This is an improvement from 2017’s percentile mark of 55.9 percent.”
“Residents of Loveland discussed their thoughts on how the city should be prioritizing spending with members of City Council at an open public meeting Wednesday,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Councilors Don Overcash and Dave Clark of Ward IV and Steve Olson of Ward III hosted the meeting at the Lakes at Centerra Clubhouse, 4555 Long Pine Lake Drive as part of a series of Ward IV councilor town halls. Topics raised included controlling growth, incentivizing businesses to town that provide good jobs, lessening dense traffic, a new recreation center, encouraging self-generatingsolar, preserving parks and open spaces and closing gaps in the Recreation Trail.”
“After nearly a full summer of fire restrictions, Eagle County will drop all fire restrictions as of 12:01 a.m. Friday, Sept. 7,” reports Vail Daily. “The move comes thanks to cooler days and nights, a bit more rainfall and higher relative humidity and moisture levels in grasses and trees. Still, it’s very dry. The decision to drop all of Eagle County’s fire restrictions came following a weekly regional conference call among fire officials throughout this part of the Colorado River basin.”
“The Boulder Valley school board is supporting a statewide ballot initiative that would raise an estimated $1.6 billion for the state’s 178 school districts,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Supporters say Amendment 73 will both increase revenue to cash-strapped school districts and create a more sustainable funding model. The money would increase the base funding for school districts, as well as pay for full-day kindergarten and more preschool seats while giving districts more money for special education, second language and gifted students.”
“Some of the largest proposed housing developments in Fort Collins are ‘absolutely’ jeopardized by a potentially yearlong delay on a key funding mechanism,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Among the projects is the 4,400-unit Montava development that was expected to include affordable housing and is proposed on one of the city’s last developable tracts of land. The Fort Collins City Council on Tuesday delayed voting on resolutions to create metro districts for three developments representing about 6,000 total proposed housing units in the northeast of the city. The districts add an extra layer of property tax on eventual home buyers and property owners to pay for public infrastructure.”
“A task force meant to tackle rising auto thefts in the Pikes Peak region was winging it when they followed a stolen vehicle to an east Colorado Springs apartment complex where an El Paso County deputy was killed in a shootout, according to a 907-page report police released Wednesday,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “The Beat Auto Theft Through Law Enforcement task force, comprised of officers from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado Springs Police Department and Colorado State Patrol, had encountered the suspect car thief, Manuel Zetina, by chance, task force members’ accounts showed. The officers had gathered for a briefing Feb. 5, as they did most Mondays, before setting out on their usual routine search for stolen vehicles. Sometimes they search for specific vehicles; other times they check theft hot spots and use a license plate reader to scan for stolen cars.”
“To the eye, things look pretty normal on Birch Street, south of Elm Avenue, but many residents are saying their noses are detecting a different story,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record.
“Since Aug. 1, residents in the Lincoln Park neighborhood have noticed an odor that they say is causing some to fall ill, and others to send their children to live temporarily elsewhere. Josh Hinton moved to his home on Birch Street with his wife and children two years ago. It was about a month ago when he smelled a potentially toxic odor. “It was definitely a very chemical smell,” he said. “I feel that I knew exactly what it was — that it was a meth lab.” He called law enforcement and learned that others in the neighborhood also had made the same call that evening, so deputies were already in the neighborhood.”
