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Drug overdoses in Colorado are seemingly spiking just a few years after the state’s elected Democrats decriminalized the possession of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and meth.

This week, five Americans — three women and two men — were found dead inside a Commerce City, Colorado, apartment after having overdosed on fentanyl. A sixth adult and a crying baby were also found in the apartment and taken to a nearby hospital.

In 2019, Democrats in the state legislature decriminalized possession of deadly drugs like fentanyl — making possession of four milligrams of fentanyl a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes that two milligrams of fentanyl can be deadly while one kilogram of fentanyl can kill half a million people. About a million milligrams are in one kilogram.

Democrat state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, now running for Congress in Colorado’s 8th congressional district, helped decriminalize fentanyl across the state. Denver, Colorado, Police Chief Paul Pazen has said that “the effect is people are dying” as a result of the law.

Republican Tyler Allcorn, a former Army Special Forces Green Beret running against Caraveo, blasted her and Democrats for decriminalizing small doses of fentanyl.

“Joe Biden’s failures at the southern border have brought us to this point and the Democrats here in Colorado — including my likely opponent Yadira Caraveo — passed laws that have made this problem worse and are killing people, Allcorn said in a statement.

The scene at the fentanyl tragedy in Commerce City on Sunday sounded more like something you would see in a war zone than in the suburbs of Denver. 

We will continue to see more tragedies in CO until @YadiraCaraveo and the Democrats fix the mess they’ve created #copolitics pic.twitter.com/rUXIAO7KJ2

— Tyler Allcorn (@allcorn4co) February 22, 2022

Allcorn said:

Almost two Coloradans a day are dying from fentanyl overdoses and our state has become a war zone.  It’s time for these Democrats to own up to what they’ve done and change the laws back to the way they were in 2019. Yadira Caraveo needs to break her silence on this issue and she also

Mikko Rantanen scored a goal and assisted on Alex Newhook’s tiebreaking goal in the third period, and the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 on Saturday.

Nathan MacKinnon also had a goal and an assist, J.T. Compher and Nazem Kadri scored the other goals, and Colorado extended its season-best road win streak to seven. With consecutive wins to open a four-game trip, the Avalanche improved to 8-0-1 in their past nine road games and 24-2-2 overall since Dec. 6.

“It’s something we talked about earlier on in the year, because I think when we got going at home, we were only .500 on the road,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Now to be able to string together seven in a row at a tough time in the year, I think it kind of shows that we can play our game, not just in our building, but on the road as well.”

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Colorado Avalanche center Nazem Kadri, left, celebrates with left wing Andre Burakovsky, center and defenseman Devon Toews after scoring against the Buffalo Sabres during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022.
(AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves to earn a point in his 18th consecutive decision (16-0-2), prolonging a franchise record.

Tage Thompson netted his first hat trick for the Sabres, who have lost two in a row and fell to 8-14-4 at home. Jeff Skinner had two assists and Dustin Tokarski stopped 31 shots.

“Obviously the end result’s not what we want,” Thompson said. “But I thought we played a full 60, and we played the right way. And that’s what you’ve got to do every night. Now it’s just about finding that consistency, being able to do it every game.”

Rantanen set up Newhook in the slot for the go-ahead goal. It was Newhook’s 11th, coming on a rush after Erik Johnson knocked down Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin behind the Avalanche net.

“A little broken 3-on-2, and great pass by Mikko,” Newhook said. “I was lucky to put it in the back there.”

The sequence drew boos from the crowd as Dahlin was slow to get up from the ice before going to the dressing room. The All-Star defenseman returned later in the period and delivered a big hit to Colorado’s Andre Burakovsky.

Rantanen scored his 26th in the empty net with 52 seconds left in the game.

Fans tossed their hats on the ice for the first time in Buffalo this season after Thompson tied it up on a wrist shot from the high slot with 7: 06 left in the second period. Kuemper stopped Skinner on a breakaway shortly before Mattias Samuelsson set up Thompson for his 19th goal.

“It’s a cool experience, for sure,” Thompson said. “You grow up and you want to play in the NHL, and those are the little dreams you have.”

The Avalanche scored three times within 10 minutes during a frenetic first period, and

Jabari Walker’s potential has always been what catches people’s eye. An athletic 6-foot-9, the Colorado sophomore can do things few people his size can.

Walker is also still learning the college game, so his flashes of brilliance sometimes come with doses of reality.

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“This year, his role is completely different. The ball is in his hands,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “We’re expecting him to make plays for himself and for others. He’s capable, but he’s on a learning curve.”

