By Jesse Bedayn and Mead Gruver, The Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS — Relatives who knew or feared their loved ones were among the 190 abandoned bodies found decomposing in a Colorado funeral home watched in person for the first time Tuesday as the owners of the business appeared before a judge. Jon and Carie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, are accused of abusing corpses, stealing, laundering money and forging documents. Standing in handcuffs and orange jail clothes, they didn’t speak or enter pleas during a brief hearing. The Colorado Springs-based funeral home’s facili ..read more

A former Colorado police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of reckless endangerment for parking his patrol car on railroad tracks before a handcuffed woman was put inside and seriously injured when it was hit by a freight train. Pablo Vazquez had been charged with five misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment in connection with the crash that injured Yareni Rios last year but reached a plea deal with prosecutors. A judge sentenced Vazquez to 12 months of unsupervised probation. If he stays out of trouble during that time, the misdemeanor charge will be dismissed and the ..read more

Denver-based Frontier Airlines will settle a lawsuit with five Colorado pilots who alleged the airline discriminated against them while they were pregnant and breastfeeding. Under the settlement announced this week, the airline will allow pilots to pump breastmilk in the cockpit during noncritical phases of the flight, and will update other company policies that impact breastfeeding and lactating employees.  Frontier is one of the first airlines to permit pilots to pump breastmilk in the cockpit during flights, according to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed cha ..read more

The Colorado Sun is now officially a nonprofit organization and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3. Just a few months ago we shared that we were in the process of converting from a public benefit corporation to a nonprofit.  And after several weeks of paperwork and preparation, we are finally here. We made this choice for several reasons: It represents our values and our vision that this work is all about serving you, our readers. This also opens a new opportunity for Coloradans to support our efforts through donations — you can give here — and incorporates charitabl ..read more

State Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, listens during the legislative session Jan. 4, 2019. Catlin, who is term-limited, is heading into his final year as a state representative. He is one of at least five House Republicans who won’t return to the Capitol in 2025, though he’s the only one who is term-limited, highlighting the relative inexperience of the House GOP caucus. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun) The Colorado legislature will look a lot different in 2025 than it does now. There will be a lot of turnover in the House and Senate as lawmakers are termed out of the General Assem ..read more

Good morning, Colorado! You may remember the big announcement we made back in September about The Colorado Sun’s transition to nonprofit. Through the graces of speedy work by the IRS, that process is now complete! Just in time for Colorado Gives Day, The Sun is now able to accept your tax-deductible donations. If you’re still organizing any end-of-year giving, you’re just a few clicks away from supporting statewide independent journalism in Colorado. Our nonprofit status is still so shiny and new that we’re not yet on the Colorado Gives platform, but we welcome and appreciate your support on ..read more

The drilling rig set up shop on a grass patch in downtown Carbondale, facing the community center and not far from a community garden, but this rig wasn’t searching for oil and gas — it was looking for heat. The 500-foot bore hole the rig drilled was the first step in determining the viability of heating and cooling a section of the town with geothermal energy. Using a $716,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, a coalition of local government and community groups, with the help of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is looking to design a system to serve a 16-acre area. The geot ..read more

COLORADO SPRINGS — By the time Keyerah was adopted, she had lived in 14 foster homes, transferred schools multiple times and missed so many of her classes that she was getting mostly D’s and F’s.  She moved in and out of her biological parents’ home, where school was not a priority. “When I was with my bio parents, we never really went to school,” the 17-year-old said. “I’m at a very low level due to that.”  Keyerah’s struggle to reach graduation isn’t unusual. Children who grow up in foster care in Colorado have lower graduation rates than any other group — including kids who are h ..read more

New trails planned for the top of Rabbit Ears Pass promise smooth singletrack, but the process to get those pathways has been rocky. In a classic New West battle pitting those wanting more trails for recreation against those fearing encroachment on wildlife, the conflict centers around the Mad Rabbit project, a U.S. Forest Service plan to increase the number of recreational trails atop Rabbit Ears Pass. Already six years in the making, the proposal is proving to be an example of the challenges facing both communities and land managers as they balance growing recreational demands with the nee ..read more

I have been part of the Colorado restaurant scene since 2010. It’s an incredibly rewarding industry. I love serving my fellow Coloradans and visitors to our vibrant and beautiful state.  My company — beast + bottle group, which I run with my husband and my brother — manages two restaurants in Denver. We take great pride in sourcing ingredients from Colorado farmers and ranchers and supporting local economies. We are truly a farm-to-table operation always ready to offer up a memorable experience, whether it’s a burger and beer after work or a destination for a special occasion. Working in ..read more