In the News

Two of Colorado's Democratic members of Congress sought answers Thursday on how to make their state more resilient to wildfires.

At a Thursday hearing of the House Natural Resources' subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands, member U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, expressed concern that wildfires will continue to damage forests in mountain areas where streams provide water to nearby communities. The U.S. Forest Service estimates 60 million Americans get their drinking water from mountain watersheds daily.

Faced with population growth and a booming tourism and recreation industry, Colorado congressional leaders are pushing to protect more than 1 million acres of land as wilderness with the help of legislation to be introduced Tuesday that would cover 33 parcels, from high desert plateaus to river canyons in the western half of the state.

‘This may finally be the year that we get this done,' DeGette says

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) unveiled new legislation today to designate more than 740,000 acres in 33 areas of Colorado as federally-protected wilderness.

"Colorado's public lands are what set us apart from the rest of the country," DeGette said at a news conference Monday to announce the plan. "They are the reason why so many of us are so proud to call Colorado home, and they are the reason why so many people from across the country flock here to visit each year."

Four congressional Democrats from Colorado sent a letter to the heads of the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, imploring the officials to end a policy preventing immigrants who work in the marijuana industry from gaining U.S. citizenship.

Denver's most powerful members of Congress are calling for U.S. Attorney General William Barr to step down, saying he mischaracterized special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

"I agree he should resign," U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Denver Democrat, told CBS on Thursday as he announced his candidacy for president.

The senator, who worked in the Justice Department during President Bill Clinton's administration, said Barr is not properly leading the "serious and committed patriots" of the Justice Department.

U.S. lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate on Tuesday that would raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21.

The odds of Congress raising the federal age limit this year are high with support from both parties in both houses of Congress. Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Chris Stewart, R-Utah introduced legislation in the House while Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Todd Young, R-Ind., did so in the Senate.

Araceli Velasquez, who has lived in sanctuary at a space shared by two religious institutions in Denver since August 2017, is pushing for the Department of Justice to reopen her asylum case.

Last week, Velasquez filed a motion to reopen her case with the Board of Immigration Appeals. If the motion is granted, she would be able to at least temporarily leave the basement of the space shared by Park Hill United Methodist Church and Temple Micah, which is where she and her family have taken sanctuary from federal immigration law enforcement agents.

State health inspectors equipped with infrared cameras dropped in unannounced on about 2,000 oil and gas operations across Colorado last year and found leaks of heat-trapping methane and volatile organic gas at 13 percent of those sites — half the frequency of leaks they detected five years ago.

Tougher anti-pollution enforcement, including inspections like these, has emerged as an option for Gov. Jared Polis and state lawmakers as they re-focus government oversight of the oil and gas industry — one of the contributors to Colorado's poor air quality.