Free Republic

Backers say citizenship shouldn’t be necessary to serve on city boards. If Boulder’s voters approve Ballot Question 2E this fall, city residents who aren’t eligible to vote — and who aren’t U.S. citizens — will be eligible to serve on the city’s 20 boards and commissions. The measure would remove the charter requirement that applicants to serve on those boards and commissions be “registered electors” — that is, registered to vote. Instead, applicants hoping for an appointment from the City Council to those boards would simply have to be 18 years old and have lived in the city for at...

Exactly as some legal experts predicted, Boulder's courts saw a spike in claims of "adverse possession" filed by people apparently trying to beat the clock on changes to the controversial land law. Of the 25 active adverse-possession lawsuits in Boulder County -- where a person or company claims someone else's land after trespassing on it for at least 18 years -- 15 of those cases were filed in June Some of those cases were filed just hours before changes to the law went into effect last Tuesday, court records show. The changes, drafted by a bipartisan group of state legislators...

Two commercials from Democratic congressional candidate Jared Polis paint him as a man of the people who will stand up to special interests. But ... the facts of Polis’ campaign do not exactly match up with the rhetoric in his commercials. "How can we reform health care when the politicians won't stand up to the lobbyists? ” However, Polis took at least $10,000 from members of large lobbying firms or people who identified themselves as lobbyists, Federal Election Commission records show. Another ad says: "Jared Polis will do things differently; he'll stand up to the oil companies ..." But Polis...

BOULDER — A cyclist in Boulder County was injured after a run-in, literally, with a bear. Tim Egan, 53, was riding on Old Stage Road Tuesday afternoon when suddenly a bear appeared in front of him. Egan hit the bear and ended up skidding across the road. "This bear looked at me with a look of terror on his face and sort of made a noise," said Egan. "I looked at him with a look of terror and we went, 'aaaahhhhh.'"

Internet entrepreneur Jared Polis changed the dynamics of his Democratic congressional primary race in March when he wrote his campaign another $50,000 check. That donation took his self-financing bid beyond the $350,000 mark, triggering the aptly named but little known federal "millionaires' amendment." Polis has contributed nearly $3.7 million of his money to his campaign. He now ranks among the top 10 self-funded House candidates in the 2008 election cycle nationally and will likely become Colorado's largest-ever self-donor. That puts pressure on his 2nd Congressional District primary competitors - former state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, of Coal Creek Canyon, and...

As Tim Egan flew down Old Stage Road in Boulder County on Tuesday afternoon on his bike, he saw a large, unusual obstacle in the way. Before he could squeeze the brakes, the 53-year-old former Colorado College hockey player was in the midst of a bike-vs.-bear accident. A black bear crossing the road from west to east collided with Egan, who estimated he was going 45 mph. Egan, of Boulder, was tossed into the air and skidded across the asphalt, suffering a nasty case of road rash, cracked ribs and lacerations to his head, he said. “If it wasn’t me...

Ward Churchill is baaaaack! by: Deborah Lambert, June 05, 2008 Although Ward Churchill was finally fired by the University of Colorado, Boulder for plagiarism and dishonest scholarship rather than his 9-11 remarks, you'd never know it from his website at www.wardchurchill.net, aka the “Ward Churchill Solidarity Network,” dedicated to “Defending Academic Freedom and Political Dissent.” The site includes a petition to reinstate Ward Churchill, and a statement of support from Noam Chomsky....

Now members of the Hispanic community are concerned that the sole Mexican teacher, whom they see as a positive role model for their children, was singled out unfairly because she speaks little English.

BOULDER — It wasn't exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Tasers in a confrontation over parking. Officers said neither man needed medical attention after the confrontation Saturday, but Harvey Epstein, a co-owner of Mamacitas restaurant in Boulder, was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and using a stun gun. A police report said Epstein and Casey M. Dane, a supervisor for Colorado Security Services Inc., were arguing over a metal boot that one of Dane's guards had clamped on a wheel of a van parked behind Mamacitas....

A Boulder salon owner ticketed in March for dyeing her poodle pink has made a deal with the city attorney's office that could dismiss the charge against her in six months if she doesn't commit a similar violation in that time. Wednesday morning, Joy Douglas' famous formerly pink poodle, Cici, was seen outside the Zing Salon at 1100 Spruce St. -- and the pooch was white. Douglas only commented to say her case has been dropped and she needs to have an attorney present before saying more. Officials with the city's municipal court said the case isn't dropped yet, and...

