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Colorado is charting a rise in potential money laundering. Could stopping it slow the fentanyl trade?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado is charting a rise in potential money laundering. Could stopping it slow the fentanyl trade?

By Ernesto Cabral | The Colorado Sun Colorado money service businesses, such as check-cashing businesses and money forwarding services, filed a record number of reports last year of possible money laundering by people using their services, official data shows. In 2023, money services businesses flagged more than 22,000 transactions in Colorado they suspected were intended to convert money from crimes into usable cash, according to data from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN. That’s a 40% increase from the previous year and a 1,009% surge since 2014. The increase comes as federal authorities are eyeing the role money services businesses play in allowing fentanyl dealers — many associated with the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels in Mexico — to...
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Big money filtering into 5th District Republican race for Congress
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Big money filtering into 5th District Republican race for Congress

By Sandra Fish | The Colorado Sun The Republican primary in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District is becoming a battle for the soul of the GOP, with conservative groups spending $1.3 million and counting to beat state party chairman Dave Williams, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump. Williams is running against conservative commentator and activist Jeff Crank, who has been endorsed by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, in the El Paso County district where U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, is retiring at the end of his ninth term. Whoever wins the primary is almost certain to win the general election in the highly Republican district.  That’s why the 5th District spending by outside political groups, more than what’s spent by outside groups in any of the state’s othe...
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Eminent domain, used often to seize land from private owners, has Palizzi Farm in Brighton fearing for its survival
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Eminent domain, used often to seize land from private owners, has Palizzi Farm in Brighton fearing for its survival

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun “I’m not young, I’m not stupid and it’s not going to happen.”  That’s what Debbie Palizzi told developer Jack Hoagland when he knocked on her door in 2022 and offered her $75,000 to run a stormwater pipeline from a subdivision he wanted to build through land her family has been farming for over 90 years.  Now that land could fall into Hoagland’s hands. He has asked an Adams County judge to decide whether Parkland Metropolitan District, of which he is president, can exercise eminent domain on Palizzi’s property to the west of the proposed Bromley Farms neighborhood.   If that happens, Palizzi said it will destroy her ability to continue farming 65 acres that sit between Sixth Avenue and Bromley Lane in Brighton. A pipelin...
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If voters adopt statewide ranked choice voting, Colorado may prevent it from taking effect
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

If voters adopt statewide ranked choice voting, Colorado may prevent it from taking effect

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun If Colorado voters decide in November to pass a ballot measure making big changes to the way the state’s elections are conducted, it may be years before they go into effect — if ever. That’s because of a last-minute amendment added to a broad bipartisan election bill awaiting Gov. Jared Polis’ signature. The provisions would create a major barrier to a proposal to alter Colorado’s primaries so candidates of all parties run against each other, with the top four vote-getters advancing to a ranked choice general election.  Now, proponents of the election overhaul, who were unaware of the big hurdles created by Senate Bill 210 until they were contacted this week by The Colorado Sun, are demanding that Polis veto the legislation...
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Colorado ranks third in lightning-related deaths, with 25 since 2006. Here’s how to stay safe
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado ranks third in lightning-related deaths, with 25 since 2006. Here’s how to stay safe

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun A thunderstorm that turned roads into rivers and basements into swimming pools lit up the sky over Greeley on Tuesday night with flashes of light as bright as daytime. Three days earlier, a single lightning strike killed a Jackson County rancher and more than 30 of his cattle. Last week, a storm that raged over Yuma, rumbling like a freight train, buried the plains town in knee-deep hail. It’s been an intense week, even for Colorado in the spring.  The state, known for its wild electrical storms that seem to come out of nowhere, is third-highest in the nation for lightning deaths. The fatal strike Saturday that killed a cattle rancher outside of Rand in northern Colorado was the 25th lightning death in Colorado since 2006, according to dat...
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In 3rd District, Democratic Super PAC is running ads to help Ron Hanks win primary
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

In 3rd District, Democratic Super PAC is running ads to help Ron Hanks win primary

