An ice resurfacing machine driver died last week in northern Colorado after colliding with an overhead door at a Fort Collins ice rink, city officials said.
Ice resurfacing machines are often referred to as Zambonis, but the details of the exact machine being driven at the time of the crash remained unknown Sunday.
City officials said the driver was injured when the resurfacing machine backed into a partially open overhead door at the rink. Paramedics took the driver to the hospital, where the driver later died, according to the release.
No other staff or EPIC visitors were injured, Fort Collins officials said.
The victim will be identified by the Larimer County Coroner’s Office.
“This is a tragic incident, and we are devastated at the loss of our colleague,” Fort Collins City Manager Kelly DiMartino stated in the news release. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected and we are working to support their loved ones and coworkers.”
Fort Collins staff are reviewing the accident to understand what led up to the collision and update safety policies, city officials said.
EPIC remained closed for several days following the collision, but reopened to the public on Friday, according to the release.
Xcel Energy will cut power to 9,000 customers in northern Colorado starting Friday morning ahead of strong winds and fire danger, utility officials announced Thursday.
National Weather Service forecasters issued a red flag warning for critical fire weather in the northern Colorado foothills from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, with low humidity and winds up to 75 mph creating conditions “favorable for rapid fire spread” and extreme fire behavior, the agency wrote in an alert.
Xcel Energy customers in Larimer and Weld counties will see power cuts starting at 8 a.m., including in parts of Fort Collins, Loveland, Kerns and Bellevue, according to an online outage map.
The outage area’s rough footprint is Wellington to the north, Windsor to the east, Horsetooth Reservoir to the south and Ted’s Place to the west.
Central Fort Collins is not included in the planned outage, including Old Town and neighborhoods near Colorado State University, according to Xcel’s map.
Planned outages in Loveland include neighborhoods north and south of Fourteenth Street/U.S. 34 between Glade Park to the west and North Wilson Avenue to the east.
While weather conditions are expected to improve around 4 p.m., “restoration work won’t begin until high winds and elevated fire risks have subsided,” Xcel officials wrote.
“It may take several hours to several days for customers’ power to be restored because a crew must patrol the entire power line to ensure it’s safe to turn service back on before a power line can be re-energized,” utility leaders said Thursday.
Customers can report outages and damaged power lines through the Xcel Energy app, online at xcelenergy.com/out, by texting OUT to 98936 or calling 1-800-895-1999.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Last August, there was a fire in the kitchen at the Fort Collins Rescue Mission and since then, the shelter has been closed.
“The dorms, the showers, the bathrooms and the laundry facilities that we have here, we can get them back into operations. It’s just a matter of how soon we can do it,” said Seth Forwood, vice president of programs for Northern Colorado, Fort Collins Rescue Mission.
“Do you know how soon that could be?” asked Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter.
“I thought we were going to get back in here before Thanksgiving. Fire damage always takes way longer than you would expect,” he said.
Forwood said the closure has taken a toll on the options available to those experiencing homelessness.
Fort Collins
Fire at Fort Collins Rescue Mission displaces 82 people
“Between August 23 and December 22 we turned away people, 1089 times, who came to us, but we just didn’t have space for them,” said Forwood.
Thanks to generous community donations they were able to to open another shelter north of Wellington called Harvest Farm, and a temporary shelter at 117 Mason.
That was working well, until winter weather rolled in Thursday night.
“Last night, we are really getting to the maximum that we can handle, even with the expansion of this second site. We have a capacity for 40 at the Harvest Farm overflow site. So we are full up with 70 at the Mason shelter, and we reached 39 last night,” and Forwood.
The Rescue Mission is nervous, especially considering they are the only shelter for men experiencing homelessness in Fort Collins.
One way the community can continue being part of the solution is donations — particularly warm clothing for anyone who may need to be turned away if the shelters reach capacity.
Denver7
“I hope to God, we don’t, but for our staff to turn away people that they know, they call them by their names, they know their stories. And have somebody in the dead of night come when it’s freezing out, say, ‘We can’t help you, we’re full.’ To give them something to go out into the night with is a blessing,” said Forwood.
The center will have a 250 bed shelter inside of it in addition to other supportive services. The project is set to cost $27.5 million and the Rescue Mission is about $150,000 short.
“This building is going to be more than a shelter, just like our guests are more than just people experiencing homelessness. Fort Collins in Northern Colorado can do more than we’ve ever done before, if we all rally around this and give to make that building a reality,” he said.
Click here to learn more about how to donate to that project.
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Danielle Kreutter
Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in reporting on affordable housing and issues surrounding the unhoused community. If you’d like to get in touch with Danielle, fill out the form below to send her an email.
At first, Everly Green’s parents didn’t understand why her doctors wanted genetic testing. Their daughter was behind on her milestones at 18 months, but was gradually making progress, and they expected that to continue.
Then, when she turned 2, the seizures started. She suddenly began to lose skills. Three months later, Everly needed a feeding tube. Now, at 8, she can only move her eyes, allowing her to communicate via a screen.
Everly, whose family lives in Fort Collins, has a rare mutation in a gene called FRRS1L, pronounced “frizzle,” which affects how cells in her brain communicate. Her parents, and other members of the tiny community of children with the condition, have worked with researchers and small-scale manufacturers to develop a treatment that could restore some of her ability to move — but only if they can raise $4 million to develop and test it.
Everly clearly understands what happens around her and loves school, where she learns in a mainstream classroom with support and has several best friends, said Chrissy Green, Everly’s mother. Still, she wants to do things she can’t, such as holding toys on her own or going on the occasional family trip with her brothers, Green said.
“These kids are in there, they want to play like other kids, they just can’t move,” she said.
