Bennet moves to block public land sales; Colorado’s passenger rail inches closer to becoming a reality; ICE activity continues around Colorado

Headlines Friday, May 1, 2026

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    Bennet moves to block public land sales; Colorado’s passenger rail inches closer to becoming a reality; ICE activity continues around Colorado KGNU News

Bennet moves to block public land sales

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet is trying to prevent the sale of federal public lands from being rushed through as part of the federal budget process.

This comes almost a year after Utah Senator Mike Lee tried to include the sale of up to 3 million acres of federal land as part of the reconciliation bill. Budget reconciliation only requires a simple majority in the Senate.

Bennet’s bill would restrict public land sales from reconciliation, and require that they be debated through the regular legislative process with a 60-vote threshold.

Sarah Shrader is the president of the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of the Grand Valley, and spoke with Bennet during his announcement of the bill. She says Lee’s proposed selloff represents a huge threat to Western Colorado’s economy.

 

Colorado’s passenger rail inches closer to becoming a reality

Colorado is one step closer to getting passenger rail on the front range after RTD and state boards approved the funds to design it. 

The state and RTD are moving forward with plans for a train from  Denver to Fort Collins via  Boulder. The target start is 2029.  Jack Wheeler Barajas heads the Colorado Rail Passenger Association and says the RTD vote to help fund the design was a milestone.

“The vote was 14 to one to advance the engineering funding and also approve the term sheet with Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the host railroad that owns the track between Denver and Fort Collins. And that established the expectations of future funds that will be required from RTD.” 

It’s meant to be the first phase of the larger Front Range Passenger Rail line from Pueblo to Fort Collins, and cities in between. Voters in impacted communities would need to approve a sales tax to fund it, which is likely to be on the November ballot.

This story was reported by the Colorado Capitol News Alliance.

 

ICE activity continues around Colorado

The Colorado Rapid Response Network, also known as CORRN, has confirmed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainment took place in Denver last morning.

According to CORRN, the individual was leaving his house near Dartmouth and Sheridan in the morning, and had just started their car before attempting to re-enter his apartment, when ICE agents swiftly moved in to detain him.

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.

 

Boulder County to continue layoffs, slashes to meet budget deficit

Boulder County officials announced recently that a total of $13.2 million needs to be cut from the county’s 2027 operating budget, the same amount that was cut from this year’s operating budget. County officials point to lowered city tax revenue and rising costs as the reason for these slashes.

The projected cuts are mainly in personnel, with about 70% of the reductions expected to come from layoffs or voluntary severance, but county officials have yet to give an exact number of impacted jobs. Last year’s cuts were most strongly felt on social workers and services, as several programs were entirely eliminated, with the county now outsourcing foster care services to nonprofit companies.

County officials have further stated that they expect 2027’s cuts to be the last of the needed to fully recuperate the $30 to $40 million  in savings the city needed to cut before 2028.

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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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