USPS ends contract with Aurora regional hub; Jeffco Schools hire St Vrain teacher fired for child sexual assault accusation; Woman killed by ICE is from CO Springs

Headlines Friday January 9, 2026

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    USPS ends contract with Aurora regional hub; Jeffco Schools hire St Vrain teacher fired for child sexual assault accusation; Woman killed by ICE is from CO Springs Jack Armstrong

 

USPS ends contract with Aurora regional hub

The United States Postal Service has ended its contract with Alan Ritchey Inc., the Texas-based firm operating the Denver Regional Transfer Hub. At its busiest, the routing facility would handle nearly 300,000 packages per day. Now, the company is planning to vacate the East Colfax facility in Aurora, laying off nearly 730 employees all on February 28th.

Robby Ritchey, the company’s CEO said in a statement that he regrets the short notice given to current facility employees, but said USPS told their company, “…we had previously been informed that USPS would modify and transition the facility to a USPS facility, a process that would take more than 61 days.”

USPS ending their contract with the Denver facility comes as part of its Delivering for America Plan, seeking to make the mail service economically viable, along with transitioning to in-house operations and improving the security of packages. Through an inspection in April, the Denver Regional Transfer Hub had found

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Jeffco Schools hire Saint Vrain teacher fired for child sexual assault accusation

A former teacher in Arvada was arrested Monday for reportedly creating and selling child sexual assault material, and a report from the Longmont-Times Call says the St. Vrain Valley School District handed down policy violations based on interactions the teacher, Patricio Alejandro Illanes, had with students back in 2023. 

The report says Patricio resigned in 2023, and SVVSD officials recommended he not be hired back by the district. According to documentation from Illanes’ arrest, Jeffco schools was not aware of Illanes’ history when he was hired by the district.

Illanes reportedly took pictures and video of at least 10 students who were minors at four different schools or related programs. A police search of the teachers phone turned up several hundred photos of students clothed, but with bare feet as well as a trove of sexually explicit material reportedly depicting minors.

SVVSD affirms they have no record of Jeffco schools requesting documentation of a report detailing Illanes’ history with St.Vrain Valley Schools.

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Woman shot and killed by ICE from CO Springs

The family of a Minneapolis woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer this past Wednesday told Denver7 that she was born and raised in Colorado. The woman identified as Renee Nicole Good was raised in Colorado Springs, according to her uncle.

Good was shot in the head Wednesday in a residential neighborhood of downtown Minneapolis where ICE was carrying out a targeted operation. Good is survived by her three children, ages 6, 12, and 15. Her killing drew a crowd of hundreds of protestors to the streets of Minneapolis and even more to a vigil held Wednesday evening.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the incident Good was engaged in, “ an act of domestic terrorism” against ICE. Others rebutted the statement, including the Minneapolis Mayor.

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Pueblo ICE protests 

Federal immigration agents arrested a Durango resident on New Year’s Eve and a Mancos resident on January 2nd. Protests erupted at the ICE field office in Durango after the second arrest.

Pedro Gutierrez is 43 years old and has lived in Durango for more than 22 years. On New Year’s Eve, he was pulled over during the day by federal agents near Needham Elementary School. They called him by name, and took him into custody on suspicion of being in the country without legal status. He is now being held at a detention facility in Aurora.

Gutierrez’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who was in the car during the stop, was left to drive herself home.

Gutierrez was not the only person detained by ICE in the Durango area last week. On January 2nd, Adelaide Lopez, a Mancos resident was detained on Highway 160. This arrest led to a protest outside the ICE field office in Durango. Protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving the field office with Lopez. The officers used pepper spray to move the protesters.

In October, ICE agents used pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters at the same field office, after Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his two children were detained by federal agents. After being held and transported to Texas, the family requested to be voluntarily deported back to Colombia.

 

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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