The Republican gubernatorial candidate has attended only one debate alongside his two opponents. He’s never run for office before and has few prominent Republican officials backing him. His backstory is extensive and full of the sort of bizarre detail that, in a pre-Donald Trump world, would likely have caused his campaign to implode before it left the launchpad.

And after the June 30 primary, Marx very well may be Colorado Republicans’ candidate for governor.

“This is pretty wild,” he said recently, standing in front of his nonprofit’s indoor shooting range, a handgun holstered in his waistband. “Someone like me, running for governor.”

The comment appeared to come less from bewilderment at how far he’d come than from vindicated confidence. And it belied what has been a thoroughly, carefully atypical campaign — one that has leaned on the 60-year-old’s charm, his direct outreach to voters and his use of the now-familiar pitch of a political outsider who shares voters’ distaste for elected politicians and campaign-speak.

As he’s outraised other Republicans and seized headlines, Marx has also been bombarded with questions about his background from reporters and from skeptical conservatives.

He’s said he was forced to kill a man as a child and, when asked by , he replied, “Does it matter?” He once ran martial arts schools in Hawaii and is a black belt in “Cajun Karate,” a form of martial arts created by his dad, Karl.

He describes himself as a “high-risk humanitarian” who trains law enforcement and provides trauma relief to people in the United States and overseas, including in conflict zones. Another humanitarian confirmed that Marx was in Iraq a decade ago and that, though he was largely behind the front lines, he was present when medical workers came under fire at least twice.

Marx also talks frequently about praying to free people from demons that, , can be attracted by porn or unmarried couples living together. In one 2023 podcast, Marx and that, after his dog identified a supernatural presence in a couple at a pool, he set a woman free from “five demons that had been assigned to her.”

In an interview with The Denver Post, Marx said it didn’t matter if reporters believed him and that he was comfortable with scrutiny of his background, even as it’s drawn .

Voters will decide, he said, arguing that he was qualified because of their support.

“Judge us by the ability to run a campaign,” he said, “and look at the guy who’s never done it, nothing — but stepped into it, was aware of the problem and the need, (and) assessed what needed to be done to win. I have avoided some pitfalls of doing it the old way, but the action I’ve taken has broken records.”

Marx raised $2.67 million through late May, the most of any Republican gubernatorial candidate up to that point in at least 20 years. To get on the ballot, he submitted more than 28,000 signatures, more than any gubernatorial campaign since at least 2014. Those signatures were not verified because Marx earned ballot access through an assembly vote.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who did not return messages seeking comment; musician Ted Nugent; three county sheriffs; and Mark Geist, who defended the U.S. embassy in Libya in 2012. (Marx’s campaign has also paid Geist and his wife for consulting and security work.)

Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the state GOP and critic of Marx, said Marx had run “the strangest campaign I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been involved in this business.”

He argued that Marx’s beliefs about demons and his assertions that he’s helped tens of thousands of women and children — some amount of which he’s claimed to have rescued, alongside more he’s said he’s helped by providing them stuffed animals and trauma support — were so outlandish that they would cost the party in down-ballot races in November.

Kristi Burton Brown, another former state party chair, questioned Marx’s apparent disinterest in policy discussions and debates. His opponents, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, have called him a fraud and a con man; both said they would not support him should he win the nomination.

‘New territory for a political campaign’

But Wadhams and Burton Brown both acknowledged that Marx’s campaign had proven successful, marshalling what Wadhams described as Marx’s  base of support and expanding it with direct mail and “very aggressive social media outreach.” Marx’s campaign has spent $725,000 on mailers — nearly what Kirkmeyer and Bottoms have raised combined — and he’s leaned into videos and podcast appearances.

When the moderator of one debate, a conservative talk show host, sent Marx a letter pressing him for specifics on his background, Marx skipped the event and organized a rally instead. His campaign later released photos showing more people had attended his event than the debate.

“We are in such new territory for a political campaign in Colorado — frankly, in the nation,” Wadhams said, incredulous at Marx’s TV interviews.

A quick look at the Colorado governor candidates running in this month’s Democratic, Republican primaries

Marx has eschewed dense policy discussions -- an intentional choice, he said, to let voters' eyes adjust to his background.

That hasn't been a concern for his supporters. Marx is likable, which is "gold" in politics, said Jeff Hunt, a conservative activist and radio host. He first met Marx at , where Marx teased his candidacy.

" 'He doesn't have policy chops' -- alright, well, he still outraises everybody," Hunt said. " 'He’s got a unique background' -- well, he’s still driving more people to his events. 'He won't debate' -- he still has energy and big rallies. (His opponents) are trying to figure out an angle. But when you're dealing with somebody who has such a big personality force, it����ap just not landing."

Hunt continued: "I've told him (that) if I was a political strategist, I would not ever have told him to tell the stories he has told or the things he has written about in his book ... That����ap part of the enjoyment I have in this whole process. Alright man, you are 100% yourself."

