Headlines – May 12, 2023

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Flood Watch Continues For Denver Area

​​Thursday’s steady rainfall made it the wettest day in Denver since March 14, 2021. According to The Denver Post, the storm that began Wednesday has dumped almost 20 percent of Denver’s average yearly precipitation in just a few days.

The Flood Watch that was in effect for the Denver area Thursday continues through this evening.

In Denver, Cherry Creek is running high. The city’s Office of Emergency Management said on Twitter that areas throughout Denver were experiencing moderate flooding. In Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora, wildlife officials partly closed a road Thursday after heavy rainfall washed out chunks of concrete.

Polis Delivers CU Boulder Commencement Speech

Amid a drizzling rain, thousands of CU Boulder graduates received their degrees Thursday at Folsom Field.

Over 20,000 family and friends watched as Colorado Governor Jared Polis addressed the class of 2023 as the commencement speaker.

Among those receiving diplomas was 76-year-old Rita Garson, the owner of a medical publishing business and the second-oldest person to earn an undergraduate degree. Garson now joins her daughter and one of her grandchildren as a CU alum.

Denver Mayor Seeks Help From Churches For Immigrant Influx

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock asked churches and nonprofit organizations Thursday to help with the flood of immigrants coming to the city as temporary federal pandemic immigration restrictions came to an end.

According to The Denver Gazette, several immigrants arriving by bus from the U.S.-Mexico border have already been helped by Denver churches.

The public health restriction, called Title 42, was enforced by the Trump administration in March 2020 to keep immigrants out of the country as a way of curbing the spread of COVID-19.

350 Colorado Report Criticizes Proxy Votes

A new report by 350 Colorado says that shareholder proxy votes of Colorado’s Public Employees Retirement Association fail to address climate change, discrimination, and human rights.

The watchdog group report says the retirement association’s proxy votes last year were against environmental, social, and governance resolutions sixty-one percent of the time.

350 Colorado has aligned with retirement association membership to get the association’s leadership to remove investments related to those issues.

Polis Signs New Climate Change Bills

Governor Polis has signed two bills aimed at fighting climate change. State Senator Chris Hansen, a Democrat who co-sponsored the two bills signed Thursday, said they address climate change head on.

One of the bills updates Colorado’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, while the other is meant to encourage clean thermal energy.

The State said in a press release that Senate Bill 016 revises an interim target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado by 65 percent by 2035. That update matches the latest climate science. The bill also adds a new goal of 100 percent reduction by 2050.

Features of this new law include requiring the Public Utilities Commission and local governments to prioritize improving Colorado’s electrical transmission infrastructure, and phasing out gas-powered lawn equipment with incentives like tax credits on the purchase of electric-powered replacement equipment.

The second measure, House Bill 1252, encourages the transition from expensive fuels like natural gas, toward thermal energy systems. Thermal systems heat and cool buildings with clean, non-combustible resources, and help reduce emissions from gas utilities.

 Boulder Takes Down Inaccurate Sand Creek Massacre Marker

The City of Boulder and Native American leaders removed an inaccurate stone monument Thursday that depicted the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre as an “Indian Uprising.”

Boulder residents erected the monument in the late 1950s to mark the site of Fort Chambers, where Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry trained before attacking Indigenous Americans living on land that the U.S. Army had promised was a safe haven for them.

Descendants of Cheyenne and Arapaho victims of the massacre recently expressed how the historically incorrect monument upset them.

In a surprise attack on November 29, 1864, the Boulder-area soldiers slaughtered 230 men, women and children who were flying the white flag of surrender and the U.S. flag to show their peacefulness. The massacre was sparked by false rumors of Indigenous violence against American-European settlers who during the Gold Rush had taken over Cheyenne and Arapaho land that is now Boulder.

Boulder acquired the Fort Chambers property for open space in 2018. In a press release, the City announced it will consult with tribal representatives to discuss how to best manage the open space in the future.

Cougar Euthanized After It Attacks Child

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials euthanized a mountain lion Wednesday evening near Buena Vista after it injured an 11-year-old girl in her family’s chicken coop.

The girl had discovered a dead chicken in the coop and opened the hen house door. That’s when a young, female mountain lion just behind the door swatted the girl’s face, leaving a puncture wound.

Wildlife officials said mountain lion attacks on humans are rare, and they did not believe the 30-pound animal was stalking the girl. But, they added, because mountain lions can carry rabies and other infectious diseases, they must euthanize and test those that have aggressive encounters with people.

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