TIME magazine’s person of the year for 2011 was not a person at all but rather an entire grouping of people the magazine referred to collectively as “the protester.” The idea is that from Egypt to Libya to Wall Street to Boulder, protesters have had and are having a significant impact on the world.

The Boulder Homeless Shelter’s Housing First program taps into federal dollars to provide housing to the chronically homeless. The idea is that by getting transients off the street, you give them the stability they need to drag themselves out of their ruts and better their lives. In theory, it’s an easy idea to support, but one of the problems officials run into is finding landlords who are willing to take tenants with such checkered pasts and unstable futures.

We were just tickled pink to see that the Daily Beast and Newsweek recently named CU-Boulder the druggiest school in America. Hey, it’s better than number one party school, right?

For those of you who have recently been exposed to Santa and/or his reindeer delivering a not-so-catchy anti-drunk-driving slogan from a poster plastered above the pisser in your favorite watering hole, there is an explanation for the odd nature of the ramblings.

There’s a political war raging over Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. What makes this battle interesting isn’t the warring factions of Democrats and Republicans (snooze), but rather their weapon of choice, Hispanic people. No kidding.

Two weeks ago, Michigan’s Republican-dominated Senate inserted language at the last minute into an anti-bullying bill that exempted bullies motivated by “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”

Obviously, the issue is highly charged, and highly charged issues make politicians nervous. A vote of the people is one way to be certain exactly how Boulder County feels about GMOs — and might be the only way to see the majority’s will enacted on county land.

Some of the election outcomes this week were decided by very small margins. For instance, we went to bed thinking that one of Boulder’s municipalization measures, 2B, was going to be narrowly defeated. When we woke up, it had passed by a margin of only 141 votes. And up in Longmont, Dennis Coombs unseated incumbent Bryan Baum to become mayor by only 164 votes.

Wow, Xcel is really pulling out all the stops on this municipalization thing. They’ve even filmed some really compelling TV commercials with amazingly talented actors. Not. Check them out and see for yourself.

Is GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain cracking jokes — or is he himself the joke? In an effort to win points with tea partiers who believe undocumented immigrants are one of the roots of U.S. budget woes, Cain described his idea of a border fence to an audience in Tennessee.