Kelly Anderson and Leonard Sun Voted Cutest Vegetarians Alive! For our third annual Cutest Vegetarian Alive contest, peta2 received more than 3,500 entries from adorable vegetarians and vegans around the world. And we asked all of you to help choose the winners. The response was overwhelming this year, with more than 50,000 votes cast. It was a mighty close race, but big congrats go out to Leonard Sun and Kelly Anderson for taking home the top honors.

Adverse possession law set to change. Beginning July 1, people hoping to use "adverse possession" to take control of another person's land had better be prepared to pay for it... The bill, which garnered wide bipartisan support among state lawmakers, requires that an adverse possessor believe in "good faith" that the land is actually his or her own. It also raises the burden of proof in an adverse-possession case and gives judges the power to make plaintiffs payfor any land they are awarded. Witwer on Friday said the bill is a victory for property owners. "This will make it harder...

In what has become an annual rite of passage, University of Colorado students are being subjected this month to a round of diversity workshops preaching that all whites are racist. The latest round, hosted by the university's women's resource center last Friday, was titled "White on White Taskforce: Acting to Dismantle Racism." According to organizers, it was "designed to give White people tools to dismantle racism on campus." At the workshop, students received a handout espousing the "underlying assumptions" of its leaders. Most notably, it read "reverse racism is impossible," meaning that non-whites cannot be racist. And also of interest,...

A Colorado district court judge who awarded part of a million-dollar residential land parcel to a retired judge and his wife under the state's little-used "adverse possession" law will have an opportunity to review his original decision. The Colorado Court of Appeals has agreed to send the controversial case that benefited retired judge Richard McLean and his wife, Edith Stevens, back to Boulder County District Judge James Klein, who made the original decision, according to a report in the Boulder Daily Camera. The couple who lost the property, Don and Susie Kirlin, had asked the appellate court to return the...

A war of words continues in a high-profile Boulder land case, with each side accusing the other of lying. In January, Don and Susie Kirlin appealed an October ruling by Boulder County District Court Judge James C. Klein that awarded a third of their million-dollar lot to neighbors Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, based on the squatter's-rights law of "adverse possession." The Kirlins at the same time filed a request with the Colorado Court of Appeals to send the case back to the district court level to hear additional evidence, alleging their neighbors fabricated evidence to win their case. After...

Woman Faces $1,000 Fine For Pink Poodle Dog Dyed To Help Raise Awareness For Breast CancerThomas Hendrick, News Editor POSTED: 8:11 am EDT March 11, 2008 BOULDER, Colo. -- A Boulder woman said she will fight a $1,000 fine she was given for dyeing her miniature poodle pink. Joy Douglas she dyed Cici pink to help raise awareness for breast cancer. The salon owner said she has used beet juice -- and occasionally Kool-Aid -- for four years now to "stain" her dog. Officials at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley told the Daily Camera Douglas was warned several times...

A witness has surfaced in the Boulder, Colo., case in which a former judge and his wife used a little-known state law concerning "adverse possession" to gain ownership of a significant portion of their neighbor's valuable building lot in a pricy subdivision. It seems one of the neighbors now reports seeing a woman who looked like Edie Stevens, the judge's wife, "tromping, stomping and kicking the ground, causing vegetation and dirt to rise from the ground in the area where the dirt path … later appeared." That statement comes from neighbor Josephine Touchton, whose affidavit, along with other photographic and...

A move to draft a Boulder City Council resolution supporting the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney likely won't get enough support to get off the ground Tuesday. A canvass of the City Council shows there aren't likely to be the five votes required to draft, debate and eventually hold a vote on the measure as activists have requested. Snip

The Boulder couple who successfully sued for part of their neighbors' land mailed a letter this week to "those who have supported us," saying they hoped to restore peace in their neighborhood. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, plaintiffs in the controversial adverse-possession case against Don and Susie Kirlin, spelled out their side of the story in the four-page letter -- obtained by the Camera from a recipient who wished to remain anonymous. "We still hope that we can reconcile our differences with the Kirlins and restore peace in our neighborhood and community," McLean and Stevens wrote. Contacted at her home...

