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Denver court dismisses Douglas County’s lawsuit over Colorado’s ‘sanctuary’ laws
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Denver court dismisses Douglas County’s lawsuit over Colorado’s ‘sanctuary’ laws

By Noah Festenstein | Denver Gazette A Denver district court has dismissed a lawsuit that Douglas County filed against the state of Colorado over its "sanctuary" statutes that restrict local law enforcement officials from working with federal authorities on illegal immigration, according to the county's lawyer. The lawsuit targeted a 2023 law that restricts the ability of state and local governments from making agreements with federal immigration officials over the detention of immigrants who are unlawfully staying in the country, as well as a 2019 statute that blocks local law enforcers from arresting or detaining an immigrant solely on the basis of a federal immigration detainer. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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Five sentenced for delivering fentanyl that killed Colorado inmate
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Approved, CBS Colorado, Local

Five sentenced for delivering fentanyl that killed Colorado inmate

By Logan Smith | CBS Colorado Prison sentences were handed out Wednesday to the last of five people involved in the fatal fentanyl overdose of a Colorado inmate. The pills that killed her were smuggled into the jail inside another woman's body.  Alizon Lopez was found unresponsive in her cell at 2:30 p.m. on May 21, 2022, by her cellmate, shortly after she had finished her work shift in the jail's laundry. Jail deputies and nursing staff immediately began CPR and called for an ambulance. But Lopez never recovered.  Months later, the Mesa County Coroner's Office concluded Lopez died of fentanyl intoxication. It called her death an accident.  READ THE FULL STORY AT CBS COLORADO
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Hunting groups suing CPW commissioners over op-ed ahead of Prop. 127 election
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State, The Colorado Sun

Hunting groups suing CPW commissioners over op-ed ahead of Prop. 127 election

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Two influential hunting organizations are suing members of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission saying they violated Colorado Open Meetings Law and spread false information about mountain lion hunting prior to last month’s vote on Proposition 127, which would have banned the hunting and trapping of mountain lions, lynx and bobcats.   When the proposition failed by a margin of less than 5 percentage points, it marked the first time since 1992 that Colorado voters rejected a wildlife ballot proposal and stirred hope among some of a bridging of Colorado’s urban-rural divide.  But Safari Club International and The Sportsmens Alliance Foundation sued commissioners Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy as well as former com...
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Supermarket super merger that would have impacted 105 grocery stores in Colorado collapses
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Supermarket super merger that would have impacted 105 grocery stores in Colorado collapses

By Tamara Chuang | The Colorado Sun A day after two judges in two lawsuits ruled against the proposed $24.6 billion supermarket merger, Albertsons Companies said Wednesday it would end its merger agreement with Kroger. “Given the recent federal and state court decisions to block our proposed merger with Kroger, we have made the difficult decision to terminate the merger agreement. We are deeply disappointed in the courts’ decisions,” Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran said. At the same time, the Idaho grocery chain, which owns 105 Safeway and Albertsons grocery stores in Colorado, said it filed a lawsuit against Kroger for breach of merger agreement accusing the larger supermarket chain “repeatedly refusing to divest assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignoring regulators’ feedbac...
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10th Circuit: Attorney cannot deduct $300K racecar ‘advertising’ as business expense
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Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

10th Circuit: Attorney cannot deduct $300K racecar ‘advertising’ as business expense

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics The federal appeals court based in Denver agreed on Monday that a Colorado attorney could not claim more than $300,000 in car racing expenditures as "ordinary and necessary" business expenses to be deducted from his taxes. The Internal Revenue Service began looking into the tax filings and non-filings of James W. Avery between 2008 and 2013. Avery had been licensed to practice law in Colorado since the early 1980s and worked as a personal injury attorney, but he lived in Indiana from 2003 to 2010. Once there, he became interested in car shows and car racing. During the tax proceedings, Avery said he affixed a decal for his law firm on the back of the car, which he considered "advertising." He believed racing would enable him to meet lawyers or...
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Disciplined judges, after stepping down, show up in municipal courts
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Approved, gazette.com, State