Walker arrived at Colorado as a four-star recruit and had a solid freshman season, averaging 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds in 26 games as a backup.

Boyle needed him to fill a bigger role this season with such a young team and Walker has produced, averaging 13.8 points and 8.5 rebounds.

Colorado forward Jabari Walker dunks against Washington during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, in Seattle. Washington won 60-58.
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

But with more responsibility comes more opportunity for weaknesses to be exposed.

A superb 3-point shooter last season, Walker hasn’t found the range quite as well this season as teams have focused more on stopping him, his shooting percentage dropping from 52 to 23.

A good ballhandler for his size, he has struggled with turnovers at times, including a crucial one late in a loss to Southern California.

“It’s not because Jabari’s not talented enough and he’s not trying to do the right things,” Boyle said.

It’s been a learning curve, but the eye-catching plays and potential Walker has shown tends to straighten it out in the eyes of scouts.

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SIZE: 6-9, 215.

STATS: 13.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 46% shooting.

STRENGTHS: Good perimeter shooter, even if the 3s haven’t been falling this season. Walker’s length allows him to shoot over smaller defenders and, combined with his athleticism, provides a big upside defensively. The son of former NBA player Samaki Walker, he also has a high

A Colorado sheriff’s deputy retired with a $30,000 separation agreement instead of facing an internal investigation over an OnlyFans page she owns. 

“I was a really good cop. I was a really good cop and I was a really good leader,” Melissa Williams, 48, told KDVR’s Problem Solvers team. 

Williams was in law enforcement for 28 years, spending the last 11 years with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and most recently served as a lieutenant at a detention center. 

RACHEL DOLEZAL LAUNCHES ONLYFANS FOR ‘FOOT PICS’ AND ‘SQUATS’

She had the OnlyFans account for 18 months without any problems, but then coworkers found out and a female officer in a nearby police department filed a complaint, KDVR reported. 

“I think some people viewed as what I did for fun, as being a sex worker, but I’m the same as someone else’s neighbor, their friend, mom, daughter. I’m still the same person I was for the 18 months the page existed and nobody knew,” Williams said.

Former Colorado sheriff’s deputy Melissa Williams
(Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Facebook)

She still operates the OnlyFans page, where subscribers pay a monthly fee to see Williams nude or watch her sexual encounters with her husband. Williams said she posted the content when she was off-duty, was never in uniform in the content she posted and never identified herself as a law enforcement officer. 

ONLYFANS REVERSES COURSE IN ALLOWING SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT

“A lot of the material my husband and I shared is stuff we’d taken in our private sex life over the years,” Williams, a mother of two, said according to the New York Post. “I was working up to 60-hour weeks, so mostly my husband ran the page and shared my pictures, and then sometimes we’d have fun dressing me up and taking photos especially to share.”

The complaint was filed on Aug. 5, describing that Williams’ “poor judgment was a discredit to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.”

“I was like, this doesn’t even affect the person that reported it. It doesn’t affect my work, it doesn’t affect my employees, it doesn’t affect the community,” Williams said.

The sheriff’s office investigated the complaint and internal documents obtained by KDVR said, “The website contained pictures of Lt. Williams posing for pictures clearly showing her face and her genitals, one or more of the photos appear to have been taken in a very public location.”

SHANNA MOAKLER LAUNCHES ONLYFANS ACCOUNT

A spokesman for the sheriff told KDVR that Williams should have gotten permission for the secondary job, but Williams pushed back that it did not occur to her to ask for permission. 

The OnlyFans logo on a laptop computer in New York on June 17, 2021.
(Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“No, because it really doesn’t generate employment income and there are a lot of individuals throughout the metro area who have what could be considered secondary employment but it isn’t something that gets claimed or gets reported,” she said.

She pulls in about $4,000 a month from the account, according to the New York Post. 

She took the $30,000 separation and

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is planning to use eminent domain to take land in Colorado to build a canal off the South Platte River, claiming that a 99-year-old agreement allows him to do it.

The two states signed the South Platte River Compact in April 1923, granting each of them various rights in connection with the river. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Ricketts said that nearly 300 projects Colorado has announced over the years for the South Platte River Basin pose a threat to Nebraska’s water access.