Green is co-president of the foundation Finding Hope for FRRS1L, which is collecting funds for the next stage of drug development. Children with FRRS1L gene disorder, the foundation’s website says, “are trapped in a body they can’t move, however still retain high cognitive function, understanding, communication and awareness.”
Worldwide, only a few dozen children currently have a diagnosis of the same mutation in FRRS1L, meaning there’s little interest from drug companies. Families are on their own to fund research and, if all goes well, convince the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the treatment is safe and effective enough to go on the market.
And, even if they succeed with the FDA, they’ll still face a battle with insurance companies that may not want to pay the steep price for a drug to correct a faulty gene. (Even though the families aren’t looking to make a profit, these types of treatments are expensive, and the company under contract to do the manufacturing isn’t doing it for free.)
Chrissy Green sits with her daughter Everly, 8, as her two boys Colton, 9, left, and Ryle, 4, play at their home in Fort Collins on Dec. 18, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Normally, drug companies take on the financial risk of turning basic research that’s often publicly funded into treatments, with the hope of eventually making a profit. For gene therapies, that model can break down because of the small number of patients. Green’s FRRS1L foundation knows of about three dozen patients worldwide, though other children with unexplained seizures could have the mutation.
A drug that treats so few patients will never be profitable, so parents are largely on their own in trying to fund research and development, said Neil Hackett, a researcher who has worked with families on gene therapies and advised the FRRS1L foundation. Usually, they can’t do it unless they happen to have one or more business-savvy parents with the time and resources to run a foundation while caring for a child with complex needs, he said.
“They need specific expertise, which is not easy to find, and they need massive amounts of money,” he said.
Steve Green supports his daughter Everly’s head as the family plays with toys together at their home in Fort Collins on Dec. 18, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
When they first received Everly’s diagnosis, her doctor told the family to make the most of the time they had left, because medicine couldn’t offer anything to extend her life or reduce her symptoms, Green said. She didn’t initially question that, but focused on loving her daughter and trading tips for daily life with other families via Facebook.
Green connected with a mother in London who had a child the same age as Everly. Viviana Rodriguez was exploring whether researchers had found any evidence to suggest they could repurpose existing drugs to reduce FRRS1L symptoms.
Everly Green, 8, lies next to her mother, Chrissy Green, as she reads to her at their home in Fort Collins on Dec. 18, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Through a “providential” series of events, one of Rodriguez’s contacts knew a doctor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who worked on gene therapies. That doctor had read a paper from a German researcher who bred mice with the FRSS1L mutation so he could study it. The German scientist had given the mice a gene therapy as part of his experiments, but his work wasn’t focused on the clinical applications, Green said.
Green and Rodriguez, along with a small group of other parents, formed the foundation to raise $400,000 for the UT Southwestern researchers to breed their own group of FRSS1L mice and give them a gene therapy in a study that was set up to show results. The mice that received the gene therapy had near-normal movement after it took effect, she said.
“We saw major recovery in the animals, so we’re really hopeful for our kids,” she said.
The next step was testing for toxic side effects, then finding a manufacturer who could do the complicated work of inserting the corrected gene into a harmless virus, Green said. If they can raise the necessary money and all goes as expected, children could receive their doses through a clinical trial starting in September, she said.
Colton Green, 9, pushes his sister Everly, 8, into the family’s living room at their home in Fort Collins on Dec. 18, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Many treatments that look promising in mice don’t pan out in humans. Even if they do, foundations must navigate the complex process of getting permission from the FDA to sell the treatment, Hackett said. Then they face the separate battle of convincing insurance companies, or national health systems serving patients in other countries, that they should pay for it, he said.
Theoretically, a foundation could keep a treatment in reserve for patients diagnosed with the FRSS1L mutation in the future, but that likely isn’t feasible, Hackett said.
“At the end, I think you have to turn it over to a commercial entity, and I don’t think anyone knows what that looks like,” he said.
Green is hopeful, however, that the treatment she’s trying to fund will not only help children like Everly, but also ease the path for future gene therapies.
“All the diseases can kind of help each other move forward,” she said.
Chrissy Green lifts her daughter Everly, 8, out of bed at their home in Fort Collins on Dec. 18, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office filed a formal complaint Friday against Colorado House Rep. Ron Weinberg for alleged campaign finance violations following an investigation that began when Weinberg’s House colleague Brandi Bradley reported suspected violations to the state in August.
Ron Weinberg (Photo courtesy of Ron Weinberg)
Bradley’s complaint alleges that the District 51 representative spent campaign funds on personal expenses, ranging from haircuts and restaurant bills to donations to an Israeli rugby team, between the years of 2023 and 2025. In November, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office announced that it would investigate Weinberg’s spending, and last week it filed a complaint of its own, which will be heard by a hearing officer by Jan. 20.
The complaint included exhibits of expenses in its report, the earliest being an $84.31 charge at McGraff’s American Grill in Loveland on July 13, 2023, and the most recent being a $96.26 charge at the University Club in Denver on Sept. 18, 2025.
“Although some of these expenditures, in isolation, may be reasonably related to supporting Weinberg’s election, the sheer volume of questionable expenditures is a sharp departure from other candidates and committees,” the Secretary of State’s Office wrote in its complaint Friday.
Expenditures included several payments at Monarch Casino Resort Spa in Blackhawk, which Weinberg said was spent during a stay during a Republican Caucus meeting; a nearly $2,000 donation to the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club, a donation that Weinberg said was an advertising expenditure that included his campaign logo appearing on the team’s jerseys; and a donation to Mountain View High School in Loveland that the school said it had no record of receiving. Weinberg, in an interview Monday, said that the donation had been for advertising purposes as well as to support a sports team at a local high school, and that he suspected the school’s administrators were mistaken.
