Capitol Coverage & State

Authorities say police have arrested 18-year-old Kamyl Xavier Garrette in a mall shooting that killed a 17-year-old boy in a Denver suburb. The suspect's capture was announced the day after the Friday shooting inside a J.C. Penney store at the Town Center at Aurora mall.

A winter storm is bringing snow to parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska just as many holiday travelers make their way home. The National Weather Service says Saturday's storm is forecast to bring heavy snow to parts of Colorado's plains through Saturday night with near blizzard conditions possible depending on snowfall.

The governor of Colorado issued a pardon for a Peruvian immigrant who has lived on and off in Colorado churches since 2016 to avoid deportation. Gov. Jared Polis pardoned Ingrid Encalada Latorre on Monday for a 2010 conviction for possessing falsified or stolen identification papers that placed her in deportation proceedings by federal authorities.

Hispanic voters are heavily Democratic but Hispanic men are more likely to vote Republican than Hispanic women. This gender gap is roughly the same size as the one among white voters.

Colorado air-quality regulators have approved tougher statewide oil and gas regulations, ending a disparity between areas in western Colorado.

A federal oversight office will look into a plan to relocate Bureau of Land Management jobs to Colorado and other western states. The Grand Junction Sentinel reports the Government Accountability Office has agreed to review the Interior Department plan following a request by Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona.

Rescuers successfully dug out a person buried in an avalanche at Steamboat Resort in northern Colorado on Sunday. 

A resort official tells the Steamboat Pilot & Today that the avalanche was triggered by skiers shortly before 1 p.m.

About 25 wild horses will be removed from private land in northwestern Colorado using a bait and trap technique. Bureau of Land Management officials say specialists are expected to use hay and water to attract the horses to specific areas until captured.

A federal report has shown fewer people in Colorado and Wyoming were arrested or deported this year for living illegally in the United States compared with last year.

U.S. officials will review whether grizzly bears have enough protections across the Lower 48 states after advocates sued the government in a bid to restore the animals to more areas. The review must be completed by March 31, 2021, under a settlement approved Monday by a federal judge.

A 29-year-old Fort Collins woman has died in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in northern Colorado. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center says it's the first avalanche death this winter season in Colorado.

Almost 300 people have contracted hepatitis A in Colorado since an increase in the contagious liver disease began in 2018. State health officials say at least two of those people have died, one in Denver and the other in nearby Arapahoe County.

A 58-year-old Nevada man shot during a confrontation with police in a parking lot of a store in a Colorado mountain town has died.

The Colorado State Patrol says the shooting happened Thursday night soon after state troopers and local officers attempted to make contact with the driver of a rental truck on Interstate 70 that they pulled over near the Avon exit.

Colorado court officials have denied a request to reconsider a ruling declaring the sentences of hundreds of criminal defendants to be illegal.

The Denver Post reported Monday that the state Supreme Court refused to rethink whether criminal offenders could be sentenced to both prison and probation in the same case.

Colorado regulators have approved a set of safety measures designed to increase protections surrounding thousands of miles of underground oil and gas pipelines in the state.

The rules approved Thursday provide for public access to a more detailed and accurate state map of locations of flowlines, which are pipelines that connect an oil or gas well to other pieces of equipment.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment says the state’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate has fallen to a historic low.

The Denver Post reported Wednesday that the 2.6% rate is the lowest measured in a series going back to 1976.

The department says the measurement in October matched the rate that was in place from February to June 2017.

Hate crimes are on the rise in Colorado. The state is partnering with eighteen private groups to address the issue. 

Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the initiative Monday morning, saying he doesn’t know why hate crimes are up, but that new efforts are needed to stop them.

“It’s that spirit of welcoming everyone, regardless of where you came from, regardless of who you love, regardless of what you look like, regardless of who you worship, and so together we can stand against hate,” said Weiser.

The Colorado State Patrol says six people died in six separate accidents on state roads over a 12-hour period this past weekend.

Col. Matthew Packard, chief of the state patrol, says six fatal crashes occurred between about 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. Sunday involving either excessive speed or alcohol.

The accidents included a pedestrian hit while standing on the road and a handicap-accessible van crash that resulted in the death of a man in a wheelchair inside the van.