UC-DENVER UNVEILS PLANS TO RENOVATE HOUSES IN AURARIA

The University of Colorado Denver Thursday announced its plans to renovate six houses the school occupies in the Auraria Campus Historic District. The announcement came as the campus marked the 50th anniversary of the destruction of Denver's oldest neighborhood to build the three-institution higher education campus. The Ninth Street Historic District, a one-block set-aside on the Auraria Campus is all that is left of the working class, Latino neighborhood and those original homes are utilized by UC-Denver for offices and classes. The university plans to renovate the six homes, built between 1872 and 1906 in a historically-accurate way, using community input to assist in the restoration.

U.S. TO DRAW DOWN OIL RESERVES TO STABILIZE GAS PRICES

President Joe Biden, on Thursday, announced that the government will release 180 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help control the near-record high fuel prices. The unprecedented government action will be four times as large as any other release from the government's stockpile. The U.S., previously, made two releases in November that totaled 62 million additional barrels than previously scheduled for release. Following the release of the 180 million barrels, the U.S. government reserves would stand at less than 400 million barrels, the lowest level since 1984. As recently as 2017, the reserves stood at 700 million barrels, near the record high.

30-YEAR FIXED MORTGAGE RATE CONTINUES ITS CLIMB UP

The average rate for a 30-year fixed home loan Thursday rose .25 percent to 4.67 percent, according to mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac. That is the weekly figure's highest rate since December 2018. The rise in the 30-year rate was expected, but the rate of increase has been much higher than expected. The 30-year rate stood at 3.22 percent at the beginning of the year. The increasing rates have not reduced consumer interest as the number of applications submitted by prospective home buyers has risen three of the past four years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association trade group.

STOCKS TUMBLE AGAIN THURSDAY, CLOSING WORST QUARTER IN TWO YEARS

All three major stock indexes fell more than 1.5 percent Thursday, with investors increasing their sell-off in the last hour of trading as traders dumped stocks to end the quarter. The S&P 500 ended the quarter down 4.9 percent, ending seven quarters of positive numbers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 4.6 percent for the year and the Nasdaq Composite was down 9.1 percent. There were few assets that did not suffer downturns, with dumping bonds as well, sending yields on corporate and municipal bonds as well as Treasurys sharply higher.

GUIDELINES RELEASED ON USE OF E-BIKES IN NATIONAL FOREST

The U.S. Forest Service released its final policy clarification and guidelines on expanding e-bike access at site-specific locations. The Forest Service currently allows e-bikes on all Forest Service roads that are already open to motorized vehicles, as well on 60,000 miles of motorized trails, which represent 38 percent of all trails the agency manages. In the statement released Thursday, the Forest Service allows e-bikes to continue to operate on currently-authorized roads and trails, and also sets forth a process to evaluate future requests for expanded access, which includes the required environmental analysis and public input required before making future decisions to expand local e-bike access. In the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District, the guidelines mean that Forest Service roads such as Basalt Mountain Road and Upper Lincoln Creek Road remain open to e-bikes, but trails including the Hunter Creek Valley network and Hay Park remain off-limits.

SUSTAINABLE SETTINGS RANCH ON THE MARKET FOR $24 MILLION

In 2003, Sustainable Settings, a nonprofit formed by Rose and Brook LeVan, purchased the 244-acre Thompson Creek Ranch for $2 million. Sustainable Settings was organized around the concept that experimental agricultural techniques could repair and restore land exhausted from conventional farming. The property has a conservation easement that restricts development to "agricultural and educational purposes." The property includes a two-bedroom ranch house built in 1893, a bath house built in 2017, an outdoor kitchen, barns, a guest house, a dairy, a ranch store and office, ranch shop, root cellar, three greenhouses, an electrical corridor and a solar electric system tied to the grid. The ranch has water rights that date back to the 1800s. LeVan said he would like to set “roughly half” of the sales price aside as an endowment that would support ongoing work from Sustainable Settings “for the perpetuity of our research.”

