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U.S. Air Force Academy cadet athletes flouted the sacred honor code by committing sexual assaults, taking drugs, cheating and engaging in other misconduct at wild parties while the service academy focused on winning bowl games and attracting money from alumni and private sources in recent years, a Gazette investigation has found. The findings are egregious enough that academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson told The Gazette that she has called for an Inspector General's investigation of the athletic department.

Colorado Starts Issuing Driver's Licenses To Undocumented Migrants Thousands will be eligible for state licenses and ID cards available to immigrants regardless of their legal status 1 August 2014 07 Adriana Gaytan, center, who came to Colorado in 1997 from Mexico, will get a driver’s license when Colorado begins its rollout. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP Colorado will begin issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards to immigrants on Friday regardless of their legal status, underscoring a sea change in a state that less than a decade ago passed strict immigration enforcement laws. Now, thousands of immigrants are waiting to get cards they...

Colorado will begin issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards to immigrants Friday regardless of their legal status, underscoring a sea change in a state that less than a decade ago passed strict immigration enforcement laws. Now, thousands of immigrants are waiting to get cards they hope will add a degree of legitimacy to their residency in Colorado. About 9,500 people are signed up for appointments through the next 90 days to get the documents, with more getting scheduled every day. Both people in the country illegally and those who have temporary legal status will qualify. The demand for the licenses...

DENVER — The attorney for Anthony Waller, the shackled inmate who was seen on surveillance cameras being slammed into a wall by a Denver Sheriff’s deputy during a hearing before a judge in 2012, has filed a lawsuit over the incident. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court names the city and county of Denver, Deputy Brad Lovingier, Capt. Gina McCall and the Denver Sheriff’s Department. A news release sent by attorney Kenneth Padilla on Wednesday says Waller was “shackled in handcuffs, leg irons, and belly chain” when Lovingier “without provocation, grabbed Mr. Waller by his shackles, spun him around and...

The teachers’ union representing the Douglas County school system has lost one-quarter of its membership since last year, signaling a growing frustration within the ranks that dues are used to finance politics instead of professional development. The significant drop in membership of the Douglas County Federation (DCF) was revealed in a July 21 letter from the board of education to Courtney Smith, union president, and was based on the union’s most recently released tax returns. The letter pointed to the drop in membership as undeniable proof that teachers had chosen the district over the union and the need for major...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Republican state Sen. Steve King is facing three felony charges alleging he falsified time cards and defrauded two former employers out of thousands of dollars.

(CNSNews.com) – At a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation on Thursday, ranchers from Western states testified that they are routinely threatened and bullied by federal land management officials, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife. “I sit before you today to let you know what’s going on up there, and I hope that we can come to some kind of agreement on what needs to be done and move forward on it, because enough is enough when it comes to bullying people that have been on this land for...

Despite an eleventh hour interjection from the U.S. Forest Service, the Ouray County Commissioners made history this week, unanimously voting to adopt a new county road map that brings it into the 21st century. The last time an official county road map was prepared in Ouray County was in 1961. Proposed revisions to this 1961 iteration of the map took place over the past five years, first through the work of the collaborative, multi-jurisdictional Public Access Group and later through two years of intensive work by Ouray County IT/GIS Manager Jeff Bockes, who integrated modern computerized mapping techniques (including GoogleEarth)...

Formation of district and imposition of assessments 'invalidated' by ruling . Boulder County commissioners didn't have the legal authority to establish a Local Improvement District created to charge rural residential subdivision property owners the bulk of the costs of rehabilitating those subdivisions' paved county roads, according to a Friday Boulder County District Court ruling. The Board of County Commissioners "exceeded its jurisdiction and abused its discretion in authorizing and forming the Subdivision Paving Local Improvement District and imposing assessments on properties within the District," Senior District Court Judge J. Robert Lowenbach wrote. ... The judge further ordered Boulder County to...

