 Good evening, I'm Herman Hansen and I have never pooped and I am Randa Lerar and this is puppet news this these are you this week stories a 95-year-old resident of an assisted living facility Accused of shooting and killing a maintenance worker has been charged with first-degree murder The suspect Oki Payne appeared in court in Boulder on Wednesday to be advised of the charges filed against him According to court records Payne was also charged with two counts of menacing with a weapon in addition to the murder count Police have said Payne shot Ricardo Medina Rojas in the head on February 3rd after confronting him about $200 he claimed Medina Rojas had stolen after he arrived for work at legacy assisted living in the city of Lafayette Payne then waved his handgun at two people who tried to help Medina Rojas Authorities said Payne only has partial hearing and had to read a live transcript of the court proceedings on a laptop in court He spoke loudly at times as the judge heard another case and the judge told him not to read the transcript aloud when his case was called According to the affidavit Payne told police that workers at the facility had been stealing from him since October 2019 and that he also confronted another man about $200 he said he noticed was missing from his wallet two days before the shooting During the interview in which investigators had to write down their questions Payne recounted he was sitting in the lobby thinking about ways to get attention and stop the thefts When he saw Medina Rojas arriving for work and decided to shoot him police said in the affidavit According to the affidavit Payne told investigators He also suspected that he was being drugged by staffers because of the needle marks He found on his big toe and that his ex-wife was working with someone else to steal money from him Investigators did not find any evidence of the claims of theft made by Payne the document said Payne is represented by two public defenders Catherine Harold and William Bode Who are not allowed to comment on cases under the policy of the office of the state public defender? Payne has not been asked to enter a plea yet a hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to put him on trial is scheduled for May 5th Over 60% of St. Brain Valley school district employees who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine Have been vaccinated or are scheduled to get vaccinated Superintendent Don Haddad said during Wednesday night's school board meeting out of the 3934 St. Brain Valley employees who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine during the phase 1 B point 2 of the Colorado vaccination plan 701 have received the vaccine an additional 1473 staff members have now been invited to be vaccinated by the UC health and next era systems Nearly 300 employees have indicated not needing or wanting the vaccine according to Haddad Coordinated efforts between the district and community partners have moved the vaccination process for SVV SD staff Considerably way ahead of schedule Haddad said the district expected to have only 500 employees vaccinated by the end of February Wednesday morning Jackie Capuche See on WD superintendent said as VV SD learned of the 2200 employees Who set up an account with UC health for a vaccination? 44% received a link for an appointment which was the highest out of all metro areas school districts with Which UC health is working? It's almost impossible to imagine a world without chocolate yet cacao trees, which are the source of chocolate are vulnerable Chocolate is derived from the seeds of the cacao tree theobroma cacao L which literally means food of the gods The plant originated in the Western Amazon region of South America and has been cultivated for more than 3,000 years in many parts of Central and South America Today, it's grown in equatorial regions around the world including Western Africa and several tropical regions in Asia a Mature cacao tree can produce many thousands of flowers each year. These flowers are tiny Only a half inch or so in diameter. That's one to two centimeters for you burners who use that metric thing The flowers typically grown clusters directly from the trunk of the tree or off large branches Successful cacao pollination is problematic in many regions only 10 to 20 percent of the flowers produced by a cacao tree are Successfully pollinated the rest up to 90 percent never receive pollen or do not receive enough pollen to create fruits biting midges from this Okay, I met my match Serato Puget it said a Pagan and a Serato Poget in it ponding ton Oh hell, no, that wouldn't be funny at all Sir, sir to punning Pagan a day sir to Pagan a day sir sir to Pagan a day Sir sir to Pagan a day Sir to Pagan a day keeps the midges away biting midges from the sir to Pagan a day family and gall midges Okay, take one and a half Biting midges from sir to Pagan a day family and gall midges from the cease. Oh really you Okay, that's getting cut Goal midges from the Ceasadomidae Ceasadomidae Biting midges from sir to Pagan a day family and gall midges from the Ceasadomidae family are among the most important known cacao pollinators worldwide Evidence suggests improving midge habitat can increase fruit yield So in some cacao growing regions current farming practices include developing and maintaining suitable ground habitat within and near cacao orchards in an effort to increase the number of midges capable of pollen transmission It's hard not to wonder why aren't midges doing a better job of pollinating cacao flowers as slackers Scientists think part of the answer might be that midges don't solely depend on cacao flowers for their life cycle Because they can get sugar from other plant sources. They are likely passive rather than active pollinators of cacao Scientists wonder if they are up to the task of flying the significant distances between the trees and Believe it or not. The hardest word for me in there is cacao. I feel like a stuttering bovine like the cacao says A joint effort that put school resource officers or SROs and says local schools is being put on hold after city council members raised questions about the benefits of the program Council members said Tuesday night SROs have been praised by parents and are key parts of efforts to reduce teen crime They also said they have fielded complaints that students of color are unfairly targeted by SROs I have hard firsthand accounts of children of color who feel they get different treatment from SROs council member Marsha Martin said Council member Susie Hildalgo fairing Who is a teacher in the St. Rain Valley school district said her own children have Experienced not-so-positive interactions with their SROs in high school and middle school The council agreed to table the intergovernmental agreement between the city and the st. Rain school District to get more information about the effectiveness of SROs Their findings are scheduled to be reviewed by city council later this month Other school districts including Denver public schools in Boulder Valley have dropped their SRO programs