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MorningMagazine_2024-10-31 Jack Dawson
Teller County fire evacuations lifted
Teller County officials lifted all mandatory evacuations yesterday related to the Highland Lakes fire. The evacuations covered around 700 homes.
As of last night, crews reached 80% containment of the human-caused wildfire. The fire grew to 166 acres in Divide. Only one structure was damaged, according to The Colorado Sun.
Officials say they’re investigating the fire as a potential crime.
A Stage 3 fire ban remains in effect for Teller County. That means all outdoor fires, cooking, smoking, or slash burning are prohibited.
Colorado Republicans urge Secretary of State to resign
Colorado Republicans are urging Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold to resign after an unnamed source discovered her office had inadvertently posted a spreadsheet with partial passwords to voting equipment on its website. KGNU’s Pam Johnson has the story.
The passwords were brought to the public’s attention by the Colorado Republican Party. Griswold has denied that the exposed passwords pose a threat to next week’s election, since they are just one of several elements required to access voting systems.
According to 9News, Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the Excel spreadsheet containing the partial passwords was up on the office’s website for several months before the error was realized.
Excel spreadsheets have a feature that allows you to “hide” a tab, but It takes just one click to “unhide” it. The individual who discovered the error allegedly clicked that button according to the Colorado Republican Party Vice Chair, and found those hidden tabs with passwords.
The passwords, known as BIOS passwords, are only for one part of the security process of Colorado’s voting machines. Griswold told 9News that she does not see the incident as a “full security threat.” That’s in-part because the voting machines take two passwords and the second password is held by a different party in a separate place.
Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams said yesterday that Griswold’s response is “inadequate,” and called on Republican lawmakers to convene an emergency legislative hearing to “uncover what the Secretary has been hiding from the public.” Williams started raising money yesterday to sue Griswold. That’s according to The Denver Gazette.
Griswold told 9News she will not be resigning.
Colorado Democratic Party will move Election Night viewing after lawsuit threats
The Colorado Democratic Party has agreed to move its Election Night watch party location, after the Denver Clerk and Recorder wrote a letter threatening to sue the party if it didn’t change the venue.
In a letter written on October 25, Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez claimed that the space the party had chosen to hold its election night watch party at – Reelworks Denver – was illegal because it sits too close to a polling place located in the same building.
According to a joint statement by Lopez and the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, voters can still cast their ballots at the Reelworks/Tracks duel space in Denver.
Denver continues to drop cases against pro-Palestinian protestors
The Denver City Attorney’s Office continues to quietly drop charges against pro-Palestinian protesters arrested back in the spring on the Auraria campus.
The dismissals follow a discovery violation last month by the Office, which according to The Denver Gazette failed to provide defendants hours of body camera footage.
Andy McNulty, a civil rights attorney representing one of the protestors, said he received only “snippets” of police body cam footage that totaled roughly 40 hours.
The Gazette reports that it’s unclear how many cases have been dropped at this time.
Denver Public Library to reopen as construction is finished
The Denver Public Library on Broadway is set to reopen this upcoming Sunday, after a four-year closure that started at the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Library decided to extend its closure even after pandemic restrictions were lifted, to undergo a $69 million renovation. Select areas stayed open to the public, such as the computers, but visitors had to tolerate the noise of the construction.
The new features of the library aim to accommodate the nearly 2,000 visitors that are projected to use the library everyday. There’s now a new Commons, a grand staircase replacing the escalators, a new teens-only space devoted to “teens only,” an event center that overlooks Civic Center Park, and more new additions.
The Library will host a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Sunday.