Speaking at a high-level security conference in Aspen, Colorado, outgoing US Defense Intelligence Agency head Michael Flynn warned against the dangers of toppling Hamas, saying what may replace the Islamist group could be even worse. “If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse. The region would end up with something much worse,” Flynn, a lieutenant general, told the conference Saturday, according to Reuters.He warned that with Hamas out of the picture, the Islamic State, or something like the brutal Islamist group ruling over parts of Syria and Iraq, could take its place.Flynn also said...

To those who knew her, Shannon Maureen Conley was a bright teenager lost in middle-class suburbia who went searching for love and purpose. She thought she found it half a world away with a Tunisian man 13 years her senior who promised marriage and holy war. The plan went only as far as Denver International Airport, where Conley was arrested in April as she tried to board a plane to support Islamic fighters in Syria. Conley told the FBI she was determined to be "defending Muslims on the Muslim homeland against people who are trying to kill them." If that...

For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.

DENVER (AP) — A law expanding background check requirements on Colorado gun sales has been in effect for about a year, and an Associated Press analysis of state data compiled during that span shows the projected impact was vastly overstated in a key budget report.

EPA will hold public hearings in four locations for the proposed Clean Power Plan the week of July 28, 2014. The hearings will provide interested parties the opportunity to present data, views or arguments concerning the proposed action. EPA is pleased by the tremendous public interest in the proposed Clean Power Plan. Already, we have received nearly 300,000 written comments on the proposal. We have found that there are some additional speaking slots still available in Pittsburgh on August 1st, and are reopening the registration for Pittsburgh ONLY. Register for the Pittsburgh hearing on August 1st. The other hearings in...

A federal judge in Denver declared Colorado's gay marriage ban unconstitutional Wednesday, but he temporarily put the ruling on hold to give the state until next month to seek an appeal.... Colorado Republican Attorney General John Suthers and Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper had requested a stay so the issue could eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court — though both agreed the state ban should be declared unconstitutional.

PPP's new Colorado poll finds the exact same numbers in the races for both Governor and the Senate- Democratic incumbents John Hickenlooper and Mark Udall are clinging to 44/43 leads over their challengers Bob Beauprez and Cory Gardner respectively.

A new study shows the lesser prairie chicken population has exploded by 20 percent prompting concern by western lawmakers that the Obama administration acted hastily when it listed the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The aerial survey conducted last month by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies showed the grouse species numbers jumped from 18,747 to 22,415. That study plus the Agriculture Department’s tardiness in reporting conservation efforts to Congress as required by law prompted a letter from lawmakers including Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton demanding the report. “We request that your department provide this...

First, Howard Dean wanted to ship all Republicans to the Ukraine or Russia. Now, unions and at least one elected official are calling for the GOP’s death. As The Colorado Statesman reports, state Rep. Crisanta Duran marched with a Latino group and the Service Employees International Union as they chanted “Death to the Colorado GOP.” At a rally on Tuesday in downtown Denver led by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, Latino leaders and community groups held a mock funeral procession in which they declared, “Death to the Colorado GOP for killing immigration reform.” Joining the demonstration was state...

For the first time this entire election cycle The New York Times Senate forecast at The Upshot predicts Udall has a greater chance of losing reelection than winning (53%-47%). This is a huge deal, as The Upshot tries to go beyond just the polls and factor in other intangibles about a race, such as, incumbency, fundraising, a state’s past election history among others, who the liberals at the NYT want to win. All those factors in The Upshot model lean heavily Udall’s way. Yet, despite this inherent, built-in advantage, Udall can’t overcome one thing: the people of Colorado feel he...

Fracking in the state of Colorado during the year 2012 created 111,000 jobs whereas Barack Obama’s entire economy has only generated 110,000 jobs for Millennials since 2007. What is wrong with our president? Does he suffer from a migraine headache or is he simply refusing to think straight? His administration is spending up to $1,000 a day caring for illegal immigrant children carrying measles, mumps, scabies, lice, chicken pox, strep throat and tuberculosis. Meanwhile, legal American citizens with law degrees are living with their parents and struggling to find jobs that even pay minimum wage. Describing the influx of undocumented...