over complaints from minority student that they are singled out for harassment in school hallways by police Martyn Martin said the issues in other districts suggest one should proceed with caution. I mean they are very seeing a presentation before we vote on it Longmont police sergeant John Garcia told the city council that officers picked to be SROs are specifically Trained in child brain and behavioral development They are selected to work in schools on the recommendation of school officials and counselors When General Motors boldly announced its goal last month to make only battery-powered vehicles by 2035 it didn't just mark a break with more than a century of making internal combustion engines It also clouded the future for 50,000 GM workers whose skills and jobs could become obsolete far sooner than they knew The message was clear as a greener us economy edges closer into view GM wants a factory workforce that eventually will build only zero emissions vehicles It won't happen overnight But the likelihood is growing that legions of auto workers who trained and worked for decades to build machines that run on petroleum We'll need to do rather different work in the next decade or they might not have jobs If the history-making shift from internal combustion to electric power goes as GM Ford and others increasingly envision Jobs that now involve making pistons fuel injectors and mufflers will be supplanted by the assembly of lithium ion battery packs electric motors and heavy-duty wiring harnesses Many of those components are now built overseas But President Joe Biden has made the development of a us electric vehicle supply chain a key part of his ambitious plan to create One million more auto industry jobs with electric vehicles Yet for workers at GM and other automakers that future could be perilous The more environmentally friendly focused plants of the future will need fewer workers Mainly because electric vehicles contain 30 to 40 percent fewer moving parts than petroleum run vehicles In addition, many of the good union jobs that have brought a solid middle-class lifestyle Could shift to lower pay as automakers buy EV parts from supply companies or form separate ventures to build components Most vulnerable in the transition will be the roughly 100 000 people in the united states Who work at plants that make transmissions and engines for gas and diesel vehicles regional transportation district or RTD Officials say they will refocus on building the long-awaited northwest rail line after goading from government Polis and some members of the agency's board of directors Tuesday night RTD planners told the board during a virtual work session That any move to fully extend the 38 mile corridor Also known as the b-line will need funding from the state or perhaps the nation's national rail service Amtrak Debra Johansson jump RTD's general manager and CEO told the board she will present a plan within 60 days That will likely call for the agency to use a portion of its fast track savings account to fund new studies of the northwest rail plan cost overruns forced RTD To back off the project as well as other fast tracks projects Angering several municipalities along the planned route Longmont has sunk over 60 million dollars in taxes Into fast tracks as some officials have talked of pulling funding from RTD and threatening legal action Currently the capital cost of completing four unfinished fast track projects including the b-line Would reach over two billion dollars and the earliest the northwest route would be finished is in the 2040s set Bill van meter RTD's chief planner The olis who last month months urged RTD to finish the b-line told the board that the 2042 Is not a legitimate date for discussion He said delays in the b-line Have eroded faith in RTD although he did not blame the current RTD board for the delays He said board members must move the project forward Board member shantel lewis who represents dimver told the board she favors new environmental and ridership studies for the b-line But the corridor should not take funding precedents over existing RTD services for the poor We need to keep those marginalized communities at the center of our conversation lewis said Colorado lawmakers will introduce a bill to establish guidelines on how personal information can be shared with federal agencies The proposed legislation announced thursday at a press conference with state lawmakers and immigrants rights groups Is a response to emails obtained through open records requests by the colorado immigrant rights coalition, which revealed unsanctioned data sharing between the state's division of motor vehicles and ice agents Arash jihanyan director of policy and civil rights litigation at the mire law office in denver said there were hundreds of families Potentially affected by the data sharing Under the bill personal information cannot be used for immigration enforcement jihanyan said Personal information would only be disclosed for criminal law enforcement with a warrant subpoena or another order signed by a judge Due to the health and economic concerns of the coronavirus pandemic compounded with the trauma of immigration policy under the trump administration Senator julie gunzales a democrat from denver and one of the bill's sponsors said the fear has caused undocumented families and individuals to withdraw and lose trust in local government The fear of their undocumented status being shared has prevented many from accessing medical services daycare enrollment and food banks according to maria abaniel rangel immigrant advocacy coordinator with tri county health network The fear has also affected immigrant communities during the pandemic with hesitancy towards contact tracing and receiving a vaccine I think that it's really important for girls to be able to kind of explore their aggressive side Just as much as guys it can really surprise some people and become icons for younger children and younger girls said mead sophomore wrestler kirsten davis after her victory tuesday davis is one of the six student athletes to make up the inaugural mead girls wrestling team After three road events to start their season the first girls wrestling team in saint ring valley school district history hosted their first home duel tuesday night Only a dozen team family members were in attendance to watch the historic event yet The mavericks formidable opponent from legacy high school boasted a roster twice their size And the number six ranking in the state this week With 10 total weight classes to be filled the small mead team often hands their opponent forfeits at each match Out of the four mavericks who competed against legacy last night davis was the only winner pending her opponent in the first round Mead loss 48 12 But they were excited about the program they have begun And After two years as a pilot program girls wrestling became an official colorado high school activities association sport in the 2020-21 school year COVID-19 protocol and that's all we have time for for puppet news. I'm herman hector And I'm um Oh Good night