In Defense Of Thoreau

The Lafayette Chamber of Commerce has put on its last Oatmeal Festival after 27 years, according to a news release. A representative at Quaker Oats, the longtime sponsor, said the company is moving in a different direction, and the festival will be retired, according to the release. The festival usually happens in January and includes an oatmeal breakfast with more than 100 oatmeal toppings, a 5K race and other wellness activities. Quaker Oats representatives previously said they would pull out of the festival in 2018, but reconsidered and continued sponsoring it, after hearing from residents how much the festival meant to them. Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

The court-appointed caretaker for an Aurora apartment complex that was made infamous by allegations of a Venezuelan gang takeover said “the property was in better condition than anticipated” when he was handed the keys this fall, and it has improved significantly since. “The property’s tenants were generally cooperative,” Kevin Singer wrote of Whispering Pines Apartments, at 1357 Helena St.

A hit-and-miss snowstorm dropped a few inches of snow on parts of the Front Range Wednesday, but Denver’s skies are expected to clear for a sunny Thanksgiving Day. The storm unleashed on the mountains — with the high country receiving between 15 and 30 inches by Wednesday afternoon — but the Denver metro saw much less snowfall overall, though bands of heavier snow did drop up to six inches in some spots. “That’s exactly what we had anticipated and what we forecasted,” said Boulder National Weather Service meteorologist Kenley Bonner.

This week’s perfectly timed impulse of snow, driven by an atmospheric river of moisture from the Pacific Ocean, has been cause for true thanksgiving among skiers, riders and resort operators. Since the storm arrived early this week, Crested Butte led the way in the central mountains with 31 inches as of Wednesday morning, according to the OpenSnow reporting and forecasting service.

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Defeating second-ranked UConn showed the new-look Colorado men’s basketball team is quite capable of competing with the top programs in the nation. Iowa State showed the Buffaloes they still have plenty of work to do before Big 12 Conference play begins in a month. Against, as fate would have it, Iowa State. The Buffs took aim at a second top-five victory in as many days in their final contest at the Maui Invitational but instead were humbled by the fifth-ranked Cyclones, who routed CU 99-71 on Wednesday at the Lahaina Civic Center. A combination of too many reckless turnovers by CU, particularly in the first half, and torrid shooting from the Cyclones made it a long morning in Hawaii for the Buffs, who return home with a 1-2 mark against a loaded field at the most prestigious nonconference tournament in college basketball. “Today, it was all a matter of taking care of the ball and not boxing out,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said.

A man was killed Wednesday when he was run over by multiple vehicles on Interstate 25 after a crash, according to Colorado State Patrol. The incident happened around 10:35 a.m. on the northbound lanes of the interstate between Monument and W. Baptist Road, north of Colorado Springs, according to Colorado State Patrol. The man who was killed was involved in a two-vehicle crash between a Jeep and a Subaru at that location.