Pearl Street firebombing attacker sentenced to life plus 2,176 years in prison; Widespread hack impacts CO universities; Immigration bill passes

Headlines Friday, May 8, 2026

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    Pearl Street firebombing attacker sentenced to life plus 2,176 years in prison; Widespread hack impacts CO universities; Immigration bill passes KGNU News

Pearl Street firebombing attacker sentenced to life plus 2,176 years in prison

Mohamed Soliman pleaded guilty to 101 charges with 67 crimes of violence enhancers yesterday morning. 

Soliman planned and conducted an attack on Jewish community members at a standing protest on Pearl Street Mall on June 1, 2025. The attack killed 82-year-old Karen Diamond and substantially burned 13 others.

In addition to first-degree murder, Soliman’s charges include attempted murder, assault and attempted assault, use or attempted use of explosive or incendiary devices and animal cruelty.

The attack was initially planned to be a mass shooting, according to one arrest affidavit.

Soliman said he wished he could get the death penalty for Diamond’s murder, which is not permitted under Colorado law. He faces a possible death penalty sentence for the federal hate crimes he is charged with.

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Widespread hack impacts CO universities

A criminal extortion group has hacked educational platform Canvas and its parent company, Instructure. 

Canvas is used by major universities nationwide, including the University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University. The platform is used by students and educators to access, submit and grade coursework.

The hacking group calls itself the ‘ShinyHunters’, and claimed they acquired roughly 275 million student records in the cyber attack.

The group warned in a message displayed via Canvas that a failure to pay ransom could result in the release of  “several billions of private messages among students and teachers.” 

The message gave Instructure until May 12 to respond and “negotiate a settlement” before the information is leaked.

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Immigration bill passes

The state legislature passed a bill yesterday that would allow Coloradans to sue federal immigration officers in state court over alleged constitutional rights violations. 

It now heads to Governor Polis’ desk. Under the bill, lawsuits would have to be filed within two years of the alleged incident. 

Supporters say the measure would create a legal pathway for challenging misconduct by federal immigration authorities. The measure is in response to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

This story was reported by the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. 

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Drought concerns persist despite recent precipitation

Recent snowfall and the possibility of more spring storms in the weeks ahead likely won’t do much to ease concerns about water supplies after a record dry winter.

Even though April brought precipitation that was closer to normal and some cooler temperatures, it wasn’t enough to balance out one of the warmest and driest winters on record in the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Snowpack and the amount of water stored in snow are at record lows across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

Cody Moser is a senior hydrologist at the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

Warm and dry conditions will persist, Moser said, with high temperatures up to ten degrees above average over the next ten days.

Moser said, “That’s going to generate snowmelt, some streamflow, and we will have to see what that has in store for how high rivers are going to get again.”

He also says in many models, they’re predicting that water supplies for early summer are in the five lowest on record.

This story was reported by Caroline Llanes for Rocky Mountain Community Radio.

 

Lawmakers reject data center bill

Colorado lawmakers rejected a bill yesterday that would have created incentives for building data centers.

Data centers are the infrastructure behind digital services like video streaming, cloud storage and artificial intelligence. They are in high demand but they’ve also drawn scrutiny for using a lot of energy and water. 

The bill would have tried to lure data centers to Colorado with a 20-year break on sales and use taxes. It would have also imposed moderate environmental guardrails. 

The bill’s Democratic sponsors argued that bringing data centers here would create jobs and revenue. They tried for months to build support for the measure, but ultimately it did not have the votes to clear its first hearing. 

Another group of Democrats is still working on a competing bill. Their focus is on strict environmental regulations for data centers.

This story was reported by the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. 

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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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