He also reported over 100 bar and restaurant bills since 2023, enough that they were included in an exhibit separate from the rest of the expenditures in the complaint.
The thousands of dollars in bar and restaurant expenses, including $3,566.19 at McGraff’s American Grill in Loveland, were likely not all campaign related, the complaint said.
“On information and belief, not all of those expenditures were made for campaign purposes,” it read.
Weinberg said that he hosts many campaign events at McGraff’s, a local establishment near his home in Loveland.
“It’s not personal,” he said. “If it were personal it would be a $25 charge.”
The smallest expense at McGraff’s was $25.56, and most of his expenses at the restaurant ranged between $60 and $100.
Weinberg said that he was confused by the complaint, saying that all expenditures were made through a registered agent, Marge Klein, adding that it was suspicious that the expenditures, which had been publicly available for years prior to Bradley’s complaint, had come so soon after Weinberg made a play for a leadership position in the Colorado House earlier this year.
“It’s odd that I run for Republican leadership, and all this stuff that’s been out for years suddenly surfaces,” he said. “It seems suspicious. It’s not a coincidence. These charges that they’re talking about have been in the public eye for three years. It’s not like they found a hidden box of receipts under my bed.”
Candidates for public office file periodic campaign finance reports detailing incoming and outgoing funds, and the expenditures mentioned in the complaint have been publicly available on the Secretary of State’s website since shortly after they were made.
Weinberg said he was looking forward to a hearing where he could defend the expenditures.
The Secretary of State’s Office contracts with an outside attorney for such hearings, and that hearing will be scheduled by Jan. 20. After the hearing officer renders a decision, either party can appeal, at which point the Colorado Attorney General’s Office would represent the Secretary of State.
The complaint did not specify a penalty if Weinberg is found to have violated campaign finance laws but did reference a Colorado State statute that included potential fines, return of the misspent funds, and certain clarifications from the candidate.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Across the country, a trend is brewing as people are swapping beers and cocktails for nonalcoholic drinks. At Colorado State University (CSU), students and staff in the fermentation and food science program are aware of the rise and what the future of the industry can look like.
“I think there’s so many different things that we study in this program, like so many different forms of science, and it’s just kind of all encompassing,” Olivia Duque, senior in the program, said.
Denver7 went 360 in-depth, taking a look at how Coloradans are embracing the rise of mocktails and how local businesses have embraced the shift. Last month, we listened to brewers at the Great American Beer Festival on changes they are seeing in the industry.
Jeff Biegert, New Belgium Brewing sponsored CSU fermentation & food science professor and brewmaster, explained there is a key distinction between non-alcoholic beer and alcohol-free beer.
Maggy Wolanske
“There is nonalcoholic beer, which is defined as beer that is one-half of 1% alcohol or less,” said Biegert. “Then alcohol-free beer is absolutely 0% alcohol. These are identified differently by the Tax and Trade Bureau, which is the overreaching administration that looks at fermented beverages and alcohol in the marketplace. So an alcohol free beer, that administration, the TTB, will actually measure and qualify and make sure like there’s absolutely no alcohol in it.”
Students in the program have learned about the fermentation process in cheese, yogurt, and kombucha. Last year, Biegert said students worked on a nonalcoholic hop seltzer.
Maggy Wolanske
“There is absolutely no alcohol in this. It is essentially carbonated water, some citric acid to lower the pH on it, and then some extract to bring in some wonderful hop aromas into it,” Biegert said.
Biegert explained the different processes for making non-alcoholic beer, which include vacuum distillation, membrane filtration, and engineered yeast. He said the vacuum distillation technique can be used when heating the beer and removing the alcohol under a vacuum, whereas the membrane filtration puts the membrane under high pressure to separate alcohol and water.
Maggy Wolanske
“The third way, which we plan on doing here in the lab next semester, is play around with some engineered yeast. So there’s bioengineered brewer’s yeast out there that is engineered not to ferment the typical sugars that are in your standard beer. You make a very low-density beer to start out with, and you put this in, and it consumes the real simple sugars, which are not many in that substrate,” Biegert said.
Even though trends are constantly evolving in the spirit world, students are grateful for the foundation of fermentation in Fort Collins.
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A man and a Larimer County deputy were injured Sunday morning in an incident that started with an attempted traffic stop and ended in a police shooting, according to county officials.
The unidentified Larimer County deputy attempted to pull over a driver near Grand Market Avenue and TPC Parkway at 2:32 a.m. Sunday, according to a news release the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff’s officials said the driver fled, leading the deputy on a chase down Colorado 60.
The deputy forced the driver to a stop just east of Interstate 25 on Colorado 60, but the driver began to accelerate toward the deputy, according to the sheriff’s office. That’s when the deputy “fired his service weapon.”
Larimer County sheriff’s officials declined to answer questions about whether the suspect driver was shot or what the bullet hit, but said both the driver and the deputy were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.
An adult passenger in the suspect vehicle was not injured during the incident.
The suspect driver was released from the hospital later Sunday morning and arrested on unspecified charges, according to the sheriff’s office. The deputy was also treated and released.
Fort Collins police officers and the Eighth Judicial Critical Incident Response Team are investigating the shooting.
Wyoming came to play Saturday night. The Rams came to pout. Or maybe plan, to a man, for life after Fort Collins.
If the 117th edition of the Border War was a boxing match, they’d have called it after three rounds. If it were a Broadway show, they’d have closed it at intermission.
If it was a harbinger, it’s going to be an awfully long, awfully cold final four weeks in Fort Fun.
Wyoming 28, CSU 0. And that scoreline probably flatters the Rams, who looked flat from the jump.