Marx has said he was the victim of profound abuse as a child. In his memoir, he wrote that his stepfather made him behead a cat at age 3. Marx wrote that at age 7, his stepfather put his hand around his own and forced him to shoot and kill a man. His stepfather, he alleges, then smeared blood on him and buried the man beneath the house.

The sheriff of Simpson County, Mississippi, where the shooting allegedly took place, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

A Marine veteran who moved to Colorado to work for Focus on the Family, Marx founded All Things Possible in 2003 "to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ through outreaches and crusades primarily to youth," according to the group's first tax filing. By 2024, ATP's annual revenue had surpassed $7.6 million.

A closer look at ministry

ATP has done outreach to youth in prisons and focused on "trauma response," Marx said, which includes handing out stuffed animals loaded with recorded prayers and songs. In an email, All Things Possible said the ministry was separate from Marx's campaign. Marx said he and his wife resigned from the group after he announced his candidacy.

But overlap remains: Marx's campaign address is at the ministry's training center outside of Colorado Springs, which is also the home he sold to the nonprofit for nearly $3 million in 2024. His campaign manager was also listed as an ATP board member on its most recent tax returns.

Marx has said he and his group have worked overseas, including in Iraq, Syria, Israel and southeast Asia. Its tax filings show it has spent more than $4.3 million on those efforts in recent years, though those documents also state ATP had no standing personnel or offices in those countries.

Dave Eubank, the American head of the Myanmar-based , said he met Marx in California roughly 15 years ago. He later invited Marx to Myanmar, where Eubank's group supports rebels and civilians caught in that nation's civil war.

The trip served as Marx's introduction to "high-risk humanitarianism."

Within a year, Marx asked if Eubank and his medics would like to go to Iraq to help civilians amid fighting between the Islamic State military group and Kurdish and Iraqi military units. Eubank said Marx's group funded his efforts.

"I think he came to Syria once while we were there, briefly, and then he came to Iraq multiple times while we were there," Eubank said, praising Marx as a friend and ally. "Usually it was during some lull in the fighting, but not always. He was in at least one ... maybe two engagements with us, when we were providing medical care when we came under direct fire."

Marx has also said he called in an airstrike on Islamic State militants. Eubank said he hadn't heard that story before it came up during Marx's 9News interview in late May. When Eubank was working in the Middle East, he said, the U.S. military had dropped smoke at his request to cover escaping civilians. (The Post sought comment on Marx's claims from U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East. In an email, an unnamed representative said military officials "have nothing for you on this.")

Marx said ATP's goal is now to "equip and encourage" law enforcement . In a statement, Colorado Springs Police Lt. Korey Hutchinson, the lead investigator of the Colorado Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said his department "has not conducted any direct work or formal collaboration" with ATP.

"However, we have heard positive feedback from ICAC units and personnel across the country regarding the assistance and support they provide," Hutchinson said, referring to ATP's "wellness support for investigators of child exploitation crimes."

Marx said his group also helped train law enforcement involved in .

Abigail Meyer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service, which led the operation, said that, "according to those who ran this operation," Marx's group was not involved.

Political outsider or not, in the gubernatorial campaign -- audits of the state budget, support for police and immigration enforcement, strict Medicaid work requirements, tax relief, school choice -- will be largely familiar to voters in the Republican primary.

His website's includes a number of questionable statutory and constitutional citations; one statute it references has been repealed, and another purports to link a constitutional prohibition on sex discrimination to homeowner's insurance spikes. He told The Post that the platform was written by an "attorney who did work for Elon Musk."

Marx said he's withholding some plans for the general election. Besides, he argued, the GOP primary wouldn't be decided on policy.

"I don't think Barb or Scott ... are three degrees different on policy positions (from me)," he said, referring to Kirkmeyer and Bottoms. The real difference, he argued, will be who can convince voters they can win.

"And I think, just naturally, I'm comfortable in that arena."

The W was a cocktail bar and burger joint on 5001 E. Colfax Ave., in a property with a green-tiled exterior whose last tenants were Crush Wing + Tap and The Elm. Carrie and Ernest Wigglesworth and two partners opened their business in 2024 as a dining opportunity for their neighborhood that wasn’t selling pizzas but burgers, sandwiches, craft beer on tap and cocktails.

“While we hoped for a different outcome, the challenges of today’s economic and business climate have made continuing unsustainable,” the Instagram post read. “Thank you to everyone who supported us, spent time with us and helped make The W what it was. We will always be grateful for this community.”

The Wigglesworths’ last day of operation was Sunday, May 24.

Jamir Deante Bright was arrested in December 2024 on suspicion of three felony “sextortion” charges, including two counts of child sex exploitation and one count of criminal extortion.

Bright pleaded guilty to an added felony count of possessing child sexual exploitation material on May 18. He also pleaded guilty in a separate case on that date to misdemeanor harassment for posting private images, and was sentenced to four years of probation, court records show.

