Wild Turkey Fire Contained, Jeannette Vizguerra Released from ICE Detention, Theater in Golden loses $20,000 to Xcel’s Power Shutoff 

Headlines Tuesday, December 23, 2025

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    Wild Turkey Fire Contained, Jeannette Vizguerra Released from ICE Detention, Theater in Golden loses $20,000 to Xcel’s Power Shutoff  KGNU News

 

Wild Turkey Fire Contained

Yesterday evening, a fire was contained on the 700 block of Wild Turkey Lane up Fourmile Canyon. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office ordered an evacuation of the area around 6 p.m., and the fire reached 3 acres before it was put out by emergency responders after 10 p.m., when evacuation orders were lifted. Yesterday saw windy conditions, with the highest gust at Boulder Municipal Airport recorded at 47 miles per hour, and we’ve had a dry start to the winter this year, both of which can exacerbate fire risk.

 

Jeannette Vizguerra Released from ICE Detention

Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent immigration activist who has been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Aurora since March, was released from the facility yesterday afternoon. Activist Vizguerra was born in Mexico and has been in the U.S. for most of the last 28 years. She gained national attention during President Donald Trump’s first term for seeking sanctuary in churches to avoid deportation. She was arrested at her workplace in March of this year. A Sunday order by a Denver immigration judge allowed for Vizguerra’s temporary release. Her family posted $5,000 bail and she was released without monitoring after the judge found she posed no flight risk or danger to the community.

In a news release, Vizguerra said of her legal team,“I am thankful that they never gave up, remaining committed even when the outcome seemed dark. They understand that this case is bigger than me. This fight is about the constitutional rights we all share, human rights and dignity for all people.”

Vizguerra is expected to speak publicly today outside the federal courthouse in Denver.

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Trump denies Colorado’s Disaster Declarations 

President Donald Trump has denied Colorado’s requests for federal disaster declarations for recent fires and floods, even though the losses exceeded FEMA’s threshold for federal assistance. That’s according to the governor and the state’s two Democratic senators.

The Elk and Lee fires burned over 100,000 acres in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties this summer.And in the fall, the remains of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean caused massive floods in southwestern Colorado. State officials say a federal disaster declaration would have unlocked FEMA funds to support recovery efforts across Western Colorado. Elected officials called the administration’s decision to withhold federal funds “malicious and obscene” and said the administration was playing political games with people’s lives.

They say since July 2024, Colorado has spent over $57.5 million on responding to the Elk and Lee fires, the flooding, and other disasters, and the state no longer has the capacity to assist the affected communities without federal support. Officials also cited research saying that for every dollar Coloradans pay in federal taxes, the state only gets 90 cents in federal investment.

 

US Forest Service Land Transfer in Utah 

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, has gotten initial approval for a bill that would transfer 24 acres of Forest Service land to the town of Brian Head in southwest Utah. Conveying Forest Service land generally requires an act of Congress. This bill would take 24 acres of land from the Dixie National Forest and transfer it to Brian Head, which Lee says is to build new public works facilities. This comes after Lee’s proposal this summer to sell millions of acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands — which proved to be deeply unpopular across the political spectrum. Steve Bloch, the legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, says there was no environmental review or opportunity for the public to look at the proposal.

Bloch says this bill could be a slippery slope, and that if Lee is successful in transferring this small parcel to the town, he could attempt another, bigger disposal of public land in the future.

This story was reported by Rocky Mountain Community Radio.

 

Theater in Golden loses $20,000 to Xcel’s Power Shutoff

Miner’s Alley theater in Golden was forced to close most of its sold out holiday shows this past week in response to Xcel Energy’s preventative power shutoff. 9News reports that the theater had to notify 800 patrons after they were notified the day before the Friday power shutoff, with the theater losing some $20,000.

Miners Alley told 9News that the impact goes beyond ticket sales for those shows, “The shows we do this time of year pay for the shows we do the rest of the year.” Though they sought other options such as generators and flashlights to work out a semblance of a performance, Miners Alley ended up only being able to do their 7:30 Saturday performance – scrambling after the power came on.

The theater said shows cannot be rescheduled because they are sold out.

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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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