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    Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Kidnapping F.B.I. Worker

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    Juan Alvarez-Sorto and two other people were on a drug trafficking trip in 2022 when they carjacked an S.U.V. belonging to a crime victim specialist, federal prosecutors said.Curt Lauinger, an F.B.I. employee, had just left a crime scene early one morning in May 2022, and was driving toward Rapid City, S.D., when he stopped on the side of the road because he thought he was being pulled over by the police, according to court documents.As he looked out the window, records show, a man pointed a rifle and ordered him to get out of his S.U.V.Mr. Lauinger was then forced into the back seat of his vehicle, and the man, Juan Alvarez-Sorto, along with two others — Deyvin Morales and Karla Alejandra Lopez-Gutierrez — drove off, according to court documents.The three were trying to hide from the police near Red Shirt, S.D., after a high-speed chase during a trip from Colorado in which the three had planned to distribute drugs, prosecutors said. They had pulled over and planned to carjack the next vehicle that drove by, prosecutors said, apparently to continue to elude law enforcement officers.Mr. Lauinger was later able to escape after the three stopped at a gas station in Hermosa, S.D., south of Rapid City, according to court documents.It was unclear whether the three knew that Mr. Lauinger worked for the F.B.I. as a crime victim specialist, whose responsibilities include offering emotional support and legal protection.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Republican lawmaker leaves loaded gun in Colorado capitol bathroom

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      A Colorado state legislator publicly apologized after leaving a loaded gun in the state’s capitol building.Colorado state representative Don Wilson, a Republican, confirmed that he left a loaded 9mm Glock handgun in a capitol bathroom on Tuesday evening, according to a statement on X.“I want to be clear that I take full and complete accountability for the incident. I made a mistake and am very sorry,” Wilson said.Wilson added that he takes firearm safety “very seriously”, calling the latest incident a “humbling experience”.The gun had been left unattended for 23 minutes before being discovered by the capitol’s janitorial staff, who contacted the Colorado state patrol (CSP) about the weapon, NBC News reported.Nearly an hour later, Wilson contacted the CSP “to report leaving items in the restroom”, the CSP said in a statement. The firearm was then returned to him.State troopers confirmed that the building was closed to the public before Wilson misplaced his gun.Wilson did not violate any state rules and no criminal charges are being weighed, state patrol officers said in a statement, the Colorado Sun reported.Colorado Democrats have argued that the latest mishap proves that firearms should be banned from the state’s capitol.“The consequences of leaving a firearm unattended in a public space could be very serious, and the incident this week created a dangerous situation,” said state representative Julie McCluskie, the Democratic House speaker, in a statement, Colorado Public Radio News reported.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Colorado legislature is also considering a “sensitive spaces” bill that would ban firearms in the capitol building for everyone, excluding law enforcement officers, Colorado Public Radio News reported.Wilson has also reportedly pledged to no longer bring guns into the capitol building, the House majority leader, Monica Duran, said to Colorado Public Radio News.Tuesday’s accident is not the first time that a Colorado lawmaker has mishandled a gun in the state’s capitol.In 2022, Republican state representative Richard Holtorf, who is running for Congress, accidentally dropped his gun while rushing to vote in the House’s chamber, Colorado Public Radio News reported. More

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      Journalist removed from Colorado Republican event for ‘unfair’ reporting

