Top 5 most-read stories: Not ‘selling’ suspect says, only ‘donating magic mushrooms’
Pitkin County/Courtesy image
We’ve rounded up the top five most-read stories on Aspentimes.com from last week.
1.) Not ‘selling,’ suspect says, only ‘donating’ magic mushrooms
A Dillon man is facing a felony drug distribution charge as prosecutors allege he sold psilocybin mushrooms, also known as “magic” mushrooms, in violation of state law.
But the 32-year-old man — accused of unlawful distribution, dispensing, or sale of a controlled substance, a Class 3 drug felony — claims he was “donating,” not selling, the mushrooms, according to a warrantless arrest probable cause statement. Class 3 drug felonies are punishable by two to four years in prison.
In November, Colorado voters passed Proposition 122, which decriminalized the personal possession, use, and sharing of psilocybin mushrooms. Under the proposition, it is not illegal for people 21 or older to give away mushrooms to those who are 21 or older — but it remains illegal to sell mushrooms.
2.) ‘I ask you to reconsider’: High schooler’s effort to permit national graduation regalia goes before school board
Support from classmates, friends, and family members of a Grand Valley High school senior trying to wear a graduation sash depicting the Mexican and United States flags was voiced to the Garfield District 16 Board of Education on Tuesday evening.
Last month, Latina student Naomi Peña Villasano, 18, was denied permission by Superintendent Jennifer Baugh and the district to wear her national regalia during Grand Valley’s graduation ceremony.
Baugh in follow-up email to Villasano said allowing her to wear the proposed stole could open up the door to students wearing Confederate sashes. Baugh later told the Post Independent that only students belonging to nationally-recognized organizations are traditionally allowed to wear stoles during graduation.
—Ray K. Erku, Glenwood Springs Post Independent
3.) Red Mountain homeowner finishes off most remaining trees that interrupted his view
Apparently in one Red Mountain neighborhood, the way you work things out with neighbors who don’t want the trees in front of their homes cut down is, well, you do it anyway.
Four months ago, the downhill side along a 100-yard or so stretch of Ridge Road on Red Mountain had tall evergreen trees marked in orange, others in blue, and some that by then were fresh, up to 20-inch diameter stumps. Now the orange and blue marked trees are stumps, too, improving the view of Aspen Mountain from the home on the uphill side of the street.
“All of our trees were cut down (a few days ago). It’s a very sad sight,” said Lise Evans, a homeowner who had trees in front of her property cut down. “It’s a violation of nature.”
—Audrey Ryan
4.) Aspen council isn’t biting on further study largely of the Preferred Alternative of Entrance to Aspen
The so-called Preferred Alternative, established back in the 1990s, still might as well be called the Entrance to Nowhere as the Aspen City Council on Monday signaled little interest in staff recommendations to spend nearly $3 million in further study largely focused on it.
Besides, they had more basic questions to investigate. Such as could the Colorado Department of Transportation be right in asserting that no vote of Aspen’s voters is necessary in this decision?
How about the implicit threat in the same CDOT missive that the city continuing on a decades’ long path of doing next to nothing about the aging Castle Creek Bridge eventually would wind up with the state taking over should the bridge now on just this side of OK degrade further? CDOT made clear they would carry out the Preferred Alternative. That is, move the next bridge to a straight shot through the Marolt open space to Main Street.
—Julie Bielenberg
5.) Pitkin County lines up ban on short-term rentals in rural, remote zones
“Mini-hotels” in rural Pitkin County might get a pre-emptive kibosh, as the Pitkin County commissioners have indicated interest in prohibiting short-term rentals in the county’s rural, remote district.
Commissioners last week passed on first reading an ordinance that would result in a blanket exclusion of properties that lie within the county’s rural remote zone from the licensing and application processes of the STR code. Meaning, no STRs in the farthest reaches of Pitkin County.
County staff said they are only aware of three properties that have either applied for an STR permit or publicly listed their property within the district in question. And the county has not granted any STR permits or licenses to any property in the rural remote zone.
—Josie Taris
Wet spring means more bugs, like ticks
Between rainstorms, people and their dogs will venture outside. There they will find more insects such as ticks and mosquitoes, thanks to a big winter and wet spring.
