About this blog

This blog is an assignment for my Reporting Contemporary Issues class at the University of Northern Colorado. I'll be covering Greeley City Council as well as the presidential election.

Monday, December 10, 2012

The End


            That’s the end. Blogging was certainly a different way to complete school assignments, and I’m glad I was able to learn basic blogging techniques like how to insert hyperlinks.
The blog-length story was also something new, and I think that’s what I really learned from the City Council experience. The first time my class went, I frantically wrote down everything I could capture and was left with both too much of everything and not enough of anything specific at the end of the night. The last city council I was able to pick up on a story I wanted to write, stress less and pick up more details about that story.
The most difficult thing about this class was getting sources on deadline. People I contacted often didn’t get back to me until I called them multiple times the day before the story was due. I think if I could suggest any strategies to future students of this class, I would say contact your sources early but don’t be surprised if you have to do some last minute pestering. Don’t be afraid to run up to the front of council chambers after City Council meetings and ask people questions. They’re pretty friendly and it will save you the trouble of trying to arrange phone calls later.
This class was hard work and it required me to do some real reporting, but that’s not a bad thing considering this is what I want to do with my life. I was also excited to see my name in print inthe Greeley Tribune because of this class. And so was my mom. 

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Transportation Funding


            City Council gave the final reading and adoption of the 2013 budget Tuesday. The process of creating the budget began in July. The council adopted the proposed budget, but not before some discussion.
            Greeley resident Steve Teets, who stood up several times during the meeting, expressed concerns about the public works and transportation sections of the budget. Teets had said during the citizen input portion of the meeting that he disapproves of 20% of the city’s transportation budget being spent on the University of Northern Colorado. This was a concern that he reiterated when he stood up during the budget discussion, saying that the red and orange bus lines needed more frequent run times since many citizens use these lines.
            The orange line was found to be high priority, and more funding is being allocated to the orange line during the 2013 budget year. The red line will not receive increased funding during the 2013 budget year.
            City council members do not believe Teets is correct in his assertion that money spent on transportation for UNC is money wasted.
            “He’s lacking all the information and the economic picture of what’s going on with the city, and the next time he comes up here to say that he’ll have me to deal with,” said council member Donna Sapienza.
            “The city does get reimbursement from UNC,” added council member Sandi Elder.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Fracking at UNC: Josh Fox wants Colorado to take action


            On November 15 filmmaker and activist Josh Fox came to UNC to talk about fracking, the subject of his documentary "Gasland." Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is  a way to extract natural energy from under the ground. This is important to the UNC community because the board of directors accepted money to allow fracking under the campus last year.
            Fox found himself in a similar situation, though on a smaller scale, in 2008. He was offered money to allow fracking on the land his family home sits on. He decided to decline and didn’t think too much of it until the topic came up repeatedly while he was going door-to-door campaigning for President Obama. People were nervous about the dangers of fracking and wanted to know the candidates’ stances on it.
            Fox decided to make a short film to show his neighbors, encouraging them not to accept the offers of money that were pouring in from the fracking industry. While in the process, he saw sick kids and pets and realized the issue was bigger than he’d imagined.
            “There was something deep and desperately wrong with this,” Fox says. The short film for his neighbors became “Gasland,” the documentary that has won awards and earned Fox constant vigilance from the oil and gas industry.
            Fox told students that the danger of the situation, from sickness to water catching on fire, is covered up by politicians on both sides who see the financial benefits.
            “I watched expert after expert lie to Congress and say it was safe,” says Fox. He encouraged the audience to take a stand against fracking, which he thinks is possible and important since Colorado is a decisive state, recently having made a major impact on the outcome of the presidential election.
            “The social contract has been completely fractured and mauled, shredded, by the oil and gas industry,” says Fox of the claims that fracking is safe and offers of money that is sometimes accepted out of need.
            Fox suggested the audience fight against fracking at UNC, even if it means civil disobedience. “Tell this university in no uncertain terms that what they’ve done is totally unacceptable,” he says.
            Local research biologist Shane Davis, who joined Fox on stage after the talk, agrees that fracking must be stopped in Colorado. “Someday they will put a fence around Weld County, I guarantee it, it’s a disaster site,” says Davis of the future if fracking isn’t stopped soon. Davis runs the website Fractivist.
            Junior voice major Janette Ruiz was in the audience, and said she learned a lot from the talk. “I knew that it wasn’t exactly safe, but a lot of this information still baffled me,” Ruiz says of the dangers Fox warned about. 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