It was the Cowboys’ largest margin of victory in a battle for the Bronze Boot since 2010 — a 44-0 Pokes victory. That was also the last time CSU got blanked in the series. It was three hours of negative superlatives, each stacking on top of the other like poisoned LEGO blocks.
You can fake a lot of these things in this world. You can’t fake football when the administration fires the coach and sets fire to the rest of the season. You can’t fake giving a hoot in a rivalry game when you don’t.
The pair dug a lot of the holes this program finds itself in right now, granted. But there isn’t enough talent — or brotherhood, or camaraderie or trust — left among the remaining pieces to climb out.
The lines between the NFL and the upper levels of the college game are getting blurrier by the day. But when everybody’s a free agent, that whole “checking out” thing becomes endemic.
You know how a pro locker room looks in December when the guys inside it wake up with a 3-11 record?
That’s what CSU looked like Saturday. 50 guys. 50 taxis. 50 agendas.
In the old days, a college coach — even an interim one — rarely lost a locker room entirely. Too many guys would be too worried about keeping their scholarships, never mind their snaps.
That’s gone, baby.
Thanks to the transfer portal, most of these guys are gone, too. And they already know it.
The Rams (2-6, 1-3 Mountain West) have four games left. They might well be underdogs in all of them. If Saturday was any indication, they won’t be close in many of them.
If you’re not going to show up for the Boot, when are you ever going to show up?
And if I’m interim coach Tyson Summers, here’s what I’ve got to say to reach this CSU roster and its communal wanderlust:
“You might not care about us. Or about putting something on tape for us, going forward. But you’re going to want to put something on tape for somebody, gentlemen. And I’m not playing guys who don’t want to put something on tape.”
Or something along those lines.
Colorado State University interim head coach Tyson Summers speaks to the officials during their game against University of Wyoming at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Laramie.(Photo by Milo Gladstein/Wyoming Tribune Eagle)
Owen Long? He’s got tape good enough for anybody, Power 4 schools included. After three quarters, the CSU linebacker and California native had already piled up nine stops. He collected four on the first seven Wyoming snaps of the evening.
Whatever that guy wants on the revenue-sharing market, you give him.
Whatever running back Jalen Dupree wants, best listen. Same with speedy runners Javion Kinnard and Lloyd Avant. And Tanner Morley on the offensive line.
Among underclassmen, after that?
Don’t know.
Awfully short list.
Then again, that’s how a coach gets fired.
That and CSU’s QB room right now.
If there was ever a time to ride with redshirt freshman Darius Curry (9 of 16, 112 passing yards) behind center, though, this would be it. Because with Jackson Brosseau (10 for 18, three interceptions), we’ve already seen enough. And we’ve probably already seen his peak.
With 1:52 left in the first quarter, on first down from the CSU 44, Brousseau locked eyes on wideout Tommy Maher on an “out” route up the left boundary and never unlocked them, despite an open man spilling past the hash marks. Wyoming defensive back Desman Hearns followed Brousseau’s eyes, too, stepping in front of Maher and cradling the pick at the CSU 49.
Same song. Different Hearns.
The Rams threatened to make it interesting again with 3:22 left in the half, facing a third-and-7 at their own 43 while trying to dent a 14-0 Wyoming lead. Brousseau rolled right this time, only instead of setting himself, he heaved a prayer off his back foot.
The ball, no shock, air-mailed past everybody. Everybody in green, at any rate.
Only at the last instant, Pokes free safety and former Poudre High star Jones Thomas slid under the ball before it could hit the turf for Wyoming’s second pick of the first half.
As daggers go, it was as ironic as it was painful: Thomas is the grandson of CSU legend Earlie Thomas. A Rams legacy.
With six minutes left in the first half, CSU was averaging 5.6 yards per carry on eight totes. Yet they were down 14-0. Why?
They’d managed all of two passing yards. Two.
At the half, Brousseau had completed four of eight throws for 18 yards. CSU had logged 62 offensive yards as a team. Wyoming had 228, and led 21-0.
Same song. Different curse.
Both rivals brought new play-callers to the Border War. But only one side really showed it.
While the Rams were shaking things up this past Sunday and Monday, Wyoming kept pace. After a 24-21 loss at Air Force, Sawvel demoted Jay Johnson from offensive coordinator to analyst.
Enter Jovon Bouknight. And exit huddles. Wyoming’s opening drive stalled at the Rams’ 37. The Cowboys’ second punch, alas, landed. The Pokes marched 67 yards on 12 plays, capping the jaunt on backup QB Landon Sims’ keeper in the end zone from a half-yard out with 2:43 to go in the quarter.
Turns out that was enough. When Summers signed up to try and right a 2-5 ship, nobody told him it was the Titanic.
After a judge decided there was enough evidence for Jason Hobby to face a first-degree arson charge in connection with the Alexander Mountain Fire, his lawyers said they planned to appeal the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court. The decision was announced during a hearing Wednesday in 8th Judicial District Court in Fort Collins.
Hobby, 50, was arrested Sept. 10, 2024 in connection to the Alexander Mountain Fire, which was first reported July 29 and burned 10,000 acres west of Loveland. He is facing charges of first-degree arson, a class 3 felony; two counts of impersonating a peace officer, a class 5 felony; false imprisonment, a class 5 felony; menacing with a real or simulated weapon, a class 5 felony; and impersonating a public servant, a class 2 misdemeanor, according to court records.
Judge Sarah Cure made her decision that there was probable cause after a two-part preliminary hearing, held July 31 and Oct. 8, where the court heard from Loveland Police Department Detective Justin Atwood, who was an investigator with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office at the time, and U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Hannah Nadeau about their involvement in the investigation.
