When my dear friend Bonnie Lloyd gave opening remarks at a private ceremony April 30 before she and her partner, Pattea Carpenter, obtained one of the first civil-union licenses issued by Boulder County, she thanked us. She thanked the small group of close friends for treating her and Pattea as “normal,” for not treating them as a lesbian couple.

One key role of the press is to serve as the eyes and ears of the public at open meetings. After all, most folks have jobs and families and better things to do than sit through a boring county commissioners hearing or city council study session.

Yet another CU administrator has been “double-dipping,” we at Boulder Weekly have learned. And it’s not that big of deal. A bigger deal is how these things have been communicated. Much has been made lately about University of Colorado Boulder administrators, their tuition-funded salary increases and their ability to retire and get rehired — “double-dipping” by receiving their pension and a salary.

I've noticed that CU officials are fond of saying that "discontinuance is an unfortunate term" when they talk about the closure of the J-School. (And even though a committee is still considering that closure, I think it's a done deal - they just have to study it for a few months to preserve the deliberative spirit of the university.

Currently, the board is controlled by Republicans, 5-4. Three positions are up for election this November, and two of those seats are expected to stay with their current parties, given political dynamics in the First and Fourth Congressional Districts.

After all, most of us lead fairly secure, soft, comfortable lives, especially compared to people in Third World countries hell, even compared to parts of the United States.

After all, my Feb. 11 story about the Christian music festival, which was held July 31 south of the reservoir, had outlined a variety of concerns about the event, ranging from traffic congestion to environmental impacts on plants and wildlife around the reservoir.

Bob Brancato, a Republican vying to unseat U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, sent us a press release several weeks ago proudly announcing the fact that former Congressman Tom Tancredo had endorsed him. In the release, Brancato talked about his support for Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, which some say encourages racial profiling.

At one point during the Feb. 15 debate between Howard Dean and Karl Rove in Boulder, an audience member asked them to answer a question — without blaming the other side of the political aisle. It was a telling request and a sad commentary on the current state of our political system.

Over the past couple of weeks, some of you may have heard about a Summit Daily News reporter in Frisco who was fired after writing a column that was critical of a major advertiser — the CEO of Vail Resorts, Rob Katz. In his column, Bob Berwyn poked fun at Katz for posting a photo of the snow at his Front Range home on Twitter to generate excitement about a Colorado winter storm, even though it was warm and sunny in Vail.