Today is Feb. 20, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

Colorado lawmakers scramble to find funds for schools, communities grappling with immigration crisis

Colorado’s policymakers are looking for ways to help communities grappling with the costs of accommodating roughly 40,000 immigrants who arrived in Colorado in the past year.

The Department of Public Safety is requesting nearly $10 million in supplemental funding for organizations that offer services and assistance to immigrant families.

More specifically, the money will go toward housing and legal aid for the immigrants who came to Colorado after illegally crossing America’s southern border.

Bringing 'yes, and' to the courtroom: Retired judge talks about her other life as an improv actor

The day Julie Field was sworn in as a trial judge in Larimer County, she began an improvisational comedy class.

“I knew I would need something outside of the court in my life that was creative and spontaneous and fun,” she recalled.

Field, who retired in 2021 as a judge on the Eighth Judicial District Court, told a group of a dozen lawyers and judges gathered at the Gilded Goat brewery in Fort Collins last week that the lessons she learned as an improv actor were directly applicable to the courtroom.

10th Circuit, prosecution, defense all agree federal judge wrongly calculated sentence

After the prosecution and defense were in unusual agreement that a trial judge misapplied the law when determining if a prior conviction amounted to a violent crime, the federal appeals court based in Denver agreed this month that the defendant’s sentence could not stand.

Kenneth Devereaux pleaded guilty in 2022 to the federal offense of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition after Larimer County law enforcement investigated a domestic violence dispute and found a shotgun with an obliterated serial number in Devereaux’s home. Heading into his sentencing hearing, Devereaux’s imprisonment range was 57 to 71 months.

Even though all parties believed Devereaux’s prior assault conviction did not qualify as a violent crime increasing his sentencing range, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Raymond P. Moore disagreed with everyone — boosting the maximum possible sentence by 16 months.

Bill requiring voting service centers in jails divide Colorado county clerks

A panel of state senators is expected in the coming weeks to take its first look at a bill that has divided the usually united county clerks in Colorado over allowing people in jail to vote on election day.

The proposal could cost the state between $200,000 and $1 million.

If passed, Senate Bill 72, which was assigned to the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, would require county clerks to set up voting service centers in jails and detention facilities to allow eligible prisoners to vote.

Two candidates from the past in an election about the future | SONDERMANN

In his latest column, Eric Sondermann said America seems “destined for a stale rematch between two warhorses well past their sell-by date.”

In Joe Biden and Donald Trump, America is about to live through an encounter between the two oldest, major-party candidates ever to seek the presidency since, wait for it, the same two faced off in 2020, each then four years younger.

By the time Ronald Reagan departed office after his eight years, he was a full four years younger than Joe Biden will be on inauguration day if sworn in for a second term. Moreover, Reagan at the end of his tenure, was the same age as Trump would be next January.

Republican primary candidates in Colorado's 4th Congressional District

These are the 11 declared Republican candidates running in Colorado’s open 4th Congressional District, which has been represented for five terms by GOP U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who announced he isn’t seeking reelection on Nov. 1, 2023.

Fundraising totals reflect campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission through Dec. 31, 2023 and are rounded to the nearest thousand dollars. Candidates who entered the race after the most recent deadline won’t report activity until April.