The fire, which was determined by Nadeau to have started at a horseshoe shaped fire pit, burned parts of the Sylvan Dale Ranch and over a thousand acres the ranch’s owners were planning on donating to the Heart-J Center for Experimental Learning, a plan investigators were told Hobby was against. Hobby was employed as a security officer at the ranch until he was removed in July 2024 after repeated incidents with other staff members and coworkers.
“Mr. Hobby made statements to a variety of people about a motive to burn and destroy the property and structures owned by the Heart-J Center and Sylvan Dale Ranch,” prosecution attorney Erin Butler said Oct. 8. “Specifically that the property should burn rather than get transferred from Sylvan Dale into the Heart-J Center.”
Investigators found that Hobby had represented himself as a firefighter, despite having no formal credentials. Hobby worked for the Southwest Incident Command Team during the fire, but not in a firefighting capacity, Atwood said, rather assisting with communications and refrigerators for fire crews.
When questioned by the defense, Atwood said, “Anybody could have started this fire,” and testified that boot prints found at the scene could not be determined by experts to match Hobby’s. Nadeau said the fire had to have been caused by a human or fire starting device. Investigators did find matches and pyro putty in Hobby’s home, but when questioned by defense, Atwood said that having incendiary devices is “just one element” that goes into accusing someone of arson. Pyro putty is a waterproof fire starter.
“The expert witness could not say that this was incendiary, or whether it was just a camper who recklessly allowed a campfire to escape from them,” defense attorney Leslie Goldstein said Oct. 8.
In her order regarding the preliminary hearing, Cure wrote that the court is required to view evidence presented in “the light most favorable to the prosecution,” adding that they introduced evidence that the fire did not start of natural causes and could have been intentional, even though an incendiary device was not found at the scene. She added that the prosecution presented evidence that Hobby was familiar with the site, had conflicts with people at the Sylvan Dale Ranch, and was in a rush to get to Wyoming around the start of the fire, along with other reasons.
She did acknowledge that the defense provided “compelling arguments that cast doubt on the defendant’s involvement,” referring to Atwood and Nadeau’s lack of knowledge in parts of the case, including not knowing whether the fire was intentional, an escaped campfire, or when the fire actually began (Nadeau determined it could have began at any point July 27 to July 29), but ultimately said the defense’s doubt was based on disputes of fact, and that she must consider all “reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the prosecution.”
Hobby’s lawyer, Mark Savoy, said that he wanted to make sure the case is heard by the Supreme Court before trial.
Once the appeal is filed with the Supreme Court, the panel of judges could decide not to take Hobby’s case or give deference to Cure’s decision. If that occurs, Hobby will return to court in Fort Collins and proceed to trial if an agreement isn’t met sooner.
If the Supreme Court rules that Cure abused her discretion in her order, then the case will also come back to the courtroom, but the first-degree arson charge will be dismissed due to a lack of probable cause, said defense attorney Matt Pring after the hearing Wednesday. In that case, Hobby’s remaining charges could be settled in a plea deal or in trial.
A status conference is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 10 a.m. for updates in the case, but it may be a while before results of the Supreme Court appeal are known.
A semi-truck driver died around 2 p.m. Tuesday when his truck left Interstate 25 in Loveland, causing it to roll on its side and eject him, according to a press release from Colorado State Patrol.
The semi-truck was traveling north, hauling a flatbed trailer near milepost 258 when it traveled off the right shoulder and through the guardrail on the highway. The truck rolled onto the driver’s side and ejected the driver before coming to a stop off the right shoulder, the press release stated.
The initial release did not identify the driver, but the Larimer County Coroner’s Office will release details once next of kin are notified, CSP Public Information Officer Hunter Mathews wrote in an email. No other vehicles were involved in the crash, he added.
While the northbound high-occupancy vehicle lane is open, the other two northbound lanes were closed as of 3 p.m. for a crash investigation led by Colorado State Patrol, the release stated. Drivers should expect delays in the area.
It is not clear how long the northbound lanes will remain closed, but updated information is available on CoTrip.org.
Bundle up, Colorado! The first freeze of the season hit parts of the state, including Denver, overnight Saturday into Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Denver temperatures hit freezing just before 11 p.m. Saturday, according to hourly temperature logs from the weather service. By midnight, temperatures had dropped to 30.9 degrees, where they stayed until about 3 a.m., the logs show.
This year’s first freeze arrived nearly two weeks later than the average of Oct. 7, according to weather service records.
Eight of Denver’s first freezes in the last 10 years happened after Oct. 7, the records show. In 2020, Denver saw its first freeze on Sept. 8 — the earliest it’s been documented in the city.
Temperatures on the Eastern Plains dropped far below freezing overnight Saturday. Weather stations at Limon Municipal Airport recorded overnight temperatures as low as 19 degrees. According to the weather service, other overnight lows include:
“I mean, (I’m) yelling more than I was, talking more, just constantly talking,” the new Rams men’s basketball coach told me after his squad scrimmaged for the public Saturday, the warm-up act for a Homecoming football tussle against Hawaii.
“So I think that’s the biggest adjustment. That’s the biggest thing I had to figure out is how to get my voice to stay. Because the first event we did in downtown (Fort Collins), it was gone. I started like shaking up and down. I sounded like I was going through puberty again, like …”
“Pretty much,” he laughed. “If you can find something for my throat to fix that, let me know.
“I always joke with our guys, though, I’m saying our body language matters and how you respond to refs, how you talk to them. Well, then, I shouldn’t lose my voice because I shouldn’t be (yelling). We’ll see how it goes on November 3.”
As Peter Brady once sang, when it’s time to change, then it’s time to change. Farokhmanesh, 37, is re-arranging who he is and what he’s gonna be.
No Nique Clifford? No Niko Medved? No problemo. For now, anyway.
