“A half-blind endangered Mexican gray wolf that had been loose in Teller County since escaping from a wildlife center a month ago was captured Wednesday north of Divide,” reports The Colorado Springs Gazette. “John Oakleaf, field coordinator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program, said the wolf’s right front paw is injured and veterinarians are treating it. After the wolf recovers, he said, it will be moved to another wildlife center rather than risk having it escape again.”
“A major development company fired an employee Wednesday as the Denver District Attorney’s Office reviewed city allegations of collusion in the planned expansion of the Colorado Convention Center,” reports The Denver Post. “The city on Tuesday revealed potential misconduct in the bidding process for the $233 million project. Wednesday, the government released documents to The Denver Post with new details of the scandal. City officials believe Trammell Crow, a company that was managing the convention center project, ‘attempted to eliminate a bidder,’ ‘improperly released City documents’ and ‘altered plans without the City’s knowledge,’ according to a letter signed by Eulois Cleckley, director of the Department of Public Works.”
“The Steamboat Springs Police Department will add three new positions to its roster in 2019, addressing staffing and overtime concerns,” reports The Steamboat Pilot & Today. “The new positions were approved by the Steamboat Springs City Council and include two additional patrol officers as well as another sergeant. ‘Our agency has been understaffed for a while, and there have been a lot of costs incurred by that department because of overtime,’ City Council member Lisel Petis said. Petis, who supported funding the additional officers, said the current staff was overworked and getting burned out. She also said coverage during peak times at night was lacking.”
“Police on Friday will begin clearing out dozens of cars, campers and vans that are serving as homes for people who have, for months, been living in the parking lot of Diagonal Plaza shopping center on the northeastern edge of the city. The action follows a missive from a council member to Boulder’s police chief on behalf of concerned business owners,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “The large parking lot on the 33-acre property has long hosted overnight guests, but such activity has increased lately, businesses and residents of the many vehicles confirmed. On Monday, a dozen campers, half a dozen sprinter vans and as many cars were present that appeared to be in use as dwellings.”
“Despite a hot economy with steady increases in wages and employment, a new study released this week by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy shows that roughly a quarter of Boulder County residents still can’t keep up with the rising cost of living,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “According to the report, since 2001, the income needed for a family with one adult, one preschooler and one school-age child to be self-sufficient in Colorado rose by 78 percent. During that same time period, wages increased by just 43 percent.”
“Wednesday night provided an opportunity to share ideas, gather information and build cooperative efforts to address how Durango might cope with a warming planet,” reports The Durango Herald. “The city held an open house at the Durango Community Recreation Center called ‘Advancing Toward a Resilient Durango’ that examined ideas and efforts the city could use to protect six essential aspects of the community. ‘We’re stimulating conversation on how we can build more resilience to cope with climate change,’ said Imogen Ainsworth, sustainability coordinator for the city of Durango. ‘This event brings together a lot of people from nonprofits working on the issue, and it allows us to take stock of what is happening.’”
“The Loveland Police Department will be conducting special enforcement this holiday season around Loveland stores in attempts to limit shoplifting,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “A Tuesday release from Loveland Police Spokesman Rick Arnold stated that shoplifting is a ‘chronic concern’ during the holiday for merchants and honest shoppers alike.”
“Twenty-four outdoor recreation businesses from Colorado, including Aspen Skiing Co. and two others from the Roaring Fork Valley, want the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider an “energy dominance” approach to issues,” reports The Aspen Times. “The businesses sent a letter Monday to Jamie Connell, the new state director of the BLM in Colorado, to emphasize the importance of the outdoor recreation industry in the state. ‘Our businesses contribute to Colorado’s $28 billion outdoor recreation economy, which depends on Colorado’s world class public lands,’ the letter said. ‘Yet these lands are under increasing pressure from the current administration’s ‘energy dominance’ policies, which are poised to do irreparable damage to Colorado’s outdoor industry through the prioritization of oil and gas development.'”
“Amidst murmurings of potential school closures, the Pueblo City Schools (D60) board of education agreed to spend $4 million to keep two operating,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “For what were termed emergency repairs to the schools’ electrical systems, the board on Tuesday unanimously voted to commit $2.5 million to South High School and $1.5 million to East High School. The $1.5 million to be spent at East is on top of nearly $1 million committed last year for the first phase of the electrical system overhaul.”
