Author: CNN Newsource

By Spencer Wilson

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    Colorado (KCNC) — Drivers in Colorado’s high country and western slope have lost a key travel tool this summer- nearly 137 Colorado Department of Transportation road cameras that used to show highway conditions are now offline.

The reason? CDOT’s contract with a third-party camera provider ended after years of unstable service, and the state-run organization is going to take on the task itself.

“The vendor was under a lot of financial penalties and not performing,” Bob Fifer, CDOT’s Deputy Director of Operations, said. “When we went out to bid, we didn’t get a bid back from anyone to continue the service.”

According to CDOT, about 137 cameras were affected, many of them on mountain passes and rural highways. Roughly a third of those cameras, Fifer said, were rarely functional even before the contract ended, needing frequent repairs.

For mountain communities like Steamboat Springs, the blackout is a big deal. “The weather can get very sketchy up here, snowy, foggy, solid ice,” Shannon Lukens with Steamboat Radio News said. “We always want to know what’s happening on Rabbit Ears Pass. Those cameras were really, really helpful.”

CDOT says it plans to replace 66 of the most critical cameras, focusing on high-traffic and high-risk areas first, at a cost of $8 million. The new cameras will be installed and maintained by CDOT directly, with the full network expected to be online by fall of 2027, although 10 new cameras have already gone up, with Fifer promising to add to the network as soon as they have the ability to do so.

“If we get them up in the next 60 to 120 days, they’ll be online,” Fifer said. “We’ve already put up two critical cameras, one near the Mesa Nordic Center and another on top of Berthoud Pass.”

The department says it hopes to expand the network beyond the initial 66 cameras as future funding allows, possibly reaching remote corners of the state that have never had live traffic coverage before.

Until then, many routes, including Rabbit Ears Pass, will remain camera-free.

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By KVIA Staff

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    EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — At a bond hearing today, Judge Antonio Aun ruled that Christopher Sotelo’s bond requirements be lowered. Sotelo is accused of putting recording devices inside the bathroom of a cheerleading gym. Two of the victims were a 17-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl. Aun ordered the bonds that had been listed at $100,000 and $50,000 be lowered to $15,000. The $20,000 bond was lowered to $15,000, and the $10,000 and $5,000 bonds were denied.

This is Sotelo’s second time dealing with confinement in jail and the need to post bond. He was initially arrested on August 30, and posted a $30,000 bond and was released that same day. Officials rearrested Sotelo on October 2 on new charges. After today’s bond hearing, Sotelo’s second round of bonds have been lowered to a total of $45,000.

Jail records show that as of 3 p.m. October 7, Sotelo remains detained in the El Paso Downtown Jail.

During the bond hearing, Assistant District Attorney Cristina Viesca-Santos stated she has been informed there are more than 100 victims in this case. Viesca-Santos argued during the bond hearing that the judge should not keep Sotelo on a lowered bond because more cases are likely.

Update (4:20 PM): ABC-7 just obtained court documents detailing the reasons for Sotelo’s new charges. The court documents state that a 17-year-old and a 6-year-old were both captured on the hidden camera footage.

ORIGINAL STORY (October 2, 2025): The former cheer coach that had previously been arrested and charged with illegally recording in sensitive areas is now facing additional charges.

El Paso Police announced today that Christopher Sotelo, 32, is facing five new charges of invasive visual recording. Police officers rearrested Sotelo and booked him into jail on a combined $185,000 bond.

Last month, ABC-7 learned from court documents that Sotelo had allegedly hidden two recording devices in the Texas Bandits All-Star Cheerleading building’s bathrooms. Officials have not explained the events leading up to Sotelo’s rearrest, nor what cause officials to file additional charges against him.

Sotelo retained Brian Kennedy as his defense attorney. Kennedy provided the following statement to ABC-7:

“Christopher Sotelo has retained me as his attorney. I have no idea why they issued new warrants and re-arrested him. We haven’t seen any paperwork as to the probable cause for the new warrants. As we get more information, I will be available.”

Brian Kennedy

El Paso Police Department officials are asking anyone with additional information to come forward.

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By Paula Wethington

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    SOUTHGATE (WWJ) — Classes are canceled Wednesday at Southgate Anderson High School after police say a bullet was found inside a classroom.

Southgate police are on scene, investigating the call at the school on Leroy Road near McCann Avenue in Southgate.

Police confirmed that they are sweeping the building and are working to determine where the bullet came from.

Officials said there is no threat to the public.

An investigation is ongoing.

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By Jason Rantala

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A mother is remembering her son nearly two weeks after authorities say he was killed in a fire that was set on purpose.

Pamela Lazor said her 39-year-old son Housten Housley went to school with 41-year-old Andrew Nietz, who officials have now charged with second-degree murder and first-degree arson.

Housley died on the night of Sept. 24, when authorities said Nietz set fire to the duplex where he lived. Hennepin County court documents say Nietz “had previously made threats” against Housely.

“He just had a great heart,” Lazor said of her son. “He was a great kid, lots of friends. There’s so many people that are devastated by what happened to him.”

Lazor knew Nietz well. She used to rent to him in the building, but had to evict him for his drug use, court documents said.

