By Quentin Young | editor
Is there a tuberculosis outbreak at the ICE detention center in Aurora? It’s hard to say. State and local health officials know of one confirmed case at the facility, but a private-prison operator and federal immigration authorities have refused access to investigators. One news outlet has reported there could be at least 12 cases at the facility, and as Sara Wilson reported this week even facility staff identified 61 people who were exposed to the initial patient. Colorado law requires public health agencies to investigate confirmed tuberculosis cases, but as of this writing federal officials have defied that provision. Below are some of our other top stories from the week.
Eli Shultz, left, and Alek Purser, right, former student journalists with Grand Junction High School’s Orange & Black student newspaper, pose outside the school Monday. (Photo by Sharon Sullivan/Colorado Newsline)
By Sharon Sullivan
The staff advisor to the Orange & Black, Grand Junction High School’s student newspaper, was reassigned less than two weeks after another teacher complained about a student-penned column about the Israel-Gaza conflict. The Grand Junction High School administration had attempted on numerous occasions to block the newspaper from publishing various content, and the column about Gaza may have been the final straw, said Steve Fox, who served as the newspaper’s advisor for five years. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a national free speech nonprofit based in Philadelphia, has become involved in the case.
A conceptual rendering of a Colorado Connector passenger train. (Courtesy of Colorado Connector)
By Chase Woodruff
If voters approve a sales-tax ballot measure later this year to fund the Colorado Connector passenger rail service, two daily round trips would be offered along the full 190-mile route from Pueblo to Fort Collins within five years, according to a plan unveiled by state officials Monday. That intermediate phase would follow a “starter service” between Fort Collins and Denver, which is still on track to launch by 2029 — with or without the additional tax revenue. Service would be gradually expanded in future years to reach 10 daily round trips on the northern segment and eight on the southern segment, along with potential line extensions to Trinidad, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Phil Weiser, right, selected Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper as his running mate in November. Weiser is the Democratic nominee to be Colorado’s next governor, and he selected Dahlkemper to be his lieutenant governor, he announced at a press conference on July 22, 2026, at the Colorado Democratic Party’s office in Denver. (Photo by Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
By Lindsey Toomer
Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper is Attorney General Phil Weiser’s running mate in the race for Colorado governor, he announced Wednesday. Dahlkemper, who has served as a county commissioner in Jefferson County since 2019, would serve as Colorado’s lieutenant governor if Weiser, the race’s heavy favorite, wins the election in November. “I know local leaders across the state have worked with Lesley, and what they have said about her and what she has done speaks volumes, that we’re not getting someone who’s going to need a long learning curve,” Weiser said at a press conference at the Colorado Democratic Party’s office in Denver.
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Brennan Center report predicts mass voter challenges likely in midterm elections | By David Lightman
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