By Quentin Young | editor
“They just took him in. They didn't tell him why. They didn't say he'd done anything wrong. He has no criminal history. They just took him and they detained him.”
– Henry Hollithron, ICE detainee Rudy Villeda Mejía's attorney
Rudy Villeda Mejía, pictured holding his granddaughter, fears deportation back to his native Honduras due to violence he faced in the country. He has lived in the U.S. since 2010. (Photo courtesy of Mabel Shaffer)
By Lindsey Toomer
Rudy Villeda Mejía has his own roofing business, a wife and three stepchildren in Washington, near the state’s border with Canada. He has never been charged with a crime. He entered the U.S. without authorization for a second time in 2010 after he was kidnapped by a violent cartel in Mexico, and has been in the U.S. since then. Villeda Mejía attended routine check-ins with immigration officials in Seattle for more than a decade. But ICE arrested at at the Denver International Airport on March 30, and he has since been in custody at the ICE detention center in Aurora. Now he’s trying to avoid deportation to Honduras and the violence he was subjected to there.
Voters line up outside Shiloh Hills Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Georgia, on Election Day, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
By David Lightman
Political party poll watchers are showing up more and more, usually outside polling places. They have a different mission than the nonpartisan election observers long regarded as bulwarks of credibility, and there’s concern that voters will be confused who’s there to influence them and who’s there to protect them. The growing presence of partisans creates the possibility of even more conflict in the November midterm elections, voting rights advocates worry. They fear confusion between the two groups will contribute to an ongoing breakdown of voter trust in the process.
An image smoke coming from the Aspen Acres Fire posted on July 2, 2026. (Courtesy of Aspen Acres Fire 2026 Facebook)
COMMENTARY
By Colleen E. Reid
Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture that includes nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter. When homes or buildings also burn, they can release an even more toxic stew of chemicals from burning electronics, furniture, plastics, paints and much more. What you see when you see a smoke plume or when the air is hazy with wildfire smoke are the tiny particles that are too small to fall to the ground right away with gravity. These particles are very small. When you breathe them in, they can harm your health, writes Colleen Reid, an associate professor of geography at the University of Colorado Boulder, in a commentary.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Poll finds low public awareness of Colorado’s upcoming 150th anniversary | By Chase Woodruff
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