Sextortion is a form of exploitation where children are blackmailed, most often through the threat of publishing an explicit image, Aurora police said. It also includes sharing sexual images for money.

Students from several middle and high schools reported being sexually exploited by anonymous Instagram accounts in January 2024, which were later linked to Bright, police said. The Rangeview Raider Review, the student paper at Rangeview High School, sparked the police investigation by publishing an article about the anonymous account that obtained dozens of explicit photographs of students and sold the uncensored versions, or forced students to pay to have their photos removed.

If Bright successfully completes his probation, the felony charge will be removed from his record.

This story will be updated throughout the day.

5:26 p.m. update: Colorado lawmakers are embarking on their third attempt in the past 12 months to rewrite the state’s beleaguered artificial intelligence regulations, with the latest go-round introduced Friday after months of closed-door negotiations.

Senate Bill 189 would overhaul the antidiscrimination protections that were passed in 2024 but have never been implemented. The proposal would require companies to disclose to people that AI is being used to make a consequential decision about them — like in hiring or financial lending. The bill would also give consumers the ability to request additional information about the technology and the decision it was used in, and to request corrections to data involved in the decision.

“This bill strikes an appropriate balance of protecting consumers while not being onerous on developers or the businesses who use AI technology,” Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, the Denver Democrat who wrote the initial regulations and is sponsoring SB-189, said in a statement.

The initial law — which sought to curb discrimination by AI systems that are used to influence hiring, banking and other “consequential” decisions — has been consistently criticized as unworkable by just about every group with an interest in the rules’ existence.

The law’s effective date was most recently delayed until June to allow the legislature to make another attempt at overhauling it.

Previous efforts to do so have been bitterly unsuccessful: Lawmakers first attempted a rewrite last session, only for Rodriguez to suddenly and voluntarily kill it. Another effort, launched during a special session in August, collapsed after lawmakers reached a deal that was quickly opposed and scuttled by business and tech groups.

That collapse was partially fueled by disagreements over who should bear liability if an AI system is used to discriminate against someone. Under SB-189, liability would be assigned to either the AI’s developer or the tech’s deployer — companies or agencies that use the technology — depending on the circumstances.

This latest — and potentially final — swing is the product of a Gov. Jared Polis-created task force that brought together tech groups, industries and agencies that use AI, and progressive and consumer protection organizations. While those groups have repeatedly been at odds in previous AI debates, SB-189 represents their attempt at a unified rewrite.

Whether that truce — and the bill itself — holds for the remainder of the session remains to be seen. If lawmakers don’t rewrite regulations before the session ends on May 13, then the pending regulations will kick in next month — and they’re already under challenge in court by Elon Musk’s xAI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

1:33 p.m. update: Veto watch begins.

The Colorado Senate passed on a party-line vote today, sending it to a governor who has made clear he won’t sign it into law. The bill would remove a unique provision of Colorado labor law that requires that newly organized workers pass a second election before they can negotiate the provision of union contracts that describes dues collection.

“We’ve heard from the opponents of the measure that this is a balanced system that works so well for the state of Colorado,” Sen. Jessie Danielson, one of the bill’s sponsors, said from the Senate floor. “Well, they’re right — in part. It works very, very, very well for the billionaires, for the corporations, for the elite, for the wealthy. It does not work for the workers.”

Colorado lawmakers launch bid to undercut ‘irresponsible’ road funding mandate in Initiative 175

A nearly identical bill passed last year, and Gov. Jared Polis vetoed it. The governor has said he wants labor unions to strike a deal with opposed business groups. Those negotiations failed last year, and they didn't even get off the ground this time around. The governor told reporters last week that, to his knowledge, no negotiations were underway.

That means another veto is likely imminent. Theoretically, lawmakers would have enough time to override that veto -- but only Democrats supported the bill, and they're one vote shy of the threshold needed to stiff-arm Polis in both the House and the Senate.

The coming veto won't be a surprise to Democratic lawmakers or to the labor groups backing the measure.

This year's effort served two intertwined purposes: to push the candidates vying to be Polis' (likely) Democratic successor to take a position on a priority labor bill, and to put that next governor on notice that the proposal will keep coming until it's signed into law.

"We've been told a lie that it has to be (economically) hard to survive in Colorado," Dennis Dougherty, the executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, said in a statement, "and workers, our members, aren't buying it. If we want a strong middle class, we need strong worker protections."

12:12 p.m. update: Colorado lawmakers’ attempt to shrink the lots of single-family homes died a second, quiet death Thursday night. The Senate Local Government and Housing Committee killed as its sponsors asked for the bill to be put down and acknowledged that they didn’t have the votes to advance it.

The bill would have allowed homeowners to split and sell off parts of their lots, largely without having to get approval from local officials. The proposal was part of a now yearslong effort by Gov. Jared Polis and a coalition of legislative Democrats to rewrite local zoning rules in a bid to make it easier to build housing, including on smaller lots.

