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There’s a new International Dark Sky Park in Colorado
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gazette.com, Local

There’s a new International Dark Sky Park in Colorado

By Seth Boster | The Gazette Colorado has a new International Dark Sky Park. That's an exclusive, metrics-driven designation by DarkSky International — the organization raising awareness around light pollution, adding protections and inspiring tourism to certain parts of the world. Now that includes Browns Canyon National Monument. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GAZETTE
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Gillard & Stutzriem: In support of the EPC canvass board in HD16 recount
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Commentary, gazette.com

Gillard & Stutzriem: In support of the EPC canvass board in HD16 recount

By Candice Stutzriem and Adam Gillard | Commentary, The Gazette We are writing to be 100% transparent with the decisions made by the EPC Canvass Board to remove three votes for Rep. Steph Vigil during the House District 16 election recount. A key point has been left out of media reports; The Canvass Board honored the voter’s intent. Speaking as two of the three members of the EPC Canvass Board, we assure all concerned that the board and the EPC Elections Department were present from the Logic and Accuracy Test all the way through the canvass signing ceremony. We witnessed the recount exceeding 387,000 ballots and inspected more than 3,000 over-votes and under-votes identified for individual adjudication. It required eight days over Thanksgiving weekend, in the counting room, with ...
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As Colorado slips behind other states in economic strength, slower economic growth in 2025 is ‘new reality’
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gazette.com, State

As Colorado slips behind other states in economic strength, slower economic growth in 2025 is ‘new reality’

By Bernadette Berdychowski  | The Gazette As Colorado slips behind other states in terms of economic strength, its economy is projected to grow — albeit slower in 2025, according to a new report. The Business Research Division at the University of Colorado Boulder released its 60th annual outlook Monday detailing forecasts of Colorado’s economy and various industries for 2025 based on the analysis from 140 statewide government, business and academic experts. The report found Colorado’s economy is growing, but falling behind in several areas. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GAZETTE
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Copeland: Colorado vs. the First Amendment
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Commentary, gazette.com

Copeland: Colorado vs. the First Amendment

By Dr. Tom Copeland | Commentary, Denver Gazette The left in Colorado is assaulting the First Amendment, and all three branches of government are culprits. Start with the governor-appointed Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC). In a recent victory for free speech rights, website designer Lorie Smith of 303 Creative won a settlement from the CCRC to pay her $1.5 million in legal fees for defending her right to choose what messages her creative work will convey. The commission’s aggressive drive for government-mandated speech will cost taxpayers — not the commissioners — real dollars. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court put CCRC in its place when it ruled that the commission had demonstrated extreme bias against Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop because of his religious convictio...
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Central to Colorado Springs’ hate crime hoax case, Derrick Bernard had lengthy record in home state
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gazette.com, Local

Central to Colorado Springs’ hate crime hoax case, Derrick Bernard had lengthy record in home state

By GLENN WALLACE | The Gazette Derrick Patrick Bernard is the figure at the center of a federal indictment and political dust-up involving an alleged hate crime hoax in the closing days of the 2023 Colorado Springs mayoral election. But before his complicated career in Colorado Springs, Bernard had already had his share of run-ins with the law in his home state. Born in Florida in 1989, Bernard was 15 when state records indicate he was first arrested for petty theft. Just two months later he would be arrested again, this time for felony burglary and grand theft. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GAZETTE
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Disciplined judges, after stepping down, show up in municipal courts
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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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‘I did not lie to the FBI’: Mayor Mobolade rejects rumors around alleged hate crime hoax
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gazette.com, Local

‘I did not lie to the FBI’: Mayor Mobolade rejects rumors around alleged hate crime hoax

By Brennen Kauffman | The Gazette Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade spoke Friday to address the recent weeks of rumors surrounding his connection to an alleged hate crime hoax that took place during the 2023 election. In a video message on his official Facebook account, Mobolade emphasized his full cooperation with the investigation into the alleged faked hate crime and condemned the "politically motivated attacks" he faced in recent weeks. In November the Department of Justice indicted three individuals for allegedly staging a cross burning in front of a Mobolade campaign sign defaced with a racial slur during the 2023 mayoral runoff election between Mobolade and Wayne Williams. Derrick Bernard Jr., Ashley Blackcloud and Deanna West were charged with "maliciously conveying fal...
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Developer meeting on proposed Palmer Lake Buc-ee’s turns heated
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gazette.com, Local

Developer meeting on proposed Palmer Lake Buc-ee’s turns heated

By Savannah Eller | The Gazette A public meeting hosted to discuss a proposed Buc-ee's location along Interstate 25 packed the Palmer Lake Elementary School cafeteria Tuesday night, frequently turning hostile and argumentative between company representatives and community members. "We don't desire your beaver nuggets," said audience member Alexandra Olivier, who joined an overwhelmingly negative wave of comments at the informational meeting. Residents raised a myriad of concerns over the travel center, which has been proposed on a piece of current El Paso County land west of I-25 and directly south of County Line Road. Developers have submitted an annexation plan to the county that would bring the site into the town of Palmer Lake under a "flagpole" annexation, connecting the roug...
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‘Large number’ of Americans’ metadata stolen by Chinese hackers, senior official says
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gazette.com, National

‘Large number’ of Americans’ metadata stolen by Chinese hackers, senior official says

By Raphael Satter | The Gazette A large number of Americans' metadata has been stolen in the sweeping cyberespionage campaign carried out by a Chinese hacking group dubbed "Salt Typhoon," a senior U.S. official told journalists on Wednesday. The official declined to provide specific figures but noted that China's access to America's telecommunications infrastructure was broad and that the hacking was still ongoing. "We believe a large number of Americans' metadata was taken," said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition that their name be withheld. Pushed on whether that might include every American cell phone's records, the official said: "We do not believe it's every cell phone in the country, but we believe it's potentially a large number of individuals that the Chine...
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Colorado Springs man gets 23-year sentence on meth and fentanyl trafficking
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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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