By Jesse Paul and Sandra Fish | The Colorado Sun A Democratic super PAC is spending at least $84,000 — and counting — to air a television ad boosting the profile of an election conspiracy theorist it wants to see win the six-way Republican primary in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.  The ad campaign is an effort by Rocky Mountain Values PAC to advance former state Rep. Ron Hanks to the general election because the group appears to believe he will be easier for the de facto Democratic nominee, former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch, to beat in November.  It’s a strategy Democrats tried in multiple Colorado races in 2022, including Hanks’ bid for U.S. Senate that year. It didn’t work, however. The more moderate GOP candidates won their primaries, but lost in the ge...
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In Colorado’s nonlethal wolf deterrent game, its Wolves 3, Cows 0 in one county, and ranchers aren’t pleased
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

In Colorado’s nonlethal wolf deterrent game, its Wolves 3, Cows 0 in one county, and ranchers aren’t pleased

By Tracy Ross | Colorado Sun Grand County ranchers say three calves were killed by wolves in the month since they were given $20,000 to hire a range rider to protect their cattle, and they’re demanding more action from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. But CPW says there’s not enough proof to confirm wolves transplanted to Colorado were responsible for more than one of the three dead calves found on May 11 and remains unwilling to kill the large predators, according to ranchers.   The stockgrowers wrote yet another angry letter to CPW director Jeff Davis requesting wolf No. 2309 and wolf No. 2312 be removed from the Williams Fork River Basin. Their request, dated May 23, references a rule in the Colorado Wolf Restoration Plan that lays out certain conditions under which a w...
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There’s an app for that. Some Colorado counties broadcast emergency alerts through app
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

There’s an app for that. Some Colorado counties broadcast emergency alerts through app

By Tatiana Flowers | The Colorado Sun After Eagle County officials responded to seven small wildfires in less than a year, they felt it was critical to begin providing emergency alerts to residents in a swifter, more effective way — and in multiple languages. About a year ago, when Eagle County officials began working with leaders at ReachWell — an organization that runs a cell phone app that translates emergency alerts into more than 130 languages — they didn’t know much about platforms that can interpret or translate emergency alerts. Now, people in Eagle County, who have the app downloaded onto their phones can receive traffic alerts and reports about wildfires and flooding, said Fernando Almanza, deputy emergency manager for Eagle County.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORAD...
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New technology may help find missing people in Colorado’s backcountry within minutes
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Approved, The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

New technology may help find missing people in Colorado’s backcountry within minutes

By Olivia Prentzel | The Colorado Sun A Durango-based helicopter company is testing a new tool that could help search and rescue teams in helicopters detect missing and distressed people in Colorado’s backcountry within minutes and communicate with them, even if they are stuck in an area without cellphone service. The technology, akin to a miniature cellphone tower, attaches to the outside of a helicopter and allows searchers to pinpoint the locations of any cellphones within a 3-mile radius using a map on a tablet, Dr. Tim Durkin, a search and rescue program coordinator for Colorado Highland Helicopters.  “As we detect the phone, basically a blotch shows up on the map and as we fly around that area, that blotch gets smaller and smaller and smaller until we can see exactly wh...
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Colorado vets go through hundreds of unclaimed cremated remains to give comrades dignified memorial
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado vets go through hundreds of unclaimed cremated remains to give comrades dignified memorial

By Kevin Simpson | The Colorado Sun A motorcycle escort rumbled slowly along the pavement that cuts through meandering rows of identical white headstones at Denver’s Fort Logan National Cemetery, making its way toward a pavilion where dozens of military veterans converged under a brilliant late April sky for a long-overdue rite. While bagpipes played, 13 men in crisp white dress shirts beneath black vests bearing patches signifying their military affiliations each accepted a wooden box unloaded from the back of a hearse. Solemnly cradling them in white gloves, some with trembling hands, they delivered sets of cremated remains to a table. Once the boxes had been laid in a row, a folded American flag next to each, uniformed onlookers snapped a salute. The bagpipes quieted and speake...
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