GRAND JUNCTION FIRE DEPT. GROUNDBREAKING FOR FIRE STATION 8

Grand Junction Fire Chief Ken Watkins Thursday led the formal groundbreaking ceremonies for the city of Grand Junction's $6 million Station 8 at 31 Road and D ½ Road. The new station is the second of three fire stations to be built, funded from the city's public safety tax. The first, Station 6, opened in 2020 and construction of the third, Station 7, will follow Station 8. Also, the rebuilt Fire Station 3 is scheduled to reopen in about six weeks. When it opens, the service area of Station 8 will cover six square miles with about 5,100 homes and 181 businesses. The population of the service area is about 13,000.

LAST WEEKEND OF SKIING AT TELLURIDE FULL OF FUN

The last weekend of the ski season is packed full of events in Telluride and Mountain Village. They kick off with the KOTO Street Dance from 4 to 8 p.m. tonight on West Colorado Avenue. It is believed the street dance has been a Telluride tradition for over a century and it is tradition to dress in flamingo costumes. Those with the two top pink, creative flamingo costumes will each take home a $100 gift card from Brown Dog or Siam. At 8 p.m., following the street dance, Joint Point, will be playing at the Sheridan Opera House for the $1 Community Night. On Saturday morning it is the Wild Goose Chase Scavenger Hunt in Mountain Village, with registration at 10 a.m. On Sunday, the legendary Telski Pond Skim at Gorrono is back, from noon to 2 p.m.

WESTSIDE MOBILE HOME RESIDENTS FINALLY ABLE TO BUY THE MOBILE HOME PARK

The residents of Durango’s Westside Mobile Home Park have been working for more than a year organizing and assembling a bid to purchase their mobile home park. Their first offer of $5.46 million was rejected in March. However, on Thursday, the owner of the mobile home park, IQ Mobile Home Park, notified the Elevation Community Land Trust, the partner of Westside residents, that their second offer was accepted. There were no financial details released. Elevation plans to make some improvements in the park, but rents will not increase.

GOV. POLIS IN EAGLE COUNTY, SIGNS BILL CHANGING USE OF LODGING TAX FUNDS

Gov. Jared Polis Thursday, at a ceremony at Miller Ranch in Edwards, signed HB22-1117. The bill provides for uses of revenue from lodging taxes other than tourism marketing. HB22-1117 allows 90 percent of lodging tax funds to be used for needs other than tourism marketing, such as housing, child care, or "for facilitating and enhancing visitor experiences." The bill was sponsored in the Colorado House by Rep. Dylan Roberts, who was on hand for the signing. Roberts said the state's tourism industry supported the bill and the bill had bipartisan support in the legislature.

YVRA GETS MORE FULL-TIME STAFF

The offseason for the Yampa Valley Regional Airport begins April 11, the Monday following the closing of the Steamboat Ski Resort, when the airport will only have flights to-and-from Denver. However, YVRA has experienced such growth in both summer and winter, the Routt County commissioners this week made some staffing adjustments, adding some full-time positions and moving some seasonal positions to year-round status. The airport has approval to hire another full-time firefighter. An assistant security coordinator will also be added, and four seasonal passenger services positions will move to part-time positions all year long. In 2021, YVRA served 153,000 passengers and 191,000 are projected this year.

HOW DID YOUR BRACKETS WORK OUT THIS YEAR?

There were more than 20 million brackets filled out this year for the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament, across ESPN, CBS and Yahoo:

• The odds of a perfect bracket: one-in-9 quintillion
• The odds of picking just a perfect first round: 1-in-4 billion
• In the Men's tournament there were no perfect brackets after Game 28
• In the Women's tournament there were no perfect brackets after Game 35
• 2022 was the second year in a row that perfection ended on the second day of the first round
• In 2019, Gregg Nigl correctly picked the first 49 games