While that broader reform push has scored more victories than losses in recent years, it's also created some amount of land-use fatigue in the state legislature. Just last week, another bill that would’ve put a limit on local governments’ ability to set minimum lot sizes was also voluntarily shelved in the same Senate committee.

“We have done a lot in this space, and I think in some ways, there’s some fatigue around that,” Sen. Judy Amabile, who sponsored HB-1308 and has backed prior zoning reform bills, said Friday morning. “Maybe we need to see how all of the bills that we’ve passed are going to play out and how they’re going to interact with each other."

In 2024 alone, the legislature kneecapped local parking requirements, required denser zoning in urban areas and gave many homeowners the right to build accessory dwelling units on their properties. Those reforms were all brand new to the state, and they upended the traditional power of local governments -- and, more acutely, of local groups opposed to development -- to control their own zoning.

It will take years for the impact of those changes to be felt.

Amabile said supporters of those reforms “got a message that we need a little bit of a pause.” That message, she said, came “from my colleagues, and from the (Colorado Municipal League) and from the cities. Even the city of Boulder, which has been leading the charge on land-use reforms, was resistant to this bill."

11:44 a.m. update: Despite well over $500,000 spent on digital ads in opposition, the Colorado Senate has passed a measure that would generally prohibit credit card companies from charging certain kinds of fees on businesses.

passed in a narrow 18-17 vote Friday morning and now heads to the House. The bill seeks to limit "swipe fees," which are a small, flat-percentage fee charged on retailers by financial services companies when you use a credit card to buy something at a store. That fee is based on your total bill -- including the sales tax you're ultimately paying to the state.

SB-134 would prohibit companies from factoring sales taxes in the swipe-fee charge.

It's a small amount of money per transaction, but over the course of a year, carving out sales taxes from the fees would amount to thousands of dollars saved by small businesses -- and far, far more for giants like Target.

"This is real money, and right now, every dollar of it is leaving Colorado and landing on the balance sheets of the most profitable financial institutions in human history," Sen. William Lindstedt, a Broomfield Democrat and the bill's sponsor, said ahead of an earlier vote this week.

The legislation, then, is essentially a fight between two large business interests, pitting financial companies -- including Visa, Mastercard, airlines and banks -- against retailers, from Target and Home Depot to local restaurants and smaller businesses.

The lobbying on the bill has been intense. The Electronic Payments Coalition, a lobbying group whose governing board includes national banking officials and a senior vice president from Visa, has papered Instagram with advertisements alleging that the bill would cause "chaos" and force people to pay sales tax in cash or by check.

According to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, the EPC has since late January, and that total doesn't include the lobbyists the opponents have hired. The Colorado Restaurant Association, which supports the bill, has also spent several thousand dollars on digital ads backing SB-134.

Friday's vote was technically the second time the bill had passed the upper chamber after it cleared on a similarly tight 18-16 vote Wednesday. But Sen. Robert Rodriguez -- the chamber's majority leader -- moved for a revote Friday, essentially to give Sen. Julie Gonzales an opportunity to talk more about it.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Jessie Danielson, was absent for the first vote but was present -- and supported the bill -- on Friday. Rodriguez, however, changed his vote to no.

In her speech on the bill, Gonzales told her colleagues that it was "important that y'all show up and take this vote today." Most of Gonzales' comments, though, were focused on the lobbying. She said she'd been "threatened that if I vote a certain way, I'll get blown up about it and my other bills will suffer as a result."

"When this policy was first introduced, I had to get my head wrapped around how this bill might save everyday Coloradans money," Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, said. "The simple fact is it doesn't. This bill has unfolded as a proxy battle that has taken place here in Colorado and across the country, between the financial services industry ... and business."

As she did in the earlier vote this week, Gonzales supported the bill, which now heads to the House. In that chamber, it's sponsored by both House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Majority Leader Monica Duran, giving it solid odds of passing before the legislature wraps for the year on May 13.

DPS formed the 17-member committee in response to that requires all Colorado school districts to adopt a policy on student cellphone use by July 1. The law doesn’t require a ban; rather, it allows each district to come up with its own rules.

Cellphone bans are as schools try to reduce distractions in class and improve students’ mental health. Some educators are expanding technology prohibitions even further by .

While other Colorado districts , Denver, the state’s largest district with more than 89,000 students, does not. The committee of parents, educators, and community members was tasked by the district with coming up with recommendations, which the Denver school board heard for the first time Wednesday night.

that the DPS cellphone policy include:

• A ban on smartphones, smart watches, earbuds, and other technology not issued by schools from the start to the end of the school day for all students.
• A rule that phones must be inaccessible during school.
• Exceptions for students who need their phones for medical reasons or as part of a special education plan or disability accommodation.
• Training for parents on the district����ap emergency notification process.
• Revised student discipline rules that include consequences for violating the ban.
• That if educators don’t implement the policy consistently, “there is an intersectionality with their evaluations.” The recommendations don’t say how their evaluations could be affected.

