Top Colorado news stories of 2022

"Our immigration system has been broken in this country for a long time." That was the declaration from Denver's mayor as he addressed the number of migrants arriving in the city from the southern border in the final weeks of 2022. The first group arrived in the first week of December, with 150 migrants seeking help from the Denver Rescue Mission. By Dec. 30, more than 2,600 migrants had arrived in the city. The city has spent more than $1 million to shelter them and expects to pay more than $3 million more to house them in the upcoming weeks.

The city has turned to nonprofits for help as it also tries to get funding from the federal government.

The influx prompted the city to close three rec centers to be used for sheltering and processing the migrants. They remain closed indefinitely.

On Dec. 15, Mayor Michael Hancock issued an emergency declaration, saying it would help secure resources and streamline processes.

Many of the migrants are from Venezuela and started the months-long trip when they would have been allowed to cross into the United States legally, but that policy changed on Oct. 12. Still thousands of people from Central America and South America are crossing the border every day. Many are finding their way to Denver after being told they will find resources and help.

One of those migrants is 22-year-old Jose who was making making just $40 a month as an IT technician. He sold all his belongings and saved for a year. "Most of my relatives are scattered all over in many countries," Jose said in Spanish. He says the poor economy and repression by the government have led all his family, including his parents, to flee Venezuela.

Hancock wants federal leaders to put aside politics and find an agreement on immigration that ease the burden Denver and other cities are facing. "It is at a crisis point right now and cities all over this country are being forced to deal with something we're not equipped to deal with," he said.

The 2022 midterm elections in November included a new Congressional district for Colorado and a much tighter than expected race in CD3 -- held by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, known for a combative style in her first term in Congress.

Former Aspen City Council member Adam Frisch won the Democratic primary to run against Boebert, a race many experts believed Boebert would win handily. Instead, the race for the district that includes 26 counties and a slice of Eagle County went to a mandated recount because the margin was within 0.5% of the winner's total.

When that recount was completed on Dec. 12, Boebert lost three votes and Frisch picked one up, which was far from enough to close a 500-plus vote gap.

When asked by CBS News Colorado Political Specialist Shaun Boyd, Republican Analyst Dick Wadhams said he believes the message the 3rd District was sending to Boebert was to "Tone it down. We don't like your behavior."

On the day Frisch conceded, before the recount, Boebert acknowledged that message, saying "What I've heard from constituents is I'm right on the policies, but everyone is ready for Washington, D.C. to kind of take the temperature down a notch."

In another close race, Democrats wound up picking up the new 8th Congressional District, which stretches from Thornton north to Greeley and into Larimer County encompassing Berthoud and Fort Lupton. Yadira Caraveo won that district, becoming Colorado's first Latina Congresswoman. Caraveo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, a pediatrician and served in the state legislature. She defeated Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer.

Democrats swept all the statewide offices as voters re-elected Gov. Jared Polis, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Attorney General Phil Weiser and Treasurer Dave Young.

The fentanyl crisis hit Colorado hard in 2022. There was a large increase in the state in the number of overdoses and deaths from fentanyl or other drugs laced with it, and numerous busts were made in which hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills were recovered.

In January an Adams County toddler died of fentanyl poisoning and a grand jury indicted the parents. An autopsy determined the child died from ingesting 10 times the amount of fentanyl it would take to kill an adult.

In February five people died in an apartment in Commerce City from the drug. The were found dead in the North Range Crossings area just north of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. One woman survived along with a 4-month-old baby. The child's parents were among those who died. The group thought they were using cocaine. Despite an intense investigation that lasted six months, investigators couldn't track the origin of the fentanyl.

In May a new state law was approved that strengthens criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers and creates a prevention campaign. They the next month state leaders from within the criminal justice system took part in a two-day summit to address the crisis and 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said "Fentanyl is ravaging our communities. It is killing our kids. It is the most lethal drug out on the street right now."

In October CBS News Colorado reported on the North Metro Task Force's effort to educate the public about a new problem -- "rainbow fentanyl," where fentanyl pills are showing up on the black market that look more colorful than the traditional illegal pills. The task force said the pills could be a way for dealers to disguise the drug as candy.

In December a 19-year-old from Broomfield died after taking a pill that may have been laced with fentanyl, according to his mother. While he was in high school, Malik Majekodunmi was a member of the football team at Cherry Creek High School. The official cause of his death remains an ongoing investigation. 

One of the most impactful wildfires in Colorado history, many still remember clearly the destruction that took place at the very end of 2021 from the Marshall Fire in Boulder County. That wildfire blew up moments after igniting on Dec. 30 amid high winds and dry conditions and destroyed at least 1,000 homes.

