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New council, new direction: Grand Junction voters back reform candidates
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New council, new direction: Grand Junction voters back reform candidates

By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Transparency, safety and responsiveness emerge as top issues in grassroots-driven victories All four City Council seats up for election in Grand Junction this April have been claimed by candidates promising a new direction for the city. While official results won’t be certified until later this month, the margins are clear—and the message from voters, even clearer. Cody Kennedy, Robert Ballard and Ben Van Dyke each secured a win in their contested council races. Laurel Cole, who ran unopposed in District A, rounds out the incoming group. The results point to strong voter support for candidates focused on transparency, public safety and responsiveness to residents. “Let’s take Grand Junction back,” Van Dyke told support...
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Illegal immigrants in Aurora arrested for targeting homeowners in ‘sophisticated’ burglaries: police
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Illegal immigrants in Aurora arrested for targeting homeowners in ‘sophisticated’ burglaries: police

By Sarah Rumpf-Whitten | Fox News A crew of "highly sophisticated" Colombian nationals has been arrested in Aurora, Colorado, after allegedly targeting and burglarizing nearly two dozen homes, authorities revealed. The Auroroa Police Department announced in a release that authorities arrested five suspects Thursday, March 27, during searches of two homes. Police said multiple agencies recovered hundreds of pieces of stolen property, including cash, jewelry, and high-priced clothing and accessories. Police said the suspects operated a "sophisticated" burglary ring and used counter-surveillance measures to target their victims, using signal jamming technology to bypass residential alarm systems. READ THE FULL STORY AT FOX NEWS
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$3.2M Denver 17th Street tower deal aims to create 750 downtown apartments
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$3.2M Denver 17th Street tower deal aims to create 750 downtown apartments

By Maddie Rhodes | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — A block in downtown Denver is converting from offices into apartment spaces after a real estate company bought two towers on 17th Street. The Luzzatto Company, a national real estate firm, purchased 621 and 633 17th St. at the start of April for $3.2 million, hoping to revitalize downtown with the over 973,000 square feet of space in the heart of Denver. Right now, it’s a handful of offices and a grassy area just outside the 16th Street Mall, but company owner Asher Luzzatto said it’s going through a complete renovation that will cost between $150 and $200 million. Within three years, Luzzatto said the company is planning 700 to 750 multi-family affordable apartment units. The company plans to include public and private spaces with a day...
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Judge halts Gross Reservoir project—despite 60% completion and looming water risks
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Judge halts Gross Reservoir project—despite 60% completion and looming water risks

By Heather Willard | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Denver Water is permanently barred from expanding the reservoir if an emergency stay is not obtained from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals within 14 days. The utility provider has been working to increase the height of the Gross Reservoir dam by 131 feet for over a decade. The project broke ground in 2022 and Denver Water says the project is already 60% complete. On Friday, the department said that it plans to appeal the order and seek an immediate stay, saying the order “puts at risk our ability to efficiently provide a safe, secure and reliable water supply to 1.5 million people.” “It’s impossible to reconcile the judge’s order with what is clearly in the broader public interest,” Denver ...
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‘A revolving door’: Does cite-and-release system in Colorado Springs trap homeless in an endless court cycle?
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‘A revolving door’: Does cite-and-release system in Colorado Springs trap homeless in an endless court cycle?

By DEBBIE KELLEY | The Gazette The defendant who tops the “failure to appear” list for mandatory Colorado Springs Municipal Court hearings has 25 open cases and 300 instances of not showing up, a situation that makes the presiding administrator, Judge HayDen W. Kane II, shake his head and heave a deep sigh. Another 20 defendants each have racked up more than 100 failures to appear in court, he said. And the blatantly delinquent behavior is increasing. “It’s a revolving door that is nothing but work for anybody, including the defendant,” Kane said. “We don’t get anything accomplished.” Many offenders are ticketed for activities related to living in a state of ongoing homelessness. READ FULL ARTICLE ON THE GAZETTE
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Elizabeth schools win court stay—banned books won’t return yet
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Elizabeth schools win court stay—banned books won’t return yet