NEBRASKA GOVERNOR BLASTS STATE UNIVERSITY FOR ‘ANTI-RACISM’ PLAN: DROP THE IDEOLOGICAL INDOCTRINATION’

“Nebraska’s producers — our farmers and ranchers — feed the world. And after our people, water is Nebraska’s greatest natural resource,” Ricketts said, adding that if Colorado goes through with all of its plans, “they will reduce the amount of water coming to us by 90% and that would have a dramatic impact on our state.”

The South Platte River in Denver March 3, 2021. 
(Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

As far as Nebraska taking Colorado land to build its canal, the compact does allow each state to invoke eminent domain for specific reasons. For Nebraska, the agreement says it can do this to construct and operate a canal to divert water in Colorado from the river to irrigate Nebraska lands.

“Colorado consents that Nebraska and its citizens may hereafter construct, maintain and operate such a canal and thereby may divert water from the South Platte River within Colorado for use in Nebraska, in the manner and at the time in this Article provided, and grants to Nebraska and its citizens the right to acquire by purchase, prescription, or the exercise of eminent domain such rights-of-way, easements or lands as may be necessary for the construction, maintenance, and operation of said canal,” the compact says.

COLORADO: MOUNTAIN AVALANCHE KILLS TWO SNOWSHOERS AND DOG

Ricketts believes this provision covers his canal, which he believes is necessary because of Colorado’s plans that he fears would not just hurt Nebraska’s industry, but also the water supply for Omaha and Lincoln, the state’s two biggest cities.

Dust flies up as Oscar Ortiz, a pen rider at Cure Feeders, works with cattle on Sept. 13, 2017 in Idalia, Colo.
(RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Ricketts said construction on a canal first began in 1894, but stopped due to lack of funds. This new canal would cost roughly $500 million. Ricketts has yet to reveal where the money to fund it would come from but has teased that details will come in Thursday’s State of the State address.

Ricketts said he had not heard from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis since announcing his plan for the canal. Polis’s office, however, indicated that he’s against it.

“The governor just learned of this situation Tuesday morning, and we are working to understand it more thoroughly at this time, including a legal and operational analysis,” a spokesperson for Polis said in a statement to Fox News. “Gov. Polis will continue to fight for Colorado’s water rights and interests in interstate compacts and to oppose the diversion of precious water resources from Colorado.”

Later on, Polis issued a new statement reiterating his desire to “to protect and aggressively assert Colorado’s rights,” claiming that “Colorado has been in full compliance with the South Platte Compact for the 99 years the agreement has been in place.”

Ronnie Crawford fishes the South Platte River in Denver May 13, 2013. 
(Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post v

Congressional Democrats want to make the observance of the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot an annual event.

Democratic Reps. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Jason Crow of Colorado said they have introduced legislation to designate permanently Jan. 6 as “Democracy Day” to “ensure the lessons of the January 6^th assault are not forgotten.”

“Future generations can never forget the actions that took place in the U.S. Capitol one year ago and the bravery required to preserve our democracy,” said Mr. Phillips in a press release. “I am leading this resolution to designate January 6th as ‘Democracy Day’ so that the American people never forget how fragile our democracy is and the vigilance required to maintain it.”

New York Democratic state legislators also announced plans to bring a “Democracy Day” bill making Jan. 6 an “annual day of commemoration.”

More than 700 people have been charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that saw a pro-Trump mob ransack the Capitol as Congress sought to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. One protester died as a direct result of the melee after being shot by Capitol Police, and 140 officers were injured.

“I saw with my own eyes just how close we came to losing our democracy,” said Mr. Crow. “As we reflect on the one-year anniversary of this violent insurrection, each one of us must recommit to the founding ideals of our republic. I look forward to celebrating Democracy Day in the years to come as a symbol of that recommitment every year.”

Meanwhile, Republicans accused Democrats, liberal activists and media outlets of exploiting the one-year anniversary for political gain with a full day of speeches, testimonials, ceremonies and vigils, as well as some overheated rhetoric.

Vice President Kamala Harris compared the attack to the Pearl Harbor bombing and 9/11 terrorist attack, which former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called “just plain embarrassing.”

“Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11, and about 2,400 were killed at the attack of Pearl Harbor,” tweeted Rep. Greg Steube, Florida Republican. “Her blatant disregard for the legitimacy of those tragedies by correlating them to 1/6 is reprehensible.”

Patriotic and National Observances range from the celebratory, such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, to the somber, including the National Pearl Harbor Day of Remembrance and Patriot Day, which honors those killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. 

I’m co-sponsoring a resolution to declare January 6th “Democr

A man rescued his neighbor from a burning home during Colorado’s wildfire, which destroyed nearly 1,000 structures, making it the most destructive in state history.