If CSU football feels a bit like a marriage that has lost its spark, Rams hoops is still ensconced in nuptial bliss. You’d be hard-pressed to find a heart in Fort Fun that doesn’t love Farokhmanesh. And Ali’s family.
Although a first-time head coach, Farokhmanesh is working overtime these days to stay out of his wife Mallory’s doghouse. The other night, she caught him falling asleep while watching practice film. All parties agreed he could pick it back up at 5:30 in the morning.
“I feel like I try to have a balance, right?” Farokhmanesh said. “Which you never really do, but you’re always fighting for. So, she does a good job of managing that with me, too. I think she helps me a lot with that.”
Colorado State’s Jevin Muniz drives to the basket during an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday at Moby Arena. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)
On the court, with a half-dozen new faces, the Rams’ lineup is a work in progress. Rotations are in flux. Medved’s fingerprints are still there, but with tweaks and tucks — some spread, some motion, constant movement.
Farokhmanesh was the boy genius with the whiteboard on the sidelines, feeding the Niko machine. On Saturday, that board was in the hands of assistant coach Cole Gentry. Besides work-life balance and trying to do too much all at once, the next biggest challenge for first-time coaches is delegating authority. Giving up the stuff they used to obsess over.
“I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job (with that),” Farokhmanesh said. “I’m not doing the subs right now. I’m not doing the baseline out of bounds (plays) now. Those are all things I did before. I’ve given up the board. But I’m still going to have a say in all of it. So, it’s giving it up, but it’s also like, you’re still involved. I don’t know. It’s just different.”
“And after what they did in Iowa State, I’m a little more nervous,” the Rams coach said. “If we want to be an NCAA Tournament team, you’ve got to play teams like that. Does that help us to just go scrimmage a D2 (school)? Does it? We’ll get something out of it. But I want to challenge our (guys), and I want to put them on a stage. Because if we want to play at the highest levels, we’re going to have to beat people on those stages and compete with them.”
“If you’ve got time, he’s in here working with you,” said CSU forward Rashaan Mbemba, who leads the Rams roster in returning minutes with 615 (19.2 per game) and returning points (7.0 per game). “And I think that’s something you’ve got to really appreciate. I mean, he has four kids, he has a wife. Being a head coach, a husband, a dad. Now he’s also like, kind of, for a lot of guys, he’s the first person to talk to. As a team and as a community, we really appreciate that.”
And they show it. Veteran Ram staffers noted a bigger crowd than usual for an open scrimmage, buoyed by Homecoming weekend and more than mild curiosity. CSU president Amy Parsons sat at midcourt with athletic director John Weber throughout the scrimmage as green-clad alumni came and went.
Afterward, while players sat at a long table under one of the baskets, providing autographs for fans, Farokhmanesh hung back. The new coach shook hands, smiled for cell phone pictures and signed posters for wave after wave of kids.
“Here you go, buddy,” Ali said to one.
“What’s up, dude?” he said to another.
A towheaded tyke in a green Rams getup approached nervously.
Farokhmanesh disarmed him with a grin and scribbled away on his poster.
“Can I get a ‘Go Rams?’” the coach asked.
“Go Rams,” he replied.
Hey, when fate hands you a honeymoon, best enjoy it while it lasts. That goes double for the voice.
For the first time since Week 1, the Javonte Train finally went off the rails. Despite what the fantasy experts on the Grading The Week team saw as a (makes finger quotes in the air) “favorable” matchup at Carolina last Sunday, the ex-Bronco was held to a season-low 29 rushing yards on 13 carries and 5 receiving yards on five grabs.
Context: Despite a banged-up, messed-up offensive line in front of him across the pond, Dobbins still managed more rushing yards (40) and more total yards (also 40) on far fewer touches (14).
Estime, the Broncos’ fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame in the 2024 NFL draft, was waived by Denver this past August after falling behind Tyler Badie and Jaleel McLaughlin on the depth chart. The Philadelphia Eagles signed Estime a few days later and stuck him on their practice squad.
On Tuesday, our man Audric became unstuck. The Eagles released him.
The ex-Irish runner remained inactive for all six games with the Birds, including the Broncos’ 21-17 win at Philly back on Oct. 5.
Burning through two franchises over your first 18 months in the league makes for something of an auspicious NFL start for Estime, no question. But there’s one thing on the dude’s side: Time. He just turned 22 this past Sept. 6. If Estime can land on his feet, with head, heart and hands all pointing the same direction, he’s got time to re-write his narrative.
Wedgewood’s start for Avs — A
When the kids at the GTW offices can’t trust our eyes, we trust the math. After its first five games a year ago, the Avalanche had given up 28 goals (5.6 GAA) and had lost four times. After five games this fall to open the 2025-26 season, the burgundy and blue had surrendered just nine goals (1.8 GAA) while winning four of those five contests. Avs faithful may not know what a good power play looks like, but they know what it’s like to have a grown-up — Scott Wedgewood — keeping watch between the pipes.
Meanwhile, our old pal Alexandar Georgiev — the man in net here to start last season — just cleared waivers in Buffalo and was spotted in recent days practicing with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
Ed Lamb keeping UNC afloat — B+
When the GTW crew last saw Ed Lamb’s Northern Colorado Bears up close, they were being robbed of a historic win at Fort Collins in front of thousands. But while that bogus non-catch call against CSU still kind of burns our britches, we love happy — well, happy-ish — postscripts. After 23 losses in 24 games during the ’23 and ’24 seasons, Lamb’s UNC Bears went into the weekend 3-3 after their first six games for the first time since 2016. They won two non-conference games — and we all know there should’ve been a third — for the first time in nine years.
Since 2018 (the Bears didn’t play in 2020 for pandemic reasons), UNC’s average record after six games has been 1-5, and the squad has been 0-6 three different times over the previous six campaigns. It’s too early to bow, Ed. But we see you. And if this keeps up, we look forward to seeing a lot more of you.
