JARED POLIS

Colorado’s governor has signed four gun control bills five months after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub.

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado has signed legislation forcing manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software to farmers so they can fix their own machines.

Colorado lawmakers have pushed forward a slew of aggressive gun control bills that are nearing the governor’s desk for signatures.

A trio of health care bills enshrining access to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications have become law in Colorado as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for people from states where Republican leaders have restricted care.

Public outrage is swift following mass shootings such as the one that killed six people at a Nashville elementary school.

A group of police officers and paramedics have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the role they are accused of playing in the death of a 23-year-old Black man who was forcibly restrained and injected with a powerful sedative called ketamine.

Denver has been overwhelmed by an unexpected surge in mostly Venezuelan migrants.

A gay men's choir in Colorado Springs is among a group of organizations working locally to foster solidarity and healing after a shooting at a gay night club devastated Colorado Springs' LGBTQ community.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has visited the memorial outside a gay club where five people were killed in a shooting attack last week.

A member of the U.S. Navy who was injured while helping subdue a man who shot and killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado said he simply wanted to save the family that he had found.

Hundreds of people have gathered in a Colorado Springs park to honor five people killed and 17 wounded in a weekend shooting at a gay nightclub.

A Colorado state panel has recommended Mount Evans, a prominent peak near Denver, be renamed Mount Blue Sky.

Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, has emphasized in his reelection campaign his efforts to ease inflation’s burdens on families and fight crime while touting first-term triumphs in health care affordability, public education funding and climate policy.

New Mexico's governor has voided four pre-statehood proclamations that targeted Native Americans during what was a tumultuous time across the western frontier.

In cities and suburbs across the U.S., Republicans up and down the ballot have overwhelmingly focused on sending a message that violent crime is out of control.

Seventeen states that tie their vehicle emission standards to rules established in California must decide whether to follow that state’s strict new rules.

State governments flush with money are returning billions of dollars to their residents.

Southern Colorado authorities say a woman and a sheriff’s deputy were fatally shot at a home over the weekend and that the suspected gunman was found dead inside the home.

When the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a right to abortion, it sparked legal changes and court challenges in states nationwide.

Colorado Republicans have rejected two prominent election deniers in primaries Tuesday night.

Seven states are set to host primary elections Tuesday as the nation comes to terms with last week’s stunning Supreme Court ruling eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.

A Nebraska man has pleaded guilty in federal court to making death threats against Colorado’s top elections official.

Clela Rorex, a former Colorado county clerk considered a pioneer in the gay rights movement for being the first public official to issue a same-sex marriage license in 1975, has died.

Cryptocurrency donations have become a big part of campaign fundraising for many candidates running for office across the U.S. this year.

The megadrought fueled by climate change that has long gripped the western U.S. is moving eastward.

Major energy producing states from Alaska to Pennsylvania are reaping a windfall from soaring oil and natural gas prices, stoked by the war in Ukraine and the U.S.-led ban on Russian oil imports.

California is the first state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related technologies, following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March.

The father of JonBenet Ramsey is supporting an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation into her death more than 25 years ago by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing.

With fentanyl driving fatal overdoses to record levels in the U.S., state governments are scrambling for solutions.

Adrian Kellgren’s family-owned gun company in Florida was left holding a $200,000 shipment of semi-automatic rifles after a longtime customer in Ukraine suddenly went silent during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country.

Governors and lawmakers in numerous U.S. states are seeking to add to the financial squeeze on Russia over its war against Ukraine.

Some U.S. governors are taking matters into their own hands and imposing their own economic sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine.

The governors of four Rocky Mountain states say they will cooperate on developing ways to make hydrogen more available and useful as clean-burning fuel for cars, trucks and trains.

The city of Colorado Springs has reached a nearly $3 million settlement in a civil lawsuit brought by the family of a 19-year-old Black man who was fatally shot in the back by police officers in 2019.

Two Colorado prosecutors say Gov. Jared Polis’ reduction of a 110-year prison sentence to 10 years for a trucker convicted of killing four people in a fiery 2019 crash is hurting efforts to negotiate sentences in other cases.

Governors and state lawmakers are prioritizing climate change as they write their state budgets, devoting money to lowering emissions and guarding against natural disasters such as flood and fire.

President Joe Biden has visited Colorado to comfort residents grappling with rebuilding homes and businesses destroyed last week by a rare winter fire.

Investigators looking for one of two people missing after a destructive Colorado wildfire have found partial human remains in an area near the suspected origin of the blaze.

Investigators looking for the cause of the Colorado wildfire that destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and buildings have narrowed their search to a sparsely populated neighborhood near Boulder.