Disciplined judges, after stepping down, show up in municipal courts

By DAVID MIGOYA | The Gazette via Denver Gazette Not long after 18th Judicial District Judge Natalie Chase resigned over a series of inappropriate racial remarks, she was back on the bench — as a municipal judge in tiny Deer Trail and as a traffic referee in Fort Collins. Despite a public censure by the state’s judicial discipline commission and her resignation in April 2021, Chase landed the part-time jobs within a few months and held them simultaneously for the next three years, according to payroll records from both locations obtained by The Denver Gazette. Chase is one of at least a half-dozen jurists who resigned or retired in the past decade over discipline issues they faced, nearly all of them private sanctions the public never knew about, then reappeared in another lower-l...
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Colorado Springs man gets 23-year sentence on meth and fentanyl trafficking
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Approved, gazette.com, Local

Colorado Springs man gets 23-year sentence on meth and fentanyl trafficking

By The Gazette A traffic stop led to a major drug bust, and now a 23-year prison sentence for Colorado Springs resident Michael Hemersbach, 36.  Hemersbach pleaded guilty Nov. 7 in a Douglas County courtroom to possession with intent to manufacture or distribute fentanyl, possession with intent to manufacture or distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to manufacture or distribute cocaine and driving while impaired, according to a news release Monday from the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.  Hemersback was pulled over by a Colorado State Patrol trooper, who noted his Chrysler 300 was repeatedly weaving while driving southbound on Interstate 25, near the Happy Canyon Road exit north of Castle Rock on July 13, 2023.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GAZETT...
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Judge sides with resident over developers in fire evacuation lawsuit, fight with El Paso County simmers on
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Approved, gazette.com, Local

Judge sides with resident over developers in fire evacuation lawsuit, fight with El Paso County simmers on

By Mary Shinn | The Gazette A 4th Judicial District judge recently sided with a resident asking El Paso County to uphold its own fire-safety standards along dead-end roads.  Hay Creek Valley resident Mike Cloutier sued the El Paso County commissioners earlier this year because they approved a proposal making way for 20 more high-end homes that take access off a dead-end road. Hay Creek Road, north of the Air Force Academy, already serves 80 existing residences hidden among the foothills. The county limits the number of homes along a dead-end road to 25 for safety in a fire evacuation.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GAZETTE
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Woman guilty of trafficking drugs from Colorado to Wyoming reservation
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Approved, CBS Colorado, Local

Woman guilty of trafficking drugs from Colorado to Wyoming reservation

By Logan Smith | CBS Colorado A Wyoming man and a Colorado woman who were tracked down a year ago outside the Wind River Indian Reservation were both recently sentenced for their roles in supplying and selling drugs to Native American tribes there.  Dusty Harris, 42, of Casper, Wyo., and Thelma Faber, 45, of Greeley, were pulled over in a car near Shoshoni, Wyo., in November 2023. This, after state criminal investigators and detectives from Fremont County (Wyo.) Sheriff's Office determined Harris previously sold controlled substances to enrolled members of the Eastern Shoshone and/or Northern Arapaho tribes living on or around the reservation. They also learned Harris was making another delivery from Colorado.  READ THE FULL STORY AT CBS COLORADO
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Union workers file lawsuit against King Soopers, Safeway for alleged actions during 2022 strike
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Approved, kdvr.com, Local

Union workers file lawsuit against King Soopers, Safeway for alleged actions during 2022 strike

By Samantha Jarpe | Fox 31 News A class action lawsuit was recently filed by local union workers against the Kroger Company and Albertsons, the owners of King Soopers and Safeway respectively. The lawsuit is in response to certain unlawful “no-poach agreements” the grocery stores allegedly entered into during a 2022 strike against King Soopers and City Market by the union United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 in Denver. A spokesperson for the Kroger Company released a statement about the lawsuit and denied that there were any no-poach agreements between the two companies. READ THE FULL STORY AT FOX 31 NEWS
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