SPACE DEFENSE CENTER BEGINS 24-HOUR OPERATIONS

SPRINGS» The COLORADO

National Space Defense Center at Schriever Air Force Base is now in full operation.

The center, which last year was operating with borrowed troops, has begun operating 24 hours a day with a staff of 230.

The Gazette reports that its mission is to ferret out threats to military and spy satellites and take actions to keep American interests safe in orbit.

While specifics of the unit haven’t been released, center director Col. Todd Brost says it includes contractors, representatives of American spy agencies and troops from Air Force Space Command.

Firefighters extinguish grass fire.

BOULDER COUNTY»

Firefighters knocked down an approximately 10-acre grass fire Sunday near 63rd Street and Monarch Road.

Witnesses reported seeing smoke and flames as high as 6 to 8 feet, according to the sheriff’s office. Because of high winds and warm temperatures, firefighters expected to monitor the area into the night.

Investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire. But witnesses reported seeing a white, 1990s model convertible with three teenagers in it leaving the field at a high rate of speed.

Lafayette unveils proposed oil-gas regulation overhaul.

Lafayette’s proposal for its new oil and gas regulations likely will look similar to those in place at the county level, city records detailing the city’s first update to its drilling rules in nearly two decades suggest.

The potential overhaul — specific language was unveiled Friday — comes amid a City Council sanctioned moratorium on all new oil and gas development approved last fall to sort out its drilling rules.

Some of the proposal’s requirements range from the routine to the foreign: a mapping of flow lines throughout the city, setback requirements, community engagement and ground and air mitigation, among a litany of others, according to the draft language.

Some of the stipulations appears to be less radical than earlier discussions had indicated: The City Council in recent months has looked at regulations that require pipelines to be set back from development by as much as 750 feet. Friday’s proposal bars a pipeline from being closer than “150 feet from a residential, commercial or industrial building, a place of public assembly.”

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the new regulations Tuesday.