As Boulder County authorities still plan to release the cause of the fire at some point in the early part of 2023, there are many residents who have been feeling the effects of the massive Colorado tragedy all throughout 2022.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office reviewed close to 200 tips, 266 body-worn cameras and 450 photos from those body cameras in their investigation. Authorities have also collected 186 items of evidence, including 49 physical items and 137 pieces of digital evidence such as drone footage used to document the scene as well as photos taken by witnesses and investigators. Additional body-camera footage was released in December by the sheriff's office, showcasing the difficulty of getting people evacuated the day of the fire. The footage showed many frantic people and some even belligerent to emergency personnel when trying to evacuate the area. Others were moving slowly in the face of the threat of a fire driven by 100 mph winds.

Since the fire, Boulder County has looked at a series of additions to its notification system and implemented the ability to launch the Federal IPAWS notification system that enables amber alerts.

With so many homes damaged in the fire, some victims opted to sell their properties, while others who have decided to rebuild have been hit with delays due to insurance and permitting issues.

After years of debate, 2022 is the year the push to change the name of Mount Evans finally made real traction. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board voted unamiously to recommend renaming it Mount Blue Sky, a name suggested by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.

 
The mountain was named after John Evans, the territorial governor who issued a proclamation authorizing citizens of Colorado "to kill and destroy, as enemies of the country ... all hostile Indians." That lead to the Sand Creek Massacre on Nov. 29, 1864. That's when cavalrymen opened fire on a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho people, killing at least 160 people, mostly elders and children.

Four years ago, the Denver American Indian Commission wrote in support of changing the name, saying, "It's time to discontinue using Evans' name because we do not honor mass killing of human life for any reason. Colorado's interest in promoting inclusivity is stronger than any prior interest in honoring a man who is known for politically targeting Tribes (Utes, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota) with messages of hate and fear, of which directly resulted in a massacre of over 160 people, including mostly women and children."

The recommendation must be approved by Gov. Jared Polis. In 2021, he rescinded the proclamations that led to the massacre. From there it would go to the US Board of Geographic Names for final approval.

The state's largest grocery store chain started the year in the news for a strike and ended in the midst of a proposed merger, and the impact was felt across Colorado.

In January, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 went out on strike for nine days in Colorado before agreeing to a new 3-year contract that included higher wages, better health care and protected pensions. The following month, Safeway and the union successfully avoided a strike during their negotiations.

Then, on Oct. 14, Kroger (which owns King Soopers and City Market in Colorado) and Albertsons (which also operates as Safeway) announced they had agreed to a $24.6 billion merger deal. The companies say it will help them better compete with Walmart and Amazon and lower grocery prices as they were surging. The announcement was immediately criticized with the union saying the merger would hurt both workers and consumers. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said his department would closely monitor the proposed merger. On Nov. 29, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen and Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The pair reiterated the merger would help them compete against Walmart and Amazon.

"This merger will give us the flexibility, national footprint and digital capabilities to compete more effectively. Our commitment is to provide fresh, affordable food for everyone," McMullen told the committee.

Unions from across the nation also traveled to Washington to voice their opposition. That included UFCW 7 member Andres Becerril who works at a King Soopers in Denver. He expressed concern for his job, communities and suppliers.

"Like my fellow grocery workers, I am scared of what this merger will mean to me as a worker and what will happen to my family if hundreds and hundreds of grocery stores close," he told reporters. "Our local suppliers, farmers and ranchers who create jobs in Colorado and Wyoming will also be hurt as this new mega-company will control shelf prices with no competition."

Adding another layer, the deal includes a special dividend payout of $4 billion for Albertsons' shareholders. Securities and Exchange Commision filings show that dividend exceeds the company's cash on hand. The Washington State Attorney General filed to stop that payment, saying it would hinder Albertsons' ability to compete. Weiser joined that filing to block that payout. It is currently being held up by a judge in Washington state. Weiser's office is leading a multistate investigation into the merger. He has said he will hold community forums in 2023 to listen Coloradans' feedback and concerns about the merger. The companies say they expect to complete the merger in 2024. Kroger owns 2,700 stores in 35 states, Albertsons has 2,200 stores in 34 states. The deal includes the possibility of selling up to 650 of them. 

A contentious debate over what to do with gray wolves in Colorado, decades in the making, appears to be coming to an end as Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials now have a plan in place to reintroduce the animals.

The debate hinges on wolves' role in the ecosystem; they provide a natural predator to deer, elk and other herbivores, which can then overgraze plants, potentially impacting the natural environment. On the other hand, most ranchers don't want wolves around, since they can prey on cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock.

