Each week, we talk with our colleagues at The Colorado Sun about the stories they're following. Today, Editor David Krause joined us to discuss causes of the and a new lawsuit challenging Colorado鈥檚 so-called for people seeking health care.
Krause previewed a press conference scheduled for Thursday morning in Boulder County about the Marshall Fire. Officials announced today, after investigating for nearly 18 months, that the fire can be traced back to a trash fire intentionally set on property owned by religious organization Twelve Tribes. The officials found flames from the Twelve Tribes property coincided with others sparked by faulty Xcel Energy equipment. The findings announced today came after officials reviewed more than 230 videos and interviewed hundreds of people.
No one is facing charges related to the fire at this time, but a civil suit was filed last April against Xcel. The company said at the time that it didn't have any evidence that its equipment ignited the fire. The next hearing in the case on that lawsuit is scheduled for July 11th.
In another story, a new lawsuit is making Colorado an abortion policy battleground, challenging the state's 30-year-old so-called 鈥渂ubble" law. The law grants anyone going into a health care facility a bubble within 100 feet of the facility and an eight-foot radius of protection from protestors and others who might approach them.
鈥淎 Colorado woman filed to say that was against her First Amendment rights to personally and compassionately talk to women who are seeking abortions,鈥� Krause told KUNC. 鈥淚t's in the early stages in district court right now.鈥�
This isn't the first time the law has has been challenged. In 2000, a challenge to the law went all the way up to the Supreme Court, however, the court voted down the challenge 6-3.
But, Krause says, 鈥渓ast year, the court, in their ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, called the decision in the 2000 ruling on Colorado's bubble law a distortion of the First Amendment doctrines.鈥�
