Month in Review: November 2017 – Yellow Scene Magazine

.

.

The Pearl Street Mall was built between October 1975 and April 1976.
Photo Credit: Carnegie Branch Library for Local History

Post-Hurricane season and the madness of multiple severe storms hitting American coasts this last month, October saw 261,00 jobs added to the economy, mostly representing a return to work of those temporarily displaced and an increase in jobs related to construction and recovery efforts. Colorado became, according to one count, the 32nd mass shooting event since the horror of the Las Vegas strip massacre last month, when three Hispanics were murdered by a bible-obsessed, White male Christian terrorist in Thornton, CO, on November 3rd. The search for the suspect was exacerbated by concealed carriers drawing weapons, though no additional shots were fired.  BoulderCo.gov reminds us that “[g]old seekers established the first non-native settlement in Boulder County on October 17, 1858 [159 years ago], at Red Rocks near the entrance to Boulder Canyon. Less than a year later, on February 10, 1859, the Boulder City Town Company was organized by A.A. Brookfield, the first president, and 56 shareholders.” Cheers to local non-native origins. Speaking of old times, President Roosevelt appointed Pinchot to head what would become the US Forest Service, who faced off against “Colorado rancher Fred Light over grazing fees, the first of such cases. Light would later acquiesce to the court, as arbiters of law, which brings us to the case of Cliven Bundy today, whose public, armed standoff with the US Government over grazing fees on publicly held lands heads to court this month. 7th grader Gitanjali Rao, 11 years old, was named the top young scientist in America and awarded a $25,000 grant for a lead detection device she invented named Tethys, after the Greek goddess of fresh water. She invented it after following the Flint water crisis for two years. A student at STEM School Highlands Ranch, she’s exactly the kind of young scholar that keeps Colorado creative and cutting edge. Hats off to her. As a reminder, it has been 1,305 days, at the time of this writing on Nov 19, since Flint had clean drinking water. And finally, Dylann Roof was sentenced to death, the first ever for a federal hate crime charge. The sketch released of his final arguments has this adult man, this white supremacist murder, looking surprisingly young, small, & frail, instead of like the tall, lanky, soulless killer that he is.