Colorado
State Rep. Epps officially reprimanded by Colorado Speaker for violating House decorum during pro-Palestinian protest
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The Speaker of Colorado’s House, Julie McCluskie, has sent a formal letter of reprimand admonishing a fellow Democrat, Rep. Elisabeth Epps of Denver, for, among other things, joining a pro-Palestinian protest in the House gallery and disrupting proceedings during a special legislative session late last year.
The letter lists six House rules McCluskie said Epps violated, and warns her that any repeat of her behavior could lead to “further disciplinary action” by the House.
The reprimand comes just days before state lawmakers are set to return to the capitol for the annual legislative session, which begins Wednesday.
“It is my expectation that you will uphold the honor and dignity of elected office and this institution, and engage with members in civil and respectful ways,” wrote McCluskie.
The incident during the special session started when Epps attempted to add an amendment to a bill about federal food benefits that would have prevented them from being used to purchase products made in the Palestinian territories.
According to reports of the situation, Epps concluded her remarks on the amendment with the words “Free Palestine!” She then joined pro-Palestinian protesters who had been watching the day’s debate from the balcony around the House chamber.
When GOP Rep. Ron Weinberg, who is Jewish, took the lecturn to respond, Epps and others shouted down at him, interrupting his remarks. Democratic leaders called on state patrol to clear the galleries, and Epps eventually left after other members of her caucus went up to speak with her.
In her letter to Epps, McCluskie wrote that the representative engaged in numerous actions during the special session that were significantly disruptive to House business and caused delays, and engaged in disrespectful behaviors which “failed to uphold the honor and dignity of our democratic institution.”
McCluskie released the letter to all of the House members on Monday afternoon, including Epps. CPR News has reached out to Epps for a response and will update with any comment.
In the weeks since the special session, Epps has defended her actions on social media and criticized leadership for “punishing victims and protecting abusers”, saying that she has been called vile things by some of her Republican colleagues.
“Decorum is just one of your racist dog whistles for complacency + complicity” she posted on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a tweet from a fellow Democratic representative.
McCluskie has disputed the claim that decorum rules are applied unevenly. She told CPR News she plans to release a set of decorum guidelines in the coming weeks to help lawmakers navigate when they may be saying something that crosses the line.
A history of disagreements
Epps, who took office last January, has been at odds with House leadership and the Speaker for a while on a variety of issues.
On the final day of the 2023 session, tensions flared in a Democratic caucus meeting. Several members, including Epps, criticized the Speaker directly, saying she failed to take action against racist and inappropriate comments on the chamber floor and didn’t do enough to support brown and Black lawmakers, especially the Black women in the caucus. During the meeting, Epps noted that she hadn’t talked to the Speaker in three months and said she didn’t think McCluskie calls out the “nonsense” from the other side of the aisle.
“It is predictable at this point. And it’s not just what happens on the floor, (it’s) what’s happening off,” she said.
Over the summer, Epps and another Democratic representative, Rep. Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch, filed a lawsuit against their leadership over alleged violations of open meetings laws. Their suit was eventually withdrawn after leaders, including McCluskie, agreed to changes.
The letter of reprimand was not McCluskie’s first move against Epps. Late last year she removed both Epps and Marshall from the powerful Judiciary Committee.
“Serving on a member’s top choice of committee is a privilege — not a right,” McCluskie said in a statement about her decision, which she said was made to decrease acrimony on the committee.
“My decisions on where to appoint members depend on their respect of their colleagues, ability to collaborate and adherence to decorum, which was clearly violated during our special session last month,” McCluskie continued.
More recently, Epps was reassigned offices, from a plum space in the state capitol to an office building across the street, a move she also took as retaliation.
“it hurts what Dems + speaker of the house are doing to me bc I won’t be silent or complicit—expelled me from judiciary cmte, now from my physical (not elected) office,” Epps tweeted on Jan. 2. “Yet it’s right in line with what bipartisan establishment is doing to other Black women. I’m not quitting, tho.”
Colorado
Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.
Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.
Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.
Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.
Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:
Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches
Snowmass: 0.5 inches
Copper Mountain: 10 inches
Winter Park: 9 inches
Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches
Keystone Resort: 8 inches
Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches
Vail Mountain: 7 inches
Steamboat Resort: 6 inches
Beaver Creek: 6 inches
Irwin: 4.5 inches
Cooper Mountain: 4 inches
Sunlight: 0.5 inches
Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.
Colorado
Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild
The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.
It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.
“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.
“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.
“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.
“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.
“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.
That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.
It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.
MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.
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Colorado
Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon
Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.
Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.
Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.
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