Colorado
Colorado’s attorney general leads organization facing pay-to-play allegations
The Legal professional Normal Alliance, a corporation led by Colorado’s Phil Weiser, is dealing with criticism for courting $50,000 donations from lobbyists and company companions to pay for its lavish conferences and international junkets.
Why it issues: State attorneys common wield immense affect over public security and shopper issues with big monetary implications for company America, Axios’ Lachlan Markay and John Frank report.
Driving the information: Chris Toth, former government director of the Nationwide Affiliation of Attorneys Normal, contended in his current retirement letter that the Legal professional Normal Alliance — a competitor — is promoting entry to lobbyists and company patrons.
- Toth wrote that he is “more and more alarmed” on the affect of cash from entities which might be being investigated by legal professional generals and donors who “basically purchase programming.”
Zoom in: In some circumstances, the businesses which might be ponying up tens of hundreds of {dollars} to get unique entry are the identical ones being investigated by the officers.
- Two distinguished donors to the alliance — Comcast and TurboTax — just lately settled authorized disputes with Weiser, Colorado’s legal professional common who serves because the alliance’s chairman.
What he is saying: In an interview, Weiser disputed the allegations made within the letter and sidestepped solutions about conflicts of curiosity.
- The Democrat stated he’s not concerned in any fundraising for the alliance and did not recall any conversations with sponsors about pending authorized issues whereas attending the group’s occasions.
He additionally refuted claims that donors affect programming. “The alliance has a really clear coverage, which is that the substance of the convention is ruled by the AGs. The donors do not get to direct the substance of what’s talked about,” he stated.
In relation to shopping for entry, Weiser rejected the thought.
- “Anybody who needs entry to me can have entry to me. No one must go to any convention,” he stated.
Sure, however: Weiser, who’s looking for reelection in November — did not distance himself from the alliance’s fundraising practices.
- Within the interview, he solely faulted the group for failing to raised talk to the general public about their work.
Of word: His feedback are the primary from alliance management since Axios reported about paperwork detailing the comfy relationship earlier this week.
Between the strains: Colorado performs an outsized function within the alliance courting again to its earlier iteration because the Convention of Western Attorneys Normal. The group drew help from Democratic and Republican workplace holders within the state.
- As chairman, Weiser chooses one challenge to spotlight. In his case, it is known as the Ginsburg-Scalia Initiative to enhance dialogue and collaborative problem-solving.
The intrigue: The alliance has a fame as a extra opulent group than the NAAG, together with enjoying host to junkets to international nations organized partially with a marketing consultant who serves as an agent to these nations’ governments.
- Weiser stated he is solely attended home conferences — together with the one final week in Solar Valley, Idaho, and he has not taken any of the worldwide journeys.
The opposite aspect: Republicans seeking to unseat Weiser took word of his function.
- Kristi Burton Brown, state GOP chairwoman stated in an announcement to Axios that, “Colorado’s high legislation enforcement officer ought to be centered on combating for Coloradans not main marketing campaign donors and lobbyists.”
The backstory: Inside state AGs’ company money cow
Colorado
Spectator killed by hammer throw at high school track and field event in Colorado
A spectator was killed after a hammer weight was thrown out of bounds at a high school track and field event on Sunday.
The event, a club track and field meet held at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, was halted after a hammer thrown by a participant went past the barriers and struck a man in the stands. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a UCCS statement obtained by multiple outlets.
“We are heartbroken at this horrible accident and are focused on supporting all involved,” said UCCS chancellor Jennifer Sobanet said in the statement.
The meet was canceled after the accident, and participants were told to go home.
The hammer throw event uses a heavy hammer weight attached to a grip by a steel wire. Compared to discus, shotput and javelin, the hammer throw is a less common field event in the U.S. Some states, such as Ohio, have banned the sport from high schools altogether.
UCCS said that the victim’s identity would be released by the coroner’s office for El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs. The man was reportedly the parent of an athlete who attended a local high school, per local outlet KKTV, which cited a statement from the Colorado United Track Club.
