The Home Front: In Colorado, reported anti-Semitic hate crimes ‘doubled in 2017’

“The number of hate crimes reported in the U.S. rose by 17 percent last year, and while overall reports of bias-motivated incidents in Colorado remain flat, the number of reported anti-Semitic hate crimes in this state doubled in 2017,” reports The Denver Post. “Across the country, law enforcement agencies reported 7,175 hate crimes last year, up from 6,121 the previous year, according to FBI data released Tuesday. It was the third consecutive year that reports of hate crimes increased nationally.”

“Ken Perry says, ‘Good morning,’ ‘Buenos días,’ or another variant of a morning greeting every day to each student who climbs onto the school bus he drives for Greeley-Evans School District 6,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “For the most part, they respond, albeit sometimes with more sleep in their voices than enthusiasm. More often, he gets a grin and a high five. Being a bus driver isn’t easy. Perry had to get creative with different ways to keep more than 30 kids at a time in line while also maneuvering through morning and afternoon traffic.”

“Local environmentalists are calling on the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission to approve a new statewide standard on low-emission vehicles, such as hybrids and electric cars. Those are the same rules that the Mesa County Board of Commissioners opposed in a letter to the state commission last week,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

“Longmont City Council on Tuesday night approved ordinances setting a $363.24 million budget for next year but left the door open to at least one future change in the spending package,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “As recommended by the staff in August, when it unveiled its suggestions for 2019 spending, the budget does not include funding for Longmont’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. During a Tuesday night public hearing on the budget ordinances, John Marlin, a Boxelder Drive resident, urged the council to restore city funding toward the show’s total cost.”

“A proposed 115 kilovolt transmission line through Pueblo West got zapped Tuesday as all three Pueblo County commissioners rejected Black Hills Energy’s application for the project,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Black Hills applied for a House Bill 1041 application that would allow for the construction of a 39-mile, single-circuit transmission line that would have traveled from Pueblo West toward the Canon City area. Officials from Black Hills and members of a group opposing the project spoke to the Pueblo County commissioners Tuesday before a crowd of more than 100 people during the final hearing on the project.”

“A district judge has sided with the Routt County commissioners in a lawsuit over $552 that was filed by Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “Horn will have to decide whether to appeal the decision or put the issue to rest. “I anticipate the other side will file a motion for reconsideration,” said Routt County Attorney Erick Knaus, who was representing the commissioners. If Horn does not appeal the decision, the litigation in the case should be over.”

“Citing public safety concerns, Breckenridge Town Council is ready to say goodbye to Isak Heartsone, an art installation that’s been a runaway success with visitors, but whose popularity has also rankled residents living nearby,” reports Summit Daily. “The 15-foot wood troll sits about a mile up the Wellington Trail in Breckenridge, built there for a summer arts festival that ended in August. The original plan was to leave the troll in place as long he could withstand the elements and wasn’t vandalized. Enough town council members were ready to cut the troll’s lifespan short on Tuesday, however, that he’ll soon be coming down.”

“Members of the City Council agreed Tuesday night that they want to help the community’s lowest-earning families with purchasing food; they just disagreed about how best to do it,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Councilor Don Overcash led the part of council, which included councilors Leah Johnson, Dave Clark and Steve Olson, who advocated for getting rid of the city’s food tax rebate program and redirecting the roughly $100,000 spent on rebates and overhead for the program toward the Food Bank for Larimer County.”

“Boulder’s elected leaders on Tuesday were dreaming of circles as they discussed ways to turn a city-owned piece of property at 6400 Arapahoe Road into a hub of reduce-reuse-recycle innovation where entrepreneurs and artists make the most of every material,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The goal is a circular economy — in which material goods are used to their utmost potential — as opposed to a linear: make, use, throw away. Boulder is marching toward its stated goal of becoming a zero-waste community; the 10-acre site on Arapahoe is a key piece of this strategy.”

“For more than 40 years, the Western Eagle County Metropolitan Recreation District has had a reach as long as its name. Generations of local kids have collected sports T-shirts and jerseys with “WECMRD” emblazoned on the front, and it was a dead giveaway about someone’s longevity in the area if he or she didn’t know what the acronym meant or how it was pronounced,” reports Vail Daily.

“His name was Champ, but he was no champion. Severely underweight and riddled with ulcers, the brown horse had been rescued from a Northern Colorado feedlot when Kassidy Webber first met him in 2014,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “Then a high school sophomore living in Arvada, Webber responded to an ad for Champ at a Colorado horse rescue. The first time she saw him, three months after he had been rescued, she knew immediately that he was the horse for her — it was in his eyes.”

“As of Jan. 8, the Cañon City Police Department will lose not only its assistant chief but also a longtime sergeant,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Fremont County Sheriff-elect Allen Cooper announced his choice for undersheriff during a press event Tuesday at the Fremont County Administration Building, just one week after garnering 61.25 percent of the votes cast for the office in the General Election. Derek Irvine, 43, a sergeant at the CCPD, will be Cooper’s new right-hand man.”

“After Durangoan Florence Paillard had surgery on a herniated disk in her back last month, her doctor prescribed Tramadol, an opioid, without any refills,” reports The Durango Herald. “The limited prescription is evidence of important changes doctors are making to help prevent opioid addiction, said Paillard, a science writer and a clinical scientist with a background in pharmaceuticals.”

“The Colorado Springs Airport can sell about 88 acres of surplus properties to Amazon or another company, the City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Almost all of the land at issue has been set aside to sell to a Fortune 500 company — yet to be identified — for warehouses and distribution centers. The buyer intends to develop the land quickly, said city Aviation Director Greg Phillips.”