Some ecologists and biologists argue, however, that livestock has the potential to overgraze, too.

Over the past several years, state wildlife officials have fielded concerns and ideas from Coloradans, ranchers, environmental groups and other stakeholders.

Colorado voters approved a reintroduction plan through Proposition 114 in the 2020 election by a narrow margin - 50.91% voted in support of reintroduction while 49.09% of voters opposed it.

With some exceptions, rural counties across the state voted against reintroducing the wolves. Ranchers say it's unfair that voters in Denver, or other areas that won't be impacted, decided how this should play out in their communities.

Fast forward to 2022, just this month CPW put forward its reintroduction plan, which will likely bring dozens of wolves to Colorado. The nearly 300-page report includes a plan for how wolves will be reintroduced. The initial plan is to transfer between 30-50 wolves from the Northern Rocky Mountain States over a three to five-year period.

CPW promises to pay livestock owners for losses if investigators determine the animal was killed by wolves, not just eaten after it had died of other causes.

On May 2, a leaked draft of the United States Supreme Court opinion reshaped legislation around abortions. That draft indicated the high court would overturn Roe v. Wade with its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. In that ruling, the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

Even before the leaked draft or the final ruling, issued on June 24, Colorado lawmakers had already codified the right to abortion in state law. Gov. Jared Polis signed the Reproductive Health Equity Act on April 4. It also declares that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses have no independent rights, a response to failed ballot initiatives that sought to restrict abortion by giving embryos the rights of born humans.

Shortly after the Supreme Court issued the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, Polis barred state agencies from arresting or extraditing any seeking or providing reproductive care.

His executive order, issued July 7,  prohibits agencies from cooperating with out-of-state civil or criminal invesetigations related to seeking, obtaining, or providing reproductive health care -- unless the alleged activity would be illegal in Colorado.

At that point in the year, Cobalt, Colorado's largest abortion rights advocacy organization, reporter the number of calls it was receiving had tripled.

In November, Planned Parenthood of Colorado reported it had a 33% increase in patients, much of it from out-of-state women traveling to Colorado. That same month Kaiser Permanent said it would start providing care, saying expanding the care was consistent with its committment to the overall health of its members.

But out-of-state activists tried to enact a ban on abortions after six weeks in the City of Pueblo. In December the city council voted to indefinitely table the motion. One council member said it was a measure for the state legislature, not the city. That motion could be re-introduced.

Colorado was the first state to decriminalize abortion in 1967.

There's been a sharp rise in catalytic converter theft in Colorado for a few years now, and that trend didn't slow down in 2022. Catalytic converters help control exhaust emission in vehicles, and precious metals in them can be worth hundreds of dollars at scrapyards. Knowing this, thieves across the state have been climbing under parked cars and sawing out the part, sometimes using armed lookouts.

A CBS Colorado employee was among the thousands of victims this year, and wrote in an article on CBSColorado.com that he is adjusting his decisions about where he parks his car as a result. This year lawmakers at the local and state level introduced measures intended to deter the criminals. Gov. Jared Polis signed two such measures into law in June, and in September the Aurora City Council approved an ordinance that will make it harder to sell the part there. Numerous events were held across the Front Range this year in which law enforcement agencies handed out anti-theft kits allowing vehicle owners to apply labels to their catalytic converters so they'll be trackable and less likely to be stolen. In almost all of the instances, the events quickly ran out of kits.

Some car owners have also been taking other proactive measures -- having low-cost steel guards, shields, and cages welded onto their trucks and cars to foil the crooks. "It's cheaper than paying $2,500 to get a new (catalytic converter)," one vehicle owner told CBS News Colorado investigator Brian Maass.

Just before midnight on Nov. 19, a shooter opened fire inside Club Q in Colorado Springs, killing five people and leaving more than a dozen others injured. Patrons tackled the shooter to the ground, got the AR-15-style rifle away and held the person until police arrived.

The five who died at the LGBTQ+ club that night were Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh. 

Richard Fierro is considered a hero after tackling the shooter, along with U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas James, who helped subdue the shooter until authorities arrived. 

Anderson Aldrich, 22, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns (according to defense attorneys), was arrested for the deadly shooting and is facing 305 counts, including first-degree murder, attempted first degree murder, assault and bias-motivated crime charges.

Aldrich was arrested last year after a relative reported Aldrich was threatening her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, according to court documents. That case has ignited a conversation about how the red flag laws work in Colorado and possible prosecutorial errors in that case.

In June the Colorado Avalanche brought home their third Stanley Cup championship in 2022, and sent the City of Denver into a state of elation.

