Fire contained near Fort Collins; Colorado Republicans seek to block unaffiliated voters; ICE activity ramping up in Colorado

Headlines Friday, April 24, 2026

Fire contained near Fort Collins

West Fort Collins saw a fire ignite yesterday evening not far from the “A,” dangerously close to a neighborhood. The fire, referred to as the Ponds Fire by emergency officials, is now contained, and evacuation orders have been lifted. It is preliminarily estimated to have burned about eight acres.

The Poudre Fire Authority reports that one firefighter received 2nd degree burns and was transported.

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Colorado Republicans seek to block unaffiliated voters from their primary

 

Colorado Republicans are asking a federal judge to block unaffiliated voters from casting ballots for Republican candidates in this year’s primary election. The request comes after that same judge found a key part of Colorado’s primary law unconstitutional, a lawsuit that the GOP has been trying since 2023.

To restrict the primary, the law requires 75% of a party’s central committee to approve opting out of the open primary, a majority that the Colorado republican party has repeatedly failed to meet. In March, U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer ruled that the 75% minimum was “a severe burden,” on Colorado political parties, and wrote that the law infringed on both the Colorado Democrats and Republicans’ constitutional freedom of association. Now, the state GOP is asking a judge to block unaffiliated voters from this year’s June 30th primary, arguing that decision means relief is needed to prevent issues with the rapidly approaching primary.

State election officials oppose the move, specifically Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who responded to the legal request, saying “It would create confusion for voters and election administration challenges weeks before ballots are sent for the June primary election.” Unaffiliated voters make up the largest share of Colorado’s active, registered electorate, and have been allowed to vote in all primaries since 2018.

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ICE activity ramping up in Colorado

The Colorado Rapid Response Network, also known as CORRN, has confirmed at least three Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainments took place in the Front Range area yesterday: one in Denver, one in Golden, and one in Colorado Springs.

In the Denver and Golden incidents, ICE agents broke windows of the vehicles they stopped, in order to physically remove individuals from their cars. In a video posted by CORRN, ICE agents can be seen leaving the detainee’s car on the street, with keys still in the ignition, while the agents leave the scene.

All three incidents yesterday took place on the street and involved vehicle stops.

This comes shortly before the one year mark of an ICE raid in Colorado Springs on April 27th of last year, in which they arrested 100 people in one operation. From January 20, 2024 to October 15, 2025 ICE agents arrested at least 3,522 people in the state of Colorado alone, according to ICE’s own data.

The Colorado Rapid Response Network offers a bilingual ICE activity hotline, at 844-864-8341, that can dispatch trained observers to document the incident, and connect affected individuals with a local member of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition’s statewide DocuTeam.

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Feds reclassify medical marijuana to Schedule III

Yesterday morning, President Trump’s currently-acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, signed a federal order that re-classifies only state approved medical marijuana products, taking them from the extremely restrictive Schedule I status to the more relaxed Schedule III designation.

In a press statement, Blanche said “This […] allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information.” For the 40 US states that have legalized medical marijuana in some capacity, this will mean that licensed medical marijuana manufacturers or distributors will be more easily able to register with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Equally, the order provides legal protection for marijuana researchers, indicating they are allowed to obtain state-licensed medical marijuana products for their study, without legal penalty. What may prove to be most impactful is the tax implications of this order, as it will allow state-licensed medical marijuana businesses the ability to deduct their expenses against federal taxes.

America’s history with federal marijuana regulations dates back to 1937, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Marihuana [sic] Tax Act of 1937. The first ever arrest based on this law happened in Denver shortly after its signing, when Moses Baca and Samuel Caldwell were arrested for not paying the marijuana tax based on a transaction the two mutually agreed upon. Baca was sentenced to 18 months, and Caldwell was given four years.

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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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