Then you ask your third-string QB, a runner by trade (Tahj Bullock) who hasn’t completed a throw all year, to come off the bench cold, sprint right and pass you to a victory?
“That was one where I felt like that was our best chance to win, right there and right now,” Norvell explained Monday after watching film of CSU’s 17-16 home loss to the Roadrunners. “And so, I don’t regret it. I don’t. We needed to execute it better.”
True, his Rams are a two-point conversion away from being 2-1. A Bullock completion from rolling into a winnable home matchup against Washington State (2-2), coming off two Houdini escapes.
Either way, Saturday night against the Cougars has turned into must-see TV locally. Largely because it feels as if Wazzu just became a must-win contest.
It’s a too-darn-early referendum on what Norvell has built. And, more to the point, what he hasn’t.
Norvell’s predecessor, Steve Addazio, routinely embarrassed CSU at a time when the administration didn’t need any more help in that department. As soon as the Daz’s buyout dropped, ex-AD Joe Parker dropped the hammer.
Hires are usually reflections of their predecessors, if not stark contrasts by design. Norvell was poached from Nevada to bring normalcy, decency, an exciting offense and success, not necessarily in that order.
Four years in? That’s a yes, another yes, a not really, and a sort of.
Rams faithful aren’t shy about voting with their wallets. And Weber has to keep Canvas Stadium full — or awfully close. When Norvell boat-raced CSU with his Wolf Pack in late November 2021, Canvas sat half-empty. The Daz’s last three home games averaged 62% of capacity. The writing was on the checkbook.
We’re not there yet. CSU sold out four home games in 2024 and set a single-season home attendance record along the way — buoyed by a slate that featured Deion Sanders’ Fort Fun debut and a visit from rival Wyoming. Two games into 2025, the ledger is OK: Northern Colorado sold out on Sept. 6, while UTSA drew a more-than-respectable 88.8% of capacity (32,061).
Norvell sees this as a lifetime job, not a stepping stone. He wants to build it the right way. He’s committed to FoCo. He’s adjusted to the new normal of NCAA free agency, even hiring staff to handle the stuff he doesn’t particularly like. He’s invested in CSU, and vice versa.
But in a results business, the results on the field have been all over the place. Every silver lining has come with at least a little cloud trailing in its wake.
Last fall, Norvell got CSU to a bowl game for the first time since 2017. Once there, the Rams got obliterated by a MAC team. Clay Millen was the man, until he wasn’t. BFN was the man, until he couldn’t.
Norvell was hired with the idea of becoming another Sonny Lubick — a stable, long-term builder. But the transfer portal opened; House vs. NCAA happened; and Coach Prime turned up in Boulder to suck all the oxygen out of the local news cycle.
None of that is Jay’s fault. Yet with a move to the Pac-12 looming next year, some CSU fans talk about pining for a football version of Niko Medved in their new league. Someone who’ll make a big splash at CSU nationally, even if that means using the Rams as leverage toward a sexier job. And if they’re gone after two seasons for greener, richer Big Ten or SEC pastures, McElwain-style, so be it.
So: Lifetime guy (Norvell) or hot up-and-comer? It’s going to be one archetype or the other.
Norvell’s current contract expires Dec. 31, 2026. Per the term sheet the Rams released during his December 2021 hire, he’s making a base salary of $1.9 million this season and is due to make $2 million in 2026.
CSU can buy that out without cause for $1.5 million from now until New Year’s Eve. It can do so anytime in 2026 for “remaining base pay owed.”
With the remaining undecideds, there’s only one way back. And on this one, Norvell needs to not listen to his inner OC. Or to his gut. He should heed the ghost of one of his mentors, the late Al Davis.
State officials expect a rise in ozone and fine particulate levels that will be unhealthy for older adults, children and people with heart or lung disease, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The agency issued an action day alert at 4 p.m. Thursday that is set to last until at least 4 p.m. Friday. Communities covered by the alert span urban corridor from Douglas County to the south and Larimer and Weld counties to the north, including Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.
People who are sensitive to air pollution should not spend long periods of time outside or participate in heavy exercise outdoors, state officials said.
Colorado won’t have to claw back nearly $60 million it paid to public hospitals, including Denver Health and more than two dozen rural facilities, under a deal announced Tuesday to end the state’s court battles with UCHealth.
“We thank UCHealth for working with us to resolve this issue in a manner that protects all Colorado hospitals,” Kim Bimestefer, executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, said in a news release.
UCHealth sued the department, alleging it had incorrectly labeled two of its hospitals as public, rather than private nonprofits. A Denver District Court judge agreed, and ordered the state to reclassify Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs and Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. The department filed an appeal in July.
Their classification matters because of the state’s provider tax.
Hospitals pay about $1.3 billion each year, gaining about $500 million in federal matching funds. Most come out ahead, though those with relatively few patients covered by Medicaid lose out. In future years, the state will have to reduce its tax rate under provisions of H.R. 1, colloquially known as President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
The state pools the money by hospital type, and distributes it based on how each facility’s Medicaid share compares to the others in their group.
Moving Memorial and Poudre Valley from the public to the private bucket means that less money remains for all public hospitals to divide up, and that Memorial and Poudre Valley likely will get more back from the provider tax, because they’re being compared against hospitals that generally see fewer Medicaid patients.
The state said that to retrospectively reclassify the UCHealth hospitals and distribute the funds accordingly, it would have to take back $59.7 million paid last year to 29 publicly owned hospitals.
Denver Health didn’t comment on the possibility, but a group representing 13 Eastern Plains hospitals said some wouldn’t be able to hand over a significant chunk of cash, because they already used their share of the provider tax to pay employees and cover other expenses.