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      A politics reporter from the Colorado Sun was removed from the state Republican party assembly this weekend because the state party chair Dave Williams claimed her reporting on the party was “very unfair”.The reporter, Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, received a text early morning on Saturday from a Republican party organizer saying she was no longer invited to attend the assembly. Fish went anyway, receiving a credentialed pass at the door until she was asked to leave by security about an hour into the event.Video of the removal was captured by other journalists in attendance.The Colorado Republican state party chair, Dave Williams, is currently running for Congress in the state’s fifth congressional district. Fish has reported on the state party sending out a pro-Trump mailer in the district that attacked his primary opponent in the race.Williams was elected party chair in 2023 after supporting conspiracy theories that Trump won the 2020 election, and he introduced a resolution in the state house in 2022 to thank a state representative and others who participated in the January 6 insurrection.He also tried to include the “let’s go Brandon” phrase as part of his name on the 2020 ballot.The Colorado Republican state party held its state assembly in Pueblo, Colorado, this weekend where the party’s delegates met to officially choose its candidates for the November election ballot. Thousands of people reportedly attended the event.Several elected officials, including Republicans, and media outlets criticized the decision to remove the reporter from the assembly.The Republican state senator Barbara Kirkmeyer condemned the decision on social media, stating: “Sandra Fish is a fair, honest and respected reporter. As a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican party chair Kristi Burton Brown also condemned the decision, calling it “dangerous”.The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition posted in response the reporter’s removal: “Booting a credentialed journalist from a political party assembly, especially one who represents a statewide news organization like the @ColoradoSun undermines the vital role of the free press and directly impacts thousands of Coloradans who rely on The Sun for coverage.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWilliams, the Colorado Republican party chair, told the Pueblo-Chieftain that the reporter and the Colorado Sun are “nothing more than an extension of the Democratic party and we don’t need them coming to our convention”. No specific complaints or claims about the reporter or the newspaper’s reporting were cited or mentioned by Williams.Shad Murib, chair of the Colorado Democratic party, poked fun at Williams by openly inviting all press to the Colorado Democratic party assembly on 13 April.“Unlike the CO GOP, we’re not embarrassed by ourselves or afraid of the public,” he wrote. More

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      Power Shut Off to 55,000 Colorado Customers to Prevent Wildfires Amid High Winds

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      Xcel Energy said the outage would affect parts of six counties and last until at least noon on Sunday. Winds could reach 100 miles per hour.A power company in Colorado announced on Saturday that it was cutting power to roughly 55,000 customers over wildfire concerns as powerful winds, some as high as 100 miles per hour, battered the state.The company, Xcel Energy, said in a statement that it “made the decision to proactively de-energize lines,” which would affect customers primarily in Boulder County and small parts of Broomfield, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson and Larimer counties.The shut-off was expected to start at 3 p.m. local time and last until at least noon on Sunday. The company said that “outages are likely to persist beyond that time frame because crews must physically inspect the power lines.”“Temporarily shutting power off is intended to prevent our electric system from becoming the source of a wildfire ignition,” the company said.The National Weather Service in Boulder, Colo., said on social media that winds are expected to increase through the afternoon and evening, with the strongest winds coming between 6 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. on Sunday.Areas in and near the foothills are expected to experience gusts from 80 to 100 m.p.h. Other areas could experience gusts of 55 to 70 m.p.h.The Storm Prediction Center warned that the “potential for rapid spread of any new fires that develop” was high, and that “extremely critical fire weather is expected across portions of southeast Colorado into the Oklahoma Panhandle and southwestern Kansas.”Parts of five states, including Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, were under fire danger alerts, the center said.More than 77,000 people were in an area deemed “extreme,” the highest fire risk, while more than 2.9 million people were in areas deemed “critical.”A part of Interstate 70 was shut down in Kansas because of high winds, low visibility and crashes that were blocking the highway, the state’s Department of Transportation said on social media.Power failures, broken tree limbs and blowing dust are all expected because of the winds, forecasters said.People in areas affected by the high winds should “avoid any activity that may produce a spark,” and they should remain indoors if possible, the National Weather Service said.Xcel Energy said that “turning off customers’ power is not something we take lightly,” noting that it is “a last-resort step that can prove to be a lifesaving measure.”“Customers who use medical equipment that relies on electrical service should take steps to prepare for extended outages,” the company said.The South Metro Fire Rescue, which serves approximately 300 square miles of the south metro Denver area, said those who depend on oxygen tanks “should be prepared with enough spare bottles to last through Sunday, or consider staying with family, friends or in a hotel outside of the planned outage area.”It also advised against using outdoor stoves indoors for heating or cooking.“If using a generator, keep it outside in a well-ventilated area away from windows,” it said. More