The last point is in response to teachers who said bans are hard to enforce if the teacher next door is more lax, said Sarah Almy Moore, a parent and former DPS employee who was on the committee. That inconsistency is partly what inspired the idea of a bell-to-bell ban, she said.

“The policy of putting the phones away just for in-class doesn’t seem to be working effectively, even though the students themselves might like it,” Almy Moore said.

Abraham Lincoln High School principal Néstor Bravo was also on the committee. He said he supports a blanket ban because allowing students to have their phones at lunch or during bathroom breaks can become an opportunity for them to get “a quick hit of Instagram.”

“As we try to address the problem of cellphones as an addiction that compromises social interaction, we were thinking of a K-12 policy that is standard but it also prepares our children for when they become teenagers,” Bravo said.

School board members Marlene De La Rosa and Kimberlee Sia will take the lead on crafting a proposed policy based on the recommendations. The current timeline calls for them to introduce the policy next week, and for the board to take a final vote on June 11.

The district plans to survey families about the proposed policy in May. The board will also hear public comment about the proposal at its May and June meetings.

One teacher and three parents spoke at Wednesday’s public comment session. Two were in favor of a proposed ban and two were opposed.

Katie Sams, a teacher at one of the district����ap alternative high schools, said her students are often older and dealing with complicated factors in their lives. They may need phones to communicate with employers, child care providers, or even parole officers, she said.

But parent Jamie Chesser said she wants her children, ages 12 and 14, to build strong friendships with classmates and relationships with teachers at school, not be isolated on a screen.

“We need to remove cellphones from schools for the sake of our children’s futures,” she said. “This is not punishment. It is for their good health. This is about love for the kids.”

This story , a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

The store announced the closure Monday morning .

Store owner Dylah Ray said in an interview that the shop has always been both a community space and a bookstore.

“We’ve really achieved our mission-driven work in being a safe space for the queer community and to be a literary and artistic hub,” Ray said. “On the flip side, that community building doesn’t necessarily always equate to financial success. The business is not financially feasible, particularly with high rents in Denver. We are still looking forward to maintaining community presence and being involved in both the queer and literary scenes here in Denver.”

A medley of memories comes to mind when Ray thinks about her proudest achievement, running the store. Highlights include when the shop was an organizing hub for Amendment J, which passed in 2024 and repealed the definition of marriage in the Colorado Constitution as being only between a man and a woman. 

“It was what I love bookstores to be — a place of civic engagement, activism, community building,” Ray said.

The shop held monthly poetry slams and won numerous local awards for best bookstore in the city.

Seven people chose the shop for their engagement, Ray said.

“We helped plan them and hide the rings in a book, and we are happy to be part of those folks’ stories,” Ray said.

The store, located at 956 Santa Fe Drive, was founded in 2022. The shop often held community events and doubled as a writer’s workshop with a table dedicated to writers to practice their craft and learn from industry professionals.

Ray doesn’t know what’s next for her yet, but said she looks forward to writing her own book and continuing to be in the literary and activism scene.

Previously scheduled events at the shop will continue, but the last day of regular store hours —  open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday through Sunday — will be April 12.

The shop asked patrons to continue supporting the store through buying books on and and selecting Petals & Pages as the bookshop.

“Thank you for an incredible chapter,” the closure announcement said. “We will miss this little bookstore, but are so thankful that we have you all in our story.”

THORNTON — A Colorado woman whose son died from a fentanyl-laced pill he bought through social media celebrated a this week against Meta and YouTube that she said opened the door for companies to be held responsible for harms to children using their platforms.

“The truth is out, and it����ap time that they are held accountable for the design of the platforms,” said Kimberly Osterman, whose son Max died in 2021 at age 18. “They put profits over safety.”

Flipping through photo albums Thursday at her home in Colorado, Osterman reflected on “the days before social media. The days before the infinite scrolling lured him in.” Photos of him in frames with hearts and angel’s wings dotted the shelves.

Osterman said Max arranged to meet a drug dealer he connected with on Snapchat and purchased what he thought was Percocet. The pill was laced with a deadly dose of fentanyl, and he was dead the next morning. Osterman is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit that is separate from cases decided this week.

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, both YouTube and Meta, which owns and operates platforms including Instagram and Facebook, liable for harms to children for designing their platforms to hook young users. The companies said they disagreed with the verdicts and may appeal.

And in a jury determined that Meta knowingly and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Meta said it would appeal.

Snapchat����ap parent company, Snap Inc., in January just before the Los Angeles trial began. TikTok also agreed to settle, and details were not disclosed.

Osterman is part of Parents for Safe Online Spaces, or ParentsSOS, a group that includes parents who have lost children to online harm and advocate for more regulation. It has campaigned for the , pending federal legislation that would require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on platforms minors are likely to use.

She hopes to see social media companies enact strict guardrails, such as age verification technology, to prevent anyone under 18 from accessing the platforms.

“You think your kids are safe in their home, in their bedroom, but that����ap not the way it is with the current status of social media,” she said.

