The University of Colorado is considering watering down its alcohol education less than a year after it was put in place.
Freshmen will no longer have to complete a mandatory alcohol- awareness course and instead will be asked to take a voluntary online survey under a proposal being considered, said Ron Stump, vice chancellor for student affairs.
Stump said the previous course could take as long as 90 minutes to complete and would have cost $48,000 to administer. The current course is shorter, but it does not track which students take the survey.
In addition, students caught in the presence of alcohol who might not be drinking will not be assessed a violation that goes toward the school’s two-strike suspension policy.
“We’re really trying to be fair,” Stump said. “Those students might have just wandered in the room.”
Last fall, CU freshman Lynn “Gordie” Bailey died of alcohol poisoning.
The policy will be finalized before fall classes begin next month, Stump said.
DENVER
Court dismisses try at restoring logging ban
A federal appeals court dismissed an attempt by environmental groups to restore a Clinton-era ban on logging in roadless areas of national forests, saying their appeal became irrelevant when the Bush administration adopted a replacement rule.
The Clinton administration’s rule put 58.5 million acres of road less forest off-limits to logging and other development. Under the new rule, those lands, most of which are in the West, are open to road-building for potential logging, mining and other commercial uses.
A federal judge in Wyoming struck down the Clinton administration’s ban in 2003, ruling in a lawsuit filed by the state of Wyoming that the executive branch had overstepped its authority in effectively creating wilderness areas on U.S. Forest Service land.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council and seven other environmental groups appealed. But on May 5, the day after the 10th U.S. Circuit of Appeals heard oral arguments, the Forest Service issued a new rule to replace the one that had been overturned.
“Adoption of the new rule has rendered the appeal moot,” a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling Monday.
Attorney Jim Angell of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund said the appellate decision does not end the fight but only “clears the decks” for new legal battles.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Salazar submits name of state justice to Bush
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar on Tuesday submitted Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis’ name to the White House for official consideration to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Kourlis, who was appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1995, has support from both of Colorado’s senators – Salazar, a Democrat, and Wayne Allard, a Republican.
Kourlis is one of scores of names mentioned as a potential successor to O’Connor. President Bush met with four Senate leaders Tuesday to discuss the vacancy, but he didn’t list candidates. Kourlis supporters tout her because of her expertise on water and Western land issues.
COLORADO SPRINGS
A first: Woman heads air-threats complex
A 28-year Air Force veteran has become the first woman to take command of the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, the military’s secretive complex that tracks airborne threats over North America.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Roseanne Bailey, who assumed the job Monday, will lead U.S. and Canadian efforts to defend North America from air and missile attacks.
“I’m going from a support role where I worried about the care and feeding of people,” said Bailey, a former commander of an air base wing at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. “Here, I worry about the country.”
NATURITA
Well leak spews plume of natural gas
A natural-gas well leak sent gas spewing into the air over southern Colorado on Tuesday, prompting flight restrictions and forcing EnCana Oil & Gas to clear some of its employees from the area.
“There’s a plume of gas that can be seen from miles away,” Montrose County Undersheriff Dick Deines said.
No gas was detected beyond a 500-yard radius of the well, which is in the Hamilton Creek Gas Field, San Miguel County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jennifer Dinsmore said.
EnCana spokesman Doug Hock said gas began leaking early Tuesday out of a cut in the steel casing that leads to the well’s valve. He did not know what caused the leak, which was about 20 miles west of Naturita.
“We evacuated everyone except key personnel, who are dealing with the situation,” Hock said.
Hock did not know how many employees were forced to leave. No one was injured, and no homes or other buildings were in danger, he said.
DURANGO
Number of litters shows lynx thriving
Lynx apparently enjoyed their best reproductive season since the state Division of Wildlife reintroduced the species to the Colorado mountains in 1999.
DOW researchers announced Tuesday that they found 16 litters spread throughout central and southern ranges. The 16 mothers gave birth to a total of 46 kittens – 21 females and 25 males.
The numbers and trend are a strong indication that lynx are adapting well and again thriving in their historical range, DOW spokesman Joe Lewandowski said.
There were probably more lynx that were born, but the annual spring survey can’t track all the animals. Last year, researchers documented that 14 lynx gave birth to 39 kittens. Lynx kittens usually are born between mid-May and mid-June.
“Not only are we finding more litters, but some females are having second and third annual litters in their established home ranges with the same mate,” lynx field researcher Tanya Shenk said. “We are starting to see a stable social structure evolve and family relationships become established.”