By Scott Gilbert | Elbert County News On Thursday, April 3, a Denver-based federal judge ordered the Elizabeth School District to place 19 removed books on library shelves by the weekend, but on the morning of Friday, April 4, a judge with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay, meaning the books will remain off the shelves pending further legal proceedings. The back-and-forth is the latest in a legal battle between Elizabeth Schools and the ACLU of Colorado, which sued the district in December seeking the return of 19 library books that the school board voted to remove on Sept. 9 of last year and then discarded. The ACLU alleges that the school board improperly removed the books because it disagreed with ideas expressed in them and claims that the book removal was a viol...
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‘I can’t do business in Denver now’: Developers flee as climate mandates bite
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‘I can’t do business in Denver now’: Developers flee as climate mandates bite

By Mark Samuelson | Denver Gazette While Colorado is earning praise from climate advocates for its new mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, developers and their economists are giving D and F grades to the state and its capital city, blaming the regulations for a noticeable decline in some projects. Representatives for developers and property owners are flagging new data showing a marked drop-off in investments and revenues from commercial projects in Colorado. That decline, they said, follows directly on the heels of Colorado's adoption of some of the nation’s boldest carbon-reducing strategies. The regulations include the Energize Denver ordinance, adopted unanimously by the Denver City Council in 2021. The ordinance seeks to reduce carbon emissions from larger commercial...
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Gazette editorial board: Palmer Lake recall effort shortsighted, could derail opportunity
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Gazette editorial board: Palmer Lake recall effort shortsighted, could derail opportunity

The Gazette editorial board | Denver Gazette The quaint Tri-Lakes town of Palmer Lake is a gem Coloradans cherish- its serene lake, charming shops, and tight-knit community make it a Front Range treasure. Sadly, a storm brews over a proposed Buc-ee's travel center at 1-25 and County Line Road, sparking a recall effort against Trustees Shana Ball, Kevin Dreher, and Dennis Stern. This push, fueled by an outside activist club - the leader of which compared trustees to the "Taliban" - risks needlessly fracturing an otherwise peaceful village.  Palmer Lake's leaders deserve a chance to navigate this opportunity, not a divisive ouster.  With Buc-ee's promising economic uplift, the town should leverage it wisely. Recall campaigns typically sow discord where dialogue could...
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Ghosted by USPS: Crested Butte faces losing its only post office
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Ghosted by USPS: Crested Butte faces losing its only post office

By Jason Blevins | Colorado Sun For three years, the town of Crested Butte has labored to find a new place for its overwhelmed U.S. post office. The town bought a parcel and began negotiating with builders, offering plans that involved the town either leasing the land to the Postal Service so it could build its own facility, the town building a new $12 million post office and leasing that to the service or even selling the land outright to the Postal Service.  “We drafted a cost-sharing agreement with the Postal Service and they told us a year ago, ‘We can’t do this,’ and then we have heard nothing from them since. Every plan we offer, we do not hear anything back. They are silent and nonresponsive,” said Dara MacDonald, the town manager of Crested Butte. “So we are stuck. We can’t r...
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Judge overrides parents, reinstates graphic books mid-appeal
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Judge overrides parents, reinstates graphic books mid-appeal

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A federal judge on Thursday refused to put her prior ruling on hold while an appeal plays out, and instead ordered Elizabeth School District to return 19 restricted books to library shelves by Saturday. U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney rejected the Elbert County district's claims that her original order was unfair, "breathtakingly broad" and would require whole new library policies. She also slammed the district for disclosing, only after she issued her order, that it had "discarded" the disputed books entirely. "Rather than being forthcoming with the Court about these facts, the District previously represented that the Removed Books were available to Plaintiffs, and only Plaintiffs," she wrote in an April 3 order. "No menti...
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