Week of May 5, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
HighlandsRanchHerald.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 24
VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 22
County clerks reassure voters while watching for cyberattacks Officials push back against fraud claims, stay alert BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
While local counties’ clerks and recorders say they are still taking steps to unravel false claims of widespread election fraud two years after the 2020 presidential election
and ahead of the June primaries, they are also on the lookout for potential cyberattacks after warnings from President Joe Biden that such attacks are increasingly likely. “It’s definitely nerve-wracking, but something that we are starting to get used to,” Adams County Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum said. “It’s the world we live in now, and we do everything we can to protect the system and to protect ourselves and our workers and our voters.”
The cybersecurity threat level is similar to past elections, or the worst-case scenarios election offices have prepared for, metro area clerks said. “There is no question right now, every agency is indicating that the risk of Russian initiated cyber security threats has increased,” Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder George Stern said. But Stern said “long before we had internal threats to our elections,”
cybersecurity and the security of election from foreign interference “has been top of mind,” Stern said. Regular probes from countries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and others are directed toward state and local election offices, looking for vulnerability in the system. Clerks said their offices partner with homeland security, the FBI, and state and local departments to SEE WATCHING, P10
Rep. Jason Crow talks veterans’ health care, Russia, economy Boosting manufacturing amid supply chain issues is a priority BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
John Castillo speaks to the Douglas County School Board on April 26 in opposition to STEM School Highlands Ranch opening another campus in Sterling Ranch. Castillo’s son, Kendrick, died while protecting his classmates in a shooting at STEM School. PHOTO BY JESSICA GIBBS
STEM’s proposed Sterling Ranch school gets pushback Safety issues raised BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
STEM School Highlands Ranch’s application to build a new school in Sterling Ranch was met with mixed
responses from the public, including allegations from Kendrick Castillo’s father that STEM doesn’t keep its students safe enough. STEM presented its plan to replicate the unique problem-based learning model it calls KOSON at a new K-12 school in Sterling Ranch to the Douglas County School Board
STAYING WILD
Colorado strives to protect wildlife and land
P14
on April 26. STEM was one of three charter schools to apply to open in the county next year, as well as Lehman Academy and Novastar Academy, which would be new to the district. SEE STEM, P9
Issues both local and global weighed on U.S. Rep. Jason Crow’s mind when he held an online and telephone town hall event to answer questions from the public. Those issues included his concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, an act Crow called “illegal and just atrocious.” “One of the things we’ve seen with Putin’s (war) is how much we really rely on dictators and SEE CROW, P8
DRAMA CONTINUES
Teal, Laydon remove Thomas from leadership — again P6