The county commissioners are expected to decide whether genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will continue to be grown on county open space as early as the week of Dec. 12.

It’s official. Boulder Creek Events (BCE) will be running the Boulder Creek Festival again next spring. City and BCE officials issued a joint press release on Friday announcing that the organization had won the bid to operate the festival through 2014.

Boulder County’s northeast shoulder is about to get fracked. Again. Hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking,” has become nationally known due to environmental concerns about the chemicals that mining companies use when shooting their high-powered liquids deep into the earth to extract oil and gas. The practice has attracted scrutiny because of the possible effects those chemicals can have on groundwater.

Xcel officials are challenging the authenticity of a document reportedly sent to a Boulder City Council member outlining the company’s anti-municipalization campaign strategy, dating back to last spring.

Despite the ongoing budget crisis throttling public higher education in the state, neither the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents nor its president is endorsing Proposition 103, which would raise about $3 billion for education, including higher education.

Joe Pelle’s “Character First” initiative may be one of the reasons why a group of his employees, led by Undersheriff Tom Shomaker, wrote a letter to the county commissioners requesting a ballot question to give the sheriff four terms instead of three. Other groups wrote similar letters to the commissioners, including the Democratic Women of Boulder County.

A Boulder man’s claim that Boulder Community Hospital reversed its position on allowing him to use his medical marijuana on the premises has raised questions about how closely medical staff follow hospital policies prohibiting cannabis use on site.

A county cropland advisory group is poised to make its final decision on the use of genetically engineered crops on open space this week.

The attire is mountain casual. Participating chefs include Dave Query of the Big Red F Restaurants, Eric Skokan of the Black Cat, Hugo Matheson of The Kitchen, Bradford Heap of Salt and Colterra, Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson of Frasca, and Janos Wilder of Janos Restaurant in Tucson, Ariz.

A Boulder County couple who lost their home in the Fourmile Fire a year ago is now building a new house on a local farm — using materials salvaged from their burned house and logs charred by the fire.