The Denver Post has an interesting story on Colorado Senate Bill 287, which was introduced Monday and passed out of committee on Wednesday. Apparently this "bipartisan effort" to "connect rural Colorado to broadband Internet service" scares the hell out of Colorado carriers and technology companies in the State.

The mayor of Aurora, Colorado had hoped for more regulations on violent video games after the Aurora Theater shooting in July of 2012 (that saw 12 people dead and 70 injured), but it looks like he has been rebuffed by the City's Attorney, who pointed him to a widely known U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. EMA...

Reporting on James Holmes' day in court today, Fox News tries to make a connection to World of Warcraft. We assume this is to tie video games to the shootings in Aurora, Colorado earlier this month, but the connection is about as tenuous as lights over Roswell, New Mexico being definitive proof that extraterrestrials exists...

Holmes was formally charged with 24 counts of murder, 116 counts of attempted murder, one count of possession of explosives, and one count of a crime of violence.

Twenty-four-year-old college student James Holmes appeared in court this morning to face charges for killing 12 and wounding 79 others at a midnight screening of the film "The Dark Knight Rises" on Friday in Aurora, Colorado. The Courthouse News report described the suspect as looking "dazed and exhausted" as he appeared in court wearing the standard issue maroon prison jumpsuit.

Unfortunately CNN contributors aren't the only ones speculating on the motivations of 24-year-old Colorado mass-murder suspect James Holmes.

Last night 24-year-old James Holmes used four guns (a rifle, a shotgun and two handguns, according police), and tear gas to shoot, disorientate, and trap theater goers attending the opening of The Dark Knight Rising movie at a theater in Aurora, Colorado. The attack left 12 people dead and 38 59 injured. He was arrested outside the theater by police shortly thereafter.

Indie game developers in Colorado have teamed up to create a 48 hour game jam to help support those affected by the Colorado wild fires called BlazeJam 2012. The charitable effort is being spearheaded by Cerulean Games, with the support of Glass Bottom Games and others.

In March of last year the state of Illinois decided to pass a law that collected Internet sales tax from online companies like Amazon.com and eBay. Commonly referred to as an "affiliate nexus tax," the law passed by Illinois and other states including California, Connecticut, and New York, required online retailers who advertised on "affiliate sites" that had a physical presence in the same state to collect sales tax. The Illinois law had broad support among lawmakers and the state’s governor, Gov. Pat Quinn (D).

A federal judge has ruled in favor of Amazon in a case it filed against the state of Colorado for trying to collect sales tax under a new law. The court found that because the company didn't have a physical presence in the state that Colorado didn't have a right to collect and that its new law ran afoul of the Interstate commerce clause in the Constitution - specifically, legislation forcing out-of-state retailers to report their customers' purchases to the state's tax authority.

The 31-year old Aurora, Colorado man arrested and charged for disorderly conduct earlier this week after allegedly threatening to shoot Best Buy employees and blow the place up over Modern Warfare 3 purchase problems says that he is shocked at how much attention his story has gotten on the internet and that the words he used were just a figure of speech.

A man threatened to blow up his local game store yesterday after they informed him that they had sold out of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, according to police in Aurora, Colorado. Aurora Police Det. Bob Friel said that 31-year-old Lomorin Sar was arrested early Tuesday morning after he threatened the employees at the Best Buy at North Salida Court.

Comcast and CenturyLink have failed to create a repeat of their 2009 victory in the city of Longmont, Colorado. The city wanted to use its own broadband infrastructure instead of relying on ISP's like Comcast and CenturyLink, but state law required that a referendum be passed by the town's citizens in order to use it. In 2009 broadband providers Comcast and CenturyLink spent an obscene amount of money to convince residents of the town that it was a bad idea. The plan worked and citizens rejected it by 56 percent of the vote.

Two men from Pueblo, Colorado were arrested on Saturday after pawning a large cache of video games to buy some heroin, according to the The Chieftain. The men were jailed after one of them admitted to stealing games from a local K-Mart so they could buy drugs. Nineteen-year-old Shane Michael Santarelli was arrested after police stopped the car he was riding in, according to a report by police officer Donnie Lambert.