Phil Kupfner and his extended family have strong roots in Superior, per KUSA. He and his brothers have homes located on a few acres on the west side of town, and as the fire raged toward them, they did all they could to stave it off.

His niece Jessica told KUSA:

They were originally kind of using their hoses, and they thought they had kind of made some progress with a lot in deterring the fire. And then they just saw embers kind of coming up over the top and catching all their roofs on fire. And that was when they were like, ‘oh God, get out.’

Before he could evacuate, Phil went to save his neighbor Dave.

Man saves neighbor from flames during Marshall Fire https://t.co/P6Pp9fd4Jk

— 9NEWS Denver (@9NEWS) January 2, 2022

“He knew the neighbor was inside,” Jessica said. “So yeah, he went back.”

His family explained he ran into Dave’s burning home and got him out.

“He put him in his truck, and they drove out of the fire and the flame,” Jessica explained. Phil drove Dave to the hospital, and now both men are in an intensive care unit, unable to speak. 

“They have burns in their throats and lungs, the doctor said, so they’re kind of guessing that potentially they inhaled some kind of fumes from a gas or some sort of explosion,” Jessica told KUSA. 

Jessica told KUSA that Phil and Dave have made some progress, but they have

SUPERIOR, Colo.—A Colorado official says nearly 1,000 homes and other structures were destroyed, hundreds more were damaged, and three people are missing after a wildfire charred numerous neighborhoods in a suburban area at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle also said Saturday that investigators are still trying to find the cause of the wind-whipped blaze that erupted Thursday and blackened entire neighborhoods in the area located between Denver and Boulder.

Pelle said utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out. He said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at “one particular location.” He declined to give details.

A sheriff’s official who declined to provide his name confirmed that one property was under investigation in Boulder County’s Marshall Mesa area, a region of open grassland about 2 miles west of the hard-hit town of Superior. A National Guard Humvee blocked access to the property, which was only one of several under investigation, the official said.

The totals given by Pelle include destroyed barns, outbuildings, and other structures, but the vast majority were homes, Boulder County spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said late Saturday.

Officials had previously estimated that at least 500 homes—and possibly 1,000—were destroyed in the fire, which by Friday was no longer a threat. Residents have slowly started returning to see the scale of the devastation.

Authorities had said earlier no one was missing. But Churchill said that was due to confusion inherent when agencies are scrambling to manage an emergency.

Pelle said officials were organizing cadaver teams to search for the missing in the Superior area and in unincorporated Boulder County. The task is complicated by debris from destroyed structures covered by 8 inches of snow dumped by a storm overnight, he said.

The remains of a home destroyed by a pair of wildfires is draped by nearly a foot of snow in Superior, Colo., on Jan. 1, 2022. (David Zalubowski/AP Photo)

At least 991 homes and other buildings were destroyed, Pelle said: 553 in Louisville, 332 in Superior, and 106 in unincorporated parts of the county. Pelle cautioned that the tally was not final.

At least seven people were injured in the wildfire that erupted in and around Louisville and Superior, neighboring towns about 20 miles northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000. It burned at least 9.4 square miles.

The snow and temperatures in the single digits cast an eerie scene amid still-smoldering remains of homes. Despite the shocking change in weather, the smell of smoke still permeated empty streets blocked off by National Guard troops in Humvees.

The conditions compounded the misery of residents who started off the new year trying to salvage what remained of their homes.

Utility crews struggled to restore electricity and gas service to homes that survived, and dozens of people lined up to get donated space heaters, bottled water, and blankets at Red Cross shelters. Xcel Energy urged other residents to use fireplaces and wood stoves to stay warm and keep their pipes at home from freezing.

Families filled a long line of cars waiting to pick up space heaters and bottled water at a Salvation Army distribution center at the YMCA in Lafayette, just north of Superior.

“We have a house, no heat but we still have a house,” Noah Sarasin said. “I just want to make sure that everyone else has heat on this very cold day.”

Hilary and Patrick Wallace picked up two heaters, then ordered two hot chocolate mochas at a nearby cafe. The Superior couple couldn’t find a hotel and were contemplating hiking 2 miles back to their home; their neighborhood was still blocked off to traffic. The family slept in one room on New Year’s Eve.

Both teared up when a man entered the shop and joked aloud that he’d lost his coffee mugs—and everything else—in the fire. The man was in good spirits, laughing at the irony of the situation.

“I have a space heater and a house to put it in. I don’t even know what to say to them,” Hil