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Impeachment effort launched by Colorado House Republicans against secretary of state • Colorado Newsline

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Impeachment effort launched by Colorado House Republicans against secretary of state • Colorado Newsline


Republicans in the Colorado House of Representatives are seeking to impeach the Democratic secretary of state, who they say can’t be trusted to run fair elections.

Spearheaded by the top Republican in the Democrat-majority chamber, Minority Leader Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs, and Rep. Ryan Armagost of Berthoud, the effort has the backing of 17 of the 19 House Republicans.

“Since being elected, the Secretary of State has used her position as a platform for her partisan political ideology and has proven herself unfit for this elected position,” the group of Republicans wrote in a letter Wednesday to Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, about Secretary Jena Griswold.

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The letter indicates that Pugliese and Armagost submitted an impeachment resolution Feb. 8, and it requests that McCluskie bring the resolution to the House floor for consideration.

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“The Colorado Republican Party continues to focus on conspiracies and political games,” Griswold said in an email. “I will not be intimidated by this baseless proceeding. While the Republican House Caucus wastes taxpayer dollars to score cheap political points, you can find me working for Colorado voters – Republican, Democratic, and Unaffiliated alike – to ensure they can make their voices heard in free and fair elections.” 

Armagost and Pugliese started working on the resolution in January after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump, due to his actions in relation to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, should be barred from the Colorado presidential primary ballot. The ruling was part of a lawsuit in which six Colorado voters sued Griswold in an effort to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits a person who “engaged in insurrection” after taking an oath to support the Constitution from holding office again.

The Colorado ruling was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

This resolution is an unwarranted waste of time, and I’m disappointed to see House Republicans bow to the most extreme fringes of their party simply because the Secretary of State did her job.

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– Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie

As a defendant in the case, Griswold took a neutral position in the proceedings. But she has been a vocal Trump critic, and she expressed approval when the state Supreme Court barred Trump.

“Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado Ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court got it right,” Griswold said in a statement after the December ruling.

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“Having the bias and doing what she’s doing to remove a candidate from the ballot, based on personal feelings and accusations, is dangerous,” Armagost said Thursday in an interview. “If she has personal feelings against me, she could do the same to me and say that I did this or that and ask that I get removed from the primary ballot … So this is simply just to say, you can’t do that with your position.”

Armagost said he doubts Griswold has ever run free and fair elections since she first took office after being elected in 2018.

“And I think there’s a fair amount of voters that don’t think so, based on my constituents that reach out to me,” Armagost said. “I think this was a perfect example of how she chooses to run elections, and it’s not free, fair, balanced or transparent at all.”

The impeachment resolution had yet to be introduced by the time of publication. Armagost said he expected the measure to be introduced Thursday.

“This resolution is an unwarranted waste of time, and I’m disappointed to see House Republicans bow to the most extreme fringes of their party simply because the Secretary of State did her job,” McCluskie said in a statement. “Donald Trump is the problem, not the secretary. But instead of dealing with MAGA extremists in their ranks, they’re defending Trump, and attacking his opponents.”

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According to the Colorado Constitution, statewide officers can be impeached for “high crimes or misdemeanors or malfeasance in office.” The state House can impeach by majority vote, and the state Senate has the power to convict with a two-thirds majority.

Armagost acknowledged that since Democrats enjoy strong majorities in both chambers, the resolution has little chance of passing.

“Any debate that we really do here is wildly outnumbered. We get bulldozed,” he said. “The only thing we can do is make noise as the super minority.”

Griswold won reelection in 2022, when she defeated her Republican challenger by 12 points. She is chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State and is often said to have overseen a “gold standard” election system.

The letter from Colorado House Republicans follows a Monday letter from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Windsor and the Colorado Republican Party that threatens a recall effort against Griswold.

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Outraged over incentives for data centers that are no good for Colorado (Letters)

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Outraged over incentives for data centers that are no good for Colorado (Letters)


Data centers: What good are they for Colorado?

Re: “Dueling policies for data centers,” March 1 news story

The Denver Post article about two competing bills in the legislature regarding new data centers in Colorado seems to start with the presumption that we want the data centers.

Why do we want them and who wants them? Is it the politicians wanting bragging rights about our state becoming another Silicon Valley? Perhaps they want more businesses so they can collect more taxes from the new residents. Alternatively, they just want more power in Washington by increasing our population. Has anyone stopped to ask why we want to attract more people to our state?