Osterman knew Max used Snapchat to communicate with friends but did not realize the danger he was in. She said he loved lacrosse and wrestling and was academically brilliant.

The man who sold the pill to him, Sergio Guerra-Carrillo, was sentenced to six years in prison on two distribution charges in 2023.

Snapchat did not immediately comment Thursday when asked about Osterman’s case. The company has said previously that it uses cutting-edge technology to proactively find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts and blocks search results for drug-related terms.

It is not yet clear whether the recent verdicts against the social platforms will . But the verdicts demonstrate a growing willingness to hold major social media companies responsible and demand meaningful change. Tech watchdogs expect they will open the door for more lawsuits and regulations.

The shock drubbing, delivered ahead of a formal assembly vote next week, was among signs that Democrats participating in the party’s caucuses and assemblies are dissatisfied with incumbent officials. Some other incumbents, including U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper in his reelection race and Sen. Michael Bennet in the governor’s race, have been leaning on the petition route to the ballot rather than facing primary opponents at the March 28 state assembly.

At the Denver Democrats’ county assembly on Saturday, Kiros — a 28-year-old doctoral student and former lawyer — won 646 votes, or 63%, compared to DeGette’s 336 votes, or 32%. The result was the first time DeGette, 68, has lost a county assembly vote since she entered Congress in 1997, Kiros’ campaign said.

If that level of support holds at the party’s 1st Congressional District assembly on March 27, Kiros will cruise to a place on the June 30 primary ballot. DeGette, meanwhile, cannot afford to lose any more ground: If fewer than 30% of delegates support her at that virtual assembly, she won’t make the ballot at all. Time is rapidly running out to switch tactics and get on the ballot by submitting voter signatures, with petitions due to the state on Wednesday.

“I think it����ap a testament to the organizing we were doing and the lack of organizing (DeGette) was doing on her part — and her thinking she would coast through,” Kiros said in an interview. ” … It was just an incredible, incredible day, and I’m really proud of what our campaign was able to accomplish.”

DeGette campaign spokeswoman Jennie Peek-Dunstone said the congresswoman “received more than the required threshold and we are confident she will be on the primary ballot.”

The polling win does not, by itself, mean that Kiros is a front-runner to prevail in the June 30 primary election, and her campaign will still need to flip DeGette delegates if it wants to keep the congresswoman off the ballot. That’s far from a sure thing, especially for a candidate with the experience and name recognition of DeGette.

But it does speak to the Kiros’ campaign’s organizing capabilities, and the results also represent something of a wakeup call, said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver.

“DeGette and others know their party and the people associated with it are not terribly popular right now,” he said. “Democrats in general elections have the wind at their back right now, but incumbents in primaries — not so much. It����ap a harder environment.”

DeGette faces progressive challenge

A first-time candidate and daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, Kiros previously worked as a lawyer in New York. She was fired after writing in late 2023 criticizing law firms — including her own — that had signed onto a letter opposing anti-Israel protests. She then moved back to Colorado and entered a Ph.D program at the University of Colorado Denver.

She’s run a progressive challenge to DeGette, backing “Medicare for All,” universal child care and an embargo on arms sales to Israel, a nation that she has accused of committing a genocide against Palestinians.

Kiros has also been endorsed by the Justice Democrats, a left-wing Democratic group that’s backed candidates like now-U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar.

In her Denver assembly speech Saturday, DeGette accused Kiros of lying about her — a comment that drew boos from the audience.

Already a longtime supporter of Medicare for All, DeGette has backed more progressive causes in the past year. She for a halt to providing offensive arms to Israel, and she told assembly-goers Saturday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished and that she wouldn’t support any funding for the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Those pledges drew cheers.

Kiros’ preference poll win was fueled by pre-assembly organizing, her campaign and supporters said, particularly on the part of the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Deep Singh Badhesha, a DSA member who supported Kiros’ campaign, said organizers had group chats, stickers, food — they’d even set up a system to find babysitters for those who needed it. Such organization also helped the campaign sidestep technology problems that delayed the assembly, he said.

Those tech problems have contributed to lingering concerns among the DeGette campaign about assignment of delegates for the assembly next week, though her campaign said she was not disputing Kiros’ polling victory.

The assembly results come amid a broader surge of challenges to incumbent Democrats nationwide by often-younger and more progressive candidates. More than a dozen Democratic U.S. House members will face primary challenges this spring and summer, .

Some of the contests pit older incumbents against newcomers. Some feature moderates competing against liberals. Some of the matchups have resulted from the nationwide redistricting wars that redrew incumbents’ seats. Most of the races share a common ingredient: challengers seeking to move past the party’s losses in 2024 — and to bring more energy to the fight against President Donald Trump.

“Within the Democratic Party, it����ap this notion of how you best respond to a country that Trump is dominating when you’re all, as Democrats, unhappy with that,” Paul Teske, a professor at CU Denver and former longtime dean of its School of Public Affairs, told The Denver Post on Tuesday. (Kiros was a student of Teske’s last year.)