A Colorado official says nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed, hundreds more were damaged, and three people are missing after a wildfire charred numerous neighborhoods in a suburban area northwest of Denver.

Tens of thousands of Coloradans driven from their neighborhoods by a wind-whipped wildfire are beginning to get a look at the damage done.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has shortened the prison sentence of a truck driver convicted in a deadly explosive crash to 10 years, drastically reducing his original 110-year term that drew widespread outrage.

Relatives, lawmakers and other supporters are pleading for clemency for a trucker sentenced to 110 years in prison after an explosive brake-failure crash that left four people dead in Colorado.

An online petition has gathered millions of signatures calling for leniency for a 26-year-old truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for causing a crash that killed four people in Colorado.

The Denver suburb of Aurora has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after suburban Denver police stopped him on the street and put him in a neckhold two years ago.

California is among three states now allowing coronavirus booster shots for all adults.

The contagious delta variant is driving up COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Mountain West and fueling disruptive outbreaks in the North.

Voters in Texas have pushed back against pandemic restrictions on nursing home visits and worship services.

Food is faring is well as voters decide whether to create new constitutional rights.

Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is gearing up to invest $3.5 billion into climate initiatives through her foundation in the next ten years.

With more than 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccines available, U.S. health authorities said they’re confident there will be enough for every American who qualifies.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is moving the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management back to the nation’s capital after two years in Colorado.

Colorado's Jared Polis, who became the first openly gay man to be elected governor in the United States in 2018, has married his longtime partner and first gentleman Marlon Reis, a writer and animal welfare advocate.

A poll shows that most Americans don’t believe their personal information is secure online and they aren't satisfied with the federal government's efforts to protect their digital privacy.

Colorado’s attorney general says a civil rights investigation that began amid outrage over the death of Elijah McClain has found that a suburban Denver police department has a pattern of racially biased policing.

Alaska’s largest hospital has begun rationing care, saying it has been overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.

Police reform advocates say the indictments of three suburban Denver officers and two paramedics in the death of Elijah McClain could be a pivotal step toward meaningful accountability for law enforcement.

Three suburban Denver officers and two paramedics have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

The creators of the irreverent animated television series “South Park” are buying Casa Bonita, a quirky restaurant in suburban Denver that was featured on the show.

An untold number of Americans have managed to get COVID-19 booster shots even though the U.S. government hasn't approved them.

A video showing a police officer pistol-whipping and choking a Black man during an arrest in a Denver suburb has reignited anger over policing in the community.

The state that launched the movement to offer millions of dollars in incentives to boost vaccination rates is concluding its program still unable to crack the 50% vaccination threshold.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order that will lift most of the state’s coronavirus rules.

A review of Hawaii Gov. David Ige’s emails shows the state epidemiologist spent key weeks in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic resisting suggestions and requests that she boost contact tracing to control the spread of COVID-19.

Arizona’s state-run COVID-19 vaccination sites, which were touted as a national model, will be shutting down later this month.

Several families and survivors of those killed in March's mass shooting at a Colorado supermarket are demanding the appointment of a special master to help distribute public donations for victims to a centralized account.

Legislators have brought guns into the Oregon State Capitol for personal protection.

The first winner of Ohio's $1 million Vax-a-Million lottery says she's still having a hard time believing it.

The state says a southwestern Ohio woman is the first winner of Ohio’s $1 million Vax-a-Million vaccination incentive prize.

The Nevada school district for Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County says fully vaccinated students and staff are no longer required to wear masks in most situations.

Police in Colorado are investigating what led a gunman to open fire at a birthday party inside a trailer park home, killing six adults before he took his own life.

The card millions of people have used to prove their identity to everyone from police officers to liquor store owners may soon be a thing of the past as a growing number of states develop digital driver’s licenses.

Republicans are increasingly using food — especially beef — as a cudgel in the culture war.

The Oregon Senate has passed a bill that would mandate safe storage of guns and ban them from the state Capitol.

Isolated North Korea is warning its people to brace for a prolonged struggle against the coronavirus, claiming that broadening outbreaks and muddled immunization programs in other countries show vaccines aren’t the ultimate solution.

Colorado’s governor has extended a statewide mask mandate for another 30 days, but loosened face covering requirements for groups who are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Efforts to raise gas taxes for roads and bridges are slowing in states as discussions are picking up in Washington about a big transportation funding boost.

A U.S. health panel says it’s time to resume use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite a very rare risk of blood clots.

Topless dancers can shed coronavirus restrictions beginning next weekend in Las Vegas and get face-to-face with patrons again.

A recent spike in coronavirus cases in some states has led one of the nation's top health experts to suggest that governors could “close things down” like they did during previous surges.