Galen Foster's home and business of 23 years is supposed to make way for parking for the Wadsworth Boulevard light-rail station in Lakewood. But what chaps Foster's hide is that there already are conceptual plans showing his property being used not for transit parking, but for a five-story commercial office building. While government's right of condemnation, more politely called eminent domain, has been recognized for centuries, the Regional Transportation District is entering an untested area that includes economic development in its efforts to build the FasTracks West Corridor line. While there is little room to challenge RTD's acquisition of land...

The land-dispute case on Hardscrabble Drive isn't the first time a former Boulder judge has used the legal concept of "adverse possession" to win land from a neighbor. Earlier this year, the secretary of the Indian Peaks chapter of the Sierra Club and his wife lost about 100 square feet of their property to Marsha Yeager, a former judge, and her husband, John Yeager. The issue of adverse possession hit the spotlight earlier this month when Don and Susie Kirlin lost about a third of their property to their neighbors — former judge Richard McLean and his wife, Edith Stevens...

A judge who granted a couple part of their neighbors' property in an adverse-possession lawsuit has denied their request to add on a strip of land 9 inches wide. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, of Boulder, had asked for the full width of a disputed path on land purchased by their neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin. In October, McLean and Stevens were awarded about a third of the Kirlins' lot, or more than 1,400 square feet... A judge said last week he could only consider evidence presented at trial ...

Don and Susie Kirlin of Boulder, Colordao. How many times have we heard about government abuses of the right to own property going on in neighborhoods across America, in the form of the invoking of the right of ‘eminent domain’, and the corruption of other legal concepts? Kelo vs. New London is probably the most publicized of such unconstitutional atrocities, but similar atrocities occur daily across this country. How many of us have attempted to help the victims of such abuses of power? I myself have done so no more than once or twice. I ask any FReeper who...

A Bonners Ferry woman says she was humiliated when security guards at the federal courthouse in Coeur d'Alene told her she'd have to remove her underwire bra to get inside. Lori Plato said she was going into the courthouse for a court hearing Sept. 20 when the metal detector went off as she passed through security. "When I walked through, the gentleman said, "'Do you have an underwire bra on?'." Plato said. "I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'You have to remove it.' " But there was nowhere private to remove her bra, she said. The guards suggested she go out...

Waving signs and American flags, Boulder High School students this morning will stage the first of what could become many Pledge of Allegiance protests in the school courtyard. Members of the activist Student Worker club are inviting their peers to leave class every Thursday at 8:30 a.m. — when the pledge is recited over the intercom — and meet in the courtyard to say a revised version of the pledge that doesn't reference God. Club President Emma Martens, a Boulder High senior who's leading the protest, wrote this new version: "I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights...

Boulder High School students are planning a protest against the Pledge of Allegiance in the courtyard of their school tomorrow morning. Students with the activist club "Student Worker" organized the protest for 8:30 a.m., when the pledge is recited over the intercom. They're concerned that it takes away from school time and that the phrase "one nation, under God" violates the separation of church and state, club President Emma Martens wrote in an e-mail. "Boulder High has a highly diverse population, not all of whom believe in God, or One God," she wrote. She said the group would rather the...

Boulder High School students are planning a protest against the Pledge of Allegiance in the courtyard of their school Thursday morning.

The Muslim Student Association at CU finds itself in a progressive state with a woman as president. Kelly Brewer, MSA's president, stands out not only in her leadership role, but also as a convert to Islam. Raised in a Catholic-Christian household, Brewer began learning about Islam as a 9th grader. The Sept. 11 media coverage at the time portrayed Muslims in Islam's "malpracticed" state, and Brewer became interested in Islam's "true form." While delving into Islamic culture, Brewer was "impressed by the conduct of Muslims" in their kindness. Brewer, who converted after Sept. 11, said that "now a lot of...

This morning we had our Fight for Victory Tour Pro Troop Rally in Downtown Boulder Colorado! ...PS When and IF the main stream media ever admits that they SHOULD have covered the Fight for Victory Tour/Gathering of Eagles III and they happen to say, at least in Denver...."WE HAD NO IDEA ANYTHING LIKE THIS WAS GOING ON".... Please, everyone remember, THEY ARE TELLING A BALD FACED LIE.

