Colorado shooter was lawyer, vet
DENVER— A man who shot and killed a Colorado deputy and wounded four others along with two civilians was an attorney and an Iraq war veteran who had posted videos online in recent months criticizing professors and law enforcement officials, authorities said Monday.
Shooter Matthew Riehl, 37, died Sunday during what officials called an ambush at his apartment building in Highlands Ranch, 16 miles (28 kilometers) south of Denver.
Authorities say Riehl fired more than 100 rounds in his apartment before he was killed by a SWATteam.
Douglas County Deputy Zackari Parrish was killed.
A candlelight vigil was set Monday evening for Deputy Parrish at Mission Hills Community Church in Littleton, Colorado — the church he attended with his wife and two young daughters.
Accidental shootings
A country music festival in Las Vegas: 58 dead. A Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas: 26 dead. The streets of Baltimore last year: nearly 300 dead.
Gun violence has received no shortage of attention. But one bright spot has gotten much less: the number of accidental shooting deaths has steadily declined. From 1999 to 2015, the rate fell 48 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Experts attribute the decline to a mix of gun safety education programs, state laws regulating gun storage in homes and a drop in the number of households that have guns. While the improvement occurred in every state, those with the most guns and the fewest laws continue to have the most accidental shooting deaths.
Congress has full slate
WASHINGTON— Congress faces a jampacked to-do list this month with deadlines looming on difficult issues — including how to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, stabilizing the nation’s healthinsurance program for poor children, and whether to shield young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Fresh off a party-line vote in favor of legislation overhauling the tax code, the negotiations will test whether Congress and the White House still have the potential to craft any form of bipartisan agreement. If so, several of the year’s most contested issues might be resolved with months to spare before the 2018 midterm campaign heats up.
Also on the agenda is emergency relief for regions upended by last year’s natural disasters, a key national security program and the fate of an agreement to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act.
Officials in both parties hope to make progress by Jan. 19, when a short-term government funding bill that Congress passed last month expires. The Senate returns Wednesday, and the House returns next Monday.
Also in the nation...
Thousands of marchers braved bone-chilling temperatures and wind chills as they took part in the annual Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, a New Year’s Day tradition.