Police were looking for the vehicle after an employee of the Kmart store at 3415 N. Elizabeth St. called them  about a man who was putting DS video games into a cooler. The man then left the story without paying for the games, meeting another man, 25-year-old Robert Gene Poirier, at his car. The employee followed the men to several pawnshops in the area.

Colorado Springs, Colorado police are offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of a man that stabbed a GameStop clerk on March 9. The man is also responsible for three other robberies at knife-point in the area, police say. The robberies occurred between March 9 and March 14. Police say the robber stabbed a clerk during a March 9 robbery at a GameStop store at 3732 Bloomington St. in north Colorado Springs.

Anyone with information is urged to call Crime-stoppers at 719-634-STOP (7867) or you can text CSPD and your tip to 847411 (TIP411) using a mobile phone. To qualify for the reward, you must call Crime Stoppers with information that leads to an arrest and conviction, police said.

The picture included in the story is of the suspect - taken from a surveillance camera.

Source: Colorado Springs Gazette

The recent layoffs at LEGO Universe make a little more sense today as studio owner Gazillion announces that it has sold the rights to the game and the Louisville, Colorado studio developing it. The majority of LEGO Universe development team members, formerly part of Gazillion's NetDevil subsidiary, have been offered employment by the LEGO Group, who will continue game development and operations from the current Louisville, Colorado studio.

"We're excited about the launch of LEGO Universe, and are happy to have the developers officially join the LEGO team," said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President at the LEGO Group. "This acquisition demonstrates our commitment both to the ongoing success of LEGO Universe and to an overall strategy to expand our brand online."

Police responding to a report of a burglary inadvertently went to the wrong door and handcuffed a group of game developers.

Denver-based IllFonic was the recipient of the unwarranted armed visit, which GamePron details on their website. The developer’s studio is right next to a medical marijuana dispensary, which was where the alarm was triggered from (probably not the first time or the last either). GamePron also has an embedded YouTube video of the whole incident as captured by a surveillance camera. The developers were cuffed, but quickly released once their identities were verified.

Colorado is looking to create more jobs in the "creative industries" of the state, and one bill being proposed could have an impact on video game productions.

A bill unveiled on Tuesday would make it easier for producers to earn tax credits for filming in the state by removing the requirement that 75 percent of the film's non-payroll budget be spent in Colorado, according to an article in the Denver Daily News. 

The bill also would "clarify that incentives may be used for commercial and video game productions as well." The state has a $300,000 incentive fund for the film industry, which could be used for jobs in the games industry.

The creative sector is the fifth largest industry in Colorado, and a state panel had been examining ways to expand it. 

Yesterday GamePolitics broke the news that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is partnering with the ESRB for a public service ad campaign designed to raise parental awareness of the industry's video game rating system.

Colorado Springs TV station KRDO-13 is now reporting that Colorado Attorney General John Suthers (R) has also jumped on board the ESRB bus. A press release on Suther's website quotes the A.G.:

I know parents face tough decisions these days about the media they allow into their homes. There’s simply no substitute for parental involvement and responsibility, and it is important that parents play an active role in choosing games for their children. ESRB ratings are an effective and informative resource that allows parents to decide if the video game their child wants is appropriate.

Suthers' message to parents will be broadcast on Colorado TV and radio.

Lamar Roberts is going away for a long time.

In December, the 18-year-old pleaded guilty in the December, 2007 death of 7-year-old Zoe Garcia, the step-sister of Roberts' girlfriend, Heather Trujillo. Roberts and Trujillo reportedly acted out moves from Mortal Kombat on Zoe.

9News reports that a Colorado judge has sentenced Roberts to 36 years in prison. Of the sentence, Roberts told the court:

I do agree to get what I get. I'm not a monster, your honor. I'm truly sorry (for) what happened.

Roberts, who was 17 at the time of the slaying, was tried as an adult. Trujillo received 18 years, but her sentence will be suspended if she successfully completes a six-year program for youthful offenders.

By way of Kotaku comes word of a campaign commercial promising video game legislation.

The office-seeker is Democrat Ed Perlmutter, who is running for a seat with Colorado's Congressional delegation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5OMwviF8IU