The Camera newspaper of Boulder announced Thursday it will lay off 19 production and pressroom employees and move the bulk of its printing operations to Denver. On Oct. 22, the Camera plans to start printing at Denver facilities operated by the Denver Newspaper Agency (DNA), where The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News are printed. The DNA is a joint venture of the owners of the Post and News: MediaNews Group and E.W. Scripps Co. It prints, distributes and sells ads for the two Denver dailies under a "joint operating agreement," an exemption from antitrust laws aimed at saving failing...

A University of Colorado freshman, identified by family members as Michael George Knorps, is hospitalized with a knife wound after being cut outside of the student center this morning, the first day of classes on the Boulder campus. Knorps, who is from Illinois, was coherent and able to talk after the incident, campus spokesman Bronson Hilliard said. He is undergoing surgery, and his parents have been notified. “We’re very glad this young man didn’t appear to be seriously injured,” Hilliard said. -snip- The suspect, whom 7NEWS has named as Kenton Astin, 39, of Boulder, stabbed himself several times in the...

The Gathering of Eagles will be holding a Rally in Boulder time: 7:00am -8:00am date: Sunday 9/9/2007 location: 1048 Pearl Street (in front of the Daily Camera Building) at 8:00am we leave to join Move America Forward in Wichita KS. Everyone is invited to also go all the way with us to Washington DC for Gathering of Eagles III on 9/15. Fight for Victory trip details on our webpage.

University of Colorado regents voted 8-1 to fire controversial professor Ward Churchill this afternoon. Regent Cindy Carlisle, D-Boulder, cast the lone dissenting vote. There was no discussion. After the quick vote, dissenters in the crowd at the Glenn Miller Ballroom shouled "bullshit" and "cowards." Regent Steve Bosley, R-Louisville, introduced the motion for dismissal shortly after the regents convened, and it was seconded by Regent Kyle Hybl, R-Colorado Springs. Churchill supporters converged in the back of the ballroom after the vote, playing drums and chanting. The dismissal of the controversial professor is the first of its kind in CU’s 131-year history...

Calonne facing charges of harassment, criminal mischief. Ariel Calonne, Boulder's outgoing city attorney, was cited this week for misdemeanor harassment and criminal mischief following a dispute with one of his neighbors. Beverly Potter called police Tuesday morning and said she had reprimanded Calonne for allowing his dog to walk on her property... Calonne "responded ... by telling her 'that if she touched his dog that he would kick her ass,'" according to the police report. Potter told officers that she then turned on her sprinklers to get Calonne's dog off of her property, and said Calonne kicked the heads off...

Some Boulder, Colo., High School officials have been given a "reprimand" for setting up and taking students as young as 14 to a seminar in which the children were told to "have sex, do drugs," but a request from the state legislature for further action has been turned down. Helayne Jones, the president of the Boulder Valley District School Board, read a letter at a public meeting on the issue stating that "actions" were taken on the complaints the seminar generated, and several Boulder High staff members were given "verbal reprimands." In addition, a letter was sent to parents...

Students at Boulder High School want an apology from national television host Bill O'Reilly, who's incensed over an April panel at the school that critics say encouraged young people to experiment with drugs and sex. Several of O'Reilly's shows have featured sound clips from the Conference on World Affairs panel "STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs,"... Dan Caplis, a Denver radio show host who has spoken on O'Reilly's show about the issue, said he thinks the clips were in "perfectly fair context." "I think that Bill has been on target with this, and they should be glad that he's willing to...

A guest speaker at an assembly at Boulder High School in Colorado has told students as young as 14 to go have sex and use drugs, prompting school officials to say they will investigate. The instructions came from Joel Becker, an associate clinical professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. "I am going to encourage you to have sex and encourage you to use drugs appropriately," Becker said during his appearance at the school as part of a recent panel sponsored by the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs. "Why I am going to...

A University of Colorado student has been arrested after campus police said they discovered two guns, a knife and several hundred rounds of ammunition in his dormitory room. Matthew Thomas Furnish is scheduled to appear in court today on two counts of unlawful possession of deadly weapons on campus and three counts of unlawful conduct on public property. Responding to a tip from a caller at about 9 p.m. Thursday, campus police visited Furnish's room. After an interview with police, Furnish consented to a search of his room. Police said they found a Glock .40-caliber handgun, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun,...

A mountain lion found devouring a deer in a Boulder backyard has been relocated to the mountains northwest of the city. State wildlife officers tranquilized the 90 lb. cat and released it Thursday. A man who saw the mountain lion in his neighbor's backyard called wildlife officers. He had noticed that the deer were acting strangely. The man's wife told officers that the cat just stared at her husband. It's not unusual for mountain lions to be seen in Boulder...