Under the agreement, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing will drop its appeal, and UCHealth won’t demand redistribution of provider taxes it paid in previous years.
UCHealth president and CEO Elizabeth Concordia said the system supports the provider tax program, and thanked the state for working together on a solution.
“The greatest successes for patients and our state happen when hospitals, HCPF and the administration work together collaboratively,” she said in a news release.
The hospital system also agreed to donate $5.7 million to compensate public hospitals that may lose out with less money coming into their bucket. The Colorado Hospital Association will help determine how to divide up the donation.
“Instability or uncertainty in the fee could have pushed vulnerable hospitals past the breaking point,” Jeff Tieman, president and CEO of the Colorado Hospital Association, said in a news release. “UCHealth’s approach to waive changes for last year and invest millions this year demonstrates a real commitment to protecting access to care in rural Colorado. We are deeply grateful for their partnership.”
Jay Norvell’s CSU Rams football program showed progress reaching a bowl game last season. Can the Rams do enough to justify keeping Norvell around even longer? Here are three keys to making that happen:
Will BFN become BMOC (Big Man on Campus)?
He was too raw. He was too young. He asked to do too much. He wasn’t asked to do enough. Entering his third season as the starting quarterback, the time is now for Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi. CSU coach Jay Norvell is invested in him in every way: money, time, scheme. The Rams need Fowler-Nicolosi to turn it loose without turning the ball over. The Rams adjusted on the fly when Tory Horton was lost for the season last fall, playing more complementary football. But this fall is about CSU playing better early and playing its best against top opponents. Fowler-Nicolosi stepped on a rake to start last season, posting two touchdowns with four interceptions over the first four games. With a solid run game, BFN should be able to move the sticks on bootleg routes to tight ends Jaxxon Warren and Rocky Beers, while delivering explosive plays to Jordan Ross and possibly Tay Lanier.
Can revamped defense gel quickly?
The Rams’ spring and fall practices should have included water breaks and “Hello, My Name Is” conversations for the defense. Norvell moved on from defensive coordinator Freddie Banks and brought Tyson Summers back to Fort Collins. Summers served as Mike Bobo’s D-coordinator in 2015. He failed as a head coach at Georgia Southern and has bounced around since. Summers represented a stylistic fit for a unit that Norvell wants to become more aggressive and disruptive after allowing 24 points and 394 yards per game last season. It makes sense. But will the pieces fit? The Rams will feature 10 new starters trying to learn a new scheme. Look for the Rams to lean heavily on transfers like potential all-conference edge rusher JaQues Evans and cornerback Jahari Rogers, who will be counted on to set the example of what elite man coverage looks like in Summers’ defense.
Will Jay Norvell show enough for contract extension?
Norvell has set the bar. It is bowl or bust. But if the Rams flirt with .500, is that enough for athletic director John Weber to award him with a contract extension? Norvell makes no excuses about college football’s changing landscape. He has had to reinvent himself in Fort Collins. He was hired from Nevada to bring an explosive offense and develop high school prospects. Now, he is willing to win by any means necessary, and has more transfers than any team in the conference. Norvell turned the corner last season, but he must show he can get buy-in quickly. This team should win seven games. But which ones? For Norvell’s sake, they better include Wyoming, Air Force, Northern Colorado and New Mexico.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Police in Fort Collins released on Wednesday video from body-worn cameras of the July police shooting that resulted in the death of 43-year-old Clayton Pierce, an armed suspect who shot and wounded an officer during an exchange of gunfire following a vehicle crash.
On July 21, police received reports of a single-vehicle rollover crash at the intersection of Bryan Avenue and Mountain Avenue near Grandview Cemetery. When officers arrived on the scene, Pierce “exited the vehicle with a firearm and exchanged gunfire with officers” and fled into the cemetery.
During the gunfight, an officer was shot in the arm and transported to the hospital. Police said the officer is recovering well.
Police later found Peirce hiding in the cemetery, and “Pierce was observed raising his gun again.” Police shot the suspect and later placed him in custody. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.
Video released Wednesday shows the gunfight in the residential street where the crash occurred and the shooting in the cemetery. Watch the videos here. [Warning: graphic].
Following an investigation, the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office determined that the officers were justified in their use of deadly force and no charges would be filed against them.
Investigators also determined that Pierce was a suspect in a recently reopened cold case homicide from 2019.
According to Fort Collins police, in 2019, officers responded to reports of a man lying unresponsive in his home. The man — later identified as Joseph “Sonny” Brigman — was the victim of homicide.
Both weapons found with Pierce in the cemetery were later determined to be “ghost guns,” meaning they did not have serial numbers.
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The human-sparked Pearl fire burning west of Fort Collins in Larimer County is 75% contained, fire officials announced Saturday.
The Pearl fire — a wildfire that started on private property in Larimer County on Monday — is burning on 128 acres of land near Red Feather Lakes, fire officials said. That’s nearly the same size as 97 football fields put together.
Containment isn’t the end of a wildfire, it’s merely the status of a control line being completed around the fire that can stop the flames’ spread. A wildfire can continue to burn for days or weeks after being fully contained.
Larimer County officials are still investigating what started the Pearl fire but said it was human-caused.
As rain and snow move in Saturday afternoon on northern Colorado — creating more favorable firefighting conditions — the Incident Management Team plans to reduce the number of resources assigned to the fire, according to a news release from the U.S. Forest Service.
Residents in the Crystal Lakes area living off of Pearl Beaver Road, Bear Ridge Drive, Mount Hellene Drive and near Deadman Lookout remain on mandatory evacuation orders Saturday, according to the county evacuation map.
The Forest Service also issued a closure order for the immediate fire area.