Colorado is in a fight with other Western states to obtain more water for our growing population. Our wildlife is being crowded out by the increased urbanization. The roads are so crowded that it is not uncommon to come to a complete stop on our interchanges during rush hour. We have a serious housing shortage. The air is being polluted by the increased number of cars. These are all the result of a growing population. Did anyone stop to ask why we want more people?

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During my 53 years living in Colorado, I have never heard anyone (other than politicians) say, “We need more people.” On the contrary, the conversation is more often about how we are becoming overcrowded. I would like the politicians to explain why we need more businesses and more people in our state. It should not be a presumption that more is better! Are our elected representatives truly reflecting the wishes of their constituents?

Doug Hurst, Parker

Anger and disbelief were our reactions when we read about House Bill 1030, which is under consideration at the statehouse. This outrageous corporate welfare bill would provide some of the world’s wealthiest corporations with massive state tax reductions to build monstrous resource-thirsty data centers. Analysts projected a $92.5 million tax loss in just three years if a bunch of these data centers are built. Just one 160-megawatt facility would gobble up as much power as 176,000 homes once completed. Consider for comparison that the entire DIA airport uses around 45 megawatts of power!

As the state legislature grapples with bone-deep budget cuts, we cannot afford to exempt data centers from paying their own way nor allow their unregulated construction. Taxpayer-funded corporate handouts would entail massive hits to tax revenue that should be used for our schools, roads, infrastructure, and valid state needs. What essential services will potentially be cut or axed to cover the lost revenue to the state from this corporate giveaway?

These data centers also demand massive amounts of our water. A CoreSite data center in Denver alone will use approximately 805,000 gallons of water per day to air-condition its computers. That is the same as the average daily indoor water use of 16,100 Denver homes.

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I pray our state legislature will condemn HB-1030 to the corporate welfare hell where it belongs in. Instead, they should support Senate Bill 102 that will hopefully properly regulate these tax-eating, water-wasting, and electricity-gobbling monstrosities.

Terry Talbot, Grand Junction



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Skier killed in avalanche in Colorado’s Boss Basin, first ski death of the season

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Skier killed in avalanche in Colorado’s Boss Basin, first ski death of the season


Early Sunday morning, Colorado rescue crews found the body of a missing skier who was killed in a recent avalanche.

The skier was reported missing in the Boss Basin area in the upper portion of Resolution Creek on March 7.

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Colorado Avalanche Information Center


Summit County Rescue Group, Vail Mountain Rescue and the Summit and Eagle County Sheriff’s Offices began searching the area and discovered the site of the avalanche. They noticed that nearby ski and snowmobile tracks led up to where it occurred.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center says Flight for Life helped with the search. They found the body of the missing skier in the avalanche debris on Sunday, around sunrise.

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Colorado Avalanche Information Center


CAIC staff said the avalanche started near the treeline on a northeast-facing slope and was about two feet deep. The slope angles ranged from 33 to 36 degrees.

According to CAIC data, this is the first person killed in an avalanche during the 2025-2026 ski season.

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Colorado Avalanche Information Center

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Avalanche danger in some parts of the high country is considerable, particularly on north- and east-facing slopes and on large open slopes just below ridgelines.

The CAIC Forecast for Sunday says:

“The avalanche danger will stay at CONSIDERABLE (3of5) on Sunday for the places that picked up the most snow in this last storm (Elk and Sawatch Ranges). Areas that received less than 8 inches will go back to MODERATE danger, but this may vary significantly from drainage to drainage and with elevation. Assume a higher danger if you find a foot or more of new snow. Across the region, wind-drifted slopes will remain the most dangerous regardless of the danger. In the shallower areas (Elks and Sawatch), we’re more concerned about avalanches in motion breaking deeper, failing in buried facet layers.

On Sunday, as the sun pops out, remember that a strong spring sun can make sunny slopes unstable rather quickly. Keep an eye out for roller balls as an indication of a forthcoming shed cycle of loose avalanches.”



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Arizona men’s basketball shakes off poor start to win at Colorado in regular season finale

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Arizona men’s basketball shakes off poor start to win at Colorado in regular season finale


Will this be the team that gets Arizona back to the Final Four for the first time in 25 years, and maybe go further? Who knows. But one thing is for certain, no Wildcats squad has had a better regular season than this one.