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      Lauren Boebert Has Blood Clot Removed After Hospitalization for Leg Swelling

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      Representative Lauren Boebert, a far-right ally of former President Donald J. Trump from Colorado who is part of the razor-thin Republican majority in the House, had surgery on Tuesday to remove an acute blood clot in her leg, her campaign said.Ms. Boebert, 37, who is running for re-election this year, was admitted to UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colo., on Monday after experiencing severe swelling in her upper left leg, according to her campaign. It said that she was expected to make a full recovery.The campaign disclosed that doctors diagnosed Ms. Boebert with May-Thurner syndrome, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as a condition in which a major artery in the leg compresses a major vein, disrupting blood flow.A stent was inserted during the surgery, the campaign said.Ms. Boebert, who is part of a group of right-wing provocateurs in the House that includes Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, announced in December that she would run in a more conservative district than the one she now represents.During the midterm elections in 2022, she narrowly staved off a challenge from Adam Frisch, a Democratic businessman and former Aspen city councilman, who is running again in her current district.A series of departures from the House Republican caucus later this month will mean G.O.P. lawmakers can afford just a single defection from party-line votes when all members are present. More

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      California Faces Heavy Rain and Flooding From Coastal Storm

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      Los Angeles had received one to two inches of rain as of Saturday morning. Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming were also expected to get significant precipitation this weekend.An unseasonably cold and vigorous storm system was cutting through the southwestern Pacific Coast this weekend, bringing rain, flash flooding and snow to parts of California and other states, forecasters said.The National Weather Service in San Diego had issued a flash flood warning on Saturday morning, cautioning the public about potential flooding in the southwestern part of the state.The storm was expected to continue moving along the coast and, eventually, inland.“This storm is going to have an impact all the way across the country, but right now the storm center is off the California coast,” said Bob Smerbeck, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. “There’s going to be some flooding issues, mudslides and debris. People should keep their guard up.”The storm was coming off the coast of California and was expected to shift south and eastward on Saturday or Sunday, creating the risk of flash flooding in Southern California, said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md.Los Angeles had received one to two inches of rain as of Saturday morning, and in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, the rainfall amounts were two to four inches, Ms. Santorelli said.The Transverse Ranges and Sierra Nevada could get heavy snowfall, Ms. Santorelli said. Since this was a fairly cold system, significant snowfall was expected above 6,000 feet, with one to three feet of accumulation, and higher amounts possible above 7,500 feet.Windy conditions were expected to continue, including gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour above 5,000 feet through Saturday morning, the Los Angeles office of the National Weather Service wrote on Saturday.Strong winds, combined with the heavy snow, could produce short-term blizzard conditions in the mountain areas, forecasters said. Winter storm warnings were in effect for most of the mountains through Sunday evening.California is expected to dry out by Monday, Mr. Smerbeck said, but the storm will continue to move into Arizona over the weekend. Western Arizona was expected to experience heavy rain overnight on Saturday and into Sunday.Arizona was under a wind advisory from noon until 10 p.m. Saturday. The south-central and southwestern portions of Arizona could get a quarter of an inch of rain, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix.The storm was also expected to bring significant precipitation to parts of Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. As of Saturday, AccuWeather was forecasting a foot of snow in Flagstaff, Ariz. More

