Briefs CU WILL DROP ALL COURSE AND PROGRAM FEES

The University of Colorado is eliminating all course and program fees for students starting next fall.

Chancellor Phil DiStefano announced the commitment to a lower cost of college attendance at CU’s annual State of the Campus address Tuesday morning on the Boulder campus.

“We want our students to get a degree in a timely manner at the lowest cost possible for themselves and their families. Our collective purpose is to take this burden off our students,” DiStefano said.

Students will still be expected to pay mandatory fees such as the university’s bus and bike plan, recreation center, student health services and construction fees.

There are more than 60 course and program fees at CU, ranging from $1 per credit hour taken for German and Slavic languages to a $1,255 fee per semester for the graduate clinical speech, language and hearing sciences program.

Llama spooking horses in open space.

A light brown llama with black spots is running wild — and occasionally scaring horses — near Mahoney Park in Bobcat Ridge Natural Area northwest of Loveland.

Hikers saw the llama Tuesday and took to social media in hopes of alerting its owner.

Dave Irwin, a ranger with the Fort Collins Natural Areas Department, said the llama has been inhabiting Bobcat Ridge for several months. Attempts to lure the animal, Irwin said, have been unsuccessful. The llama has approached people several times and behaved aggressively, too, Irwin said.

The llama is probably the third to go missing over the past few months in the Loveland area.

In June, rescuers helped Speckles, a white llama, get returned to its owner, Gary Bien. A second llama belonging to Bien was never found.

Berthoud crews headed to California fires.

A fourman crew of Berthoud Fire Protection District firefighters was deployed to California on Monday to assist in the response to the massive wildland fires.

The crew is currently en route to the Prodo mobilization center in Chino, Calif., where they will join 25 other crews responding from Colorado.

A minimum of four firefighters per engine means that an estimated total of 100 firefighters from Colorado are responding to the California wildfires.

They could be deployed for as long as three weeks, according to a release from the Berthoud fire department.

RTD bus crashes into house.

A Regional Transportation District bus crashed into a house in northeast Denver on Tuesday afternoon, injuring three people who had to be transported to the hospital. None of the injuries was life threatening.

The bus crashed after a collision with a truck in the intersection of East 45th Avenue and Josephine Street, RTD spokesman Nate Currey said.

The bus then careened into the front porch of 4502 Josephine St.

There were 10 passengers on the bus at the time of the crash. No one was in the home.