BVSD closures due to high winds; Denver postpones vote on new license plate reader contract; All CO legislative Democrats urge Polis not to shorten Peters’ sentence

Headlines Thursday, March 12, 2026

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    BVSD closures due to high winds; Denver postpones vote on new license plate reader contract; All CO legislative Democrats urge Polis not to shorten Peters’ sentence KGNU News

BVSD closures due to high winds

Per forecasts of wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour, the Boulder Valley School District has closed Nederland Elementary, Nederland Middle School, Gold Hill Elementary and Jamestown Elementary today. 

There is an elevated fire risk and potential for power outages in the area. The district said in an announcement yesterday that all before and after-school activities at the district’s mountain schools are canceled, along with bus routes that transport students from mountain residences to non-mountain area schools.

Updates can be found at bvsd.org.

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Denver postpones vote on new license plate reader contract

Denver has postponed the initial vote on a new license plate reader contract, following their separation from Flock.  Yesterday, the city and county of Denver’s Health and Safety Committee postponed a vote on a newly proposed license plate reader contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. The new contract comes just weeks before the city’s Flock Safety contract officially expires, preventing data sharing and operation within city limits. 

City officials said they were asked to postpone the vote because the contract had not yet been presented to voting members of the committee.

Councilman Darrel Watson, a representative from District 9, said, “One of the things I want to insist upon is that that contract is received by Friday. This has been a long process. We would like to get to voting on this, and we cannot without a contract.”

Despite the postponement, a recent presentation to the committee revealed that Axon is expected to operate 50 cameras within Denver, opposed to over 100 cameras still operated by Flock in city limits.

The committee is expected to vote on the contract on March 18. If passed, it will then head to the city council.

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All CO legislative Democrats urge Polis not to shorten Peters’ sentence

Yesterday, all 66 Democrats in the Colorado legislature signed onto a letter urging Gov. Jared Polis not to reduce the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. This further showcases the party’s near-unanimous disapproval of Polis’s stance toward the case.

The letter read, “This is about the security and assuredness of our elections. This is about the future of our democracy, and of free and fair elections in our nation. We ask you to stand with us in safeguarding the future.”

The letter also states that clemency is “for those who have taken accountability for their crimes, understand the harm they have created, and made good faith efforts for restitution to victims and self-rehabilitation. Ms. Peters has made no efforts toward these ends.” 

Peters was convicted in 2024 of orchestrating a security breach of her county’s election system in 2021 in a failed attempt to find evidence of electronic vote manipulation. Her actions were rooted in conspiracies surrounding the 2020 election.

Polis has criticized Peters’ sentence as being too harsh for a first-time, nonviolent offender. Last week, he moved from hinting that he would release Peters early on social media to proactively justifying such. The appeals court is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks.

This story was reported by Colorado Capital News Alliance.

 

Energy secretary Wright visited CO, discussed rising fuel prices

The average cost of regular gas in the Denver metro area has skyrocketed by over 50 cents in the last few weeks. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke at a Colorado natural gas plant on Monday and said the United States would work to reduce rising energy prices due to the ongoing war in Iran.

Wright said that the U.S. was considering releasing crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a large cache along the Gulf Coast that currently holds over 400 million barrels of oil for national emergencies.

The release and sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in coordination with releases from other countries, could chip away at the global oil shortfall. Oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passageway near Iran, has nearly stopped due to the war.

Wright told reporters, “We do have our gasoline and our diesel and our jet fuel prices up — that hurts American citizens. We are doing everything we can to alleviate that.”

The last time the United States released oil from the reserve was in 2022, during the first few months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This story was reported by Colorado Capital News Alliance.

 

You can hear daily headlines on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show, with coverage of local and regional public affairs and news with headlines and commentary. Click here to listen to full episodes of the Morning Magazine.

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