In addition to Kiros, University of Colorado Regent Wanda James is also running against DeGette in the primary. She did not participate in the assembly process Saturday and planned to file a petition to make the ballot.

‘Scared of the base’

Elsewhere, in the Democratic race for governor, Bennet’s campaign as he filed his primary ballot petition that he wouldn’t also seek a spot on the ballot through the caucus and assembly process. His rival, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, is relying on next week’s state assembly in Pueblo to make the primary ballot.

State Sen. Julie Gonzales has launched a progressive Senate primary campaign against Hickenlooper, who dropped out of the assembly process last week after initially participating. Hickenlooper’s campaign noted that he didn’t complete the assembly process during his first Senate campaign in 2020 and that he’s already submitted petitions for his place on the primary ballot.

In an interview, Gonzales countered that the senator was “scared of the base.”

Some left-wing-versus-moderate fights are set for state legislative races, too. In the Colorado attorney general’s race, two newcomer candidates, David Seligman and Hetal Doshi, are challenging Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty for the Democratic nomination.

In a news release Tuesday morning, Seligman’s campaign said he led Griswold by 2 percentage points in a straw poll of Democratic assembly delegates statewide.

Teske and Masket underscored that success in the Democrats’ assembly process, which often draws more progressive or active party members, does not necessarily translate to a high likelihood of victory in the June primaries.

Kiros’ campaign and organizing helped turn out motivated and informed delegates and supporters Saturday, and they seemed to catch DeGette flat-footed. But the June contest will feature tens of thousands of voters, including many who are unaffiliated, and will require campaign organizing on a vastly different scale.

It will also require money. DeGette had more than $535,000 on hand as of Dec. 31, compared to Kiros’ $64,000. After 30 years in office, which has included DeGette sweeping aside the occasional primary challenge, she can also boast strong name recognition.

“I was surprised,” Teske said of Saturday’s results. “I think Melat’s campaign organized well, got a lot of people out, got young people excited. … Whether it builds any momentum or changes anything is hard to say, because it����ap still hard to beat an incumbent.”

The New York Times contributed to this story.

David Ajiri, 25, turned himself in at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest more than two weeks earlier, on Feb. 20, according to court records.

Ajiri was arrested on suspicion of extortion, posting private images/harassment and posting private images for pecuniary gain, according to Jefferson County court records.

Investigators have identified one victim but believe there are many more who have not yet been identified or who have not yet come forward, according to a news release from the Arvada Police Department. The man targeted women and girls as young as 14 and had been active since at least 2018, police said.

“Evidence indicates Ajiri targeted women nationwide, not only in Arvada,” officials stated in the release.

Police believe Ajiri used dating apps and social media to contact women and convince them to send intimate photos and videos for money, according to the release. He frequently sent altered or fake transaction receipts to make it appear he had paid other women and allegedly posed as women who claimed to have been paid by him before to build trust with his victims, police said.

The victims were never paid, and investigators believe Ajiri threatened to send their intimate images or videos to friends and family unless they continued to provide sexual content, money or both, police said.

“In many cases, Ajiri reportedly sent victims a detailed bulleted list of specific image and video requests with explicit instructions,” officials stated. “Evidence also indicates that Ajiri sold some of the content online.”

“Detectives understand that these crimes are deeply personal and often traumatic, and they encourage victims to come forward so investigators can fully understand the scope of this case and pursue justice,” the statement continued.

Arvada police said aliases used by Ajiri include:

• Anthony
• Anthony Matthews
• Adam Russell
• Brad Manning
• Brandon Cress
• Brandon Ali
• Christan Morris
• Cristian Ortiz
• Damon A
• Danny Rodriguez
• Dante
• Dave E
• Dave Jordan
• David Andrews
• David E
• David Jaeger
• DJay
• Dylan M
• Dylan Michaels
• Jay
• Jay A
• Kels
• Kelsi
• Kens
• Kensi
• Kensy
• Kenzie
• Lexi
• Mckenzie
• McKenzie Jensenn
• Mike Brandon
• Mike Green

Police also identified several social media accounts believed to belong to Ajiri, including:

• brandc428, on Instagram
• brandoncress87, on Instagram
• chris.morris98, on Snapchat
• crort786, on Instagram
• cro6788, on Instagram
• dajiri8535, on Snapchat davidandrews2054, on Instagram
• dmol678, on Instagram
• kenslove3, on Snapchat
• mikebrown867, on Snapchat
• mikegreen876, on Instagram
• mikegbrandon0, on Instagram
• nbalifer23, on Instagram
• oc65ks, on Instagram

Anyone who has communicated with Ajiri under the names or on the accounts listed above, or who believes they may have been a victim of sextortion connected to this investigation, is asked to contact the Arvada Police Department at 720-898-7171 and reference case AR25004692.

Ajiri is next scheduled to appear in court on March 19 for a hearing on bail, court records show.

