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Avon Opens Public Debate After Vandals Target Police Camera Network
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CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Avon Opens Public Debate After Vandals Target Police Camera Network

By Spencer Wilson | CBS Colorado A discussion over privacy, policing and public safety technology is taking center stage in Avon after three police cameras were vandalized earlier this month. That includes two speed enforcement cameras and one Flock license plate reader. The acts of vandalism happened during the early morning hours of July 18, when someone cut down or damaged camera poles and stole two of the devices. It resulted in more than $76,000 in damage and replacement costs, according to documents prepared for Tuesday night's Avon Town Council meeting. Police said they are actively investigating the felony vandalism and theft. The vandalism also ignited a much larger conversation online after the Avon Police Department's Facebook post about the damage...
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Former Jeffco Schools Security Guard Faces Dozens of Child Sex Crime Charges
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DENVER7, Approved, Local

Former Jeffco Schools Security Guard Faces Dozens of Child Sex Crime Charges

By Óscar Contreras | Denver7 JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — A former Jeffco Public Schools security guard arrested for child sex assault charges last month kept evidence of child sex abuse material for nearly 10 years before he was caught, according to an arrest affidavit in the case obtained by Denver7 over the weekend. Brian C. Richie, 67, was arrested June 22, 2026, by Longmont police on more than 30 charges, including felony sexual assault on a child from a position of trust, production and possession of child sexual abuse material, and invasion of privacy for sexual gratification. The investigation into Richie began in January of this year after a child disclosed “unsafe touching" by Richie to staff at Blue Sky Bridge child advocacy center following a school safety pre...
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Denver Ballot Measure Will Determine Xcel Partnership As Millions In Revenue Are At Stake
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Ballot Measure Will Determine Xcel Partnership As Millions In Revenue Are At Stake

By: Deborah Grigsby | The Denver Gazette This November, Denver voters will decide whether to renew the city’s longstanding franchise agreement with Xcel Energy. Members of the Denver City Council approved on Monday sending a proposed 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel that would deliver more than $180 million a year in franchise fees, infrastructure relocation savings and other undergrounding funds to the ballot. The vote was 10-2 with Councilmembers Shontel Lewis and Sarah Parady holding the two dissenting votes. “Denver has negotiated the strongest energy partnership agreement in the history of Colorado, and importantly, the benefits of this agreement and of being a franchisee extend far beyond any of the individual listed improvements and accomplishments,”...
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Tragedy Strikes Eaton as Three Young Men Lose Their Lives in Rollover Crash
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DENVER7, Approved, Local

Tragedy Strikes Eaton as Three Young Men Lose Their Lives in Rollover Crash

By: Stephanie Southey | Denver7 Eaton community mourns after crash kills 3 recent high school graduates. WELD COUNTY, Colo. — Three recent Eaton High School graduates were killed, and two others were injured in a single-vehicle rollover crash east of Ault in Weld County Saturday evening, according to the Colorado State Patrol. Investigators said a Chevrolet Tahoe was traveling at a high rate of speed west on Weld County Road 80 around 5:18 p.m. when it went off the road, lost control and rolled several times, ejecting all five occupants. Three men — a 19-year-old and 20-year-old from Eaton and a 19-year-old from Greeley — were pronounced dead at the scene, CSP said. The 20-year-old male driver from Wyoming was transported by air to a local hospital with...
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Does Aurora police provide equal protection to protesters and workers alike?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Does Aurora police provide equal protection to protesters and workers alike?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Does Aurora PD offer equal protection to all? Let me start with the top-line story before I get to an easily-missed detail. The first link below is to a CPR article which details how an employee of the ICE detention facility in Aurora allegedly shot a protestor.** A quote gives some detail: “Police reported that Booth [the alleged shooter and employee of the facility] and his colleagues had been unable to get into the facility for their work shifts due to the protest. The two women reportedly took pictures of the employees’ cars and got into a verbal altercation with the employees before walking away. Booth then took out his personal firearm and fired one shot in the direction of the women, hitting ...
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Colorado Springs Planning Commission Keeps Data Center Project Moving Forward With Four New Conditions
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Colorado Springs Planning Commission Keeps Data Center Project Moving Forward With Four New Conditions

By Alex Edwards | Colorado Politics The Colorado Springs Planning Commission rejected appeals Thursday night against a proposed artificial-intelligence data center off Garden of the Gods Road. The vote of the commission was 6-2, but residents who filed the appeals will have 10 days to challenge that decision. While allowing Project Taurus to proceed, the commissioners set four conditions on the company, Raeden. These include: Requiring Raeden to report utility use data for the first 10 years of operation. Limiting utility use to a specified level of 50 megawatts, with the condition that if Raeden wants to exceed that, it must return to the commission for further approval. Raeden must furnish a corrected “single sheet” to the existing building plan. The...
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Aurora’s debt proposal is why taxpayers need to speak up
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Aurora’s debt proposal is why taxpayers need to speak up

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Speak up for fiscal responsibility and join likeminded people The image heading this post is a flyer about a particular ballot issue put on the November ballot by city council. If you live in Aurora or know someone who does, give that image a share. The idea of, and push for, fiscal responsibility is not limited to Aurora, however. Spending someone else’s money is seemingly tempting for politicians of all parties. That’s why you need to engage and be active in forcing fiscal responsibility and restraint no matter where you live in Colorado. If you’ve been wanting to but find it easier to be a part of something instead of striking out on your own, I’ve got a group for you. The flyer comes from a group...
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Ex Police and Fire Chiefs Accuse Federal Heights Leadership of Retaliation Following Firings
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CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Ex Police and Fire Chiefs Accuse Federal Heights Leadership of Retaliation Following Firings

By Gabriela Vidal | CBS Colorado It's been four months since first responders and Federal Heights residents crowded council chambers, angered after now former police chief Robert Grado and fire chief Marc Mahoney were fired abruptly. "It's been very emotionally draining, and there's not a minute of the day that this isn't on my mind," Grado told CBS Colorado. "We were great employees … I personally had gone a year without one resignation in my department." The termination came after years of what they say was a breakdown in communication between their departments and the city, as well as city manager Jacqueline Halburnt's leadership. "We were doing the best things for (our officers), and to try to get good change, to get progressive change (and) we were fir...
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New Wolf Pack Confirmed in Eagle County as Colorado Monitors Population Growth
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

New Wolf Pack Confirmed in Eagle County as Colorado Monitors Population Growth

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A new gray wolf pack has formed in Eagle County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced on Wednesday. Known as the Piney Ridge Pack, it is the fourth pack of gray wolves in the state to have produced pups this year. According to CPW, the average litter size for wolves is four to six pups. More information about the packs will be included in the agency’s annual report next spring. “Detection of pups in late spring or early summer is inherently challenging, because of their use of remote habitats in dense cover, secretive nature of very young animals and time potentially underground,” said CPW’s Wolf Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell. “We are continuing to monitor the four reproducing packs in Colorado and will include...
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Town of Hudson Sued Over Approval Process for Planned ICE Detention Center
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Town of Hudson Sued Over Approval Process for Planned ICE Detention Center

By: Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette A nonprofit organization filed a lawsuit against the Town of Hudson Wednesday, challenging plans to reopen a former federal prison in the town as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. Together Colorado, along with Janet E. Carlson, filed the case in Colorado District Court in Weld County, alleging the town is not “powerless to act” and that the proposed detention facility violates the town’s zoning laws. “Under Colorado law, Hudson has not only the authority but the obligation and the duty to treat the proposed facility the way it would treat any other new facility proposed within the Town: by applying and enforcing its own Land Development Code,” the lawsuit says. In addition to the ...
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