UNC Election Night Party


            Election night, past gyms full of students running and playing basketball, the UNC Rec Center was holding an election results party. On one end of the gym, in front of bleachers, was a large inflatable screen showing CNN coverage of live election results.
            When the party started at 7, a few students sat on the bleachers, but more were milling around the gym. There was a table full of pizza and sodas as well as several games students could play to win tickets for prizes like sunglasses and gift cards: trivia, pin the tail on the donkey and elephant, red and blue “sumo” wrestling, flying disc toss into slots with President Obama or Governor Romney’s photos on them.
            As the night wore on, though, the crowd at the bleachers grew larger and louder. When a candidate was projected winner of a state, their supporters would cheer and wave their plastic slappers. The block of students for Obama was larger, but a vocal group supporting Romney formed as well.
            While the results came in students on both sides of the aisle were excited, but nervous too. “I am excited but I’m also fearful,” said junior art and design major Samantha Valenzuela, an Obama supporter. “I feel nauseous, I really do,” said junior accounting and elementary education major Africa Kosky, a Romney supporter.
            The energy was certainly high, and students in attendance expressed belief that the election matters and the outcome had the potential to change their lives. Both Valenzuela and Kosky were active during the campaign, even seeing the candidates speak in person.
            “I voted for President Obama because he stands up for students, he stands up for women, he stands up for all the things that will build a better economy,” said Valenzuela, adding that she found Obama very relatable when he spoke in Fort Collins because he said he had only paid off his student loans a few years ago.
            Kosky was equally enthusiastic for Romney, having met him as well as Paul Ryan and both of the candidate’s wives. “Where do you even get started?” she enthused about her belief in Romney,  “he doesn’t want to take away Obamacare completely, just alter it so our taxes can be more beneficial.” In addition to healthcare reform, Kosky finds Romney relatable because of his faith and family values.
            For much of the evening the results were trickling in, leaving the electoral count for each candidate fairly stagnant. Then the numbers started pouring in, and President Obama was projected to have won his bid for re-election. The gym erupted in cheers and moans. Party attendees hurried out through the rest of the rec center, where students not attending the party were frantically checking their phones and telling friends the results of the election. Outside people yelled “Whoo!” and “Obama won!”

Monday, October 22, 2012

No on Amendment 64?


     Greeley City Council added to their October 16 meeting a resolution encouraging Greeley voters to say ‘no’ to Amendment 64. The proposed amendment, which Colorado voters will decide on when they cast their presidential votes, would allow people over the age of 21 to buy marijuana legally. The amount legal to possess would be limited to one ounce or less. It would also place a tax on the substance.
            Police Chief Jerry Garner stood up to give reasons for the suggestion. Some of the main reasons were that a vote yes would create a rift between federal and local law enforcement, developing brains could be harmed by use of the drug and drugged driving claims lives. After Garner spoke Mayor Tom Norton read the resolution, noting that City Council is legally allowed to give its opinion on statewide issues.
            So how do students feel about the issue? “I will be voting yes on it,” says UNC senior photography major Spencer Duncan. He says that regulating the sale of marijuana seems like a good idea to him. As for the conflict between this amendment and federal law, Duncan says “I think that’s something they will figure out if it happens.”
            Senior music major A.J. Wulf says he’ll vote no, but not for the reasons the police and City Council gave. “The Libertarian in me says that pot should be legal, but I don’t like potheads,” he said. On the conflict between local and federal government, “It would be nice to see the federal government enforcing its own laws.”