Grace Hood

A Year Later, Few Residents Have Rebuilt After Colorado Fire

Grace Hood — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 09:05:00 +0000

Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the High Park fire northwest of Fort Collins, Colo. The blaze consumed 259 homes in the rural area, but so far only 10 households have finished rebuilding a year later.

As Gary and Martha Lemert sort through photographs from the High Park fire, it takes just one before and after shot to convey the complete devastation of their 10-acre property.

All they had left after the fire was a green roof that looked like it had been melted on top of gray rubble.

Gunmaker Says Colorado's New Laws Will Send It Packing

Grace Hood — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:23:00 +0000

Colorado responded to the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., by passing new gun control measures last month. That's not sitting well with several gun-related businesses in the Centennial State, where four companies have announced plans to relocate all or some of their operations.

Erie-based Magpul Industries is the largest company packing its bags. The 200-employee business makes high-capacity magazines, which the Colorado Legislature voted to ban.

For Legal Pot Sellers, A Big Tax Problem

Grace Hood — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

An obscure tax code provision crafted for drug dealers is giving state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries a headache.

In Colorado, federal income tax rates for dispensaries can soar as high as 70 percent because of a tax code section that does not allow businesses to claim certain deductions.

The section is known as 280E, and it was originally written for illegal drug traffickers. But today it's a thorn in the side of licensed dispensary owners like Erica Freeman.

Freeman is co-owner of Choice Organics in Fort Collins, Colo.

Forget Horse Thieves, Now They're Stealing Hay

Grace Hood — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Hay is one of the basic materials on a farm. It's important. But dried grass is not the kind of thing most farmers or ranchers would keep under lock and key until recently. The ongoing drought has meant less hay to go around. Production of alfalfa, for instance, is down 15 percent this year. So hay prices are soaring and so is the number of hay thefts.

More Teachers 'Flipping' The School Day Upside Down

Grace Hood — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:49:00 +0000

Welcome to the 21st century classroom: a world where students watch lectures at home — and do homework at school. It's called classroom flipping, and it's slowly catching on in schools around the country.

When Jessica Miller, a high school sophomore in rural Bennett, Colo., sits down to do her chemistry homework, she pulls out her notebook. Then she turns on an iPad to watch a video podcast.