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      in US Politics

      Republican choice for vacated US House seat is surprise boon for Lauren Boebert

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      A Colorado Republican panel made the surprising decision on Thursday night to choose a former mayor, Greg Lopez, to be congressman Ken Buck’s likely replacement until the November general election, a saving grace for Lauren Boebert’s bid for another term in Congress.Lopez will now run as the Republican candidate in the 25 June special election after Buck’s resignation at the same time GOP primary candidates are vying to be the congressman’s successor.The stakes, however, were far higher than keeping Buck’s seat in the US House warmed by a Republican.Of the nine competitors who jostled for the special election nomination, seven also are running in the primary race against Boebert. The far-right representative jumped into the race after a near loss in the seat she now holds.While Lopez is likely to win in the dark red district, he will be a placeholder and plans to step down after the general election winner is sworn into office in January. For two of Boebert’s primary opponents who came in second and third, the special election candidacy would have been a boon.They would have run in two different elections for the same seat, garnering more attention, media coverage and fundraising opportunities. That would have boosted their odds in the primary race where they are otherwise eclipsed by Boebert’s near household name and hefty campaign chest.That tension was palpable throughout the six-hour meeting with six votes on Thursday, which winnowed the field in the special election for Buck’s seat to two options, Lopez and former state senator Jerry Sonnenberg, one of Boebert’s stiffest primary competitors.View image in fullscreenThroughout the evening, there were accusations Buck had intended to kneecap Boebert’s campaign by stepping down early and giving one of her opponents a potential leg up. Boebert pushed the claim, saying in a previous statement: “The establishment concocted a swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election.”Buck denied that was his intention.Boebert sent a letter to delegates before the meeting encouraging them to choose a placeholder, so as not to “influence the regular primary election in a way that would taint the entire process and give this candidate an unfair leg up”.That riled her primary opponents, including the former state senator Ted Harvey.On stage, Harvey lashed back at those who had voted for Lopez after landing the third-most votes.“They didn’t do it to support the candidate Greg Lopez, they did it to support their own candidates who weren’t here tonight. That’s not just putting us at risk, but it’s putting our nation at risk,” Harvey said.Harvey then asked his supporters to throw their weight behind Sonnenberg, one of Harvey’s primary opponents. Sonnenberg barely lost to Lopez in the final vote and seemed to shrug off the loss.“This is not a game for the weak. I understand completely, they made a decision,” he said, gesturing toward the mingling crowd.Lopez is a former mayor of Parker, Colorado, who ran two unsuccessful bids for governor and said he would “do the best job that I can and represent this state to the best of my ability”.This helps keep the field clear for Boebert, who has built a far-right name with a ferocious political style and remains a known, if divisive, quantity among conservatives nationwide.While Boebert has made headlines with scandals, including a tape of her groping and vaping with a date in a Denver theater, she also has garnered endorsements from Donald Trump and a key supporter of the former president, the House speaker, Mike Johnson.Those votes of confidence will probably go far for Boebert in the new district, an expansive sweep of Colorado’s plains where voters overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2020 and her opponents are lesser-known, local Republicans.Boebert moved east to join the race in this district at the end of last year, after she nearly lost her previous, Republican-leaning seat to a Democratic candidate in 2022.The option to district-hop was opened to Boebert after Buck announced last year he would not run for re-election, citing his party’s handling of Trump.Buck abruptly left Congress on 22 March, pointing to the “bickering and nonsense” he said now pervades the US Capitol. More

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      An outmaneuvered Lauren Boebert will face more obstacles in 2024 elections