So I have to do a project where I choose one of the events at the Conference on World Affairs @ C.U.- Boulder. I was hoping to get some help on a topic that wasn't infested with liberal propaganda. Any help would be great, or if anyone has been to a forum with a certain Panelists that you liked. Thanks so much. - Young Conservative surrounded by hippies!!

Organizers of a war memorial displayed at the University of Colorado were disappointed by last weekend's vandalism. Tens of thousands of flags, row upon row, line CU's Boulder campus. The white flags represent Iraqis and the red represent U.S. soldiers who've died. "When people walk through this, I wonder what does this do to them," said Juan Stewart, a memorial organizer. "This is the consequence of war. When the wind hits it like it is now, you just get to see the vastness of the numbers." Stewart knew not everyone would appreciate his display but said the vandals went too...

Female cat tranquilized and relocated after nap in a backyard. A mountain lion that wandered into a central Boulder neighborhood got a free ride back to the foothills west of town Friday morning, after being shot out of a backyard oak tree with a tranquilizer gun the previous day. the cougar, which wandered into a yard in the 1400 block of Cedar Avenue... the third time in less than a week that mountain lion activity has been reported in and around Boulder. Last weekend, a deer killed by a mountain lion in the Mount Sanitas area forced the city to...

Gov. Bill Owens ripped the Boulder County district attorney today, saying "Mary Lacy should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history." Owens’ statement came shortly after news reports that suspect John Mark Karr’s DNA didn’t match that found on slain JonBenet Ramsey. "Unfortunately, the hysterics surrounding John Mark Karr served only to distract Boulder officials from doing their job which should be solving the murder of JonBenet Ramsey," Owens said. "I find it incredible that Boulder authorities wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars to bring Karr to Colorado given such a lack of evidence."...

This is a reference thread with links to previous FR threads discussing the arrest of a suspect, John Mark Karr, in the decade-old cold case concerning the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, plus case resources for continued commentary on investigation of the crime.

Boulder District Attorney investigator Mark Spray has contacted a man who believes he could have encountered the JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect on a bus in the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 1996. Daniel Pride, now of Portsmouth, N.H., said he was at the downtown bus station in Boulder sometime shortly after 12:30 a.m. when a man arrived, behaving strangely and bearing a resemblance to John Mark Karr, arrested last week in the case. He said the man didn't want to be noticed and pulled away when Pride asked if he had a light for a cigarette. The man boarded...

ABOARD THAI AIRWAYS TO LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr, the suspect in the death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, sipped champagne and ate fried king prawns in business class Sunday after being put aboard a flight to Los Angeles to face charges in the United States. As Karr wined and dined in style and chatted with the three U.S. officials escorting him, another bombshell emerged: Reports that Karr sought treatment at a Thai sex-change clinic. His Thai Airways International flight took off about 8 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) for the 15-hour flight to Los Angeles. Karr's journey will eventually end...

[...] I was surprised by my own criticism of a city that people often refer to as paradise. First some facts. Boulder is one of the five richest counties in the United States, but it has the lowest rate of charitable giving in Colorado. [...] [...] Boulder has the second-highest grossing organic food market in the country. [...]Boulder is one of only three counties in Colorado that did not vote for George Bush. But scratch the surface of the utopian bubble and you'll witness people punching each other in the organic market's parking lot over the last available space and...

HAMILTON, Ala. - Tara Estes was almost breathless with excitement because she thought one of the more mysterious elements of the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note finally had been revealed. She climbed the steps to Jeff Brown's rickety porch, brushed aside an orange wasp and sat down on a dirty ice cooler. "Shall be the conqueror," she said Friday afternoon to a couple of quizzical looks. "S.B.T.C." Ah, yes. The ransom note that asked John Ramsey to turn over $118,000 for the safe return of 6-year-old JonBenet has been analyzed over and over for nearly a decade. The long, rambling ransom...

Seth Brigham holds a copy of the Daily Camera at the Boulder County Justice Center Friday, Aug. 18, 2006, in Boulder, Colo. Hours after John Mark Karr told reporters in Thailand he was with JonBenet when she died, questions arose about his claims _ including whether he sexually assaulted the 6-year-old beauty queen or was even in Colorado at the time of the slaying. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)