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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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Colorado Independents Put Two-Party Politics to the Test in 2026
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Independents Put Two-Party Politics to the Test in 2026

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado It appears Colorado will have a three-way race for governor. Former Republican Congressman Greg Lopez, who is running for governor as an independent, says the Secretary of State's Office has certified him for the ballot. Last Friday, Doctor Shimon Blau also qualified as an independent in the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses Denver. While independent candidates are underdogs in most races, CBS Colorado analysts Mike Dino, a Democrat, and Dick Wadhams, a Republican, say don't count them out. For years, Coloradans have been moving away from the two major parties and registering as unaffiliated. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CBS COLORADO
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Colorado Schools Receive $24 Million to Expand Free Meals Program
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Schools Receive $24 Million to Expand Free Meals Program

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The Colorado Department of Education is providing Colorado schools with nearly $24 million in grant funding to implement a free lunch program. Approved by voters in 2022, the Healthy School Meals for All provides free breakfast and lunch to all public school students in the state, as well as wage increases for cafeteria staff. The program is funded through a tax increase on households making more than $300,000 a year. Because initial estimates fell short of the actual costs, the program ran into fiscal challenges right from the start and had never been deployed in its entirety. A pair of ballot measures approved by voters last year allows the state to keep additional revenue and interest from income tax deductions to help pay f...
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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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Trump Takes Mail-In Voting Dispute to Supreme Court Before Midterms
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CYBERSCOOP, Approved, National

Trump Takes Mail-In Voting Dispute to Supreme Court Before Midterms

By Greg Otto | CYBERSCOOP In a Monday filing, the Justice Department said states sued before agencies even decided how the order would work. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce an executive order that would restrict mail-in voting, after a federal appeals court kept the order blocked in nearly half the states just months before the November midterm elections. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that a Massachusetts federal judge acted too soon when she struck down key parts of the order, which blocked federal agencies from carrying it out in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Sauer said the order only directs agencies to study changes and has not yet produced a final rule, so no state has suffered harm. ...
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Colorado’s newest coal plant hasn’t run since August 2025. A national report suggests why.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s newest coal plant hasn’t run since August 2025. A national report suggests why.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Xcel Energy's Comanche 3 power plant in Pueblo went offline on August 12, 2025, after elevated vibrations damaged the turbine. Nearly a year later, it still hasn't produced a single watt. According to Xcel's most recent monthly report to state regulators in Proceeding 25V-0480E, filed July 22, the plant's turbine rotor had to be shipped off-site for repair by Mitsubishi. The parts came back this summer. Workers are now in the middle of reassembling the unit. The company's current estimate for return to service is mid-August 2026. That's twelve months offline for Colorado's newest, largest coal plant, a 750-megawatt facility that cost $1.3 billion to build and runs about $34.5 million a year to operate. The outage ha...
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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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Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States
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Just The News, Approved, National

Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States

By Brett Rowland | Just the News Programs in question include Medicaid, food stamps and disaster relief. Twenty federal programs that route nearly $1.1 trillion through state governments – including Medicaid, SNAP and disaster relief – are vulnerable to fraud because of how the money is distributed, the Government Accountability Office reports. The money rarely goes straight from Washington to a recipient. It passes through states, then often to subrecipients, contractors and subcontractors. Every layer, GAO found, adds another entry point for fraud while making oversight harder to enforce. The report is the first in a planned GAO series examining fraud in state-administered programs. It reaffirms the agency's estimate that the government loses between $233 bi...
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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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