Defenseman Cale Makar was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, as he led all defenseman in playoff points. Makar was also named best overall defenseman in the NHL and brought home the Norris Memorial Trophy. In the finals, the Avs beat the back-to-back champion Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. Prior to that they swept the Nashville Predators, beat the St. Louis Blues in four games, and swept the Edmonton Oilers en route to their impressive championship win. 

The Avalanche scored the second-most points in the NHL in the 2021-22 season, behind only the Florida Panthers. They led the Western Conference in the standings for much of the year.

A gigantic parade through downtown Denver on June 30 marked the start of a summer of celebration for Denver and Avs faithful everywhere. 

After the parade festivities were over, CBSColorado.com staff tracked the Cup across North America and parts of Europe as each member of the NHL championship team got a chance to spend time with the trophy on their own.

The Colorado Buffaloes shocked the college football world in early December when the school announced they had hired Deion Sanders to be the 28th head football coach in University of Colorado history.

Sanders had coached the last 3 years at Jackson State University where he went 27-5 and won back-to-back conference championships.  

CU had just wrapped up a 1-11 campaign and was widely regarded as the worst Division-I football team in America. Athletic Director Rick George fired Karl Dorrell after the 5th game this season and quickly set his sights on the Pro Football Hall of Famer. In addition to his NFL career, Sanders also played major league baseball and holds the distinction as the only man to ever play in both a World Series and Super Bowl.

His hiring instantly took the irrelevant Buffs football program and made it a national brand. Just days after his hiring, CU reported its highest single day online merchandise sales ever, the school accepted 1,410 season ticket deposits and added more than 173,000 new followers on social media. 

Coach Prime's challenge will now be to restore the proud tradition of a football program that only has 2 winning seasons in the last 17 years. 

After 22-year-old Christian Glass was allegedly shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy while experiencing a mental health crisis, two deputies have been fired and arrested, and Clear Creek County is now reckoning with its ability to help people with mental health issues.

This story started on the night of June 10 when Glass was driving and made a U-turn, getting one of his car's wheels stuck between two boulders, according to court documents. Video from that night and the next morning shows several deputies open fired on Glass.

Glass told a 911 dispatcher and responding deputies that he had a hammer and a knife since he was an amateur geologist. He offered to throw them out of his car to make the deputies feel safer, but Clear Creek Deputy Andrew Buen told Glass not to.

Law enforcement officers from the Georgetown Police Department, Idaho Springs Police Department, Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Gaming Commission also responded as backup.

About an hour passed after deputies first arrived and the time they tried to remove Glass from his car. During those conversations, Glass pleads with the deputies, saying he's not a threat to them and that he's just scared and needs help. At one point, he makes a heart with his hands.

Buen and Georgetown Police Chief Randall Williams then tased Glass, causing him to scream in pain and swing a knife in panic and self-defense. Williams tried to open the rear driver's door and as Glass continued swinging the knife, Buen shot Glass five times. He died at the scene.

The shooting comes at a time when police around the country are under increased scrutiny for instances of violence and alleged violence against nonviolent people with mental health issues. Clear Creek County has since expressed interest in starting a crisis response team to deal with cases of mental health crises.

The case against Buen and his supervisor, Sgt. Kyle Gould -- who was not at the scene -- went to a grand jury. Buen and Gould were indicted late last month and their cases are ongoing.

The Denver Broncos entered 2022 with many questions surrounding the franchise, led by none bigger than who would own the team by the start of the season.

They first addressed who would coach the team with the hiring of Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathanial Hackett as head coach. Vic Fangio was dismissed in January, and Hackett took over his first NFL head coaching job. (It didn't last long.)

After 35 years as principal owner of the team, the Bowlen family officially relinquished all ties to the franchise in June and an ownership group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton, his daughter Carrie Walton Penner and son-in-law Greg Penner officially took over ownership of the team. The franchise was purchased for a record $4.65 billion. Businesswoman Mellody Hobson, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton are also part of the ownership group.

 
The team also made major moves to address the inconsistencies at quarterback by trading quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant, defensive end Shelby Harris, and several draft picks to the Seattle Seahawks for veteran quarterback Russell Wilson. He came on board in March and signed a 5 year extension in September before he even played a game. The trade so far hasn't led to positive results for Denver, as Wilson has struggled in a Broncos uniform. In fact, he is turning in the worst season of his career.

The losses also piled up in the 2022 regular season for Denver, with the team missing out on the playoff for seventh straight season. Following the Broncos dismal loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Christmas Day, the team fired Hackett and are now searching for a new head coach.