The meet was part of a three-meet series held on UCCS’s campus, per the school.
Colorado
Colorado Springs police search for missing 12-year-old boy
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) –
UPDATE: Javonte Hayes has been safely located, according to CSPD.
Police are searching for a missing child who was last seen at his home on the southeast part of the city.
They said 12-year-old Javonte Hayes was last seen at 6 p.m. on Sunday on Morley drive. That’s near South Academy and Astrozon.
If you have any information, call police at (719) 444-7000.
Copyright 2025 KKTV. All rights reserved.
Colorado
Feds round up 50 Tren de Aragua members at ‘makeshift nightclub’ in Aurora, Colorado as DEA and ICE hit cities across US
Federal agents rounded dozens of members of Tren de Aragua in an overnight raid on a “makeshift nightclub” in Aurora, Colorado — the Denver suburb where the vicious Venezuelan prison gang has been terrorizing residents.
It was just one of several operations over the weekend as part of President Trump’s deportation raids — including in sanctuary city Chicago, where Border czar Tom Homan was on hand.Federal agents were also seen in Los Angeles and West New York, New Jersey on Saturday.
The DEA said agents in Colorado interrupted an “invite only party” where dozens of the gangbangers were cutting lose.
The busts netted cash, weapons, guns and drugs — including Tusi or “pink cocaine,” a powerful narcotic that the gang has played a major role in distributing across the US.
Video released by the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division showed a white bus full of the busted gang members being escorted on the snowy roads by law enforcement vehicles.
The arrests ensnared around 50 Tren de Aragua members in all, marking the latest in the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds who pose a potential threat to public safety.
“We want the country to know that we will all support the president’s priority to round up the most dangerous illegal criminals,” DEA acting administrator Derek Maltz told The Post.
Both President Trump and Homan have pledged to find, arrest and ultimately deport millions of migrants who have sneaked into the country illegally.
“The President and the DOJ leaders have made it clear that we are going to work together with a sense of urgency to hold violent criminals accountable,” Maltz said.
“The citizens of this country must feel safe every day throughout the country. One of my goals is to help build an army of good to fight evil.”
The first migrant roundups — part of operation dubbed “Return to Sender” — are focusing on migrants who have been charged with crimes or have been ordered deported by a judge.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led Sunday’s pre-dawn efforts in Colorado, and they were joined by squads from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) to execute the busts.
The Post has been at the forefront of reporting how Tren de Aragua terrorized Aurora — a city with a population just under 400,000 — for months, even taking over entire neighborhoods and apartment complexes.
Similar enforcement operations have taken place around the country in recent days, rounding up some 600 illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities from coast to coast including New York state, according to ICE.
ICE New York agents took several migrant criminals into custody, including Gokhan Adriguzel, a 30-year-old Turkish national who is a “known or suspected terrorist,” according to a release from the agency.
On Saturday in West New York — across the Hudson River from Manhattan — officers stormed an apartment building near 61st Street and Harrison Place around 7:30 a.m., surveillance footage showing them peeking at mailboxes and then heading upstairs, ABC News reported.
It was not immediately clear if any arrests were made, but ICE told the outlet it doesn’t comment on ongoing enforcement actions.
Separately, agents were seen handcuffing an unidentified Hispanic man and putting him in a van without asking questions, Hudson Post reported.
That same day, the offensive continued in Los Angeles, with pre-dawn roundups expected to run seven days a week for the foreseeable future, sources told The Post.
It was not clear how many illegal immigrants were arrested in the LA raids, but sources said the migrants that were taken into custody were being held in ICE detention centers in California pending deportation.
The Chicago DEA this weekend shared images of agents huddling with its partners at ICE and the Department of Justice, the agency later posting on X that it was “conducting targeted operations” in the Windy City.
“US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with federal partners, including the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the US Marshals Service, began conducting targeted operations today in Chicago to enforce US immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities,” the statement read.
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