It’s Monday, June 5, 2023.
Here we are at another Monday, Boulder. How lucky are we? We made it to another week.
For today, John Herrick gets a scooplet and covers the first candidate to throw his hat in the ring for Boulder mayor. This fall will be the first time Boulderites directly elect their mayor by ranked-choice voting. The choice was previously left to Boulder City Councilmembers to choose among their own. Bob Yates is the candidate covered today. He’s a retired lawyer and telecommunications executive, and has served on council since 2015.
Also, we have the latest in the lawsuit against the City of Boulder over its camping ban.
Lastly, we have a summer community reporting fellow this year, so everyone say hello to Hope Munoz. A senior at CU who is originally from Santa Fe, Munoz will help keep you informed about news and events around Boulder this summer, and will help me keep this newsletter on the rails.
Have a splendid day.
— Tim, reporter
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Join us for the premiere screening of the Sink’s 100th Anniversary film at Boulder Theater on June 14th! Grab a cold beer, chat with the owners and take in the exclusive insights and decades of history behind the icon landmark.
Featured stories
Bob Yates announces run for Boulder mayor, vowing to ‘take the community to a new place’
This November, Boulder voters will directly elect the city’s mayor for the first time by ranked-choice voting. Councilmember Yates sees the position of mayor as an opportunity for “visionary” leadership. Continue reading…
This week in Boulder: Pride festival and ‘first-ever’ local rock art show
With summer just around the corner and the event scene heating up, we’re debuting this weekly roundup of happenings. Continue reading…
Meet our summer 2023 Community Reporting Fellow
The fellowship is supported through a grant from the Colorado Media Project’s Advancing Equity in Local News program. Continue reading…
Boulder Reporting Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization that empowers our community through non-partisan, locally focused journalism that informs and connects.
In other news
A new week, same weather
I don’t know how many more ways I can tell you it’s going to be in the 60s and 70s with thunderstorms. But I’ll have to think of some. Because for as far out as the forecast goes, it’s forecasting temps in the 60s and 70s, with thunderstorms.
Rain combined with burn scars = flash flood risk
After a wildfire, there’s not as much vegetation holding the soil in place. So when rain falls, some of that soil is washed away, leaving less behind to absorb future rain. And the cycle continues.
Yesterday, another real-world example of this happened when the Cameron Peak burn scar was issued a flood advisory by the National Weather Service. (Last July, a woman and a girl were killed in severe flash floods that hit the burn scar.) Though only for a few hours, it’s a reminder that the effects of intense wildfires don’t stop when the flames do.
Update on camping case: City of Boulder disputes ‘key factual allegations’
Attorneys for the city are asking a Boulder County District Court judge to deny a request by civil rights lawyers who want a partial judgment in their camping ban lawsuit (which could block the city from enforcing the law), claiming key facts are disputed.
In Boulder’s latest court filing on the high-profile camping ban case, its lawyers said the city denies that police officers have enforced the camping ban on “many nights” when the city’s main shelter in North Boulder — the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless — was at capacity and had to turn people away. The city also disputes that the three homeless people named as plaintiffs in the case were unable to sleep at the shelter.
Such details matter in this case. Courts have ruled that punishing someone for sleeping in a public space when they have nowhere else to go violates their civil rights. Read more about this latest filing on BRL.
Boulder company wins NASA space food challenge
NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge announced eight winners that will advance to the final phase of the competition, receiving $750,000 in prizes. The challenge aims to develop food systems to sustain astronauts on long-duration space missions. Among the winners is SATED, a Boulder company that created a space cooking appliance “that would allow astronauts to prepare a variety of meals from ingredients with long shelf lives.”
“The possibilities presented in this challenge could help sustain our explorers on future missions, and even have the potential to help out right here on Earth in areas where food is scarce or hard to produce,” said Denise Morris, program manager for NASA Centennial Challenges.
Shakespeare festival coming your way
The yearly festival, running since 1958, and put on by CU Presents is now selling tickets. The opening show is Much Ado About Nothing, perhaps one of the earliest renditions of a romantic comedy. Also on the docket for this year are King Lear and The Winter’s Tale, stories of jealousy and truth. Tickets range from $25 to $95.
Boulder Comedy Festival is happening June 21-25! Boulder Comedy Festival highlights women and diversity in comedy and features comics from Netflix and Late Night alongside local headliners. All comics and shows are listed and tickets are available on www.BoulderComedyFestival.com.