Second-ranked Arizona rallied from down 11 late in the first half to win 89-79 at Colorado on Saturday night, putting the finishing touches on its first Big 12 title. The 29 victories are the most in school history during the regular season, breaking a mark done four previous times including in 2021-22 in Tommy Lloyd’s first year running the program.

Brayden Burries had a career-high 31 points, 22 coming in the second half, while Koa Peat scored 19 of his 25 in the first half. The freshmen combined to make 21 of 31 shots and Burries added an 11-of-12 performance at the foul line, and Burries added seven rebounds, five steals and an assist.

Tobe Awaka, Ivan Kharchenkov and Motiejus Krivas each had 10 for Arizona, which shot 70.4 percent in the second half and 55.9 percent for the game. The Wildcats had a 54-26 edge on points in the paint and finished plus-5 on the boards after being down four at the half.

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Jaden Bradley went scoreless for the first time this season, missing all three of his shots, but he made up for it with six of the UA’s 22 assists.

Colorado (17-14) got 28 points from Isaiah Johnson, who set the school freshman season scoring record. The Buffaloes shot 40.6 percent and made 7 of 22 from 3 but only hit one triple after halftime.

The UA trailed 38-36 at halftime, only the fourth time this season it has been down after 20 minutes, after being down 11 late in the first half. A Burries 3 tied it at 44, thenKharchenkov gave the Wildcats their first lead at 48-46 with 16:59 remaining.

Arizona got the lead up to five before Colorado fought back. Six straight by Bangot Dak put the Buffaloes ahead 54-52 but then Dak picked up his fourth foul and had to sit.

That began a 4-minute stretch with 10 lead changes before Arizona got a stop and Burries drained a 3 on the other end to put the UA up 66-62 with 9:17 left. The Wildcats made six straight shots, including back-to-back baskets inside byAwaka to make it 73-64 with 7:15 remaining.

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A 3 from Kharchenkov put Arizona up 10 with 5:48 to go. The Buffaloes got within six before Peat dunked through a zone defense, and a Burries layup again got the lead to double digits.

Peat had 12 of Arizona’s first 14 points in the first seven minutes, but none put the Wildcats in the lead. The Buffaloes never trailed in the first half, jumping out to an 8-point edge with 8:08 left before halftime and extending that to 36-25 with 4:21 to go in the half, both on 3s by Johnson.

Colorado hit six 3-pointers in the first half, three by Johnson, while Arizona was 0 for 6 from deep

A 9-0 run, capped by a 3-point play by Burries, got the UA within two in the final minute, setting the stage for the second half.

Arizona now gets a few days off before heading to the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. As the No. 1 seed it has a double bye into Thursday’s quarterfinals, where it will face either No. 8 UCF, No. 9 Cincinnati or No. 16 Utah. They beat those teams this season by seven, 26 and 19 points, respectively.

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2026 Big 12 Tournament schedule

No. 12 ASU (16-15) vs. No. 13 Baylor (16-15), 9:30 a.m. (ESPN+)

No. 9 Cincinnati (17-14) vs. No. 16 Utah (10-21), 12 p.m. (ESPN+)

No. 10 BYU (21-10) vs. No. 15 Kansas State (12-19), 4 p.m. (ESPN+)

No. 11 Colorado (17-14) vs. No. 14 Oklahoma State (18-13), 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+)

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ASU/Baylor winner vs. No. 5 Iowa State (25-6), 9:30 a.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

Cincinnati/Utah winner vs. No. 8 UCF (20-10), 12 p.m. (ESPNU)

BYU/Kansas State winner vs. No. 7 West Virginia (18-13), 4 p.m. (ESPNU)

Colorado/Oklahoma State winner vs. No. 6 TCU (21-10), 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPNU)

ASU/Baylor-Iowa State winner vs. No. 4 Texas Tech (22-9), 9:30 a.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

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Cincinnati/Utah-UCF winner vs. No. 1 Arizona (29-2), 12 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

BYU/Kansas State-West Virginia winner vs. No. 2 Houston (26-5), 4 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

Colorado/Oklahoma State-TCU winner vs. No. 3 Kansas (22-9), 6:30 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

Quarterfinal 1 winner vs. Quarterfinal 2 winner, 4 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

Quarterfinal 3 winner vs. Quarterfinal 4 winner, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)

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Semifinal winners, 3 p.m. (ESPN)



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