Month in Review

A Lafayette man was ticketed for animal abuse when he tethered his cat to a rock after the animal refused to jog with him; police received calls that the cat was being attacked by “a flock of birds” while the owner finished his run. Peyton Manning hadn’t even signed his contract to be the Broncos’ starting quarterback before some Tim Tebow fans coined a nickname for him: Satan Manning. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, sentenced to 14 years for trying to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat, arrived in Colorado to begin serving his sentence. A Lafayette woman found a treasure trove of goodies in an old outhouse on her property, turning up pig bones, old syringes, poker chips and patent medicine bottles. A decomposed body was found hanging from a tree in Boulder Canyon, and it was revealed that a quirk in last year’s congressional redistricting resulted in a precinct of two people in Larimer County. Niwot High School was evacuated when students fired pepper spray into the air. Boulder installed public composting bins on the Pearl Street Mall. Another study, this one by the CU-Denver School of Public Health, shows the danger of living near fracking sites; the report said living within a half-mile of oil and gas operations can result in exposure to air pollutants at up to five times federal standards. Firestone canceled its election when one candidate filed for each open seat.

By the Numbers

$5M

The amount of sales tax revenue raised in Colorado on sales of medical marijuana in 2011, double the amount of 2010.

23.7

Percentage drop in BoCo foreclosures in January and February, compared to last year.

Boulder’s national ranking among cities with the most fraud.

$1M

The amount raised by donors to sponsor a “visiting conservative” professor at CU.

Small Talk

“Back away.”

—Boulder County DA Stan Garnett, in a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office asking it to leave Boulder medical marijuana dispensaries alone.

“Want me to … chop you up?”

—What Erie resident Mack Meade allegedly said to a bicyclist in Boulder while threatening him with a machete.

“I think people have a civic duty to be careful not to burn down their neighbor’s home.”

—Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, urging caution in an especially dry and windy March.

“Mr. Raszynski, this case is dismissed.”

—Boulder County District Judge Thomas Mulvahill, after Adam Raszynski was found not guilty of murdering his mother.

“It is not considered a gun. It’s much like a
pipe bomb.”

—Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the Colorado U.S. Attorney, describing a Cobra 12-gauge “street sweeper,” which was being randomly fired around a Longmont neighborhood by a former murder convict.

Sources: Chicago Tribune, Durango Herald, Denver Post, Daily Camera, Vail Daily, Rocky Mountain Collegian