Lauren Boebert’s lead over Adam Frisch narrows in Colorado, race enters automatic-recount territory
DENVER — Adam Frisch gained enough votes Thursday to narrow U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s lead in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District to the point an automatic recount may be required — but with more late vote tallies to come, that still could change.
The straggling counts came from ballots mailed from outside the state by Colorado voters, which could be counted so long as they arrived by 11:59 p.m. Mountain time Wednesday. Ballots requiring additional signature verification could be counted until then as well.
Boebert had a 1,122-vote lead as of Thursday morning, but that shrank to 551 votes — out of 326,847 cast — by 4:49 p.m. with new results from Pueblo County and other parts of the sprawling 3rd Congressional District, according to the secretary of state’s office. That’s under the automatic recount threshold of about 817 votes, a number equal to half of 1% of the top vote-getter’s tally.
More ballots are likely to be reported to the secretary of state’s office throughout Thursday and possibly into Friday, so the results could change. Mesa and Pueblo counties, the two most populous in the district, reported the last of their ballots Thursday afternoon. Only Moffat and San Juan counties have ballots left to report.
—The Denver Post
UC Berkeley Law School to withdraw from U.S. News & World Report rankings
LOS ANGELES — The University of California, Berkeley Law School announced Thursday it would withdraw from U.S. News & World Report's closely watched evaluations of higher education institutions, saying the ratings' methodology penalizes schools that encourage public service and low costs.
The decision by Berkeley, one of the nation's top law schools, marks another blow to the influential ratings service after Harvard and Yale took similar action on Wednesday citing U.S. News' methodology.
"Although rankings are inevitable and inevitably have some arbitrary features, there are aspects of the U.S. News rankings that are profoundly inconsistent with our values and public mission," UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said in a statement.
"Now is a moment when law schools need to express to U.S. News that they have created undesirable incentives for legal education," he said. Eric Gertler, executive chairman and chief executive of U.S. News, said his organization would continue with its mission to hold law schools accountable.
—Los Angeles Times
Facing Colorado River shortage, 30 urban suppliers pledge to target decorative grass
With the federal government calling for major cuts in water use to address the historic shortage on the Colorado River, the leaders of 30 agencies that supply cities from the Rocky Mountains to Southern California have signed an agreement committing to boost conservation, in part by pledging to target the removal of one especially thirsty mainstay of suburban landscapes: decorative grass.
The water agencies, which supply Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Santa Monica, Burbank, San Diego and other cities, have committed to a nonbinding list of actions, including creating a program to remove 30% of “nonfunctional” grass and replace it with “drought- and climate-resilient landscaping, while maintaining vital urban landscapes and tree canopies.”
The pledge could strengthen efforts across the Southwest to remove grass along roadsides and medians, and at homeowners associations, apartment complexes, businesses and other properties.
The 30 urban water suppliers also agreed in their memorandum of understanding to expand programs to improve water efficiency indoors and outdoors; increase wastewater recycling and reuse where it’s feasible; and implement various “best practices” for conservation.
—Los Angeles Times
3 pro-Russian separatists guilty of downing Malaysia Airlines flight in 2014, court finds
AMSTERDAM — Three former senior pro-Russian separatists are guilty of shooting down passenger airliner Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people, a Dutch court has found.
A fourth defendant was acquitted. The defendants — three Russians and one Ukrainian — were high-ranking separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine who procured the missile that downed the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet.
The disaster on July 17, 2014, occurred during fighting between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces. The Malaysia Airlines carrier was hit by a Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile while on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over contested territory in eastern Ukraine.
As most of the victims were from the Netherlands, the trial took place there. Russia has always denied any responsibility and, despite evidence to the contrary, blames Ukraine for the shooting-down of the aircraft.
—dpa
