Kanipe put it a little more strongly, saying, "The stuff you hear about this being a 'blood moon' is total (expletive). It's going to be a beautiful celestial event, something to enjoy and appreciate, not fear."

It's not a "Blood Moon" because that's just one of the common names for the October full moon (also, Hunter's Moon), and the September moon's common name is the Harvest Moon.

What is a "cornerstone", other than a stumbling block, if the rest of the ecosystem that is built upon it has been displaced and destroyed?

There is no value, only dead-end destruction, when prairie dogs become vermin in suburban areas. There is nothing to put sufficient pressure on their population to keep their numbers in check. There are few other animals to take-up residence in vacated burrows due to the urban pressures from human development and domestic animals. The same goes for rabbits that are infesting most of Boulder's suburban subdivisions. The second coyotes come in close to take rabbits, they invariably have conflicts with toddlers or pets and humans drive them off with beanbags or cans with BBs in them, or poison them with tainted burritos. That leaves behind only infestations of vermin, not anything remotely resembling an ecosystem.

That's why your comment is the one that's ill-informed, just like the protestors' ignorant opinions. It would be nice if more folks understood that any component of a healthy ecosystem which is out of its proper context is a problem, not a solution. The only solution is to designate areas large enough to contain halfway viable ecosystems as preserves.

Some Open Space comes close and almost has a balance that almost works, but the last thing those places need is to have the balance disrupted by humans dumping a bunch of unwanted urban vermin into the mix.

The "hunting out of season" charge is a stretch, that was clearly not his intention.

That said, if he leaves his trash out, and his negligence has the unintended consequence of baiting wildlife that threaten his own animals, there should be legal consequences if he harms said wildlife.

The primary way prairie dogs "enhance" the ecosystem is as food for predators. Beyond that, they strip land down to the bare soil because they want to be able to see predators approaching their burrows. When humans drive the predators off, removing one of the main factors that keeps the prairie vermin population in check, they just dig more and more burrows, creating a moonscape pockmarked with holes. Then, they tend to die horribly of disease or famine caused by overpopulating their habitat.

There is already more than enough prairie vermin on Open Space land. If Naropa decides to be non-lethal, all they'd have to do is wait a few years and all the vermin will probably die-off from Bubonic Plague, which wipes-out Open Space colonies periodically. What they don't do, nature will, and the end result will be the same, it just might put their students and the public more at risk if & when the colony does experience a plague die-off.

There are battles far more worthy of fighting than this. Nearly everything the protesters are quoted as saying is indicative of profound ignorance on their part, both in terms of prairie vermin behavior and how an ecosystem functions.

There is precedent, and on this very highway. The Boulder-Denver Turnpike was a toll road in the 50s-60s, that name has stuck even though it's been toll-free since it paid for itself.

These new express lane tolls seem to be carrying a large behavior-modification component, so they may not go away. If they keep the tolls for that reason, I'd hope the revenue would be applied as a direct monetary credit to HOVs and used to subsidize alternative transportation programs, rather than just being appropriated for other projects or maintenance.

Agreed. This is a case of yet another mineral development boom where a bunch of greedy industrialists want to sweep-in, grab what they can, and get out as quickly as they can, leaving as much mess behind as they can get away with, for others to deal with in the future at taxpayer expense.

Maybe, instead of whining about how they're not going to be allowed to be bad neighbors, the oil and gas developers should focus on technologies and methods that would make their activities less obnoxious to the surface landowners, and agree to ironclad contracts to hold themselves responsible for putting everything back largely the way they left it. No trace of surface pollution, no subsurface pollution either.

Here's a thought: Maybe the oil company execs could see how their own sausage is made by living as close to a developed well over its entire life cycle as they want to drill to other people's homes.

I wonder what they'll report if they get an underwhelming crowd to the ribbon cutting.

I think this would be a great idea if the plan was actually for the BPD to put all problem bums they contact on a daily basis to the bus for a free, one-way express ride out of town rather than to the jail.

Indeed, it doesn't appear that she stood much of a chance either way.

It's just fortunate that the car didn't strike any oncoming vehicles, the magnitude of the force that wrapped it around that reasonably mature tree it knocked over, the critical injury & death toll likely would've been higher.

Yes, it seems that impaired or otherwise faulty judgement was involved, as well as bald tires (not all that visible from the Camera photo).

Agreed!

At least potheads generally seem to drastically underestimate their abilities and overestimate their speed, whereas texters aren't looking where they're going for hundreds of feet at a time, and drive with the overconfident attitude that they are able to pull it off despite the intense distraction that takes their focus completely off the road.

While some drivers in injury or fatality wrecks have had THC in their systems, I wonder if there's any solid evidence that driving while high, much less driving hours after having smoked pot that day, had any actual causal link to the errors leading-up to the wreck.

It's well-established that drunk driving is dangerous because coordination, reaction time, and judgement are all severely impaired. Do people driving while high tend to speed, weave, and take dumb risks as those under the influence of alcohol?