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For the second year in a row, Earth will almost certainly be the hottest it’s ever been. And for the first time, the globe this year reached more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming compared to the pre-industrial average, the European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday. “It’s this relentless nature of the warming that I think is is worrying,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Buontempo said the data clearly shows the planet would not see such a long sequence of record-breaking temperatures without the constant increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere driving global warming. He cited other factors that contribute to exceptionally warm years like last year and this one.

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A Golden Police Department officer was killed and a second seriously injured after they were hit by a suspected drunken driver while responding to a crash on Colorado 58 on Wednesday night. The two officers, a man and a woman, were investigating the crash near Washington Avenue and were outside of their vehicle when they were struck, Golden Police Chief Joe Harvey said late Wednesday. Both officers were trapped under the vehicle.

There was a sense of joy on Jonathon Cooper’s face that a 31-point loss couldn’t take away. The Broncos starting edge rusher solidified his place in the team’s future, signing a four-year, $60 million contract extension that the team announced on Tuesday. For Cooper, Denver’s belief in him was just as important as the contract value. “It humbles me,” Cooper said after Wednesday’s practice.

Broncos coach Sean Payton said the team didn’t get close to acquiring any particular player before Tuesday’s trade deadline. The move Denver did make, sending outside linebacker Baron Browning to Arizona for a sixth-round pick, was due in part to how Browning’s playing time was projected here for the remainder of the season. Payton indicated that Browning was not likely to be in Denver’s plans after this season, the final of his rookie contract, and that he was going to continue playing a reserve role. “We had a long talk,” Payton said of he and general manager George Paton meeting with Browning as the trade went down.