The All-Star Game will be played at hitter-friendly Coors Field this year.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought the weapon on March 16, just six days before the attack at a King Soopers store in Boulder, according to an arrest affidavit. Investigators have not established a motive, but they believe Alissa was the only shooter, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. Relatives described times when Alissa told them people were following or chasing him, which they said may have contributed to the violence, the official said. That ordinance and another banning large-capacity magazines came after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. Supermarket employees told investigators that Alissa shot a man multiple times outside the Boulder grocery store before going inside, according to the affidavit.

BOULDER, Colo. – A shooting at a Colorado supermarket killed 10 people Monday, including a police officer who was the first to respond to the scene, authorities said. I promise the victims and the people of the state of Colorado that we will secure justice." Matthew Kirsch, the acting U.S. attorney for Colorado, pledged that “the full weight of federal law enforcement” will support the investigation. Officials have not said whether the suspect is the person who was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder. White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)BEIJING — Sinovac said on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac is safe and effective in children ages 3-17. State-owned Sinopharm, who has two COVID-19 vaccines, is also investigating the effectiveness of its vaccines in children. The House vote came just before the state health department reported that more than 1 million COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered within the state. State officials say about 2.9 million vaccine doses have been given to about 1.1 million people so far in Arizona. ___LISBON, Portugal — Portugal resumed administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, a week after temporarily halting its use.

In Virginia, state vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said the state could hit Biden’s goal earlier. But several governors cautioned it must come with a dramatic increase in vaccine supply. “It could be a delay for people to actually get a vaccine because of the operational constraints," she said. We can’t disappoint people who eagerly want a vaccine,” said Pat Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority. Elsewhere, governors met Biden's goal with enthusiasm.

This July 2020 photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine. ___BISMARCK, N.D. — Nearly 10% of residents in North Dakota have completed both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. More than 981,000 Indiana residents have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 552,241 are fully vaccinated. ___RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian government announced a 12-day lockdown in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after a surge in coronavirus cases, including new variants. ___WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation has continued on a downward trend in the number of daily coronavirus cases.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- The Navajo Nation has continued on a downward trend in the number of daily coronavirus cases. Canada regulators have approved AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine. Gavin Newsom expects California to start administering the new Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine next week. Addition of the J&J vaccine would come as California is seeing dramatic drops in virus cases and hospitalizations after record highs in early January. While they only comprise about 48% of coronavirus cases, they account for 74% of vaccinations.

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)ALBANY, N.Y. – At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, two Democratic governors on opposite ends of the country were hailed as heroes for their leadership in a crisis. The COVID-19 virus has been an especially painful illustration of that point. “New York and California are under a magnifying glass,” said Jared Leopold, former spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association. First, the state’s Democratic attorney general chastised the Cuomo administration for minimizing the death toll at nursing homes by excluding certain fatalities from the count. “Any of these Democratic governors are going to come off these initial highs they got that were better than Republican governors,” Stutzman, a Republican, argued.

This image provided by Colorado Avalanche Information Center shows an avalanche that killed an unidentified snowboarder on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, near the town of Winter Park in Colorado. When you pile on more snow, there’s always one spot that’s going to break,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Jared Polis and the state parks and wildlife agency urged residents to check conditions this holiday weekend, citing the high danger. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued a special advisory Monday, warning that “large, wide and long-running natural and human-triggered avalanches are likely.”Are people getting the message? “The bottom line is that partner rescue is the only way we have positive outcomes in the backcountry,” Zinn said.

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2021, file photo, Drivers wait in line at a mega COVID-19 vaccination site set up in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Some of them carried signs decrying the COVID-19 vaccine and shouting for people not to get the shots. California surpasses 40,000 coronavirus deaths. ___BALTIMORE — Baltimore public health officials are canceling some COVID-19 vaccination appointments scheduled for next week after overbooking hundreds of first-dose appointments. ___ROME — The Italian Medicines Agency known has approved the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for persons older than 18.

Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray holds an "I Got Vaccinated" button at a COVID-19 vaccine injection site set in a concession area at Fenway Park, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)BOSTON — A Massachusetts congressman who has received both doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine has tested positive for the virus. The state also reported 5,028 additional confirmed coronavirus cases, increasing the state’s totals to 748,260 cases and 13,022 deaths. Ad___FORT LAUNDERDALE, Fla. — The predominantly Black farming communities on the shore of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee will get a coronavirus vaccine station. Algeria has registered more than 106,000 coronavirus cases and 2,881 confirmed deaths.

He acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been left guessing how much vaccine they will have from one week to the next. "Lives are at stake.”He promised a roughly 16% boost in deliveries to states over the next three weeks. The administration said it plans to buy another 100 million doses each from drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to ensure it has enough vaccine for the long term. The setup inherited from the Trump administration has been marked by miscommunication and unexplained bottlenecks, with shortages reported in some places even as vaccine doses remain on the shelf. As of Tuesday afternoon, the CDC reported that just over half of the 44 million doses distributed to states have been put in people’s arms.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)DENVER – Suburban Denver police officers won’t be charged after detaining four Black girls by gunpoint this summer and handcuffing two of them after wrongly suspecting they were riding in a stolen car, prosecutors said Friday. Both involved officers from the Aurora Police Department and drew national attention during America’s reckoning over racism and police brutality. The prosecutor also said it was difficult for the officers to see who was inside the vehicle partly because of its tinted windows. Meanwhile, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser opened a grand jury investigation into McClain's death as part of his probe of the case that started last summer. In the video, McClain can be heard saying he couldn't breathe and sometimes crying out or sobbing.

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)LAS VEGAS — Tens of thousands of people were walking on the casino-lined Las Vegas Strip on New Year’s Eve by early evening despite a plea from Nevada Gov. China on Friday reported a total of 19 new virus cases, including 10 that were brought from outside the country. ___LONDON — The coronavirus pandemic canceled London’s annual New Years’ Eve fireworks display, which usually draws tens of thousands of spectators. The nation’s most populated county has about 40% of California’s virus deaths. ___NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee ends the year ranked first in coronavirus cases per capita.

The others are the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and Kansas Supreme Court chief justice and four Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature. The legislative leaders and the state’s Republican attorney general passed, for now, because not all health care workers and nursing home residents have received theirs. The governor also said Wednesday that “hundreds” of other, non-elected state officials have been made eligible for early vaccines by their agencies. The others are the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and Kansas Supreme Court chief justice and four Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Most of those Republicans said they didn’t want to jump in line ahead of health care workers, nursing home residents or other vulnerable Kansans.

Newsom has announced the first known case of the new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus in the nation's most populated state. (Office of the Governor via AP)DENVER – California on Wednesday announced the nation's second confirmed case of the new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus, offering a strong indication that the infection is spreading more widely in the United States. He noted that the U.S. does far less genetic sequencing of virus samples to discover variants than other developed nations, and thus was probably slow to detect this new mutation. The Colorado case announced Tuesday involves a man in his 20s who had not traveled recently, officials said. Several states, including California, Massachusetts and Delaware, are also analyzing suspicious virus samples for the variant, said Dr. Greg Armstrong, who directs genetic sequencing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)DENVER – The first reported U.S. case of the COVID-19 variant that's been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado, Gov. The Colorado State Laboratory confirmed the virus variant, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified. The vaccines being given now are thought to be effective against the variant, Colorado health officials said in a news release. The U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, has also been found in Canada, Italy, India and the United Arab Emirates. South Africa has also discovered a highly contagious COVID-19 variant that is driving the country’s latest spike of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

The couple convicted of criminal charges in the so-called balloon boy hoax that fascinated the country more than a decade ago was pardoned Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, by the governor of Colorado. (AP Photo/ Ed Andrieski, File)DENVER – A couple convicted of criminal charges in the so-called balloon boy hoax that fascinated the country more than a decade ago were pardoned Wednesday by the governor of Colorado. Richard and Mayumi Heene reported their 6-year-old son had floated away in an homemade UFO-shaped silver helium balloon in 2009. “We are all ready to move past the spectacle from a decade ago,” said Polis, a first-term Democrat. Richard Heene served a month in jail after pleading guilty to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant, and Mayumi Heene was jailed for 20 days for filing a false report.

Some 5,000 prisoners have become infected in Kansas prisons, the second-highest COVID-19 rate in the country, second only to South Dakota. Venters has conducted more than a dozen court-ordered COVID-19 prison inspections around the country. Some 5,100 prisoners have become infected in Kansas prisons, the third-highest COVID-19 rate in the country, behind only South Dakota and Arkansas. Half of the prisoners in Kansas have been infected with COVID-19 — eight times the rate of cases among the state’s overall population. Nationwide, the mortality rate for COVID-19 among prisoners is 45% higher than the overall rate.

The high court’s unsigned decisions did not rule that limits imposed by Colorado Gov. But they did throw out federal district court rulings that rejected challenges to the limits. The High Plains Harvest Church in the rural town of Ault in northern Colorado sued Polis, while a Catholic priest and a rabbi challenged the restrictions in New Jersey. Last month, the Supreme Court split 5-4 in holding that New York could not enforce certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues. The high court subsequently ordered a new look at California worship service restrictions that had been challenged.