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      As well as further reducing US House speaker Mike Johnson’s already threadbare majority in his legislative chamber, last week’s abrupt departure of Colorado congressman Ken Buck has the potential to significantly damage another prominent Republican figure: Lauren Boebert.The far-right firebrand seized on Buck’s declaration last year that he would not seek re-election by opting to switch from a district the congresswoman barely won in 2022 to run in Buck’s soon to be vacant seat.The calculation was that it would offer safe harbor and a near-certain return to Congress later this year, while allowing her to complete her term in office in her current seat.Buck’s 15 March decision to bring forward his exit from November to this Friday, however, stripped the floor from beneath her. It triggered a special election in his district that will take place on 25 June and left Boebert with two equally unappealing choices. She could resign her post to run in the special election, giving Democrats the chance to flip her current seat. Or she could stay where she is and gamble on trying to unseat an incumbent in the 5 November general election.She chose the latter. “I’m not leaving my constituents,” she said in a statement that failed to acknowledge she had already decided to walk away from them in November. “I will not imperil the already very slim House Republican majority by resigning my current seat.”The statement also expressed anger at Buck, who outmaneuvered her and left her facing a seemingly narrow path to being a member of the next Congress. She accused Buck of “forcing an unnecessary special election on the same day” as Colorado’s presidential preference primary, predicting that it would “confuse voters, result in a lame duck congressman on day one, and leave the fourth district [being vacated by Buck] with no representation for more than three months”.“The fourth district deserves better,” Boebert’s statement stated.Unsaid was that neither the “lame duck” congressmember nor the primary choice of Republican voters in that district, most probably, would be her.For his part, Buck, who said last year he was standing down in part because of his disappointment at his party’s backing of Donald Trump’s lie that Trump won the 2020 election, denied his decision to bring forward his exit was intended to harm Boebert.“It’s ridiculous,” he told the Colorado Sun, stressing his decision to leave the House – where Republicans for the moment had a 219-213 edge over Democrats – was solely over his disillusionment at a lack of action in Congress.Buck said: “I’m not giving anybody an advantage or disadvantage. I have done my very best to stay out of this primary election.”But he did slam Boebert for attempting to fundraise from the situation, as she did in a tweet attacking the “uniparty”, a derogatory term used by conservative extremists to attack Republicans who work or vote with Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBoebert’s next steps are unclear, although her pathway to the fourth district seat, if she still wants to pursue it, is now strewn with obstacles. She can run in the crowded fourth district primary also on 25 June without resigning her current seat – but to be successful she would have to persuade voters to elect one Republican as a “caretaker” in the special election before then rejecting that same candidate in the primary in her favor.The likelihood is that the winner of the June special election, assuming it is a Republican, will also become the primary winner and run again in November with the advantage of being an incumbent.A far less likely alternative is Boebert giving up on district four and attempting to defend Colorado’s third district seat, which she retained in 2022 by only about 500 votes from more than 327,000 cast. Many, however, believe she has burned bridges there.The congresswoman’s second term has been mired in controversy, including an unsavory groping incident involving a male companion at a Denver theater in September, and the arrest of her 18-year-old son in February on felony charges over multiple instances of credit card and identity theft.Either way, Boebert faces a monumental challenge to extend her political career in a House in which her behavior has been questionable, including unseemly heckling of Joe Biden during his 2022 State of the Union speech.In December, self-styled “no-nonsense conservative” Richard Holtorf, a candidate in the district four primary, said in a tweet that “seat shopping isn’t something that the voters look kindly on”. It is unlikely that Buck’s decision will have gained her any more supporters. More

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      Ken Buck Cuts Short House Term, Leaving Republicans Down Yet Another Member

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      The Colorado Republican, who announced his retirement last fall, said he would leave Congress at the end of next week, further shrinking his party’s already minuscule majority.Representative Ken Buck, Republican of Colorado, announced on Tuesday that he would leave Congress at the end of next week, cutting short his final term in office in a move that will further shrink his party’s already tiny majority.The decision, which caught House Republican leaders by surprise, is the latest in a long string of losses for Speaker Mike Johnson and his party, who will control just 218 out of the chamber’s 435 seats after Mr. Buck departs.In a brief statement, Mr. Buck, a veteran conservative, thanked his constituents and said he hoped to remain involved in the political process while also getting to spend “more time in Colorado with my family.”Last year Mr. Buck said he would retire at the end of this term, citing his party’s election denialism and the refusal by many Republicans to condemn the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. His plans were seen as unlikely to affect the ultimate balance of power in the House, given that Republicans would be all but certain to hold his solidly conservative district in eastern Colorado.And losing Mr. Buck, who has broken with his party on some major issues — including the recent impeachment of Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary — was not exactly seen as costing the party a loyal vote.But Mr. Buck’s decision to leave months before the end of his term on March 22, the same day as the deadline for Congress to pass a package of spending bills to avoid a partial government shutdown, creates yet another headache for House Republicans who have lurched from chaos to crisis for more than a year, leaving them with even less of a cushion to wield their small majority.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More