University of Colorado leaders say that a recently announced push for more collaboration with industry does not mean the corporatization of the university or pose a threat to academic freedom, the publication of research findings or the faculty’s control over the curriculum.

The reality, they point out, is that we live in an arid environment, and instead of worrying so much about keeping front lawns green, perhaps we should adopt outdoor watering patterns that are more consistent with the hand that Mother Nature has dealt us locally.

The state has resumed pouring millions of dollars into a 35-year-old fund that aims to offset impacts caused by oil and gas operations and other forms of resource extraction.

In what may be another case of a government agency gouging citizens for access to public records, Boulder County officials are defending their estimate that they would have to charge someone $7,500 for documents related to the testing of a controversial ballot processing machine used in the last general election.

A Boulder Weekly story about the Boulder County Jail and the use of a restraint chair on unruly inmates has prompted other current and former inmates to come forward with allegations of abuse suffered at the hands of jail staff.

Boulder Weekly has been told that the Camera and its sister newspapers in the area have quietly laid off approximately 12 staff members, reportedly affecting the only remaining reporter at the Colorado Daily as well as employees at the Longmont Times-Call and Loveland Reporter-Herald.

Onesimus only gives out his one-word missionary name these days. He’s not your typical homeless man. His beard and clothes are clean, and he carries a cell phone that was recently given to him.

They call it “the chair.” It’s a restraint seat used by many jails to subdue inmates who pose a threat to themselves or others. It has wrist straps, ankle straps, a lap belt and a harness.

Fracking will be squarely in the crosshairs of several Boulder County lawmakers during the legislative session that started this week, due in part to frustration with the way a state commission recently chose to regulate oil and gas operations.

Questions continue to swirl around activists’ complaints regarding irregularities in the Boulder County election process, and while the secretary of state has largely brushed aside the concerns, a local elections official says the clerk and recorder’s office will take them seriously.