“The kid definitely had his violent tendencies,” Lazor said. “And, unfortunately, my son was the victim of that.”

Charging documents said a witness told police that Housley and Nietz would get into fights when they drank together.

Lazor said her son and Nietz had been on-and-off friends for years. Housley was trying to help Nietz, while at the same time, trying to distance himself, she said.

Several hours after the fire, court documents said Housley’s car was found in south Minneapolis and Nietz was behind the wheel. Officers observed scratches on his arm and face. According to charges, location data showed Nietz at the residence up until the time of the fire.

“There’s no justice because I will never be able to talk to my son,” Lazor said.

Lazor said her son was killed by a man he was trying to help.

Nietz has two prior convictions for arson, including a conviction in the fifth degree from March 20, 2023. In that case, he started a trash can on fire at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He was also convicted of first-degree arson in 2012 for starting a fire at the Mall of America.

Nietz’s bond is set at $500,000.

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By Lacey Beasley, Julia Falcon

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    TEXAS (KTVT) — The Ten Commandments law went into effect earlier this month, meaning posters displaying the religious foundations are slowly showing up in classrooms across the state. Some districts are buying them and others are relying on donations.

One organization, Texas Values, is leading the rollout. It’s one of the groups that helped pass Senate Bill 10.

Organizers believe that by hanging the Ten Commandments it helps students understand the foundation of the United States.

“We feel like the Ten Commandments are an important historical document,” said Jonathan Covey, with Texas Values. “This has been something that we’ve worked on for a few sessions.”

Here’s what you need to know about SB 10:

Posters must either be donated or campuses can use district funds to buy them voluntarily. Must be framed 16 x 20 inches Must be displayed in a visible part of the classroom. According to restoreamericanschools.com, over 4,600 schools have been adopted so far, which means there are posters hanging in classrooms already or there are posters on the way. That’s out of 9,088 campuses across Texas.

Lacey Beasley: Walk me through this process. Where do you guys get the posters, and how does it get from you guys to the classroom?

Jonathan Covey: We partnered with a number of other organizations as kind of a coalition to create a website. It’s called restoreamericanschools.com. Through the website, you can order posters for the schools that you want to adopt as a volunteer. They’ll be shipped to your home, and then you can take them and drop them off at the school.

Beasley: Why are you a supporter of having the Ten Commandments displayed in public school classrooms?

Covey: Whether or not you’re even a religious person, it’s undeniable that concepts like prohibitions against theft, prohibitions against murder, and honoring your father and your mother, those ideas have shaped the foundations of a lot of legal codes, but especially those in the United States.

Beasley: There’s no denying this is a religious text in the christian bible. Is that pushing a christian agenda into classrooms?

Covey: That’s the coercion argument. The great thing about America is that we can disagree, and sometimes we might be offended, but the supreme court has been very clear that just because you’re offended by a display doesn’t mean that you’re being coerced by that display. If people are offended by straight up facts, you’re going to have a bumpy life ahead of you.

Beasley: What is stopping teachers from hanging text from other religious accounts?

Covey: I don’t know if anything that’s stopping them.

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By Alys Martinez

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    LOS ANGELES COUNTY, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A man hospitalized after an immigration operation at a Los Angeles County car wash has been granted a temporary restraining order that commands federal agents to remove the security guards who have accompanied him since late August.

The federal judge also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to remove the restraints that have tied him to his hospital bed for the past month.

Bayron Rovidio Marin suffered a severe leg injury during an immigration raid at the Carson Car Wash on Aug. 27. According to court documents, he was taken to Harbor UCLA Medical Center. Federal agents remained at his bedside during admission, transfer to non-public treatment areas and through his stay, keeping him handcuffed to his hospital bed.

In addition to the restraints, two to four uniformed guards, either private security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, have been continuously stationed in his hospital room, monitoring him at all times, according to the court documents.

“In this case, he was arrested in a car wash raid and held in the custody of the government for over a month at the hospital without any charges brought, without any determination he was in violation of immigration law,” Marin’s lawyer Jean Reisz.

Reisz, who is also a professor at USC, said her client received the temporary restraining order on Saturday night, Oct. 4.

“The judge talks about freedoms from restraint of liberty without due process is the cornerstone of American society,” Reisz said. “I think it’s concerning. I think it’s part of these aggressive tactics used by this administration in enforcing immigration law.”

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), which is also representing Marin, stated he “was forced to endure medical treatment and recovery with ICE agents in his room.”

“ICE agents listened to every conversation between him and his doctors,” CHIRLA wrote in a statement. “They interrogated him while he was in pain and under the influence of medication. They did not permit him to see his family and removed his access to phone calls.”

Marin remains hospitalized, and the temporary restraining order will remain in effect until Oct. 18. The federal government has until Oct. 16 to respond.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said Marin was “an illegal alien from Guatemala” who tried to escape agents by scaling a fence during an immigration operation on Oct. 4. Marin fell and CBP agents helped him until he was taken to the hospital, the spokesperson wrote.

Marin and his attorney said he suffered the leg injury on Aug. 27.

CBS News Los Angeles asked federal agents to clarify their statement, but did not receive an immediate response.

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