Heck, yeah, Brock Nelson put family first this week.

And good for him. The Avalanche center’s got four young, adorable kids at home, Daddy’s spent the last three weeks in the Alps, grinding through Olympic mode. He deserves a day off to be with the people he loves.

Here’s what he doesn’t deserve: Becoming a political pawn that conveniently fits your worldview.

Nelson avoided President Donald Trump’s company on Tuesday, one of five members of USA Hockey’s gold-medal-winning men’s roster to do so. The Avs’ veteran forward took a pass on a visit to the White House and no-thanks to a seat during the State of the Union address. Social media reacted with its usual grace and thoughtful, nonpartisan restraint.

The Avs told The Post’s Corey Masisak that it was a family decision. Again: Three weeks abroad. Four young kids. Can’t we leave it at that? Shouldn’t we leave it at that?

“I would love to check out the White House. I think it’s an incredible honor,” Nelson told reporters early Wednesday evening. “Everyone who’s American, I think if you have that opportunity, it’s an incredible one. Kind of bummed that I missed it but for me, (it) just didn’t work out.”

Nelson’s got a family to feed. And a job to do. There’s nothing in the contract when you’ve got a Wednesday morning skate in Salt Lake City.

Buckle up, Captain America. Let’s freaking go. The Avs (37-9-9) open a compacted second half of the NHL slate late Wednesday in Utah, then host the Minnesota Wild the very next night. Colorado plays 10 games over the next 18 days. Six of those 10 are on the road.

The march to the Stanley Cup is officially underway. If Nelson wants to recharge his battery at home and not glad-hand with politicians in D.C., that’s his prerogative.

“It will present a little bit of a challenge for us, not having gone through some things as a team,” coach Jared Bednar said Tuesday before the team flew out to Utah. “I think we did everything we can do to get our guys that were here ready. And they looked really good again (Tuesday). And I think their attitudes are right. I think the guys coming from the Olympics are sharp and ready to go. They’ve just been playing some of the most intense hockey that they’ve ever played, so that we should be able to piece it together here for (Wednesday) night.”

The Avs are going for it, kids. As well they should. Colorado just flipped another piece of their ’21 Cup champs, defenseman Sam Girard ($5 million cap hit), for the bigger, cheaper Brett Kulak ($2.75 million). Tuesday’s Sammy G swap was the kind of trade that feels like the opening salvo of a series of Chris MacFarland moves that also address 3C (Kadri? O’Reilly? Coyle?); veteran depth; and bottom-six guys who can bang in the postseason.

“We like the team we have,” Bednar stressed. “I mean, any pieces that we can add just adds more depth, more options for the rigors that come ahead.”

Don’t focus on the politics. Focus on logistics. who did visit the White House Tuesday, only four — Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, Utah’s Clayton Keller and Vegas’ Jack Eichel and Noah Hanfin — had games scheduled on Wednesday in either the Mountain or Pacific time zones.

Hellebuyck stuck around to the bitter end for his Presidential Medal of Freedom announcement, which was more than understandable. Keller reportedly skipped the State of the Union to head west for Avs-Mammoth. Eichel and Noah Hanifin, who stayed in Washington throughout, won’t play in Vegas’ Wednesday evening tilt in Vancouver.

Nelson, meanwhile, remains as ‘Merican as Chevrolet and apple pie, as long as the former’s got snow tires and the latter’s served cold.

The Avs forward hails from the tiny northern Minnesota town of Warroad, about 8 miles south of the Canadian border. He’s part of one of the coolest Olympic legacies in American hockey, too, a third-generation gold-medal winner. His grandfather, Bill Christian, won gold with the Stars & Stripes in 1960, scoring two goals in America’s first-ever victory over the Soviets. Nelson always believed in Miracles, because he grew up hearing about one of the biggest — his uncle, Dave Christian, was a defenseman for Team USA’s golden 1980 men’s hockey team.

Big Brock already gave at the office. And gave plenty. Nelson’s two goals at the Olympics were tied for third on Team USA, and he finished the tourney with three points and a plus-1 rating over six games and 81 minutes of ice time.

Remember early December? When Denver dreamed of three championship parades in 2026? Yeah, well, Nikola Jokic got hurt. Christian Braun got hurt. Peyton Watson got hurt. Aaron Gordon got re-hurt. Sean Payton was too proud, too stubborn, to kick a short field goal and go up 10-0 with a Super Bowl on the line.

Fast forward two months, and the Avs are the best hope the Front Range has of partying with a trophy at Civic Center Park. When Nelson goes to the White House, it’ll be with Lord Stanley in tow.

But to get there, Bednar needs eyes clear, hearts full and legs fresh. Veteran legs, especially. Nelson’s 34 with hair that looks 15 years older, a silver fox who’s having one of the best seasons (49 points in 55 games) of an excellent NHL career.

He’s also running out of shots to win a ring before he hangs up the skates. If you’re not putting your family and the Avs ahead of a photo op in D.C., you’re doing it wrong.