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Here’s why Colorado communities are opposing a proposed Utah railroad at the U.S. Supreme Court this week

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Here’s why Colorado communities are opposing a proposed Utah railroad at the U.S. Supreme Court this week


The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a yearslong legal battle over a contentious proposed railroad that could send tens of millions more gallons of crude oil along the Colorado River, including near the critical water source’s headwaters in Colorado.

Opponents of the 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway — led by Colorado’s Eagle County — successfully halted the Utah project when a federal appeals judge in 2023 agreed with their arguments that the potential environmental impacts of the rail line had not been sufficiently analyzed.

But the coalition of private companies and seven Utah counties supporting the project petitioned the Supreme Court to review the appeals judge’s decision. In June, the nation’s highest court accepted their petition and said it would consider how far federal agencies must go in analyzing potential environmental impacts.

If constructed, the rail line would connect Utah’s oil fields to the national rail network. It would greatly increase the amount of crude oil transported across Colorado and on to the refineries on the Gulf Coast.

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The project would allow oil producers to send up to 350,000 barrels of crude oil a day on nine more trains — each stretching as long as two miles — on the tracks along Colorado’s Interstate 70, which follows the Colorado River for hundreds of miles.

A dozen local governments in Colorado, across political divides, and the state’s attorney general filed briefs in the case urging the Supreme Court not to change the decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. They also argue in favor of maintaining the federal environmental law in question, the National Environmental Policy Act.

“The project raises the risk of leaks, spills, or rail car accidents immediately adjacent to the headwaters of the Colorado River, the most critical water source for the state’s residential communities, and agricultural and outdoor recreation sectors,” Attorney General Phil Weiser‘s brief states. “The project’s risks to Colorado’s residents and natural resources have generated deep concern and strong opposition from across the state.”

The justices will hear from both sides Tuesday morning, but a decision is likely weeks or months away. Justice Neil Gorsuch last week recused himself from the case after ethics watchdogs noted his ties to Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz, whose companies could profit if the railway is built, according to reporting from The New York Times.

Construction on the project could not begin even if the Supreme Court sides with the railway project because the court is analyzing only one of the reasons the lower court halted the railway. If the Supreme Court agrees with railway proponents’ arguments, the lower court will have to reassess its analysis and issue a new opinion.

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But conservationists fear the court could use the case to weaken one of the nation’s foundational environmental protection laws.

The decision could lead to “a radical restriction of the way the government evaluates the environmental impact of decisions,” said Sam Sankar, the senior vice president of programs for the environmental legal group Earthjustice.

At the heart of the litigation is whether the U.S. Surface Transportation Board — a federal agency that regulates railways — violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to analyze potential environmental impacts of the project outside of the immediate area of the proposed line. The federal appeals judge last year found that the board had violated the law and should have scrutinized potential threats to the Colorado River as well as increased wildfire risk caused by more train traffic.

Craig, who wanted only his first name used, looks east towards an empty Interstate 70 and the Colorado River on August 18, 2020, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The highway was empty of cars due to the its closure from the Grizzly Creek Fire. Railroad tracks going through the town are seen to the right. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Lawyers for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, which is spearheading the rail project, argued that such a thorough analysis was not needed. The Surface Transportation Board should consider the immediate environmental impacts of a project, such as whether construction will displace bighorn sheep habitat or alter a mountain stream, the attorneys argued in their brief to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the board should not be required to analyze “imponderables such as whether the new rail might contribute to an accident hundreds or thousands of miles downline,” they wrote.

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“If a new rail line in Utah will displace habitat for bighorn sheep or alter the topography in ways that threaten a pristine mountain stream, the Surface Transportation Board must consider those issues,” the brief states. But the chance of a faraway crash or that “the new rail might … somehow affect ‘environmental justice (in) communities (on) the Gulf Coast’ are not issues the Surface Transportation Board must run to ground.”

The Colorado communities opposed to the new railway include Glenwood Springs, Grand County, Grand Junction, Avon, Basalt, Routt County and the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, which represents 31 counties and municipalities in the northwest region of the state.

They reject arguments that impacts on their communities shouldn’t be considered. Glenwood Springs city councilman Jonathan Godes said any spill of crude oil into the Colorado River would be catastrophic for his town and every community downstream.

“Our entire recreation economy is built around the river,” he said. “It would destroy our economy and our drinking water.”

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Spectator killed by hammer throw at high school track and field event in Colorado

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Spectator killed by hammer throw at high school track and field event in Colorado


The hammer throw, a track and field event, uses a heavy hammer weight attached to a grip by a steel wire. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

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.

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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.



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Colorado Springs police search for missing 12-year-old boy

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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.

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If you have any information, call police at (719) 444-7000.





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Feds round up 50 Tren de Aragua members at ‘makeshift nightclub’ in Aurora, Colorado as DEA and ICE hit cities across US

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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.

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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.

Around 50 members of Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua were rounded up and arrested in Aurora, Colo. in a pre-dawn raid Sunday. DEA Rocky Mountain Division

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.

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“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.”


Armed, body armor-wearing agents entering the front door of a home.
Law enforcement rounded up dozens of criminal illegal immigrants under a nationwide, multi-agency operation called “Return to Sender,” sources tell The Post. DEA Rocky Mountain Division

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.

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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.

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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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